12 Days At Silver Bells House (17 page)

Desire ran up and down Kate's body like a yoyo spinning fast on its thread. ‘You're the landlord. Whatever it takes to pay the rent.'

His features lightened with his grin. ‘Don't tempt me any more than you already do.'

She winked. ‘I might need my stilettos then?'

He flushed, heat obviously creeping up his neck and into his eyes. ‘They would definitely go a long way to paying all debts due.'

She slipped out of the seat and closed the ute door, smiling at him through the closed window.

‘Later,' he mouthed, his smile now dark and hazy.

‘Later,' Kate mouthed back and lifted her hand in a wave. Nine days in, three to go. Holy tabasco, she'd need a Bloody Mary soon to put out the fire inside the wicked bubble of her imagination. Shame the pub was closed.

She turned to the walkway stairs, a hand on the rail as she stepped up. Her knees quaked with so much desire for Jamie Knight, Master Builder, that she'd have toppled onto her bottom if she'd been wearing stilettos. But boy, was she going to wear them later.

‘Afternoon, dear.'

Kate pulled her fantasies into line and pushed them to the back of her mind as she smiled at Mrs Tam. Wrapping Christmas presents with Mrs Tam, Ted and Mr Penman should go a long way to banishing sexy thoughts of any kind.

‘I'm all yours,' she told the group outside the grocer's store. ‘I've got the suit.' She gave the bag of Santa suit to Ted.

‘Right,' said Ted, rolling his shoulders. ‘There's four of us. We've got ninety presents to wrap. That's twenty-two-point-five each. And I'm not at all happy about the committee having to put in additional treasury monies for the last three presents.'

‘Oh, go on with you, Ted. You'll recoup it next year.'

‘Why ninety?' Kate asked. Weren't there only eighty-eight residents since Jamie moved in?

‘The new guy who's bought Kookaburra's,' Ted said, ‘Your Jamie.' He pointed a stubby finger at her. ‘And you.'

‘He's not my Jamie. And he's a resident, isn't he?' And Kate wasn't a resident, so shouldn't be counted as such but she didn't have time to say so.

‘But he hasn't been putting his fifty cents into the kitty every week since last yuletide, has he?' Ted said. ‘No. Just over a month's worth. And you.' Ted pointed his finger at her again. ‘Can't go around disregarding guests, can we? Of course I had to figure you into the total tally.'

Kate ignored Ted's officiousness as happiness spread through her chest. They'd included her for the present-giving. ‘I'll buy,' she said, digging into her pocket for her purse. ‘I'll pay the committee for my present and for Jamie's and for the new guy too. The whole year's worth for all three of us.' She counted out fifty cents times fifty-two weeks times three recipients and handed over seventy-eight dollars cash. Cheapest and best presents she'd ever paid for. ‘Right then,' she told Ted. ‘Let's get wrapping.'

****

Jamie strummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove down All Seasons Road. The hire car had gone. The tow truck had picked it up yesterday while he'd been busy with Kate. When he'd moved it from the field to the roadside a few days ago the mess to the front fender and the bonnet had sent shudders of worry down his spine. Thank God Katie had crashed through the gate and not the wall.

He was late getting to the surgery build. He'd received and missed three calls and two text messages from the plumbers yesterday. They'd done the job, waited a few hours for him to turn up, then headed back to Cooma. Jamie had missed the plumbers but hadn't missed a second of being with Kate and all that being with Kate involved. He'd almost asked her to put her bunny pyjamas on so he could take her out of them. Perhaps he'd do that tonight.

He smiled. So much serenity settled inside him that he wondered if maybe it was time to call Megan and demand she talk to him. He'd given her the eight weeks she'd asked for. Nearly nine now. He hadn't called, although keeping his thumb off her speed dial number on his mobile had been one of the hardest things he'd done in his life. But he had so much to tell her.

He pulled over to the verge on Burra Burra Lane, at the edge of the lower paddock where the foundations for the surgery and the partly built stone walls sat. An unusual nervousness poured through him as the ringing started. Would she answer?

‘Hey, big brother. At last, you call me.'

