Noah enjoyed the feel of sunshine on his face, the feel of a really good country summer. Mind you, even if the weather changed and brought with it high winds and rain, he wouldn’t care because Paul was well and truly out of their lives.
Maya extricated herself at long last and, before anyone else could grab her attention, she came striding over.
His smile said it all.
Maya wrapped her arms around him and Eva, taking them both by surprise. ‘It’s over?’
‘It’s over,’ he said into her hair. He didn’t want to let her go.
When she pulled back, she checked, ‘He’s not coming back?’
Noah recapped the events of the morning. The commotion he’d heard outside after he’d handed over the money to Paul had indeed been Conrad and his colleagues confronting him and taking him away for questioning. The money had been returned to Noah already and before Conrad left his place earlier, Noah had told him to leave Maya alone.
And Conrad said nothing. He didn’t like it. But what could he do? Noah had that recording and if Conrad did anything to upset Maya then it would find its way to his superiors.
‘Conrad won’t be bothering you again either,’ Noah told Maya now. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms, protect her and keep her safe.
Maya shook her head when he told her the details. ‘I should be annoyed he feels he can interfere in my life at all, but I’m not. I no longer care. I’m just relieved you have Eva, the police havePaul and hopefully he’ll get his comeuppance, and having you say that to Conrad…’
Noah didn’t break his stare with this woman, this amazing, strong, clever and beautiful pilot he wanted to get to know more. And now it was as though the barriers that had been there previously had lifted away and both of them could step forwards.
Nadia came over to remind Maya she had another talk to do about the helicopter starting in ten minutes but, before she went on her way, she hugged Maya tight.
‘What was all that about?’ Noah asked when she left them to it.
‘I’m going to blurt something out now and then I have to get to work, but please, can we talk about it later?’
Puzzled, he nodded. ‘Go for it.’
‘I want to blurt this out because I don’t want you hearing it from anyone else.’
‘Maya, just say what you need to…’ He used one hand to stop Eva’s fingers from poking him in the eye. She’d gone from sleepy to alert and interested again.
And so Maya went for it. She told him what happened all those years ago, before she left her father’s home, the trouble she got into, the man who had come along to rescue her. And when she finished, she looked at the ground, ashamed, and embarrassed, when she shouldn’t be feeling either of those things.
Noah reached down and took her hand, squeezed it. He planted a gentle kiss on her temple. Conrad wouldn’t bother her again, so he tried to quash down the anger he felt at what the man had held over her for so long, making her question herself, fearing for her reputation, her job.
‘Maya, we all do things when we’re young,’ he whispered into her hair. ‘Most of us at some point have been pulled into situations we don’t like and we don’t always know how to get outof them.’ He didn’t let go of her hand. ‘You wait until you hear some of my stories. They’d make this beautiful hair of yours curl some more.’
‘Noah, I?—’
‘Go… over to the helicopter, people are waiting and need you. I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere.’
And he wasn’t. He’d found his place here in Whistlestop River, a home at the old signal box cottage with Eva. A little family. And now Maya, a woman he hoped would very much be a part of all of that.
Maya’s mind was partly on the helicopter: talking to a gaggle of teenage boys, telling them what all the controls did, regaling them with tales of some of the trickiest places she’d ever had to land – they’d lapped up that part of the talk, the riskier the better. Doubts crept in that they wouldn’t be sensible enough for the job no matter how much they said they wanted it, but she also knew that part of being a pilot was having an absolute passion for the job, the knowledge that every flight came with risks, that it was your reactions and skill in any given situation that mattered.
She looked over in Noah’s direction more than once. He’d been watching her at first, his smile suggested he’d accepted what she told him, but then he’d wandered off into the crowds and now she was done, she couldn’t see him anywhere.
The open day was coming to a close. The crews had been lucky. Apart from a call right before the start of the event and a second job which was so close by that they’d sent the rapid response vehicle out with the blue team at the helm, they’d beenreasonably quiet. But it felt like one of the longest shifts she’d ever had with the emotion wrapped up in the day.
The crowds began to thin and finally Maya spotted Noah at the other side of the airfield. He was talking to someone, his back to her, but Eva gave her a grin as she approached and it warmed Maya’s heart right through.
She didn’t think her heart could swell any more until Noah turned and revealed who he was talking to.
‘Isaac!’ She threw herself at her son, wrapping her arms around him, her feet leaving the ground momentarily. ‘You’re here, you’re not due home for another week!’
‘Thought I’d surprise you, Mum. And it’s almost your birthday, I couldn’t miss that.’
