Oliver Dawson grabbed his dog, Diesel, by the scruff of the neck and rubbed him vigorously in their daily greeting ritual. ‘You wanna go for a drive?’ he asked, roughing the animal lightly in a show of affection. ‘Go on then, get in,’ he said and watched as the dog turned in happy circles and then headed over to the farm ute.

Ollie opened the cabin door and the red-coated heeler leaped gracefully up onto the passenger seat and waited patiently for his owner to start the car.

The sound of Ollie’s ringtone made him pause and he pulled the phone from his pocket. ‘Hey, loser,’ he greeted his best friend and neighbour, Griffin Callahan, in lieu of a more traditional hello. ‘Ready to get your butt kicked tonight?’

‘Whatever, tosser,’ Griff scoffed. ‘That’s what I’m calling about. I can’t make darts tonight.’

‘What? You really are scared, aren’t ya?’ Ollie added in a gleeful tone.

‘Yeah, right.’

‘So what’s your excuse?’

‘We’ve got a surprise visitor. Hadley’s come home. Mum wants us all at dinner tonight.’

Ollie felt something kick in his chest briefly at the mention of his mate’s sister, but he cleared his throat and forced his attention back to the conversation. ‘I guess I could let you off this once. I’m gonna tell the guys that you were only using your sister as an excuse ’cause you were scared, though,’ he added.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ Griffin drawled. ‘Enjoy your moment. Next week you won’t have anything to gloat about. Hey,’ he added before they hung up, ‘drop by and say g’day to Hads when you get a chance.’

‘Yeah. Sure. I’ll do that,’ Ollie said before disconnecting the call and staring out through the front window in an attempt to get his disjointed thoughts under control.

Hadley Callahan had always managed to throw him off guard, even as kids. He and his twin sister, Olivia, had grown up with the Callahan kids, and for a long time they’d been more like cousins than neighbours, until one day they weren’t … or, more to the point, Hadley wasn’t. Seemingly out of the blue, Ollie had started having different feelings towards his best friend’s little sister and everything changed.

He’d never acted on any of these impulses, though. He wasn’t game. Griffin would probably have killed him if he’d told him he liked his sister as he’d always been protective of her. And then there was Hadley herself—she’d been no stranger to throwing a punch if she had to, and he hadn’t been too keen on being on the end of one if she didn’t feel the same way about him. But that had been when they were in high school. They’d just been kids.

Diesel gave a soft whine beside him and tilted his head. ‘Yeah, all right,’ Ollie said, reaching over to turn on the engine. ‘I’m goin’.’

Drop by and say g’day, Griff had said. Ollie clenched his jaw as he drove down the paddock to where he’d left his tractor yesterday afternoon. He wished it was that easy. It should be that easy—only every time Hadley came home it stirred up this restlessness and regret inside him.

Once he had thought maybe he could take a chance and tell Hadley how he felt, but something had stopped him. What was the point? It couldn’t work. She travelled all over the world and had a career she wasn’t likely to give up in order to live back here. He was a farmer. It was what he knew and, after his dad’s accident, it was his responsibility to keep things running on the farm. It was doubtful his father would ever go back to full-time farming again—his mother wanted him to retire, go travelling—but the new paddock-to-plate venture they’d started as something to give their old man an interest had really taken off, much more than any of them had anticipated. There was no way Ollie could leave the place even if he wanted to.

And, yet, there were times when he couldn’t shake the feeling that Hadley Callahan was the woman he was meant to be with. Of course, her wedding had been a bit of a setback …

He gripped the steering wheel tighter as he remembered watching her walk down the aisle towards the moron she’d married. He’d always thought it was a bit of a joke when movies got to the part in a wedding ceremony when anyone in the congregation who had reason to object to the marriage was told to speak now or forever hold their peace, but he’d found he was somewhat disappointed that Hadley’s ceremony hadn’t included it. Okay, so he probably wouldn’t have actually stood up and objected. After all, what would he say? ‘You’re making a mistake, Hadley. You can’t marry a tosser like Mitch Samuals.’

