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“I feel so bad about leaving the girls and you without help.”
“More storms are coming, according to forecasts, so we won’t be out much with the roads cut. We will be fine until their usual nanny comes back.”
The girls crowded me in the office doorway.
“It’s about true love, Mum,” Edie said gravely.
“We heard everything.” Piper grinned.
“You were listening to my calls?” I asked, horrified.
“Your sister called you a coward,” Jodie whispered.
“Girls!” Marla looked alarmed.
“In a way, my sister was right. I was a coward.” I shrugged. “No princess in a fairytale would hide from finding out if it’s truelove.” I offered Marla a sheepish smile. “It’s my fault. We’ve been down a princess fairytale rabbit hole since I arrived.”
“No one does stories like Ari,” Edie sang to the familiar tune. “No one finds true love like Ari!”
“Look, we suspected things at home were going to call you back earlier than we’d agreed,” their mother said sheepishly. “We can fly you out in two days to Broome on our grocery run?—”
“I need to drive Bessie back. Immediately.”
Marla’s eyebrows shot up.
“In that van?” Piper blurted, screwing her face up in doubt, hands on hips. “Good luck to ya.”
“I’ve already googled the route, and it’s at least seventy-three hours of driving.” I licked my lips. “Without traffic or roadworks, or hold-ups.”
Marla and I both glanced at the calendar hanging in her office. It was February the fourth. Nine days until the speed dating night.
“There are storms coming in this arvo. You’d have to leave right now. Jimmy is taking the truck with some steers to Broome any minute now. I was about to give him some invoices to hand over at the saleyards. You could follow him and hope you don’t get bogged. Even for a monsoon season that’s been quite dry by normal standards, it’s plenty muddy on the roads.”
“Shit.” The girls giggled behind me. “Sorry, sorry. I just need to do this. I do need to go.”
Their mum nodded. “We’ll survive until their nanny comes back. And we won’t get in the way of true love. Will we, girls?”
The girls watched me shove my belongings into bags and then eyed off my make-up stash with envy. So I surprised them by giving them sealed eye shadow, foundation powders and lipsticks, and several spare unused brushes as parting gifts.
Their dad had a spare jerry can of fuel filled, just in case.
Marla handed me bottled water, sandwiches, homemade muesli slice, a slab of cake and fresh tea in my thermos.
“Thank you for giving me the chance.”
“Ari, you should know, if we didn’t already have a nanny, we would have loved to have kept you on, if you would have had us. You were so good with the girls.”
“Thank you so much. For everything.”
“Good luck with this lad.” Marla winked. “And your sister’s wedding.”
“So romantic,” Edie swooned.
I was swamped with a group hug from the girls, who already had smears of electric blue eye shadow across their eyes.
“Can you send photos of the wedding, please?” Piper asked. “If you make it in that heap of junk.”
I clutched my chest in faux shock. “Bessie is a classic, and she will make it, as will I.”
