by Mia Terry
Ollie’s memory of his casual invitation to Rhys made him feel a little embarrassed. Luckily the redness of his face must have convinced Billy to save him from the cross-examination.
“Okay, darling, Ollie’s love life is for his own entertainment, not ours,” Billy said, as he reached out and put his hand on his lover’s knee.
Kris pouted, even as he replied. “Only because it is you that’s asking. God knows he owes us some entertainment after his recent impersonation of a monk.”
Ollie couldn’t help but laugh at his friend. “I think you’ll find that monks have to give up their worldly goods and sex, so my imitation wouldn’t be a very good one. Anyway, were you guys serious last night about going out to Rhys’s families’ farm?”
“Absolutely,” said Jai, after he’d swallowed a mouth full of pastry. “I’m really excited about it. I’ve been wanting to see that kind of boutique farm up close for ages. The farmers around Dungoon are pretty friendly of a sort, but I don’t exactly want to farm big swaths of wheat or farm a million sheep.”
Luke barked out a laugh. “Normally I’d try to defend my hometown, but Jai isn’t wrong. Yeah, we’ve got quite a few farms which have kitchen gardens though nothing as exotic as I’m sure Rhys’s parents have.”
“So, are we seriously all going?” asked Ollie.
“We can go without you,” said Billy with a glint in his eye. The bastard might have defended him earlier, but he wasn’t above a bit of teasing.
“I thought you hated the countryside,” Ollie replied, with more petulance than he liked in himself.
However, Billy just shrugged. “I’m not volunteering to move back to a country town anytime soon, but I hardly think an afternoon spent on a Byron Bay farm is exactly the same thing, and I like Rhys. So, it looks like we’re all going.”
Okay, so now Ollie felt bad about his dig at Billy. He was one of the nicest men Ollie knew. Knowing that, Ollie made sure his smile to his friend was genuine. “Well, it will be a fun afternoon then.”
As much as he wanted to see Rhys, he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of his welcome. Ollie’s only consolation was that Kris was looking even less keen on the outing. Kris was definitely a city boy and the idea of him being set to some sort of manual farm labor was amusing enough that Ollie really had to hold back a chuckle.
* * *
A swim and leisurely lunch later and they were all packed in the Land Rover again, following Ollie’s directions to the farm. As the only one who had been to the destination in the hills, Ollie got to sit in the front seat next to Luke and felt far less like a kid going to a school excursion than he had when he’d been stuck in the back.
“Next turn on the right,” said Ollie, giving the final direction and trying to ignore the fluttering of nerves in his stomach. The arrangements he’d made via text with Rhys had been sparse and gave him no further clues of where he stood with the man. Nervousness about a man was not something he was used to. Far more men had chased him, than the other way around and being on edge, waiting for Rhys to text him back today, was not an experience Ollie wanted to repeat.
However, it was easy to forget all of that as they drove a few hundred meters past Rhys’s house and pulled up in a larger turning circle. Rhys was standing there, unmistakable in build, even if the brim of his felted hat shaded his eyes.
“Fucking hunky hipster farmer,” Kris said. “That boy could convert any man on Oxford Street to the good life.”
“Eyes on your own man,” Ollie said, only half-joking. At least there was no one to be jealous about the way his own eyes were devouring Rhys. The man was wearing a soft long-sleeved shirt that stretched across his shoulders, and jeans that hung on to his ass, and all that hunkyness was combined with an old-fashioned felt Akubra hat and leather boots.
Jai was keen enough to get out of the car before Ollie and by the time Ollie had got his feet on the ground, Jai was already kissing Rhys on the cheek. In fact, by the time Ollie got to Rhys he was the third person to be part of the crowd of cheek kisses—bloody Kris was fast as hell too. He hoped the quick look they exchanged was a touch more intimate but couldn’t even guarantee that at this point.
“Hey guys,” Rhys said, and it wasn’t great for Ollie’s ego that he was addressing them as a group. “Mum is up in the back garden, so I’ll take you to meet her and then show you around.”
