Outback Dreams (3 page)

‘Yes,' Jenni replied solemnly. ‘Very.'

Picking up the whisk, Faith said, ‘But you haven't actually had a raven in your tea leaves?'

‘No. Just a recurring dream. But you know my thoughts on dreams.'

‘They happen for a reason.' To an extent she agreed, but if she didn't believe in tea leaf reading, she could hardly worry about a dream involving them.

Racking her mind for something else to talk about, Faith went to retrieve the butter from the fridge. There, stuck on the door with a magnet, was a brochure featuring the cutest puppy ever. ‘You thinking of getting a dog?' she asked, forgetting she was trying to change the subject, simply smitten by the idea of a new Montgomery pet.

‘Sorry? Oh, that.' Jenni smiled and took the brochure off the fridge. ‘Not really. It's from an organisation that trains dogs for autistic children. There wasn't anything around like this when Will was little, and these people'—Jenni waved the brochure in the air and then laid it on the kitchen table—‘raise dogs to be companions. Will's not a child anymore, but I'm wondering if he might still benefit from us getting a pet.'

‘What about his spiders?'

Jenni visibly shuddered as the kettle started whistling behind her. ‘Something a little more socially acceptable would be ideal. Something that offers greater companionship.'

Smiling at Will's love of spiders and his mother's absolute disgust, Faith deserted the eggs for a moment and studied the brochure.

Dogs for Autism is a non-profit organisation striving to raise, socialise and train Autism Assistance Dogs. These dogs impact many facets of an autistic child's life including promoting independence, self-esteem, improved psychological wellbeing and quality of life
.

Seeing the pricey figure on the page, Faith let out a low whistle. ‘These dogs don't come cheap.'

‘No.' Jenni shook her head. ‘Just like guide dogs for the blind, they need lengthy and dedicated training. But I think it's a great idea and so wonderful that families have more opportunities like this nowadays.' She shrugged. ‘Just something I'm contemplating. But enough about us, I want to hear the gossip from Bunyip.'

‘Gossip!' Faith snorted as she went back to her eggs.

Gossip was part and parcel of living in a small town where everyone knew everything about everybody, or at least thought they did. Mostly, Faith didn't mind, and she didn't usually pay much attention. Her life was so damn boring she guessed nobody ever bothered talking about her, but Jenni still had some good friends in Bunyip Bay and liked to hear about the town whenever Faith or Monty visited.

‘Let's see… The Paynes are selling up and moving to New South Wales to live with their daughter. The new year-one teacher had an affair with the principal. Oh, and Monty's started renovating Old Man Silvey's place on Annadale Farm, but maybe he's already told you that.'

Jenni snorted. ‘No, he hasn't. Daniel is far too busy working to talk to his old mum. I had hoped he might come down with you this weekend.'

Faith bit her lower lip and shrugged apologetically. ‘I did suggest it, but…'

‘It's not your fault,' Jenni blustered. ‘Anyway, whatever do the Burtons plan on doing with Tom's old cottage?'

‘According to Monty, Adam just wants to give Mrs Burton a project. They might rent it out to holiday-makers one day, but he reckons she's wallowed far too long.'

Jenni sighed. ‘Adam would be right. I don't blame Esther Burton for pining after her little girl, but it must be almost twenty years since she went missing. It was before we moved down here.' She paused for a moment, as if contemplating. ‘Esther needs to remember she has a husband and son worth living for.'

Not having children herself, Faith found it hard to imagine what it would be like to lose one, but she guessed it wasn't something you'd easily recover from. Most of her memories of the Burton girl were from stories still passed around by the locals— Adam rarely spoke about his sister—but Faith remembered the fuss when she first went missing. The whole town had been involved in the search, but no one had ever found a trace.

‘How is Daniel anyway?' Jenni finished making her tea, placed a mug next to Faith and sat down at the table.

‘Same as ever.' Faith found herself holding back a grin as she recalled the way she'd described him to the old girls last night. She'd almost forgotten she didn't have a real boyfriend. ‘He works so hard, I rarely see him unless I go along and play his assistant. If he's not at the Burtons', he's out on the boats or helping some farmer or other with a task they'd rather not do themselves.'

