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He wasn’t asking her to think about … her and him. Well. That was a relief! Ha ha! Yay! Bullet dodged!
Only she must have got some rust in her eyes because suddenly they were prickling like they wanted to leak, which was dumb.Dumb.
Joe hauled at the old top wire and tied it into one end of the new section, then used a cunning little ratchet device that looked a lot like a tin opener to tauten the strand. He narrowed his eyes at her. ‘Why the surprise? What did you think I needed to be honest about?’
‘Erm … nothing,’ she said, her prevarication skills back in action. ‘I just … didn’t know we were on a timetable regarding the plane.’
He nodded. ‘That’s the problem. Pass me that other wire, would you? Don’t let it scratch you; there’s probably a century’s worth of tetanus embedded in that thing.’
She passed him the opposing wire so he could connect it to the other end of the new section.
‘I—look, this is a little awkward; ordinarily, I wouldn’t go blabbing about this, but, well. Our situation isn’t ordinary, is it?’
She swallowed. ‘Um, no.’
‘I have a bank loan, and it’s pretty sizeable. Long story short: the bank owns everything I own at this point in time, until I canpay them a substantial amount of money. And everything I own probably includes that plane.’
She hauled in a breath. ‘My great-grandfather’s plane.’
He cocked his head. ‘Which he abandoned. I know, we don’t know the circumstances, and you have your bequest; I just wanted to let you know how things stood from my end.’
Damn it. Prickling eyesagain. What was she, an irrigation system now?
His hand, filthy and rust-stained and strong, grabbed hers. ‘Kirsty? Are you okay?’
Of course she was.Of course she was!She was just having a relapse, that was all. Of her concussion. Or stroke. Or carbon monoxide poisoning. But if she didn’t have her plane project to keep her busy and occupied and way-too-needed up here in Clarence to go back to South Australia … what happened then?
What would she do about this awful thing living inside of herthen?
She took a long breath in and concentrated on keeping her voice steady. ‘I … well. That’s not what I was hoping to hear.’
‘I want to be honest with you.’
‘I appreciate that.’ The words came out like some people-pleasing robot had said them, not her. Somehow or other, her identity—the Bluett she was relishing becoming instead of the Fox she was running away from—had wrapped itself up with that plane tighter than a wire around a fence post. And now Joe Miles, the guy she’d been stupidly flirting with, wanted to take that away from her?
She took a breath and tried to think this through like a rational person instead of a person with a possible undiagnosed stroke or caffeine poisoning or whatever. Maybe this was only a little bit of bad news and she was overreacting. The bank hadn’t dragged it away, had they?
They hadn’t come to measure it up and whack a For Sale sign on it! Maybe they didn’t even know about it. No reason to feel like the family curse had caught up with her, no reason at all!
‘The bank’s valuer has assessed the farm,’ said Joe, ‘and they’ve put a value on your great-grandfather’s plane.’
Her knees felt like they were going to buckle.
‘My loan extension was conditional on the sale of my Sydney apartment, but the initial contract fell over when the purchasers couldn’t get finance. The apartment will sell, hopefully soon, but if the bank wants to play hardball in the meantime, they could force me to sell another asset.’
Her lips felt like they were made from desiccated rubber, just likeDoreen Anne’s tyres. ‘Of course.’
‘I’m sorry. I know the plane is important to you.’
‘Yes. It is.’
He squeezed her fingers, just the once, and let go. ‘It’s going to be fine, I’m sure of it; I just don’t want you to spend money on the Wirraway and get your hopes up about its future when everything is so uncertain.’
It was too late for that, she wanted to tell him. Her hopes were more than up, they were committed. Restoring theDoreen Anneand working on Bill’s story with Carol was how she was keeping her curse at bay. ‘Thank you for keeping me informed.’
He gave her a wink. ‘You won’t be saying thank you after lunch when you’re made to bear witness to the prepping of the new septic tank.’
She brought out a smile. Fake it till you make it, right? ‘A septic tank, yay,’ she said. ‘I, um, just need to get something.’