Seeing how Jai had already started questions, Ollie followed quietly and looked around. This place was beautiful, the kind of pretty farmland that only occurred in pockets near the coast and farther south. Everything was green and the gently sloping hill gave great views of not just paddocks of produce, but also some sweet dairy cows in the distance. And Ollie felt proud of his identification of dairy cows, his school had quite a few boarders whose families owned significant properties and he visited more than one. The size of those properties might be massive compared to the thirty-five acres he’d heard Rhys talking about, but it meant he did know a bit of the lingo.
Though once he met Ollie’s mom, he realized the lingo he knew was of a different sort. She was blonde, hair hanging in a plait down her back and a scruffy straw hat shading her eyes.
She greeted them enthusiastically with hugs, telling them to call her Jen and although she looked Ollie in the eye with a genuine smile, he couldn’t tell if she had heard anything about him that distinguished him from the others. Jai quickly started asking enthusiastic questions and her language once she started talking to Jai was all about companion planting and organic solutions.
With the rest of his friends so engrossed in conversation with Rhys’s mother, Ollie tried to sidle himself next to the man in question.
“It’s beautiful here,” Ollie said. “How long have you been out in the garden today?”
“Six freaking hours picking produce,” Rhys replied, really looking at him for the first time. He gestured towards the others, “They’re engrossed. Come on, I’ll give you the quick and dirty tour and show you the view.”
Quick and dirty from Rhys would always sound good to Ollie, but the man took his tour duties seriously. He pointed out some of the different crops; ginger, garlic, artichoke, eggplant, edamame, and he talked about how they used their neighbor’s goats and chickens to prepare the paddocks for planting.
They got to the top of the hill and Ollie took in a deep breath at the view. From here you could look back over the land and see the bay in the distance.
“That’s a view you won’t get sick of,” Ollie said, as he leaned against the fence not taking his eyes off it. “You sound like you know a lot about the farming thing. Is it something you enjoy?”
“My mum owns my ass once a week, otherwise she’d be out here doing it on her own. The rest of the time she has students from the local TAFE, who are getting their certification in organic farming, as her minions.” Rhys looked over at Ollie and shrugged. “I’m not going to be making farming my life work, but I like working with mum. When I came back from the tour, it gave me purpose. The surfing lessons are more profitable, and now I’ve developed a clientele, but for a while this was the only thing that made me feel like I was contributing.”
“Your mum must love having you around,” said Ollie.
“Probably more now I pull out the weeds instead of the produce,” Rhys replied with a wide smile. “I might have grown up here, but it wasn’t until I came back that I took it seriously. When I was a teenager, the waves and getting on them, were pretty much the only thing I cared about.”
Ollie couldn’t remember the last time he would have spent six hours in the company of just his mother. They still went on family holidays together, mostly on the uber-glamorous yacht his father had bought, but even then everyone else was around and he rarely spent time with just her.
“Well, it’s charming,” Ollie said, genuinely. “I missed you last night though.” Okay, that last line was more honest than he’d planned, but with Rhys looking so appealing in front of him, smiling at him like that, the truth had just
slipped out of his mouth.
“That’s nice,” Rhys said, smiling, but not quite committing to a miss you back. “I wasn’t sure if you one hundred percent wanted me there.”
“I asked,” said Ollie, halfheartedly defending himself. He’d known his invitation had not been his most gracious or most enthusiastic-sounding. It was just that it wasn’t easy for anyone to completely open themselves for outright rejection, and maybe he’d received so little of it he was a little warier than most.
Rhys’s raised eyebrows told him that his lack of bravery in his lame invitation had been truly noted.
“I’ll ask properly next time,” Ollie promised.
Rhys waited for a beat before setting his wide shoulder close in to Ollie, letting Ollie enjoy the warmth of the closeness. “I might even say yes next time too.”
