Page 77 of Somewhere Only We Know

‘The oven timer’s going off in the kitchen, ladies, and something smells really good.’

‘The banana bread! I’ll go!’ Daisy squealed and raced out of the cottage, followed by Max.

I stood up too and picked up my hat and sunglasses.

‘Looks like you two are getting on well,’ said Jono.

‘Daisy’s a lovely girl. You’re obviously doing a great job with her.’ I closed the door behind me and together we strode back towards the main house.

Jono’s pace slowed as we approached the door. ‘I worry that I’m not enough on my own, that she needs a mother figure in her life.’

‘She’s got a mum, Jono.’

He shook his head, his jaw as hard as stone. ‘She needs someone who’s present for her. Not the other side of the country. If it’s not too much to ask, I’d like it if you could take her under your wing, you know, talk to her.’

‘While I’m here, I will, gladly,’ I told him.

‘I appreciate that.’ He smiled with relief. ‘I’m not very good at the talking stuff.’

‘Sometimes all you need to do is be willing to listen.’

‘Okay, yeah, I hear you,’ he said earnestly, making me laugh.

In the distance, a minibus turned into the track leading to the winery. The pickers had arrived.

‘Ready for your first day as a winemaker?’ said Jono.

‘Can’t wait,’ I replied, and then took a sharp breath as his hand lightly touched the small of my back to guide me inside. I hadn’t been affected like this by a man for a long time and it felt new and exciting. I had a sudden urge to capture the moment.

‘Stay right there. Selfie time.’ I pulled my phone from my shorts pocket.

‘Seriously?’ he moaned, but then stepped close enough to feel the heat emanating from his T-shirt.

I took a picture of us both with the porch of his house behind and a perfect blue sky above us.

‘For the ’Gram,’ I said, laughing at his bemused expression. ‘Hashtag Mum’s Gap Year.’

Mum’s Gap Year

Dear B,

I can’t believe I’ve been at Ruby Creek for nearly a week already. I LOVE it. Physically the toughest job I’ve ever done, working out in the vineyards, but I feel fitter than I have for years, I’ve actually got muscles, and the fresh air means I’m sleeping through the night for the first time since I lost you. I’ve even got a tan, although Daisy is very strict about hats and sunscreen and makes sure we all slap on the factor 50 several times a day. She’s a great kid, missing her mum of course. We make a good pair, because I’ll be missing you for the rest of my life. Hopefully her situation won’t take as long as that to get sorted!

I’ve stopped shouting ‘Kangaroo!’ every five minutes, which Jono is pleased about. I still love seeing them but the novelty has worn off. There isn’t much more picking to be done now – the harvest is mostly in. Jono says we should be finished by the time I leave. But there’s always so much to do here, I’m tempted to stay a bit longer. We’ll see …

Ruby Creek sells its wine from the cellar door, so we get people turning up all the time. Some are touring the area and will pick up one or two bottles, but one lovely old couple came yesterday from two hundred miles away. I sold them three cases of wine and they told me they’d been coming to the Hunter Valley every year since they’d been married to stock up on their favourites. It did my heart good to see a relationship still flourishing after such a long time. It made me want the same. There’s also a bar here, but Nora, the woman who runs it, is off visiting her first grandchild, and Jono decided it was easier to close it while she’s away. The days fly by, especially the picking days. After breakfast cooked by me, assisted by Daisy, we set the pickers to work with scissors and big plastic buckets, one on each row. When the buckets are full, I swap them for empty ones and tip the grapes into the trailer on the tractor. When the trailer is full, I drive the tractor back to the winery. Yes. ME!! It’s a bumpy ride, and I learned the hard way that a good sports bra is essential, but I’m quite good on the tractor now.

I know I say this all the time, but I wish you were here.

Love

Mum xx

Chapter 27

Australia

It was only eight a.m. and Ruby Creek was already shimmering under a glorious blue sky. Inside, the pickers were washing their hands and topping up their water bottles after a breakfast of fluffy pancakes with maple syrup and crispy bacon.