Anna
Anna walked into the kitchen and found Juliette nursing a cup of tea.
‘Would you like a cuppa?’ Juliette looked up and greeted Anna with a smile.
‘I’d love one, thanks,’ Anna took a seat at the old oak table. As Juliette poured the tea, Anna ran her hand along a piece of Cole family history. Juliette’s grandfather Phillip had made the table as a wedding present for his wife Maisey. She remembered Juliette’s grandmother telling them the story of how, in the months leading up to their wedding, Phillip would disappear for hours at a time and no one could find him. Suspecting he was cheating on her, Maisey confronted Phillip just days before the wedding and was so convinced that her betrothed was not telling her the truth that Phillip showed her the table.
Anna had never met Phillip Cole but Maisey’s stories about him had made her wish she had, and made her wish that Phillip Cole and not John Kendall had been her grandfather. That way she’d be a Cole, a founding Ellesmere family that had scruples, unlike the Kendalls.
‘Here you go.’ Juliette placed the steaming cup in front of Anna and as she brought it to her lips, the strong scent of the rich bush tea assaulted her senses and calmed her nerves.
‘Are you hungry? Can I make you something to eat?’ Anna asked Juliette. She really should be asking her other questions. Like how far had the cancer spread? What was the prognosis? How long did she have to live? All questions that had been in her mind since the phone call, but now that she had the chance, she was avoiding asking them and, for some reason Juliette wasn’t offering answers. She would leave it today. She’d just arrived and being in Ellesmere was enough. Juliette’s mortality could wait another twelve hours or so. Anna had never been one for confrontation. Besides, her friend seemed like she was in such a good mood that asking ‘how long do you have to live?’ seemed cruel.
Juliette shook her head. ‘Let’s go to the pub. We can have some dinner, a couple of drinks and get Anna Kendall reacquainted with the town, get the town reacquainted with Anna. What do you say?’
Anna scoffed. ‘I’m sure there are many people in this town who still want nothing to do with a Kendall.’
‘It’s Friday night and the footy finals are on. I heard Mick Macreedy talk about how Boof Hawkins and Johnno Taylor were putting a widescreen up especially for the occasion. Sounds like it will be a packed house.’
‘Sounds like the exact reason not to go. Jules, do you remember what happened last time I was in the vicinity of a large crowd in Ellesmere?’
Juliette cocked her head and gave her a sympathetic smile that said she did.
It was the Summer Fair at the end of that summer. The day had been a scorcher and it was easily still over thirty degrees as dusk settled over the village. At the end of every summer Juliette and Anna would use the fair as their own personal farewell to Sera. But this summer was different. All hell had broken loose with her dad and Sera had already left. Anna really didn’t want to go, but Juliette had convinced her to. She was good like that, getting Anna to do things she didn’t want to do. But going had been a big mistake. Bree Thomas and a couple of girls whose families had been affected by her father’s betrayal had threatened to get violent and not even Juliette with her Cole mediation genes could fix it.
‘You know what you are, Anna Kendall? A disgrace. Your family is a disgrace. Your father is a thief, a cheat and a liar and everyone knows your mother’s a drunk. It’s only a matter of time before you follow their pathetic footsteps.’
Bree was right about her father. Her mother drank, that much was true. She drank to cope with her father’s indiscretions. As a child Anna didn’t see her father’s imperfections, and there were many of them, but when they unravelled, all at once, her whole world fell like a pack of cards. But there was one thing Bree Thomas had been wrong about. Anna was nothing like her mother and she certainly wasn’t anything like her father.
‘Anna, you can’t hide from the town when you are in it.’ Juliette offered her pearls of wisdom. She had a point. What was she going to do, never leave the house the whole time she was in town? It was crazy, even if it was exactly what she felt like doing.
Anna sighed in defeat. ‘Fine.’ She drank the rest of her now cold tea and pushed her chair back to stand up. ‘Let me go and get changed.’
Juliette waved her hand in protest. ‘Don’t be silly, you’re fine as is, it’s only Elle’s.’
Anna looked down at her faded blue jeans and white slub T-shirt. On the one hand she was relieved. She was no fashionista. Most of her wardrobe consisted of corporate attire, and while she did have a couple of so-called statement pieces, her out-of-work look could best be described as casual. But by the same token this was her first time back in town in years. She needed some armour if she was going to face the natives.
