Page 15 of Hard Road Home

Xander rested his arm across her shoulders, hoping she wouldn’t flinch away. “A chef, to be more accurate. And definitely of interest to me. We’re old friends. We grew up together.”

Bonnie tensed under his hold but she didn’t pull away. “I remember him before he was a star.”

“What was he like?” He could almost see the reporter licking her lips.

Bonnie flashed a wicked glance up under her lashes. “Pretty boring.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true. All he did was practice his violin and cook with his grandmother.”

“That would be Flo MacDonald?”

Xander gave her his trademark grin. It made his face ache, but he needed her to focus away from Colin. “Best cook in the district. Present company excepted, of course.”

Bonnie tucked herself into him, lighting fires all down his side, heating him all through. “I learned from Flo. I owe my success in cooking cakes and shortbread entirely to her training. Xander and I learned together.”

“Xander Mac can cook? I’m sure our female readers will be thrilled.” She looked a bit too impressed herself, her pale eyes warming as they met Xander’s.

He disengaged from Bonnie and extended his hand. “I really need to keep moving. There’s a lot to do. Maybe we can continue this conversation on Tuesday?”

She finally took the hint and he walked her to the door, catching a glimpse of Tamara ducking out of sight at the top of the stairs. He had a feeling Angie Schultz had come looking for more than a standard puff piece on Xander Mac. Hopefully Bonnie didn’t mind being the bait to distract the reporter.

Tamara joined them in the lounge, duly admiring the Christmas tree and praising Colin for his work in decorating it. They were going across to the guest cottage that used to be Bonnie and her nan’s home, to prepare it for a new influx of guests. He excused himself and made his way to his room, bringing the laptop. First things first.

He flopped onto the single bed, kicking off his boots so he could lean on the fluffed-up pillows, his ankles crossed on the tartan rug folded across the bottom of the bed, protecting the covers.

He plugged in the cable and opened it up, surprised when the screen lit up straight away. There were things on this laptop he’d missed at first. Photos of Bonnie and half-finished lyrics for songs he’d started while he was home. He’d started putting everything in the cloud after thinking he’d lost everything, but he’d forgotten to look for the laptop the next time he was home.

Even the screen background had memories. A picture of teenage Bonnie, with her hair hanging in a long plait, sitting on the jetty over at the resort on the other side of the lake.

Pushing aside the disturbing thoughts, he opened up the folder where he kept his works in progress. This was something he could do to keep his mind focused. Stop it dwelling on what went wrong with Bonnie.

Maybe he’d had reasons for forgetting. It hurt less for one thing.

Chapter Five

Bonnie smiled atColin, who was swooshing his gum-booted feet through the layer of snow covering the grass. The cement path was clear, but the boy preferred doing kid things rather than making his way along the path in front of his mother.

“He loves the snow,” Tamara said with a sigh. “I don’t love the clean-up after.”

“He’ll be fine.”

As always, a strong wave of nostalgia hit Bonnie as she entered what used to be her home. She’d lived with Nan from shortly after her birth. Not like Xander, who’d lived with his mum at the Appleton place until he was ten, and then at another farm near Byron Bay for a year. She’d never known her parents and, with Nan there for her, she hadn’t really missed them. Especially with Flo and Don as backup.

The cottage had been sold to Flo and Don before Nan passed on, enabling Bonnie to go to college and later to Canada. Not much remained of the nest egg, but it was nice knowing it was there. Once Nan died, the cottage had been absorbed into the Highland Inn, the two-bedroom space being ideal for families or people wanting a little more privacy than offered at the B&B.

It took a few minutes to strip the beds and bag up the sheets and towels in the laundry bags. Practice made it easy, and soon they were working together to clean and reset the open-plan kitchen and lounge area. This was the biggest change they’d made, pulling out the walls between the kitchen, dining room and lounge, replacing them with rustic-looking beams salvaged from the old mill, so they looked authentic.

Tamara was polishing the tables, using a cloth. “I’d like to live in a place like this.”

“Are you thinking of moving out from home?”

“I’m thinking when Colin goes to kindy it’ll be easier if I’m in town.”

They worked silently for a while, punctuated by the odd outburst from Colin who’d been settled in front of the television.

Bonnie was polishing the stainless-steel sink when Tamara spoke again.

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