The House At the End of the Street

by Jennie Jones

  ‘Oh, by the way,’ she said, ‘that bureau in Grandy’s bedroom, one of its drawers is stuck. The little one at the back.’

  ‘I’ll take a look tomorrow.’

  ‘Might as well put your carpentry skills to good use while you’re here. It’s a beautiful piece.’

  ‘You should take it, Gem.’

  ‘I don’t take freebies, and anyway, it wouldn’t be right taking Grandy’s furniture out of his comfy old farmhouse.’

  ‘He gave it to me, I’ll give it to you. What else am I going to do with all this stuff?’

  ‘No thanks, much as it pains me to refuse.’ She paused, then took her eyes off him to collect her nail polish bits and pieces.

  He stood and gathered the whiskey bottle and his glass. The one thing they hadn’t discussed was what Josh was going to do with the farmhouse when he left. Hell, he had no idea what he was going to do with any of it. It’d probably stand empty for another ten years, and maybe he ought to get over his hesitation to discuss what this meant: Josh would be leaving as soon as Gem was out of her cast. Four weeks. They should have sorted Munroe out by then.

  ‘I spoke to a guy I sailed with today.’ Josh put the bottle and glass onto a tray on top of a side table. ‘He rang me. Out of the blue.’ Kind of. Josh had tried to get hold of him a couple of times this last week. He couldn’t say for sure why, ostensibly to catch up, possibly as a get-out-of-town ticket, although he didn’t care to admit he might need one in order to leave.

  Gem didn’t answer. She switched off the two lamps in the room. Josh put the fireguard on the hearth, even though the fire was now low, and almost burnt out.

  He followed Gem down the hall, past the kitchen, past the study.

  ‘He wanted to know if I was up for a trip around the world.’

  Gem gave a little laugh. ‘The things you have to put up with.’

  ‘Sailing isn’t what I want any more, but I’d consider it again, if the right reason came up.’

  ‘Oh?’ She didn’t sound particularly interested and Josh knew the air between them had taken on the chill of the hallway walls.

  ‘Fancy a trip around the world, Gem?’

  ‘No thanks.’ She turned to him when she got to her bedroom door, her hand on the brass knob. ‘Goodnight, Josh.’

  ‘’Night, Gemma.’

  He waited until she closed the door and a strip of light showed at the bottom of it, then wandered along the darkened hall, head bent, his focus on nothing tangible. Where was he going next? He’d never questioned it before, had always relied on the compass, knowing it would lead him in some direction until he found the right direction. That’s what adventure was.

  On long voyages, sometimes solo, depending on the size of the boat, he’d lain on his bunk thinking about the other sort of life he might have found. Companionship. A house. A fireside. He’d allowed those thoughts to wander through his mind then away again, never believing he’d have reason to chase such a dream. Those lonely journeys across oceans put fanciful dreams into a man’s head.

  Had Gem been asking him to stay that day in her flat when they’d talked about the seafaring story displayed in the ring of tattoos on his arm? Stay with her, for her? Or had he wrongly read the undercurrents?

  No anchor.

  He put his hand on his bedroom door handle. If he wanted Gem—and the timepiece in his heart told him he wanted her, more than just kissing and sex—he’d have to take her with him. And she wouldn’t leave.

  He opened the door and stepped inside. The dark sky outside the windows cast shadows on the walls. He was out of his league in Swallow’s Fall. He’d been gone too long, regardless of the rekindled friendships. All he had to do was look after Gemma, make sure she was safe before he left, and if he got the chance to kiss her again, he’d take it.

  Kissing Gem. That’s what would see him through restless nights when he sailed his next ocean. Or wherever the hell he ended up.

  ‘Mmm.’ Gem sipped her cappuccino then put the cup back on the saucer. ‘Never thought I’d end up drinking coffee at Kookaburra’s on a Wednesday morning with little else to do. Thanks for picking me up on your way into town.’ Sammy had picked her up because Josh had been in town early to help Marie take delivery of new stock. Gem was impressed with herself these days, having become content to let others deal with what should be her job.

  ‘My pleasure,’ Sammy said, blowing on her own coffee. ‘Marie’s charming. Edie’s taken a shine to Kenny.’

