Page 111 of The Vet from Snowy River
‘Or rush out to the printing store at midnight because there’s no ink in the printer when you’ve got an assignment due at eight am.’
She sighed. ‘Good times, right?’
‘The best. But maybe we can have different good times from now on. You can live with me whenever you want, maybe bring some friends with you and we can do a little horseriding, a little hiking. Ski season would be fun.’
‘It’s a deal. But hey, um, if you don’t need me to rip any walls out in an act of angst solidarity with you, I thought I might go see a friend. There’s a banana-choc-chip muffin recipe we’re keen to try.’
‘Wait, you can cook?’
Poppy rolled her eyes.
‘That’ll be your mum’s gene pool. My role was providing the good looks and charm.’
‘Humility too, I see.’
He pulled the end of her braid. ‘Who’s this friend?’
‘Remember guinea pig boy?’
‘Kelly Fox’s son?’
‘Yep. Braydon’s kinda cute, and he likes baking. I texted him when I was back in town and he invited me over after school.’
‘Bakery dating. Who knew? You think it would be okay to take my girlfriend with you? Jane Doe could do with a walk.’
‘Sure thing. Oh, and Dad? I reckon Vera’s going to decide she wants you, so hang in there, okay?’
He pulled his mask back over his face and set to work knocking out the rest of the burned wall with his sledgehammer. Three days to finish the refit, he reckoned. Less, if he could persuade Graeme to lend him a hand with the cabinetry.
He bashed out a splintered joist. So Poppy thought there was still something cooking between him and Vera, did she? He’d kind of thought it too. And so had everyone else in the damn town thanks to the Hanrahan Chatter. Everybody except Vera herself, apparently.
He kept bashing until the sound was hurting his ears as much as his thoughts were hurting his head. He needed a walk. If Vera was done with him, it was time he accepted it and focused on what he’d really come back to Hanrahan for: creating a home for himself and for Poppy to visit, a successful animal practice with Hannah, and restoring the Cody building to a Federation showpiece in the heart of Hanrahan.
He shucked off his toolbelt, gathered up his jacket and headed out the door.
CHAPTER
35
A suitcase, a shoebox of papers, and six cardboard cartons. Was that really all her aunt had left behind after sixty plus years on the earth?
The old photo albums Vera already had, a gift from Jill when she’d first moved out of her small home and into the dementia ward at Acacia View. Jill had given her books, pottery, trinkets, beaded earrings from Mongolia, fringed leather purses from Argentina.
She dragged all the cartons into the lounge room, the ones she’d dug through and the sealed ones, so she could tip out everything at once. This was a job she would put off no longer.
She should be ringing Graeme, too, and letting him know she was ready to reopen the café. To prep food, place an advert in the local paper announcing the summer menu, order more crockery and tableware.
Call Josh and apologise.
The look of hurt on his face earlier even as he was being kind enough to urge her to go indoors out of the rain, even when he’d seen that she’d not been honest with him, was searing her conscience like a third-degree burn.
Trust bloody Aaron to turn up just when she was about to tell Josh she didn’t want him to stop wanting her.
She closed her eyes. She’d made such a bumbling mess of everything. She needed a good night’s sleep and a clear head, and then she was going to make everything right. At least, she was going to try. But first, she was going to wallow in memory lane for a little while and unpack her aunt’s favourite things.
She grabbed a knife from the block in the kitchen and slit through the tape holding closed the mementoes from her aunt’s life. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, she just knew she needed to find it.
Clothes were in the first and second boxes. She folded them into piles on the sofa. The retro second-hand store in town might be interested in Jill’s paisley shirts and henna-dyed bandanas. Next came books, both fiction and reference, well read and dog eared.Life in the Cosmos, Mood Therapy, DIY plumbing… She’d keep some, ditch the others.
