Page 126 of The Vet from Snowy River
Meg smiled. ‘Open it before you start bitching, Cody.’
He slid his finger under the seal and a thick, embossed page fell out.
‘Is that—’
‘Our business licence renewal?’
He looked up at the sergeant, who was smiling at him like she’d just abolished global warming.
‘Yep. Now look at the second page.’
He flipped the business licence over and found a letter, addressed to him and Hannah, on gilt-edged council letterhead. The most important word was in bold type, smack bang in the middle of the first line: APPROVED.
Holy shit, his building permit had come through.
‘Barry asked me to let you know how much he enjoyed reading last week’s edition of the Hanrahan Chatter. Seems that article about the Cody commitment to remembering the town’s gold rush history struck a chord with him.’
‘Well, hell,’ said Hannah, reading the approval letter over his shoulder. ‘Maureen came through! You think that’s what got the permit approved? A bit of publicity? I wonder if Sandy kept a copy for us.’
Meg shrugged. ‘He also asked me to extend his apologies for all the complaints you’ve had to respond to in the last few months. There was some other stuff he said, like junior officials not having more sense than a blue-arsed fly, and he hoped this wouldn’t get in the way of the Cody family supporting his next election, yada yada.’
Josh shook his head. ‘You are the best, Meg.’
She got to her feet. ‘Much as I’d love to agree with you, in this case, Vera was the best. I’m not saying we wouldn’t have found the link between Pamela Hogan and the neighbouring building, but we sure wouldn’t have been on to it this swiftly.’
A squawk burst out of the radio the sergeant wore clipped to her jacket. ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘Duty calls.’
‘Dispatch? Sergeant King.’
The voice through the radio was loud enough to fill the room. ‘There’s a snarl-up on the Crackenback Road, Meg. Two cars and a ute that’s rolled, spilling a ton of lucerne. No serious injuries reported, but we’ve called an ambulance as a precaution.’
‘I’ll take it. Send another car to meet me there.’
Meg gave them both a nod. ‘Duty calls, team. I’ll let you know how we get on with that warrant.’
Josh became aware of Hannah giving him the hairy eyeball when she snapped him on the arm with a disposable rubber glove.
‘Earth to Josh.’
‘What?’
‘You’re brooding,’ she said. ‘My new pot plant’s going to start wilting if you don’t get that glower off your face. Just go see her already.’
He dropped his head into his hands and pulled on a tuft of hair just to remind himself there were other things that hurt besides this empty hole in his chest. ‘I want to and I don’t want to all at the same time, Han. It’s messing with my head.’
‘The mighty Josh Cody, not sure if his chick magnet status has lost its allure. How happy am I to see this day.’
He knew she was joking. His sister would crawl over broken glass for him in a heartbeat … but still, the words stung. Had he started flirting with Vera just assuming his usual brand of charm would win her over?
He was sure he hadn’t.
In fact, he was pretty darned sure he’d lost his head so fast, he’d fumbled every attempt to be the wannabe charming suitor.
A paperclip, or two, smacked him on the cheek.
‘I think my heart’s broken, Hannah.’
His sister stopped tossing paperclips at him and dropped to her feet from the desk she’d been perched on. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tucked her face into his neck.
