Mac felt herself blush. Before she had time to think, Sarah leaned in and gently claimed her lips in a kiss. When they finally separated, they were both breathless.
Mac smiled shyly. “I think I need to go back out to the shed.”
Sarah frowned. “Did you forget something?”
Mac shook her head. “Uh-uh, but if one shaving in my hair gets me a kiss like that, then I think I might go and roll around on the floor and pick up some more.”
Sarah’s head tipped back as she laughed. Mac thought her laugh was golden. Before anything more could happen, the doorbell rang.
Sarah gently pushed Mac away. “You hold that thought. Go and answer the door and I’ll put the bread on.”
Mac flashed her a smile as she went to greet Maree and Terri. A brief burst of happiness shot straight to her chest when she opened the door to see her two best friends standing there, Maree in a white linen top and milk-chocolate pants with a rich brown jacket, Terri in a black coat over a deep purple shirt and black pants.
Mac took their coats and hung them near the door before turning and offering a hug and kiss to both. “Wow, you two look divine.”
Terri stepped back and gave her the up-and-down eyeball treatment. “You’re looking mighty fine yourself, chick. I take it that’s Sarah’s car out the front.”
Mac tried to look cool. “Yes, she arrived earlier.” She could have gotten away with it, except for the silly grin she knew she had plastered on her face, but to Maree’s and Terri’s credit, they didn’t call her on it. “She’s in the kitchen, giving me a hand.”
Maree held up a cooler bag containing the wine. “How about I put these in the fridge?” They made their way into the kitchen where Maree and Terri said hello to Sarah. Terri walked to the stove, closed her eyes, and smelled the air appreciatively. “Smells unreal—except something’s missing.”
Everyone looked at Terri a bit confused. Terri waved Maree over for a smell. Maree leaned in and sniffed and looked at Terri with a serious face. Terri looked at Maree. “You noticed it too, didn’t you? Something’s definitely missing.”
“You could be right, babe.”
The suspense was too much for Mac. “What?”
Terri looked to Maree. “Should we tell her, love?”
Maree agreed with equal seriousness. “I think it’s only fair, we should.”
Mac looked from one to the other. “C’mon guys. There’s nothing missing. Is there?”
“Yup,” said Terri. “What’s missing is that burning smell. There’s no smoke.” Maree and Terri couldn’t hold it together any longer and burst out laughing.
“Oh, very funny, you two. Very funny. Ha-ha. Remind me why I invited you again. I’ve a good mind to just feed you bread and water and none of this delicious delicacy.”
Maree and Terri filled Sarah in on the joke, and pretty soon they were all laughing.
Mac grabbed the glasses from the bench top and filled them. She handed them out to the girls and topped up Sarah’s. Mac raised her glass to the group. “To good friends, a good meal, and a night off.”
To which Terri chimed in, “And no smoke!”
They all raised their glasses, clinked sides, and cried, “To no smoke.”
Mac sipped her wine. “Mm, that’s nice. How about you all move into the dining room and get yourselves comfy while I finish in the kitchen. Dinner’s about”—Mac looked to Sarah who held up a waggling hand, then ten fingers—“ten to fifteen minutes away.”
Maree led the way and each took a seat at the table. Maree and Terri sat opposite each other with Sarah sitting next to Terri. There was a platter of cheese and biscuits on the table. Maree lifted the lid and offered it to the other two. She looked at Sarah. “Have you been here long?”
Sarah shook her head. “Not long. I had a bit of time up my sleeve, so I took a chance and came a bit early to see if I could help. Mac was running a bit close to time, so I offered to put the rice on, and then you both turned up.” Sarah hoped that sounded convincing enough.
Terri was just spreading some cheese on a cracker. “Did Mac say what the dish was? It smells gorgeous.”
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t think to ask.”
Maree looked at Sarah. “How was Mac when you got here?”
Sarah looked at Maree for a minute. That was a strange question to ask. “All right, I guess. May I ask why?”
Maree looked at Terri as if to ask How much do I say?’ Terri nodded. “This is the first time in a while that Mac has had anyone over for dinner.”
