by Lily Malone
‘Abe and Taylor are finally doing it, hey? They’ve been talking about making that trip to find Abe’s dad most of the year.’
‘Hmm.’ He lowered his chin to her neck and nibbled that spot near her ear. It was always guaranteed to make her knees weak, and somehow, those pregnancy hormones made all that type of stuff feel even more swoony.
‘Is swoony a real word?’ she asked him.
‘Swoon? Or swoonworthy, do you mean?’
‘Swoony.’
He shrugged. ‘If you want to make swoony a word, you show me the man who will stop you. It won’t be me.’
‘Good. I was going to say that you make me feel all swoony.’
‘That doesn’t mean you’re about to have the baby, does it?’
‘Nope.’
There was a slam from the caravan and Jaz burst from the annexe, tearing around to the vegie patch they’d built beside the cottage. She started the hose and gently sprayed the plants, concentrating on moving evenly up and across the row. She talked to herself, counting as she adjusted the hose. Each row took a count of ten, then she’d start again.
‘I hope Abe and Taylor have a good time,’ Jaydah said.
‘I think they will. They’ll be back before the wildflower season really hits and the café gets too busy, and they already said they’ll be in Chalk Hill for Christmas. There’s no way they’ll miss Brix Junior’s first Christmas. Next year they might go away longer. Close the café for the winter, Abe said.’
His work-rough palms moved from the bump of her stomach, turning her gently in the circle of his arms, and he rested his chin on her shoulder.
‘I think I’m feeling swoony too,’ he said, and she felt his smile against her neck.
‘I’m definitely feeling swoony. I was swoony before you got here.’
‘How about we go inside and get swoony together. Is there time to be swoony before dinner?’
‘That depends how quick you can be.’
‘Ah, JT. I can be quick.’
As the front door opened and they stepped inside, Ginger Puss yowled at her, brushing against her ankles.
‘You think it’s dinner time too, do you?’ Jaydah said to the cat, who turned an orange-furred circle and sat on the mat, purring.
‘I told you we’d find a better place to be, didn’t I, Ginger Puss?’
‘This is the best place to be,’ Brix said, voice gone husky and warm beside her. ‘With you, JT. Wherever you are. It’s the way it always should have been.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Who knew that a family trip in our campervan to Albany in 2016 would lead to the town of Chalk Hill and the Honeychurch brothers, Jake, Brix and Abe, and make it impossible for me not to tell their stories?
Last Bridge Before Home was always going to be the darkest of the three books in the Chalk Hill series. I had Jaydah and Brix mapped out from the start. I knew they were best friends since school. I knew the reason they weren’t together was because Jaydah was keeping a secret. And I knew that the obstacles facing these two were huge.
I didn’t know what all those obstacles would be, or how getting Jaydah and Brix through them together would affect me. This book took more research than anything I’ve done to date and a lot of that research wasn’t much fun. I’ve looked at so many stories of abuse within families, physical, emotional, cultural and financial. I’ve looked at the issues facing parents of adult children with cognitive disabilities. It’s been harrowing reading at times and I’ve realised how much I don’t know about the challenges these disadvantaged people can face within our communities. What I have come to see is that the more awareness there is of these issues, the more it gives people hope that help is out there if they reach out for it.
I have had enormous help writing Last Bridge Before Home and I’d particularly like to thank an old school friend who has worked for years with the disadvantaged within the West Australian community. Jamie used to sit behind me in social studies and always had a knack for making me laugh (probably at very inopportune moments, sorry Mr Bedford). He’s the person who told me the unfortunate truth that yes, a story like Jaydah’s could (and does) happen because bad people exist everywhere, and in a country the size of Australia if they want to stay in the shadows they can fall through the cracks.
Thank you, Jamie, for the chats over coffee (remember when I ordered my kids cappuccinos instead of babychinos? Caffeine hit! Yikes!) and for reading my early drafts. I know you think you didn’t do much, but your help made all the difference.
Thanks also to my tennis captain, cards partner, senior half of the AAs, and lovely local wedding celebrant, Anita Revel, who features in these pages. We chatted secret weddings over forehands and backhands and down-the-line clear winners (hers, not mine) and I’m very grateful for her input. The line about Cinderella’s shoe is all hers.
I have to thank my nursing friend, Dayna Gould, who helped me brainstorm medical problems, symptoms and treatments for poor Val Honeychurch in both this story and The Cafe By The Bridge. I’m very sorry I forgot to say thank you in Cafe last time, Daynsie, please forgive me!
Ella and Jake (Water Under The Bridge, Book 1), Taylor and Abe (The Café By The Bridge, Book 2), and now Jaydah and Brix (Last Bridge Before Home, Book 3) feel like old friends. I know them inside and out, their hopes and dreams and fears, and I have loved thinking about them, making trouble for them, making a life for them over these three years.
I miss them already.
As always, much love and huge hugs to my family, and my tribe of writing friends who are always great for plot ideas and keep me in regular supply of laughs, cards and wine. Juanita Kees, Kylie Kaden, the Lollygagger girls, my agent Haylee Nash, I’m looking at you.
Special thanks to Bronny and Judith and the Weekses who have been wonderful supporters of not only Chalk Hill, but all my earlier stories too. I really appreciate every email that asks when the next book is due out, and how my writing is coming along; and Bronny I’m so grateful for the shelfies, the Facebook likes, the many shares … right down to the way you con your kids into appearing in Facebook videos holding their Aunt Lily’s book! One day they’ll be too old to do that … but today is not that day (tell them!)
My publisher, Harlequin MIRA (Harper Collins) is a proud supporter of the White Ribbon campaign which aims to prevent men’s violence against women. I worried at times that Last Bridge Before Home was too ‘dark’ for a rural romance, and I’m very grateful to have a publisher brave enough to go dark enough to raise light around what is a very real issue. To find out more, please visit whiteribbon.org.au.
Three people from MIRA have worked with me on the Chalk Hill Series and I owe them my thanks for everything they did to make these stories better: Rachael Donovan, Julie Wicks and Laurie Ormond.
Lastly, as always, thank you to the readers who have loved spending time in Chalk Hill as much as I’ve loved writing about it. Thank you for the emails and messages, for reading, for sharing, and for the encouragement—it means the world.
I like to think that I write stories that make you smile, but with this one I think it’s a story that is more likely to make you angry, or make you cry. As long as there was a smile along the way, my job here is done.
ISBN: 9781489250513
TITLE: LAST BRIDGE BEFORE HOME
First Australian Publication 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Lily Malone
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