Hope Echoes by Shannon Curtis

Author:Shannon Curtis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Escape Publishing

Chapter Nine

Jacinta looked up from the boiled egg she was about to lop the top off when she heard the knock at the back door.

‘Come in,’ her father called without looking up from his bacon and eggs.

Footsteps clomped through the back hall and Mac entered the kitchen. Jacinta’s knife went straight through the cone end of the egg, and her father frowned when the top of the egg landed on his plate. She mouthed an apology and quickly used her fork to steal it back.

‘You don’t need to knock, Mac.’ Her father indicated the other setting at the table. ‘You’re as good as family.’

Jac focused on sprinkling a little salt on her egg. Mac didn’t kiss her like family. Heat rose in her cheeks, and she tried to hide her face by sipping from her coffee mug. You weren’t supposed to have hot and sexy dreams about family.

‘Thanks, Tom. Appreciate that.’

She noticed he wore jeans today, along with a grey t-shirt that looked soft from repeated washing. How could the man look even better in jeans than he did in his work clothes? She glanced down at her own stained jeans and the well-worn denim shirt she’d appropriated from Jamie’s wardrobe before he left. Ugh.

Marion lifted the frypan off the stove and brought it over to serve Mac some bacon. ‘Do you like your eggs boiled, fried or scrambled?’

His eyebrows rose. ‘What a choice. I’ll go with fried, if that’s easy enough.’

She winked as she smiled. ‘Coming right up.’ She cracked two eggs into the pan, then lifted the coffee pot from the bench. ‘Want some coffee?’

He nodded. ‘Please.’

Her father held up his own mug as Marion poured the dark liquid into the mug in front of Mac. ‘I’ll have a top-up, too, while you’re at it.’

Marion tilted her head.

‘Please,’ her father said hurriedly. She arched an eyebrow. ‘Marion,’ he added.

‘Of course,’ she said demurely.

Jac watched as Marion placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned over to pour him coffee. Was her father … blushing?

‘So, all went well last night?’ Mac enquired as he started to eat his breakfast.

Now she was blushing. Those dreams… She nodded as she dropped her gaze to her plate. ‘Fine.’

‘Nothing … untoward?’

‘Nope.’

‘Good.’

‘Yep.’

Her father glanced between them. ‘So. Fences, huh?’

‘Yep,’ she said, as Marion served Mac his eggs.

‘I’ve made you a packed lunch,’ Marion said, pointing to a container on the kitchen bench.

‘Thanks, Marion,’ Jac said, surprised. She hadn’t expected the older woman to do that.

Marion waved a hand as she bustled over to the sink. ‘Oh, it’s no trouble.’

‘What is Scott doing while you’re off galliva—checking fences?’ her father asked.

‘He’s checking all the gates along the highway,’ Jac informed him, then sipped more coffee. ‘Then he’s got to round up the sheep in the south paddock, because the dipping contractor will be here in a week.’

‘Oh. I might go with him, then,’ Tom suggested.

Jac coughed into her mug, then set it down on the table. ‘That sounds great,’ she said, sincerely. ‘I’m sure Scott would appreciate your help.

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