Outback Sisters (27 page)

Harriet put her hands over her ears as Aunty Esther and Uncle Dave came up to join them. She held out her arms to Simone.

‘Can I steal our darling girl?' she asked. ‘It's been a long day for her and I want to get her into bed ASAP.'

‘Of course.' Simone reluctantly handed Heidi over to her new grandmother and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Sweet dreams, sweet girl.'

‘Night, everyone,' said Esther and Dave in unison. ‘See you in the morning.'

The hordes departed pretty fast—the snoozing elderly relatives needed to be awoken and the drunken footballers assisted out the door.

‘What a beautiful wedding,' said Ruth, with a yawn. Simone caught it immediately, the lack of sleep finally catching up with her. ‘Come on, young ladies, time to get you to bed.'

‘Night, Mum.' Grace hugged Simone and she squeezed back tightly, not wanting to let her go. After the events of the last twenty-four hours, she needed the comfort of her girls.

‘Good night, my sweet.' She looked to Harriet. ‘Do you have a hug for your old mum, too?'

Harriet rolled her eyes but she obliged, giving Simone the quickest of hugs before pulling back. ‘Whatever you and Logan get up to tonight, I do not want to hear about it.' She pointed her finger as if she were a teacher telling off a student. ‘Understood?'

‘Goodnight, Harriet,' Simone said, wishing for an earthquake that might split the floor and swallow her. She didn't know what was worse—letting them think she and Logan were off for a dirty night together or telling them they'd broken up. Luckily her mum and stepfather whisked her girls away before she had to confess anything.

‘Well, I guess I'll see you guys later.' Frankie wiggled her fingers at Simone and Logan. ‘Have a good night.'

‘Actually,' Simone said, ‘I'm coming with you. Goodnight, Logan.'

‘Goodnight, Simone,' Logan said at the same moment as Frankie said, ‘Oh?'

‘I'll see you both tomorrow before we go?'

Simone nodded at Logan. ‘Of course and thanks again for coming.' She couldn't bring herself to tell him to thank Angus.

The three of them left the function room together and then Logan walked towards his villa and she and Frankie went in the opposite direction. Simone expected the Spanish Inquisition from Frankie but maybe she was tired, because all she said was, ‘You okay?'

‘Uh huh.' Simone nodded, feeling anything but. ‘Logan and I have decided to call it quits.'

‘I'm sorry.' Frankie wrapped her arm around Simone's shoulder, comforting her as they walked.

‘It's all right.' Simone leaned her head against her sister. ‘It's not like I need a man in my life. Remember after Ryan came out of the closet? I said I had a beautiful marriage once and maybe that should be enough. Well, I think the universe is trying to remind me of that.'

‘Just because Logan isn't The One doesn't mean he isn't out there,' Frankie said.

Simone shrugged. ‘Whatever. Right now all I want to do is go to bed.'

But she couldn't help thinking of Angus and how, briefly, she'd thought she might have found him.

A week after the wedding, Angus was still beating himself up with guilt. Logan had been working from home, researching and writing articles at night and helping on the farm during the day, but he wasn't his usual sunny-natured self. On the journey home from Kalbarri, he'd admitted that he and Simone had called it a day and while he'd made out like this had been a mutual decision, Angus had insider knowledge he couldn't reveal to his brother—the fact that it had been Simone who'd instigated the break-up. Logan's mood indicated he was pretty bummed about it.

He couldn't blame him—he'd also found himself distracted by thoughts of Simone whenever he should have been concentrating on something else. He'd tried to change the oil in his ute and ended up with the wrong container. Luckily he realised his mistake before it was too late; his ute wouldn't have thanked him if he'd filled the sump with hydraulic oil. Then he'd tried to measure up some steel to cut and kept forgetting the numbers. Three times he'd had to walk back to the seeder bar to re-measure it.

If he could turn back time and change that night, he would, but as that wasn't possible, he felt the need to do something else to make it up to Logan.

