She closed her eyes and absorbed the still a few moments longer, then leaned forward and blew out the candles.
***
Just over one week out from the ball, things really seemed to be coming together.
‘All the basics are done,’ Lily announced, updating the committee. ‘The minor repairs and the fresh coat of paint have made a big difference. Now I have to get serious about creating the ballroom. I’m going out to collect branches with Josh tomorrow.’
‘Good work, Lily,’ Maureen said, and consulted the notes in front of her. ‘Tickets. We’re down to thirteen. Which means we’ve sold one hundred and eighty-seven. So even before the auction, we’ve raised almost raised twenty thousand dollars.’ She paused at the round of whoops and cheers from around the table. ‘Yep, not bad for a couple of weeks of work. Katie?’
‘Deposit has gone to Cripple Creek, so they’re locked in for the night,’ Katie said.
Awesome. Cripple Creek were a bluegrass band based in Katie’s hometown that she’d been keen to secure. Once upon a time, she’d even sung with them. The band had planned to head to Melbourne to check out the competition, but Katie had managed to convince them to play at the Spring Ball instead.
‘How are we progressing with the items for auction?’ Maureen directed towards Helen and Louise. ‘Lily and I managed to get the Murphy boys to donate a day’s labour each.’
Lily smiled. She’d been the carrot and Maureen had been the stick, and the three boys hadn’t stood a chance. Served them right for spending so much time hanging around the café.
‘It’s looking really good,’ said Louise. ‘Josh has agreed to a day’s business consulting.’
‘People have really been very generous with their donations,’ Helen added. ‘We won’t have any shortage of things to offer.’
‘I want to add a couple of vouchers for lunches at the café,’ Maureen said.
‘And I want to offer some free tutoring,’ added Katie.
‘My parents have donations to make too,’ said Lily. The bottle of Grange from her dad’s cellar and the two antique Lalique vases. Perhaps in real life, they wouldn’t have donated to something like this, but she hoped the good karma reached them, wherever they were.
‘That all sounds good,’ said Maureen.
‘Do you need any help with the food?’ Louise asked her. ‘I know you wanted to get started on prepping.’
In addition to the spit roasts they’d agreed on last week, they’d finalised the menu by adding pit-roasted jacket potatoes and salads they could prepare ahead of time. Hors d’oeuvres would be platters of donated local cheeses, meats and bread, with fresh fruits and pickled vegetables. Dessert would be apple pie and clotted cream.
Simple and honest food, served buffet-style. They’d hired some high school girls to do basic clearing away and serving, but for the most part, the guests would help themselves. It would be more like a big dinner party than a formal event, and she couldn’t think of a better way to commence what she hoped was a new friendship between Mirabook and the town.
Besides, it’s not like it wouldn’t all be delicious.
‘No, that won’t be necessary,’ replied Maureen briskly. ‘I’ve already prepared the crust and the filling for the pies. It’s in the freezer, waiting for the big day.’
‘So, we’re on track,’ Helen said, as if she couldn’t believe everything was really going this smoothly.
‘Oh, we’re on track all right. We’re well on track,’ Maureen responded confidently.
Lily took in their faces; Katie looked excited, Maureen triumphant, Louise smugly pleased, and even Helen managed to look cautiously optimistic. Four different ways to be happy.
‘I had a feeling we might deserve a celebration,’ said Maureen. ‘I’ve got some of the apple pie in the oven right now, waiting for us to try.’
Apple pie with friends—did life get any better?
Helen went to help Maureen serve the pie in the kitchen, and Katie turned to Lily. ‘You know, I’ve been thinking. You should organise photographers for the ball. You could use the photos to promote your business.’
Why hadn’t she thought of that? Because she’d been thinking of the ball more as a dinner party among friends than as an event, maybe. But Katie was right. ‘I should. I’ll see what I can organise in a week.’
‘You can’t let an opportunity to promote slip away. New businesses need all the help they can get.’
