by Stella Quinn
Vera let out a breath.
‘Feel here, Josh,’ said Hannah. She grabbed Josh’s hand and slid it over the belly of the cat.
‘But her leg,’ said Vera. ‘What’s going to happen?’
Hannah started to answer but Josh cut her off.
‘Grey cat—Daisy—is badly injured, and the leg may not be the worst of her problems. She may have internal bleeding, and if that’s the case, then our job is to help her on her way as quickly and painlessly as possible. We also need to deliver these kittens by C-section. There’s a lot of unknowns, Vera. They may well not live. You need to step out into the waiting room.’
She shook her head. ‘No, Josh, please. I can’t leave her.’
‘That wasn’t a request, Vera. Off you go.’
She looked at his face. No smile in his eyes. No look of the easygoing sweetheart she’d pushed out of her life. He looked like a stranger.
‘Can’t I stay? Please. She’s all I’ve got.’
Graeme slipped his arm around her shoulders. ‘Come on, honey. We’re stepping out the door, and we’re staying right there, close by.’
Vera walked out to the dimly lit waiting room and collapsed in a chair, covering her face with her hands. There was no way she’d be allowed to keep kittens in prison.
CHAPTER
39
Who knew quilting could be so cathartic?
Vera had stitched her way through the long hours of the night, waiting in dread for her phone to ring with the terrible news.
But the phone didn’t ring.
Not until dawn, anyway, and when she answered, it was Hannah on the other end.
‘Daisy’s awake. She’s weak, but she’s accepted water and managed to muster up enough energy to sink her canine tooth into my little finger.’
‘Oh, thank heavens.’
‘It’s fine,’ said Hannah. ‘I didn’t need that finger.’
‘So you think … she’s going to make it?’
‘Let’s take this day by day, Vera. But’—she wasn’t imagining the smile in Hannah’s voice, was she?—‘early signs are promising.’
‘And the kittens?’
They’d let her hold the two speckled kittens for a few minutes, before Graeme had driven her home and ordered her to bed. They were so new, and their mother cat so fragile, they would need rigorous care when they were released from the clinic.
A few weeks ago she would have baulked at the prospect of taking on that role, but now, the thought of having a little family to care for warmed her.
Hanrahan had changed her.
Hanrahan had given her back her hope for a rosier future.
‘The kittens are as pretty and perfect as they were last night,’ Hannah said. ‘Get some rest, Vera. Me and Josh have got this.’
Vera set down the phone and ran her fingers over some crooked stitching where she’d placed a fabric square askew. In time gone by, she would have pulled that patch out and worried at it until its edges were aligned perfectly from north to south, but Marigold had taught her the value of a crooked stitch.
‘Leave it,’ she’d said often and again at craft group. ‘A few frazzled stitches are a sign that this is a homemade work of love, Vera. I adore this part of the quilt. The wonky bits are what make it personal.’
That, her need to be sure and precise and have her edges all tidy, had been the reason she’d pushed Josh away. She’d sworn to herself that her days of making dumb decisions were over; but what she hadn’t taken the time to see—or perhaps had been too hurt to see—was that Josh wasn’t a dumb choice.
He was a sunny, warm, joyous choice, and it was her turn now to open herself up to him and let him decide if he wanted to stick.
She’d made her decision. Court case or no, she loved him and if he was willing to ride out the rough track ahead by her side, she should stop trying to push him away.
She didn’t need to know all the answers anymore and—she took a deep breath—the relief of knowing that was enormous.
Josh’s resolute insistence on caring for her, despite her attempts to keep him at arm’s-length, had given her faith that she could trust in a happier future.
Daisy and her kittens, for instance … if she had to go to prison and the cats needed a foster home, she could worry about finding one then.
She reached for the pot of tea she’d made and poured herself a cup. Another hour of quilting while she daydreamed about kittens and new beginnings, then she’d better think about work. There were cakes to be made, ganache to be whipped, perhaps a new risotto recipe to try … and a kind man to reclaim as her own.
