Chapter Thirty-Seven

Where were they? Dan stared down the track leading from the ranger station back towards the main road. It was empty.

‘Come on, Justin,’ he muttered under his breath as he glanced at his watch for the twentieth time.

As if called into being by the words, a slightly battered and dusty utility appeared on the road, followed by another smaller car.

‘At last!’

The two cars pulled up outside the ranger station. Justin emerged from the first, a huge grin on his face. The door of the second burst open and Carrie darted out, to wrap Dan in a bear hug.

‘You’re going to get her?’ Carrie asked.

‘Yes,’ he said, his heart lifting at the mere thought.

‘Just as soon as you let him go,’ Justin added.

Carrie unwrapped her arms from Dan’s neck. ‘We brought you my car. It’s not exactly what you’re used to, but it’s reliable. It’ll get you where you have to go.’

After leaving the hospital two days ago, Dan had driven straight to the Coorah Creek police station to tell Max Delaney, the sergeant, that he would be gone for a time. He didn’t know how long. The park, he said, would remain open. Another ranger would arrive to take his place until he could return. Organising that other ranger had taken far more time than Dan expected. When he’d phoned the department, he’d ended up talking to Thomas Lawson. When he heard the man’s voice on the other end of the phone, his heart had sunk, but if finding Quinn meant losing his job, so be it. Lawson had, surprisingly, accepted Dan’s explanation of a personal emergency. A temporary replacement ranger was not that easy to find, however. Dan had chafed under the delay, but leaving the park unattended just was not an option. Visitors needed to have someone to help them – a lifeline in case of emergencies. Dan wasn’t going to just abandon his responsibilities. But at last the parks service informed him that a ranger was on the way to cover for him.

Then another barrier had dropped into place. The car. He drove a park service Land Rover. He couldn’t just take off in a vehicle that wasn’t technically his. He had to leave that for his replacement. A phone call to Justin and Carrie had solved that one. He explained his problem and, with Carrie cheering wildly in the background, Justin had offered to lend him a car.

Looking at the car now, Dan did not care how old or battered it was. If it took him to Quinn, that would be enough.

He opened the car door and tossed in a rucksack with some clothes and a few other necessities. He then carefully placed the book on the front seat. The book in which Quinn had written her name.

‘I don’t know how long this will take me,’ he said to Justin and Carrie as he opened the driver’s side door.

‘Keep it as long as you need it,’ Justin said. ‘We’ve still got the old ute.’

‘Just bring her back with you.’ Carrie planted a kiss on Dan’s cheek.

He nodded at both of them and got behind the wheel of the car. Without wasting another minute, he was heading for the park exit. Carrie and Justin kept him company for a short time, and then sent him on his way with a blast of their horn as they turned onto the gravel road that led back to their home.

Dan continued driving until he reached the intersection with the main highway, then he pulled over and turned the engine off. The road now led south to Coorah Creek, and then turned east towards the east coast and Brisbane. Quinn’s book lay on the seat beside him. Once before, that book had guided him to the place he needed to be. Now it was doing it again. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was going. But he was going to find Quinn.

Finding her might not be all that easy. She was a celebrity of sorts, one who protected her privacy. The book listed her agent, giving him an office address in Brisbane. Dan would start there. He had thought about phoning the agent, or e-mailing, but decided against it. He wouldn’t give the man a chance to refuse to tell him where Quinn was. He would simply go to the agent’s office and stay there if he had too – until he was told what he needed to know.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was the only one he had. He wouldn’t stop looking until he found her. He would ask nothing of her until she was ready. She needed to come to terms with her past, just as he had done. Quinn had helped him do that and if he could, he would help her too, even if that help was nothing more than letting her know he was there for her if she needed him.

He was not prepared to countenance the chance of failure. He needed Quinn in his life in the same way that he needed to breathe. He needed to wake in the mornings and watch her sleep beside him. He needed to hear her laugh. He needed her to be the home he still did not have. And he needed to fill the same role in her life.

He glanced at his watch. The drive from Coorah Creek to Brisbane would take him nearly twenty hours. He wouldn’t make it today, but that was all right. He’d find a motel somewhere for the night. He settled himself more comfortably in the unfamiliar seat, took a firm grip on his concentration and restarted the engine. As he pulled back onto the highway, he began trying to find the words he would say to Quinn. The words that would make her realise that they belonged together. The words that would make her change her mind.

He drove south to Coorah Creek. He didn’t stop in the town. He reached the intersection with the east-bound highway and turned. In a few minutes the town vanished into the haze behind him. He briefly wondered if Trish Warren knew what he was doing. Probably. And if she knew the whole town would know. Strangely enough, that didn’t bother him. Maybe their good wishes would help his cause.

