slowed the truck to a stop on the hard, iron-rich earth in front of the house, his father already walking out onto the front veranda as if four years hadn’t passed and he’d been expecting his son to turn up about now.
Jack hated the look of disappointment creasing his father’s face when he saw the uniform.
He would make his father proud. He would understand. One day. He just had to hang on to his principles. Hang on tightly to all he knew was true.
“I’VE GOT TO hand it to you, Kev. This one’s a real corker.” Liesel snapped off her protective gloves and popped them in the bin.
“Thanks, miss!”
“I should’ve known you’d take it as a compliment.” Liesel sent the brand-new teen an admonishing glare, albeit with a twinkle in her eye. “A black eye and a sprained wrist on your birthday hardly give you bragging rights.” She secured the brace on his arm before reaching into the cupboard behind her for a chemical ice pack.
“They are when you finally popped Diggy Reynolds a good one on the nose. You couldn’t have asked for a better present, miss.”
Liesel winced. She’d seen Diggy first. It had been an impressive nosebleed, but thankfully not a break. Deviated septums weren’t killers—but they sure did hurt. She’d have to talk to Cassie about the incident. Again. Kev’s file was now officially the fattest in her cabinet.
Liesel gave Kev her best “harrumph” as she twisted the ice pack, felt the coolness flood through the packet and gently laid it across his wrist. The thirteen-year-old knew just as well as she did that she had a soft spot for him. Even if he was permanently in trouble. She was pretty sure an absent father was the cause, but she was hoping Cassie had things in hand. The counseling training she’d had in Adelaide was setting off all of the alarm bells that Kev was a troublemaker in training.
“Look, you make sure you keep that wrist iced for the next few days, otherwise I’ll tell your mother on you.”
“Tell your mother what, Kevin Alexander Monroe?”
Cassie’s head popped out from around the corner of Liesel’s nurses’ station, lips pursed, eyebrows raised. Liesel quickly sent Kevin a look indicating it was up to him now and then wheeled her chair out of the way as Cassie entered.
“What is it this time, bud?” Her tone was sharp, but Cassie’s face spoke of the volumes of love she felt for her son. “I’ve got a class to start in five minutes and a hot date with a fireman—so you had better tell me that this week’s injury doesn’t need a trip to the CMC.”
Liesel’s attention level shot straight up and, disturbingly, into the a-little-bit-jealous territory as an image of a certain sandy-haired fireman flitted through her mind. Trying her best to quell the heroic poses he was enacting in her imagination, she smiled up at her friend. “A date? You didn’t tell me.”
“Now, now, my little woodland fairy friend.” Cassie laughed, openly pleased she’d piqued Liesel’s interest. “We’ve both got a date with a fireman so don’t look so envious.”
Liesel felt her nose crinkle—her go-to what are you talking about? expression.
“Uh-oh, Miss Adler,” Kev broke in warily. “You’re Mum’s latest double-dating victim. Better beware!”
“Right, you two.” Liesel stood up briskly, wanting to put an end to the conversation as soon as humanly possible. “Time’s up. I’ve got an assembly to prepare for.” She shuffled them both out of the nurse’s office and shut the door behind her with a satisfying click.
Discussing her love life, or lack of one, in front of the students, let alone the son of her new—her only—friend here in Engleton wasn’t on the agenda. She leaned heavily against the door, allowing a slow breath to escape her lips. A breath she hoped carried away some of the ache she felt whenever she confronted the idea of moving on.
Yes. She’d loved Eric with all of her heart, an over-the-moon-and-back-again young woman’s heart, but she’d never even got the chance to have her wedding day, let alone share the birth of her son. Now, at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Liesel had a daily wrestling match with the feeling that she was “finished” in the romance department.
It had all happened so fast. A whirlwind love affair in an American ski resort. The spontaneous proposal. Their surprise pregnancy. Losing Eric. Never having the family that she had only just begun to imagine.
She started at the tap-tap-tap against the door.
“I know you’re in there, Liesel. I can hear you breathing.”
Despite herself, Liesel giggled. Being friends with Cassie gave her little glimpses back to the “old Liesel.” The free-spirited young woman she used to be.
Cracking open the door, she allowed her friend access to one of her eyes. “Friend or foe?”
“Friend, you noodle! C’mon,” she pleaded. “Open up!”
Liesel pulled open the door while simultaneously grabbing a light jumper from the hook on the wall. “Make it fast. I’m afraid I’ve got to get going down to the gym for an assembly. The principal just told me about it fifteen minutes ago.”
“Cool your rockets. I’m heading the same way.”
“Your class is coming?”
“You could put it that way.” Cassie adopted her best nonchalant voice. “Or you could say that my class is coming to your date.”
Liesel stopped in her tracks.
“Cassie Monroe! What have you done?”
“Oh-h-h-h …” Her friend was fastidiously avoiding eye contact now. “It might have been me who volunteered you to help with a little demonstration.”
“What demonstration?”
“The first-aid demo for the first, second and third years. It was meant to be a ladders demonstration, but …” Cassie used her best cheerleader voice.
“But what?”
“Now, that, I don’t know exactly. All I know is it has turned into a first-aid demo.”
“And who exactly is leading today’s first-aid demo?”
“Oh, I think he might have a familiar face.”
Liesel felt her body go rigid as Cassie pushed open the door to the gym. Smack-dab in the center of the room a certain sandy-haired fireman was kneeling on the floor, setting up his kit. Seeing Jack again had the same effect on her nervous system as it did on the no-longer-dormant butterflies in her tummy. They were going crazy.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Cassie caught her arm as Liesel tried to turn and leave. “You’re the Murray River Valley school nurse and I don’t think there is anyone better placed to help our local CFS crew inspire young minds.”
“But—”
