Eight

‘I hear Olivia’s home,’ Lavinia Callahan said, putting a plate of food in front of Griffin.

Griff gave a grunt and reached for the salt, trying not to make eye contact with his mother.

‘Have you seen her yet?’ she prodded.

‘Yeah. Briefly, last night,’ he said, hoping she’d drop the subject. He was still annoyed by Olivia’s attitude, yet part of him had been disappointed that she’d left not long after their exchange.

‘How is she?’ his mother asked, standing back with a hand on her hip as she waited for more information.

Griffin sighed inwardly. He knew his mum: she wasn’t going to let it drop until she had answers. ‘She seemed fine. Ollie reckons the doctors are confident that Bill’s going to walk again, but it’s going to take a while.’

‘Did she say how long she was back for?’

‘No,’ Griff said shortly, and swore silently when he saw his mother’s eyes narrow at his tone. Damn it, she was like a shark smelling blood in the water.

‘Did you two have a fight?’

‘What? She’s been back in town all of five minutes, what makes you think we had a fight?’

‘Because you’re in a bad mood.’

‘Doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Olivia.’ His mother cocked an eyebrow and refused to budge, making him give a frustrated huff. ‘Fine. Okay, yeah, we had an argument,’ he snapped. How the hell did the woman do that? It was freaky.

‘Why would you start an argument with the poor girl? Her father’s just had a terrible accident, for goodness sake, Griffin.’

Oh great. Now he was the bad guy. Typical. ‘I didn’t start it,’ he said, striving for patience. ‘She was being … a pain in the arse.’

‘Really, Griff,’ Lavinia said, pouring a wealth of motherly disappointment into her tone.

‘I was trying to be nice, and she got all high and mighty,’ he objected, hating that he sounded like a seven year old trying to talk his way out of trouble.

‘I don’t believe it. Olivia’s a darling girl, I can’t imagine her being that way. But anyhow, she deserves to be given some slack—she’s going through an awful time right now and I expect you to show her some support.’

He opened his mouth to protest, but one look at her raised eyebrows and he promptly shut his mouth and gave a nod.

‘I want you to go over there today and invite them both over to dinner tomorrow. I’d go but I have a full day of CWA and board meetings.’

His mother never stopped. She was a powerhouse of organisational efficiency.

‘Yes, Mum.’

‘Good. And apologise while you’re there,’ she threw over her shoulder.

‘Apologise my arse,’ he muttered under his breath as he picked up his knife and fork.

‘Excuse me?’ his mother asked, pausing.

‘I said, “Sure, Mum. I’ll do that.”’ With any luck, he’d see Ollie and pass the dinner invitation on without bumping into Olivia at all.

‘And this is why I don’t waste money on lotto tickets,’ he muttered as he pulled up in the Dawson paddock later that day. Luck was not in his corner. The first person he passed was Olivia, standing beside the farm ute, taking a drink from her esky.

Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and stuck through the hole in the back of a baseball cap. What the hell was she wearing? His gaze ran over the T-shirt that fitted extremely well. The front was damp from either sweat or water spilling from the drink cooler she was tipping to her mouth and he kind of wished she’d spill a bit more. He moved further down over her dusty, denim shorts that showed way too much leg for his peace of mind. His peace of mind? When had he suddenly turned into some disapproving fuddy-duddy?

He was tempted to keep going but couldn’t bring himself to drive straight past her in order to reach Ollie further down the paddock. Damn it. ‘Hey,’ he said when he reached her.

‘Hey.’

‘How’s it going?’ he asked, nodding his head towards the freshly windrowed paddock.

‘Getting there,’ she said stiffly.

‘Looks good,’ he said, eyeing the neat rows and straight lines of cut canola.

‘Listen I—’

‘About last night—’

They had both started at the same time.

Griff cleared his throat and waited for Olivia to continue.

‘I’ve been thinking about last night and I owe you an apology.’

He hadn’t been expecting this. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off quickly. ‘You were right, I was out of line. I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah, well, I probably shouldn’t have jumped down your throat like that.’

The distant drone of Ollie’s machine carried into the silence that fell between them. He saw her shift her gaze out to the field where her brother worked, before opening the lid of the small blue esky to put the cooler back inside.

Like this, without makeup, without the city clothes, she looked like the Olivia he’d been in lov—. Whoa. Easy, he cautioned himself quickly, putting a stop to where he’d been heading. That was a lifetime ago. They were different people now. ‘Ah, Mum actually wanted me to come over and invite you and Ollie to dinner tomorrow.’

‘Oh. Well, I’m not sure, Ollie’s been doing a few late shifts.’

‘Yeah, I know. It’s been pretty hectic at our place too, but you gotta eat, and well … you know Mum,’ he said, sending her a wry smile. ‘If you don’t come over, you know she’s only going to bring dinner out here to you.’

He saw her lips twitch in the smallest of smiles before her gaze darted away from his once more. ‘Sure, tell your mum we’ll be there. I’m sure Marty will be happy with an extra shift; Ollie would only stay in there all night otherwise.’

