Over the next few days, life slowly began to fall into place. Before she’d left Sydney she’d contacted the day care in town and enrolled Finn. She was relieved to find the small but clean centre every bit as welcoming as the manager had been on the phone. Finn was used to day care. He’d been going to one since he was six weeks old. Her mother had offered to have him part of the time which at first Gemma had hesitated to accept, but once she saw how happy it made both her mother and her son to have that quality time together, she realised it was good for all of them.
By the end of the first week she’d finished painting the walls, and had the menus printed. The suppliers had been dealt with and stock ordered, and today the floor coverings would be finally going down. The little restaurant looked bright and cheerful. She loved her new kitchen and couldn’t wait to start cooking, which she’d need to do the next day in order to have her display case stocked with cakes and muffins. Everything else she would make off the menu from scratch. She’d finally mastered the large stainless-steel coffee machine she’d ordered and had installed, and the smell of fresh coffee wafting through the small cafe filled her with joy. This was so much better than she had ever imagined, she thought, taking one final look around at the freshly painted walls and gleaming tables she’d spent all day cleaning. She switched off the lights and locked the door before heading outside to climb the stairs to her apartment.
The cafe was empty, and she’d just finished wiping down the tables for the third time this morning, completely unnecessarily, when the door opened with a jingle of bells. Gemma looked up and smiled hesitantly as she recognised the man who had just walked in.
‘Hello, Ben. How are you?’
‘I heard a rumour about some city chick who’d opened a cafe, so I came down to check the place out,’ he said, grinning as he came up to the counter. ‘I had no idea it was you.’
His cheerful mood drew a genuine smile from her. ‘Coming to check out the place?’ Gemma teased. ‘Or coming to check out the chick?’
‘I have no idea what you’re implying,’ he replied, trying for a haughty tone.
Gemma rolled her eyes. ‘Sure you don’t. Anyway, how’ve you been?’
‘Good. You know, working with the old man, trying to stay outta trouble, that kind of thing.’
‘How’s your brother?’
‘Perfect as always,’ he said with a sarcastic drawl. ‘Keeping Mum and Dad happy by marrying some sheila from Melbourne. Just what we need, more city chicks moving to the country.’ He leaned on the counter and gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Whatever happened to your friend, that blonde bit of dynamite?’
‘Jazz is engaged as well. To a doctor,’ Gemma added, and hoped that bit of news got back to his mother as Gemma recalled Mrs Henderson hadn’t considered Jazz good enough for her family.
Ben let out a small grunt. ‘That was the only time I came close to being the favourite son, when Mack lost it for a while and took off with your friend.’ His tone was blasé, but Gemma saw the shadow behind his grin. ‘So what brings you back to this hellhole?’ he went on.
She frowned. ‘I like Bingorra. Plus I wanted a bit of a change and I knew there was a real need for a decent place to eat around here, so I thought I’d try my luck at opening a business.’
‘Does Whittaker know you’re back in town?’
Gemma looked away and grabbed a laminated menu from beside the till. ‘I have no idea. Are you staying for something to eat?’ She ignored the knowing gleam in Ben’s eye. He was the last person she wanted to get into all that with.
‘Sure, I could eat something.’ He slid into the nearest booth. After giving the menu the briefest once-over, he ordered a burger. ‘So how’s it been so far?’ he asked.
‘Slow and steady,’ Gemma said, managing a smile. The truth was it had been more slow than steady. ‘But it’s only the first week and a lot of people in the area don’t come to town every day, so I’m expecting it to take a little while for word to get around that the place is open.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about word getting around, it’s already starting to spread. Pretty soon everyone in the district will know you’re here,’ he added pointedly. ‘You ready for that?’
Her smile didn’t falter. ‘Sure. If I was worried about who knew I was back in town, I’d hardly have come back here, would I?’
‘I heard he was pretty cut up about you leaving,’ said Ben.
‘That was a long time ago,’ she said dismissively. ‘I’m sure we’re both well and truly over it all by now.’
‘Well, that’s good to hear.’ Ben leaned back in the booth as he looked at her. Gemma felt herself blush slightly at the open attraction she read in Ben’s expression, and felt a flicker of something run through her. She couldn’t say it was excitement, but it certainly wasn’t disgust. It had been a long time since she’d been looked at like that by a man. When she was pregnant with Finn, she had become invisible to men—not that she minded. Even after Finn’s birth, she was so busy and so intent on learning everything she could and making plans for her own business that men were the last thing on her mind.
‘I’ll just go and get your order ready,’ she said now, escaping into the kitchen.
The next day, business began to pick up. Two people came in for breakfast, and then six for coffee and cake before midday. She suspected they had come in mainly out of curiosity, to see what had happened to the old Giuseppe’s, but they all seemed impressed by the transformation she’d wrought, and she basked shamelessly in their approval. She figured it didn’t matter what had brought them in, as long as they came back again and spread the word.
