Everyone was sitting down to breakfast, when Seb walked through the back door. This was pretty odd as his day usually started a bit later because of the pub’s hours.
‘Hey,’ he said as he looked around. ‘Where’s Maddie and Rori?’
‘They’ve already eaten and gone for a walk,’ Lucy said as she glanced up from her plate.
Lix looked over at the old wall clock. ‘You’re early,’ he said. ‘You want some pancakes? Gray just made a stack of them.’
‘I’ve already eaten,’ Seb said. ‘I came by to see if I could borrow Gray.’
Grayson looked over from where he was standing at the stove. ‘What’s up?’
‘I’ve got several deliveries coming in today and my barman has called in sick. It’s a paying gig and I’ll even throw in lunch,’ Seb said with a persuasive smile.
‘Sounds good,’ Gray replied as he looked at Tam. ‘That is if I haven’t double booked myself. Was I meant to help you and Maddie today?’
Tam shook her head. ‘Tomorrow,’ she said. ‘We have to start configuring the barn for our first wedding of the year.’
‘Well, I guess I’m all yours then,’ Gray said, turning back to Seb.
‘I was hoping that you’d say that,’ Seb answered. ‘Can you come now?’
‘Sure, if someone else can do kitchen duty.’
‘I’ll do it,’ Lucy said. ‘It’s not like I’ve got anything else on today.’
Tam leant towards her sister. ‘I’m going to Bendigo to pick up the final few pieces for the summer house, you wanna come? That’s if I can borrow a car?’
Lucy broke into a grin. ‘Absolutely!’
Lix reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys. ‘Here, take mine. I’m only taking photos today.’
‘Won’t you need it?’ Tam asked even as she held out her hand.
‘Nah, it’ll be fine.’
‘Thanks,’ she responded before turning her attention to Seb. ‘I might drop by later. I need to grab a bottle of wine.’
Seb didn’t even look at her. ‘Yeah whatever,’ he said quickly. He caught Grayson’s eye. ‘You ready?’
‘I just have to grab my phone.’
‘I’ll meet you in the car,’ Seb said. ‘See you later,’ he called to the others before he headed out the back door.
Lucy stared at Tam for a moment. ‘Is he angry with you?’
Tam wrinkled her nose. ‘When isn’t he?’
‘Are you okay?’ Lix asked as he cut into another pancake. ‘I take it Seb is still annoyed.’
‘You know how he gets when he thinks he’s in the right.’
‘I did tell him that it wasn’t any of his business,’ Lix confessed.
‘I did too, but that just made it worse,’ Tam replied.
Lucy held up her hands in front of her. ‘Okay, everyone just hold it right there. Am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?’
Tam raised her eyebrows at Lix.
‘You might as well tell her, Tam,’ he said. ‘You can’t leave her out.’
Tam turned and faced Lucy. ‘Dylan and I are going out together.’
Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘Well, about time. It took you long enough.’
Tam sat back in her chair with surprise and Lix let out a laugh.
‘What do you mean?’ Tam asked.
‘I’m not blind, you two have been eyeing each other for as long as I can remember.’
‘So much for secrets.’ Lix chuckled. ‘Luce knew what was going on from the get-go.’
‘Lucy knew what?’ Grayson had walked back into the room.
‘That Tam and Dylan are seeing each other and that Seb is pissed about it,’ Lucy explained.
Gray looked shocked. ‘What? Really? You and Dylan?’
Lucy let out an exaggerated sigh. ‘Seriously, you really have to pay a bit more attention to what’s going on in this family.’
‘You knew?’
‘Not officially until now, but it was pretty obvious,’ Lucy said. ‘They’ve always liked each other.’
‘Since when?’
Lucy rolled her eyes. ‘Haven’t you noticed the way she looks at Dylan every time he walks in the door?’
‘That’s not true, Luce,’ Tam said as her cheeks tingled with heat.
‘Yeah right,’ Lucy scoffed back.
Gray looked puzzled as he glanced back at Tam. ‘So why is Seb annoyed?’