Jamie smiled, sighed, and wanted to give the steering wheel a damn good thump. ‘You didn't want me to call, remember?' he said, his smile blooming like a firecracker about to burst at the sound of his step-sister's voice. She sounded good. Whole. He nodded in contentment. ‘I miss you,' he found himself saying.

She laughed. Oh, God. She laughed. He hadn't heard her laugh in a long, long time.

‘I got your letters though,' she said.

He hadn't been able to let go of all contact with her over the last two months while she recovered herself, her strength and her willpower in the company of the dedicated family who'd taken her in. She hadn't answered his letters, but he'd known she'd got them because the lady she was staying with must have felt sorry for him. She'd left a message on his phone saying Megan had received the letters and all was well and it might be best not to rock the cradle by having an older brother breathing down her neck, regardless of his intention to help. That's all he'd known.

‘Aren't you going to ask me?' she asked.

‘No,' he said. He'd been asking how she was for nearly four years, and he knew she hated it because it had been so difficult for her to answer.

‘Well, I'm okay. I'm doing good, Jamie. I'm doing so good.'

‘Jesus, Megan, I love you, sweetheart.' Relief at her words and the laughter in her voice melted all resolve. ‘I'm so glad for you. I'm so glad.'

‘You wouldn't recognise me,' she said.

He scrunched his eyes as he recollected the bone-thin girl she'd been. Dying to ask her if she was eating, and how much weight she'd put on, he clamped his mouth shut.

‘You want to know?' she asked. Again, laughter in her tone. She was messing him about, like she used to in the days before anorexia took hold and battered her.

‘Not going to ask,' he said.

‘Gained seven kilos.'

‘Holy shit!' He thumped the steering wheel.

‘And even better than that, Jamie — I think it doesn't look too bad.'

‘Oh, baby. I'm so proud of you.' Tears stung his eyes.

‘So what's with the sudden phone call, big bro?'

Jamie breathed in the wonder of everything he'd just heard. The wonder of what he'd discovered while holding Kate last night as she slept. Another second and the words popped out of his mouth. ‘I've met someone.'

‘I don't believe it! You're not talking business crap, are you? You mean a woman, right? Is it the real thing? Come on, give. I need info.'

Jamie's heart belted a beat not dissimilar to ten drummers drumming. His kid sister was getting better. He'd found a woman he was beginning to think he loved. But she wasn't going to stay in the country. And neither was he, for God's sake. He needed to travel in order to make a living, and so did Kate.

Now what the hell was he going to do?

‘Okay,' he said to Megan. ‘I don't think it's going to be easy.'

‘Oh-oh.'

‘I might need some feminine advice.'

‘Double oh-oh, Jamie. Lucky for you I've got time on my hands.'

There was a smile in her tone and although Jamie didn't want to give Megan any worries, he had no-one else to talk to.

He'd found the essence of himself by being with a woman who was desperate to find hers. Sounded pretty fateful. The shooting stars. Buying Silver Bells House. Sammy's interference. Finding Kate.

‘Okay,' he said again before his breath got stuck in his throat. ‘Here's the lowdown, sis.'

****

Kate had been wrapping and rapping all day. She'd had a sneak preview of Ted and Mr Penman in their red suits attempting coordination of hand and feet dance moves to a rap version of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' which had seen everyone in stitches of laughter, resulting in a breathless Mr Penman having to nip off pretty sharply to try for a you know what, and in Ted collapsing onto the steps of the stock feeders' in a sweating velveteen heap.

Kate had been surprised by the laughter and the egging-on, although unsure if the lead players had fully understood how funny they were in their efforts to be serious. She was impressed by the choice of presents too. Every person in town was getting one. Age only came into the equation with the kids, who each got a gift suitable for their grouping.

Ted had done the right thing by his town too in purchasing the toys from Cuddly Bear Toy & Gift shop, which Gemma's mum ran. Babies were getting teddies, littlies were getting felt puzzles, pre-teenagers Rubik cubes and teens — poor things — were getting crossword puzzle books.

Now she was waiting on the walkway outside Morelly's hardware store, sitting on the bench with young Gemma while she waited for Jamie to come pick her up. She wondered if Jamie's present would end up lost in his bedside drawer — the men were getting hand-carved, wooden ball-point pens. Kate knew she'd never use her box of triple milled hand-made soaps but she'd cherish them forever.