  ‘It’s working out well. Marie’s had no trouble picking up the ins and outs of the shop. Everybody’s accepted her. I think the only gossip going on is that her partner abandoned her, which is the truth—and they know nothing about what Josh has done for her. She’s smiling a lot these days too, which is one good thing to have evolved out of all this. I’m going to ask her to stay on part time—once my crazy world straightens itself out.’

  ‘It will, Gem. Everything will work out fine.’

  ‘So much for the magic you spoke of. My father has put everybody in a state of shock with his underhanded dealings—impossible to keep of truth that totally hidden.’

  Sammy patted her hand. ‘Magic has always run down Main Street, Gem. It’s still there. You’ll see.’

  ‘Well I’m not going to be running down the street trying to catch it.’ She lifted her right leg. ‘Not with this on my foot.’

  Sammy laughed. ‘I’ve got used to seeing you wear it now. Oh—didn’t you have a bridesmaid dress fitting yesterday? How’d it go?’

  Gem grimaced as she recalled the look of herself in the mirror. Two weeks and two days until the wedding. ‘It’s nearly finished. Jillian promised to make me a sleeve to fit over the cast.’

  ‘How’s Grace? Ted told me she was glued to her sewing machine.’

  ‘I haven’t seen her. Jillian is making my bridesmaid dress—oh, but wait until you see what Grace has made the twins. Their dresses are stunning.’

  ‘I can’t wait for this wedding. We all need something wonderful.’

  ‘Don’t we just?’

  ‘Josh will be here. I presume the twins have sent him an invite.’

  Gem concentrated on her cappuccino. ‘Think so.’ Three weeks until Gem got the cast off and Josh left.

  ‘Has he been looking after you up at the farmhouse?’

  ‘We look after each other. He brings dinner home and I make him do chores.’ Gem grinned. ‘We’re a regular couple.’ Except we don’t kiss.

  ‘Home, huh?’

  ‘Slip of the tongue. You know what I mean.’ Gem frowned at her coffee. He hadn’t kissed her once in the last twelve days. Why was that? Not even on the top of her head. ‘He asked me if I wanted the farmhouse.’

  ‘And do you?’

  ‘I’d buy it if I could, since he doesn’t want it. But he’s talking about simply handing it over to me. That’s crazy.’

  ‘It’s not so crazy.’

  ‘Well, there’s generous and there’s generous—and that type of generous is downright crazy.’

  ‘Josh doesn’t know what he’s doing yet.’

  He knew he was leaving.

  ‘Do you think Josh is going to tell people before he leaves?’ Sammy was the only woman in town Gem could talk to about everything. Sammy was the only friend who knew everything about everything. Including the way Gem felt about Josh. ‘That Grandy left him Piralilla?’

  Sammy shook her head. ‘Don’t know. You’ll have to ask Josh.’ She glanced away, running an eye over the patrons in Kookaburra’s. ‘I’d like to ask Grandy a couple of things.’

  ‘Like what?’ Gem asked. ‘About Josh?’

  ‘Yes. Has Josh said anything about his mother knowing about the inheritance? Not that she did, as far as Ethan and I know.’

  ‘Not a word. Why wouldn’t she be allowed to know, do you think?’

  ‘Grandy was firm on that point. I just wondered if perhaps he’d told Pat what he intended to do. I remember Grandy spending some time with her before he died.
He went up to her house a few times. Before Josh left town. Oh well.’ Sammy drained her coffee. ‘No point in going over it unless we have to.’ She stood, collecting her shoulder bag off the floor. ‘Here’s Josh now. What time’s your appointment?’

  ‘Two o’clock,’ Gem said, rising from her chair and grabbing the crutches she didn’t always use.

  Josh waved, then stopped to have a word with Dan.

  Gem watched him surreptitiously. Would she go with him if he asked her? She was pretty sure that’s what their odd conversation the other night had been about. Want to take a trip around the world, Gem? Somewhere deep inside her—that sensitive place where her inner voice spoke the truth—an alarm bell rang and little fists punched at her gut. She didn’t want to leave. She couldn’t see herself on the deck of a yacht. Maybe for a holiday, but not forever. How could anybody not want a home? She’d returned because of a longing. Josh was leaving because of his. But how could she not be with him?

