The House At the End of the Street

by Jennie Jones

  She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands. ‘How does so much dust form overnight?’ she asked, and coughed a little to make sure Lily’s sudden focus on Gem’s watering eyes got distracted.

  ‘I suppose you’ll be getting together to discuss the toy shop and make the sale formal,’ Lily said. ‘I take it that’s why he’s back—at least, that’s what people are saying.’

  ‘Not sure how it’ll work.’ Gem pinched the top of her nose, then pretended to sneeze. Of course she’d have to get together with Josh.

  He had probably forgotten how inquisitive his townspeople were. If they discovered he hadn’t known it was Gem leasing his shop, they wouldn’t be shy in giving him their opinions. Gem felt a shred of empathy spread in her chest. Maybe she should keep his secret. Keep him from getting an ear-bashing. But why hadn’t he wanted to know?

  ‘Maybe the old magic will return,’ Lily said.

  Gem looked up. ‘Please don’t,’ she warned. ‘There was nothing going on then, and there’ll be nothing going on now—except business.’ Fifty thousand dollars. She had to call her father. Soon.

  ‘I didn’t take him for a quitter,’ Lily said.

  Gem’s attention sharpened. ‘What do you mean?’

  Her friend shrugged a scarf-covered shoulder. ‘Dan was relying on him helping out with the hotel refurb. He left Ethan and Sammy in the lurch—’

  ‘He wasn’t tied by commitments,’ Gemma said, feeling a need to back Josh’s decision—for reasons she didn’t want to delve into. Probably something left over from when she’d been his best friend. ‘He wasn’t under contract to Dan, or to the Grangers with the art and craft centre.’

  ‘But Ethan and Sammy had sort of taken him under their wing, hadn’t they?’

  ‘They’ve done that with plenty of people.’ Including Gem. ‘And Josh was a grown man, not a kid. He made his decision and stuck with it.’ Like leaving me.

  ‘I suppose so.’ Lily chewed on her bottom lip as a deeper consideration came into her eyes. ‘He left his mum, too.’

  Gem’s heartbeat bumped. ‘No, he didn’t. And Pat understood.’ Not that Patricia Rutherford had ever voiced her thoughts on her son’s departure, or given anyone in town an indication of where Josh had gone or what he’d been doing. And he’d looked after his mother, financially. Gem might not be able to forgive him for arranging for Pat to be taken out of town and into the beautiful nursing home, although she’d needed that special care, but everyone in town had missed her. Then she’d died, and any last hope Gem had of discovering more about Josh had gone.

  ‘You’re right. I’m just trying to work it all out before I see him,’ Lily said, picking up a toffee-coloured teddy bear and caressing its head. ‘He was a good friend. He made me laugh at a time when there wasn’t much laughter in my life.’

  ‘Don’t gush about Josh like this to your husband, will you?’ Gem said with a grin.

  Lily laughed. ‘Don’t be silly. I don’t fancy Josh. I’m a few years older than him for a start. And I’ve told Nick about him. I can’t wait to see him again and talk old times. He always had time for Andy and Janie-Louise. He was good with my kids. He was good with everybody’s kids. Nothing was ever too much bother for Josh.’

  Gem nodded. She too had been under his spell, hero-worshipping him after that childish tussle he’d pulled her out of. What thirteen-year-old boy helped a seven-year-old girl with such care? He’d sat them all down and given each a talking to, but Gem had felt his counsel had been softer for her than for the boys. She’d adored him, but not like a big brother. With Josh it had been a tug of the heart from the outset. She felt better walking beside him, as though there were a hundred more reasons for being alive while next to him.

  ‘Janie-Louise wants to know if you’ll need her this week,’ Lily said.

  Gem nodded. ‘I’ll give her a call.’ Lily’s twenty-year-old daughter was training to be a vet and when she was home from uni, she helped Gem out in the toy shop for a bit of extra cash. Sometimes Gem had others jobs she needed to do, in order to increase her own income. When Janie-Louise wasn’t home, Raphael from the hotel filled-in for her.

  ‘Well, best get on.’ Lily turned to the door. ‘See you tonight if not before.’

  ‘Do I have to go?’

