Page 58 of A Home Among the Snow Gums
She stood up. ‘That’s where you’re wrong, Charlie. I’m not a joke. And I’m not that sweet. I don’t give a shit if your wife never talks to you again, but good on her for making you suffer.’
She held it together for as long as it took her to get out of the cellar bar, out of the winery and over to Tom’s car, then she sank to the gutter, where an icy wind shivered through brittle red leaves, turned her face to the dust-spattered tyre and cried.
CHAPTER
19
Two hundred and seven silent kilometres later—silent other than the choked sobs and shuddering shoulders in his passenger seat, which hurt worse than the steel shard giving him grief in his lower back—Tom slid his four-wheel drive into the shed out back of the homestead at Ironbark and switched off the ignition.
The tick of the cooling engine marked the time.
Hannah.
Bloody hell, she was walking a tightrope and who was there to catch her when she fell? Josh, of course, but Josh was planning a wedding and so loved up it was like he was living in a rainbow these days.
No, Hannah had hooked into Tom for her plan and he needed to tell her—straight out—that he was the one person she shouldn’t have chosen, not least because he loved her. But because he was damaged goods. He’d be the last man to be saying yes to such a dumbarse proposal as she had made.
What a mess of a day. Finding Hannah in the gutter, sobbing into his tyre, persuading her to get into the car, then her refusal to talk it over for their two-hour trip, followed by her running up into her apartment and slamming her door in his face.
And the long drive twice in one day had his back aching like a goanna had just ripped him open and left him by the roadside to die. He leant over, groaning just a little, and flicked open the glove box. Painkillers, hallelujah. He popped a couple out of the blister pack and got them down without the aid of water.
Practice made perfect.
Now he needed a heat pack and a long, unmoving eight hours stretched out on the flattest surface he could find. How the mighty had fallen.
Lights flickered in the small stables as he limped from garage to house, and he paused. Buttercup was down there. She ought to be tucked up in the dark, snoozing the night away in her snug stall. So much for a heat pack and his bed.
He switched direction and made his slow way down to the stable. Bruno’s station manager, Lynette, was seated on an upturned feed bin in the aisle and Josh Cody stood by Buttercup’s side.
‘Hey, mate,’ he said. ‘Lynette. What’s up?’
‘She was unsettled. Kept whinnying, pawing at the door. I called Josh after dinner when I couldn’t settle her. She’s calmer now. Think she just wanted to be the centre of attention.’
He moved into the stall and rested his head against Buttercup’s.Come on, girl. I just need one thing to go right today. Please let it be you and your little foal.
Josh leant against the wall of the stall and looked him up and down. ‘What’s with the limp? Too much dancing at the winery wedding?’
‘I’m tired and I’ve had a shitty few hours.’
Josh frowned. ‘Shitty how?’
‘Don’t ask.’
Josh stood up. ‘You’ve been out for the day with my sister, so I’m asking, Krauss. Shitty how?’
Tom took his hands off Buttercup. Of course. Josh would know more about the whole Hannah debacle than he did. He glanced at Lynette. ‘Why don’t you catch some sleep, Lynette? Dawn’ll be here before we know it. I’ll watch Buttercup.’
She smiled her relief. ‘Thanks, Tom. I am kinda beat. I’m going to bunk down in the guest room rather than head home, so you call me if you need me.’
‘Off you go. And thanks.’
‘You got it.’
He waited until her booted heels crunching on gravel had faded into nothing, then faced his oldest friend. ‘Hannah ran into an old boyfriend at the wedding. He told her he’d been the one to superimpose her face on the image that went viral. She’d always thought it was some bunch of girls. She was sad, we left, I drove her home.’
‘Home here? Is she up at the house?’
‘No. Home to her place.’