  A guardedness had crept between them: a fun, supposedly friendly one when they were in town, but one that seemed to rise to unscalable heights when they were alone at the farmhouse. Probably just as well. Some memories of him would be agonizing. She’d imagined daydreaming in the future about being kissed by him. She’d be in the shop and it would be raining. There’d be no customers and she’d be at a loose end so she’d lean on the counter, her face in her hands and look at the cabinet he’d built all those years ago. Then she’d close her eyes and remember his kisses.

  They’d be warm memories. Bearable. If they took this attraction further and slept together, Gem didn’t think she’d be able to bear the memories they’d create. Especially if he was a tender lover. The type that stroked and protected. The strong kind who could lead and tempt. The caring kind who curled his woman in his arms afterwards, telling her sweet nothings—which to Gem would be sweet everythings—until they fell asleep.

  Given Josh’s beautiful soul, he was likely to be the tender kind of lover. Damn it.

  Gem’s blood pressure had risen.

  ‘I hope we haven’t scared you, Miss Munroe,’ Doctor Hamish the orthopaedic surgeon said as he took the cuff off Gem’s arm.

  ‘It’s not fear. It’s excitement.’ She’d had another X-ray and now she was hoping the doctor had good news for her.

  ‘Miss Munroe, thank you for coming in. We need to apologise to you. Never happened before,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘Can’t believe it’s happened now. We had a relief X-ray technician the day you originally came in. Not one we’ve had before—or will be likely to use again. I promise you, Miss Munroe, this matter will be investigated.’ Doctor Hamish took his spectacles off and pinched the top of his nose. ‘It was thought the back of your tibia—at the level of your ankle joint—’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘—was fractured, but by no more than ten per cent.’ He put his spectacles back on. ‘And therefore unstable but not requiring surgery. Hence the cast, due to the risk of developing arthritis if the fracture was not allowed to heal properly. However this X-ray has shown that there is no fracture of the tibia.’

  Gem was delighted. She inhaled the clean, clinical air in his room. ‘Don’t apologise. Having this cast on my leg has forced me to let others help, and believe me, I’m not the type to take handouts or assistance. So in some way, I’m a new me!’ She grinned.

  ‘Well, good. And now the cast may be removed.’

  ‘Yes!’ Gem pumped the air with her fist. ‘If I wasn’t already in love,’ she told him, ‘I’d ask you to marry me.’

  ‘Good heavens,’ he said through his laughter. ‘I’m not sure my wife of thirty-five years would allow it.’

  Free of the cast, Gem pushed through the swings doors from the inner sanctum of the hospital and held her arms out wide to Josh, who was sitting in one of the uncomfortable-looking green plastic chairs in the waiting room. He stood and dropped the magazine in his hand when he saw her.

  ‘Look!’ she called to him. ‘No cast. I can go to the ball. Where’s my carriage?’

  A few out-patients shuffled on their hard seats and a couple more laughed.

  ‘I’m so pleased, Gem,’ Josh said, taking her hands in his when he reached her.

  ‘He said I can dance all night if I want to. The more weight I put on my ankle, the stronger it’ll get. How’s that for luck? I asked him to marry me.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Doctor Hamish. He said no.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Oh, Josh, I can’t tell what a relief this is.’ Freedom! She could continue the soccer coaching when it wasn’t snowing too hard. Her mountain bike would see the light of day instead of being stuck in the shed at the back of the shop. ‘Something good in the midst of so much bad.’

  ‘Baby.’ He pulled her into his embrace and Gem went willingly, happy for the bond of friendship. He understood her many moods and didn’t complain about the cross ones. Much. He was just the best.

  ‘That’s the second time a man has refused my offer of marriage,’ she said. ‘I’m not asking a third.’ She laughed, her face against the broad strength of his shoulder. He tensed a little, but Gem ignored it. This was too happy a moment to spoil it with more worry. Now she wouldn’t feel such a fool in that poufy-skirted 1960s dress when she walked—crutches free—in front of Jessica and Jillian Tillman as they made their way down the aisle of the town hall towards their men. ‘I’m so happy.’

