Hayley groaned as she woke to the now familiar squabbling of parrots outside her bedroom window. ‘You have got to be kidding me.’ Each morning they seemed to increase in number and the volume of their constant screeching was rising to the ridiculous.
‘Shoo,’ she yelled through the window, but other than a few nearby fluttering off their branch, they all continued fighting amongst one another. With a frustrated groan, Hayley closed the window and pulled the curtains across. She knew she wouldn’t go back to sleep with that racket going on, so she got up and made coffee.
By now Errol was making it clear he was awake too. She tried to be annoyed by his insistent heehawing, but he really did have the most gorgeous face. His big fluffy ears just killed her. The only time he didn’t bray was when she was with him or he was eating, and she’d noticed that he’d started getting destructive, chewing at his stall and the posts.
As soon as he spotted her his braying increased. She approached the stall he was in and he reached out to rub his head against her. ‘Yes, I know, you missed me and you’re hungry,’ Hayley said, giving his big head a scratch and feeling her heart melt as large black eyes gazed up at her longingly. She broke off some hay and fed it to him, leaning against the rail and watching him devour his meal, enjoying the quiet that suddenly descended.
Only to be broken by the ringing of her phone. Damn. She’d leave it inside next time. Hayley gave a small groan as she noticed her agent’s name on the screen.
‘Hales, how are you? Are you still alive? How is it out there?’
‘Hi, Soph. Yes, I’m still alive. They actually have electricity out here nowadays. It’s all quite civilised, really.’
‘I’m sure it is. I still think you’re mad to give up living in the city, with everything you could possibly want at your fingertips, for a place that doesn’t even have a David Jones.’ Sophia sounded horrified by the idea.
‘You’d be surprised at how well a person can survive in the wilderness,’ Hayley said sarcastically.
‘Yes, well…Just wanted to touch base and see how you’re progressing with the manuscript.’
Hayley’s good mood slipped a notch at the mention of her work in progress. Well, progress was being a tad too generous; she hadn’t actually started on it yet and it was due in less than five months. ‘Fine. Everything’s going fine.’
‘Why am I getting the feeling that everything is not fine?’
Hayley swore under her breath. Damn the woman and her perceptiveness. ‘Maybe it’s the connection…we’re lucky to even have reception out here in the boondocks.’
‘Hayley, if you need more time, I’m sure we can arrange an extension. When you’re ready just send me through a few chapters and I can give you feedback.’
That was a great plan…if only she had a few chapters to send. ‘Sounds great. Listen, I have to go, but I promise you’ll receive some pages soon.’
‘Hayley—’
‘Talk soon, bye,’ she said, disconnecting the call. She let out a long, slow breath. Now that she was here, she’d be able to concentrate. The peace and tranquillity was exactly what she needed to coax out a new novel. She wasn’t going to panic yet.
Trust Sophia to pick up on her anxiety. Over the last few years her agent had become as close to a real friend as Hayley had. Their relationship was a business one first and foremost, but Sophia had been very supportive during the whole Paul and Lisa fiasco, and the two women had become close because of the experience.
Friendships had never come easily to Hayley. At school she’d been a loner, preferring to spend her time reading. She’d been a complete book nerd and as a result had often found herself the butt of jokes and snide remarks. It baffled Hayley that for such a quiet unassuming person, she’d seemed to ruffle the feathers of a lot of people.
Hayley’s attention was brought back to the present by a gentle nudge to her elbow. ‘You’re all finished with breakfast, are you, little man?’ She rubbed his grey face between her hands and smooched his white muzzle. ‘You’re just a big softy, aren’t you,’ she said, smiling as the donkey closed his eyes in seeming bliss. He just loved attention. All the time.
‘I wish I could stay out here with you all day, but I’m never going to get this book written if I do.’
The racket started up as soon as she walked away and Hayley knew she had to find a solution and soon.
The lorikeets seemed to have landed en masse this morning and were straight into a hysterical fight over rights to the best of the bottlebrush nectar. Last night she’d googled how to deter birds and was now armed with an arsenal of ideas for moving on noisy feathered visitors. First thing this morning she was heading into town to buy a stuffed toy cat.
It was somewhat of a novelty to leave the house. There was no such thing as a quick drive to a shopping centre when heading anywhere other than Lochway involved a river crossing on a ferry, and depending on where she had to go, not one but two ferries. She was going to have to factor in waiting time, she decided as she sat in her car after having only just missing the ferry on her way into Windsor for a big grocery shop.
The sun lulled her into a sleepy kind of relaxation as it streamed in through her window. The earlier rush hour of commuters and schoolkids would most likely be hectic, but at this time of the day no one seemed in much of a hurry.
