by R. J. Groves
‘But I get the feeling that’s not quite the same now, is it?’
She swallowed, and he lowered his hand to put some distance between them again. ‘It’s hard to have a baby when you no longer have an income.’
She’d spoken quietly and with a waver in her voice. Shannon could only imagine how she must be feeling. He thought he’d caught glimpses of sadness during her time at the farm. It wouldn’t surprise him if she was sad or disappointed about her plans coming to a halt. He tried to ignore the fact that she still hadn’t said what was in store for her next. But a part of him didn’t want to know the answer. A part of him hoped that meant she didn’t know, and that maybe she would spend more time at the farm trying to figure it out.
‘What was the name of it?’ he said. ‘Your shop.’
‘Bride and Beau.’ She smiled as she said it. ‘As in B-E-A-U.’
‘Clever name.’
‘I thought so.’ She bit into her lip.
‘Do you think you’d ever open another shop? Do it all again?’
She diverted her gaze and started walking again. He fell into step beside her, noticing they were headed back in the direction of the house. ‘I don’t think so. I think my days as a seamstress and business owner are over.’ He couldn’t explain why, but he felt like there was more to the story. But he also didn’t want to push her.
‘You’ll figure it out, Jenny,’ he said, running a hand over her back. ‘I know you will.’
She glanced up at him, a smile on her face so sweet that it made his insides twist. If only he could help her …
But he didn’t know how. And he wasn’t sure she’d let him if he could.
Chapter 7
Shannon waved as Jannette’s car went down the driveway. She was off to her friend’s wedding and to pick up a few things from her house as she’d be staying at the farm for a few more weeks. Her original plan had been for one more week, but after Robbie had got his casts off a few days before and had started rehab—which by the looks of it could be a long process—she’d decided it would be best to stay longer. He tried to hold back the smile at the thought, but since no one was around him, he decided to let it out.
He knew he shouldn’t be feeling anything about her staying a little longer. It still didn’t take away the fact that she’d be leaving at the end of it and he’d be staying there. But still. He’d enjoyed her presence around the farm, another person to talk to. A woman to talk to. While working together, they’d talked about things he’d never even told Robbie, and he was sure she’d done the same. Even if it was only the baby thing.
He walked towards the main house, Sparky running up ahead of him. Apparently Robbie needed to talk to him about something, and it had to happen somewhere between Jannette leaving for the wedding and Jarrod arriving to help with the calves for the day. Shannon glanced down at his watch. That didn’t leave a whole lot of time. As he neared the house, he looked to where Jannette’s car had been parked for the last few weeks and then to the garden around the house she’d been working on. It still looked like it had a lot of work to do, but it looked to be thriving with a woman’s touch.
What would Robbie want to talk to him about? Shannon glanced down at the hole in the step that Jannette’s heel had gone through that first day. He remembered the feel of her in his arms, each of their moments playing through his head. How would her stay have played out had she been wearing sensible shoes and hadn’t put a heel through that step? If her luggage hadn’t rolled down the steps and opened at the bottom of them? If she hadn’t broken down, and he hadn’t been there to comfort her? Would they have still almost kissed? Would they have had their deep conversations like they did now?
Would he have had a chance to start falling for her?
He would fix that step for her, he decided. In fact, perhaps he might replace each of them, just to make sure it didn’t happen again. He let out a breath, realising that he might have an idea of what Robbie wanted to talk to him privately about after all.
He found Robbie at the dining table, his empty breakfast plate in front of him while he sipped a coffee, his expression growing serious as soon as he saw Shannon.
‘Coffee?’ Robbie said.
Shannon’s stomach twisted as he joined Robbie at the table. ‘I’m good.’
‘Suit yourself.’ He sipped his coffee again.
After a moment of silence, Shannon spoke again. ‘How are the limbs?’
Robbie flexed his arm in front of him as though testing his limits. ‘Improving, but I don’t know.’ He lowered his arm back to rest on the table again. ‘The leg is the tough one. The doctor said it was a really bad break, shattered in part of it, so it will never be the same. I’ll probably have to keep wearing a brace for a long time, and I’ll just have to find a way to deal with the pain.’
‘It still hurts?’ Shannon remembered having a few broken bones in his childhood. His ribs were the worst. One of them still occasionally gave him grief. He shifted his position a little, his side throbbing to emphasise the point.
‘Sometimes.’ Robbie took a deep breath and shifted his position so he was sitting straighter. ‘Which is part of why I needed to talk to you. I’m gonna sell the farm.’
Shannon wasn’t sure he’d heard him correctly or if it was his mind playing tricks on him. After admitting to Jannette that he’d dreamed of owning his own farm one day, he’d decided to check with the bank to see what options he had. They were happy to loan him a certain amount based on what he already had saved up and the fact that he had no other debts, but that wouldn’t have been enough to buy a farm of his own, let alone one like Tanner Station. Not without the extra money they’d talked about.
Sure, he knew where he could get enough to be able to buy a place of his own and owe very little, but it came with conditions. Conditions that he was in no position to meet.
