Feels Like Home (26 page)

‘Well, you know what? Maybe this is a party after all.'

‘How can it be a party for just two people?'

Jo shrugged. ‘It's not the amount of people that matters, it's the occasion, the reason for celebrating.'

‘What is the reason for the party?'

‘Um…' Jo stalled for a second while she thought. ‘This is the first time you've been to my house, right?'

Ella nodded.

‘Okay. Let's make it a Welcome Party then. It's a party to welcome you to my house.'

A large grin spread across Ella's face. ‘That's a great reason for a party.' She dragged out one of the bentwood chairs and sat herself down.

Jo sat opposite and smiled. This was more like it. Maybe the afternoon wouldn't be as terrible as she feared. She looked on with satisfaction as Ella helped herself to two pieces of fairy bread and a biscuit. ‘Would you like a drink? I've got cordial in the fridge.'

‘Yes, please.' Ella munched away on her biscuit for a bit before looking up at Jo with a puzzled expression on her face. ‘You're not like other grown-ups,' she said.

‘Aren't I?'

Ella shook her head. ‘You're more fun.'

Jo's heart swelled. Maybe she wasn't as bad at this kid stuff as she thought.

‘And,' Ella continued, ‘you're not all fussy about rules and stuff like that. Most grown-ups are always going on about being responsible and stuff, but you don't care about that. You're kind of like a big kid. It's really cool.'

Jo's optimism deserted her. Even a six-year-old could see she was faking it. She tried to salvage something out of Ella's words. At least the kid thought she was fun.

‘Is that why you don't have kids?' Ella asked, as she licked chocolate from her fingertips. ‘Because you like having fun too much?'

Jo shrugged. ‘I guess. When you're done eating maybe you'd like to play outside?'

‘What about my homework?'

‘Oh, yes, after you've done that of course.'

Ella grinned. ‘You really don't know anything about looking after kids, do you?'

Jo slowly shook her head. She was fooling no one here.

CHAPTER

26

Jo lifted the ancient pushbike from the hooks holding it to the shed wall. The purple frame was slightly rusted, and the fabric flowers adorning its plastic basket had faded, but otherwise it looked in pretty good nick. The shed had always been Dad's domain. Katherine never ventured into it, which was fortunate. Her childhood bike would otherwise not have survived her mother's penchant for purging all items no longer required.

Of course the tyres were flat. Her eyes scanned the workshop area for a pump. It took a minute but eventually she discovered a ratty cardboard box labelled ‘bike bits' with several bike pumps and a few puncture kits inside.

‘Here we go,' she said to Ella. ‘This is my old bike. I reckon once we put some air in the tyres she'll be perfect for you.'

Ella looked unsure. ‘It's pretty old.'

Jo grinned. ‘Yeah, but I'll bet it still works perfectly.' She gave the pedals a spin. ‘See? Nothing wrong with it.'

Ella shrugged as Jo got to work pumping up the tyres.

‘Want to give it a whirl? You can test it out in the driveway while I watch. If it works okay then you can ride wherever you like so long as you don't go near the road.'

‘Okay. Where's the helmet?'

‘Um…' Jo sighed in defeat. Her old helmet had probably been consigned to the scrap heap years ago. ‘I don't have one, sweetie.'

‘I'm not allowed to ride without a helmet.'

Another failure. When did raising kids become so complicated? She didn't remember there being so many rules and regulations when she was little. From the time she was a toddler she'd been allowed to play by herself in the garden near the house. As she grew her freedom increased. Her mother's main instruction had been ‘Be home by dinnertime'. Booster seats and other safety equipment hadn't been a feature in her adventures.

What on earth was she going to do with Ella now? The homework was done, they'd exhausted the drawing and colouring options and frankly she didn't have a clue what else to try. The kid didn't seem too keen on amusing herself and Jo was fresh out of ideas.