‘Good to see nothing changes,' Jenni mused over the top of her mug, although her tone told Faith she wished it would.

Faith watched her egg mixture bubble in the pan. ‘You raised him stubborn. He's got a dream and he won't stop working until he achieves it.'

Another sigh left Jenni's lips. ‘Stubborn runs in the Montgomery blood, but I'd like him to settle down one of these days. I'd like to have grandchildren while I'm still young enough to enjoy them.'

And I'd like to have children before menopause,
thought Faith.

She started and almost burnt her hand on the edge of the frying pan. Where had that come from? At twenty-nine, she'd never— until two seconds ago—given one thought to her biological clock. She'd never even been sure she wanted to have children. Had to be all those successful and fertile women she'd been hanging around last night. Had to be all that talk of
her
successful and good-looking pretend boyfriend. A girl's imagination could get away from her if she let it.

‘I think you might need that puppy as much as Will,' Faith said eventually. ‘You know, like a substitute grandchild.'

Jenni raised one eyebrow.

‘Monty barely stops work long enough to meet eligible women and anyway, the only one he's shown any interest in recently is princess Ruby Jones.'

‘Princess who?' Jenni leaned forward, her eyes dancing with interest.

‘Oh, it's nothing. It's really none of my business.'

‘Now, don't go giving me that line,' Jenni said in her strict-mum voice. ‘You wouldn't have said anything if it was nothing. Who is this Ruby? It's the first time I've heard of her.'

Faith sighed. ‘Ruby is the daughter of Robert and Lyn Jones. They own The Ag Store. Monty—and all the other single guys in town—have been vying for her attention since she moved in with her parents a few months back.'

‘Really? And why the ‘princess' bit? Don't you like her?'

‘It's not that, it's just…' What had Faith got herself into? Fact was, she didn't know why she'd taken such a dislike to Ruby. ‘She could just be shy, I suppose, but she keeps to herself and something gives me the impression she thinks she's too good for Bunyip Bay. My guess is she's biding her time until something better comes up and she leaves again. And I don't like the way she's stringing Monty along.'

‘Not just a tiny bit jealous, are we?' Jenni nudged her.

‘No! There's never been anything like that between us.'

‘I see. Well, if she hurts my boy, I'll put a hex on her.'

Faith laughed.

‘What's all the ruckus in here?'

They looked up to see Stuart Montgomery standing in the doorway, peering at them suspiciously. ‘Did I miss a good knock-knock or something?' Before either of them could answer, he inhaled deeply and a massive grin appeared on his bearded face. He eyed the almost-cooked omelette in the pan. ‘Have I ever told you how much I love it when you come to stay?' Stuart crossed the room and draped his arm around Faith's shoulders. ‘Great to see you again, love.'

The feeling was absolutely mutual. She leaned into his hug, enjoying the warmth and comfort of his fatherly embrace. How many times recently had she wished Stuart was her real father and then been overcome with guilt? Stuart and Will had been out yesterday afternoon—some arachnid talk at the museum— when Faith dropped her overnight bag off, but she was glad to see him now. As he sat down at the table opposite his wife, and Faith continued cooking, she found her gaze drifting to the happy couple. Monty's parents had aged well. Despite her quirky dress sense, Jenni was elegant, and Stuart's salt-and-pepper beard suited him perfectly. She wondered if Monty would be as handsome as his dad at that age. What would he look like with a beard?

Shaking that random thought, she laid a couple of omelettes down in front of her friends before turning to start her own. She always enjoyed breakfast with the Montgomerys because they took the time to sit down together. This was something her mum had always insisted on too, but after Cassie's death, the family habit of eating breakfast together had somehow died too.

‘So, what have you been up to lately, Miss Faith?' Stuart asked as his fork scraped across his plate.

‘Same old, same old,' she replied, glad she didn't have to pretend for these two. ‘I manage to put the time away running after dad and Ryan, milking Daisy, keeping the hens.' These last two were her mother's projects, things she kept doing because it seemed right. ‘There's also netball coaching, and we'll be starting seeding soon, so I'll no doubt be stuck in the kitchen cooking until some emergency happens and they need me on a tractor.' If she sounded bitter, her friends didn't call her on it, but the fact was the life she'd made up last night was far more appealing than her real one.

