murmured his thanks and she went on with her work.
‘Tom.’ His voice softened. ‘How are you?’
Another phone line rang. As she reached for it, Rick said, ‘Just rest and do whatever the doctor tells you, Tom. If it’s another two weeks, so be it. Marissa—Marissa’s holding the fort well enough in your absence.’
Marissa tuned out Rick’s voice and answered the second call. ‘Marissa Warren.’
‘Marissa, it’s Dad.’ His voice was strained as he went on. ‘Mum’s in the hospital, love, with quite bad abdominal pain. They’re doing tests right now and they’re going to send her for an ultrasound before they—’ He cleared his throat. ‘To see what’s wrong.’
‘I’ll come straight away, Dad. Is Aunty Jean—?’ Panic flooded through her and she couldn’t remember what she’d been going to ask.
‘Yes, Jean’s on her way.’ Her father drew a breath. ‘She should be here in another hour.’
‘Good. That’s good.’ Marissa had to get to Milberry. It was her only thought as she clutched the phone tighter in her hand. ‘You can’t use your cellphone inside the hospital, I know, but you’ll phone my cell once Mum’s back from the tests, let me know if there’s anything—?’
Marissa was in trouble. Rick ended his call with Tom and reached her desk before he realised he’d moved. As she raised her eyes and locked onto his, something deep inside him clenched.
‘If there needs to be an operation they might move her to a larger hospital in another town.’ Marissa paused and listened again. ‘Yes, I understand we don’t know enough at this stage. I’ll just set off, Dad. You’re right. That’s all I can do for now. I love you. When you see Mum again, tell her I love her and I’m on my way.’
The moment she replaced the phone, Rick spoke.
‘What do you need?’ Whatever it was, he would get it for her, do it for her. The decision was instinctive. He didn’t want to examine the significance of it, could only worry for the woman in front of him. ‘Where’s your mother? Let me know the fastest way you can be at her side and I’ll make it happen.’
Marissa was already on her feet, her hand in the drawer to retrieve her bag when she stopped, looked up at him. She blinked hard and her mouth worked. ‘Mum was rushed to hospital in all this pain.’
‘What happened to her, sweetheart?’ The endearment slipped out, perhaps as unnoticed by its recipient as it was unplanned by him.
Her brown eyes darkened. ‘I only know it was abdominal pain. The ambulance had to get her from the newsagent’s while Dad came back in from his work on one of the road-works crews outside of town. Dad only got to see her for a second before they took her away, and they wouldn’t tell him much. I have to get to Milberry. I need the Mini.’
‘The car you hire from your neighbour.’ He remembered her muttering something about that, the day she’d felt faint after their crisis meeting.
It felt so long ago, and a Mini wasn’t the vehicle to get her out of the city and to her family with any kind of speed or comfort.
Rick caught her wrist between his fingers, rubbed his thumb across the soft skin. Hoped the touch offered some comfort, and silently acknowledged that a part of him wanted the right to more, whether that meant his emotions were involved in her, or not.
He couldn’t worry about any of that now. ‘Do any flights go to the township? I only know of it vaguely. It’s rather off the beaten path, isn’t it? How far is it by road? I can charter a plane for you if there’s an airstrip …’
‘There are no flights, no airstrip. Milberry doesn’t have an airport. It’s a reasonable sized town but there’s nothing much around it.’ Marissa stared at the mess on her desk as though she didn’t know what to do with it, and then she stared at him as though she wasn’t quite sure what to do with his offer either. ‘It’ll take me almost three hours in the Mini. Mum’s been at the hospital about an hour already, I think.’
‘I’ll take you myself—’
‘I forgot. My neighbour left Sydney this morning with the Mini.’ She broke off and said in confusion, ‘You’ll take me?’
‘My car will be faster than a Mini, faster than you having to hire something.’ He wanted to beg her to let him do this for her. Instead, he made it a statement and silently urged her to simply agree with it. ‘We can leave straight away.’
Confusion clouded her worried brown eyes. ‘You can’t … I can’t ask …’
‘I can, and I’m not asking you to ask.’ He needed permission. Needed to be allowed, wanted to draw her into his arms and promise her everything would be all right, that he would fix everything for her. ‘Give me one minute and we’re out of here.’
He used that minute to get on the phone and instruct one of the senior staff to come in and pack the office up for them and secure everything.
His borrowed secretary was in trouble. He could help her and he’d chosen to do so. That didn’t have to be any big thing, and his relief as Marissa put herself in his hands and allowed him to usher her from the building was simply that of a man who had got his way.
He told himself all this, but the intensity he felt inside didn’t lessen.
In moments he had Marissa out of the office building, into his ground-eating vehicle and away. A glance showed that her face hadn’t regained any colour. She was also utterly silent. ‘Tell me the route.’
She gave him the directions and fell silent again.
Rick clenched his hands around the wheel and got them clear of the city. Once he had, he murmured her name and reached for her hand. He curled his fingers around hers and she cast a glance his way.
‘Move into the middle seat so we can talk while I drive.’ He tugged on her hand. ‘You’re going to tell me everything your father said, the name of the hospital your mother is in and all you know about her situation.’
She obeyed him without question, and that told him, more clearly than anything else, the extent of her concern for her mother.
Once he had her shoulder pressed against his arm, her body close enough to feel her warmth and know she could feel his warmth, Rick relaxed marginally.
‘Talk, Marissa.’ He stroked his fingers over hers, registered the tremble that spoke of her tension.
‘Dad said they were sending her for an ultrasound of the abdominal area.’ She drew a deep breath. ‘There’s a small imaging facility in Milberry that does that sort of thing and they were opening it up for her. I guess the place must close at five. That would have meant another ambulance trip, though a short one.
‘Dad wanted to go with them but the nursing staff said no. I suppose they needed to focus on finding out what … what needed to be done after the tests.’ Her breath hitched as she ended this speech.
Rick squeezed her hand, drew it onto his thigh and curled his fingers over hers. ‘There are lots of things that can cause pain that are not life-threatening. If
