Page 125 of The Vet from Snowy River
He was a sunny, warm, joyous choice, and it was her turn now to open herself up to him and let him decide if he wanted to stick.
She’d made her decision. Court case or no, she loved him and if he was willing to ride out the rough track ahead by her side, she should stop trying to push him away.
She didn’t need to know all the answers anymore and—she took a deep breath—the relief of knowing that was enormous.
Josh’s resolute insistence on caring for her, despite her attempts to keep him at arm’s-length, had given her faith that shecouldtrust in a happier future.
Daisy and her kittens, for instance … if she had to go to prison and the cats needed a foster home, she could worry about finding one then.
She reached for the pot of tea she’d made and poured herself a cup. Another hour of quilting while she daydreamed about kittens and new beginnings, then she’d better think about work. There were cakes to be made, ganache to be whipped, perhaps a new risotto recipe to try … and a kind man to reclaim as her own.
The knock on her door surprised her into slicing Jill’s ancient fabric scissors through the full thickness of the quilt and about half an inch into the flesh of her palm.
‘Ouch!’
Bloody hell. Now there’d be two wonky bits in her quilt. She wrapped a fabric scrap around her hand to staunch the bleeding and was halfway to the door before she realised the buzzer to the street door hadn’t sounded. So much for security. No doubt Mrs Butler on the ground floor was out of vanilla extract again. Or maybe it was Josh, come to give her an update on those tiny kittens (unlikely), or come to forgive her for being the world’s greatest fool (unlikelier still).
She glanced down. Her bathrobe was as modest as a nun’s habit, only fluffier and more pink, and nothing Mrs Butler or Josh hadn’t seen before.
She cracked the door open a few inches and found herself face to face with her nemesis, Aaron Finch.
‘How did you get in here? How did you find out where—’ she gasped. No matter. She didn’t need to know, she just needed him gone. She started to close the door but he held his hand up and forced it open.
‘I’ve had just about enough of you shutting doors in my face, Vera De Rossi.’
CHAPTER
40
‘This information was gold. Your girlfriend knows her stuff, Josh. Sorry I’ve been out of town or I could have acted on this sooner.’
Josh didn’t care about a couple of days’ delay. What he did care about was the pissed-off feeling churning in his gut. ‘She’s given me the brush-off about a dozen times now, Sergeant. Vera is not my girlfriend.’
He could feel Hannah’s eyeroll from beside him. It was too early in Josh’s morning for sarcasm,andhe hadn’t had a coffee,andhe was feeling pretty darn ticked off with just about the whole world.
Meg didn’t care. ‘Whatever. She’s given us a motive so tight all I need to do is type it up and hand it in to secure a search warrant. She ever needs a break from grilling prosciutto and baking figs, you tell her she’s got a job waiting in law enforcement.’
‘I don’t think her opinion of the law’s too high at present.’
‘Yeah, I heard about that. Anything I can do to make a difference, I’ll do it.’
Josh turned the words over in his mind. Every offer of help or support had been brushed aside. Vera was determined to see her troubles through alone.
Hannah spoke up beside him. ‘You really think this persecution of our business is going to stop, Meg?’
‘I really do. As soon as the courts open, I’ll be applying to Judge Bamfrey for a search warrant. My constable’s heading in to Cooma for a ten o’clock meet with Pamela Hogan, which I’ll be joining once I have the search warrant in my hands. Her house, her car, her records. Every damn thing she owns, we’ll be going through looking for evidence she knew about the fire in your building before it started. If she’s involved and we find evidence, we’ll charge her.’
‘You might not find anything.’
‘If she’s involved and we don’t find evidence?’ The cop smirked. ‘Yeah, we’ll be putting the wind up her so high she’ll be thinking twice about pulling any more stunts.’
‘I hope you find something,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m not sure how much more of this we can take.’
Josh rested his hand on his sister’s back.
‘Oh, and here’s a little something Barry O’Malley gave me when I stopped by his office last night when I got back to town,’ said Meg.
Josh eyed the official yellow envelope she handed him. ‘Crap. Not another one.’
