I’m not the best cook either.
Raven got in her car and started driving. She figured if she kept it simple, maybe a Waldorf salad with lamb and mint sausages from the local butcher, she could pull off a meal and not make too much of a mess in Janette’s kitchen. Determination bubbled inside of her. Anne had somehow said the right things to get her motivated again. Things weren’t going to work with Ben if she weren’t trying. She just hoped that this was going to be enough.
Raven parked her car back in the shed and waited a moment for the dust to settle before getting out. The cat, Rex, sat on a bale of hay to the side licking his paw as if he’d just had a meal.
She grabbed her laptop bag and purse and then walked to the house. Janette was outside hanging a load of washing. Raven cringed when she saw her knickers hanging on the line.
“You didn’t have to do my washing, Janette,” Raven tried to keep her voice polite. She didn’t like the idea that Janette had been in her room. Raven liked to keep things neat, so all her dirty washing had been put in a wash basket she kept in the corner of the room she and Ben shared, but still, she did like her privacy. She and Ben were always discreet, considering how hot things had been between them when they met up at the show which hadn’t always been easy.
“It’s no trouble at all.” Janette smiled at her from behind a towel. “It’s good drying weather. These will all be inside, ironed, and dried before dark.”
“But I’m making more work for you,” said Raven trying to be diplomatic in her approach with Janette. Not like this morning.
“Pfft. You’re no work at all.” Janette stepped to the side and took another damp towel from the basket and pegged it to the clothesline that stood to the side of the open backyard. “You’ve got your business work to do, so I thought if I did your washing, then you’d get more done.”
Raven’s heart squeezed with guilt. “Thank you.” She resisted the urge to go inside and get working on designs right there and then. “I need to earn my keep here, so I thought that maybe I could do some of the cooking… maybe make the evening meal once or twice a week?”
“Don’t be silly. You don’t need to make a meal to earn your keep around here. You’ve made my Ben a happy man. That’s all I want.”
Raven felt her cheeks flush with heat.Have we been discrete enough?At least they were never caught ‘in the act’ by Janette.
“I mean he’s happier generally having you in his life. When he asked if you could move in, I wasn’t so sure. I hadn’t even met you. But then I saw how his face lit up when he mentioned you, I had to say yes.”
Raven hadn’t known Ben had asked his mom if she could move in. Things had happened so quickly, she’d just assumed Ben had told her instead of asking for permission. It warmed her heart to think he’d respected his mom like that.
“I need to do some of the workload around here. Besides, I’m going to have a break from my designing in the lead-up to Christmas, and who knows when I’ll see Ben again, he’s so busy with the harvest.” The words flooded out as if knowing that Janette had agreed she could live here broke some of the tension between them.
“Good idea you’re taking a break. You work so hard.”
“I want this business to succeed, a lot is riding on it.” She realized that she’d thought if it didn’t work, then maybe things wouldn’t work out with Ben either. Fear had a way of being so irrational.
“Less than you know. Ben will take very good care of you, always.”
Raven wasn’t sure what to say to that. Her feelings were too mixed. Was this the life for her? Could she ever fit in?
“Have you been out on the harvester yet?” asked Janette.
“No.”
“You should ask Ben to take you. Learning how to drive it will help to pass the time.”
Raven gleaned at what Janette was doing. It was a good idea. It was long overdue that she was more involved on the farm. So far, there just hadn’t been any time to teach her. “I’ll do that when I see him next. On one condition.”
Janette raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“That I cook one meal a week for us all.”
Janette sighed as if she were grappling with her inner fears. “Fine.”
Raven smiled. “I’ll cook Sunday night, then.” What she wasn’t sure of was would it only be for her and Janette, or would Ben be there too?
Ben stopped the combine alongside the truck, lining it up carefully. He pulled a lever, and the auger swung out from the combine, stopping just where he’d planned over the bin of the truck. He pressed another lever, and grain started spilling out into the truck.
It was getting on in the day, but there was still plenty of daylight hours left, which he hoped he could take full advantage of.
His cell buzzed. He glanced at the screen. The message was from his mate, Jason.
Jason:What the hell are you still reaping? It’s a fire ban now you idiot.
