‘She brought in another injured animal last night.’ Anna was aware that her voice sounded flat. Disappointed. ‘I was on my way to check on it. Why don’t you join me?’
She crossed to the door and pushed it open. The scratch on the back of her hand was still bleeding a bit.
‘That from the cat?’ Justin asked.
‘Yeah.’
‘Cats don’t like me either.’
‘I usually get on fine with cats. It’s just this one. She loves the whole world, except me. I have no idea why.’ As they stepped outside, Anna pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped away the blood. ‘I’ve had worse.’
She could have instantly kicked herself. Those words were an invitation to him to ask about her face. She never talked about the scar. Never. And she didn’t want to now. And refusing to talk would drive a wedge between them. Not that they had—or were—anything, but …
‘Cats are fickle creatures,’ Justin said with a smile. ‘We have a station cat in Tamworth. No one knows where it came from. It just moved in one day. Still, it keeps the mice down. At least, I think it does. It’s fat enough.’
Anna forced a small laugh to hide her relief. Justin really was something else. His extraordinary looks seemed matched by an empathy and respect for others that was something special. The butterflies were starting to rise again.
‘Carol is looking for you,’ Anna said. ‘In fact she asked me …’ She stopped speaking as a familiar red car turned in her gate. ‘Here she is now.’
But it seemed Justin was already aware. He’d stopped in his tracks and was staring at the woman in the driver’s seat as the car came to a halt in front of him.
CHAPTER
11
Carol didn’t move. She couldn’t. She could barely breathe.
Justin. Standing a few feet away. Staring at her as if she had appeared from outer space. Half of her wanted to put the car into reverse and leave as quickly as she could. The other half wanted to wrap her arms around her son and hold him so close to her heart that he would never break away.
With a huge effort of will, she let go of the steering wheel, opened the door and stepped out of the car, one hand holding the vehicle’s doorframe as a drowning woman might grip a lifeline. She couldn’t speak. Nor could she shift her gaze from Justin’s face.
‘Justin was asking after you. So that’s …’ Anna’s voice trailed off. She shuffled her feet a little, looking from Carol to Justin and back again. ‘I have to get back to my patients, so I’ll leave you two to it.’ Anna walked swiftly away, and still neither Justin nor Carol had spoken.
The silence stretched to the point where Carol wanted to scream.
‘You called me the other day,’ Justin said at last.
Carol nodded, still uncertain of her control over her voice or the words that might pour from her heart at finally being with her son.
‘Ben took the call. He hung up on you. I’m sorry about that,’ Justin continued. ‘It was rude.’
‘He’s still very angry at me?’ The words, when they finally came, were little more than a whisper.
‘Yes. He is.’
‘Are you?’
‘I am furious at that stunt you pulled at the fire.’
The question hadn’t been about that day, and they both knew it. But it was a safer place to go than what was foremost in Carol’s mind. And Justin’s too, she imagined. ‘There was an injured animal. It was going to die. I had to save it.’
‘Dashing into the fire like that means one of my men has to follow. You’re not just putting your own life in danger to rescue that animal, but someone else’s as well.’
She hung her head. ‘I didn’t really think of that.’
‘You never did, did you? People always came last with you. Ben and I, we always came last.’
The bitterness in his voice was like a knife in her soul. ‘No …’
