A Roast on Sunday (21 page)

She nodded again.

Jack was as good as his word and not long after she
saw headlights turn into the end of the driveway. Before he had even pulled completely up in front of the house she was out there, yanking on the door handle and climbing into the passenger seat.

“Nice jacket,” he sai
d, trying to lighten the mood. But Maggie didn’t laugh, she couldn’t even summon a smile. She just looked at him, all wide eyed and frightened and he felt the urge to reach over and pull her into his arms and kiss all her worries away. He knew though that the only thing that could make her feel better right then was having her father home, safe and sound. So he kept his hands on the steering wheel and quizzed her, “Which way?”

She pointed down the driveway, “down there
and turn right. There’s a farm about a half a kilometre along, he cuts through there.”

Jack drove where she directed. When they reached
a gate she told him to stop, then she jumped out of the truck and held the gate open for him to pass through. Then she closed it behind him and climbed back into the truck, pointing him forwards. So started a pattern, Jack driving through the paddocks, headlights on full beam and both of them calling out the windows into the rain, and when they reached the next gate Maggie would jump out and open it. They had driven through six paddocks and Jack was just starting to wonder how big this farm actually was and whether they were going to find themselves on the other side of the country when Maggie grabbed his arm.

“Stop!
What’s that?” she said, trying to peer through the rain.

Jack stepped on the brakes and tried to follow the direction of her finger. “Where?” he asked, but then he realised she was already out of the truck and running towards something lying in the grass twenty metres away. He stared at it for a moment and realised it was the wheels of a bike, lying on its side. Maggie was sprinting towards it.

Cursing, he reached for the door handle. He wished that he’d been able to get there first, just in case of the worst case scenario. He wanted to protect her from what she might find, and he was scared that if Ray had met his fate no amount of comforting from Jack or anyone else would help Maggie forget what she was about to see.

She was on the ground next to her father when he reached them and for the longest five seconds of his life he thought his fears had been confirmed. Ray was pale and still, eyes closed and body limp.
He was wet through and covered in mud, and his legs were trapped beneath the bike. Maggie had dropped to her knees in the mud beside him and was staring at her father in horror.

“Dad?” she whimpered, but the wind snatched the word and carried it away.

“Move over Maggie,” Jack shouted, “I have to get this bike off him.” It took all Jack’s strength to lift the bike and drop it to one side. While he did Maggie moved around to her father’s head and lifted his shoulders into her lap. She leant over him to try and keep the rain off his face and stroked his hair.

“Dad,” she said it louder and shook his shoulders.

Ray groaned and moved a hand weakly.

“He’s alive!” Maggie cried out with
relief, “Jack, he’s breathing.” She leant down to her father’s face, “Dad! Dad can you hear me?”

“Of course I can hear you, you’re screaming right in my ear,” Ray grumbled.

“Oh dad, whatever possessed you to take the bike out? You could see a storm was coming.”

“I was going to give that young man of yours a speaking too.”

Maggie was acutely aware of Jack beside her. “He’s not my young man, dad. And I told you to leave it alone.”

“I just hate seeing you upset my girl.”

Maggie kissed her father’s forehead. “I know, and I love you for it. But you could have been killed. What would I have told Willow? And can you imagine what mum would say?”

Rays opened his eyes then. “Eh, we don’t need to mention this to her do we?” There was genuine fear in his eyes. “She’ll kill me for sure.”

“Well you’re still alive for now sir,” Jack cut in, “and I think we should save this conversation for somewhere a little warmer and drier. We need to get you checked over at the hospital.”

“
You
,” Ray’s eyes focused on Jack over Maggie’s shoulder. “You’ve got some nerve showing your face here. This is all your fault you know.”

“Dad
, you can’t blame Jack for your own stupidity. Besides, if it wasn’t for him I would never have found you so you should be thanking him.”

“Thank you,” Ray mumbled grudgingly.

“You’re very welcome,” Jack said with a smile. Water was running down his face and his hair was plastered against his head. “Now let’s get you to a hospital.”

“I don’t want to go to a hospital,” Ray protested as Jack lifted the old man into his arms. Maggie couldn’t help but admire how strong he was, and then
rolled her eyes and mentally scolded herself for thinking such thoughts at such an inappropriate time.

“Hey, you’re a doctor,” Ray
pointed out as Jack carried him to the car. “Can’t
you
just check me over? I’m telling you guys I feel fine.”

“I’m a veterinarian
. I deal with slightly different patients.”

“We a
ll share the same basic parts.”

“All the same,”
Jack said as Maggie opened the back door of the truck and he laid Ray out on the back seat, “I’d prefer you checked out by a doctor.” Jack reached over into the back and pulled out the blanket he kept there for when Rufus rode with him. “Sorry about the smell,” he apologised to Ray as he tucked it around him, “but it will keep you warm at least.”

He climbed into the
driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition while Ray grumbled in the back. Jack had just backed the truck around to head back the way they had come when Ray shot bolt upright.

“Wait,” he said, “what about my bike? We can’t just leave it there.”

Jack looked sideways at Maggie and lifted one eyebrow in question as if to say, ‘are you going to deal with this?’

“That damn bike can stay there until it rusts into a scrap heap for all I care,” Maggie said hotly to her father. “And I’m pretty sure mum will feel the same way.”