‘Okay, I’ll just grab a jacket in case it cools down later.’ As she dashed upstairs, Anna decided she’d sneak in a couple of extra minutes to apply mascara to her eyelashes and a pop of colour on her cheeks. She wished she’d a little bit more time to cover the spray of freckles across her nose, but with any luck the lighting in the pub wouldn’t be that great. When she finished, Anna popped her diamond studs in her ears and surveyed herself in the mirror. There. She was ready for her homecoming, but in no way would she ever be Ellesmere’s homecoming queen. The Kendalls had lost their claim to being royalty long ago.
* * *
It was way after six when Jack finally made his way towards Elle’s. The day had been busier than expected and he was more than ready for a beer. After seeing Juliette Cole he’d been called to settle a dispute between John Parsons and George O’Connor, something to do with a boundary fence. Even though he tried to tell the two older gentlemen that what they had was a council dispute, not one that he could help with, they both refused to leave until the issue was resolved. Jack hazarded a guess that the council had had enough of them and refused to deal with them anymore. Word from a reputable source, and by that he meant Mavis, was that they’d been feuding since the late eighties. In the afternoon he’d dealt with some conveyance work and seen a recently split couple about divorce proceedings, although he dared say that going by the sexual tension between them they wouldn’t make it further than the car, let alone to the legal dissolution of marriage. His break-up had certainly been nothing like that. But then again, by the time his marriage ended, all avenues of trying to patch things up had been exhausted; the sea change to Ellesmere had been one of those avenues.
Ironically it’d been Bridie’s idea to move here. And when they first arrived it was the height of summer and they both loved the holiday feel of the town. They even had a period where their marriage and love life felt like it was going through a newlywed stage. But as the weather cooled, so did the summer love Bridie had formed for Ellesmere and, in turn, for him. By winter they were not in the same book, let alone on the same page.
Jack had settled and Ellesmere was starting to feel like home but Bridie felt trapped and bored. The shopping in town was limited and the variety of cafés were not to her standard. Basically life in a small town wasn’t going to cut it for Bridie the city girl. In the end, she’d given him an ultimatum. The town or her. He’d chosen the town because for the first time in his life he felt happy; he felt he had come home.
If they’d been honest their marriage had been over long before Ellesmere and they’d just been treading water. He accepted that the majority of the blame should lie squarely on his shoulders. He was a workaholic who was never home and then there was the…incident. Still, there were two of them in the marriage and it could only work if they both wanted it to.
‘Ahhh! The city slicker finally shows his face,’ Boof Hawkins called out across the pub.
‘Are you ready for your pretty latté-sipping Bondi boys to get smashed?’ That one was courtesy of Damo Mitchell, better known as fair-weather-fan-Damo for his tendency to switch teams depending on whichever team was leading the ladder.
Jack sat himself down at the bar next to Damo and signalled to Dave the barman for a beer. That was one of the beauties of living in a small town. You could walk into the pub, sit at the bar and just give the barman a look and he’d know exactly what you were having. He supposed the equivalent would be walking into his local café in North Bondi and having the barista have his double shot latté ready to go by the time he’d paid. But then again, Juliette was always on the ball with his coffee; she had known what his usual was after only three days.
‘This one’s on house,’ Dave said as he slid the beer towards him.
Jack looked up in surprise. It wasn’t unheard of for Dave to give out a free beer or two, but it was unusual for him to do it straight off the bat. Jack usually had to shell out money for a couple of rounds before Dave threw a complimentary one in. After all, the pub was his bread and butter and Dave was a pretty shrewd businessman.
‘Gee thanks, Dave, what’s got you in such a charitable mood?’
‘Just taking pity on you.’ Dave went about mixing cocktails with a dexterity that rivalled any mixologist in the city.
‘Pity on me? Why?’ Jack had a fair idea what Dave was on about, but he foolishly asked anyway.
‘Your boys are about to go down and it’s gonna hurt that lawyer hip pocket of yours when you shout the whole pub a drink.’
There was a collective mix of guffaws from those nearby and Jack shook his head in wonder. Was there anyone that didn’t think the Roosters were going to lose? They’d finished on top of the ladder and were minor premiers. Of course it meant squat if they didn’t win the grand final, but they were a strong team, had the best defence and attack in the whole league not to mention the best five-eighth and one of the best kickers. Jack suspected his mates knew all this, but it seemed the lure of ribbing the ‘city slicker’ was too irresistible.