He was in the shower, scrubbing off the dirt from a day's work servicing the harvesting machinery for the upcoming season, when the answer came to him. The wind-farming bizzo. His motives for resisting Logan's ideas about renewable energy on the farm had been unreasonable he knew, and who was he to hold Logan back? If leasing some of their land for wind-farming meant Logan didn't have to be as tied to the place, then they should do it. He preferred working with his brother over farm contractors, but he didn't want Logan to feel obliged and come to hate working on the farm, to eventually come to resent him.

Feeling lighter already and happy to have thought about something in the shower other than Simone—that was progress indeed—he turned off the water, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself. As he opened the door to walk down the hallway to his bedroom, he caught a whiff of something alluring coming from the kitchen. One of the many good things about having Logan home was that they ate well. He was as good as any wife, whipping up cakes, slices and the like for smoko, and he always cooked a full-on meal for dinner. Angus told him he didn't have to but Logan reckoned he enjoyed it and Angus wasn't going to argue with that.

He went into his bedroom, dressed quickly and then grabbed the literature from the renewable energy company that Logan had given him to read months ago. Shamefully, he hadn't even opened the brochure, but Logan had told him enough and it was time to trust his brother. Logan might not be as active on the farm as Angus, but they owned equal shares, along with Olivia, who was studying to be a teacher and happy to be a completely silent partner.

‘We'll do it,' Angus said as he entered the kitchen a few moments later.

Logan turned around from where he was tossing something in the wok. ‘Do what?' he asked, frowning.

Angus held up the wind-farming booklet and Logan raised his eyebrows.

‘What's brought this on?'

Angus swallowed, hoping guilt wasn't scrawled across his face. He wasn't about to admit the truth—that sleeping with Logan's girlfriend had filled him with such a heavy weight he had to do something to try to ease it. ‘I've just been thinking,' he said, heading for the fridge and grabbing two bottles of Carlton Dry. He handed one to Logan, cracked the lid off his, sat down at the table and took a swig.

Logan simply stared at him, waiting for some kind of explanation.

‘Well,' Angus began, taking a deep breath, ‘the truth is I've realised my reasons for objecting are neither sensible or logical.'

‘What exactly are your reasons? Until now, you've shut me down every time I've tried to talk about this. What's changed?'

‘This is going to sound stupid, but wind-farming just sounds like something Sarah would be excited about. You know what she was like, how environmentally aware she was. However unreasonable it is, when she walked out, I developed an aversion to stuff like that.'

Logan frowned. ‘Seriously? That's why you didn't want to consider my suggestion?'

‘See? Stupid.' Angus took another slug of his beer.

‘You really need to get over her, brother. She's been gone, what? Ten years?'

‘I
am
over her,' Angus said, perhaps a bit more forcefully than necessary. It was the truth. Any love he'd had for her was long gone. It wasn't Sarah who had stopped him pursuing another relationship.

It was the fact he'd lost too many people in his life and each loss had taken a chunk out of him. He couldn't risk losing someone else.

‘When was the last time you were with a woman?' Logan asked, as he took the wok off the heat and retrieved two bowls from the overhead cupboard.

Angus was thankful his brother didn't see his reaction to that question. ‘Not that it's any of your business,' he replied, trying to sound casual, ‘but you don't need to worry about my sex life. I find satisfaction when I need it.'

‘Being acquainted with your right hand doesn't mean you have a sex life, and besides, I'm not just talking about sex. I'm talking about companionship.'

An image of Simone landed in Angus's head. He'd had such a good time with her the night before the wedding, and not only when they were roughing up the sheets. They'd talked, they'd laughed, and having dinner with her friends and family had reminded him what it was like to be in a couple. As much as he hated to admit it, he'd liked it and he kept thinking about what it would be like to see her again.

‘How did me agreeing to your wind-farming proposal turn into a conversation about sex?' Angus asked.

Logan grinned and set two bowls down on the table. ‘We're blokes. Isn't everything about sex?'

Angus rolled his eyes but at least Logan was smiling again. ‘Maybe. Speaking of which, are you going to try your luck again on that Rural Matchmakers site?'

