Page 94 of The Vet from Snowy River
She lifted her face to the night. Cool, a hint of rain, and everything silent but for the hum from a streetlamp, and Jane Doe’s snuffling as she lay at Josh’s feet. Her busy day ahead seemed distant, like chores waiting for some other person. Not her. Not the Vera standing here in the moonlight with a thoughtful, handsome man by her side.
All the jobs she had lined up, the worries she had to shoulder … perhaps now, in the quiet of this November evening,wasthe time to be honest. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘Pizza three hours ago. What did you have in mind?’
‘I could rustle up a slice of cake, if you like. Maybe we could talk if you’re not too tired.’
Josh reached down and found her hand. ‘I’m very partial to cake.’
She felt the warmth of his hand seep into the chill of hers. God help her, she was very partial to him.
‘So where have you been these last couple of days to not hear about the arsonist?’
‘I had to go to Queanbeyan.’
‘Queanbeyan? Was this something to do with the old life you’re trying to leave behind?’
She snorted. ‘Trying is the right word. Turns out, my old life is gripping on to me tooth and nail. It’s been a shattering couple of days, truth be told.’
They left the park behind them as they wandered to the north end of Dandaloo Drive, past the cinema and the retro store.
‘Mind if we detour on the way? I’ll drop Jane back to her pups.’
‘Sure.’ She was enjoying the walk. Her thoughts had been a scramble all day, but trudging along, with the world all quiet around them, was soothing her. She was in no hurry to stop wandering.
She stood on the footpath under the wrought-iron railings of the majestic old pub while Josh took the dog inside, and then he was back, and somehow her hand was in his again. The moon was on the wane, and low enough in the sky to throw a shimmer of moonlight across the blackness of the lake.
Josh cocked his head. ‘Want to take the scenic route? We can walk along the lakefront and cut back to Cuddy Street up there by the dock.’
She nodded. ‘I’d like that.’
Gravel crunched under their feet as they picked their way along the foreshore, and now and then a fish plopped, sending ripples through the dark water.
‘We grew up around this lake,’ Josh said.
‘You and Hannah?’
‘Oh, there was a great crew of us. Most have left the area. Unless your interests lie in tourism or farming, the jobs can be few and far between out here for youngsters. A handful are still around. Kylie, that’s Hannah’s bestie, and a few others that pop in from time to time.’
‘It seems an idyllic place to grow up.’
He grinned. ‘Skinny-dipping at midnight on summer nights. Bonfires, camping over the far side of the lake in the national park. Tom used to ride to school on a horse, some days.’
‘Okay, the horse part doesn’t sound quite so idyllic.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘They grow on you, trust me.’
His words played on her mind as she stepped over an old log.Trust me. Aaron had flung phrases like that around like they were ping-pong balls: lightweight little bits of plastic that he’d bought in a two-dollar shop and valued not at all. Could two men be any different?
When Josh saidtrust me,it mattered.
‘When I was at the clinic with the cat,’ she began, ‘your sister mentioned something about trouble with council. I wasn’t really paying attention … then, or when you asked me for help.’
‘Some time ago, we had an offer for our building, sent via a lawyer. It was a sizeable chunk of money. The block has views of the lake from some of the upstairs windows, and two street frontages, a yard out back. We said no.’
‘And that wasn’t the end of it?’
‘The lawyer pestered Hannah for weeks—this all happened before I moved here. But Hannah kept saying no, and the lawyer kept making offers. We’d never sell it. Not only because it’s where the clinic is, and Hannah’s spent every cent of her business profits kitting out the ground floor to be a modern surgery. But that building is a family heirloom. The Codys have owned it and run a business out of it since Hanrahan was a gold rush town in the 1880s. We’d never part with it.’
