‘Stop being so adorable, you two. To be honest, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. Kev, Seb and I were brainstorming ways to boost business just last week, and we only got as far as expanding our catering packages and venturing into the school canteen catering market. Sebastian was especially pumped when I told him I’d bought Jean’s van.’
‘Will he be in charge of it?’
Clem shook her head. ‘I’m not sure, he’s stretched thin already with his parents’ wildlife shelter and working full-time in the cafe. And he’s keen to learn the back end of the business too.’
Sebastian had come into their life under a dark cloud, after causing trouble within the district. But with a gentle hand, and focus on redemption rather than punishment, Jack had helped him choose a different path. Now Clem found it hard to imagine the bright, diligent and invaluable worker as the disengaged teen he’d been a few years earlier.
‘I’d rather offload some paperwork and ordering so I can be off adventuring with the van. The stories Aunty Jean’s told over the years …’
Harriet, who’d been clinging to her uncle’s back like a baby koala, jumped down with a yell and dashed towards the rose garden.
‘There’s the guinea pig!’ she yelled, and they all turned to see the orange, black and white fluffball standing by the farmhouse garden.
For something with such tiny legs, and a brain the size of a pea, it clearly had in-built survival instincts. The canny creature had escaped when Harriet had tried to transfer him to an old aviary the night they’d arrived home from school interviews in April. Today, on this mid-June afternoon, it took one look at Harriet before racing back into the rose bed.
‘Come here, Orange Peel!’ Harriet stomped through the hellebores and seaside daisies, but the thorny limbs of the dormant roses put paid to a thorough search.
‘Quick little bugger,’ Jack said, squatting beside the garden bed to peer under the house. ‘It’s pretty dark under there, I don’t like your chances.’
‘We’ll never catch him.’ Harriet glared at Clem, her bottom lip trembling now too. ‘Pansy didn’t believe I even had one, not for a moment.’
‘Honey, he was never ours to begin with, you know that.’
‘I’ll help you look for Orange Peel after Jack goes to work,’ Lauren offered, kneeling to wipe the tears from Harriet’s cheeks.
Harriet’s dramatic sobs went up a notch as Lauren patted her back.
Clem shook her head. ‘Anyone would think she’d lost a cuddly, purring kitten, instead of a quivering, snaggle-toothed guinea pig,’ she murmured.
‘Quite the performance. She should channel that dramatic flair into something productive. TV? The big stage? Hollywood?’ Jack grinned.
Spencer Hawkins slipped into Clem’s mind then.He can keep that circus all for himself,she thought, watching Jack walk over to inspect the coffee van.
‘Jean warned me it’ll need a lot of work, with a few structural repairs as well as the obvious branding overhaul,’ Clem said. ‘But she gave me a great deal.’
‘I’ve always wanted to see the inside,’ Lauren said, unlatching the door and stepping in. ‘You’ll get it scrubbed up and back on the coffee circuit in no time.’
The aroma of freshly ground coffee had seeped into the van’s interior, and the small space felt even tighter when Harriet, Indi and Jack piled in after her.
‘It smells like coffee!’ Indi said, making them all laugh.
‘The perfume of champions,’ Clem agreed from the doorway.
‘You’ll have to upgrade the coffee machine, too,’ Jack said. ‘Jean reckons that one was knackered. Are you sure this isn’t going to blow your budget?’
Clem tilted her head from one side to the other. ‘It’ll be tight, but you’ve got to spend money to make money, and diversifying Sunny Cross is the only way forward. I’ve drawn up a business plan, I’ve got a good team, and I listen to business podcasts all the time.’
And just like the sunflower crops she planted each year, and the cafe she’d started from scratch, she was determined to give it her best shot.
Spencer found the days blurring into a mix of orchestrated farm jobs, increasingly tense conversations between Emily, Kyra and Madeline, and the added pressure of having the cameras watching as every small spark, and more than a few foot-in-mouth moments, were caught on camera.
Spencer donned the bee suit on a drizzly Thursday morning, relishing the warmth provided by the extra layers. He was just gathering his equipment when he heard the cameraman directing Emily into position for yet another interview.
‘Turn a little that way, so the wind isn’t messing with the microphone, and we’ll do that again. From the top, thanks. Do you think you’ve got a target on your back, now you’ve won two challenges in a row and locked in two solo dates, Emily?’
Spencer watched as she shook her head, annoyance flashing across her face. It wasn’t easy seeing her in Belle’s pink suit again, but it wasn’t gut-wrenching like it had been earlier in the week.
‘I don’t buy into this idea of pitting women against women,’ Emily told the cameraman, ‘so I’m not worried what they think or if they like me. It’s about being the contestant best suited for the position—in this case, farming at South Giddi Giddi with Spencer and the Brealys. I came on the show to find a husband who loves farming as much as me, not a new bunch of besties.’