‘Nah.' Logan shook his head as he sat down and picked up his fork. ‘You were right. You can't properly gauge whether you have a connection with someone online. Guess Miss Right will come along when she comes along.' He held up his beer. ‘You sure about pursuing a deal with the renewable energy guys?'

‘Yep. It's not fair of me to be keeping you back from advancing your career. As you say, if we have some extra income, then I'll be able to pay people to do some of the stuff you currently have to come home to help with.' He'd miss Logan if he wasn't around so much, but that wasn't a reason not to do this.

‘That's not what this is about,' Logan said. ‘The extra income will give us a bit of a buffer for the not-so-good farming seasons and insure against a market downturn. I've probably already said this, but one farmer I interviewed referred to the land he leased to wind farmers as his vertical crop. That sounds good to me. If we're lucky, we might even save a bit. You could take some time off, go on a holiday.'

Angus snorted. ‘Where the hell would I go? Relaxing by the beach isn't really my thing.'

‘Whatever. I just meant you wouldn't have to feel so tied to the farm. You could go visit Liv a bit more.'

‘Maybe.' Angus shrugged.

‘If we do set up a partnership with the renewable energy company—and there's no guarantee they'll even choose us for their purposes—but if they do, it doesn't mean I'll be taking a back seat here. You're not going to get rid of me that easily. I might not live and breathe the farm like you do, but that doesn't mean I don't love it here. Farming's in my blood too, remember? And I don't want to give it up any more than I want to give up journalism. I think this will be a smart move, going forward. More wind turbines are going to be installed in this region regardless, so we may as well get some benefit from them. Yes?'

‘I already agreed. No need to go on about it.'

Logan laughed. ‘In that case, let's drink to it instead.' And he lifted his bottle and took another slug.

* * *

As the beer slid down Logan's throat, he realised this was his perfect opportunity to tell Angus why he was so keen on inviting renewable energy developers onto their property. It wasn't that he didn't want to work on the farm anymore; the truth was he just wasn't sure how many years he had left where that would be possible. He was thinking ahead, forward planning before his medical situation became dire, but he wasn't ready yet to say why. Once Angus knew, he'd have to tell Olivia and they'd both pity him in a way he couldn't bear.

‘What's the next step then?' Angus asked, jolting Logan from his thoughts.

‘I'll register our interest with my contact and we'll attend the information session in Geraldton. We'll be able to ask questions and hear more about the whole process. You up for that?'

Angus nodded and Logan still couldn't quite believe he'd agreed. He appeared to be becoming more easygoing in his old age. First agreeing to come to the wedding and now this—he wasn't quite sure what had come over his brother, but he wasn't about to complain.

The wedding sent his thoughts right back to Frankie, which was exactly where they'd been before Angus had walked into the kitchen and delivered his surprising news. In fact, Frankie had taken up permanent residence in Logan's head, so much so that everything he did was taking twice as long as usual, due to his daydreaming. He still couldn't believe how fast his feelings had developed—they'd only met twice before the weekend in Kalbarri.

It had been a week since he'd seen her and it felt like years. The yearning to talk to her was driving him crazy and if he didn't do something about it soon, he thought he'd explode. The problem was he didn't have any contact details for her and he was worried that if he rang the café, Simone might pick up and question why he was calling.

‘Earth to Logan. Are you in there?'

‘Huh?' He shook his head and looked at Angus. ‘Did you say something?'

‘I asked you when this meeting was,' Angus said. ‘I'm thinking of taking a trip to see Liv before harvest and just wanted to make sure I wasn't away then.'

‘Next Wednesday night, in Gero.'

‘Okay.' Angus nodded. ‘Where were you?'

‘What do you mean?'

‘It was like you were in another zone just then. If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a woman on your mind. You still upset about Simone?'

Logan forced a chuckle. ‘Nah, just thinking about an article I have to work on tonight,' he lied. Although he did have work to get on with, he doubted he'd be able to concentrate with thoughts of Frankie filling his head.