“’Kay. Can Ash stay for supper tomorrow? And will you make macaroni cheese?”
“Yes and yes. But there’ll be salad with it too.”
Phoe poured herself a glass of juice and took it over to the table. “I’m gonna ride Mr Petey early tomorrow before the Barn Kids. He’s a bit lively for them at the moment. Do you want another riding lesson, Leigh? It would have to be early.”
“I’d love one,” Leigh said. “But I’m not sure if I can be here that early.”
“Oh.” Phoebe took a huge bite of sandwich and washed it down with some juice. “I thought you were sleeping over. If you’re here by seven, though, there’ll be time.”
It seemed Phoebe was more observant than her mother gave her credit for.
“I’ll see how early I can get here.” Leigh shot a glance at Nina to see how she took that.
Nina stared at her plate, obviously trying to suppress her smile.
Nina’s rumpled bed flashed through Leigh’s mind, and her smile widened. It was going to be all right.
Epilogue
A lot had changed in two years. Leigh stood at the back of the barn and looked out across the yard. A huge banner was strung across the driveway with Open Day! in red letters. The worst of the potholes were filled, and even the farm shop had a new coat of cherry-red paint. The barn and the yard were full of people wandering around, stroking Sophia and the baby goats in the petting zoo. Many of the Barn Kids giggled at the antics of the latest additions to the farm: Zoe the Berkshire sow and her litter of piglets. Parents and visitors listened in rapt fascination to the various demonstrations taking place.
Kiren and Ahmed were taking pony rides, and a long line of small children waited for the pleasure of being led around the paddock on Jellybean or Mr Petey.
Stella presided over a huge table of farm produce and had sold more in the one open day than the farm had sold in the preceding fortnight.
Leigh turned to face into the barn. Rows of people sat on straw bales, listening to Nina as she told them about the farm. A journalist from a Sydney paper made notes, while a photographer prowled around, taking photos.
“Banksia Farm not only provides a service to the community,” Nina said, “it is a community in its own right. The volunteers, Barn Kids, parents, and casual visitors are part of something special. Whether you volunteer your time for an hour or a day or whether you simply buy some goat cheese from the farm shop, you’re a part of our community. And now, mainly thanks to the work of our good friends Grizz and Bryan, Banksia Farm is a registered charity. This means more of our money can go towards the things that matter: getting kids from our area, our schools, and those kids in hospitals who can come out for a day to experience the pleasure of the farm. Let them have a pony ride, help out in the veggie garden, and learn the balance between work and play.”
Nina was good at this. Her genuine passion for what she did inspired people. Even now, as she finished her talk and people stood, a steady stream of visitors pushed folded notes into the donations box.
Leigh moved across to where Nina was talking to a family.
Nina reached out and took Leigh’s hand. “My partner, Leigh Willoughby.”
She had introduced Leigh that way for over a year now, but it never got old. Leigh squeezed Nina’s hand.
Nina’s fingers curled around Leigh’s palm.
The parents smiled and nodded and asked another question about the Barn Kids program. The two little girls between them gazed about the barn with rapt fascination.
“Maybe your girls would like to take the kids’ tour?” Leigh asked. “I think there’s one starting in five minutes. A tour for kids led by kids.”
“Oh yes!” The oldest of the girls grinned up at Leigh with a gap-toothed smile.
“Let’s take them over.” The father caught his daughter’s hand before she could dart away. “Thank you, Nina and Leigh. I hope you’ll be seeing our daughters on your program soon.” They wandered off towards the yard.
Nina glanced around. “No one else wants a piece of us.” She leant in and kissed Leigh, her lips lingering for a brief moment. “This open day is going so well. You’re a genius.”
“Well, to be honest, Grizz is the genius—it was her idea. I do as I’m told.”
Nina caught Leigh around the waist and pulled her close.
Leigh’s heart thrummed at the contact. It was brief since they were in a public situation, but that Nina wanted to touch her, wanted to show her love never failed to give Leigh a thrill.
She’d made the move out to the farm a few months ago. Petersen & Blake had opened an office in Parramatta, a city in its own right but part of the sprawling Sydney metropolis. Leigh had jumped at the chance to be the managing partner—mainly because it was an easy thirty-minute commute from the farm. Grizz, too, had transferred to the Parramatta office, claiming she was too old to adapt to working for anyone else.
Leigh, Nina, and Phoebe had combined their lives, although Leigh had insisted on some renovations to the old farmhouse. Things were now very comfortable. The three of them had settled down and become a family.
A family. The word never failed to warm her. Leigh was a part of something she’d often wondered if she’d get to experience.
There was a commotion at the barn door. Phoebe and Billy marched in, leading a small gaggle of children on the kids’ tour, including the two Leigh and Nina had been talking to.