‘Just you all wait. Come nine-thirty Mick Macreedy will be spending the dough he’s put aside for that new slicer and he’s giving me free eggs for a month. Those organic biodynamic ones from the Moss farm.’
‘Those are some fighting words, Harper.’ Mick leaned back on his barstool. ‘I’ll see your wager and raise the stakes. If the Chooks get up I’ll also throw in that fancy-smancy free-range organic chicken you like so much. But when the Knights win you’ll be shelling out free legal services to me for a year!’
The chuckles turned into raucous laughter and Jack found himself laughing along with them. He had to admit it was a pretty sweet deal. He couldn’t imagine Mick needing that much legal advice, even in a twelve-month period.
‘You’re on, mate.’ He leaned towards him to seal the deal then turned back to his beer glass that was already gathering condensation from the humidity. Even though the Ellesmere Pub was fully air-conditioned, Dave only tended to use it in the height of summer or if the town was experiencing a heatwave. One warm spring evening hardly counted as a heatwave so the doors and windows were wide open in the expectation that the cool change that was scheduled to hit early evening would be on time.
‘Hey, where’s his Royal Mayor-ness? Wasn’t he supposed to join us, too?’ Boof Hawkins piped up, referring to the newly elected mayor of Ellesmere and Jack’s mate, Patrick Shepherd.
Jack shook his head as he drained the last of his beer. ‘Had to go to Sydney for the weekend.’
‘Hope he isn’t using council funds for his personal jet-setting.’ Maurice Moody, deputy mayor and all round pain in the backside grumbled from behind him. Jack knew that Patrick’s visit was personal, but he wasn’t about to disclose this information with Maurice, of all people. He seemed to dislike Patrick enough as it was. In his opinion it was unwarranted.
‘I’m sure his behaviour is completely above board.’
‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ he harrumphed. Maurice was moody by name and moody by nature. Patrick was hardly accountable to Maurice, but Jack knew it was useless pointing that out.
‘Well, I’ll be damned…’ Dave stared dead ahead, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. Several of the other patrons turned to follow his gaze and collective gasps and hushed whispers followed.
Next to him Maurice let out an audible snigger. ‘If it isn’t Ellesmere’s own prodigal daughter. What on earth is she doing here?’
Puzzled, Jack craned his neck to see what all the fuss was about and to whom Maurice was referring but all he could see was Juliette Cole and a rather leggy blonde in tight denim jeans and a stylish blazer. Next to Juliette’s relaxed flowery ensemble her outfit screamed ‘city girl’. That and the oversized tote bag on her shoulder. Who was she? Was she the cause of Maurice’s huffing and puffing and was this the person Dave was still staring at? Jack was about to find out because they were heading his way.
‘Evening gentleman,’ said Juliette, looking totally at ease. She smiled warmly at them all and greetings were returned. The blonde, who Jack realised was more of a redhead with strawberry blonde highlights, looked anything but at ease, and even though she stood inches taller than Juliette she looked small. Her eyes darted around the room and she looked like she’d just been thrown into a lion’s den.
‘What is she doing here?’ Maurice spat as he looked at the blonde, but spoke to Juliette. ‘She knows she’s not welcome in the town, no Kendall is after—’
‘Maurice.’ The tone in Juliette’s voice sent him a stern warning. ‘You’re not to talk to my friend like that. Now, if you don’t have anything nice to say to Anna then I suggest you leave us alone. That goes for all of you.’ The net of her gaze widened to encompass the whole bar. He’d never seen so many grown men look so chastised all at once. Dumbfounded, they all nodded mutely and a long period of uncomfortable silence followed.
Anna, why was that name familiar? Anna Kendall…
And then it clicked. Juliette’s visit from earlier in the day. The will. He glanced up to find Juliette looking at him and she gave a discreet shake of her head. She’d been waiting for Jack to make the connection and obviously didn’t want anything about her visit revealed to her friend, despite Anna being a major part of the will. It wasn’t his place to disclose so he cleared his throat in an attempt to break the ice. ‘Hello Anna, I’m Jack Harper. Welcome back to Ellesmere.’ He extended his hand out to her and watched as Anna’s expression went from confused and guarded to slightly more relaxed.
‘Thank you.’ Anna gave him a small smile and took his hand. Her shake was firm, which was the first thing that surprised him; the second was how his body stirred as her jade green eyes showed she was relaxing a little more.
