Page 56 of The Vet from Snowy River
‘We could have lasagne for our last meal together at the café? Vera makes the best lasagne.’
He hesitated. After Vera blocked out his date request on Saturday, he was wondering if a little space might be a wise choice. She’d been upset and pretty keen to distance herself from him, and he still hadn’t figured out why.
‘But pizza’s my favourite,’ he said with his best fake sad face.
Poppy stroked the belly of the yellow pup who still lay across her lap, and it splayed contentedly under her hand. She looked up at him and pursed her lips. ‘Did you have a fight with my boss, Dad?’
‘No.’ He reached into the pen and flicked his daughter on the ankle. ‘I don’t fight with anyone. Mr Calm and Cool, that’s me.’
‘You had a fight with Mrs Fox right next door in your office.’
He sighed. ‘You got me there. But no, we didn’t have a fight. If you must know, I asked her out on Saturday night, and she said no.’
She nodded her head. ‘That’s what Kev said.’
He inspected his daughter’s face. ‘You and Kev were talking about me and Vera? I thought you were paid to wash dishes, not gossip with the customers.’
She shrugged. ‘Kev said he bet you’d asked Vera out, and I said no way, gross, my dad never goes out with anyone, he’s, like, overthirty,and Kev said he was nobody’s fool and he could smell April and May when it was carrying on right there in front of him, and I said what does April and May mean, and he said, it means your dad’s got the hots for the café lady.’
Josh laughed, he couldn’t help it. ‘That’s quite an analysis.’
‘So.’ Poppy cleared her throat. ‘Do you really have the hots for Vera?’
He groaned. ‘Are we really having this conversation?’
‘Only, I wouldn’t mind. Just in case you were wondering if I did.’
‘Poppy. You’re the centre of my world, you know that right?’
‘Sure I do, only, you’d better cover Jane Doe’s ears next time you say that. But I’m going any minute now, and then I might not be here again for ages.’
‘I know.’
‘What I’m trying to say, Dad, if you’d stop interrupting me, is … maybe you should ask her out again.’
Yeah. Maybe he should.
Hannah had beaten him to the beer. She handed him an open one as he walked into the office and snicked the top off another for herself.
‘Cheers,’ he said, clinking the glass neck of his bottle to hers.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘What did our man Barry have to say?’
‘Nothing helpful. I showed him our file, suggested the concerned citizen who was lodging all the complaints must have an ulterior motive, but I couldn’t work out what.’
‘Did he agree to that?’
‘Well, he spoke at me like a politician for a while, so he could have been agreeing with me, but it was hard to tell.’
Hannah drummed her fingers on the table. ‘You think that’s the end of it?’
‘We’ve dealt with both complaints to his satisfaction—he’s going to send that to me in writing. So we have no reason to think our business licence won’t be renewed.’
‘Okay. And if we get any other council problems, we’ll have to jump on it straight away.’
‘Agreed.’
He swigged down the last of his beer and lobbed the bottle into the rubbish bin. ‘You know, Hannah, I’m getting the feeling that there’s more to you being all quiet and cranky than this complaints business.’ He leaned forward and covered her hand with his. ‘You want to tell me what’s going on? You want me to speak to Tom Krauss about something?’
