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Back at my place, Autumn sat out the back on the swing seat with Bluey on a blanket next to her. As long as she kept scratching his head, he was not going anywhere. Well, maybe for a pee or a drink.
“The vet has given me special food that will be easier on his body to digest. This dog is getting top-notch treatment. Me, I’m down eight hundred dollars from my bank account. They talked about keeping him a bit longer but said he would be okay as long as I keep an eye on him. I also had to phone my client for today and tell them what happened, and I would see them tomorrow.”
I started to clean up the backyard so there weren’t so many obvious places for the snakes to hide. I gave Autumn a pair of gloves and she got stuck in as well. I should have done it before now, but there was always work to do. The gardens for the cottages were small so it wouldn’t take too long.
I cleared away the brambles and old wooden stumps. Then I chopped back the creeper that had overgrown the shed. The place looked bigger. I couldn’t stop the snakes from coming in, but at least now they did not have so many nooks and crannies to sleep in.
It was lunchtime by the time we finished, and we headed inside to eat.
“I’ll start on your garden tomorrow. Though it’s not as bad, so shouldn’t take too long.” The two of us sat and ate lunch as we stared at the paddocks beyond the fence.
“I love it here, Ryan. The trees, the mountains, but I can also see Australia definitely has a scary side.”
“Snakes are everywhere. If Bluey hadn’t killed it, I would have gotten the local snake catcher in. They collect them and then release them back out into the bush.”
“Well, I’ll be happy if I can live out my time here without seeing any creepy crawlies or slithery things.” She gave me a kiss. “Now, if you can look after this mutt. I need to go home for a bit and do some work on my presentation.”
“That’s months away, isn’t it?” I didn’t want her to go. Bluey liked having her around too. That was my story, and I was sticking to it.
“It takes a lot of work when you are talking to your peers, and they’re fact-checking your findings.”
“You’re a smart cookie and will do well,” I said as I hugged her close.
“Thanks. I stress out but I am really enjoying working on it. By the way, I love the furniture you have in the garden. The chairs and the ornate carving are beautiful. I know you mentioned them when we first met, but they’re better than I had imagined. Do you sell them?”
“No, I just do it for fun so far. Maybe one day. At the moment, I need to pay for the cottage and my expensive dog. I did have a guy at one of the local shops ask me about them though. I could sell one and help pay for Bluey.”
“Well. I would buy one. Not sure I could fit it in a suitcase though.” Autumn put her dishes in the sink and turned to go.
I wanted to change the subject from her thinking about when she would return to England. I pulled her into my arms. “I’ll bring some meat around later and we can have a barbecue. Then we need to pick up from where we left off.”
“I’ll make some salad. And the rest sounds wonderful, but I think I need a repeat performance in case I missed anything.”
I kissed her as I held her body against mine. If I didn’t let go, I would have her up against the wall and that was not the way I wanted our first time to be. Maybe our second or third, I thought. I planned on having sex with her every which way I could and more.
TWELVE
Ryan
My work around the place was done, and I’d marinated some steak for us. I had a bottle of red and a sick dog. Bluey had better stay on his big beanbag and sleep all night if he knew what was good for him. Otherwise, I might be the cause of my pet ending up back at the vet’s again.
I knocked on the door and Autumn answered it, beckoning me to follow her inside.
“I was just going to Face Time my friend in the States again when I realized it’s one-thirty in the morning. He’s always saying I call at the wrong time. So, I’ll do it when I get up tomorrow. He texted me earlier about the dates they’ll be over. I’m so excited, and I’d like you to meet them.”
I plopped Bluey’s beanbag in the main room and the dog lay down. I headed out the back of the cottage to light the barbecue. Autumn came out a moment later with two glasses of wine. Being around Autumn was wonderful, but what would her friends think? Mostly, they would see me as someone who could amuse Autumn while she was here in Australia. I suppose that’s what I was. She was not offering more.
“So, who are these friends? Can I ask?”
“It’s a fellow doctor I trained with called Grant, his partner, and her little boy. They have a girl Ginny as well, but she is a toddler so will be staying with her Nan in the States. They visited me in London and talked about coming here, but I never thought they actually would. Australia is so far away from everything.”
How would I fit in with the technical conversations? Oh well. Autumn wanted my company for my prowess in the bedroom not my mind. I was not going to complain. I didn’t feel less around her but was not so sure about the visitors. “So, when are you expecting them?”
“Grant has applied to go to another conference in Sydney a few days after mine in July. He’s a surgeon.”
“Did you ever want to do that?”
“Nope, I never wanted to go down that track. I like dealing with people on a long-term basis. Also, it scared the crap out of me, cutting into someone’s flesh. It’s a huge responsibility to get things right.”