She was looking forward to unveiling phase two of her plan—opening the restaurant she would run on the same site—but she had to wait until she’d gained a reputation through the cafe and the business began earning a decent income so she could hire some extra staff to work alongside her. Tamping down her impatience, she decided to simply enjoy her first taste of success. She needed to learn to savour the small achievements when they came around. Besides, she’d come too far to blow things by being overeager.
Nash put the last of his groceries on the checkout belt and dug his wallet from his back pocket. Wendy seemed a little preoccupied today, he thought. As he looked at her, she glanced away almost guiltily. Okay, something was definitely up. ‘What?’ he asked, putting his hand over the bag of chips she was about to lift and scan.
Wendy shook her head, not meeting his eyes. ‘Nothing.’
‘I know something’s going on. You’re not tearing strips off me for filling the trolley with junk food. What is it? Is something wrong?’
Without looking up, she brushed his hand away and scanned the rest of his purchases. Only then did she speak. ‘Have you been up to the new cafe yet?’
Nash frowned. ‘Don’t change the subject.’
‘I’m not.’
His frown deepened. What the hell? ‘No, I haven’t. Why?’ He stared at her, baffled, as she chewed her bottom lip. ‘Wendy, for God’s sake, what’s got into you?’
‘You need to go up there,’ she said quietly.
‘Okay then,’ he said, watching his old friend warily. ‘I’ll be sure to check it out soon.’
‘No. You need to go up there. Today,’ she added, a little more firmly.
There was obviously something very wrong with her, Nash reflected with dismay. Not that he had much experience with women’s health issues but maybe Wendy was going through menopause. Didn’t women go a little haywire and get those hot flushes? He eyed her carefully but didn’t see any sign of profuse sweating. ‘Okay. I’ll go up and check it out before I head home,’ he promised, keen to finish the transaction and get the hell out of there. Waving away her offer to charge the food to his account, he handed across an array of twenty- and fifty-dollar notes.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Wendy, looking at him with a worried expression.
‘For what?’
‘Th-that I didn’t have any bigger change,’ she stammered, dropping the coins in his hand and closing the register.
Nash threaded his fingers through the plastic bags and hurried outside, genuinely concerned. It was frightening to see how quickly someone could lose their marbles. After he’d placed the groceries in the back of the Land Cruiser, he hesitated, looking up the street towards the old restaurant. Just then his stomach growled impatiently. With a sigh, Nash headed along the footpath to see what all the fuss was about.
Gemma pushed open the front door of the day care centre and rushed to the counter. She’d received a call to come and collect Finn after he’d come down with a sudden temperature. Fortunately there hadn’t been any customers in the cafe at the time as she’d had to close it to come and get him. However, this had clarified how tenuous her situation was. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to have to hire someone to help. She would have preferred to wait a bit longer before having to pay wages; there were still some quiet times during the day when she’d be paying an employee to just stand around. But hopefully that wouldn’t last much longer. Each day seemed to be bringing in more customers, and so far all the feedback had been positive.
She had begun to suspect that Ben had something to do with her growing success. More than a few people had told her that Ben had strongly recommended the food, and she would always be grateful to him for that. As it was, Ben himself came in most days for lunch. While Gemma appreciated his friendship and support, she was growing increasingly aware that he was hoping for more than just friendship. She’d dropped several hints that she wasn’t interested in romance, but each time the subject came up he just smiled and told her he would wait her out. She really didn’t want to hurt him, and it troubled her that he was refusing to take her seriously.
When she walked into the centre, her poor little man was lying in the crib looking flushed and miserable. She picked him up and held him close, feeling love surge through her. Before Finn, she hadn’t realised that she could love anyone so fiercely. Motherhood had opened her up to a whole new range of emotions and she found it hard now to think back to a time when she didn’t have this precious little person in her life.
‘Come on, mister, let’s get you home and to bed,’ she whispered, kissing his forehead. She took his backpack from the kindly centre operator with a grateful smile.
Juggling her sleeping baby and the keys, Gemma unlocked the door at the rear of the cafe and climbed the staircase to the apartment. After dropping her handbag, Finn’s backpack and the keys on the small dining table, she settled Finn into his bed and put the jug on. There was no way she could reopen the cafe again this afternoon with Finn sick, but closing again tomorrow was out of the question: all the hard work she’d put into building up her reputation would go down the drain if people turned up only to find it closed. There was no longer any question about it: first thing tomorrow she was going to hire herself a helper.
Nash reached over and irritably turned up the volume on the CD player. Damn Wendy. He hadn’t even been hungry until she’d started banging on about the cafe. Then he was suddenly starving, but when he reached the new cafe he’d found it closed.
Whatever was going on with Wendy, he hoped she got over it fast. And who the hell opened a new business and then closed whenever it suited them? It was only three o’clock in the afternoon! He suspected that the cafe owner, whoever they were, wouldn’t be in business for long.