‘Great. Well,’ he said, ‘I’ll leave you to it, then.’

‘See you tomorrow,’ she said, still not looking at him. Then she turned away and climbed back into the cabin, effectively ending their conversation.

There. He’d done exactly what his mother had told him to do. He would be neighbourly for a night and things would go back to the way they had always been between them—friends who’d grown up next door to each other.

Sure, they had a past, but that was years ago. They had been kids then. Now they were adults and they had nothing whatsoever in common. He just wanted to get his life back on track. Olivia wouldn’t be hanging around here for long—she never did—and once she was back in the city, his life would finally settle back into some kind of normal again.

Olivia let out a slow breath as she watched Griffin drive away. She felt her shoulders slump slightly. She hadn’t realised how tense she’d been. It was as though she’d put up a defensive shield, been on guard the moment he’d approached her, and now that he’d retreated she was finally able to relax.

It hadn’t always been like this between them. Over the years they’d caught up at family functions and it hadn’t been awkward—they’d fallen back into the easy friendship they’d enjoyed growing up. She’d been so focused on her career over the last few years that she hadn’t taken the time to think about their past, and maybe that’s why it had never been so uncomfortable before. Certainly Griff had never indicated he still harboured any lingering feelings towards her. Olivia frowned. Would she have been so self-absorbed that she didn’t notice? No, she shook her head emphatically, she’d have noticed if things had been this weird before. It had never been like this between them, not until the wedding.

The wedding. It had been so humiliating. She’d made a complete idiot of herself, giving a drunken bridesmaid speech that was absolutely mortifying. She’d never got around to apologising to the Callahans, on account of the major blow-up between Griffin and his brother after the reception—something she’d missed on account of having passed out in a drunken, remorseful heap.

She had, however, begged Hadley’s forgiveness and been assured that no one was upset about it. It was, after all, a Callahan family gathering—drama was inevitable.

She just prayed it had been edited out of the official wedding DVD …

To distract herself from humiliating memories, she picked up the radio and called her brother. ‘Hey. Griff just stopped by to invite us to dinner tomorrow.’

‘Yeah, just got off the phone with him,’ Ollie said.

Of course he had. She should have known.

‘Have you checked the troughs yet?’ Ollie asked.

‘I’m about to head out now.’ They discussed the rest of the day’s plan and hung up.

Olivia drove along the dirt track, stopping to open and close gates as she made her way around the property to check and clean water troughs. It was therapeutic in a way. As she scrubbed the troughs and refilled the livestock’s drinking water she found herself smiling. It felt good to be doing something useful. There was so much to do around this place—too much for one person. There was no way Ollie could have handled all this on his own.

Once she’d put a new algae block into the last trough, she packed up her gear and got back into the ute. Her happy mood dampened slightly as she remembered tomorrow evening’s invitation. If she could just get through dinner with a certain Callahan without any more weirdness, maybe she could avoid him for the rest of her stay.

Griff ended the call with Ollie as he headed across to the machinery shed. Ollie had been his best mate since they were kids and he was more like a brother than a neighbour. They’d been inseparable up until they’d hit fifteen or so, when Griff had begun to notice Ollie’s sister. At first he’d tried to ignore the weird stirrings that happened inside him whenever Olivia was around—which was often, considering the two boys practically lived at each other’s houses. It felt wrong to be thinking the things he was thinking about his best mate’s sister.

It should have been a relief when Olivia made it clear she was definitely feeling the same way, but instead it created a whole heap of anxiety. He didn’t want to lose his friend. It was hard to find a best mate. On the other hand, he’d fallen pretty hard for Olivia Dawson and he didn’t want to have to give her up either. In the end it turned out he had been worrying for nothing as Ollie was cool with it; Olivia’s father, on the other hand, not so much. It was Ollie who’d stepped in and smoothed over the ruffled feathers and made peace between father and would-be suitor. Had it not been for Ollie, Griff wasn’t sure he and Olivia would have got together at all. He owed Ollie a lot.

After the fight with Linc at Hadley’s wedding, Ollie had helped Griff get back into social life. Gossip and speculation had run riot after the Callahan brothers’ big fight and Ollie had protected Griff from awkward questions and intrusive conversations. Without him it would have taken Griff a lot longer to get back into his sport and return to the pub with his mates again. Ollie had dragged him out of the house when he’d have been happy to wallow at home in self-pity. ‘It’s for your own good, mate,’ he’d said, tossing Griff a pair of jeans and grabbing a shirt from his cupboard. ‘The sooner you get out there and face them, the sooner it’ll get back to normal.’

It had been a crazy few months for everyone and, just when everything seemed to be finally calming down, Olivia Dawson had decided to walk back into the picture.

Griffin’s jaw clenched as he fought back the irritation this thought caused. Why the sudden reawakening of all these weird feelings? And why the hell was he suddenly thinking about things like weird feelings? Maybe he needed a night down at the pub with a few mates. All these confusing thoughts were beginning to worry him.