Jackson opened his mouth to swear again, glanced around the store and saw the row of televisions—all playing the news. Showing Golden Bay like he’d never seen it before. Showing his home town besieged by water. ‘Crap.’
Water ran amok, taking trees and kennels and dead cattle with it. Brown, swirling water decimating everything in its path. Suddenly the only place on earth he wanted to be was in Golden Bay, in the thick of it, with Jess, helping her while she helped everyone else. And it had taken a damned disaster to wake him up to that fact.
Simon said, ‘I’ll run you to the airport.’
‘I’ll have to hire a private plane when I get to Nelson.’ Hell, he hoped he could get on a commercial flight from Auckland to Nelson at such short notice. He didn’t fancy the extra hour and a half by road if he had to land in Blenheim. He wouldn’t consider the time delay if Christchurch was his only option.
* * *
Five hours later Jackson dumped his bags in the corner of the Pohara Motor Camp office and headed for the communal kitchen/dining room being used as an emergency centre. The moment he walked through the door his eyes scanned for Jess, came up blank.
‘Where’s Jess?’ he demanded the instant he saw Grady.
‘Hello to you, too. She’s seeing to Sam. He’s injured himself while trying to dig a ditch to divert water from the house.’ Grady reached for a ringing phone. ‘She’s fine, Jackson.’
Jackson picked his way around people and bags and boxes of food, heading for the white board on the wall. Lists scrolled down the board. Properties damaged by the flood, people being evacuated, injured folk needing house calls. He’d seen some sad sights on his way in from Takaka airstrip, travelling first by four-wheel drive then by boat and lastly on foot.
Jess’s house was listed in the flooded properties, as was her other place, where Mrs Harrop lived. Yet Jess was out there doing what she did best—looking out for others. She was magnificent. And he’d been going to walk away. Idiot. He wanted to run to her, stick by her while she went about her calls. But she’d hate that. Anyway, he could be put to better use, attending patients himself.
Impatience gripped him as he waited for Grady to finish his call. Sounded like someone out past Pohara needed urgent attention from a medic. ‘I’ll go,’ he announced the moment Grady hung up.
‘Take my truck. There’s a medical kit and hopefully anything else you’ll need inside. Tom Gregory, Tarakohe, had his arm squashed while trying to tie his fishing boat down.’
Jackson snatched the keys flying towards him. ‘I’ll be in touch.’
‘Good, because I’ve already got another call for you out at Wainui Inlet after you’re done with Tom.’
* * *
Jess shivered. Under her thick jacket her clothes were soaked through. On her way to the truck that she’d hijacked from Ian she’d slipped in the mud and gone into a ditch to be submerged in sludge. It would be weeks before the foul taste of mud left her mouth.
It was well after seven and as dark as coal. This had been the longest day of her life, and it wasn’t anywhere near over. Too many people needed help for her to put her feet up in front of Virginia’s fire. But what she wouldn’t give for a hot chocolate right about now.
Not going to happen. If she was lucky she’d get a lukewarm coffee and a droopy sandwich at Pohara before heading out somewhere else. She wouldn’t be the only one feeling exhausted. All the emergency crews had been working their butts off throughout the day. The damage out there was horrendous, taking its toll on people, animals and buildings.
Buildings. As in houses. Her home.
No. She wasn’t going to think about that. Wasn’t going to consider the damage she’d seen briefly when the police had taken her home to collect some things. At least she’d managed to grab some clothes, a few photos and a couple of Nicholas’s favourite toys. The rest didn’t bear thinking about.
Hunched over the steering-wheel to peer through the murk and hoping like crazy the vehicle stayed on the road, she drove cautiously towards the temporary emergency centre. Shivering with cold, yawning with fatigue, it was hard to concentrate.
Focus. The last thing the emergency guys needed was her driving into a ditch and having to be rescued.
Finally she pulled up outside the well-lit building, got out and immediately pushed open the door. If she sat still she’d fall asleep. She’d fall asleep walking if she wasn’t careful.
