‘Fine. But it’s a bit of a list.’ Joey let out a breath. ‘Dad’s crook, you know.’
‘Yeah, I heard from Uncle Merv. I guess it doesn’t help that the bank’s got your balls in a vice, and you’ve been farming your arse off.’
‘Yeah.’ He ran his finger along the inside of Pete’s ute door. ‘You know it’s cancer, right?’
‘That’s all I know.’
‘He’s had a mastectomy at Lismore Base Hospital … two months ago, can you believe, and I didn’t even know. Now he’s on radiation treatment. It’s a wait-and-see process, Patty tells me, but the oncologist says his prognosis is good.’
‘But … it’s still cancer, which must be a dirty word for you, I’m guessing.’
Joey sighed. It sure as shit wasn’t one of his favourites. ‘Yep.’
‘And I’m sure some of that gloomy face is because that good-looking rouseabout of yours moved off the farm and back into Ken’s finest guest room at the Clarence Hotel Motel.’
‘You’re behind the news there, mate. Shewasat the hotel motel. Then, I finally talked her into going out with me today so I could, you know, sort stuff out. It was such a freaking success, she took off. All the way back to Port Augusta.’
‘Ouch.’
Joey played with the lock on his door and listened to the catch click open. And shut. And open. And shut. And ope—
‘Mate, I’m gonna get you in a headlock if you don’t stop that infernal clicking,’ said Pete.
‘You’re right,’ Joey said. ‘About everything except the bank. I have an offer on my Bondi place. If I accept it, then the bank’s opinion about what I do or don’t do won’t matter. And Kirsty … well, yeah.’ He’d messed that up, too, and he wasn’t even sure how.
‘Seems to me that for all your protests, maybe you got yourself a little invested in the Mrs Farmer Joe scheme.’
‘No,’ he said, in a weak-as-water tone. ‘Crap. Okay, of course the answer to that is yes.’ He wanted nothing more than a Mrs Farmer Joe to call his own. He didn’t care anymore that the farm wasn’t ready, that his list of chores was half done. He did want a wife—preferably one with long dark hair and laughing swirling-toffee eyes and a soft side hiding under all that practical no-nonsense exterior.
One who wore frilly grass-green knickers and swore black and blue she wasn’t one to settle down, but then spent all her time mothering Amy and treating Gus like her favourite son.
‘What about her job? She’s got a place down in South Australia too, hasn’t she?’
He’d not thought any of this through. Any of the obstacles. Like for one: Kirsty’s real home was thousands of miles away. Like for two: she’d just cleared off and he didn’t even know if he was ever going to see again.
‘I don’t know how any of it would work. I only know I promised Mum I was sticking around this time, so South Australia is not an option for me. Not while Dad’s crook. Not while I have a farm to build up so I can pay my way.’
‘A man of the land.’
He flicked a look at Pete to see if he was joking, but his friend seemed … supportive. Huh. Maybe his akubra was finally battered enough for him to be considered a real farmer. ‘Yeah.’
‘You’ve made a fine start. Your cottages look great, the macadamia plantation’s unrecognisable from when you moved back. The weeds are all cleared out, the irrigation pipes are running straight as an arrow from tree to tree. You’ve done good, mate.’
Praise. He liked hearing it. The—thing—in his chest twisted a little. ‘Working on this place with my bare hands like I have been … I’ve grown fond of it. I trundle up and down the hills in the tractor and I think about me living out my years here. I see Amy running about after the chooks in her green gumboots, and I think about what it would be like to have kids of my own running about.’
Pete snickered. ‘You’ve got it bad, Joey.’
He sighed. ‘I’m sounding like an episode ofA Country Practice, aren’t I?’
‘Nothing wrong with that, mate. So—I’m gonna be a little blunt here—what’s the problem?’
‘She doesn’t want to have a bar of me.’
‘What makes you think that? It’s certainly not the impression I, or anyone else in this town, have been getting.’
Joey snorted. ‘You’ll just be a memory in my rear-view mirror, I think that was the phrase she used.’
‘Ouch.’ Pete stared out the front window of his truck for a moment. ‘You know, you’ve never been a quitter, Joey … you just like to get stuff done all on your ownsome. You don’t have to this time. You’ve got a whole committee invested in getting you what you want. Maybe it’s time to accept their help, instead of bucking your horns up against it.’