It was early afternoon, and the sun was beating down mercilessly on the car. He’d only been driving for a little more than an hour, when he saw something emerge from the heat haze on the road ahead. At first he thought it was a mirage, brought on by the heat. But it wasn’t. His heart skipped a beat as he recognised the low boxy shape coming towards him. He’d seen too many Humvees emerge from the desert heat not to know one when he saw it. But this was not the vehicle of his nightmares. It held all his dreams.

Dan flashed his headlights twice, and then braked. He pulled the car over to the side of the road. He was getting out when the Hummer swept past him. A second later, he saw the glow of the red brake lights as it pulled up about fifty meters further down the road. Dan stood next to the car, his heart pounding, and waited. The Hummer began reversing back up the road. It angled onto the red dust verge opposite him and stopped.

It was dark inside the vehicle against the brightness of the sun. Behind the tinted windows, Dan could only see the outline of the driver. But he didn’t need to see her. His heart told him she was there.

The door opened and she got out. She was sweating in the heat. Her hair was a mess and her clothes rumpled from long hours of travelling. She was so beautiful, she took his breath away. All the carefully planned words vanished from his head.

She closed the car door behind her, and moved towards him. Dan took two steps into the middle of the road and she was in his arms.

Kissing her was like drinking ice-cold water under the heat of the desert sun. It was like coming home and it was a very long time before he could bring himself to stop.

‘I know there’s not a lot of traffic out here,’ Dan said roughly when he was finally able to speak again. ‘But at some point, perhaps we should move off the road.’

Quinn nodded. Keeping his arms around her, so that her body was close to him, Dan led the way back to the Hummer.

Quinn leaned back against her vehicle and looked across at Dan’s car.

‘I almost didn’t stop,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know it was you.’

‘I borrowed it from Carrie. I had to leave the Land Rover behind.’ Dan held her hand tightly. ‘You were coming back.’ The wonder of it was almost overwhelming.

She nodded. ‘Yes. And you were coming to find me, weren’t you?’

‘Yes. I had to tell you that I love you and when you are ready to share your life again, I want to be with you.’

Quinn didn’t hesitate. Her face was serious as she spoke. ‘I love you. I want to be with you. I am ready to move on with my life, but was too afraid to say that before.’

‘There’s no reason to be afraid,’ Dan said. ‘Ever.’

‘I know. I’ve realised something. All those dreams I had as a girl. Home and husband and family. I still want all those things.’

‘And you can have them. We can have them, together.’

‘I let my work get in the way once before. I won’t this time.’

‘Don’t say that.’ Dan took her by the shoulders and held her so he could see her face clearly. He spoke slowly, with utter surety. ‘Your work is important to you. You can’t give it up. I will never ask you to. In fact, I would never allow you too. It’s a part of who you are – part of what makes me love you.’

‘But it’ll take me away from you.’

‘That’s fine. Just as long as you come back to me. I’ll always be there for you, Quinn. Wherever and whenever you need me.’

He kissed her again.

Neither of them heard the roar of an approaching engine. With a long loud blast of an air horn, a huge truck roared past, breaking their embrace.

‘You were coming after me,’ Quinn said again, her voice dancing with joy. ‘Why? What made you decide to do that now?’

‘Missing you. Loving you and wanting to be with you,’ Dan said, and then his mouth spread into a wide smile. ‘And Jack and Ellen had their baby – a little girl.’

‘I’m really happy for them.’ This time there was no shadow in her eyes. No flash of pain.

‘Looking at the little girl made me realise something,’ Dan said. He lifted one of her hands and gently kissed the soft skin on her palm. ‘Love is a gift. A rare thing that is too precious to throw away. It’s wrong to turn your back on it. Even if it lasts for just a day, love is worth it.’

The tears he saw in her eyes were all the answer he needed. He kissed her again, because it was beyond his power to stop.

‘I suppose I should tell my agent not to take any bookings for me for a while,’ Quinn said a long time later. ‘I have a feeling I’m going to be busy.’

‘Take a job if you want to,’ Dan said. ‘Never say no to something you want to do because of me. It will always be your choice, Quinn. And besides,’ he chuckled, ‘you make a lot more money than I do, so your work is our retirement fund.’

‘Retirement fund? Retirement is a whole lifetime away.’

‘Which will be almost, but not quite enough time to spend together.’ He kissed her again, loving the taste of her lips and the softness of her body against his. And loving the joy he felt surrounding the two of them like an aura.

‘So,’ Dan said when they could both talk again, ‘are you ready? I’ve got a feeling the whole town is probably waiting to welcome you back.’

Quinn smiled and nodded.

Dan walked back across the road, and got behind the wheel of the car. He started the engine and did a U-turn. Quinn got into her Hummer. As she pulled back onto the highway, Dan slid his vehicle into place behind her. Driving the car that was no longer her only home, Quinn led them both back towards Coorah Creek.