‘Can I buy you ladies a drink?’ He was still holding her hand, still captivated by those eyes.
‘Save your pennies for after the game, city slicker, when you’re buying the whole pub a drink.’ There was that jibe again, this time from Johnno Taylor, Boof’s business partner and fellow electrician. It seemed no one was getting sick of it because laughter filled the air once again at his expense. Jack wasn’t sure why, but he felt relieved for Anna’s sake that the attention had shifted from her. With the break in the tension Anna removed her hand but Jack wanted it back.
‘That would be lovely, Jack,’ Juliette answered. ‘A sav blanc, Anna?’
As Anna nodded her reply, Jack turned to Dave to put in the order, but he was already on to it. He pulled out his wallet to pay, but Dave waved him off. ‘Put that away, you heard the man, save it for later. This one’s on the house.’
It was really getting old. He needed the Roosters to win so he could shut everyone up.
‘Here you go, ladies.’
Dave placed the wine on the bar and Juliette handed Anna a glass then took one herself. ‘Thanks, Dave.’
‘No problem, consider it a welcome home drink for Anna.’
Anna smiled her thanks and the girls moved away from the bar.
‘Who is she?’ Jack turned to Dave when he was sure they were out of earshot.
‘Anna? She’s a Kendall. They were Ellesmere royalty once, one of the town’s founding families and for generations they were held in high esteem until fifteen years ago when Mark Kendall, the town accountant, invested a large amount of money, other people’s money, in a dud investment. When it all fell through he left, leaving Anna and her mum in the firing line.’
‘That would’ve been devastating for Anna and her mother. But what did they have to do with the investment?’
Dave shrugged. ‘Nothing. But small towns can be unforgiving. People were hurt, angry. A lot of people lost money, including Maurice.’
‘That explains his outburst before,’ Jack mused, and Dave nodded before continuing.
‘The town still needed someone to blame. Guilty by association, I guess, even though they both had been enduring something worse for years.’
Jack felt his blood run cold. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, hoping his suspicion of domestic violence was wrong.
‘Mark Kendall had a wandering eye. He was a bit of a skirt chaser, if you know what I mean.’ Dave tapped the side of his nose to punctuate the point and Jack felt as if he’d been punched in the guts. ‘The man had a perfect life and he screwed it up and ran away.’
Jack knew exactly what Dave meant. He was a skirt chaser, the man with the wandering eye who ran away. The town had embraced him, yet Anna, through no fault of her own, was still enduring scorn more than a decade later. Jack had a feeling he was only beginning to see the ugly side of living in a small town.
* * *
The smell of cinnamon woke Anna the next morning and for a moment she was propelled back twenty years to when she and Juliette would wake to Maisey baking scones or muffins. She had spent many nights at Ellesmere House. When she was younger she thought her mother just wanted her to spend time with one of her best friends, but as she got older she realised the sleepovers were orchestrated to shield her from the effects of her mother’s many benders. Her father’s indiscretions were no secret, a fact of her life that she came to realise early. There was a time in her life that she idolised her father and wanted nothing more than to grow up to be as beautiful as her mother and marry a man like her father. Anna was thankful that neither one of those childhood dreams had come true. She had taken every step necessary to ensure she didn’t end up a lonely, drunken housewife married to a philandering accountant. She may not be the Anna Kendall she thought she would be when she was twelve, but she had a successful and well-paid career that had allowed her to buy an apartment in upmarket Mosman on the Lower North Shore in Sydney as well as her prized possession, her R8 Spyder. Yet, in Ellesmere, she still felt like that Kendall girl.
As far as showdowns were concerned, last night’s encounter with Maurice Moody was not in the same league as the one with Bree Thomas, but by the same token, it wasn’t a pleasant experience either. It wasn’t just Moody Maurice. She saw the expressions on the faces of half the punters in the pub when she walked in. Dave McKinney, who was her cousin, once or twice removed, or something like that, had stared at her like a stunned mullet. And Boof Hawkins, who had never been lost for words growing up and was always getting chucked out of class for talking too much, well, he clammed right up. Jack was the only one not stunned, shocked or surprised. She’d heard someone call him a city slicker and wondered if he was a teacher. He certainly looked like one with his dark denim jeans and chambray shirt, sleeves that rolled to the elbows to expose toned and tanned forearms. He was tall, she could see that even though he’d been sitting down, and his eyes were intense; part hazel, part chocolate brown, as if they couldn’t make up their mind what colour they wanted to be. It was the same story with his hair. Was it dark blonde or brown? Was there such a thing as caramel blonde? Whatever it was, Jack was a delectable package, but she wasn’t here looking for a man. She was here for Juliette and this morning she planned to sit her down and get all the details about her diagnosis and prognosis.