  ‘Yes. Seven pm. Kookaburra’s. Usual booth. We girls have got things to discuss. Like your love life.’

  Gem returned her friend’s humour with a grimace, then bowed her head when Lily left, putting her hands onto the showcase table and taking a moment to gather her composure. The girls’ group was meeting up tonight. They’d been begging Gem to join in the speed-dating night and get herself a boyfriend but Gem didn’t date. Didn’t have time, although if she were forced into truthfulness—looking-into-her-soul kind of truthfulness—she’d acknowledge that she didn’t have a rose-coloured view of dating and marriage and love. Divorce, she understood. She’d happily live the rest of her days in the shop with Thumper. A happy spinster.

  Given her father’s tendency to rip people off—like Gem’s mother—and the pig of a guy to whom Gem had offered her affection three years ago, no wonder she had issues with men.

  ‘Worm,’ she muttered, remembering the guy who’d not only seized her tentative heart three years ago but also seven thousand of her dollars. So she’d come home to the Snowy Mountains after six years of artistic wanderlust, learning and working in France and Italy. Apart from Josh’s return creating a few shockwaves, her heart was now in excellent condition, but losing the money still ate her up.

  And tonight’s get-together would be excruciating because Josh would be at Kookaburra’s. Ten years, four months, five days since that kiss. Not that Gem was counting. Not every day.

  It had happened in an instant. One second she’d been teasing him about something, poking him in the chest, and a moment later he’d bent and covered her smiling mouth with his.

  The kiss had suffocated her laughter. Her breath had rushed from her lungs. Her insides had filled with warmth and happiness had spread through her limbs. He held her, his arms tugging her closer as he deepened his kiss. Then her mum walked in on them. Total embarrassment. Not that her mum did anything more than raise an eyebrow so high it got lost in her zig-zag blonde fringe.

  Josh had pulled from Gem fast. He’d apologised to her mum, taken one more look at Gem, shocked and maybe a bit ashamed but his eyes still held the fire of desire. Then he’d left.

  Next time she’d seen him, he’d been struck mute. He’d nodded at her then walked away, the brown of his eyes turning near black as he controlled a temper she’d rarely seen in him. They hadn’t spoken again. A week later he left town.

  But Josh’s kiss had awoken some unsatisfied longing, which never stopped reminding her that Josh hadn’t cared about her as much as she’d wanted him to. Since then she believed she was shadowed by an unlucky star.

  The bell above the door tinkled and Gem straightened, and smiled.

  ‘“Love is a very splendid thing”,’ sang Mrs Tam in a shaky alto as she stepped through the door. ‘I haven’t seen him yet but I heard that you and Josh had a little chat over at the sports field.’

  ‘Yes.’ Gem took her concentration back to the pyramid of boxed toys. Pointless denying anything, the town’s gossip machine would be cranked high.

  ‘I expect he’s feeling vulnerable,’ Mrs Tam said. ‘He’s probably going to take his time, given the responses he’s likely to get for not being in touch with any of us. Poor man, but I have faith he’ll cope.’

  Gem hadn’t seen anything so far that suggested he was susceptible to any hostile feelings some people in town might shower on him. But then again, she hadn’t been looking at much more than his handsome face and his fine, tall body, packed with muscle and topped with a tan.

  On impulse, Gem took Mrs Tam by the shoulders and bent to give her cheek a kiss. She smelled of honey chicken and lemony soap. For so long, she’d smelled of her wonderful homemade ice creams, with an occasional waft of p
etroleum, but she’d given up running the town’s petrol station years ago, and had opened up Mrs T’s Chinese Takeaway, making sure she collaborated with Dan at Kookaburra’s on menu items, so as not to take business from him.

  Gem smiled at the old lady’s surprise at being given a peck on the cheek. ‘I adore you, Mrs Tam.’ This town was rich with love. Every individual in it, including the quirky ones, spread joy when they could—one of the best gifts a person could give as far as Gem was concerned—and the townspeople shared their karmic spirit and generosity without realising they did it.

  ‘Oh, dear Gemma, what a lovely thing to say to an old girl like me.’ She coloured then regained her composure: stocky-framed and reliable. ‘I’ve no doubt it’s Josh who’s bringing up all these thoughts of love.’

