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CHAPTER
16
Married by freaking sunset. What on earth had possessed him to start joking about the way Clarence townsfolk loved to gossip?
It was Pete’s fault. If his idiot mate hadn’t wound him up at the bakery, reminding him about his tragic romantic hero status, he wouldn’t have had romance on his mind when he met Kirsty.
Now here he was, showing a dark-eyed stranger over his back paddock, and it was all he could do to get romanceoutof his mind.
Next time Joey Miles fell in love with someone, he wasn’t doing it on impulse. Or in view of a town full of nosy people. Sure, he might have a spreadsheet running in his head that was half serious, half not, where he collected his thoughts about the qualities he’d like in the woman he was going to love, but he didn’t have room on his task list at the moment for anything more than architrave patterns and phosphate percentages in fertiliser.
‘Huh,’ Kirsty said beside him as they approached the first cottage. ‘Now I see why you need my help.’
Joey gave himself a mental smack about the chops and gestured to where three derelict buildings sat on brand-spanking-new stumps. ‘Behold,’ he said. ‘Wirraway Farmstay.’
‘It’s …’
‘Yeah. A work-in-progress.’ With a high degree of pressure; not only did he need the cottages renovated and liveable, he needed themadorableand liveable and fully booked, as soon as was humanly possible.
‘Howoldare those buildings?’
‘The Station Cottage was originally built in 1913 for the Canungra railway station, which closed for good in 1955,’ he said, pointing to the cottage before them. ‘A builder mate of mine has agreed to help me replace the verandah. The original one was a ruin, so it had to get cut off or the removalists wouldn’t work with it.’
‘Must have been quite a process bringing them here.’
‘Wide-load trucks, police escorts, the works.’
‘And the sky-blue one?’
‘Mount Barney Cottage. It’s more of a traditional interior, with a central corridor, a small bedroom either side, and we’ll make it one roomy living space at the back with a kitchenette and a wood-burner. The white cottage is Mooball—I named them after the towns they were originally from—it needs the most work inside, but it was super cheap. I plan on renovating it last, after I’ve learned a few more skills getting the other ones done.’
He climbed up onto the patchwork of plywood and opened the door to Station Cottage. ‘I’d give you a minute to get settled but, as you can see, there’s nothing much to see. Or settle on.’
She brushed past him, and he breathed in a lungful of clean hair and some delicious soap that made him think of wildflowers andbuzzybees bumbling about in spring sunshine. Better than verbena. Her boots thunked about on the bare boards while she checked out the space. Heaps better than mock orange.
‘It’s going to be lovely,’ she said.
‘Lovely,’ he echoed like a dumbstruck teenage boy.Joey, Joey, Joey, think with your head!
‘So,’ she said brightly. ‘Four hours’ labour a day, that was the deal, wasn’t it? You mind if I start now?’
Right. Renovation work. That’s where his head ought to be at. ‘Fantastic. I’ve written jobs that need doing on a big whiteboard in the stable. When one’s done, draw a line through it and pick another one. Some have to be done before others, so why don’t we do a little debrief before work each day and I can let you know what’s what.’
‘Sounds great. Give me a job for today.’
He eyed her clothes. Her jeans were snug as socks but they didn’t look new, and her work shirt was a heck of a lot more practical than his own collection of weekend-in-Sydney shirts. ‘How filthy are you happy to get?’
‘Filthy as.’
There was a line to add to hisIdeal Wifespreadsheet if ever he’d heard one. ‘Um,’ he said, his mind momentarily blank of house chores. ‘Er … you up for some pressure cleaning? If we can get the outside cleaned, we can start sanding and painting tomorrow.’
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘You okay with me heading over to the old cowshed when I’m done?’
‘Of course. We made a date, didn’t we?’
She did a little double-take and he replayed his words in his head. Had he sai—
‘Deal, I think you mean. We made a deal.’
