Family Farm (7 page)

‘There is no way I’m going back. Besides, it’d do you and Chris a world of good to spend some more time together.’ At the mention of Chris, Izzy felt a pang of sadness in her heart as his cheeky boyish smile came to mind.

‘But the farm – I can’t run it without you. Look, I’ll pay you more. I’ll do anything. It will take me forever to find someone I can trust to do your job. I’m so sorry about what happened, but can’t we move on? Please, Izzy. It’s nearly harvest.’

Izzy shook her head. ‘Well, you’d better start looking around because I can’t come back, Rob. It just wouldn’t be the same. I don’t know if I could trust you again.’

Will was about to pipe up and tell the bloke he didn’t have a hope in hell of getting a Simpson to change their mind, but he figured it wouldn’t go down too well.

With a start Izzy remembered Will was behind her and she really didn’t need him listening to this. She grabbed Rob’s elbow and led him back around to the other side of his ute. Just seeing the Hilux brought back vivid memories of the hours she’d spent driving it around Rob’s farm.

‘Who’s he?’ He jerked his thumb towards Will.

‘Our neighbour, that’s all. Rob, you must understand that there was nothing between us. What you felt was just lust or attraction, but nothing worth leaving Alice and the kids over. I did you a favour by leaving. Now you can get back to your family and your farm.’

The look on her face confirmed her words; Rob looked dejected. ‘Part of me knows you’re right, but the other part misses you like crazy. Hell, Izzy, we had some great times.’

‘Yes, but it was innocent fun. I care about you a lot, Rob, but as a great friend, nothing more. I’d never ruin what you and Alice have. I know you still love her and you’ll soon see that what you felt for me was misguided.’

It was killing Izzy to talk to Rob this way. If only she could turn back the clock. She had been so comfortable at Cliffviews, and Emma and Chris had been like her younger siblings. Every Friday they’d have their movie nights with her at the cottage where they’d share popcorn and copious amounts of chocolate and soft drink. There had been times, too, when Izzy had got together with Alice and a few of her friends and they’d had wild girls’ nights with plenty of wine and dancing. The more she thought about all the things they’d done together, the more she missed them all. As she looked at Rob, Emma and Chris came to her mind so easily. Especially Chris, who was Rob all over – same eyes and black hair.

Now Rob pulled a packet from his back pocket and held it out to her.

Izzy took it slowly from his outstretched hand. ‘What’s this?’

‘Your pay, plus a bonus. I didn’t want to give this to you; I was hoping you’d change your mind and come back. But I guess you’re right. Maybe I’m being foolish. We did spend so much time together. Anyway, please take it, Izzy. It’s only small in comparison to what you’ve done for us. Alice also wanted me to give you this, and to tell you that she misses you heaps.’ Rob handed her a tightly sealed envelope, then shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. ‘I … um … really ruined everything, didn’t I?’ He looked at her with great sadness. ‘Don’t answer that. Sorry. I tried to stop it, you know, but I couldn’t help how I was feeling. You’re an amazing woman, Izzy Simpson.’

‘Rob —’ Izzy went to protest.

He held up both hands. ‘I know, I know. I guess this is goodbye.’

‘Well, normally I’d invite you in to stay the night, but Mum and Dad would ask questions and it would be too awkward. I hope you understand this is for the best. Where are you staying tonight?’

‘At the pub in Lake Grace. Why?’

‘How about I meet you there for tea and a few drinks and we can chat some more. But nothing else, okay? I want my good friend back. Can you do that?’ Izzy asked.

‘Yes, I think enough crap has gone down for me to start putting things into perspective. I would really like to see you later and clear the air,’ he replied, the sadness still so evident in his eyes. ‘You’ve been a part of our family for over two years. I hope one day you can forgive me, Izzy, and come to visit us again?’

Izzy nodded in reply, her throat too tight to speak.

Will adjusted his sunnies quietly. He could see the look in Rob’s face and the defeated slump of his shoulders. This bloke cared about Izzy a lot. It sounded like Izzy had been working on Rob’s farm, and she was a good worker, apparently. He was curious to know more. From what Bill had told him, she’d been looking after kids and keeping house. Well, somebody’s been keeping secrets, he thought, smiling. Then he remembered that he had a big secret of his own and his grin dissolved.

‘What time will you come, sevenish?’

‘Yep, seven’s good. Till then,’ she said quietly as he climbed into his car, gave one last glimpse behind, and left.

Izzy turned around and headed back towards Will, not daring to watch Rob drive away. Rob wasn’t the only one whose emotions were in turmoil.

Will tilted his head like a puppy, waiting for her to say something.

‘Oh, just shut up,’ Izzy blurted, then stormed off into the house.

