Those Pleasant Girls

by Lia Weston

  ‘Oh God, poor Joy,’ said Evie, repositioning a cake stand and straightening an errant strawberry. She put her hands on the counter. ‘I never thought I’d say that.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry,’ said Travis, who had tucked himself in a corner with his laptop. ‘She seems to have a pretty consistent supply of husbands. Phil, you should watch yourself. She’ll turn up at your window while you sleep.’

  ‘I’m already spoken for,’ said Phil, heading back into the kitchen. Evie turned redder than her strawberry tart, and was pleased for more than one reason when Amy Wei set a nosebleed stiletto in the door.

  After complimenting them on the shop, Amy picked out a box of melting moments. ‘I don’t suppose David remembered to tell you that we’ll have a brand new priest when Saint Sebastian’s gets rebuilt.’

  ‘David didn’t mention anything,’ said Evie. ‘What’s he like?’

  ‘Bound to ruffle a few feathers.’ Amy tucked a handful of Evie’s business cards into her purse. ‘Mostly because he’s a woman.’

  ‘Oh, thank Christ,’ said Phil from the kitchen.

  Evie brought a coffee cup out from under the counter. ‘Champagne?’ she said to Amy.

  Amy gave one of her rare smiles. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

  ‘You know what this shop needs?’ said Mini D. ‘Music.’ He made a dive for the CD player before Phil emerged from the kitchen, holding a folder, and scooped him up over his shoulder.

  ‘We want people to buy stuff,’ said Phil. ‘No more Bitter Tears of Anything.’

  ‘Amen to that,’ said Evie.

  Amy looked at her mug. ‘Why does this say World’s Best Dad?’

  ‘Don’t ask,’ said Mary.

  ‘Seeing as we’re celebrating,’ said Phil, putting Mini D back down, ‘there’s one more present.’ He held the folder out to Mary.

  She pulled out a pile of documents and shuffled through them, frowning. ‘Deeds of title, renovation approvals . . . I don’t get it.’

  ‘Mum’s bought the Rose Apothecary,’ said Phil. As Mary made a polite face, he continued, ‘She’s going to turn it into a garden centre and speciality florist. There’s a greenhouse in the back.’

  ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool,’ said Mary, still shuffling through papers.

  ‘Wake up, Pleasant,’ said Travis, shaking his head.

  Mary looked from Travis to Phil. ‘I still don’t get it.’

  ‘She wants you on board. An apprenticeship.’

  Mary’s jaw dropped.

  Phil sped up, in anticipation of adolescent squealing. ‘If you don’t want to stay in Sweet Meadow you can use it as work experience, or if you do stay and it works out, you can look at taking it over after Mum retires. But she’ll only take you on if you study horticulture at uni. You might need to retake your exams but you can then study part-time and work in the shop.’ It was the longest speech anyone had heard him give.

  ‘Oh my God!’ screamed Mary, and started jumping up and down.

  ‘You’re going to be a florist!’ said Mini D, jumping with her.

  ‘A horticulturist,’ corrected Travis.

  ‘Yeah, that one,’ said Mini D, bouncing away.

  ‘Honey?’

  Mary stopped jumping. Mini D continued.

  Evie had an odd expression. ‘Why might you need to retake your exams?’

  ‘Ah,’ said Mary. ‘I knew there was something I forgot to tell you.’

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Nothing is ever written in a vacuum, so my fervent thanks go to the following wise, kind and extremely attractive people:

  To Fiona McCallum, for opening a window when several doors were closed. To Haylee Nash, for taking me on and championing this book, and for her enviable ability to wear pearls with a jumpsuit.

  To the brilliant team at Pan Macmillan – Danielle Walker, Cate Paterson, Clare Keighery, and particularly my editor Julia Stiles – who took Those Pleasant Girls from a book I was happy with to one I am proud of.

  To Vikki Wakefield, for reading an early draft in the middle of juggling her own books; I am immensely grateful for her time and advice. To Allayne Webster, another brilliant author, whose support is always genuine and generous.

  To my friends, who have been unfailing in their cheerleading efforts and provision of alcohol: Jenny Rossiter, Georgia Cheesman, John Flackett (yup, that’s your dam), Emma Berry, Karen Richardson, Tuan Nguyen, Tamika Kenyon, Brianna Rolfe, Sam Snoad, Poona Ghazizadeh, Mark Riley, Maité Petrement, Garry Patterson, Steve Stiller, Clare Stiller, Rachel Buchanan, Louise Fay, Tony Selover, Carla Scragg (also my go-to for legal information: ITYF!), and anyone else I’ve forgotten and who hopefully will forgive me.

  To my parents, who kindly still encourage my artistic pursuits despite the numerous bad theatre performances I made them sit through over the years. (Sorry about that.) To Gloria, who is steadfast in her sweetness. And to Pete, who is the best of men, and who also taught me how to open a locked door with a driver’s license.

  And to you, especially if you don’t know me in real life but are still reading this far; you’re curious, and I like that in a person.

  About Lia Weston

  In between writing novels, Lia Weston runs a bicycle shop in Adelaide with her husband, Pete, and also works as a freelance copyeditor. Lia owns a rescued German Shepherd called Kif who possesses all the energy of a bean bag and has an inexplicable fondness for raw pumpkin. Those Pleasant Girls is Lia’s second novel.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, institutions and organisations mentioned in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously without any intent to describe actual conduct.

  First published 2017 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd 1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

  Copyright © Lia Weston 2017

  The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

  This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

  Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available

  from the National Library of Australia

  http://catalogue.nla.gov.au

  EPUB format: 9781760553487

  Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia

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