  Josh held her away from him, his hands on her shoulders, and beamed. ‘No crutches,’ he said. ‘No cast. One beautiful happy woman in my arms. Let’s celebrate.’

  He offered his arm, which she took. He led her to the automatic doors of the hospital and out into the cold, wintery-white afternoon light.

  ‘Just in time,’ he said. ‘There’s a traffic warden hanging around the carriage.’

  Seventeen

  Gem sipped her wine, enjoying the tang in her mouth. Cold and delicate against the cosy warmth of the room. The lamp light in the living room seemed to drape over them, letting the roaring fire in the hearth light the exploratory path between them, Josh on one sofa, Gem on the other.

  Gem dragged her eyes from Josh’s deep, calmly intense ones, sighed, and let her head rest against the sofa. She ran her hand over the plump seat, strumming the linen with her fingertips. She closed her eyes as the piece on the radio changed from a piano sonata to the gentle flurry of Spanish guitar. The image of Josh stayed behind her eyelids. She stretched her right leg, the fabric on her ankle-length skirt falling between her thighs. She wiggled her toes and rotated her ankle, still getting used to being without the cast.

  ‘I promised you a dance,’ Josh said. ‘Let’s give that ankle of yours a workout.’

  Gem opened her eyes and watched him rise from the sofa opposite. ‘So long as it’s not a jive.’ She put her glass down and noticed that her fingers trembled.

  He held a hand out for her.

  Gem went into his arms, slightly worried about not wanting to leave his embrace when the music stopped, but too desperate to discover what it was like to be held so close by him for longer than a minute to stop herself.

  He put one hand at her back, and let the fingers of his other hand intertwine with hers. He smelled like the wind: clean, brave, strong. Tentative, she rested her cheek against the soft fabric of his T-shirt. He drifted her in a circle before the fire.

  ‘So you asked that guy who stole money from you to marry you?’ he asked, his voice mellow.

  ‘In my mind. Fortunately I didn’t voice the words.’

  ‘Did he pull at your heartstrings so hard?’

  ‘He did, but not because of who he was. I was in some weird state of wanting to find a home and thought perhaps he might be it. Then he took my money. Best seven thousand dollars I ever spent in my life.’

  ‘Why so?’ He pulled back slightly to look down at her.

  Gem raised her gaze. ‘I wanted to come home, Josh. I didn’t know what waited for me in Swallow’s Fall or what I’d do for
a living, but I wanted to put my boots on the earth I’d grown up on.’

  He pulled her back into his arms without answering.

  ‘This is not much of a test for my ankle, Josh. You’re holding me up.’

  ‘That’s because I’m going to kiss you in a moment and I don’t want you falling.’

  Oh boy. The guitar strings reached a crescendo then dived back to a rhythmic flurry. She nestled her cheek into his shoulder and allowed the music and his strength to caress her.

  ‘You aren’t going to object?’ he asked.

  ‘Just dance with me.’ If she kissed him now, where would it lead? And would she let it?

  ‘Okay, baby.’

  Baby. Coming from Josh it didn’t sound like a little-woman-at-home patronising nickname, it sounded like a promise to safeguard and protect. Shielded from everything bad while he was holding her, Gem allowed his strength and care—and the thought of what might come next—to swamp her.

  ‘This is good practice for when I dance at the wedding,’ she murmured.

  ‘Who will you dance with?’

  She tried to forget that he wouldn’t be here for the wedding now—he’d undoubtedly be leaving soon; there was no reason for him to stay. Her cast was off, and they’d got a lot underway to pull down the all-time shit.

  ‘Anyone who asks. I’m the bridesmaid. I get to dance with the best man.’

  ‘Who is this man?’ he asked, holding her away so that she could look up at his face.

  ‘Some McWade cousin.’

  His arms tightened around her as she put her cheek back to his shoulder again. ‘I hope he’s as squat as a frog and has the face of a toad,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I don’t want you in any other man’s arms, let alone enjoy being there.’

  She didn’t want to be in any other man’s arms. How could some other man come into her life and rescue her from being in eternal love with Josh? Impossible, and not kind to allow a new man into her life when she loved another and would never stop loving him.