As she made her way down the stairs, the smell of cinnamon grew stronger and Anna could hear the radio playing and Juliette singing along to Hunters and Collectors’ ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’, her voice in perfect tune as she belted out the classic Aussie rock song.
Juliette paused and colour flooded her cheeks when she noticed Anna standing in the doorway. ‘Oh, you’re up. Hope my awful singing didn’t wake you.’
‘Jules, you have the voice of an angel and it was the smell of your muffins that woke me.’ The temptation was too much and Anna reached out to grab a muffin off the cooling rack only to have Juliette smack her hand away.
‘Don’t you dare. I need these muffins for the café, it’s Saturday morning, school holidays and spring. One of those would be enough to warrant a mad rush, but all three together will do my head in.’ Juliette deftly whipped a fresh batch of muffins out of the oven and slid another lot in. Her movements were quick, precise and organised, and as she slid the pipping hot muffins onto a waiting cooling rack, Anna realised Juliette had made two different types of muffins. She also couldn’t help but wonder if the whole process could be streamlined some.
‘Have you thought about getting a larger oven?’ The moment the words were out Anna wished them back. Her hand flew across her mouth and she looked at Juliette in horror. ‘Jules, I’m so sorry, I’m such an idiot I—’
Juliette held her hand up to stop her and shook her head. ‘Don’t apologise, I know I’m dying, Anna.’ Her eyes were so sad that Anna walked around the table to embrace her.
‘Are you…can we talk about it? I want to know everything about your diagnosis, what the prognosis is…’
Juliette shook her head again as she pulled out of the embrace but held onto Anna’s hands. ‘Short story is I’m dying. Long story is that it can wait until Monday. Weekends are frantic at the shop and the first weekend of the spring school holidays is a particularly hard one. I promise that we will talk about everything on Monday, can you give me till then?’ Juliette asked, tears glistening in her beautiful cornflower blue eyes.
‘Of course,’ Anna whispered as she moved to wipe a rogue tear off her friend’s cheek.
‘Okay then,’ Juliette exhaled and moved back to wipe her tears. ‘I’d better get these babies loaded in the car and make a move to the shop.’ She started to carefully load the muffins into carry trays.
‘I could come to the shop and help out if you like?’ What else was she going to do with her day? Sightsee? She’d grown up in town and seen what there was to see for seventeen years. She doubted there was much that’d changed. She could go to the beach, but she was here for Juliette, not to play tourist, plus Juliette sounded as if she could use another pair of hands and she used to work at the store. Of course it’d only been a bookstore then, not a café too, but she had café experience from working in a couple to get her through university.
Juliette looked at her as if she’d offered to give her a kidney.
Highly inappropriate, Anna. Maybe you could give her your ovaries since you’ll not need them yourself.
If that’s what it’d take to help Juliette, she would do it in a heartbeat, but Anna knew it’d take a whole lot more than that.
‘Would you? Oh Banana, it would be an absolute godsend if you did.’
Anna shrugged. ‘It’s no problem. I worked tables while I was at uni. I’m organised and can smile and be nice to people if I have to.’
‘Can you make a decent latté?’
Anna grimaced. She’d done a barista course while working at one of the cafés but failed to progress to making anything other than an average coffee. ‘If you like your coffee froth to resemble a spa bath, then yeah, sure, I can make latté.’
Juliette laughed as she propped the back door open then loaded up her arms and Anna’s with the trays of muffins. ‘Well, in that case, you’re on table duty. I have a couple of girls coming in to help with the breakfast and lunchtime rush, and Tilly the cook should be okay in the kitchen.’
Anna followed Juliette out to the car. ‘And in response to your question earlier,’ she threw over her shoulder as they walked down the side of the house, ‘I do have an industrial oven at the café, but from time to time I find it nice to bake at home. It makes me think of my childhood and I love the smell of muffins first thing in the morning. It makes me remember Maisey.’
