Page List

Font Size:

Her aunt was in a coma, and she was about to drive two hundred clicks to face a magistrate. Her travel bag was packed for a two-night stay, she had a boot full of indexed facts and figures and affidavits, and all she could think about was the guy sitting in the second stool from the end at her café counter.

She needed a clear head, and she wasn’t going to get one before she’d explained why she’d blown so cold after blowing so hot the day he was kind enough to take her for a horseride.

She could make it brisk. Impersonal. Just stride out there to her front counter and say it.So, Josh, yeah. I’m facing a criminal chargeand I’m about to drive to Queanbeyan and I may go to prison. Rescue the cat, will you, if I’m not back by Friday? Mrs Butler on the ground floor has a key.

God, no.Josh, you’ve been kissing a jailbird. Thanks for the memories. Nope. That sounded like a country and western song no-one wanted to hear.

She could always try the truth. She whispered the words to the refrigerator in a test run. ‘I’m a fool, Josh, and the last guy I was involved with took something from me when he betrayed my trust and started this whole chain of disasters that’s ended up with me shelling out a fortune in legal fees to stay out of prison. He took the part of me that could be with someone. He took my faith in humanity. And I don’t know if I’ll ever get that back. Even for a guy with kind eyes and a kiss factor that’s off the freaking charts.’

Vera rested her head against the fridge, wishing the cold sheet of stainless steel could work its way inside her thoughts and chill them down, too.

That was the problem. Well, one of them.

Since those kind eyes had started looking in her direction … since she’d felt the brand of that kiss showing her a future she might have had if not for all the shitstorm brewing about her …

Her thoughts couldn’t settle. When she closed her eyes, Josh was there. Usually undressed, and there was a part of her that kept wondering would it hurt to sample just a teensy tiny bite of what he had to offer?

She might not have a future, but she had a now, didn’t she?

Josh deserved a future that she couldn’t give him, but damn it, she’d tried being noble and look where it had got her.

The lonely voice inside her head kept workshopping scenarios in which it would be okay for her to be with Josh … to have him march on into the kitchen and haul her up against all that manly hotness like she was a souffle and he was her own personal white-hot ceramic dish.

Just for a bit.

Just until the preliminary hearing pinched away at all that was left of her.

Maybe she could invite Josh over for a drink. He’d probably say no … she’d given him plenty of reasons to put her in the high-maintenance-blows-hot-and-cold basket, but …

‘Don’t say no,’ she murmured into the silent cool of the fridge door.

‘Vera? Are you okay?’

Perfect. It would have to be the town’s self-appointed do-gooder, sticking her nose through the kitchen doors just while she was talking to herself about seducing the town vet. To the refrigerator. She was genuinely losing her marbles. Maybe it wasn’t too late to text her lawyer and throw in an insanity plea.

She hauled open the fridge door and started clanking bottles of sauce around. She was a busy cook, not a loser who’d … well, lost it.

‘Marigold. You need something?’

‘Not sure, but Graeme and Josh just ran out of here and Graeme asked me to let you know. They can smell smoke. I’m heading out to see what’s up, and—’ Marigold broke off. ‘Can you hear a siren?’

Vera reached up and killed the switch to the industrial exhaust rigged up over the grill, and into the silence fell the unmistakable noise of sirens. ‘They sound close. I’m coming. Let’s see what’s going on.’

The diners lingering over dessert were lined up at the window, and even the crafters had put aside their projects to wander out. Before Vera and Marigold could reach the front door, it flicked open, bringing with it a waft of smoke smell and Kev Jones.

His eyes met Vera’s. ‘Honey, it’s the vet clinic on fire.’

‘What?’ The clinic! And Josh and Graeme had gone down there! With two sharp claps she silenced the rising din. ‘Everyone! Please, the café is going to shut. You can pay next time you’re in if you haven’t paid already.’

Marigold was by her side, and she grasped the woman’s arm. ‘Can you see the craft group safely to their cars? I have to go. I don’t know if—’

She stopped there. She didn’t know anything. She just knew she needed to go find out.

‘Leave it to me. You got spare keys? I’ll lock up when I’m done.’

‘Marigold, thank you.’

‘Well now. This is the first time you’ve leaned on me, Vera, and I’m pleased I can help. I reckon you’re thinking like a local now.’