‘Folks around here are very generous,’ Bess smiled. ‘We’re very lucky in that respect.’
The open day would be a good opportunity to generate donations as they shared what they did with demonstrations of lifesaving treatment, question and answer sessions with the crews, kit demonstrations and real-life stories from some of the members of the public whose lives they’d saved along the way.
‘Those are my favourite,’ said Maya. ‘It’s lovely to have people come here not only to thank us but to know the difference we all made.’ She and Bess talked about Patrick, the amateur cyclist who came off his bike almost a year ago and was miraculously back to riding again. ‘He’s coming to the open day to give a speech about his journey since the accident.’
Noah could listen to Maya talk for hours, watch her, absorb her company. She was the other thing he had on his mind right now, when Paul wasn’t getting centre stage in his head. He really liked her, he couldn’t deny it, but as much as his life was complicated, he wondered, was hers actually far worse?
Noah squeezed in next to Maya as Nadia pulled the cling film off the platter of food. ‘It must’ve been a fancy christening. I don’t know what half that stuff is.’
Maya picked up something in an oval shape covered in breadcrumbs. She bit into it without delay.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
She shrugged as if to say she had no idea.
‘She’ll put anything in her mouth,’ Bess joked and immediately got a rebuke from Nadia, who told her to keep it clean.
Noah had taken a while to get the lie of the land here at the Whistlestop River Air Ambulance headquarters. Maya was strong-willed, the quieter of the bunch but absolutely no pushover, Bess was loud and confident and always up for a joke but damn good at her job and someone he’d want at his side on every shift. Nadia was the mother hen of the team, organising them all, which he supposed came as part of her job description, but it filtered into things like bringing them food or yesterday when they’d used the rapid response vehicle she’d made both him and Bess a little packed lunch. They’d joked about it and said they were like her children, except they were all roughly the same age. Nadia, Maya, Bess and himself were all in their forties,so perhaps that helped with the bonding and camaraderie. Mind you, there were no limits as to how friendly the likes of Frank and all of the Whistlestop River Freewheelers were either so that blew his own theory right out of the window.
Right now, Noah didn’t care about anything other than how hungry he was and how good this mini quiche-like morsel that he’d shoved into his mouth tasted.
‘Do you even know what it is?’ Maya threw his own question back at him.
‘Quiche,’ he said through a mouthful. ‘I think.’
‘Yes, but what quiche exactly?’
‘The quiche kind.’ He popped another identical one into his mouth.
When Maya’s phone went, she took it out, looked at the display and promptly shoved it back in her pocket. It rang three or four more times, while the whole crew enjoyed more food and by the time it rang again over an hour later, she finally excused herself to take the call and Noah didn’t see her until almost the end of their shift.
‘Come grab a slice of cake,’ Noah urged Dorothy, who came into the airbase to drop off more blood supplies after they called the request in earlier. ‘No quiche left, we ate all of that, but it’s almost home time for me so I’m sneaking in a slice first. It’s chocolate with a thick addition of buttercream icing.’
Dorothy wasn’t going to argue. ‘Better get it while there’s some left with Bess around. That one likes her chocolate.’
‘Heard that!’ Bess’s voice hollered from reception.
Maya finally came into the kitchen, uninterested in the offer of cake and Noah discreetly asked her whether everything was okay.
‘Not really, but thanks for asking.’
‘You know where I am if you want to talk.’
‘The beers and conversation the other night were exactly what I needed.’ She smiled. ‘Isaac called me when I was walking home from yours. He seemed to like hearing that I had a life outside of work. And outside of Conrad’s.’
‘Glad to have been of help. Come over again. Any time.’
‘Thanks.’ Her eyes held his. ‘How’s Eva?’
‘She’s good. Paul is coming over tomorrow.’
‘And how do you feel about that?’
He took a deep breath, searching for the answer, but it didn’t help. ‘I’ve no idea.’
‘Take your time; it’s a huge thing you’re dealing with.’
‘As are you.’ He wasn’t about to let her give him sympathy when she was very much in need of some too. ‘I mean it when I say that beers are always up for grabs. At my place, because of Eva, but it’s better than nothing.’