As had been emphasised by all the books she’d been reading. ‘Okay, you’re right. Actually, Saxon’s pretty handy with a camera. I might ask him.’
‘What business is this?’ Louise asked stiffly. Of all the committee, Louise was the only one Lily still wasn’t entirely comfortable around. Mostly—all—because of Josh.
Hadn’t Louise heard about the wedding business? Lily had just assumed she would have. From someone here. Or from Josh.
She wondered, not for the first time, what Josh had told his mum about the two of them. It’d been almost a week since they’d made love under the apple blossoms. Surely he’d mentioned something? But Louise hadn’t said anything, and Lily didn’t feel it was her place to bring it up.
‘Lily’s starting her own wedding business. At Mirabook,’ Katie supplied when Lily remained silent.
‘Really? I hadn’t realised. That sounds very … permanent.’
She didn’t sound pleased. Did that mean Louise had been holding out hope that Lily would be heading back to Sydney? What had Josh told her? Or not told her.
‘So, Lily,’ Katie went on, oblivious to any of the subsurface tension. ‘I wanted to ask you, does Saxon like Thai?’
‘Saxon adores Thai.’
‘Oh, fantastic. It’s our first date next Tuesday night. I’m choosing the restaurant, and I wanted to make sure I took him somewhere he’d like.’
‘First date? I kind of assumed you were already dating.’
‘Oh, we’re taking it slow. It’s been really nice.’
Katie had a dreamy expression in her eyes and the sweetest smile on her face. Louise’s lips pursed even further in disapproval. So, she’d not only been holding out hope that Lily’d disappear to Sydney, but that Josh’d turn his attentions back to Katie.
She had to talk to Josh about this—she still wasn’t sure exactly what it was they had going, but surely he should have told his mother something?
Helen and Maureen came in holding plates of warm apple pie and cream. It looked amazing. Lily decided to put the whole thing with Louise out of her mind, and enjoy the dessert Maureen had made.
‘Yum, Maureen!’ Katie exclaimed. Never one to wait, she took her dessert fork, cut off a small piece and popped it in her mouth. Then she froze, mouthful of pie, totally still. Her eyes caught Lily’s, begging for help.
Intrigued, Lily took a small bite. Katie made a trumpeting noise through her full mouth, and moments later, when she found herself in exactly the same position as Katie, Lily knew why. The two of them leapt simultaneously from the table and raced through to the kitchen, where they spat the pie into paper towels, and fell about giggling.
‘We’ve got to warn the others.’
Thank goodness they hadn’t started yet. Maureen was still going through how she used sour cream instead of butter in her crusts. It was time they told her she also used salt instead of sugar. Lily allowed Katie to do the honours.
‘There’s a problem with the pies, Maureen.’
Maureen grabbed a fork, separated out a small mouthful of her own.
‘No, don’t!’ Lily said.
Too late.
Maureen jumped up from the table, and proceeded at a rapid clip to the kitchen.
‘Well, that’s that then,’ she said when she returned a minute late. ‘Apple pie for two-hundred is totally irretrievable. Here I was thinking we were ahead of schedule. Now we’re behind.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Helen. ‘Won’t take us long to fix the problem.’
‘We’ll all help, Maureen,’ said Lo
uise. ‘Many hands make light work.’
‘Let’s do it tonight,’ Katie added.
Lily tried to imagine something similar happening at her old events company. If disaster had arrived, would her colleagues have jumped in so quickly to help? Not a chance. Your problems were your own. She would’ve been up till five in the morning fixing them herself.
‘I can stay and help,’ added Lily. ‘I’ll call Josh and tell him I’ll be late tonight.’
She felt Louise stiffen next to her, and regretted her words. Not that she’d meant anything by them. They’d just come out naturally, because she was seeing Josh. If she was supposed to be hiding that, nobody had informed her.
‘All right, thanks girls. That’d be much appreciated,’ said Maureen.