  Gem squirmed and her thoughts spiralled. She’d have to be careful tonight when she met up with the girls. She’d need to damp-down all her nerve-endings, especially the ones that might erupt at the sight of Josh. Because her friends weren’t easily fooled.

  ‘Well, good heavens, here he is!’

  Oh, crap.

  Mrs Tam rushed to Josh, arms wide, and hugged him, the top of her head only reaching the base of his sternum.

  ‘Where’ve you been, you naughty boy?’ she exclaimed, straightening the jacket beneath his camel overcoat like an elderly Tinker Bell mothering her giant of a son. Gem had forgotten how Josh’s six-four height coupled with the accompanying shoulder span could swamp a person.

  ‘Been a while, hasn’t it?’ he said, with a smile. ‘How are you, Mrs Tam? It’s good to see you.’

  Gem tried not to care about how the little creases on his stately tanned forehead vanished when he smiled.

  ‘I’m in a rush, Josh,’ Mrs Tam said. ‘And I’ve no doubt you both have a lot to talk over so I’ll catch you later. Wonderful to see you again too but I really must dash.’ She squeezed his arm, gazed up at him for a second, looking like she might cry, then made a beeline for the door.

  ‘What’s with the rush?’ Josh asked Gem, indicating Mrs Tam’s retreating back.

  She’s hoping we’ll forgive and forget, and maybe kiss and make up. ‘Is this an official visit?’

  ‘Depends.’ Josh ran an eye around the shop, clearly not concerned about not getting an answer to his original question.

  ‘What are you looking for?’

  ‘Something you’re likely to pick up and throw at me.’ At least he grinned. He stepped towards the showcase table, displaying no signs of insecurity.

  ‘I sell gifts for the mums and dads too,’ she told him, flicking a thumb at the gift cabinet. He looked at the cabinet and away again. ‘Just my own artwork. The painted karma charms, jewellery boxes and the china.’ Gem glanced at the cabinet and her head was flooded with images of the time Josh had let her help him move the ornately crafted piece into place, and she’d been given the task of filling it with toys. She’d been thirteen, Josh nineteen. ‘It helps to have some gifts for grown-ups too.’

  ‘The shop wouldn’t be the same without art,’ he said.

  Her mum used to hang Gem’s artwork on the walls and then Sammy Granger had started art classes for all the children around town and the shop had been the showcase. One corner was still dedicated to the artwork Gem’s regular young customers brought her, and now it was Gem who taught the children.

  From an early age, people had been telling Gem how talented she was, and some had suggested she nudge fate in the direction of stardom but she didn’t want to be a star, she wanted to be Gem. And she wanted to be herself in her hometown: Swallow’s Fall.

  ‘Thanks.’ She studied him. He was no longer smiling but his frown wasn’t ferocious, although it had deepened. Trouble was, the rich brown eyes beneath his lowered eyebrows still had the power to melt her heart. She’d need to get close to determine the light in them but it didn’t look, from this distance, as though they held any meanness, regardless of the frown. Why had Josh left and why wasn’t he telling anyone? He’d never been evasive before. Maybe there was hope that this business deal between them would go well after all.

  ‘So,’ she said, ‘where have you been?’

  ‘I popped out to get a paper and forgot to come back.’

  ‘Ha ha,’ she said in a dull tone. He’d said it with another grin—why did his grin have to be sexy?—but there was something bothering him.

  ‘Let’s get this sorted, Gemma. I’m selling the toy shop.’

  So he’d already assumed he was going to have a fight about it?

  ‘And I’m buying it.’ She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, holding on to her battering heart. She was ready. Almost. One phone call away.

  ‘It’s up for a fair price. Have you got the capital or the backing?’

  ‘I will have.’ She would raise the suddenly much-needed additional cash. Somehow. Even if her father got all shitty and refused to let her have her own money. ‘How did you find out it was me wanting to buy it?’

  ‘Edie advised me, although she didn’t realise she was doing so.’

  Gem regarded him again as he looked around the shop, his gaze resting on the cabinet he’d crafted, then moving on to the polished countertop. She’d never imagined Josh in a suit, and didn’t want to, but from the weight and the cut of the casual clothes he wore now he must have made big money. He’d trained as a carpenter and builder but he’d also run small enterprises in town: the old art and craft centre, and for a while, his mother’s shop—this shop. He’d been good at everything and had been the best person in her life.

