“No.” A small sigh. “I can do this. I want to do this. Not because they were my mistakes but because I need to believe I can get back to running my business.”
“You will. I just hope I leave you enough of a business to run.”
“You’re doing great, Allie. I’ll call you once I’ve got an update on the stage and toilets.”
“Bye, little sis. I love you.”
Allie ended the call and sent a quick text to Tarryn saying she’d sort the portaloos and not to worry about it. She uncurled herself from the couch and went over to the kitchenette and pulled a ready meal from the freezer for lunch and put it in the microwave. For a moment, her mouth watered in memory of Will’s beef en croute with crispy potatoes and fresh vegetables. Real food, not this cardboard imitation spinning in the microwave. Now she didn’t have Kirkland&Partners sucking her time and energy, maybe she could again start to cook real food. That would be her next project.
The microwave dinged and she removed her lunch. Homecooked food would have to wait. She pulled her laptop over to browse while she ate. A notification popped up in her email of matches for her job search. She huffed a breath. The jobs she’d applied for in Sydney had gone nowhere. Oh, she’d had a couple of interviews followed by polite rejections. Was Kirkland still badmouthing her? Her lips tightened. Probably.
She scrolled, eliminating positions too junior, too senior, or with salaries so far below the industry standard they were laughable.
One particular ad caught her eye, and her breath caught. An intermediate accountant’s position in Byron Bay with a generous salary and benefits. Her hand stilled on the mouse. The advert stated it was suitable for remote working as long as the successful applicant was willing to visit regional towns in the Byron Bay area once per month. Allie scanned the list of towns. Quandong was the last one mentioned.
She could apply for this, travel up once per month. Maybe she could stay in Kirra’s Airbnb each time, eat at Thai Dreams, visit The Hollowman, catch up with Will and Garrett. And Tarryn.
Her breath left her chest in a whoosh. She couldn’t apply. Not now. While people in Quandong knew Sophie had a sister, they didn’t know she had a twin. It was simply too close. What if she applied and then bumped into someone she knew while attending an interview? And if she got the job, how could she reappear in Quandong as someone different? It was hard enough, pretending to be Sophie. But the deceptions would pile up if she then reappeared as Sophie’s sister, Allie. How could she double-deceive these people who were becoming her friends?
No. There were simply too many potential difficulties. Her fingers stilled on the keyboard for a moment, and she wished she could simply click theApply Nowbutton.
Instead, she clicked the back button and resumed searching the available jobs in Sydney.
* * *
Tarryn turned the mug of coffee one-eighty and watched Will as he bustled around his kitchen. “I probably shouldn’t have been so snippy with Sophie, but I didn’t appreciate being thrown to the wolves. She’ll be swanning off back to Sydney soon, but I’ll still be here, doing my metalwork and paying my bills with odd jobs. And if people think I mess up those jobs, then I won’t get as many. Phyll glared at me. I think she thought it was my fault the bloody portaloos weren’t ordered.” She drummed a pattern on the counter with her free hand. “This festival seems to be in shaky hands all of a sudden.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Will pulled a tray of almond biscuits out the oven, set them on the counter, and slapped Tarryn’s hand away when she reached for one. “Let them cool first.”
“Sometimes, Sophie looks unsure, as if she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and then she says she’ll get back to us about whatever it is. She always does, but she’s a bit vague for someone who’s supposedly the expert.”
“We checked out her business beforehand. Phyll and Kirra met her—they said she was genuine and pleasant.” He squinted at her. “I thought you liked her? That the two of you were getting along.”
“I do like her. Most of the time, anyway, when she’s not sniping at me. But liking someone doesn’t mean you don’t question their suitability for the job.” She reached for a biscuit again and this time Will just watched her with pursed lips. Tarryn took a bite then fanned her mouth. “Hot.”
“I warned you.” Will smirked. “Common sense should have told you. Should I question your suitability for working with red-hot metal if you don’t know when something’s going to burn?”
“You don’t have to ram it home. Maybe I’m being a bit hard on Sophie. She’s come up with some great ideas—”
“Like the vote for the fake-wedding couple.”
“That’s a fantastic idea, as long as I’m not part of the chosen couple. Then it’s a terrible idea.”
Will snorted. “Who better?”
“You and Garrett. I voted for you. You’ve probably got it sewn up.”
Will’s phone pinged with a text, and he picked it up to read it. “It’s from Kirra.” He grinned. “She says,I’ve just voted for the fake couple. Who do you think I voted for?Then there’s a whole line of winking emojis.”
“There you go. She voted for you and Garrett. Why else would she send you that?”
“Why else indeed,” Will murmured.
Chapter 11
The Pajero jounced over thepotholed dirt that passed for Tarryn’s driveway, making the box of metal clips and pins clatter on the back seat. Allie studied the corrugated iron shed in front of her. Did Tarryn live there? One end of the barn-like structure was open sided, the rest closed in. Smoke coiled from a chimney, and a veranda shaded a low table and two chairs which looked out over a fenced paddock and a dam to the forest beyond.
She parked near the open end of the shed and got out. A magpie gargled its song, and a couple of willy wagtails twittered at her from the roof. A strange whooshing sound came from the shed.
