‘I don’t care if she sees us, Gretch.’ But he was still whispering. ‘She’s a stuck-up bitch. I don’t have the energy today.’
He turned and pushed his way quietly through the trees, away from Ellie. He ignored the path she’d taken, instead heading the opposite way, along the small dirt track that led back to Gretchen’s parents’ farm. Gretchen took a step after him, then turned, looking back towards Ellie. She was beside a strange-looking tree, crouching down with her hand against a rock.
‘What’s she doing?’ Gretchen said, but Luke was gone.
‘When I heard she’d collected stones for her pockets, I didn’t sleep for three nights.’ Gretchen blew her nose on a tissue. ‘I saw her. If I’d gone to her, I could have stopped her. But I didn’t.’ Her words were almost lost in her tears. ‘I left. Of course. For Luke.’
Gretchen caught up to him a short way along the track.
‘Hey.’ She pulled at his arm. ‘What is going on?’
‘Nothing, babe.’ He took her hand, but didn’t stop walking. ‘It’s just time I got back.’
Gretchen pulled her hand away.
‘She knows you and I are together, you know. Ellie, I mean. It’s not a secret.’
‘Yeah, babe, of course I know.’
‘So why didn’t you want her to see us? Why does it matter if the others know we’re serious now?’
‘It doesn’t. Let’s drop it,’ Luke said, but he stopped and turned to face her. He leaned in for a kiss. ‘Look, it doesn’t matter. But what we have is so great. I just want it to stay something special. Between the two of us.’
She stepped away.
‘Yeah, right. What’s the real reason? You think there might be someone better on offer?’
‘Gretch, come on.’
‘Is that it? Because if so, Ellie’s right back there waiting –’
Luke made a noise in his throat and started walking again.
‘And there are a lot of guys round here who –’
‘Don’t be like that.’ His voice floated over his shoulder. She stared after him. She loved those shoulders.
‘What, then?’
He didn’t answer.
They emerged from the track into the back paddock of her parents’ farm and walked in silence to the house. Gretchen knew her mum and sister were still out. She could hear her dad knocking around in the back barn.
Luke grabbed his bike from where he’d left it against a tree and climbed on. He stretched out a hand and after a moment, she took it.
‘I want to keep some things between us,’ he said, looking into her eyes. ‘But there’s no point if you’re going to act like a princess every time.’
He leaned in but she turned her head away from his kiss. He watched her for a moment, then shrugged. She burst into tears as he rode away.
Gretchen let the tears slide down her beautiful face for exactly as long as it took her to realise he wasn’t coming back. She felt a surge of anger and, wiping her cheeks, ran into the empty house. She snatched up the keys to the farm truck. She hadn’t passed her test, but she’d driven around the paddocks for years.
Gretchen jumped behind the wheel and took off in the direction Luke had headed. How dare he treat her like that? She spotted his bike ahead of the crossroads. She pulled the ute back a little, keeping her distance, not yet sure what she would say when she caught him. Up ahead, a car trundled over the crossroads across her path and she touched the brake. A moment later, she flashed through the intersection in her white ute.
Luke Hadler would not speak to her like that, she told herself. She deserved better. Luke took a sudden left turn and for a heart-stopping moment she thought he was heading back towards the river and Ellie. If he did that, Christ, she would seriously kill him. She followed at a distance, holding her breath. At the last moment he slowed, guiding his bike into his own driveway.
Gretchen stopped some distance away and watched from the road as he opened the front door and went inside. She could see the outline of his mother hanging up washing out the back.
She turned the ute, and cried all the way back.