Ever since she’d announced her engagement, her whole family had tried to delicately point this out. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t have thanked him for an interruption to her picture-perfect bloody wedding. So instead he’d sat there, feeling like his insides had been ripped out and struggling to look like the happy childhood friend from next door. He’d made sure he dulled the pain at the reception by drinking more than he’d drunk in a long time—or since, for that matter—but it hadn’t really helped.

He’d even convinced himself that he’d moved on from whatever this lingering feeling was. Now that Hadley was married, the sane part of his brain told him, it really was time to forget her. And then, during last harvest, Hadley’s dick of a husband had been caught out, with Hadley’s older sister of all people. Of course, Ollie wasn’t supposed to know anything about it, only he’d found out from his sister, Olivia, who’d been the one to stumble upon the little rendezvous and had confided in him. For a lot of reasons, he wished he hadn’t heard about the betrayal—mostly because it was damn hard not to act on his compulsion to beat the crap out of Mitch for hurting Hadley, but running a close second was the fact that ever since he’d found out, his hopes had been reignited and they were currently raging like an out-of-control bushfire.

It hadn’t been hard to keep the secret around Hadley, given she was never here, but it had been tough knowing that Griff, Hadley’s older brother, knew about it but that he still couldn’t talk it over with him. Ollie had given Griff plenty of chances to bring it up, asking if there was something on his mind when he’d clearly been distracted, but Griff was the loyal kind and he’d never mentioned it. He and Griff were a lot alike that way, Ollie thought. But it would have been a hell of a lot easier over these past few months if he could have vented a bit of his frustration alongside his best friend.

And now Hadley was home.

Ollie looked up at the troop carrier that came rolling towards the tractor and gave a weary sigh. For a guy who’d been so hard to win over to the idea of this damn business venture, Bill Dawson sure looked like he was enjoying himself. Ollie watched as his father pulled up in the paddock nearby, climbing out of the driver’s seat slowly and standing in front of a small group of students and their teacher.

Ollie gave a wave as he passed by them on his next run. Although he’d never admit it aloud to anyone, he actually got a bit of a kick out of the excited waves he always got back from the kids. It didn’t matter if they were a kindergarten group or a TAFE class—they all waved. It seemed every age group loved a big tractor.

He played a minimal role in his family’s paddock-to-plate business. This was his parents’ and sister’s project, and he was happy to let them deal with it, allowing him to concentrate on the farming side. Initially he hadn’t been as optimistic as his sister about the new venture. In fact, he’d never thought she’d get their old man to go for it in the first place. But he’d underestimated his sister’s powers of persuasion. He’d also underestimated how popular this thing would turn out to be. He had to hand it to her, when Olivia got an idea in her head she threw herself into it one hundred per cent. His father had also surprised him by just how motivated he was. He really seemed to enjoy having a bunch of kids traipsing about after him, asking questions all day. Ollie couldn’t remember him ever being that patient with him. Then again, he supposed, his dad wasn’t trying to teach a headstrong son how to do something, while also racing against the clock to get all the farm jobs done. They hadn’t had the luxury of time when he had been growing up—his father had been trying to run the place with the help of Ollie and only a few hired contractors, so things had been tough.

The troop carrier moved on to check out the next stop on the tour, and Ollie sent them another wave and gave a short chuckle as he caught a glimpse of his father’s face through the driver’s window, a smile from ear to ear. It was good to see him happy again. He hadn’t been sure they ever would after his accident on the farm had left him so debilitated, but this idea of his sister’s had made his dad feel useful once again. It also didn’t hurt that the venture kept father and son out of each other’s pockets throughout the day. A farmer who was unable to farm was a disaster waiting to happen. No one liked to feel useless when there was work to be done—least of all a man who’d been farming all his life and wasn’t ready to retire.