The heat exploded as she stepped through the door into the chaos of emergency rescue. Hesitating while her eyes adjusted to the bright lights, she could feel her hands losing their grip on the medical bag she’d brought inside to replenish. She heard it hit the floor with a sickening thud and couldn’t find the energy to bend down and pick it up again.
Someone caught her, led her to a chair and gently pushed her down. A cup of tea appeared on the table in front of her. ‘Get that inside you, Jess. I bet you didn’t stop for lunch.’
Her stomach rumbled in answer. Lunch. What was that? ‘The store was shut.’ She’d never get that cup to her lips without spilling most of the contents.
‘I’ll get you a sandwich.’
The rumble was louder this time. She blinked. Looked up at this kind apparition hovering over her. That’s when she knew she’d lost her mind. Exhaustion had caught up, obviously tipping her over the edge of sanity. She dropped her eyes, focused on the cup until it was very clear in her mind, no blurring at the edges of her sight. Looking up again, her breath snagged in the back of her throat. Jackson? If this was what not eating did then she’d schedule meals every hour from now on. Seeing Jackson at every turn would put her in the loony bin.
‘Hey, sweetheart, you need to eat while Sheree finds you some warm, dry clothes.’ A lopsided smile kept her from looking away.
Funny how her lungs seemed to have gone on strike. ‘Is it really you?’ How could it be? He should be somewhere over Australia by now. The tremors that had been racking her turned into quakes that would knock the socks off the Richter scale.
‘Yes, it’s me. I’m home, Jess. For good.’ Steady hands held the cup to her lips. ‘Now get some of this inside you.’
Her lips were numb with cold and the liquid dribbled down her chin, but some ran over her tongue and down her throat. It was good, sending some warmth into the chill. She took another mouthful, this time most of it going in the right direction. ‘Define “for good”,’ she croaked.
‘As in for the next fifty years at least.’
She couldn’t do the sums. Her brain was struggling with drinking tea, let alone anything else. But she figured he meant he’d be here for a long while. ‘Great.’
Now she really looked at him, concentrating as hard as she had while driving from Sam’s. Really, really saw the man hunkered down in front of her, those beautiful deep green eyes fixed on her. Need laced that gaze. So did apology. And concern. Could that be love lingering around the edges, too? Or was she hallucinating?
‘I heard your home has taken a hit.’
Oh. Not love. Just everyday concern for someone he knew well. That gave her the strength to murmur, ‘Got a bulldozer out in your dad’s shed? I’m going to need it.’ Her lips pressed together, holding back her returning bewilderment. This was too much. First her home had been all but destroyed. And now the man who had walked away from her two days ago, taking her heart with him, was in front of her, his hand on her knee, looking like he... Like he... That was the problem. She didn’t understand any of this. Why had he suddenly reappeared?
Whatever the reason, she really didn’t need this right now. She was busy helping folk in the bay. It was what she needed to do, it was how she atoned for being a brat teenager. Had she been even more badly behaved as a young woman than she’d imagined? Was that why all this was happening to her? Would she never pay for her mistakes?
On a long, steadying bre
ath, she told Jackson, ‘Glad you’re here. They need all the medics they can get.’
‘I’ve been helping for the last four hours. Seems we’re all caught up for a while.’ He took the plate of sandwiches Sheree arrived with and handed her one. ‘Eat.’
‘Your jersey’s wet.’ So was his hair. She hadn’t noticed.
‘Last time I looked, it was still raining.’
‘I need to top up my bag.’ Chew, chew. Concentrating on more than one thing at a time was too hard right now.
‘I’ll see to it in a minute.’ He didn’t move.
‘Jackson,’ she growled around another mouthful of bread and ham. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Because I couldn’t leave.’ He pulled another chair around and sat in front of her, still holding the plate of sandwiches. ‘I was wrong to think I could go, Jess. No, let me rephrase that. I knew I wanted to stay but that bloody promise kept getting in the way, doing my head in.’