She felt her patience wearing thin. It wasn't Ella's fault, she knew that, but it seemed the kid had been wrapped in cotton wool. Would it really kill her to ride the bike around the property without a helmet? She'd done it, Steph had done it, Ryan had done it too goddammit, and all of them had lived to tell the tale. All this fuss was ridiculous. An example of…what was the term? Hovering? No, helicopter parenting, that was it. It would do Ella good to toughen up a little. ‘You don't need a helmet to ride on private property, Ella, only if you are riding on the road.'

The child looked unsure. ‘Gran always makes me wear a helmet. She says, “Better safe than sorry”.'

‘Well honey, I don't have a helmet. I rode this bike around here for years and I was perfectly safe. My bet is you will be too. But it's up to you. If you'd rather we went inside and did more colouring in…'

Ella shook her head vigorously. ‘Don't you have any other toys? Or maybe some videos we could watch?'

Jo shook her head. ‘This is it, kiddo. Take it or leave it.'

Ella bit her lip and looked longingly at the bicycle.

Jo felt a twinge of guilt at coercing the child into disobeying her family's rules. Poor kid, she was just trying to do the right thing and it was selfish and immature to expect her to do otherwise. Seemed like the bike was a no go. ‘Okay, kiddo, forget the bike. Let's think of something else. What do you usually do after school?'

‘Ride Tinker.'

Of course! Why hadn't she thought of this before? All they needed was some type of head protection. It didn't necessarily have to be a bike helmet. ‘Hang on a minute, Ella, you've given me an idea. Maybe I can find my old riding helmet. I think my dad kept all my old pony-club trophies out here in the shed, maybe he kept my riding gear too.'

Ella looked at her blankly.

‘You can use my old riding helmet instead of a bike helmet. Do you think that would be okay?'

A grin spread across Ella's face and she nodded enthusiastically.

Jo scanned the shed for likely storage places, but all she saw were boxes of tools, car and tractor parts, tins of paint and cans of motor oil. Maybe Katherine had talked Dad into throwing all his keepsakes away or…she suddenly remembered the loft. When she was ten Dad had built a mezzanine loft — more like a wide storage shelf than an actual loft — at the back of the shed. He told Katherine it was for extra storage space but Jo knew he kept things up there that he didn't want her to know he had. Katherine hadn't liked to admit it, but she was terrified of heights.

Jo dragged the extension ladder to the rear of the shed and propped it up against the mezzanine floor. As soon as she set foot on the floor her heart lurched. Childhood treasures that she had thought long gone littered the small storage area. ‘Oh Dad,' she whispered. He was such a softie.

‘Did you find anything?' Ella called from below.

‘Not yet, but I'm sure it'll be here. Just give me a minute.' Sure enough there was a tattered cardboard box labelled ‘Pony Club'. Jo pulled the carton open to find every rosette, sash or trophy she'd ever won, along with an old pair of jodhpurs, and — yes! — her old riding helmet. ‘Got it!' she called down to Ella.

The helmet turned out to be a little large on Ella's tiny head but Jo adjusted the straps the best she could. ‘What do you think? Will it do?'

Ella grinned and nodded her approval.

‘Come on then, let's get you up and running before it gets too dark to ride.'

Ella was right at home on the bike. She took off with ease, racing down the long driveway at high speed. ‘Stay away from the road,' Jo called after her, but she needn't have worried. Ella executed an expert turn a full ten metres before she reached the crossover. Jo stood watching her manoeuvres for a few minutes until her phone vibrated in her pocket. There was a message from Lydia.

What the…?

Her phone buzzed again. There on the screen was a photo of her and…
oh my god
…Ryan. They were wrapped in each other's arms, their lips locked in what was unmistakably a passionate kiss.

Shit!
How the hell had this happened? She looked carefully at the photo. It was taken Saturday night at the bucks and hens night. Who on earth would have taken this? And how had it gotten on social media? There were no paparazzi here in Linden Gully. It had to be someone at the party.

Surely none of their friends would do this? Her thoughts went to Kelly and Laura. They were both there on the night, and neither woman was a fan of hers, but she couldn't believe either one of them would stoop to something so low. Laura had spent much of the evening making eyes at Ryan, finding numerous excuses to be in his presence. Surely if she'd seen them kissing she wouldn't have behaved so warmly towards him?