Sarah looked to them both. “Oh?”
Maree continued. “Not long after we moved here, we met Mac when she came out to help put a fire out in one of the sheds at the refuge. Right away we all clicked and over the years we’ve spent a lot of time at each other’s homes. We would take turns cooking on weekends.”
Sarah smiled. “Mac can cook as well as all the other things she does?”
Terri shook her head. “Mac’s partner Tina did the cooking.”
Sarah could sense something else was coming. “Okay.”
“About twelve months after we got here, Tina died. She had an aneurysm, in the brain.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. It blew us all away for a good while, especially Mac.”
“I see.”
Maree reached out and held Sarah’s hand. Sarah looked into Maree’s face and was surprised to see a gentle warm smile. “So this is the first time she has had anyone around for a meal since then, and we were wondering how you thought she was doing?”
It all made sense now. That’s why they wanted to know how Mac was doing, and why they were so protective. As Sarah processed Mac’s loss, she also realized how much trust Maree and Terri were placing in her. She suddenly realized what a special honour the girls were affording her by taking her into their confidence. Sarah sipped her wine and digested this new information. She thought again about how Mac was when she arrived. “Well, she was a bit rattled about the cooking, but in good spirits within herself. The timing of things threw her a bit, but as I was a bit early, I offered to help with a few things. Basically, it was all pretty much all organized by the time I got here. And then you arrived not long after.” It was like both ladies were holding their breath as to how Mac was coping. But her answer seemed to have been the right one, as it looked like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders.
“Thanks for that, that’s super,” Terri said, grinning.
Maree held her glass aloft. “I’ll drink to that.” And the others joined in.
Sarah was aware of silence in the kitchen. “Will you excuse me a minute?” She got up and made her way into the kitchen where Mac was setting up a couple of trays. One had plates on it, and the other was bare except for a cloth. Mac had oven mittens on her hands.
“Hey, there. Need a hand?”
Mac looked up at the sound of Sarah’s voice. “Yes, please. Can you take those plates in for me? I’m just about to bring in the bowls.”
Sarah wandered around to the other side of the bench to collect the tray of warmed plates. Just before she picked the tray up, she leaned into Mac and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “I just want to say that this is the first night in ages that I’ve been out for dinner, anywhere. Thank you for inviting me. It’s made it a very special night for me.” Before Mac could say anything, Sarah picked up the tray and headed back out to the dining room.
Chapter Fifteen
Food, wine, and laughter flowed freely. When dinner itself finished, they took their wine glasses and retired to the lounge room where a cheerful fire was blazing in the fireplace. The girls quizzed Sarah why she’d wanted to be a doctor, and how she’d ended up in their regional neck of the woods, with Maree and Terri reciprocating by sharing how they met, their restaurant successes, and their change of lifestyle.
Sarah turned to Mac. “What about you? Why did you want to become a firefighter?”
Mac shrugged her shoulders. “When my family had the accident,
the firemen were great. Two of them sat with me and David throughout it all. What they did stayed with me for a very long time.”
Sarah nodded. “That makes sense.”
“One day, I saw a recruitment ad in the paper and I thought I’d try my hand at it. So I gave it a whirl and I found that I liked it.”
Maree leaned over and emptied the last of one of the bottles into Mac’s glass. Terri stood up. “I’ll get another bottle.”
Maree asked, “I’ve always wondered—are their many women in the fire brigade? You know, as a profession?”
“There’s not a lot, but the numbers are steadily increasing. It’s still predominantly a male-dominated industry, but we’re getting there.”
Sarah looked at Mac. “Have you ever had any problems, being female?”
Mac nodded. “Sometimes some of the equipment is a challenge to use, simply because it’s built for a man’s bigger body frame to operate, but it’s usually just a matter of thinking your way around the issue in order to make it work for you. And we work as a team, so what one person has trouble doing, someone else might be good at, and in return, you swap the favour when the roles are reversed.”
“Have the guys ever given you a hard time?”