The knock on her door surprised her into slicing Jill’s ancient fabric scissors through the full thickness of the quilt and about half an inch into the flesh of her palm.
‘Ouch!’
Bloody hell. Now there’d be two wonky bits in her quilt. She wrapped a fabric scrap around her hand to staunch the bleeding and was halfway to the door before she realised the buzzer to the street door hadn’t sounded. So much for security. No doubt Mrs Butler on the ground floor was out of vanilla extract again. Or maybe it was Josh, come to give her an update on those tiny kittens (unlikely), or come to forgive her for being the world’s greatest fool (unlikelier still).
She glanced down. Her bathrobe was as modest as a nun’s habit, only fluffier and more pink, and nothing Mrs Butler or Josh hadn’t seen before.
She cracked the door open a few inches and found herself face to face with her nemesis, Aaron Finch.
‘How did you get in here? How did you find out where—’ she gasped. No matter. She didn’t need to know, she just needed him gone. She started to close the door but he held his hand up and forced it open.
‘I’ve had just about enough of you shutting doors in my face, Vera De Rossi.’
CHAPTER
40
‘This information was gold. Your girlfriend knows her stuff, Josh. Sorry I’ve been out of town or I could have acted on this sooner.’
Josh didn’t care about a couple of days’ delay. What he did care about was the pissed-off feeling churning in his gut. ‘She’s given me the brush-off about a dozen times now, Sergeant. Vera is not my girlfriend.’
He could feel Hannah’s eyeroll from beside him. It was too early in Josh’s morning for sarcasm, and he hadn’t had a coffee, and he was feeling pretty darn ticked off with just about the whole world.
Meg didn’t care. ‘Whatever. She’s given us a motive so tight all I need to do is type it up and hand it in to secure a search warrant. She ever needs a break from grilling prosciutto and baking figs, you tell her she’s got a job waiting in law enforcement.’
‘I don’t think her opinion of the law’s too high at present.’
‘Yeah, I heard about that. Anything I can do to make a difference, I’ll do it.’
Josh turned the words over in his mind. Every offer of help or support had been brushed aside. Vera was determined to see her troubles through alone.
Hannah spoke up beside him. ‘You really think this persecution of our business is going to stop, Meg?’
‘I really do. As soon as the courts open, I’ll be applying to Judge Bamfrey for a search warrant. My constable’s heading in to Cooma for a ten o’clock meet with Pamela Hogan, which I’ll be joining once I have the search warrant in my hands. Her house, her car, her records. Every damn thing she owns, we’ll be going through looking for evidence she knew about the fire in your building before it started. If she’s involved and we find evidence, we’ll charge her.’
‘You might not find anything.’
‘If she’s involved and we don’t find evidence?’ The cop smirked. ‘Yeah, we’ll be putting the wind up her so high she’ll be thinking twice about pulling any more stunts.’
‘I hope you find something,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m not sure how much more of this we can take.’
Josh rested his hand on his sister’s back.
‘Oh, and here’s a little something Barry O’Malley gave m
e when I stopped by his office last night when I got back to town,’ said Meg.
Josh eyed the official yellow envelope she handed him. ‘Crap. Not another one.’
Meg smiled. ‘Open it before you start bitching, Cody.’
He slid his finger under the seal and a thick, embossed page fell out.
‘Is that—’
‘Our business licence renewal?’
He looked up at the sergeant, who was smiling at him like she’d just abolished global warming.
‘Yep. Now look at the second page.’
He flipped the business licence over and found a letter, addressed to him and Hannah, on gilt-edged council letterhead. The most important word was in bold type, smack bang in the middle of the first line: APPROVED.
Holy shit, his building permit had come through.
‘Barry asked me to let you know how much he enjoyed reading last week’s edition of the Hanrahan Chatter. Seems that article about the Cody commitment to remembering the town’s gold rush history struck a chord with him.’
