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He’d thought they’d found something together, but he’d been wrong. She hadn’t really shared herself with him at all; she hadn’t trusted him with the news her ex-boss was also her ex-boyfriend, or believed him when he tried to say her court case, win or lose, was not a dealbreaker for him.

The truth was what it was, and he’d pushed through his own truth with hard work and bloody determination. He’d have helped Vera push through hers if she’d have let him.

Instead, she’d pushed him away at every damn opportunity, kept throwing her shame up as an excuse. She just didn’t get it.

‘Josh?’

He looked down at Hannah.

‘What’s up? You’re looking pensive.’

He sighed. ‘Soz, I was wool-gathering. I’m going to run over to Graeme’s place and pick up the waiting room chairs. You want to start sorting the desk?’

She pursed her lips. ‘You trying to flick all the paperwork at me?’

‘Is it working?’

‘I guess. Bring me back a full-fat, sugary treat, will you? I want to try out your calorie theory.’

‘Sure thing.’

A knock sounded at the temporary door of the clinic he’d installed while he waited on the planning permit decision for the building’s exterior. He reached for the handle to open it, and there she was: Vera. He blinked, and wondered if he’d conjured her up with his thoughts until he noticed the box full of paperwork she held.

‘Can I come in?’

‘I was just—’

Hannah cut him off. ‘Vera, hey. Of course you can come in. How’s that cranky grey beast of yours going? Might be time to bring her in for a check-up, she must be due soon.’

‘Daisy.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Her name’s Daisy. Turns out, I have a bit of a thing for mountain wildflowers. I’ve named her after the snow daisies that grow on the foreshore,’ Vera said, but even though she was answering Hannah’s question, her eyes didn’t waver from his.

He sighed. He could take a minute, he supposed, even if she had mushed his heart into pulp. He stepped back so she could move past him into the room.

She’d vowed to herself she’d never make a dumb choice again, because dumb choices ended in a swagload of grief. Her sure-fire, no-complication, one hundred per cent chance of succeeding had all revolved around one strategy: being alone.

A lone wolf, in an apron, with baking trays for company and a batch of chocolate rum ganache whenever the itch for a little sin needed to be scratched.

Her madcap café idea had been her first mistake. How does a wolf stay alone when half the darn town keeps popping in for chats and knitting bees and whatever else all those happy laughing people did at her scrubbed tables?

She’d needed the profit, so she’d needed customers. She just hadn’t figured in how community-minded the customers of Hanrahan would be.

Staring into Josh’s clear gaze as he held open the door of the vet clinic reminded her of what the other smack-in-the-head fault in her lone-wolf plan had been.

Him. And the coal-hot feelings he stirred up in her.

Josh Cody had made her realise that living aloof and alone might be safe, but it wasn’t living.

Shewasn’t living.

She’d blown it, she knew that the second Aaron Finch turned up in the cemetery and started spouting his crap about ‘us’ and ‘Vera honey’. She’d not been open with Josh, even after she’d assured him she’d told him the worst of it.

She’d been too … ashamed. Finding out she was such a poor judge of character to the point that her own boyfriend sacked her had made her feel so, so small. Admitting that would have taken a piece out of her that she hadn’t thought she could spare.

She couldn’t make up for not being open with Josh, but she could help him and his sister dig into the spate of harassment they’d been subjected to.