In any case, how the photo ended up online didn't really matter. It was done. What mattered was what happened next. She covered her eyes with her hands for a moment and tried to think. How would Zach respond to this? He'd probably think she'd gone back on her word and was using this as some sort of payback for the Kiara mishap. Or maybe this had come from Zach's camp. Maybe they'd paid someone to follow her, to catch her out and now they were using the photo of her with Ryan to prove she was the bad guy in this scenario.

Her throat constricted.

Ryan.

He would be furious. He'd been so adamant that no one could know about their liaison. It was only a matter of time before everyone in town heard about the photo — if they hadn't already.

She needed to talk to Lydia right now, so they could formulate a plan. She needed to put a stop to this, to limit the damage as much as possible. Despite it being two-thirty in the morning in New York, Lydia was clearly awake.

Jo glanced up at Ella as she whizzed by on the bike. Riding around should keep her occupied for a few minutes more at least. She'd be fine if Jo ducked into the house to make the call. The kitchen had the best mobile phone reception of anywhere on the property and the driveway was clearly visible from the kitchen window so it wasn't as if she'd be leaving her unsupervised.

‘Hey, Ella, I'm just zipping inside for a minute. Will you be alright?' Jo called.

Ella nodded and waved without stopping.

‘I'll be in the kitchen if you need me.'

Ella rode on without responding and Jo watched her until she disappeared behind the house as she followed the path that led to the disused chook shed.

Once inside Jo urgently punched Lydia's number into her phone.

‘Jo. I've been waiting for your call.'

‘God, Lydia. Things must be bad if you are texting me in the middle of the night.'

‘Middle of the night? Oh, honey, I'm not in New York, I'm in

L.A. for the rest of the summer. It's only eleven-thirty here. But you're right. Things aren't looking great for you here. That photo is everywhere, honey. And I've had half a dozen calls for quotes already.'

‘Zach?'

‘Nothing from his camp yet. I guess they're biding their time, working out their strategy. He's publicly denied having an affair with Kiara, trotting out the “just good friends” line. But that was a few days ago. I haven't seen or heard anything since this latest photo came out. It's still Sunday night here and I only saw the photo a couple of hours ago, so I expect more will come out in the morning.'

‘Can we shut it down?'

‘Unlikely. The only way to pour water on it is if Zach's people don't want it to run and I have no idea what their take will be. They may just decide that painting Zach as the broken-hearted, wronged party will work for them. Let's face it, as far as the movie goes any publicity is good publicity. The producers couldn't care less about how it's come by. And as far as Zach is concerned, he's their star. They have a lot riding on him. Right now they need him to be their golden-haired boy. No one wants to see him as the bad guy.'

‘Well, technically they're right. Zach isn't a bad guy. He hasn't done anything wrong. I'm the one who left. And I'm the one who's been caught kissing another man.'

Lydia laughed. ‘Come on, you don't really believe that, do you?'

‘What?'

‘That Zach's a good guy?'

‘Of course I do. I agreed to marry him for heaven's sake. I'm the one that couldn't go through with it and the reasons for that have nothing to do with Zach being a bad person.'

‘Oh, Jo, I love that sweet trusting nature of yours, really I do, but sometimes you can be so naive I want to shake you. All these years in New York and you're still just a simple country girl at heart.'

‘Lydia, what the hell are you talking about?'

‘Zach's been screwing around on you, since…well, forever.'

Lydia's words hit her like a punch in the gut. ‘What? No. That simply can't be true.'

‘Sugar, I'm so sorry. I thought you knew.'

‘What would make you think that?' Jo could hear the edge of hysteria creeping into her voice. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself as Lydia replied.

‘In all the time I've known you, Jo, you've never once said that you loved Zach. Even when you got engaged you were pretty matter of fact about the whole thing. I just assumed you two had an arrangement. It's not uncommon among Hollywood types like Zach.'

‘But why…I mean he asked me to marry him. Why would he do that? If he wanted to screw around, why didn't he just dump me? I don't get it.'