‘Well, hell,’ said Hannah, reading the approval letter over his shoulder. ‘Maureen came through! You think that’s what got the permit approved? A bit of publicity? I wonder if Sandy kept a copy for us.’
Meg shrugged. ‘He also asked me to extend his apologies for all the complaints you’ve had to respond to in the last few months. There was some other stuff he said, like junior officials not having more sense than a blue-arsed fly, and he hoped this wouldn’t get in the way of the Cody family supporting his next election, yada yada.’
Josh shook his head. ‘You are the best, Meg.’
She got to her feet. ‘Much as I’d love to agree with you, in this case, Vera was the best. I’m not saying we wouldn’t have found the link between Pamela Hogan and the neighbouring building, but we sure wouldn’t have been on to it this swiftly.’
A squawk burst out of the radio the sergeant wore clipped to her jacket. ‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘Duty calls.’
‘Dispatch? Sergeant King.’
The voice through the radio was loud enough to fill the room. ‘There’s a snarl-up on the Crackenback Road, Meg. Two cars and a ute that’s rolled, spilling a ton of lucerne. No serious injuries reported, but we’ve called an ambulance as a precaution.’
‘I’ll take it. Send another car to meet me there.’
Meg gave them both a nod. ‘Duty calls, team. I’ll let you know how we get on with that warrant.’
Josh became aware of Hannah giving him the hairy eyeball when she snapped him on the arm with a disposable rubber glove.
‘Earth to Josh.’
‘What?’
‘You’re brooding,’ she said. ‘My new pot plant’s going to start wilting if you don’t get that glower off your face. Just go see her already.’
He dropped his head into his hands and pulled on a tuft of hair just to remind himself there were other things that hurt besides this empty hole in his chest. ‘I want to and I don’t want to all at the same time, Han. It’s messing with my head.’
‘The mighty Josh Cody, not sure if his chick magnet status has lost its allure. How happy am I to see this day.’
He knew she was joking. His sister would crawl over broken glass for him in a heartbeat … but still, the words stung. Had he started flirting with Vera just assuming his usual brand of charm would win her over?
He was sure he hadn’t.
In fact, he was pretty darned sure he’d lost his head so fast, he’d fumbled every attempt to be the wannabe charming suitor.
A paperclip, or two, smacked him on the cheek.
‘I think my heart’s broken, Hannah.’
His sister stopped tossing paperclips at him and dropped to her feet from the desk she’d been perched on. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tucked her face into his neck.
‘Oh, Josh,’ she said.
He closed his eyes. ‘I know, right?’
‘Go see her.’
‘She’s turned me away. How often does a woman need to turn a guy down before he actually listens? I’m trying to do what she wants.’
His sister’s sweet hug shifted into a headlock. ‘Josh, honey, you know I am the very last person to give advice on boy-girl stuff.’
‘Agreed.’
‘But even I could tell that when Vera came here the other day to offer up information about the Hogan woman, that wasn’t the only thing she was offering.’
He pulled Hannah’s bony wrist away from his Adam’s apple so he could breathe.
‘She offered us a box of paperwork and search records.’
‘Yep. What else?’
‘An apology?’
‘I cannot believe you won a scholarship. Seriously, bro, you are the dumbest person in this room.’
Jane Doe’s tail thwacked against the filing cabinet in agreement.
‘You’re going to have to spell it out, genius. Your brother’s brain has turned to mush.’
Hannah gave his hair a ruffle and let him go so she could skewer him with her favourite my-brother-is-a-moron look. ‘She was offering you an olive branch.’
He sat up. ‘She was?’
Hannah shrugged and walked over to her side of the office. ‘Yup. So get outta here already and go make some kissy noises in her direction, would you? I’ve got some Back in Business flyers to create.’
CHAPTER
41
‘What are you doing here, Aaron?’
‘Vee, you’re upset, I get it, but you’ve been through a terrible time.’
She had, yes. And the slick-haired man standing in front of her had played a part in that.
