Waiting for Rain by Susan Mac Nicol

Author:Susan Mac Nicol
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

THE FOLLOWING morning we awoke bleary-eyed and fractious from lack of sleep. We showered, dressed, and dragged ourselves down to the hotel lobby. I needed to go home and get ready for the day ahead.

Toby called me a few hours later. I answered my phone as I was busy with Lucas, off-loading a consignment of timber onto the street, then into the basement of the customer’s house for the wine rack we were building. The sun was warm, I was sweaty, and a small respite was definitely needed. I sank down gratefully onto the pavement as Lucas carried on working with a mutter that sounded suspiciously like “Bloody slacker.” My partner had been very amused at the sheep story but had no sympathy at all for the late night I’d had.

I took a sip of water from my bottle. “Hey, you. Did you manage to tell Dave about our success last night in finding his sheep thief?”

Toby sounded very pleased with himself. “Yup. He threw a wobbly at first and was about to storm into town and confront the youngster. But I managed to calm him down when he heard why Mark was doing what he was. So, it turns out he’s actually quite understanding about the whole thing. He still wants to give Mark a piece of his mind, but at least it won’t be with his fist.”

“That’s good news.” I rubbed the back of my neck tiredly. “So no more late nights watching bloody sheep, then?”

“Err, no. The sheep thing is over. But there’s one other thing….” There was silence from the other side, and I felt a prickle of unease.

“Toby, what the hell have you gotten us into now? I swear, I refuse to go into any more fields with livestock. You can definitely do that one by yourself.”

“It’s not that. I’ll talk to you when you get home. I don’t want to tell you on the phone.” His voice was hesitant.

I huffed. “Toby, you sod, don’t leave it there. It’ll worry me all afternoon. What the hell have you done?” I rolled my eyes at Lucas, who was glaring at me as he lifted the timber off the truck by himself. I mouthed at him, “Be there in a minute.” He scowled.

Toby’s voice continued, getting a little more animated. “Well, you know we usually have this whole Winter Festival thing in November on Guy Fawkes in Dave’s barns, and it’s quite a big thing, with people all over the country coming to take part?”

“Yes, I know about it.”

“Well, Dave and I were talking, and we thought that maybe we could do some fund-raising before the fair, try and get Mark some of the money he needs for his sister’s op.”

I felt a warmth surge through my body. Trust my compassionate Toby to think of something like that. “That’s a great idea. What are you going to do—have sheep-throwing contests?” I chuckled at the thought of one of my woolly nemeses being hurled through the air at great speed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.