Ray subsided on to the seat again. “You’re not going to tell her about this are you love?”

“I don’t really have a lot of choice do I? It’s serious this time
dad.” She shivered; the adrenaline and the cold from the rain had caught up with her and she felt chilled to the bone.

“Traitor,” Ray grumbled.

“Here,” Jack shrugged off his jacket and passed it over to Maggie, “Drape this over your knees, it will help warm you back up.” He fiddled with buttons on the dashboard and soon hot air was blowing from the vents and filling the inside of the truck, making it cosy. When they got back onto the main road Ray closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, lulled like a baby by the rhythm of the trucks wheels. Maggie, who had been half turned in her seat to keep an eye on her father turned to face the front again, adjusting her seatbelt.

“Thank you,” she said quietly to Jack.

“No problem,” he took his eyes off the road for a brief moment to flash a smile. “It all worked out well in the end.”

“
Thanks to you. I wouldn’t have been able to find him without your help. God knows how long he would have been lying out there,” she shuddered.

“He’s fine,” Jack
said soothingly, “he’s a tough old guy.”

“He is,” Maggie nodded, “but at the same time he’s also my frail old dad. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.”

“Don’t think like that. He’s strong, I’m sure he’ll be with us for awhile yet.”

“I hope so.”

“I’m guessing he’s where you get your strength from,” Jack commented.

She turned to him in surprise. “Me?
Strong? I don’t think so. I nearly fell apart tonight, remember? I just don’t cope well in situations like this.”

“Hey, not many people could cope with a situation like tonight.”

“You did.”

‘That’s different. As fond as I am of the old guy, he’s not my father.” He flicked a glance in the rear view mirror at Ray and was satisfied to see him roll over a bit in his sleep. “Who knows how I would have handled it if it
had
been my father. I probably would have been just as upset as you were.”

“Your dad is still alive?”

“Yes.”

“And your mother?”

“Yes she’s very much alive and well, not together with my father though. No she’s currently on,” he paused to work something out in his head, “husband number five, if I’m correct.”

Maggie whistled. “Phew, that’s quite a lot of husbands.”

“Tell me about it. It’s also more than enough step fathers. I have a feeling he won’t be the last though.”

Maggie was quiet for
a minute and then she apologised softly. “I’m sorry I never took the time to find out more about your life. I’ve been pretty self centred haven’t I?”

“
It’s fine, you had a lot on your plate. Besides,” he smiled sideways at her again, “there’s plenty of time for all that.”

“There you go again.”

“What?”

“Confusing me.
For someone who keeps banging on about keeping things uncomplicated you sure do know how to mess with a girls head.”

Jack looked at her
in astonishment. “What on earth are you on about now?”

“Eyes on the road please
, my father has already survived one vehicular accident today, let’s not put him through a second.”

He looked back at the road.
“Only if you explain what you meant by that last statement, and quickly.”

“
Today at your office, you said we should leave each other alone so as not to complicate things. But just now you act as if you’re still interested.”

“
That’s because I
am
still interested.”

“Then what was all that stuff you said today?”

“I
knew
you weren’t listening. What I said was that we should just take a step backwards and slow things down a little, so as not to confuse things for your family and friends.”

“
They
are not confused. The only person confused is
me
.”

“When I said no to
spending Christmas day with you Maggie it wasn’t because I didn’t want to, I can think of nowhere else I’d rather spend it.”

“Then why?”

“I was thinking of you. At your ex-husbands wake I heard your mother telling you that people were gossiping – the curse of small towns like I told you when we first met by the way – about us. I didn’t want anyone thinking bad things about you so I thought we should just cool it for awhile until the dust settles.”

“You were
just trying to protect me from this town’s idle minds?”

He nodded.

“And that’s the
only
reason you said all that stuff about us not seeing each other?”

He looked over at her again, his face serious. “Maggie I don’t know how many times I can tell you this or how much clearer I can make it.
I like you
. I mean, I really
, really
like you. You fascinate the hell out of me and have done since the day you pointed a shotgun at my head.”

Maggie flushed, she had forgotten
all about that.

“I want to know everything there is to know about you,” he continued. “Give me half a chance and I’ll show you just how much I want to be with you.”

“I thought you’d gone off me.”

“Oh I tried,” he joked and she slapped his arm. “But the thing with you
Maggie, is that you’re like a parasite. You’ve wormed your way right under my skin, and I have the suspicion that nothing I do is going to get you back out of there again.”

“Wow, that’s one of the most romantic things anyone has ever said to me.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course not.
It’s disgusting.”

He laughed.

“But I get where you’re coming from,” she admitted, “because for some reason I can’t get you out of my head, even though you irritate the hell out of me.”

“My pleasure.”

“You know, I had you two pegged as fairly intelligent. But the way you’ve been acting lately I’m beginning to rethink.”

Maggie swivelled around in her seat to look down at her father. “I thought you were asleep.”

“Oh I’d much rather be, believe me, but you two kept yakking.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, just sort your crap out. I can’t keep up with you.”

“Dad!”

“Well honestly, you’re like one of those soap operas on the telly. One minute you like each other, the next minute you’re spitting tacks. Well you are anyway,” he pointed at Maggie. Then he turned the finger on Jack. “
You
seem a little more balanced.”