Chapter 1
“I may be desperate forwork, but I’m applying for jobs I actually know how to do.” Allie stared at her identical twin sister in disbelief. Why on earth did Sophie think Allie’s accountancy skills made her the ideal person to stand in for her as an event planner? Maybe the strong painkillers were messing with her mind. “I can’t do your job. You might as well ask me to split the atom. I’ve got as much chance of pulling that off.” She puffed out her cheeks. “More, maybe.”
“No chance—you failed physics at school.” Sophie plucked the bedclothes away from her injured leg. “Please, Allie. There is literally no one else I can ask. My business is on the line.”
“Literally anyone would do a better job than me. Aren’t there agencies where you can hire people short term? Someone who knows event planning or at least the difference between an airwall and an AirPod.”
“At least you’ve heard of an airwall. You’re already in front.” Sophie shuffled in bed, struggling to reach behind for her pillow. “I wouldn’t ask if I weren’t desperate, Al.”
Allie stood and held out an arm, bracing herself as Sophie grabbed it and hauled herself forward with a grimace. Allie plumped up the pillow behind her. “You want another one behind your back?”
“No. Thanks.” With a sigh, Sophie settled back. “It’s not difficult. You just have to schmooze with people, show some tact and social skills—”
“Accountants aren’t known for their social aptitude.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Please. That’s bollocks. People like you. You can make small talk with a gatepost. And accountants need to be organised and detail oriented. Essential skills for event planners.”
Allie sat on the edge of the bed and twisted her hands together in her lap. Sympathy for Sophie fluttered its wings in her chest. The last thing she wanted to do was go to Quandong—a tiny town somewhere off the beaten path in New South Wales. She wasn’t even sure where it was. And to go as the event planner for their festival? It was a disaster waiting to happen.
“Soph, I don’t think I can do this. Even as your stand-in. If people see me on the phone to you every other minute, they’ll realise I know less than an office junior on her first day. At least a junior can be sent out for coffee and sticky buns. They’ll be stuck with me. Honestly, I think you’d be better off going to an agency.”
Sophie pushed a hand through her floppy blue hair. Her blonde roots were starting to show. “The thing is, this job was going to make my business. The first big event of many. I can’t afford to hire anyone else. I quoted on a shoestring to get it, and if I bail, not only will I leave Quandong in the lurch, but I can kiss my business goodbye.” She took Allie’s hands in her own. “I trust you like no one else, Allie. I know how efficient and competent you are. Kirkland & Partners shafted you in the worst way possible—no wonder you’ve lost confidence in yourself. Maybe this will help you regain it.” She fixed her gaze on Allie. “I know I’m asking a lot of you—”
Allie managed a wobbly smile. “Thanks for the support. But I think you’re asking too much of me. It’s nearly as big an ask as when you got me to pretend to be you in high school and go on a date with Wallis Simpson, because you’d agreed and then changed your mind.”
“Ellis Simpson, not Wallis. Wallis was something to do with a royal scandal back in the day. And I’d only agreed to go out with him because he asked me in the ten minutes when I figured I better at least try to be straight.”
“Ellis, Wallis. Both forgettable.” Allie shrugged. “My point remains. Going out with Wall— Ellis was torture. He talked non-stop about his Gangnam Style video.”
“To be fair, everyone was doing that in 2012.”
“Still. It wasn’t his finest moment.”
Sophie laughed, which ended with a gasp. She crushed her lower lip between her teeth.
Allie picked up her hand and squeezed it. “Breathe. The doctors said you’ll get through this. You’ll get better. The swelling will go down and the nerves will heal. It could have been so much worse.” She closed her eyes momentarily, willing away the memory of waking in the night with her right leg aflame with pain. She hadn’t needed the call from the hospital to know something was seriously wrong with Sophie.
Sophie’s grey eyes, identical to her own, clung to hers as she panted her way through the spasm. When it ended, she seemed to deflate in the bed, her blue hair sweaty on her forehead. “If this is what labour is like, I’m never pushing a kid out my vag.”
Allie laughed. “Any mother would tell you it’s worse.”
“Yeah, what do they know?” She fell silent.
Allie gripped her sister’s hand, her thumb stroking over the back of it. Not for the first time, she cursed the driver of a stolen car who mounted the pavement and crashed into the front of the restaurant Sophie and her friend were leaving. No one was hurt—except for Sophie, her right leg crushed between the vehicle and brickwork. Initially, doctors had thought they’d have to amputate the leg to save her. Sophie would recover, but it would take many more months of rehab.
Allie hitched a breath. It was the worst time for her to go to Quandong—not only did she not want to leave Sophie right now, but there was her own career to consider. She had to keep her feelers out, keep applying for jobs, and not let the lack of response get her down.
But then…she couldn’t not go to Quandong. She was being selfish. What was a couple of weeks from her life if it helped her sister keep her business? Love and sympathy for Sophie twined in her chest. So what if it interrupted her own job hunt? It wasn’t as if job offers were falling out the sky, despite the shortage of qualified accountants in Sydney. The old boys’ network at Kirkland & Partners had seen to that. She pressed her lips together as the familiar knot of anger twisted in her guts. And maybe Sophie was right. She was a good accountant. And skills were transferrable. She straightened her back. She could do this.
“I’ll go to Quandong in your place.”
Sophie closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them, they were damp. “Thank you. You’re the greatest sister on the planet.” Her breath whooshed out. “When all this is over, we’ll go to Laredo’s and drink a cauldron of margaritas and stuff ourselves with smoky beef fajitas until we explode.”
“As long as it’s your treat.” Allie pulled her lips into a smile even as her stomach plunged at the thought of time away from Sophie.
“It will be. We’ll swagger in there, arm-in-arm, and raise the roof.” Sophie glanced at the frame keeping the quilt away from her useless leg.
“So tell me what this festival is about. Should I take notes?”