Ollie let himself luxuriate in just being next to Rhys, looking out over this beautiful landscape. He was jolted out of his relaxed state though when he looked down and saw Jen had put the rest of his friends to work.
“Fuck,” he said. “We have to get back down there. Your mum will think I’m a total lay-about if I’m up here chatting up her son and everyone else is down there helping her out.”
His panic amused Rhys if his laugh was anything to go by. “She’ll be fine. There should be enough willing slaves down there to make her happy.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to be the one she thinks is a lazy git who just has useful friends,” said Ollie, even as he started heading down the hill.
“You know you’re not supposed to care about what the parents of your holiday fling think about you,” said Rhys.
“Maybe I just like to be liked,” Ollie retorted. He knew that wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. Hell, in any holiday fling he’d had he hadn’t met the man’s parents. In fact, most of his dating life had gone by without him meeting many of his lover’s parents. However, it was of sudden importance that this particular mother thought he was a good man.
He didn’t look back at Rhys to see how much he was taking in of Ollie’s interest in his mother’s good opinion and just kept on marching towards Jen.
She was bent over what he roughly identified as ginger plants, and Ollie dropped onto the earth beside her and only gave a passing thought to how immaculately clean his expensive jeans had been.
“Sorry,” Ollie said, with his best easy smile. “I was admiring the amazing view with your son, so you’ll have to give me the crappiest job to make it up to you.”
He liked the wry smile he got in return, and the dry, modulated voice that rang out clearly, despite the smear of dirt that lay across Jen’s face. “As you are my guests, not my employees there aren’t marks deducted for skiving off. However, as you are already dirty, you might as well finish up helping me dig up this row of ginger.”
So not as hippy trippy as he had previously thought, though, from the speed with which she dug through the long row of ginger, hard work was definitely something with which she was highly acquainted. Ollie struggled to keep up with the unfamiliar task, as well as answering her friendly questions about him and his friends. His relief when they got to the end of the row, was something he tried very hard to shield, but a wink from Rhys as he rubbed at his back once he’d gotten up, showed he’d probably not been entirely successful at hiding his feelings. Luckily, Jen had already been co-opted by Jai who—after handing off the produce he’d gathered to Luke, who was looking very much like a packhorse—was now following her and making notes in his phone of the vegetables she was recommending which would be suitable in Dungoon.
Ollie was lugging the box of ginger he’d insisted on carrying and was slightly off the pace.
“How did you enjoy your taste of the farming life,” Rhys asked, as he came up beside him with an even larger produce box.
“Well, I ruined the knees in a pair of jeans and didn’t even get to make anyone come, so I just don’t know,” Ollie replied, softly enough for Rhys’s ears only. Actually, he’d quite liked the repetitive nature of the work, but that answer wouldn’t have made Rhys both laugh loudly and give him a speculative look.
Once back at the house, Jen had them out on the deck with both tea and pastries in their hands, in a whirlwind of organization. Ollie made sure to grab Rhys one of the popular cinnamon swirls, as Rhys was still loading the produce gathered today into a cold storage shed next to the house.
Rhys’s parent’s house was charming, large, and surprisingly shiny. Though that shininess might have been part of the reason they were sitting out here on the deck, while Jen plied them with baked goods.
The other guys were surprisingly cheerful for men who had been dragooned into over an hour free manual labor, and Ollie realized that was one of the main reasons he was so happy he’d come on holiday with them. There weren’t many of his friends who were so open to new experiences that didn’t involve some level of glamor or prestige. As hard a time as he’d given Kris, the man was happily dirty, his chin resting on his boyfriend’s arm while he shared his apple Danish with him.
Ollie was glad to see Jen’s eyes rest approvingly on their affectionate stance when she brought out a fresh pot of tea. Rhys said his parents were good with him being gay, but a surprising amount of people could be supportive only when it was a sexless approval.
Jen put a cardboard takeaway box on the table, saying, “One of my friends turns some of my ginger each year into candied ginger. So, you can take some of this home with you tonight.”
