Page 22 of Wings Above the Mallee

Sean’s usually cheerful expression darkened a shade. ‘No, Charlee’s back off to uni in a couple of days. At least, I think she is. Hard to tell with kids, isn’t it?’

‘And the well-spoken young man, Ethan? He’s Charlee’s boyfriend?’

It intrigued Amelia that of all the judgemental descriptors she could have applied to the tattooed, slightly menacing-looking guy, ‘well-spoken’ was Lynn’s choice. Yet she was right: Ethan had made his point clearly and persuasively, and, somehow, without him shoving it down their throats, the Regional Action Group had unanimously moved that investigating the possibility of a skatepark was to be their first order of business.

‘Seems that way,’ Sean said.

‘Well, he’s going to have to visit regularly—with Charlee—to get this skatepark business underway,’ Lynn said happily. ‘It’s always nice to get some more young ones in town, and it’s wonderful that he wants to be so involved.’

Sean placed a hand in the small of Amelia’s back. ‘Of course, now we have Amelia, too.’

Another time, another place, the gesture might have felt all kinds of wrong, but for some reason, Amelia was instantly at ease, her slight tension ebbing as she was included in the conversation. ‘I’m only here for a short time,’ she reminded him.

‘Oh, no, don’t say that, lovey.’ Frown lines appeared above Lynn’s enhanced eyebrows. ‘This town will get to you. There’s nowhere better to be.’

‘We’ll see,’ Amelia said slowly. Bookending her thoughts about hanging around longer for Gavin’s sake, the inundation of requests seemed almost … prophetic. It had been three years. When did she stop running?

‘Forget the coffee, Dad.’ Heath’s voice startled Amelia. He stood slightly behind her. Glowering.

‘Sorry for holding up the queue,’ she said, deliberately bright in the face of his perpetual irritability, although she crossed her arms, grasping her elbows tightly.

‘Not your fault,’ he said tightly. ‘Dad will talk the leg off a chair. In any case, coffee this late will keep me awake all night.’

‘And that’d be something different?’ Sean said, his tone odd, almost sympathetic.

Heath dismissed his father’s concern with a shake of his head. ‘I was thinking, Amelia, if the lamb—Karmaa, you said?—is causing you problems at work, why don’t you give him some company?’

‘Company?’ she said warily, surprised he’d remembered the animal’s name.

Heath shot her a droll look, then glanced across to where Gavin and Hannah watched them with interest. ‘You don’t have him under the table here, do you?’ She shook her head.‘Instead of losing your job over him, why not take on another lamb? One of the ewes threw twins this afternoon. You said that Dorpers aren’t good at mothering two, right, Dad?’

Sean raised his eyebrows. ‘I did say that. Didn’t think you’d actually listened to me, though.’

‘So you’ll probably end up needing to bottle-raise one. There’s no point you tackling that if Amelia’s prepared to foster the second one along with Karmaa. We could spring for the milk powder for both.’ Heath turned back to her. ‘I checked it out online, and that stuff is expensive. So we kind of saddled you with something that I guess you haven’t budgeted for.’

He was worried about the cost to her? But, more importantly, did he mean Karmaa was only with her on a foster basis? Because he could bloody well think again. She’d take the lamb with her even if she had to stow it in the back of the Jabby, nappies and all.

Amelia shook her head. ‘Roni Krueger recommends using full cream cow’s milk to raise lambs, enriched with powdered milk so it’s closer in fat content to sheep milk. She put me on to a dairy that sells unpasteurised milk direct, so it doesn’t work out too expensive.’ Not that the cost would have entered into her decision to save the lamb.

‘Ah. Okay. Like I said, sheep aren’t my thing.’

Sean chuckled. ‘Insert a Kiwi joke there.’

‘Or not.’ Heath rolled his eyes as though his father’s humour was exhausting. ‘Anyway, if you have a pair of lambs, they’ll keep each other company. You’ll be able to duck home every few hours to feed them. And keep your job. Stay in Settlers Bridge a bit longer.’ He gave a grin that momentarily vanquished his morose attitude. ‘Maybe get that dog.’

‘Oh, what a fab idea,’ Lynn gushed, seeming to think she was included in the conversation that was holding upeveryone’s dinner. ‘There, that’s all sorted then, lovey. You’ll have to hang around for a while.’

Amelia wanted to refuse, wanted to take the coward’s way out and run far from here, where the locals seemed determined to include her in their lives. But if the lambs needed her, how could she deny them? ‘Yeah. Okay, that sounds like a plan,’ she said reluctantly. ‘For a while.’

Heath nodded decisively, curt again. ‘I figured it’d appeal to that maternal streak.’

He may as well have slapped her across the face.

‘So what do you fancy, lovey?’ Lynn said, belatedly noticing the queue. ‘Oh, are you all right? You’ve gone white as a pav.’

Sean caught her elbow. ‘Steady up, there.’

Amelia shook him off, angry with herself for exposing a reaction that could lead to questions. ‘I’m fine. A beef parmi, chicken schnitzel with mushroom gravy, and a surf ’n’ turf, please.’

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