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‘What?’

‘Before you met Poppy, she and I had been going through a rough patch. Not for a week or two, but for months.’

‘Oh. She said a little bit, but I hadn’t gathered it had been a big deal.’

‘The eyebrow piercing? All that goth makeup she wore when she first arrived? That all started when I told her I was thinking about moving back to Hanrahan.’

‘Poppy adores you, Josh. It’s plain to see.’

He grinned. ‘Sometimes. But for a long time, all I was getting from Poppy was the don’t-speak-to-me cold face. You know when that changed?’

She shrugged.

‘The night you offered her a job in your café.’

‘It was just a job. I don’t know how that—’

‘Vera, it was not just a job. It was community you offered her. With you and Graeme, the locals popping in and out, her listening to the gossip, pinning up the garage sale notices on the display board, being part of things … you were the one who made my dream for Poppy begin to come true. I wanted her to understand why Hanrahan was important to me, andyouwere the one who kickstarted that process.’

Was she?

Josh reached a hand over and squeezed hers. ‘Seriously, Vera, if you can wrangle a stroppy fifteen-year-old into doing six am shifts at your café, one knocked-up cat is going to be a breeze.’

Josh’s hand on hers was doing fluttery things to her composure, as were his words. It was true, now that she thought about it. Poppy had seemed happier with every passing day. The eyeliner had grown less thick, the clothes less skimpy, and she’d bought a cute little fifties-style dress from the retro store on Dandaloo Drive that had even made her ridiculous black boots look charming.

She eased her hand from Josh’s. She had a lot to think about, and her brain wasn’t at its best with Josh in such close proximity.

‘Er … how’s she doing back in Sydney?’ she said.

‘Good, I think. She’s even talking about coming up for a weekend in the middle of term if she can persuade her mum to let her ditch the Friday swimming carnival.’

‘That’d be so nice,’ she said breathlessly. Man, oh man, she had to get out of this tiny room. ‘I’ll fill the water bowl,’ she said in a rush, squatting so she could reach the fish-shaped dish she’d purchased from the retro store. Big mistake. Now her libido was getting an eyeful of all that well-filled denim.

She stood up as close to the sink as she could get and splashed water in the bowl, wished she could splash a bit of it over her face while she was at it.

Josh opened the door of the crate. ‘Well, old girl? What do you think of your new home?’

Vera looked inside the crate. Two cross-looking eyes scowled out at her. ‘She looked happier in the alley eating three-day-old salmon spines.’

‘Let’s leave her to get settled. Now, about that hike.’ Josh eased a hip against her laundry tub, clearly not finding the confines of the space a problem at all. ‘How okay are you with a last-minute change of plan?’

Oh boy. She edged backwards to the open door. She’d be okay with anything so long as it got her out of the close confines of this laundry. ‘Fine. Whatever. Let’s go.’

CHAPTER

19

‘Horseriding?’

Vera’s voice cracked on the last syllable, and she tried again. ‘Josh, I know I said whatever, but the thing is, I can’t ride a horse.’

He glanced over at her, took his hand off the wheel to shift gears. ‘Nothing to it. Ironbark Station does trail rides and farm stays over the summer season, so they’ve plenty of horses that are used to beginners.’

Crap.

His hand reached over and gave hers a squeeze, before she pulled her hand away and tucked it under her leg.

‘It’ll be fun. Trust me.’