Ollie heard Rhys chuckle from where he was coming up behind their table. “Mum must like you boys. Lisa’s candied ginger is a prized possession around here.”
Jai immediately started questioning Jen on the process of making the candied ginger, but Ollie was more interested in Rhys’s proximity as the man pulled up the closest chair to Ollie and moved it close enough that he could feel Rhys’s body heat when he sat down.
That was significantly better than the indifferent reception he’d received initially. Ollie didn’t need a man to stick his tongue down his throat in front of his parents, but he also didn’t want the bro-dude “just a friend like everyone else” treatment.
Rhys very happily accepted the cinnamon roll Ollie had been protecting for him, and Ollie found himself watching the way the delicious pastry was devoured with envy. He wanted some more time on Rhys’s lips himself. The direction of his gaze was obvious to his prey, if the light blush on Rhys’s cheeks was any indication. Thinking of other ways to bring that pink stain to Rhys’s face, it took Billy elbowing him on the other side for Ollie to realize Jen had asked him a question.
“Are you liking your time in Byron Bay?” she repeated, with only a gentle smirk on her face when he turned to her.
“Very much,” Ollie replied honestly. “Your son is a great surfing teacher, and I’m loving spending time out on the water. We’ve also had a few fantastic meals, and I know this farm produced a lot of raw materials for at least one of those restaurants.”
Jen’s smile, which looked very like Rhys’s suddenly, was quick to appear. “We’re lucky in this area that so many of our restaurants are concerned with food miles so they are very interested in using local suppliers. And Town is one of the restaurants I work closely with. If I’m not already growing something they need for their new menu, I can usually start planting it.”
Jen had only just got her sentence out of her mouth when Jai’s excited call had them all turning. “Oh my god, you have got Alpacas.”
Ollie had to admit that the four Alpacas, which were now gathered near the fence line just ten meters away were actually pretty cute. He knew that farm animals were not supposed to be pets, but they would totally be the ones he’d choose.
“That’s our neighbor's paddock,” Jen was explaining to Jai. “But they are friendly enough if you want to go pat one.”
While everyone else’s attention was momentarily distracted, Ollie turned to Rhys. “Can I convince you to come over for some pizza tonight? The re
sort delivers them to our room, and we can have a night in if you could stand the boredom of it being just us?”
Rhys ducked his head closer, “If it is just us in your luxury cabin and it ends up being boring, we must not be doing it right.”
Ollie knew his smile was wide enough to be totally uncool. “Sounds perfect. We’ll probably be heading off soon, so come over when it suits.”
“I can be there at about seven.”
“Good, good, great.” Yeah, Ollie had lost his swag somewhere around when he first said hello to this man. There was no way Rhys was ever going to believe Ollie usually had a bit of a reputation as a charming boy about town who usually stayed removed from the men who flocked to him.
After the mandatory patting of the Alpacas—made mandatory by Jai’s enthusiasm—and making sure the ginger candies made it into the car with them, Ollie was surprised by the warmth of the hug he got from Rhys’s mother.
“You boys are welcome back anytime,” she said, ostensibly to the whole group, but Ollie didn’t think he was making up the way her eyes seemed to linger most on him.
One of the best things about traveling with this group of men was that being polite and gracious was genuinely part of their personalities. Ollie had grown up with manners being drilled into him and found nothing more mortifying than being out with people who didn’t believe in treating everyone they dealt with respectfully. Within this group, there was no fear of that. Each of his friends warmly thanked both their hostess and Rhys for having them at the property, and their delicious afternoon tea, and there could be no question about their sincerity.
Ollie got a last wink of acknowledgment of the night ahead from Rhys before he climbed back into the Land Cruiser.
“Convinced about the Alpacas?” Ollie asked Luke, as they drove back down the driveway.
“Nuh,” replied Luke, but he flashed a smile at his partner in the back. “Though I like those raised herb and vegetable beds and I think we should put them into any property we buy.”
