Australian Affairs: Wed: Second Chance with Her Soldier / The Firefighter to Heal Her Heart / Wedding at Sunday Creek. Barbara Hannay

‘I’ve a pretty good range of meat, but my problem is the trimmings. I don’t have the sauces and spices and fancy herbs and that sort of thing. So I’m afraid we’re stuck with ordinary, boring stuff. For Christmas!’

      ‘Hmm.’

      She looked up, eyeing Joe suspiciously. ‘You’re frowning and muttering. What does that mean?’

      ‘It means I’m thinking.’ Truth was—an exciting idea had flashed into his head. Crazy. Probably impossible.

      But it was worth a try.

      ‘Excuse me,’ he said, jumping to his feet. ‘I need to make a phone call.’

      ‘There’s a phone here.’ Ellie nodded to the wall phone.

      ‘It’s OK. I’ve bought a sat phone, and I have the numbers stored.’

      She looked understandably puzzled.

      Adorably puzzled, Joe thought as he left the room.

      By the light of the single bulb on the veranda, he found the number he wanted. Steve Hansen was an ex-Army mate and, to Joe’s relief, Steve answered the call quickly.

      ‘Steve, Joe Madden here. How are you?’

      ‘I’m fine, Joe, heard you were back. How are you, mate? More importantly, where are you? Any chance of having a Christmas drink with us?’

      ‘That’s why I’m ringing,’ Joe said. ‘I’ve a huge favour to ask.’

      ‘Well, ask away, mate. We both know how much I owe you. If it wasn’t for you, I would have flown home from Afghanistan in a wooden box. So, what is it?’

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      MIDAFTERNOON ON CHRISTMAS Eve and the Karinya kitchen was a hive of activity.

      At one end of the table, Ellie and Jacko were cutting shortbread dough into star shapes—with loads of patience on Ellie’s part. At the other end, Joe, having consulted an elderly everyday cookbook, was stuffing a chicken with a mix of onion, soft breadcrumbs and dried herbs. To Ellie’s amusement, he was tackling the task with the serious concentration of a heart surgeon.

      By now the rain had stopped and the air was super-hot and sticky—too hot and sticky for the ceiling fan to make much difference. Flies buzzed at the window screens and from outside came the smell of once parched earth now turned to mud.

      With the back of her hand, Ellie wiped a strand of damp hair from her eyes. She was used to hot Christmases and she’d come to terms with the ordinariness of this year’s Christmas fare so, despite the conditions, she was actually feeling surprisingly upbeat.

      She was certainly enjoying her truce with Joe.

      And yet she was nervous about this situation. Playing happy families with her ex had to be risky. It was highly possible that she was enjoying Joe’s company far too much. Already, today they’d caught themselves laughing a couple of times.

      Surely that had to be dangerous?

      Could laughter lead to second thoughts? Could she find herself weakening and becoming susceptible to Joe’s charms, just as her mother had warned?

      Then again, she knew these happy vibes couldn’t last. By Boxing Day, she and Joe would be back to normal.

      Normal and divorced and leading separate peaceful lives.

      ‘OK,’ she said briskly, whipping her attention from her broken marriage to her neat sheets of shortbread stars and her small son’s not-so-neat efforts. ‘I think it’s time to pop these gourmet masterpieces into the—’

      She stopped in mid-sentence as an approaching sound caught her attention.

      Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump...

      Jacko squealed. ‘Heli-chopper!’

      Joe looked up from his task of stitching the chicken and grinned. ‘That’s probably Steve.’

      ‘Steve?’ Ellie frowned as the roar of the chopper blades grew louder. Closer.

      ‘Steve Hansen. A mate of mine from the Army. He got out last year.’

      ‘Oh.’

      In a heartbeat Ellie guessed exactly what this meant. Joe was no longer stranded here. She went cold all over. Joe had found an escape route. A friend with a helicopter was coming to his rescue. He was about to leave her again.

      Ridiculously, she began to shiver in spite of the heat. This was the reason for last night’s mysterious and secretive phone call. Joe had never explained, and all morning she’d been wondering.

      Now, with an effort, she dredged up a smile. ‘Well, that’s your Christmas sorted.’

      Joe looked at her strangely, but anything he might have said was drowned by the helicopter’s noisy arrival directly above the homestead roof.

      There’d been helicopters at Karinya before. They’d come to help with the mustering, so little Jacko wasn’t frightened by the roaring noise. In fact he was squealing with delight as he dashed to the window.

      The chopper was landing on the track beside the home paddock and, with a whoop of excitement, Joe picked the boy up and flipped him high onto his broad shoulders.

      Ellie gulped. The sight of her son up on his father’s big shoulders was...

      Breathtaking...

      ‘Are you coming to say hello to Steve?’ Joe called to her before he hurried outside, leaving her with her arms akimbo and a table covered with raw chicken and unbaked cookies.

      * * *

      Ellie had no idea how long this interruption would take, so she found space for the uncooked food in the fridge.

      By then, the helicopter had landed and Joe and Jacko were waiting at the bottom of the front steps until the blades stopped whirring. Jacko was jigging with excitement. Ellie’s stomach felt hollow as she joined them.

      It’s OK. I’ll be fine. Joe has to leave some time, and it’s probably easier to say goodbye now, without going through the whole business of Christmas first.

      Joe was grinning at her, his rugged face relaxed and almost boyish with excitement. He looked a bit like Jacko. Or Jacko looked like him.

      It wasn’t a cheering thought now, when he was about to leave them. Ellie’s heart did a sad little back-flip.

      The rotor blades slowed. A door in the helicopter opened and a beefy red-haired pilot with a wide friendly grin appeared.

      ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!’ he called jauntily as he climbed down.

      ‘Merry Christmas!’ responded Joe and the two men greeted each other with handshakes and hearty back slaps. Joe’s smile was wide as he turned back to Ellie and Jacko. ‘Come and meet Steve. He was in Afghanistan with me, but he’s set up in Townsville now and he’s started his own chopper charter business.’

      Pinning on her brightest smile, Ellie took Jacko’s hand and encouraged him forward. ‘Hi, Steve. Nice to meet you.’

      ‘You, too,’ Steve said warmly. ‘Merry Christmas.’ He shook hands with Ellie, then bent to ruffle Jacko’s hair. ‘Hello, young fella. You’re a chip off the old block if ever I saw one.’

      ‘This is Jacko,’ Joe said proudly, adding a bright-eyed smile that included Ellie.

      ‘Hi, Jacko.’ Steve waggled his eyebrows comically, making the little boy giggle.

      To Ellie, he said, ‘I remember how excited Joe was when this little bloke was born. The news came through when we were all in the mess. You should have seen this man.’ He slapped a big hand on Joe’s shoulder. ‘He was so damn proud, handing around his phone with a photo of his son.’