She shrugged. ‘He thinks we’re not suited and that everything will crash and burn and it will be a disaster.’
‘Subtle,’ Lix added.
‘Well, he’d be wrong then,’ Gray said with a smile. ‘Look, I’d better go because he’s waiting in the car. But, remember, just because Seb thinks he’s right, it doesn’t mean he is.’
Tam grinned at her youngest brother. ‘You’ve always had a way with words.’
He walked around the table to where she was sitting and gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. ‘Don’t let him get you down. He’ll get over it, it just might take a while.’
‘Thanks, Gray,’ Tam said as he gave a wave and disappeared out the back door.
* * *
Tam took the old back road to Bendigo, it took a little longer but in her opinion it was certainly more scenic. Lucy gave her a smile from the passenger’s seat as she put on some of her favourite melodic soft rock music. Tam realised that it had been a while since it had been just the two of them together and she made a mental note to spend more time alone with her sister. She thought about how similar they were physically, and how Lucy was showing much more independence now that she had turned sixteen. She seemed to really have her head on straight, and in that way was much more stable than Tam had been at her age. Once they left town there were a lot of long paddocks which were beginning to dry off in the summer heat. In one paddock a small flock of sheep were sheltering from the sun beneath the spreading boughs of an ancient gum tree, and in another a mob of kangaroos hopped away from the car and up a hill.
‘So what’s the plan?’ Lucy asked.
‘I want to pick up a couple more things for the summer house. I was thinking along decorative lines, but the truth is I’m not one hundred per cent sure what I’m looking for.’ Tam kept her eyes on the road as she spoke.
‘I’m sure we’ll find something,’ Lucy replied.
‘After that, I thought we’d grab some lunch and have a look around the shops.’
‘Sounds good.’ Lucy cast a glance over at her sister. ‘So, how long have you and Dylan been seeing each other?’
‘Almost a year.’
Lucy chuckled and shook her head. ‘Maybe you’re better at hiding things than I thought. I thought it must have been a recent development.’
‘No, we’ve just been keeping things under wraps.’
‘Why?’
Tam drew in a breath. It was a reasonable question but she found it very hard to answer.
‘Maybe I was afraid about what people would think.’
‘You mean Seb,’ Lucy countered.
‘Well, yes, but it wasn’t just that. Oh, truth is, I’m not sure.’ She quickly added, ‘Any plans with your friends for these holidays?’
‘Not really,’ Lucy said. ‘We’d planned to hang out over Christmas but Heather had to spend it at her dad’s place in Bendigo and Eric’s been dragged off to a family reunion in Melbourne.’
‘That sounds like fun,’ Tam commented.
‘Apparently not,’ Lucy said. ‘He barely knows his grandparents because his mum isn’t on the greatest terms with them. So he thinks it’s going to be super awkward. He says that his cousins, or rather his mum’s cousins, are nice to him but they’re all older. Everyone else ignores him because he’s just his mum’s mistake.’ Lucy held up her hands and did air quotation marks.
‘Wow, really? That’s awful,’ Tam said.
‘Yeah I know—judgey much? So we’re all counting down the days until they get back home.’
‘Why would Elise even put herself and Eric through that if the whole family is so toxic?’
‘Because her aunt and cousins begged her to go, and they’re nice. It’s just that everyone else is weird.’
‘You know Eric could have stayed with us while his mum went.’
Lucy nodded. ‘I did offer but he said he couldn’t let his mum face the “wolves” all by herself. His words, not mine.’
‘Sounds horrible,’ Tam said with a shudder. ‘I know we all have our disagreements, but nothing like that.’
‘Yeah, everything is fine until Seb decides to be a jerk,’ Lucy said.
Tam was torn for a moment because she kind of agreed. ‘He does what he thinks is right,’ she said measuredly. ‘I mean, we have to cut him a bit of slack sometimes.’
Lucy screwed up her face. ‘Says the woman who was told that she shouldn’t be with Dylan.’
Tam gripped the steering wheel. ‘Point taken.’