Outback Dreams by Rachael Johns

Author:Rachael Johns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

Chapter Sixteen

On Friday night, Faith feigned a headache. The emotional rollercoaster of the last few days had more than taken its toll. She’d self-prescribed lots of baking and early nights and even bought a natural calming tablet from the chemist—anything for some quality sleep in which she didn’t toss and turn thinking about Monty.

Much to her surprise (and relief), the torrid dreams had ceased. During the day, she often thought of that night in the tent, but at night she merely lamented her lost friendship. No matter how often Monty insisted they could remain friends, she couldn’t see a way to make it work.

‘You not coming into town?’ Ryan asked as he entered the kitchen, where Faith was loading her baking efforts into containers for the freezer. He nabbed a square of caramel slice and shoved it in his mouth.

‘Nah, got a bit of a headache.’

‘What about Monty’s big celebration? He’ll miss you.’

‘I guess.’ Although she wasn’t so sure. He’d text-messaged her with the details the day before. Texted. He couldn’t even make the effort to call. ‘I celebrated with him when we went to see his new farm.’ Boy oh boy had they celebrated!

‘Suit yourself.’ Ryan stole another piece and surveyed the full containers littering the kitchen bench. ‘You’ve gone above and beyond with this year’s seeding cooking. Is that so Dad will have no excuse not to give you a turn on the tractor?’

Ironically, that hadn’t even crossed her mind. The conversations with her father were still few and far between, but she’d barely spent a moment worrying about him or the farm since returning from down south. ‘Something like that. You have a good night.’

She wanted Ryan to take his good mood elsewhere so she could get back to wallowing. This would likely be his last night out for a while. The weatherman had predicted rain in the next week and that meant all the local farmers would soon be glued to tractors and burning the candle at both ends.

‘Will do.’ Ryan doffed an imaginary hat and all but swaggered out of the house.

Faith continued boxing up her cakes and slices, keeping one ear on the ABC news her father was watching in the other room. She piled all the plastic containers into a big cardboard box and took it out to the spare freezer on the back verandah. Returning to the house, she peeped into the lounge room and saw her dad, leaning back in his armchair, his feet on the coffee table and a travel brochure in his hands.

She watched him for a few moments, wishing the television was off so she could see his expression reflected in the glass. He’d been so sad, so angry, so different since her mother had died. She hoped he’d find something in those mags to snag his interest.

When she could hold back no longer, she tiptoed into the room and slid onto the couch, glancing surreptitiously at the brochure in his hands. Tibet looked to be the country of choice.

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