Page 15

“Thank you,” Violet said. Not even an unpowered site in town.

What the heck am I going to do?

As she walked slowly out to the porch a red sedan towing a car trailer turned into the driveway; it must be Joe’s family and he wasn’t back yet. She quickly hurried to the sleepout and changed into her dress, then ran a brush through her now-dry hair, and rubbed some pink lip gloss onto her lips. Walking to the back door, nerves skittered in; she wasn’t good with strangers.

Violet was about to have an early Christmas meal with strangers.

Chapter 8

Joe

Joe cleaned up the mess that Molly had made in her pen through the night and then he topped up her water, filled her bowl with kibble, and sat on the concrete steps leading up to the dog pen. Molly came over and sniffed around him. Eventually, she sat down beside him and rested her silky head on his lap.

“When are you going to have those pups, Molly?” he murmured. His fingers played with her silky ears as he thought about meeting Violet the night before.

It was funny; what he’d been thinking about when Holly delivered the basket yesterday, but when he’d looked at Violet, the strangest feeling had shot through him, a sort of sense of meeting his fate. A warm tingling had settled in his chest and his belly, and he’d found it hard to look away. That had never happened to him before with any of the women he’d met over the past few years as he’d travelled around, and then settled in Bindarra Creek.

Maybe because it was a reaction to her tight T-shirt over a fit and toned body. He wondered if that was what it was all about. He had lain awake for a long time last night after he’d gone to bed, thinking of her in the spare bed out in the sleepout.

Maybe it was because he was worried about her; she’d seemed pretty stressed about the car issues at first, but had relaxed gradually last night. Her company had been fun, and he’d enjoyed their conversation, not that she’d talked much about herself.

At first, he’d been surprised to see a single woman driving a big vehicle like that, and camping out in the scrub. Granted, that was the sort of woman that he’d dreamed about a couple of years ago when he was actively thinking of settling down; the sort of person he’d like to have a relationship with. But he’d never met anyone like that. All the girls he’d met just wanted to go to the pub or to the movies or to the club to dance and watch a show. Those sorts of things didn’t appeal to him at all. He was an outdoors guy, and now that he had his own place, he was turning into a real homebody and didn’t need to go out. He certainly had plenty of things here to fill his days and nights.

But it had certainly been good to have company last night.

Joe pushed himself to his feet. “Come on, Molly. We’ll go for a wander, and check those sheep down in the back corner.” The pump at the creek had kicked in overnight, and the sheep troughs were full of clear water. The sheep were over in the far back paddock, and the fences were secure. He’d spent a lot of time working on them in the last couple of weeks, in between working for Grant and Ryan, because once he got his first breeders in, he didn’t want any foxes or dingoes to get to them. He’d built a solid fence and enclosed the sheep he already had into a half-acre secure paddock.

Joe walked along, checking that the fence was intact and then checked the irrigation pipes in the next paddock. Considering he’d only been here a few months he was pretty damn proud of what he’d done so far. Once he got the house renovated, he could start thinking about building himself a big shed and getting some farm equipment. But that was a fair way down the track because he had to save some money first. He’d spent all of his savings on the deposit for the house, and with Ryan going on holidays there wasn’t much work coming in on the building side of things for the next month. Grant had said that the landscaping work would ease off over Christmas and into the New Year. He was taking Cathy and the kids down to the coast for a couple of weeks to see the kids’ grandparents.

Joe had thought about calling in at the pub and seeing if they needed extra bar staff over the break. When he’d lived in Tamworth between contracts, he got his RSA, and he was quite handy behind the bar. He made a mental note to do that when he went into town tomorrow.

As he and Molly headed back to the house paddock, the sound of an approaching car caught his attention. Jaclyn’s red sedan turned off the dirt road into his driveway.

Joe glanced at his watch; he’d been fiddling around outside for longer than he’d thought. He’d intended having a shower before they arrived. He stopped at the tap at the back of the old shed, washed his hands, sluiced his face with the cool water, and then ran his fingers through his hair. At least he had decent jeans and a T-shirt on, not his old work clothes.

And why did you dress like that this morning, he asked himself. Did it have anything to do with your pretty guest?

He headed across to the driveway where Ryan had pulled the car up beside Violet’s ute. He looked across at the house; Violet was standing inside the back door. For a moment he thought about going over and bringing her outside to meet them, but instead he detoured to the car and walked around to the passenger side as Jaclyn got out. There’d be time enough for introductions once they were inside.

“Hey, Jac, it sounds funny even though it’s only the second week in December, but Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too, Joe.” Jaclyn put her hands on his shoulders and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

Ryan came around the front of the car carrying Georgia. He held out one arm and gave his brother a hug. “Merry Christmas, bro. Now tell me, who is this new person you’ve got staying in your place? Jaclyn was talking about someone breaking down, but she didn’t know the full story. She didn’t listen properly last night.”

“Only because you kept interrupting and wanting to know what Violet was saying,” Jaclyn said with a patient smile.

“She was travelling through to Bindarra Creek and broke down in the creek.”

Ryan looked over at the ute that was still hooked to the tractor with the length of chain.

“Looks like a brand-new vehicle.”

“It is,” Joe said. “I’ll help you unpack and you can meet her, and she can tell you all about it.”

Maybe Violet might be more forthcoming about where she’d come from now that Jac and Ryan were here. All that he’d picked up so far was that she’d been to uni, lived in the city, and had a job interview in the Hunter Valley next week.

Chapter 9