A Dusty Christmas Read online

  Claire’s face creased with concern. “Last night, he had an accident at an intersection. His car was written off. He spent the night in intensive care.”

  “Bloody hell.” Blaise breathed out heavily. “Why wasn’t I told sooner?”

  “I don’t know, I guess your mom and Scott were in shock. He’s in the Royal Adelaide Hospital.”

  “I’ll go there straight away.” He wished he had a change of clothes, but there was no way he was about to lose an hour or so driving back into Wilkton to change. He was going to drive straight back to Adelaide now. He had to see his dad.

  Blaise paused, his mind catching up to process everything that was happening right now. Of course, he was going to rush to see his dad, but where did that leave Dusty. She needed that part for the combine. There was no way she could drive all that way by herself and back again. It was a nine-hour trip one way. The last thing he wanted to hear was that she’d been in an accident too.

  “Don’t worry about me,” said Dusty as if reading what he was thinking. “I’ll get the part, or harvest will just have to wait this time.”

  “I can go with you,” said Aaron. “I mean it with my offer. A neighborly gesture.”

  Blaise narrowed his eyes at Aaron. He didn’t trust him. Not one bit.

  “I’m not sure what you’re discussing, but you know I can help,” said Claire.

  Blaise knew Claire was strong for her age, but he didn’t like the idea of her driving long hours either. He itched to get on the road back to Adelaide, but he was going nowhere until he knew what Dusty had decided.

  “What are neighbors for in times like this?” Aaron said.

  Dusty sighed heavily. “Fine.”

  “No.” Blaise’s eyes widened. There was no way he was going to let this happen. The problem was, right now, it was obvious he couldn’t stop it.

  Fuck it.

  “Don’t worry, Blaise, I’ll take good care of Dusty.” Aaron smirked.

  Blaise took a deep breath. He looked at Dusty. This was going to be a test between them. He was going to have to trust that she could handle herself with Aaron for the next twenty-four to thirty hours. His gut twisted painfully. The idea of them spending so much time together, just them, sent him on edge.

  “Blaise, go be with your dad. I’ll see you when I get back,” said Dusty firmly. She stepped up and put her hands on his shoulders and gazed into his eyes. He desperately looked for some reassurance but didn’t find enough.

  “Trust me, I can handle him. There will be no time for anything to happen. We both have to focus on driving,” she spoke softly so only he could hear.

  Blaise hated how he didn’t have a choice in this situation.

  Dusty kissed him. He barely felt her touch or the connection of their souls as their lips touched. He yearned to be with her fully without these problems getting in the way.

  “I’ll be fine. You go to your dad.”

  Blaise looked into her eyes, they were defiant, determined. He knew it didn’t matter how much he protested this situation, Dusty was going to drive to Melbourne with Aaron to get the part. And he was going to drive to Adelaide to see if his dad was all right.

  What scared the hell out of him was how this was going to impact their relationship.

  When he saw her next, was she going to still want him or would Aaron have gotten to her? It was a leap of faith he was being forced to take, which he didn’t want to. A test of their relationship.

  With a gut-wrenching twist, he knew he was going to have to let things unfold and hope that what they had together was going to be enough.

  “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 managing Blackbirds, 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.

  He stopped to ask where his dad was at the nurse’s station. She showed him to bed number three along the corridor, and she pulled back the curtain to let Blaise in.

  Blaise held his breath. Fucking hell.

  He couldn’t help it.

  His dad lay in the bed, two legs in casts, and an arm in a cast too. His mom sitting on the other side of the bed looking stressed. His brother stood at the foot of the bed with shadows of tiredness under his eyes.

  “Nothing serious, hey?” He raised his eyebrows questioningly at his mom.

  “You came. Thank you.” His mom stood, shuffled down to the end of the bed, arms out to embrace him. Blaise hugged her back.

  “What happened?”

  “A car turned unexpectedly hitting your dad’s car.”

  “And you didn’t think to tell me he’s broken both legs?”

  “One’s just a fracture,” his brother piped up.

  “And that makes it better, how?”

  “Don’t get upset. I know it must be a shock. Your dad was in surgery last night. We’ve been here since the ambulance brought him in,” said his mom.

  Blaise couldn’t believe it. “He’s lucky.”

  “Very lucky.”

  “How long will he be in hospital?”

  “The doctor has promised me he will be home for Christmas.”

  “I’ll sit with him. How about you two go home and get some rest.”

  “I don’t know…” His mom looked worried.

  “Mom, is he stable?”

  She nodded. “They’re going to move him to high dependency soon.”

  “When they’ve done that, promise me you’ll go home. Scott will take you.” He looked at his brother, who nodded in agreement.

  His mom patted him on the shoulder. “I feel bad taking you away from Dusty.”

  “She understands.” The words came out tightly.

  Dusty was genuinely concerned for his dad, and him, but he remembered she was driving to Melbourne with a man he didn’t trust, and he was acutely aware of how things could end up changing because of it.

  Aaron parked the ute in the empty car park of the mechanical store, an oversized shed, on the outskirts of Melbourne.