“This is the barn,” Phoebe announced. “This is where you’ll learn all about the animals on the farm, how to milk a goat, and how to groom a pony. And other cool stuff. My offsider, Colonel Billy here, is gonna tell you about how he became a Barn Kid over two years ago when he was only seven. The youngest one we’ve ever had.” Phoebe stopped. “And these are my mums. They run the farm. Don’t mind them. They’re being soppy and in love. It’s what they do best.”
Mum. Phoebe had first called her that when Leigh had moved in, but it still made her melt with love for the girl. It was a title she held dearer than that of managing partner, one that strengthened the bonds with her family.
Nina leant into Leigh’s arms.
Leigh hugged her more tightly and winked at Phoebe. “You’re right, Phoebe. It’s what we do best.”
About Cheyenne Blue
Cheyenne Blue is the author of the “Girl Meets Girl” series, four standalone stories with interconnecting characters. Never-Tied Nora, Not-So-Straight Sue, Fenced-In Felix, and Almost-Married Moni are also available from Ylva Publishing. Her short fiction has been included in over ninety erotic anthologies since 2000, including Best Lesbian Erotica; Best Women’s Erotica; All You Can Eat: A Buffet of Lesbian Romance & Erotica; Sweat; Bossy; and Wild Girls, Wild Nights. She is the editor of Forbidden Fruit: stories of unwise lesbian desire, a 2015 finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and Golden Crown Literary Award, and of First: Sensual Lesbian Stories of New Beginnings.
Her collected lesbian short fiction is published as Blue Woman Stories, volumes 1-3, with more to come. Under her own name she has written travel books and articles and edited anthologies of local writing in Ireland. She has lived in the U.K., Ireland, the United States, and Switzerland, but now writes, runs, makes bread and cheese, and drinks wine by the beach in Queensland, Australia.
CONNECT WITH CHEYENNE
Website: www.cheyenneblue.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CheyenneBlueAuthor
Twitter: @iamcheyenneblue
Instagram: instagram.com/cheyenneblueauthor
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
www.ylva-publishing.com
Code of Conduct
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ISBN: 978-3-96324-031-7 (mobi), 978-3-96324-032-4 (epub)
Length: 91,000 words (264 pages)
Viva Jones was great once. A top ten tennis player with a grand slam trophy to her name, she had the worl
d at her feet. Then an overzealous lineswoman’s bad call knocked her out of the US Open, and a persistent injury crushed her career. While battling to return to the game she loves, a chance meeting with the lineswoman, Gabriela, forces Viva to rethink the past…and the present.
Away from the court, Gabriela is sexy, athletic, and lives for her career as an umpire. She seems to be falling for Viva as hard and fast as Viva is for her. There’s just one problem: players and officials can’t date.
A lesbian romance about breaking all the rules.
Contract for Love
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ISBN: 978-3-96324-087-4 (mobi), 978-3-96324-088-1 (epub)
Length: 97,000 words (301 pages)
Sherry lives in a trailer park with her son, trying to make ends meet.
Madison’s life couldn’t be more different. Her only goals are partying and bedding women.
When her grandmother threatens to disinherit her, Madison has to find a way to prove that she’s cleaned up her act.
After a chance encounter with Sherry, Madison comes up with a crazy idea: she wants Sherry to play her fake girlfriend.
All the Little Moments
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-342-3 (mobi), 978-3-95533-343-0 (epub)
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A successful anaesthetist, Anna is focused on herself, her career, and her girlfriend. Everything changes abruptly when her brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths devastate her and her family. Left responsible for her young niece and nephew, Anna finds herself dumped and alone in Melbourne, a city she doesn’t even like. She tries to navigate the shock of looking after two children battling with their grief while managing her own.
Filled with self-doubt, Anna feels as if she’s making a mess of the entire thing, especially when she collides with a long-legged stranger. Anna barely has time to brush her teeth in the morning, let alone to date a woman—least of all one who has no idea about the two kids under her care.
Just when Anna finally starts to feel as if she’s getting some control of the situation, the biggest fight begins and Anna really has to step up once and for all.
Falling Hard
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-830-5 (mobi), 978-3-95533-831-2 (epub)
Length: 122,000 words (356 pages)
Dr. Jordan Williams devotes her life to two things: saving patients in the operating room and pleasuring her latest conquest in the bedroom. Her idea of commitment is spending a few hours together in bed.
Single mom Emma Larson is Jordan’s polar opposite. Family and fidelity mean everything to her. After an ugly divorce from her wife, a plastic surgeon, she and her five-year-old daughter move in next door to Jordan. While she finds Jordan undeniably attractive, falling in love with another womanizing surgeon is the last things she needs.
When a bad fall leaves Jordan in need of assistance, Emma decides to help her while she recovers.
Could those six weeks turn out to be the beginning of a happily ever after, or will they both end up with a broken heart?
A Heart This Big
© 2019 by Cheyenne Blue
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-96324-203-8
ISBN (epub): 978-3-96324-204-5
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2019
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Sandra Gerth and Miranda Miller
Cover Design and Print Layout by Streetlight Graphics
A Heart This Big Page 29