“Don’t think that this means anything,” said Dusty as she started her ute, revving the engine into action.
Aaron sat in the passenger seat, the gearstick the only thing between them in the cab of the ute. She hated being so close to this man. He’d hurt her deeply, but right now, she had no choice.
In a way, it was sort of acceptable. After all, this is what neighbors did in the country—put aside their differences and helped each other. Her stomach tightened as she drove down the driveway away from Acacia Plains. How she wished it was someone else helping her.
“Wouldn’t think otherwise,” answered Aaron, his tone suggesting otherwise.
“I think it best we drive in silence.” Dusty pressed heavily on the accelerator. She wanted this trip with Aaron over as soon as possible.
“Killjoy.”
Dusty pursed her lips together. They had the next nine hours together, and her focus was to arrive safely and before closing time. Not talking to Aaron to pass the time was also high on her list.
“Your mom packed a good stash of food for us.”
Dusty heard Aaron rustling through the esky by his feet.
“Don’t start eating now, it’s too early in the trip.” She gripped her hands tightly on the steering wheel as she turned onto the highway. Her mom was good at packing comfort food. It hadn’t taken her long to put together an esky of food for them.
Though it had taken longer to get on the road than she would’ve liked. Aaron needed to go back to his place and sort out a few things.
Blaise had gotten into his car straight away, leaving Dusty to make sure that things were as easy as possible for the evening jobs for her mom to do. It was probably a good thing that her mom was staying on the farm for that reason. Dusty could tell her mom didn’t approve of Aaron helping. They had a history which everyone knew about. It was risky spending time alone with him. She figured it was going to happen sometime, they were neighbors after all, and they might have miles stretching out between them, but at the end of the day, they were going to see each other.
Best to get the awkward stage over and done with.
“Think you can make it to Ballarat before I drive? Or do you want me to drive sooner?” asked Aaron as he secured the lid back on the esky and settling back into the seat.
“I can make it to Ballarat.” She glanced at the fuel gauge. They were going to have to stop for fuel which was a good thing. She would need a pit stop herself, and a fresh cup of coffee. She doubted the flask of coffee her mom packed was going to last long.
The one good thing about this arrangement was that she knew Aaron would drive safely, and he was used to the open road. Blaise wasn’t. She glanced at her cell attached to the bracket by the steering wheel. There were no messages, of course. She would’ve heard if there had been. It wasn’t as if Blaise could ring or message anyway, he was driving to Adelaide. It would take him about two hours, and that’s how long she was going to have to wait until hearing from him. She hoped everything was fine with his dad.
Blaise looked like he was about to explode with anger when it was suggested that Aaron drive with her to Melbourne.
When she kissed him goodbye, she saw the fear in his eyes.
Did he trust me?She clenched her jaw as she increased her speed, rattling down the highway. It might be more about Aaron, but there was a niggle that maybe he didn’t trust her fully. And she only had herself to blame with the kiss Aaron forced on her. Sure, she had kissed back, but immediately regretted it. She hoped this time Aaron would keep his hands to himself.
“So how are things between you and the city boy?”
Dusty suppressed a groan of frustration.
She reached over and turned on the radio, setting the volume to high.
This was going to be a longer trip than she’d been anticipating.
Blaise drove as fast as he could on the highway toward Adelaide, going further south than the direction Dusty was taking to get to Melbourne. As tempting as it was, he kept to the speed limit. He set the radio loud to help keep his concentration and resisted the urge to stop off to get a large coffee at the Wakefield service station.
He suddenly made a connection. Of course, he could stop. He didn’t want to waste time at the moment, but he could feel the anxiety knotting in his belly of how he needed to see his dad sooner than later. And taking time to get a coffee which would barely take fifteen minutes wouldn’t matter in the greater scheme of things.
This was how Dusty approached the harvest. No wonder she was desperate to get it done and was using Christmas as a motivator. Sure, the longer it took, the more likely the crop would be damaged. There was more to it all. For the first time, he really deeply understood her motivations and why she was rushing all the time and keeping him at arm’s length.
When he was in cell range, he used his hands-free headphones to call and talk to his mom. She was upset, tired, but assured him that his dad would be fine, and if he was too busy, he didn’t have to come. That she’d only rung Dusty’s mom as she wanted to tell him about what had happened. There was no reason to worry, and he didn’t need to come. She’d rather he stayed helping Dusty on the farm. There was no way he was turning back. He didn’t think he was being told everything.
A phone call to his brother, Scott, confirmed what he’d been suspecting. Scott told him that his mom was overreacting and that everything was under control. His dad was fine, simply needed to spend a few days in hospital. Scott was managingBlackbirds, the pub his dad owned just fine, even with the Christmas rush.
He didn’t believe them. Not everything was all right, and they were definitely keeping him in the dark.
Blaise scanned the signs at the hospital parking for directions on where to go. He found the parking entrance, powered down his window to grab a ticket from the machine and drove in. Fortunately, he found a parking space without having to do countless laps looking for one, got out, and negotiated the maze of the hospital to find his dad in the Critical Care Ward. That, in itself, wasn’t a good sign. It told him that his dad had done some serious damage to himself.
