Page 81 of A Home Among the Snow Gums
‘Ballet. Ouch.’
‘I know, right?’
Tom grinned at her, and her heart went pitter-pat.
It felt great.
It felt like something that might happen in one of Mrs Grundy’s excellent novels.
CHAPTER
29
As Tom drove the last winding curve of road into Hanrahan, Hannah’s phone trilled.
‘I hope that’s not a vet emergency. I swapped my on call with Josh, but every now and then we get two dramas at once. I was hoping to slide upstairs unnoticed, but you know Josh: he’ll charm me into mucking out the overnight cages if he sees me looking idle and I’ll have said yes before I remember that it’s his job today.’
She worked hard, his girl. Driving that clapped-out little car of hers through farm paddocks and up mountains, saving the animals of the district, on duty more often than not.
‘Oh, it’s Vera. Maybe she’s run out of space in the café fridge and needs to store a cheesecake or three at my place. Hi, Vera,’ she said into the phone.
Vera’s voice was a bubble of chatter that he couldn’t distinguish. Hannah’s words were almost as incomprehensible.
‘I do answer my phone, Vera. I’m talking to you right now … no, I was out … with Tom … uh-huh … uh-huh … Oh! An announcement? Well, sure, I guess. Tonight at six? I’ll be there.’
Hannah’s cheeks had bloomed redder than Kev’s roses.
‘You okay?’ he said, taking a hand off the wheel to touch her arm.
Hannah cleared her throat as she slid the phone back into her bag. ‘Yes,’ she said.
He narrowed his eyes, but before he could call her on it, his own phone rang.Vera De Rossiran the text over his in-dash screen. The plot thickened. He killed the call before it could play through his car speakers; he could call her back later. He pulled into the kerb beside the vet clinic then slipped from the car and moved around to open Hannah’s door.
‘I can open it myself, you know. This is a brave new millennium, where women can go to the moon and rule the universe.’
He shrugged. It was a courtesy and one he felt privileged to still be able to perform. If he lost the use of his legs, walking a girl to her door would be a thing of the past. ‘Consider it an apology for leaving you stuck on a wire fence.’
She tugged her jacket around her as the afternoon breeze coming up from Lake Bogong swirled around them. ‘I had a nice day. Incident free, in fact.’
He smiled. ‘So you did. Come on, you better get inside before you freeze to death. Smells like snow’s coming to the high country tonight.’
‘It’s barely April. That’s about a month too early.’
‘The stable heating bill would agree with you.’
‘You … er … fancy coming in?’
Was that a blush or just the wind colouring her cheeks? And why was she asking?
‘I can’t.’ He was abrupt, and he was sorry for it, but he’d said it now.
‘Of course. Well. Thanks again.’
He gave her a wave and headed off. It was as he slid down a gear and turned his car up the steeply winding Gorge Road that he remembered the phone call he’d declined. He hit the phone controls on the dashboard and scrolled until the number he wanted came on screen.
‘Vera?’ he said. ‘Tom Krauss. I missed your call earlier.’
The stable yard was quiet when he drove in the gates. Sunday afternoon, so the ringers would all be at their homes, the horses fed and watered and tucked up in their heated stalls.