A thought struck Lily. ‘You know, it’s really a good thing that this happened,’ she said slowly. ‘Because it’s a reminder that we really should have a dress rehearsal. Make sure everything is going to work out as planned.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Katie.
‘Yes, it certainly is,’ agreed Helen.
‘What about Thursday? That’s late enough that I should have the rooms set up, but leaves enough time to fix any problems before Saturday night.’
Nods from around the table.
‘Thursday evening. You’re all invited out to Mirabook.’
‘Right, we should get started on the pies if we want to get out of here before midnight,’ said Maureen. ‘Katie, why don’t you and Lily go buy more apples, and us old ducks will turn our hands to pastry.’
‘How many?’ Katie asked.
‘Just buy out the supermarket,’ joked Maureen.
Smiling, Lily headed to the kitchen to grab her coat and bag, and turned to find Louise had followed her in.
‘Lily, do you have a moment?’
No. Was she allowed to say no? Because every time Louise cornered her alone, it was to discuss one thing and one thing only.
‘This is a little delicate … But might I enquire as to what is happening between you and Josh?’ She didn’t look antagonistic exactly, but she didn’t look like she was getting ready to throw confetti either.
Lily squirmed. ‘You should ask Josh. I don’t feel comfortable saying anything if he hasn’t.’ But evidently he hadn’t said anything. And hadn’t she just informed the universe she was through putting up with shit? ‘Look, Louise, I know you don’t like me and you don’t think I’m good for Josh, but it’s really between us,’ she said. And then she said something she’d wanted to say for a long time, because she was done apologising for her presence. ‘And I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for me to leave.’
Louise looked away. ‘I shouldn’t have said those things to you, Lily. I apologise for that. Put it down to my protective instincts. I am his mother, after all.’ She paused, met Lily’s eyes again. ‘Does he know about your business plans?’
The question took her by surprise. ‘Yes,’ she replied, struggling to understand why of all the questions she might have expected Louise to ask, that’s the one she’d chosen.
Josh definitely knew about her plans, not that he’d supported her ideas when she’d first told him, and they hadn’t talked about it since. In fact, they still didn’t talk much at all. They spent every night together, but with her being so busy with the ball and him being so busy catching up on work he’d missed by helping her, it never felt like enough time. And when they were together, talking was the last thing on either of their minds.
Her answer seemed to trouble Louise. She looked uncharacteristically ruffled, fidgeting with the rings on her hands. ‘So, he knows you’re staying.’
‘Yes.’ What on earth was going on? She still didn’t understand.
Louise wasn’t meeting her eyes. ‘I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m about to say as another way of me suggesting you should go.’
A strange feeling settled in the pit of Lily’s stomach. Whatever was coming was not good.
‘I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you. Josh doesn’t tend to have long-term girlfriends.’
Louise met her eyes then, but try as she might, Lily couldn’t find any malice in them. Which took the words from nasty to disturbing. A chill fluttered up her spine and she felt faintly nauseous. ‘You know what, Louise? Let’s just agree not to discuss Josh, okay?’
She headed back out to join Katie, thinking that maybe Louise’s words wouldn’t worry her so much if she didn’t fear they contained a kernel of truth. Because while she and Josh had been spending every night together, and she really couldn’t complain about that, he never mentioned a future.
***
Lily was sitting on Mirabook’s front steps, reading a book in the afternoon sun, so engrossed that she didn’t even register the sound of his ute pulling up until he was almost on top of her. When she finally noticed, she smiled and waved, put her book to the side and jumped up, ready to go. He took in her polka-dot chambray shirt, jeans and the straw hat on her head as she approached. Lily’s version of country? He suppressed a smile. She was never going to look the part.
Sliding into the passenger seat beside him, she leaned over, wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a kiss just below his ear. Easy, comfortable. Like they were an old, established couple.
