Page 20 of The Dairy Farmer's Daughter

"Wow, good job!"

In the end they only had two answers wrong, but still beat everyone else.

"What do we win?" he asked Freya.

"A meat tray." She laughed. "Just what you always wanted."

The publican carried over a huge tray full of sausages, steak and mince and laid it on the table.

"Barbeque at our place tomorrow?" Mark suggested.

"I hope that means the men are cooking." Greer crossed her arms but smiled good-naturedly.

Freya wrapped herself around Justin's arm. "It'll be fun."

"You're intent on keeping me up here, aren’t you?”

"Is it working?" She fluttered her eyelashes.

How the hell was he supposed to resist when Freya looked at him like that? He had one hundred things he should have been doing back in Brisbane, but none of them appealed as much as being here with Freya. "I guess I could start packing up Boyd's things and go home Sunday."

"Yay." She kissed him ever so briefly on the lips and gazed into his eyes. "I'm not ready to let you go just yet."

CHAPTER 7

Justin awoke to the distant mooing of cows and light shimmering into the room through the sheer old curtains. He had slept longer than he'd expected and felt refreshed and ready to face the day. Perhaps it was the clear Hinterland air. Whatever it was, he couldn't remember waking up feeling so good in a long time. If ever.

He climbed out of bed and practically skipped towards the kitchen, where he prepared himself a cup of coffee and a bowl of muesli before sitting out on the porch to eat his breakfast and watch the farm fully awaken.

He thought back on the night before, the people he had met and their seemingly easy way of life. Things up here seemed so much more relaxed and less chaotic than in the city. There was less pollution, less traffic, less noise, and less people.

How he would go back to his life now where he was always surrounded by strangers. He didn't even know the other residents in his apartment complex—everyone kept to themselves and minded their own business.

Here, everyone knew everyone and was always willing to lend a hand.

His father was still a mystery—however, his life made more sense now. This area was the only place he had ever lived. It had been his life even when his family had left.

Justin resolved to start sorting through boxes that weekend and see if he could find out anything more about the man who might as well have been a stranger. Perhaps answers to some mysteries would be uncovered. Perhaps he would just be left with more questions.

He finished off his cereal and coffee, cleaned up the dishes, then headed to the bathroom where he showered and dressed in more of his father's clothes.

He then opened the wooden doors of his father's closet, deciding it was as good a place as any to start. His father had been surprisingly tidy and didn't seem to own much of value.

Justin decided that if he put in a few long hours he could easily have the job over and done with by the end of the weekend.

When he heard the sound of a car pull up on the gravel driveway, Justin stood and stretched. His morning sorting things hadn't uncovered anything he hadn't already known about his father.

Walking towards the front door, he hoped that like yesterday, Freya had decided to call in unannounced.

She had said last night she wasn't ready to let him go, and he realised he felt the same way. That was why it was so easy for him to stay in Maleny. Because she was here. Because she made him want more.

Opening the sliding door, he poked his head out and was surprised to see his half-sister. The teenager climbed out of herfiery-red hatchback and threw him a wide smile. She shut the door behind her and jogged up the short path to him.

"Felicity? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to come and see what you'd inherited. Plus, I thought you might want a change of clothes."

Justin and his brother and sister all had spare keys to each other's houses in case of emergencies. Felicity often turned up, unannounced, to crash on his couch when she needed a break from their parents.

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