His grandfather, having known about his father’s habits, had left an inheritance for him and Sylvie when he’d passed away, to be held in trust until they married—half to be given as a wedding present, and the remainder to be released after they’d been married a year. It was old-fashioned, Shannon thought. Why not have it be released once they were of age? But his grandfather, while old-fashioned, had been wise. He’d wanted to avoid the possibility that the money might be taken from them. And if they were married, that meant they were well away from their dad’s—and their uncle’s—grasp.
But while Sylvie had already received her portion after marrying the man she was with now and had used it to buy a house for her and her family, Shannon was yet to get his. He’d talked to his lawyer about getting around it, but it was no use. Until he was married, the money was untouchable. And so he’d learned to live without it, and it had never been an issue. Until now.
‘You’re what now?’ he said, trying to process Robbie’s words.
‘I’m selling the farm,’ Robbie repeated. ‘I have to. I can’t keep up with the workload with my leg and, you know, maybe it’s about time. I had a real estate agent come out while you and Jannette were checking the fences yesterday. I told Jannette this morning, but I thought you should know before it’s set in stone, considering.’
Considering it was Shannon’s home, too. Shannon’s gut twisted and it felt like a lead weight dropped in his stomach. Selling the farm? He couldn’t …
But Jannette’s words from the week before rang in his ears. It’s not even what Robbie wants to do forever. He’d known that, of course. He’d just thought Robbie didn’t have any plans to change it anytime soon. Well, he’d been wrong about that. He’d been happy that Jannette was staying a few weeks longer, but now he’d be lucky if he even had a home in a few months.
‘How much?’ he managed. Robbie told him, and a fist tightened in his chest. He wouldn’t have enough to buy it without that inheritance. And he had about as much of a chance of getting that inheritance as … well, he had no chance of getting it. But maybe he could figure something else out.
‘You thinking of
buying it?’ Robbie asked sceptically. They’d never talked about their personal finances before, but he was sure Robbie thought he probably didn’t have much.
‘I’d like to, if I can. I just have to figure some things out first. Can you hold off on putting it up for a couple of months?’
Robbie took a sip of his coffee and rolled it around in his mouth for a moment. ‘I can wait a month before contacting the real estate agent again. I don’t think I could hold up my end of the work after that and I can’t expect Jannette to stay for longer again.’
‘Where are you gonna go?’
‘I’m thinking somewhere with a beach.’
Shannon nodded. He remembered how much Robbie had liked the beach when they’d visited as kids. He let out a long breath.
A month. A month to figure out what to do. A month to see if he’d be moving away from Tanner Station forever or if he’d be moving into the main house instead of the shack. God, he hoped it would be the latter.
***
Jannette took the steps up to her little three-bedroom house in Perth, a mixture of emotions running through her. She’d got a call from Detective Attler on the way back to Perth telling her that the kids who had broken into Bride and Beau had been found and identified, and were being charged. The case was closed. They’d been found and were going to suffer the consequences.
So why didn’t she feel as relieved as she should?
As she took the final concrete step—no chance of her heel falling through that one—up to her front door, she paused to look around. The houses were close together and really not that far from the road. A concrete jungle compared to the farm. She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds around her. At the farm, she’d done just that and she’d been able to hear birds tweeting, the breeze flowing through the leaves in the trees, her calves with all the little sounds they made. But now she could hear nothing but traffic and the noises of a get-together up the road.
She took a deep breath in. Fumes from traffic. Stench from the neighbour’s bin on her fence line where they often deposited their large dog’s poop. She scrunched her nose up, her brow creasing in a frown. At the farm, the air was fresh. She’d even become used to the manure smell that had hit her so strongly when she’d first arrived. Now, whenever she took a breath in at the farm, she’d smell the flowers in the garden, the eucalypts surrounding the house, that fresh calf smell whenever she was near her babies. It really was fresh country air, and it was so much clearer than in the place she’d called home for the past fourteen years. It was weird. She’d never really been homesick for her childhood home when she’d first moved away, but now that she was back in Perth—if only for the day—she really was missing it. How would it be when Robbie sold up? Just that morning he’d told her about his plans to sell. Well, she couldn’t think about it now. Her thoughts drifted to her calves, who were due for a feed. She hoped they would feed all right for Jarrod. And Shannon.
She sighed as she slipped her key into the lock of her door, but something didn’t quite feel right. Before turning the key, she tried the doorknob only to find it already unlocked. Her frown deepened as she racked her brain. She was usually so good with locking her house. Had she somehow forgotten to lock it as she’d left a few weeks ago? She’d had a lot on her mind. It was possible. But she was sure she’d double checked.
After having dealt with the break-in at the shop, she braced herself for the worst and opened the door. The entrance looked as it should. She walked in slowly and cautiously, checking every room and every cupboard for either someone hiding in there or anything missing. Everything seemed as it should. Even her laptop, which was plugged in at the kitchen bench, was still there. Surely a robber would have stolen that since it was in clear view.
She grabbed a travel bag from the wardrobe and quickly went about her business, gathering up anything she’d need over the next few weeks—including her laptop. She added getting her locks checked to her mental to-do list, but that would have to wait until she was back for good.