He wasn’t complaining exactly. Lily could kiss him anytime she wanted. But it still always half-caught him by surprise. Strange as it was to consider, neither of them had been in a relationship like this before, but she seemed to be handling this, whatever it was, better than he was.
Probably because he knew more about what the future held then she did.
He still hadn’t told her about the debt. It wasn’t like him to bury his head in the sand and ignore the sky falling down, but that’s exactly what he’d done.
The past couple of weeks had had a dream-like quality. He wasn’t a dreamer—far from it—but he’d found adjusting to what was a totally new reality difficult. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore, didn’t know what he believed.
Besides, if it was a dream, it was a beautiful one—one that featured Lily in his bed every night. He didn’t want to wake up. Why would he? He knew what was waiting for him once he did. So he’d given up trying to make sense of any of it. For once in his life, he was going with the flow, trying not to over-analyse.
Part of him hadn’t really believed he and Lily would get to this point. He was still half-waiting for her to get bored with him and the whole country thing and head back to Sydney, selling Mirabook to him on her way out the door. But as time passed, and she was still very much here, he had to admit it was looking less likely.
He wished he’d already told her about the debt. The pressure of having it hanging over their heads was starting to get to him. Sleeping with her was not helping. But it just never seemed to be the right time to bring it up. And now, her extra month was almost up.
He knew he should tell her about it, because she needed time to prepare. But it was only a week until the ball and she was so excited about it and so busy getting all her ducks in a row. He’d tell her as soon as the ball was over. The very next day.
‘Thanks for coming,’ she said, as she drew back from her enthusiastic greeting.
‘No problem. Remind me what we’re doing again?’
‘Hunting and gathering.’
He shot her a sideways glance.
‘Okay, just gathering. Branches, remember? Some big ones, and a whole heap of smaller ones.’
Branches? He’d given up trying to keep up with her vision for the ball. ‘You just tell me what you want and I’ll load it all into the tray.’
‘That’s the plan. You got your chainsaw?’
‘Never leave home without it.’
They were headed for a relatively uncleared section of the estate where they had a good chance of finding all the branches and striplings Lily required. About halfway down the drive, they veered off over a rough track leading through paddocks, and Lily jumped out to deal with the gate.
He glanced across at her once she’d slid back in. She was scouring the scenery outside for likely clumps of trees. It was windy again today, and the breeze had blown a strand or two loose from her braided hair. His fingers itched to reach out and tuck the strand back behind her ear. He shifted his gaze, but it only landed on her pale, elegant hand, resting on her leg. He wanted to touch her hand too. It disturbed him a bit, how much he wanted to touch her, so instead, he returned his eyes to the path in front of him, told himself to focus on driving.
They were spending every night in his bed. Long, sex-filled nights. He’d got pretty much everything he’d ever fantasized about and more, because Lily was pretty damn uninhibited; but if anything, the compulsion to be close to her, to touch her, was worse than before. He wasn’t even close to working her out of his system.
If that was what he was still trying to do.
Frowning, he steered his mind in another direction. ‘Good book?’ he queried, thinking of her head-down absorption when he’d pulled up.
‘Excellent book.’ She drew her gaze from the scene outside the window to look at him, and her expression contained more than a hint of … challenge, was it? ‘Business Plan Anatomy. I’m using it to put together a first draft of my plan for Mirabook.’
Ah, that explained it. He broke eye contact and stared ahead. They hadn’t talked about her plans since she’d first raised the idea and he’d done his best to talk her out of it. Unsuccessfully, obviously. ‘You’re still thinking of going ahead with the idea?’
‘Yes.’
Well, that was going to complicate things.
‘It’s so right on every level,’ she went on. ‘I know you have some concerns. It was good you raised them, not that I appreciated it at the time. But it made me realise that if I want to do this properly, I had to get serious. I’ve been reading up, learning as much as I can.’
Well, wasn’t that just text-book irony. Words meant to discourage Lily from pursuing the idea would probably add to a tighter business case. ‘Learning’s good,’ he offered neutrally.
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