When I enter the house, Sue meets me at the door, handing me a piece of paper with Bridget’s contact details.
‘Friend of yours?’ she asks.
Pete smiles to himself. ‘Old neighbour.’
‘Oh.’ Sue looks me over. ‘Well, lunch isn’t quite ready, so kitchen’s all yours. We’ll make ourselves busy in the living room.’
I doubt that. ‘Thanks.’
I head to the phone hanging on the kitchen wall, dialling the number on the page. It’s a mobile number, and Bridget answers on the fourth ring.
‘Bridget speaking.’
She sounds so much like Annie that it throws me for a second. ‘Hey. It’s Hunter.’
There’s a long pause. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi.’
She clears her throat. ‘You left a message for me to call you?’
I tell her that I’ve moved to Brisbane, that I’d heard she was living up here now, and that it would be great to see a familiar face.
She’s quiet on the other end. ‘Who told you I was in Brisbane?’
‘Annie. I mean, she didn’t know for sure.’
More silence.
‘You had a conversation with my sister about me?’ She’s understandably sceptical.
‘We were hanging out a little before I left.’
‘You were hanging out with Annie?’
It’s not my place to tell that story. ‘A little.’ My hand goes briefly to the leather band around my wrist.
‘I forgot you were in the same year at school.’ She pauses. ‘Did she graduate?’
It’s safe to say she hasn’t heard from her sister. I push down the disappointment. ‘Yeah.’
‘Is she still living at home?’
‘Think so.’ I only know what Sammy’s told me, and he only knows what Tamsin’s told him. ‘Last I heard, she’s working at Maggie’s.’
Bridget exhales into the phone. ‘Right.’ Another pause. ‘What about you? Where are you living?’
‘Ripley. Working as a farmhand.’
‘I assumed you’d stay in Chirnside and work at your own farm.’
I close my eyes briefly. ‘That was the plan, but plans change.’ I lean on the wall. ‘Listen, if you ever want to meet up, it’d be great to see a familiar face.’
We’re not friends, so this is awkward for both of us. But the guarded woman on the other end of the line is my only remaining tie to Annie since I’ve severed all the others.
‘I’m sorry to be blunt,’ she says, ‘and I might be missing the mark here, but I have zero interest in dating right now.’
I smile into the phone. ‘That’s not what this is.’