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He shook his head. “A word of warning, Violet.”
“And we’re not just saying this because we want you,” Emma said.
“Want me?” Violet’s brow wrinkled with confusion. “What do you mean. What for?”
“We’ve been advertising for someone to work with our horses three days a week. With no luck. There’s a shortage of horse vets, as I am sure you know.” Emma grinned. “If you took the job, we wouldn’t even have to interview you, Vi, because we know exactly how good you are!”
“Hang on, you’ve been advertising for an equine vet?”
“Yes, part-time.”
“But what’s this warning, Jake?” Violet glanced at Joe. He was following the conversation with interest.
“I’ve heard that that stud in the Hunter Valley is not a happy workplace. They go through a lot of staff. There are ads every second week for vets and trainers.”
“Okay,” Violet said slowly. “So, tell me more about your setup here.”
“Where are you staying?” Jake asked.
“I’ve settled in at Joe’s place. As well as rescuing me, he’s also very kindly given me his veranda to bunk on.”
“Rescuing you?”
Joe chuckled. “I was riding along the creek minding my own business when I encountered a damsel in distress.”
“And my rescuer was on a white charger.”
Their eyes met and held, and Violet was aware of Emma nudging Jake.
“It’s so good to have you here, Violet. Do you think you’ll stay?” Emma asked innocently
Violet shrugged. “Depends on my car. I’m making a call after lunch. But I don’t plan on settling in the one place yet. I’m going to travel around for a couple of years.”
“I never thought you’d leave Baileys,” Jake said. “You almost ran the place.”
“Yes, I did, didn’t I?” Violet said, a hint of cynicism in her voice.
Chapter 15
Violet - three days later
On Thursday, when Violet was driving the small sedan across the creek where her ute had died last weekend, her phone rang. She’d bought another SIM card in town and now had two providers. Today she had the Telstra SIM card in, and that was the number she’d sent to the dealer in Tamworth. It seemed as though a lifetime had passed in the past few days. Joe was working at the farm and she was heading out to the Smiths’ stud to have a look around.
Violet had been overwhelmed earlier this morning. She and Joe had been sitting on the back porch, having coffee before he headed out to the paddock for an hour or so. Violet was enjoying the mornings sitting outside chatting to Joe; mist hovered over the paddocks as the early morning sun broke through. She frowned as two vehicles drove in at seven-thirty; she recognised Jaclyn’s red sedan from Sunday lunch, but the Toyota Landcruiser was unfamiliar to her.
“It’s Ryan and Jac. Why are they here?” Joe jumped up and hurried over, and Violet could hear the concern in his voice as she followed close behind him.
“Good morning, guys. Is everything okay? We were going to come over to say goodbye and pick up your car later, Jac. Looks like we would have missed you.” He peered inside and frowned. “Where’s Georgia?”
Jaclyn waved to Violet, as she walked around to her open driver’s window when Jaclyn stopped the car. ‘We’re not going yet. We had a couple of things to do in town so we decided to save you a trip and drop my car over for Violet on the way in.” Jaclyn climbed out and held out her car keys out to Violet.
Violet took the keys and reached out to hug Jaclyn. “Thank you so much. I’ll look after it well. I’ve told Joe if he won’t take any rent from me while I’m waiting for my car to be fixed, the least I can do is shop and cook for him. And your car will get me over to Jake and Emma’s if I accept their offer.”
“Their offer?”
“They’ve offered me some work while I’m here.” She didn’t mention when she and Emma had gone to the ladies’ room on their way out on Monday, that Emma had offered her a full-time permanent contract.
“Not permanent, Em. I’m not ready yet,” she’d said.