She looked around her house, the place she’d fallen in love with as soon as she’d seen it. Now it just didn’t feel so right. It didn’t seem to fill that hole it once had, much like her shop. She shook her head, pushing the thought aside. It was all just because she’d had a lot going on, she was sure. Her plans for a family had been put on hold and she was in a transition stage, so nothing else seemed to have the same appeal. That was all. That had to be all.
It was only when she’d zipped up her luggage and was about to walk out of the living area that she noticed what was different. An extra picture frame on her bookshelf. She frowned, trying her best to remember if she’d bought it sometime recently, but it was no use. She hadn’t bought a picture frame in years. She neared the bookshelf and picked up the frame, looking at the photograph. It was a picture of her—a nice one, at that—with a smile on her face as she received a takeaway coffee from the barista at a café. The picture looked to have been taken from off to the side, perhaps from one of the tables.
Her heart raced. She’d never seen that picture before, nor did she know who could have taken it, let alone have framed it and put it on her bookshelf. Her breath caught in her throat as she registered what she was wearing in the picture, how her hair looked. She may not know who had taken it, but she did know what day it was.
The day she’d left for the farm a few weeks before.
She hadn’t left her door unlocked. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that she’d locked it and double checked. She remembered checking it. Someone had taken a picture of her, framed it, broken into her house, and left it on her bookshelf for her to find.
Who the hell would do something like that?
She felt like she was suffocating, and forced herself to take slow, deep breaths as she felt a prickle on the back of her neck. She had to leave. She had to get out of there. Surely it was just a prank—maybe even those kids who’d broken into her shop. Even if someone had been watching her, she was sure they wouldn’t have known where she’d been for the past few weeks. She tried to pull herself together as she left her house—making sure the door was locked—with her luggage and the picture. She scanned the street both ways, but could see nothing suspicious, even if her hairs were standing on end.
‘Get a grip, Jannette,’ she mumbled to herself as she put her luggage in the car and slid in behind the wheel, putting the picture frame on the passenger seat next to her handbag.
As far as she knew, that picture could have been in her house for weeks. And if it was the kids just trying to scare her, she had nothing to worry about now. Nor did she have time to worry. Her friend was getting married, and she couldn’t spend Andie’s special day worrying about that picture.
Mustering up as much courage as she could and trying to talk herself out of being paranoid, Jannette moved the car forward. She would deal with all this in a few weeks when she came back. For now, she had a wedding to attend.
Chapter 8
Andie and Tay’s wedding was beautiful. Both the ceremony and the reception were held at the lovely vineyard in Darlington that Andie had always dreamed of getting married at. Both Andie and her bridesmaids, Harley and Tay’s sister, Libby, looked absolutely gorgeous, and the men certainly polished up all right, too. Jannette really was happy for them, and she hoped the beautiful wedding had been exactly what Andie had always dreamed of, if not better. She certainly looked to be having a wonderful day. Jannette, on the other hand, just couldn’t enjoy it as much as she’d hoped to.
She still couldn’t shake the photograph from her mind. Who took it? Why did they take it? Why would someone want to scare her? As far as she knew, she hadn’t pissed off anyone enough to have them breaking into her place and her shop and to be taking photos of her all stalker-like. Had she? She couldn’t think of any disgruntled customers.
She felt like she’d missed the entire conversation at the table she’d been allocated for the dinner. She certainly wouldn’t have been ver
y interesting to anyone wanting to talk to her. Soon enough, the gentleman who had tried to start a conversation with her earlier on had given up on her and had shifted his attention to another single lady at the table. She seemed appreciative enough, and Jannette found herself relieved.
What if Shannon had come with her to the wedding? He’d offered. She was the one who’d refused. God, she wished she’d asked him to come now. Maybe he’d have known what to do about the picture. He might have been able to stop her from freaking out. She’d never wished she wasn’t alone more than she did now. She looked around the room for Andie and her new husband Tay and found them off near the bar. Harley had disappeared with Joey—Andie’s brother, who Jannette had met a few times before now—sometime earlier. As far as she’d gathered, they’d been seeing each other since he’d last come back to town. Good. Harley deserved happiness, too.
Jannette felt the increasingly familiar pang of being alone again, and tried to push the thought aside. She might find someone one day. And if not, well, she’d be back on track with her plans to take things into her own hands soon enough. She hoped. She fought a yawn and gathered up her handbag and jacket. She still had to drive back to the farm, and if she stayed much longer, she’d be getting home way too late and would be tired in the morning. She probably already would be. She doubted she’d get much sleep after finding that picture.
She made her way across the room and gave Andie a hug. ‘Congratulations again,’ she said. ‘The wedding was beautiful, and you look gorgeous.’ She shifted her gaze to Tay, Andie’s beaming husband. ‘Make sure you look after her, okay?’
He smiled broadly and Jannette could see why Andie had fallen for him. The guy was handsome. ‘You know I will.’
‘Are you heading off, Jannette?’ Andie said, resting a hand on her arm.
