That was exactly why he was doing it. These locals needed to know he could fight his own battles and win his own hearts. ‘I can mingle when I choose to.’
‘But that’s the thing, Joey,’ cut in his mother. ‘You don’t often choose to.’
‘This will be good for me then, won’t it?’ he said. ‘I’ll be proving to Clarence that I’m not the tragic figure they think I am, and they’ll be getting a chance to know the real me.’
Felicity drummed her fingers on the table. ‘It’s not a bad idea, Mum. The rest of the committee all have their jobs, but you knowas well as I do, they all start to run around like headless chooks without someone keeping them on task. They need a leader. And Joeyissuper bossy.’
He frowned at his sister. ‘Was that praise?’
She stuck her tongue out at him. It was the first time she’d been nice to him since he moved back home. It was also a case of pot calling kettle, but he let it slide.
‘And you’ll get to make sure I spend plenty of time in bed, Patty,’ said Robbo.
Patty fluttered her eyelashes. ‘Is that a line, husband?’
Everybody groaned. One of his brothers made a gagging noise and told Patty to get a room, but this wasn’t the time for joking around. ‘So, Mum, what do you say? You going to let me be Acting Chairman in your stead?’
She gripped his hand and gave a laugh. ‘Welcome to the Bush Poetry Muster, my lamb.’
Robbo lifted a teacup. ‘To the muster,’ he said.
‘To the muster!’ they all chorused.
‘If you adults have finished squabbling, do you think I could get around to opening the rest of my presents now?’ said Amy.
Joey hauled her onto his lap, reached over, and gathered all the unwrapped ribboned parcels so they were in front of them. ‘Only if you open the one from me and Gus first. He rang me this morning and asked me to lick your cheek. He misses you.’
‘Ew gross!’ squealed Amy as he made slobbery noises at her.
His mother came and stood behind him. She waited until Amy had busied herself ripping gift-wrapping into confetti, then pressed her cheek to his. ‘Thank you for stepping up,’ she murmured. ‘Precious, lovely boy. You should probably call a meeting straight away. Like, tomorrow if possible. I’ll scribble down some notes for you to get you started. You sure you’re up for this?’
He plastered on a smirk and dropped her a wink. ‘I’m not doing this for you, Patty; I’m salvaging my pride. A committee needed to find the charming Farmer Joe a love interest? I don’t think so.’
Taking over the chairmanship of the committee wasn’t the only epiphany he’d had while he was drinking that cup of tea. He was about to start a Mrs Farmer Joe scheme of his own, and he’d had a brilliant idea—a grand gesture of an idea.
His heart was telling him he had a chance with Kirsty but for the debt hanging around his neck like a cross-bowed albatross. Easy solution … and all it took was him getting over his pride.