The Australian's Proposal. Alison Roberts

out once, but once was enough. I know the boat we were in was bigger than the crocodiles I kept seeing lazing on the bank, but not by much. In fact, it got flimsier and flimsier the longer we stayed out, especially when some of the crocs got off the bank and started swimming towards us.’

      ‘Real crocodiles?’

      Kate knew it had been a stupid question as soon as she’d asked it, but she’d just blurted the words out.

      ‘Too, too real,’ Hamish said, ‘although before that day I thought Crocodile Creek was just a name. You know, like Snake Gully. Maybe someone once saw a snake there, but it doesn’t mean there are dozens of the things in the gully.’

      ‘But there are dozens of crocodiles in the creek?’

      Kate looked nervously out the car window. How far from creeks did crocodiles travel? And hadn’t she heard they could run faster than a horse?

      Could a horse run faster than a car?

      ‘Hey, we’re safe,’ Hamish said gently, slowing the car and resting his hand on her shoulder.

      ‘I know that!’ Kate snapped. Now she compared the two experiences, thinking of crocodiles in a creek not far from where she’d sat and looked at babies was freaking her out far more than the man with the gun had.

      Then she’d been able to snuggle close to Hamish for protection. Now she’d look stupid if she straddled the gear lever to get close to him, which, from other points of view, would not be a good idea anyway.

      ‘I can see why they need a swimming pool. I wouldn’t want to swim in a creek with crocodiles.’

      Somehow talk of swimming pools and crocodiles kept them going for most of the journey, though tension built inside Kate until she wondered if she’d burst with it.

      But when Hamish pulled off the road into a parking area that gave a view over the town and the cove and the sea beyond it, she guessed she wasn’t the only one feeling the crackling in the air between them. He was just better at hiding it.

      He turned towards her, his eyes looking black in the shadowy car.

      ‘Is it the wrong time and the wrong place, Kate?’

      He kissed her gently, but even a gentle kiss fired her heartbeats.

      ‘Can you deny there’s something special between us? Can you deny you feel what I feel when we’re together—deny there’s magic in our kisses?’

      Kate tried, she really did, but she couldn’t, and in the end she had to shake her head.

      ‘But it’s not about magic, Hamish, it’s about trust.’

      He kissed her again.

      ‘I know that, which is why we don’t need to hurry things—don’t need to put the pressure of a three-week time limit on getting to know each other. I know you want to find your father, but there’s every chance, particularly if we involve people from the hospital, you can do that in a few days. Then why don’t you come to Scotland with me? No pressure or promises. Just come, to see how things might work out.’

      The strength of his hands, and the warmth they generated, seeped deep into Kate’s body, but it was all too soon, and taking warmth from someone else was far too dangerous.

      ‘I don’t think so, Hamish,’ she said quietly, and sat back in her seat.

      At least now crocodiles weren’t the main worry in her mind.

      Hamish paused for a few seconds, then reversed out of their parking space and pulled out onto the highway, starting up a conversation about the necessity to watch out for kangaroos on the roads around dawn and dusk.

      It was, she was learning, typical of this kind, caring, empathetic man—not play-acting at being a colleague but genuinely trying to set her at ease.

      She was beginning to admire Colleague Hamish.

      Back at the hospital, they unpacked the car then, as Hamish went to report to Charles, she walked through to the ICU to visit Jack.

      Jack was lying with his eyes closed, and though he opened them when Kate said hello, his eyelids soon drooped, but the smile on his face, even as he slept, told Kate all she needed to know.

      She dropped into the chair beside Megan, who was anchored to the bed by Jack’s hand clasping both of hers.

      ‘Are you OK?’

      Megan nodded, a tremulous smile on her lips.

      ‘Dad came to see him,’ she whispered to Kate, ‘before they transferred him to Townsville for his bypass. He told Jack he’d better hurry and get better, because he was needed out at Cooper’s Crossing.’

      Megan’s smile improved as she added proudly, ‘That’s our place. Dad wants him there, but not right away. Dad and Charles have been talking. They think Jack and I should get agriculture training—they say we should spend a few years at university so we’re sure we know what we’re doing. Charles says there’s enough money to fund it and that there’s child care at university.’

      She paused and her smile, if possible, grew even more radiant.

      ‘University, Kate! Can you imagine? Then we’ll come home and with water we’ll make Cooper’s Crossing viable again. It’ll be as good as Wetherby, good enough to support two families—the Ransomes and the Coopers. Together.’

      As Megan’s expression suggested this was the most wonderful of ideas, Kate gave her a hug and told her how happy she was, hiding her own reservations about this happy-ever-after-ending until she’d left the ICU.

      Charles and Hamish were talking outside the ED and though she didn’t want to interrupt—and certainly didn’t want to get entangled with Hamish again, as colleague or kisser—she did want to know if Harry was proceeding with his enquiries.

      She hesitated, and Charles saw her and settled her indecision.

      ‘We were just talking about you,’ he called to her.

      ‘Surely I haven’t been here long enough to be in trouble,’ she said lightly, smiling at Charles.

      ‘Far from it,’ Charles assured her. ‘No, we were talking about Jack. Harry really needs to see him and, for Jack’s sake, the sooner the mess with his mates Todd and Digger is sorted out, the better. Emily says, providing there’s no setback, we can move him out of ICU tomorrow, and once he’s on a ward it will be hard to keep Harry away from him.’

      ‘You’ll stay with him when Harry interviews him?’ Kate asked anxiously.

      Charles looked at a point somewhere over her head.

      ‘That’s actually why we were talking about you. I know you were employed to work the ED here, but I wondered if you’d mind working the men’s ward for the next few days. I don’t want to seem as if I’m standing guard over the lad, it will make him look bad, but I’d like to think he has someone he knows and trusts hovering around. I’ll tell Harry he’s still sufficiently ill that I want a nurse with him while he’s interviewed. Would you do it?’

      ‘Of course,’ Kate said. ‘Do I see Jill? She’ll need to change someone else’s shift as well as mine.’

      ‘I’ll fix it up with Jill. What were you working tomorrow?’

      ‘Early shift,’ Kate told him. ‘Six to three.’

      Charles smiled at her.

      ‘Well, isn’t this your lucky day? We’ll transfer Jack in the morning, and he’ll need to rest after the move, so I won’t let Harry near him until the afternoon. If you could do the afternoon shift, midday to nine, that should cover the time Harry’s likely to be there, and if you’re already on the ward, it won’t look as if we’ve brought in someone especially to be with Jack.’

      Kate smiled at Charles’s obvious satisfaction with this plan. In fact, it pleased her