  ‘What did you do to your hair?’ she asked, tingles and prickles goose-bumping her skin just because she was looking at him. She wasn’t still in love with him, was she?

  He ran a hand over his head as though expecting to find a cobweb in it. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s short. All over.’ He used to have wavy bits behind his ears and at the nape. The length at the back sometimes brushed his T-shirt when he forgot to cut it. At one stage it had got so long he’d tied it in a ponytail with a thin leather strap.

  ‘I keep it short. Prefer it.’ He looked away, his face angled up as he studied the mobiles Gem had strung from the ceiling. He was giving nothing away, keeping himself secured in his countryman finery. He looked like he’d been born and bred in some cosmopolitan city, as though he were pretending to be from the country while he was here.

  ‘Where’d you get the tan?’ she asked.

  ‘Here and there.’

  So he wasn’t into small talk.

  ‘Bet you don’t have a tattoo,’ she said, wanting to make him grin again. His manner might display imperviousness but hers was taking a dive towards susceptible and that had to be stopped. She was not still in love with him.

  ‘Why ask that?’ He frowned in consideration, as though she’d surprised him, and as though he didn’t want to answer. ‘Ah. Don’t tell me.’ His mouth tilted in a half-smile. ‘You’ve got one.’

  ‘Might have.’

  ‘I hope it isn’t something stupid.’

  Her gall rose and subdued any anxiety about being alone with the man she’d been in love with all her life—up until now. Any love still left was tempered by her annoyance—or all her worries. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you’ve got it for life. You’re marked. Did you choose carefully?’

  ‘It’s not huge,’ she said. He sounded like the old Josh, the one who looked out for the kid Gem had been. But she wasn’t a child any longer. ‘Anyway, it’s my mark and I like it.’

  He ran his gaze over her quickly. Over her torso, down her legs, then back up to her face. ‘So where is it?’

  Gem clenched her thighs. Even a drifting gaze from those intense brown eyes sent her legs weak.

  The wind must have lifted because the door blew open. The bell rattled. Josh grabbed the door, opened it fully, kicked the door stopper beside it and stepped outside, his back to Gem.

  Worry whistled up Gem’s spine. Why couldn’t he look miserable and gr
oss? She followed him outside. ‘You’re not the same, Josh.’ Her aching heart had better remember that. She hadn’t realised that the thought of being rejected by him was such a big one in her head but that’s what was bothering her. It wasn’t love, it was rejection. She’d had too much of that in her life, and evidently hadn’t got over it. ‘You look like a city boy,’ she advised him, wrapping her arms around her torso as the wind kicked up again.

  He turned to her. ‘Do I?’

  ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘City boy.’ He might not deserve the taunt but her mouth had opened and the words had come out. ‘You don’t look right in those clothes,’ she said, mellowing her previous statement.

  He gave her a smile. ‘You’re not in the mood for a business discussion. How about we talk later?’ He turned and headed down the walkway towards Kookaburra’s.

  ‘He’s probably a namby-pamby kind of city boy too,’ she said to herself.

  He laughed, and turned, giving her the benefit of his grin.

  Crap. How could he have heard that in this wind?

  Josh shoved his hands into his coat pockets, the heat from Gem’s gaze like a laser on his back. The burning sensation singed both his skin and his mind, messing up the self-inflicted rules he’d put into place regarding anything to do with thoughts about her.

  Where was that tattoo? On the curve of her hip? Shoulder blade? Inner thigh? You’re not staying, he reminded himself. Stop thinking about Gemma Munroe that way. Trouble was, so much more than her temper had developed.

  She’d always fired up quick. Came from her youth, from having to defend herself and her brothers. Artistic temperament too; she’d been adept at more than art as a young girl: languages, sport, laughter, fighting boys bigger than her. He chuckled. It was good to see her. Possibly too good.

  But the shop looked great. It was in good condition, better than it had been when his mother had bought it. The antique-green paint job and the pink signage gave it a European look, which somehow blended with the Australian heritage colours on the other shops and stores, creating a remarkable balance.