‘Ah, the tractor…' Stuart said with a wistful tone. ‘I do miss that sometimes.'

Faith couldn't miss the look Jenni shot her husband.

‘Don't get me wrong, love,' he was quick to placate her. ‘I wouldn't change the past for anyone, and I like living in the city now, but farming was in my blood. Hard to forget it completely.'

‘Of course,' Jenni nodded, her expression softening. ‘Well, if Daniel won't come visit us, we should go to him.'

‘Good idea.' Stuart returned to his breakfast. ‘This is fabulous.'

‘My pleasure'.

Faith finished cooking her own omelette as the Montgomerys continued digging into theirs. Just as she switched off the gas hot plate, Will strolled into the kitchen. He was wearing neat jeans and a National Geographic t-shirt with a massive red-back spider on the front. Faith cringed at the image but smiled for Will nonetheless. His ash blonde hair—a shade closer to his mother's than to his father's—was combed back perfectly. He looked a lot like Monty—except Monty never combed his hair. Luckily, the mussed-up look suited him just fine.

‘Hey, Will.' She crossed the kitchen to give him a hug. His response was stiff, but just the fact he now let her hug him made her smile. It had taken a long time and a lot of support to get Will to the functioning adult he was today, but still only those closest to him could get away with something as personally invasive as this.

‘Hello, Faith.' Will extricated himself and crossed to the cupboard.

Even though she stayed here only a few times a year, she knew his routine by heart. He'd had the same microwave porridge—the type that comes in a one-serve sachet—for as long as she could remember. He made it himself, waited exactly one minute after it was cooked before eating it then stood immediately to clean away all evidence of his breakfast. In many ways, he was the perfect child. Except that he was twenty-five.

Giving Will space to make his porridge, Faith took her plate to the table and sighed as she took her first bite. This house was her favourite place in Perth. The Montgomerys were the only people in the city she always made the time to visit. Like Monty, they made her feel special just as she was.

When Jenni finished eating, she put her cutlery down and said, ‘So, Faith, you haven't said much about the dinner?'

‘There's not a whole load to tell,' she said, choosing not to mention her pledge to enter the contest just yet. She wanted to give it more thought—work out a charity and game plan first. ‘Mostly it was catching up on who'd married who in the last decade and how many babies had been born. You have no idea how many photos I had to look at. I lost count of the number of times I said, “Ooh, isn't she just divine”.'

Jenni and Stuart laughed, and Faith continued her breakfast, answering a few more questions between mouthfuls before the conversation waned. ‘What's new in your world?' she asked her hosts.

‘I have a job,' Will announced as he stood to clean his plate.

‘That's brilliant,' she said, genuinely pleased. ‘What do you do?'

‘I work in the library at the university.' He positively grinned.

‘That's awesome.' Faith grinned back, fighting happy tears. ‘You'll be fabulous at that.' Not only did Will know the English alphabet back to front, but he could write and speak seven other languages and tell you the history of each.

She'd been seven or eight when Will was diagnosed with autism. He was three years old and rattled off his alphabet constantly, but wouldn't—or rather couldn't—communicate with his family, never mind anyone else. As Jenni and Stuart did everything they could to learn about Will's condition and enhance his development, they'd travelled back and forth to Perth for treatments and to seek advice from specialists. There wasn't much funding or government assistance available back then, but that didn't stop the Montgomerys doing the best they could.

Not wanting to disrupt Monty's schooling too much, they'd left him with the Forresters on many of their city visits. Faith loved having Monty around, but could tell he missed his family more than he let on.

Eventually, when the trips and treatments had become too expensive, the distance too much of a hassle, Monty's parents had sold the property that had been in Stuart's family for generations. They'd packed up their whole life in the back of a Budget rental van and moved to Perth. Until then, she and Monty had been inseparable. They'd seen each other almost every day of their lives. She'd taught him how to fish, and he'd taught her how to hold her breath under water in the dam. Wherever one of them was, the other could usually be found not too far away. Twin terrors, their mothers called them. And Faith had missed her best friend more than anything.