Page 47 of Buried In Between

‘I have another idea.’

Placing her pens and papers down on the deck table, she said, ‘Go on.’

‘We haven’t spoken any more about the sheds. Seeing you today, your excitement, all this stuff you’re gathering and is covering your table. You need a workspace. Remember we talked about it before?’ Noah walked to the edge of the deck where they had a clear view of the large, multiple-bay sheds that sat to the left of the house.

‘Oh, yes! I’d forgotten.’ Emotion bubbled under the fine layers of her skin. ‘There’s still so much to do in the house…’ She tore her gaze away from him, looking longingly at the currently ugly galvanised iron sheds in a pale shade of green. Her own workspace! A dream come true.

‘One of those bays could be to sort your, um, specimens, another could be a desk, you could set it up as an office with cabinets, shelves, whatever you need. We can make it comfortable with air-conditioning and heating, flooring too. Plenty of room for your boxes and equipment or, if you’d rather, it can remain a car parking bay. What do you think?’

‘You’d do that for me?’

Her eyes flicked back, and Noah’s face had blanched of colour. Ava laughed.

‘I didn’t mean for free! Of course, I’ll pay you but I’m really touched you thought of it especially for me.’

‘No, I didn’t think that…of course, not.’ He tugged at the collar of his polo.

‘You did!’ She touched his arm; her hand landing on his bicep, bulging and strong, and then quickly removed it.

‘It’s okay. I love your idea. Do I have a key for those roller doors?’

‘Yep, for sure,’ and Noah held up a key.

‘Should we look? I have no idea what’s in there.’ Ava clasped her hands together to avoid hugging him in excitement and thanks. She skipped beside him as they walked to the sheds instead.

The building was tall, as high as the roof of the house. Perfect for tall equipment, ladders, high shelves. Only a few jostles and Noah had the first door open. The other two sprung open quickly allowing the daylight to flood the space.

Empty, except for shelving on three walls that were packed with boxes and what looked like garden equipment and other household paraphernalia. With the list of her to-do-jobs long, she hadn’t made it out here yet.

Surprisingly, she’d expected something, anything, particularly for a property of this size. A rusted old car, perhaps? A tractor?

‘Have a look at this.’ Noah shouted.

Yes! She thrummed with the excitement of a possible discovery.

‘What is it?’

‘I think it’s a toy fire engine.’

‘Wow, yes you might be right.’ The colour had almost disappeared, the rims bare where rubber tyres once sat and a tarnished bell lay on the ground next to it.

‘How cute!’

Noah surveyed the area. ‘This is going to be easy, given it’s pretty much an empty shell; needs a good clean out, though.’

‘Let’s get started, I’ll help.’

He scooted past her, his bare arms brushing hers. Ava let him pass and waited. Noah collected the heap of metal that was the old fire truck and hauled it outside, his muscles bulged in his arms and revealed in his dark green Bellethorpe Builders shirt. Through the thin cotton the knotted cords of his back were on display.

Oh boy, her body temperature catapulted. Maybe helping wasn’t such a great idea? Ava Montgomery needed to be a very safe distance away from Noah Hawthorn. Either that or the rest of the day would be torture.

Noah sang out to Taylor, one of the juniors on his team to help and together they hauled out the contents of those shelves. The team of two men carried the stuff outside the shed and it was Ava’s discretion whether it was tossed straight into the skip or kept.

While she professed to love history, the previous owner’s years of tax returns went, along with a box of Tupperware lids, old treasured fluffy toys beyond repair and mouldy and irretrievable kid’s toys. She rescued some Lego and Meccano. She smiled at the tattered box of Meccano pieces, remembering the phase Charlie went through obsessed with the building toy. Perhaps Ish would discover a love for it, like his uncle?

Taylor, wandered back to the kitchen after the job was done and Noah cleaned the space with a high-pressured hose.

Only one box remained. It was a heavy plastic tub and Ava couldn’t shift it. Ripping off the lid, the box exploded with bolts of blue and green and silver. With wide eyes, she gasped and a shiver ran down her back.

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