She studied the steep rock face that shaded the other side of the river. Convicts had built the roads and bridges that had made access to this part of the country possible. It was mind-boggling that men without the aid of power tools or heavy machinery had been able to cut their way through rock, carving roads and stones for building houses with what today we would consider such primitive tools.
The whole area was awash with so much history. It was one thing to live in Sydney and know that it was the first part of the country to have been settled, making it older than this region, but still, it wasn’t something Hayley ever truly stopped to think about in her day-to-day life. For some reason though, here, it surrounded you. Maybe it was because it wasn’t a city, and it had stayed pretty much intact and kept its quaint, rural personality. The area was named the Forgotten Valley after all, and even though it may have disappointed the earlier settlers when it hadn’t grown into a bustling region, as they’d hoped, in those first early days, the lack of development and destruction of the natural beauty was now, over two hundred years later, its biggest strength.
Hayley glanced in the rear-view mirror and noticed two other cars had pulled in behind her. The driver of the vehicle furthest back stepped out and Hayley peered a little closer as a hat and checked shirt filled her mirror.
‘Hi. Thought that was you up here,’ a deep voice announced as she wound down the window to greet Luke.
‘I guess there aren’t too many red coupés around here, are there?’ Hayley said as he hunkered down so he was on eye level with her.
‘It does tend to stand out,’ he agreed. ‘Where you headed?’
‘I’m going down to Windsor. I need some groceries and I thought I might have a bit of a look around. What about you?’
‘I’ve got to drop off some papers in Wisemans Ferry, but I’m heading down to Windsor after that. Do you have time for a coffee later?’
His invitation caught her off guard, but she found herself excited by the prospect, slightly more than was warranted for a neighbourly meeting. ‘Sure. I don’t have to be anywhere in particular.’
‘Great,’ he said, pulling out his phone. They swapped numbers and Luke gave the top of her door a quick tap in farewell. ‘I’ll give you a call when I’m done.’
Hayley glanced across and was surprised to see the ferry getting ready to dock and unload its passengers. ‘Okay, sure. That would be great.’ She started the car and waited until the attendant waved her forward, nervously inching onto the ferry. One day maybe she’d be doing this like it was second nature, but for now she was terrified of driving the stupid car off the other end and into the water.
Windsor wasn’t a huge town by any stretch of the imagination, but it did have the basics plus a bit more, and even though she’d only been in Lochway for a few weeks, the prospect of shops was kind of exciting.
The department store was her first stop. She had a list of items she needed for Operation Bird Evacuation, and she headed straight for the toy department.
Her basket was filling at an alarming rate as she strolled through the store remembering that there was nowhere to nip down to should she forget something. Two ferry rides and a long drive were not really going to be feasible when you realised you needed one thing. She’d have to start making lists. At the supermarket she felt as though she was preparing for a zombie invasion, stocking up on essentials like toilet paper and long-life milk. Maybe she had been watching too many doomsday prepper shows but was there any harm in making sure you had a good supply of the basics? She thought not. She might be living somewhat remotely now but there was no way she was going to run out of toilet paper.
After placing her purchases in the car, she heard her phone announce a message and dug it out of her handbag, trying to calm the little leap her heart gave when she saw Luke’s name on the screen.
A wave of butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Oh, for goodness sake! He’s just your next-door neighbour. Pull yourself together.
Luke caught himself fidgeting with the small bowl of packet sugars and swore softly. He felt like a damn teenager. You’re a grown-arse man, get it together, but here he was, sweating bullets and feeling as jumpy as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
As the door opened and she stepped inside, sliding her dark sunglasses up onto the top of her head, he felt his mouth go dry. She was beautiful, though not in the tall and willowy way Lucinda was. She had a natural beauty, a freshness that lit her eyes and gave her a glow.
He moved to stand up but she was already pulling out a chair. He found himself watching her and searching in vain for something intelligent to say, feeling like a fool. What the hell was wrong with him?
‘Did you get everything done?’ she asked, folding her arms across the table and leaning forward slightly.
‘Yeah,’ he said, clearing his throat. ‘How about you?’
‘I did, and then some,’ she said with a small grimace. ‘I think I overbought a little. I’m still getting used to the whole remoteness thing.’
He chuckled. ‘We’re not that remote.’
‘Well, compared to living in the city with everything on your doorstep, trust me, it’s remote.’
‘Yeah, I guess. I remember when I used to bring friends home for a visit when I was away at high school, they were pretty horrified about not having any shops close by,’ he conceded.