It was exactly how Anna had felt when she woke up that morning and, once again, she felt guilty for not coming back for Maisey’s funeral. Maisey had given her so much. She was the grandmother she’d never had. She hadn’t come because she couldn’t bear to face the town. She hadn’t come because of her own selfishness.
The drive to the bookshop was short and, as they arrived, Anna was astounded to see how different the place looked. Juliette had purchased the place next door, but the extension looked flawless and to those who didn’t know, you could never guess looking at it from the outside that it once had been half the size. Inside it was much the same story. The café and bookshop blended together seamlessly. Juliette had gone for a French chic theme, black and white throughout, the furniture, furnishings and every little knick-knack fitting perfectly. ‘Wow, it’s gorgeous,’ Anna said in total admiration. ‘You’ve done well here, Jules. Maisey would be proud.’
‘You think so?’ Juliette beamed at her.
‘Think so? I know so. Now run me though the logistics. Do you have a menu? Is it table service? Do customers need to order and pay at the counter? What’s the deal?’
‘Jeepers!’ Juliette laughed. ‘Is this how you question people in court?’
‘Sorry.’
‘You were always thorough, asking questions and making sure things were right, worded correctly and all that. Doesn’t surprise me you do that for a living now. To answer to your questions, it’s both table and counter service. We have a menu, lunch served from midday, breakfast is all day and we say kitchen closes at three, but on the weekends we tend to bend the rules if Tilly is okay with it. Isn’t that right, Tilly?’ Juliette yelled out into the kitchen and moments later the cook returned with an emphatic ‘Yes!’
‘Any questions?’ Juliette asked and Anna shook her head.
‘All pretty self-explanatory.’
‘Great, now your first task is to flip over the sign from closed to open.’
‘Yes boss!’ Anna saluted her friend and was turning over the sign when she saw Jack approaching. As she suspected he was tall, probably about six-foot-three or thereabouts. This morning he was dressed in workout gear shorts and a cut-off tee that showcased nicely toned biceps that went with the forearms she’d gotten a glimpse of yesterday. Anna couldn’t stop looking at him and her tummy did a little flip-flop as he got closer.
‘Hey, what are you staring at?’ Juliette called from behind her.
‘Someone’s coming,’ she swallowed, her throat suddenly parched.
‘Well, open the door.’
She did, and seconds later Jack walked through it.
‘Morning, Anna,’ He flashed a set of perfect teeth at her and as he passed by she could smell him. She was never good at detecting and isolating scents, but she did know that Jack smelled great.
She walked back to the counter in something of a daze and Juliette was already in conversation with him.
‘That was a very kind thing you did last night,’ she said to Jack as she moved to make his coffee.
‘What was?’ Anna asked curiously, and Juliette told her how Jack and Mick Macreedy had a bet going on the footy game.
‘Loser’s team was meant to shout the whole pub a round of drinks. Jack’s team won, so Mick was meant to honour the bet, but—’
‘I pitched in half,’ Jack finished sheepishly.
‘And you are a good man for it,’ Juliette added.
‘I couldn’t help it,’ Jack shrugged. ‘He’s been saving for a new slicer for ages. I’ll still hold him to the poultry part of the bet, although I have to say, not sure if he won how much good my services would’ve been.’
‘Ellesmere is very lucky to have a kind man like you and you’re a good lawyer, too.’
Anna’s ears pricked. ‘Lawyer?’ Was Jack a lawyer? She thought he was a teacher.
No, Anna, you assumed he was a teacher.
Juliette thumped her forehead with the palm of her hand. ‘Gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t mention it sooner.’
‘Mention what sooner?’ Jack was looking from Juliette to Anna, confused.
‘For starters, you’re both lawyers, but there is another major thing you have in common.’
‘What?’ Anna asked, still none the wiser as to what Juliette was going on about.
‘Jack’s house. It’s where you used to live, Anna.’
Oh, god! Jack was the Beemer guy? Jack was living in her house?
Anna looked up to find him staring attentively at her. ‘You’re living in my house?’ she mused aloud.
‘Well, I did buy the property over a year ago so it’s my house and—’ He stopped mid sentence and Anna could see a realisation wash over him. ‘Hey, you’re the girl in the Audi, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah, I guess I am.’ The girl in the Audi. It had a much better ring to it than that Kendall girl. Suddenly being back in her hometown didn’t seem so bad after all.