Page 68 of Down the Track

Page List

Font Size:

‘Oh,’ Maggie said, and her eye flickered in Jo’s direction in what may have been a twitch, but which may also have been a wink. ‘Our resident scribe Mr Gavin Gunn, do you mean?’

Luke brightened. ‘He’s really staying here, then? Like, he’s here now? This very second?’

‘Oh, he’s staying here all right. Him and that three-legged mutt of his. But you won’t see him around at this time of day; he’ll be at work, or out with family, or working on his plumbing.’ Maggie was rifling through the papers she had stuffed into a bulldog clip beside the till. ‘You a fan, are you, Luke?’

‘I sure am.’

‘Me too. Tell you what, why don’t you talk your mum into being back here on Thursday for the library event? Here’s a draft of a flyer I’ve been working on.’

Jo looked at the piece of paper Maggie had handed her son.Gavin Huxtable, Yindi Creek local, in conversation with his mate Charlie Cocker, to talk about his secret career as the award-winning crime writer Gavin Gunn.

‘Oh, epic, that’s the event I told you about, Mum. We can still go, can’t we? We won’t be stuck out at the dig?’ He looked at Maggie. ‘Mum doesn’t like stuff to get in the way of work.’

Jo sighed. ‘You will be at that library event. I promise.’ It wouldn’t be awkward for her at all. Not if she stayed outside in the four-wheel drive, that is, and didn’t show her face.

‘Be sure you have some book questions to ask,’ said Maggie. She looked at Jo. ‘You can give me a hand with the sandwiches on the night, love. I’ll put you down as a volunteer.’

Jo coughed a little on her last sip of lemonade. ‘Um, I might have other—’

But Maggie’s attention was elsewhere: a newcomer had creaked open the big old door from the street and she’d bustled off to welcome them.

Jo turned to Luke. ‘Okay, then. You ready to start our adventure out west?’

He slugged the last of his drink, then folded the flyer carefully and tucked it into the pocket of his shorts. ‘We really can’t stay in town?’

‘We really can’t.’

His shoulders slumped, but he got down from the stool and started mooching towards the door.

Baby steps, Jo thought.Baby steps.

CHAPTER

27

After Hux’s morning charter, he left Phaedra to man the donger on her own and headed over to the pub for lunch. He’d tried sitting at the bar counter near the pie warmer where he usually hung out, but people kept coming over to slap his back, so he’d moved himself, his pie and his dog to the tiny office out back where Maggie did the pub accounts. She’d abandoned the lunch crowd long enough to lean against the filing cabinet and stare at him.

‘What’s up your bum?’ she said.

He rolled his eyes. ‘Can a guy not be a little frazzled once in a while?’

‘Sure he can. How’s the hunt for Dave going?’

‘I’ve been a little busy. I’m back on the Dave hunt this arvo.’

‘Uh-huh. And Charlie? Still moping about, I gather?’

‘It’s called a breakdown, Maggie. He’s having a breakdown and he’s working through it. With our full support.’

‘I hope he’s going to have worked through it before Thursday.’

‘Why? What’s happening Thursday?’

‘Um … your library event? You and Charlie? In conversation? An event you have just snapped your fingers and announced, and for which I am now having to not only cater for but provide chairs because Bernice is freaking out about how many people she can fit into the library. Lance is apparently hogging more than his share of floorspace because he’s put a rush order in for books to run a sales table.’

He chuckled. ‘Now I remember. What say me and Charlie take over setting up the library, I go over and smooth Bernice’s ruffled feathers, and I persuade my publisher to pay you handsomely for the catering.’

Maggie sniffed. ‘I accept those terms.’