‘What did you do for high school?’
‘I boarded.’
‘Ah, private school,’ she said.
He cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It explains why you have this, I don’t know…cultured air about you.’
‘Cultured?’ he almost laughed at that. His brother and sister-in-law were forever giving him grief about his lack of appreciation of the arts. They were both big fans of art galleries and concerts, things he had no real interest in himself.
‘Well, I don’t know, you just don’t seem like the born and raised on the farm kind of guy. Did you move straight back home after high school?’
‘I went to ag college for a few years and did a business degree, but I was back and forwards to the farm during that time. It’s where I’ve always wanted to be. My older brother, Grant, stayed in the city after uni. He and his wife only just moved back six months ago to start up the brewery and restaurant.’
A young waitress came over to take their order, momentarily interrupting the conversation.
‘So you always wanted to be a farmer?’ Hayley asked when she’d left.
‘Yep. For as long as I can remember. It’s been in the blood for generations. We can trace the property back to the first land grant issued in the area.’
‘That must be really something, having your family own that one piece of land for so long. So much history.’
‘It’s pretty special,’ he agreed. ‘It hasn’t all been smooth sailing—like everyone else on the land, we’ve had to diversify to keep it profitable and able to support us all. That’s the problem with a lot of farming now: there’s not enough profit to support the parents and the adult kids who want to go into the family business. Not like there once was.’
‘I think it’s fantastic how you’ve managed to work together as a family.’
‘It took some planning and Dad wasn’t a hundred per cent sold on the idea of diversifying at first.’ Bit of an understatement, he thought silently. His father might have given up arguing about the new ventures, but he sure wasn’t thrilled about it all.
‘Why not?’ He saw her glance up and smile at the waitress as she placed their coffee in front of them.
He couldn’t believe it, his heart actually hitched…What the hell was that? When had he even started thinking of hearts hitching? He blinked and realised she was waiting for him to answer. ‘Dad’s pretty old-school. He deals in cattle and crops. Mum turning the place into a wedding reception centre and Grant and Olivia wanting to open the brewery was a big shift in his way of thinking.’
‘But he’s come around now?’
‘To a certain degree. I think he was surprised at how it’s taken off. Oh, that reminds me, Mum texted earlier, she wanted to know if you’d like to come over on Wednesday for afternoon tea.’
‘Sure. That’d be lovely.’
They talked about her books, and, despite what she thought, he really was interested. Sure, he couldn’t remember the last book he’d read for pleasure, but maybe it was time he started again. He’d loved reading once.
‘I probably should get going, I’ve got groceries out in the car,’ Hayley said when they’d finished their coffee.
He seriously couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at ease with a woman. Not even with Lucinda.
‘Yeah, I should too. I didn’t realise it was that late.’
They both stood and walked towards the counter. When Hayley went to reach for her purse, he casually stepped in front of her and handed his credit card to the waitress. ‘I asked you out,’ he said when she protested.
‘Thank you,’ she said, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
He followed the action and had to force himself to look away in order to stop staring. ‘My pleasure.’
He tucked his wallet into his back pocket as he followed her outside to her car. ‘Wow, you did do a big shop,’ he said, eyeing the pile of plastic bags on the back seat.
‘I figure I’ll be busy hibernating once I get back into writing.’
‘Hey, I’m not judging,’ he grinned. ‘You should see when my mum and sister-in-law go on a shopping spree.’
She turned the key in the ignition. ‘Thanks again. I guess I’ll see you around.’
He watched as she waved and pulled out, disappearing down the road. For the strangest moment he felt the urge to run after her, afraid he might never see her again. Luke gave a harsh grunt and forced himself to turn away. Maybe this was some weird side effect of going too long without sex—you suddenly became obsessed with a stranger.
He hadn’t been entirely celibate since the break-up with Lucinda—there was that weekend in the Hunter Valley for a mate’s bachelor party, and he had called on a few casual acquaintances in the city—but he hadn’t been seeing anyone seriously, and no one at all in the last six months. He just didn’t have the drive to go out and meet someone new. It hadn’t helped that he’d been busy setting up the restaurant and brewery with Grant, but still, if he’d felt a need to find love, he could have found a way.
He frowned. What did love have to do with it? He wasn’t ready to sink his entire life into a relationship again. Not now, maybe not ever. Maybe you just haven’t met someone you were really in love with yet, a little voice reasoned. Hayley’s smile flashed into his mind. There was something about her, he couldn’t explain it—something about Hayley Stevens stirred emotions in him that he hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. It made him a little uncomfortable. As though her arrival in Lochway was going to shake everything up.