Cash took down a glass and watched as the amber liquid ran down the inside edge and filled to the top. The lunchtime crowd was slowly easing, which would give her time to catch up on cleaning and brace herself for the after-work crowd.
As far as jobs went, the money here was good and the hours okay. She’d only been planning on hanging around long enough to save up some money and figure out where she wanted to go next, but she’d been here three months and she still had no real idea. She missed the day spa, but she’d known straightaway that she wouldn’t be able to stay after Linc left. She felt partially to blame for everything that had happened and there was no way she could stick around town when everywhere she looked reminded her of Linc.
She hadn’t told Savannah the real reason behind turning down her offer to stay, but her friend had known something was wrong. She promised to tell her one day, but it was too raw now. Before she left she’d arranged for Vanessa to open the spa a few times a week. It wasn’t ideal but it was enough to keep the Sacred Spirit operational until Savannah could figure out an alternative.
Cash hadn’t had a destination in mind when she’d left Rankins Springs, she’d just got in her car and driven. She’d stopped in this little pub at Narrabri for lunch on her way through and seen a bartending job advertised. It had only supposed to be for a few weeks until she figured out a plan, but a few weeks had stretched into three months and she was still here.
It seemed the old Cash was back in operation again. When it came to a breakup, her first instinct was to pack up and move on. Only this time it didn’t feel like she was making a fresh start. It hurt. A lot. And more than that, it left her angry. She wasn’t sure who she was more angry at: herself for being so stupid as to fall for a guy like Linc in the first place, or at Linc for proving she’d been right about the kind of guy he was. And yet he hadn’t really proved her right. She knew deep down it had been something real and precious for both of them. Still, when it all fell apart, he’d pushed her away rather than let her in to help, so maybe it hadn’t been that important to him after all.
The job came with a room upstairs. It had been tastefully renovated and she lacked for nothing, but it wasn’t Savannah’s cosy little cottage, and the town, although full of the same down-to-earth country people, wasn’t Rankins Springs.
She’d never stayed in any one place for long if she wasn’t content, but for the first time ever she just didn’t have the energy to move on. Why bother? She didn’t have a burning desire to see any particular place, and even though she could have called a few contacts and gotten herself work overseas, the thought of leaving Linc so far behind caused a pain in her chest. That knowledge disturbed her more than she cared to admit. When had she ever let a man hold her back before?
She handed the beer over to the customer and took the money, looking up as another man walked up to the bar.
‘G’day Cash.’
‘Griff?’ Automatically she looked over his shoulder but there was no one else with him. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I came to find you.’
Cash blinked uncertainly. Never in her wildest imagination would she have considered the possibility that Griffin Callahan would come casually strolling into the pub where she worked. ‘How did you know I was here?’ she asked, confused.
‘I called Savannah.’
Cash briefly considered pouring herself a stiff drink in order to process what was happening, but she figured she’d need to keep her wits about her. ‘Why?’
‘Is there someplace we can talk?’ Griff asked.
Cash glanced over her shoulder and saw the bar manager in the storeroom. ‘Give me a sec and I’ll take a break.’ A few minutes later she came around the bar and beckoned Griff to follow her to a table away from the last of the lunchtime customers.
‘What made you choose this place?’ Griff asked as they settled into their seats.
Cash gave a dismissive shrug. ‘It’s as good as anywhere.’ ‘You could have stayed. No one blames you for what happened,’ he told her.
His bruising and abrasions had healed and he looked good. No one would ever guess that his brother had beaten the living daylights out of him not so long ago. ‘I blame myself,’ she said with a sad shake of her head.
‘It wasn’t about you and me or you and Linc,’ he said, holding her troubled gaze. ‘It was about Linc. He came home early for Christmas because his business partners had told him he needed to sort his shit out. They could see he was struggling and they wanted him to get help. Linc being Linc wouldn’t acknowledge that he had some unresolved issues, and he let them fester until they exploded. What happened wasn’t your fault.’
She knew all that, but it didn’t make her feel any less guilty. ‘He wanted to tell you about me … before the other stuff happened,’ she said, toying with the coaster on the table. ‘I was the one who told him not to. I didn’t want things to get any worse between you two, to upset Hadley or ruin your mother’s Christmas … just so you know. It wasn’t his choice not to tell you.’
‘Yeah, I get that. It was a shock at first, but I’ve had time to think about it and it’s not like you hadn’t tried to let me down gently,’ he said drolly, sending her a half-smile. ‘I guess I wanted a change—you know? I feel like I’ve just been standing still forever. Everyone I know’s moving on with their life and I’m just doin’ the same thing I’ve been doin’ since I left school—workin’ the farm. Then you came to town,’ he said, glancing up briefly before dropping his gaze once again. ‘You were like no one I had really met before. I thought you were a sign or something … like, if you want to make a change, here’s your shot.’
Cash gave a small grunt of acknowledgment. Oh yeah, she knew all about trying to make changes. ‘So why did you track me down?’
Griff clenched his fingers rhythmically on the table top before answering, almost as though weighing up what he wanted to say. ‘It’s Linc.’
Alarm instantly filled her and she sat a little straighter. ‘Is he okay?’
‘That’s the million-dollar question,’ Griff shrugged. ‘Mum and Dad are worried about him … we’re all worried about him. He says he’s been getting help and he’s doing better, but he moved to Papua New Guinea.’
‘Moved there? As in permanently?’
‘Apparently they’ve set up a new office there and he volunteered to run it.’
‘Well, I guess that’s positive. I mean they wouldn’t let him go if they thought he couldn’t handle it, right?’
‘Yeah, probably not … only he’s shut everyone out. Mum and Dad spent a bit of time up in Brisbane with him after it all happened, Hadley too, but he rarely answered his phone and barely kept in touch. Now he’s up and moved overseas without even telling us.’
‘How did you find out?’
‘The business. Dad called them to find out what the hell’s going on with him and they told us where he was.’
Cash frowned over this news, angry that Linc could be so dismissive of his family’s feelings like that. Then she looked up at Griff again. ‘What’s all this got to do with me?’
‘I hate seeing Mum and Dad like this—so worried about him … I think the only person who could get through to him is you.’
Cash was shaking her head before he’d even finished talking. ‘He left me too, remember? I haven’t heard a word from him since. He’s not going to listen to anything I have to say—I doubt he’d even answer my phone call.’
‘That’s why I thought you might go and see him.’
Cash blinked across at him. ‘In PNG,’ she said incredulously.
‘I’ll take care of the expenses, you’d only have to go over for a few days … Please, Cash, I know it’s a lot to ask, but could you just try? For Mum and Dad?’
Up until the mention of Lavinia and Bob it had been an adamant ‘no’, but then she saw their faces, pictured Lavinia crying and Bob looking weary with worry, and a reluctant sigh escaped her lips. She loved this family; Cash couldn’t forget how much kindness they’d shown her. She knew that there was no way she could turn her back on them now.
‘I think you’re wrong about Linc,’ she said quietly. ‘He made it clear that he didn’t want me in his life. We were just a holiday fling.’
‘I know my brother better than you think. You’re the only one who can get through to him, Cash. Please?’