‘The court case sucks, totally, but we can put that behind us. Change your plea, you’ll do a few community hours pulling up weeds by the riverbank in Queanbeyan, and it will all be over.’
‘I’m not guilty of the charge, Aaron. You knew full well I wasn’t trying to listen in on people, but you went and dobbed me in anyway.’
‘Hon, you know me, as honest as the day is long. I felt it was my duty.’
She could feel a red haze of rage welling up.
‘I do know you, yes, and so I know it’s just a damn sham, this honesty of yours. You telling people something is true doesn’t make it true. The way you tell people how talented you are, how smart you are.’ She choked down the frustration she had bottled up. Which part of the words she was saying did he not understand? The stay away part? The I blame you for ruining my life part?
‘Vee, I’m here, you don’t need to be brave on your own.’
‘How are you here? How did you find my home address?’
‘Business name registration search, of course. You’re not the only journalist who can dig up information, Vee.’
‘Aaron,’ she said, putting so much heat into the word he finally shut up. ‘I’m not guilty of the charge that’s been laid against me. You know why?’ She was probably spilling the beans about Sue’s defence strategy, but she was past caring. ‘Recording conversations on purpose, that’s what’s illegal. Guess what?’
He held his hands up in the air like he was placating an hysterical victim. Well, newsflash, buddy: she was not hysterical, she was angry. And she, Vera De Rossi, was done with feeling ashamed and feeling like a victim.
‘Vee, babe—’
‘My aunt had dementia. She didn’t have conversations, which you would know if you’d ever bothered to visit her with me when you and I were together. I’m not guilty, I’m going to win this court case, and you and your mean-spirited mates at Acacia View can get the heck out of my face.’
She finished on a roar, and though her roar was coming out all breathy and choppy, it felt like she’d unstoppered a cork.
‘You don’t know what—’
‘Quit bugging me, Aaron.’
‘You’ll regret this when you calm down.’
‘Get out of my doorway so I can shut my door.’ Where the heck was her phone? Was Aaron really going to not leave? Did she need to call the po
lice?
The sound of a throat clearing made her spin towards the stairs.
A man stood there, one hand on the banister railing, looking like six feet of chiselled sunshine. ‘Everything okay up here?’
Josh.
His horrified gaze skittered over Vera, her face pale but determined, trying to get rid of the jackass lodged in her doorway.
Aaron.
Ex-boss.
Ex-boyfriend.
And soon to be ex a couple of front teeth if he, Joshua Preston Cody, had anything to do with it.
Vera looked at him. ‘Aaron’s just leaving. If he doesn’t then—well, yes, actually, I would like your help. If you’re offering, that is.’
He took a predatory step forward. ‘Oh, I’m offering,’ he said, his eyes on Aaron’s. ‘Downstairs. Now.’
The guy turned his head to stare at him and Josh felt a degree of satisfaction when the man’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m going. Cool your jets, mate.’
‘I’m not your mate.’
The guy, Aaron, stood stock-still for a moment, as though debating whether or not to make an issue out of leaving, then hit the stairs.
‘I’ll call you soon,’ he called up to Vera.
‘Please don’t,’ Josh heard her mutter.
He waited until the slap of thin-soled shoes had disappeared down the stairwell, then took a breath. ‘You want to tell me what that was about?’
She slumped in the doorway. ‘I think … I think he’s a bit unhinged, Josh. He wasn’t listening to a thing I was saying.’
‘Maybe it’s time you talked to someone about that. It doesn’t have to be me …’ Hell, he was the last guy on the planet who was going to be bothering her at her door like that jackass. ‘But someone.’
‘Josh?’
She looked vulnerable, and wretched. He stayed where he was, because it killed him to see her like that and know she didn’t want his help.
‘Yes?’
‘You reckon you could just give me a hug for a minute and pretend I’m not the world’s biggest idiot?’
Was she—
Heck.
He took two giant strides, hauled her into his arms, and rested his head on hers. ‘I can hug you for as many minutes as you need.’