  “Fuck.” Dusty could clearly see the closed sign as she peered through the windscreen. They had come all this way to save time, and now the shop was closed. She unbuckled her seatbelt, got out, and went to the door. She cupped her hands to look inside. There were no signs of anyone. In frustration, she banged on the door. This can’t be happening. She’d just endured nearly eight hours of traveling in the ute with Aaron with the hope of being able to turn back and go home, only to find they were going to have to wait until morning.

  “Is anyone there?” called out Aaron.

  Dusty blinked back tears of frustration, then turned to go back to the ute. “No.” Her shoulders slumped forward as she slid back inside.

  She glanced at her phone. Minutes. They’d missed the closing time by minutes.

  “It was all thanks to that bloody truck going slow,” grumbled Dusty. They’d gotten stuck behind a heavy truck just out of Ballarat, and unable to overtake safely, they’d slowed down, wasting valuable time.

  “Want to get a hotel room?”

  Dusty glared at Aaron. “Separate rooms.”

  “You paying?” He raised an eyebrow.

  She pressed her lips together hard. “Separate beds then.”

  “I think we passed one a few minutes ago that had a vacancy sign, should we try that one?”

  “Good as any, I guess.” She was dark at having to spend money she didn’t have on a room for the night, but also dreaded how the hell she was going to tell Blaise about sharing a room with Aaron. She’d rather risk spending the night sleeping in the ute.

  “You don’t have to tell Blaise. I’ll keep it a secret.” Aaron steered the ute back onto the main road, along the way they had come.

  “This isn’t a situation which is secret.” His comment irked her. Aaron was an opportunist, and this was going to be a long night that she could well do without.

  He parked the ute at the reception area at the hotel. It looked dark and dingy. “Maybe we won’t eat here,” he suggested.

  She was going to agree to that. “Take away sounds like a good idea.”

  They got out of ute. It felt weird to Dusty to lock the door before walking into reception. That was something she only ever did when in the big cities.

  A large man at the desk greeted them with a smirk on his face. His blue T-shirt was dirty and worn, faded with too many washes, and tattoos flowed over his arms. The place stank of stale cigarettes and beer. This was the last place she wanted to stay.

  “Room for a few hours?”

  “The whole night,” said Dusty.

  He raised an eyebrow. “$250.”

  She gulped. That was way too much. Her budget was going to have to be cut back dramatically with the very expensive new bearing she had to buy for the harvester.

  “Twin share,” she added.

  “Only got a queen size available.”

  Of course, she thought to herself. Things were getting worse instead of better. She felt her cell vibrate in her pocket, and she took it out.

  She smiled. It was Blaise. “I gotta take this,” she said quickly to Aaron, then she slipped outside to finally talk to Blaise. “How’s your dad?” she asked as she accepted the call on her cell.

  “Banged up pretty bad. Both legs and one arm broken. He was in surgery last night, and a bit of concussion.”

  “Far out.”

  “Yeah, he’ll be all right, though. What about you? Got the… what was it again?”

  “Bearing.” She inhaled slowly, it was better to confess straight up. He’d find out anyway. Aaron would make sure of that.

  “That’s right, the bearing. On your way back?”

  “Slight problem.”

  “Oh?”

  “The store’s closed. We have to wait until morning before we can get the bearing.”

  The silence from Blaise unnerved her.

  “We’re getting a hotel room, so we can rest up, sleep before the trip back tomorrow. Got no choice really.” She blurted the words out before she lost her courage.

  “I see.” His words were sharp.

  Dusty could
tell from his tone he wasn’t at all happy to hear what she was saying.

  “Separate rooms, then?”

  She swallowed hard. Looked through the reception glass door. Aaron finished talking to the man, picked up a key and turned around. He smiled at her. Dusty shivered. Aaron strode through the door to her.

  “Got us a double bed for $200, thought you’d like to save a bit of money.” He grinned at her.

  Dusty felt her blood chill.

  “What the hell, Dusty?” said Blaise.

  She put the phone to her ear. “Don’t worry, you can trust me. Nothing will happen. It’s just unfortunate the store was closed, and that there’s not a lot of cheap options for accommodations out this side of town.”

  “I’ll pay, then you can have a room of your own. Don’t worry about the money.”

  “Don’t worry, city boy, I’ll take care of Dusty better than you could. This place is better than you think.”

  “Fuck off, Aaron, don’t you bloody touch Dusty, or I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

  “Blaise,” Dusty scrambled to think of something to help cool Blaise down. “I’m exhausted. I need sleep. It’s probably better this way so we drive home safely.”

  “Get separate rooms,” he yelled.

  “Too late. It’s all paid for, my shout.”

  “Fuck you,” Blaise swore.

  Dusty looked at Aaron. Whatever he was thinking, it wasn’t going to happen. “I’ll sleep in the ute.”

  “Too dangerous, you don’t know who will approach you around here. Come on, best we find somewhere to eat, you can shower first if you like.” He smiled broadly at Dusty. “I’ll even let you choose what side of the bed you want to sleep on.”

  “You better hope there’s a couch, otherwise you’re sleeping on the floor,” said Dusty firmly.

  “Dusty, I can wire through some money. You don’t have to—”

  “Blaise, I need you to trust me on this one. Nothing will happen between us. I love you.” Then before the argument could continue, she hung up. She glared at Aaron, then realized what she’d said to Blaise. If felt right. The ‘I love you’ felt right, which was saying something because this situation with Aaron wasn’t.