Mac laughed. “There was one guy, when I first started out, who used to be a bit of a pig. He would leave condoms in my locker and constantly belittle me in front of the other men. He didn’t like having a woman in the unit and he didn’t bother to hide his disgust. He was never one for teamwork with any of us, not just me.”
Maree said, “You never told us this before. That sounds horrible. How’d you manage it?”
Mac shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. It made me work twice as hard to learn things and to use equipment. I wanted to lessen his reasons for ragging me all the time. But the best thing was, one day, we had a situation where he and I had to work lead together, getting a kid out of a drainpipe. I was the smallest, so it made sense to send me in, but he wouldn’t let me. He said because I was a girl I would get scared in the dark, and if there was a grate in the way I would be too weak to lift it out.”
Maree was getting visibly steamed. “What an arsehole! What happened?”
Mac chuckled. “I let him go in. He was too big, but he couldn’t see past his pigheadedness and insisted. He got stuck so tight trying to prove that he was right, and it cost the council a lot of extra money they didn’t need to spend on digging both him and the kid out. The chief never let him live it down and tore strips off him for being a pigheaded, irresponsible jerk. Not long after that, he transferred out and I’ve never had any issues since.”
They were all having a bit of a chuckle when Terri came back in, brandishing another bottle of wine. As she walked around topping everyone’s glasses up, she turned to Mac. “I have to say, Mac, you outdid yourself with dinner tonight. That was quite simply amazing.”
Mac smiled. “I’m glad you liked it.”
Everyone agreed it was superb.
Maree nodded. “The blend of spices was mind-blowing. What was in it?”
Mac smiled. “Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that. You know how it is.” Mac threw her a wink. “I can’t tell you all my secrets.”
Terri pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and waved it between her fingers in midair with an evil grin on her face. “That’s okay. I’ll just ring and ask Martha tomorrow how she made it.”
Mac had just taken a sip of wine and choked on it, coughing and spluttering, while Sarah reached over and patted her on the back. Terri was laughing at Mac’s expense, enjoying the moment of victory immensely.
Maree looked at the two of them. “What’s going on?”
Terri piped up, still waving the note, “I found this in the kitchen when I was looking for the corkscrew. It’s a note in Martha’s handwriting, telling Mac how to heat up dinner.”
Everyone looked at Mac, who had recovered from being found out as a fraud. She shrugged her shoulders with a cheeky grin on her face, raised her glass, and made a toast. “Here’s to outsourcing.”
With much laughter they all raised their glasses. “To Martha.”
They talked, shared stories, and laughed for another hour before Terri caught Maree yawning for the third time. “I think, my love, I had best take you home before you fall asleep on the couch.”
Maree nodded. “Hmm, probably a good idea. Between the fire and the wine, I’m starting to fade. We should help clean up first before we go.”
Mac shook her head. “Don’t worry about the dishes—they’ll take all of five minutes to clean up. You two head on home.”
Everyone stood up. Terri came over to Mac and wrapped her in the biggest hug. “Thank you so much for a fantastic night. I’ve missed this.”
Mac nodded. “Me too.”
Terri kissed her on the cheek. “Let’s do it again soon, huh?”
“I’d like that.”
Maree gave Sarah a hug, then kissed her on the cheek and said, “Thank you for helping make this night so special.”
Sarah hugged her back. “Thank you for letting me be a part of it.”
Maree kissed Mac. “Give our love to Martha, and tell her I want that recipe!”
Terri kissed and hugged Sarah, and then Mac walked them to the door while Sarah transported the dishes out to the kitchen.
Mac stood in the front doorway. “Thanks again for coming over. It was a really great night.”
“Thanks for having us. We had a great night too.” Maree’s hand went to Mac’s cheek. “I’m glad to see you so happy, babe. Sarah seems like a really lovely person.”
Mac nodded and smiled shyly. “She is, isn’t she?”
After another hug and kiss and a promise to drive home safely, Mac waved them off as they drove down the driveway. Having seen the taillights turn onto the main road, Mac closed the door behind her and made her way into the kitchen where Sarah was washing up.
“You don’t have to do that. I can do that later.”
“It’s the least I can do after such a lovely meal.”
Mac picked up the tea towel and started drying the dishes.