Holy pink trotters, there was Mrs J with her pig — on a lead. Kate lifted her hand in a wave. Mrs J studied Kate from across the street as she stopped to let the pig sniff at the feet of the plastic horse outside the stock feeders'. Eventually, Mrs J raised an arm in response, then carried on down the street towards the southern exit by the B&B. Probably heading home with the pig.

‘What's the pig's name again?' Kate asked Gemma.

‘Ruby.'

Kate slapped her knee as she laughed. ‘Sammy sent me a photo of the painting Mrs J asked her to do of Ruby.'

Gemma grinned. ‘The one of Ruby sitting on a red sofa wearing a straw hat?'

‘That's the one.' And now she thought of it, the straw hat in Jamie's coat closet looked pretty similar to the one in the painting. Boy. She was sharing her wardrobe with a hundred and thirty kilo pig. What would Fat Jacques make of that if he ever found out?

‘What's
his
name again?' Kate whispered as a tall young man came out of the pub followed by Ted and Mrs Tam. The tall young man locked the doors behind them.

‘Josh,' Gemma said quietly. ‘He's going to be working for the new pub owner.'

Josh. Ethan was teaching him carpentry and building. He'd also had a part-time job in Cuddly Bear toy shop last time Kate was in town. ‘He's going to be busy then,' Kate said.

‘Yeah, but he's eighteen now. He can do anything.'

Turning eighteen, that golden age of
I'm free
. ‘You're good buddies, eh?'

Gemma nodded, the flush on her thirteen-year-old face telling Kate there was a little bit of hero-worshipping going on. ‘He's going to run the new craft centre that Sammy is setting up.'

Sammy had told Kate about the craft centre. Ethan had gifted his old veterinarian surgery and the house he used to live in to the town — lease-free. They planned on turning it into a showcase for local talent, of which there was surprisingly quite a bit — all the sewing, hand-made gifts, Sammy's art, some carpentry pieces.

‘He's saving up to leave town, that's why he's taking on so many jobs,' Gemma said a little softly. Then she perked up. ‘He's got a motorbike. He takes me for a ride when he gets the chance. Not just me,' she said, holding up her hand, one of her coloured pencils between her fingers. ‘All the kids. He's really good with children. For an adult.'

Kate smiled in response and kept her thoughts to herself. This kid was going get her heart burned one day if her worship of big, tall, lanky Josh turned into something painful for the heart to bear. Shame Kate wouldn't be around to help Gemma through. But Sammy would be here.

‘That's it, then,' Ted said as Josh wandered down the steps to the street and made his way to a battered old car. Ted stepped towards Kate, Mrs Tam at his side. ‘Shame the new man can't get here before Christmas Eve to open up the pub but we've got ourselves sorted without him.'

‘How?' Kate asked, at the same time thinking
poor new guy
— did he know what he'd bought into?

‘Well, he's said he'll have the bar running but no food. So a number of us residents will supply a plate of different foodstuffs.'

‘You mean a number of us women,' Mrs Tam said, then turned to Kate. ‘You see, there won't be time to get the kitchens going and the restaurant up and running.'

‘More's the pity.'

Mrs Tam ignored Ted. ‘So we'll have the present giving around the tree, then everyone can wander in and out of the pub to get a drink and some food.'

‘We'll bring a plate of something too,' Kate said. Jamie would have an idea of what to make.

‘Ninety residents,' Ted said with pride.

Kate re-did the calculations. Jamie eighty-eight, the new pub owner eighty-nine…‘I'm not a resident,' she reminded Ted.

‘Yet,' Mrs Tam said. ‘But the committee likes to plan ahead.'

Yet
? Did they expect her to return every Christmas?

‘Kookaburra's will be open by late-afternoon on Christmas Eve,' Ted said. He checked his watch. ‘Two days exactly.'

At midnight in two days' time Kate would be turning thirty and dang it, she hadn't thought about The Decision at all. She hadn't even organised another hire car to get out of town. She glanced to her left and at the sketchpad in Gemma's hands. She was drawing an autumn scene. A tree trunk in a purple sky, with yellow and gold leaves floating through the bare branches.

‘What's that?' she asked Gemma.