“So, who’s Martha?”
Mac smiled. “Martha works at the fire station. She’s in charge of running the office. The chief is the boss, but Martha…let’s just say, she’s unofficially in charge of most everything else.”
“Sort of like a mother hen?”
Mac chuckled. “Yeah, sort of. Being the only girl on staff, Martha took me under her wing a bit when I first started. She never had a daughter, and since my parents had moved states to go and live in Adelaide and work on a vineyard, I didn’t have any nearby family, so we each helped fill a space for one another.”
Sarah finished washing and turned to watch Mac wipe the last of the plates. “She sounds lovely.”
“She is. You’d like her. Everyone likes Martha. She’s a wonderful lady.” Mac finished wiping the dishes and was folding the towel. The silence in the room grew heavy.
Sarah took a step towards Mac, placing her hand over Mac’s restless ones to still the nervous folding. “Thank you for tonight. I don’t remember when I last had such a wonderful meal and such wonderful company. It’s been amazing.”
Mac looked down at their hands. She could feel her heart starting to hammer in her chest. “Thank you for coming. Tonight was pretty special for me too.”
Sarah’s thumb caressed the back of Mac’s hand. “Maree told me this was the first time you’ve had people over since Tina died.”
Mac nodded.
“Then that makes this evening doubly special, for you and for me. It’s an honour to be asked to be a part of that. Thank you for trusting me with that honour.”
Mac looked up into Sarah’s eyes. She could hear Martha’s voice in her head. Just talk to her, and see where it goes from there. “I don’t know why, but I feel comfortable with you, like I can trust you with anything. Even though when I’m with you, I feel like the world is turning upside down. I’ve never felt that way befor
e.” Mac shook her head. “I can’t explain it.”
Sarah smiled. “I know what you mean. I feel drawn to you. I look at you, and it’s like there’s something pulling me in. I want to know more.” Sarah shook her head. “No, it’s more than that, it’s like…a need.” Sarah’s hands slid up to Mac’s shoulders. As she stepped closer, Mac’s hands automatically found Sarah’s waist.
Mac’s voice thickened with the emotional tension. “It’s been a long time.”
Sarah’s hands framed Mac’s face. “For me too. We’ll take it slow. If you want me to stop, then just tell me. Okay?”
Mac nodded.
Sarah’s head dipped as she leaned in to kiss Mac’s lips. It started off as gentle, tentative probing. Sarah’s tongue darted out to lightly brush the top of Mac’s top lip, and she was rewarded with a groan from deep inside Mac.
Mac deepened the kiss as their bodies drew closer, locking tighter together. Sarah left Mac’s lips to travel down Mac’s throat, kissing and licking as she went. A whimper tore from Mac’s lips as she arched her neck to receive Sarah’s caresses. As if unable to resist or deny, Sarah returned to Mac’s mouth. Her voice was thick with desire. “Do you want me stop?”
Mac shook her head. She had lost the power of speech.
Sarah kissed her again. Mac’s hands, which had been circling Sarah’s waist, came up to caress Sarah’s sides. One hand dropped, finding the small of Sarah’s back, and continued to dip lower, pulling Sarah’s centre in tight against hers. Sarah broke the kiss. They were both panting. Sarah leaned up to nip Mac’s ear and she whispered, “Show me your bedroom, love.”
Soundlessly, Mac gripped Sarah’s hand, leading her to the bedroom, pulling up next to the bed to turn and face Sarah, whose eyes had darkened with the rising promise of more passion. They kissed again, hungrily exploring each other’s mouth.
Sarah again broke the kiss to run her fingers through the lengths of Mac’s dark hair. “We don’t have to do this, Mac, if you don’t want to.”
Mac closed her eyes. This was it. This was the moment, here, in Sarah’s arms, to let go of the last bastion of her past and to move forward. The intensity frightened her, but she also knew she wanted it more than anything else. Mac opened her eyes to meet Sarah’s. Her hands came up to hold Sarah’s face gently, reverently. She looked deep into Sarah’s eyes and whispered, “I want this. I need you, please.”
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