Will sat quietly on his bike, his mind churning with questions. Listening to Izzy and Rob’s conversation made him realise that he didn’t know much about her at all, apart from the bits and pieces Bill had mentioned, and even those seemed wrong now. The last time he’d seen Izzy was a few months after Claire’s funeral, before he’d left the farm to seek solitude and find some answers. That was over four years ago, and a lot could change in that time. Will started the motorbike and rode home.

Izzy headed straight to her room and sat on her bed. She glanced at the package with money bulging out of it and placed in on the bedside table. Carefully she examined the envelope from Alice. Izzy’s name was written on the front in beautiful sweeping handwriting, with a line and a little heart underneath. Turning it over, Izzy gently opened the back and pulled out the letter.

A tear fell from Izzy’s nose and landed on the bottom of the page. Alice was such a loving person and Izzy couldn’t understand how Rob could do this to her. But the letter had lifted a weight off her mind. Tonight after she’d met with Rob she’d write her a letter back. Smiling, she began to read the letter again.

It was exactly five minutes to seven when Izzy opened the glass door to the pub. She had deliberated over what to wear and decided on jeans and a black singlet with a high cut and wide straps. She didn’t want anything too nice or revealing. Tonight was not going to get out of hand. Oh, how she hoped Rob was going to behave. She paused inside the door to look around and saw him sitting at the bar with a beer. There were four blokes further down the bar from him, ones she recognised from the local shearing team. Rob, sensing eyes on his back, turned and gestured to her to join him. He was in his usual jeans and T-shirt. As she walked towards the bar she saw Rob order her a beer.

‘I’m glad you came, Izzy. I still wasn’t sure you’d turn up.’ Rob’s nervous smile greeted her.

‘Yeah, well I said I would. Shall we go and order some food – it might take a while.’

Rob nodded. Izzy grabbed her beer and they headed to the large area to the left of the bar where tables and chairs were set up, stopping by the hole in the wall to order.

Izzy followed Rob to the nearest table and they sat down, both taking sips from their beers as they did so, neither of them really wanting to start the conversation.

Eventually Rob began. ‘So is it good to be home, Izzy? Has much changed?’

Izzy smiled, pleased to be able to latch onto a topic that would be easy to talk about. ‘It’s great to be home. Not much has changed, except the farm looks more run-down. Dad isn’t getting any younger so he could really use the extra hands. But I love everything about home – it’s where I’m meant to be.’

‘It must be. You look great, Izzy. It obviously agrees with you.’ Izzy’s heart skipped a beat and she looked cautiously at Rob to gauge his mood. Seeing her reaction, he added, ‘I’m just speaking the truth – don’t stress. You just look healthy and happy. So what else has been happening?’

Izzy began filling him in on last night’s barbecue and the day’s harvest, and how her dad was still as stubborn as ever. She quizzed Rob on Alice and what stuff the kids were up to as their dinner arrived, both of them keeping the topics of conversation neutral and out of dangerous territory.

‘Oh, and Chris stacked the quad bike again on the weekend,’ said Rob with a mouth half full of steak.

Squeezing some more tomato sauce over her chips, Izzy’s eyes grew large. ‘My God. Is he all right? What did he break this time?’

Rob laughed. ‘You know him so well. Well, he was lucky this time – just a heap of skin missing from his elbow and his knee. He’s had worse.’

Izzy nodded. That boy had nine lives, she was sure of it. As she ate the last of her steak she contemplated telling Rob about Alice’s letter. She swallowed her mouthful and cleared her throat.

‘Ah, Rob … are you going to tell Alice why I really left?’ She saw the change in Rob; his body stiffened.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know yet. She probably suspects something’s going on with me. I haven’t been myself lately, but I still love her – I know that. I never stopped. It’s just that my feelings for you made it all very hazy, you know?’ He pushed his empty plate away from him. ‘It’s just something that started building up in me. First, it started with me enjoying working with you, your company, our laughs together. And you are gorgeous so it would be hard for any bloke not to want to spend time with you. So anyway, all this just kept growing in me and niggling until I felt like I needed more of you. I couldn’t wait to see you or be near you, even if it was just sitting next to you. Do you understand?’ He didn’t wait for Izzy’s reply. ‘It became almost an obsession. Like a big carton of cold beer sitting on a table on a hot day, the more you deny yourself a taste the more you want it. I don’t know what to call what I feel about you, Izzy – some sort of love or lust – and it still aches sitting close to you but I know I’ll get over it. I can see how stupid I’ve been – taking off and driving all this way thinking I could win you back. I’ve had some time to think things over this afternoon, and I realise that with you gone, my obsession will fade away and life will go back to the way it was. Alice and I just need to spend time together and I’m sure you will be all forgotten and out of my mind … well, you know what I mean.’

‘Yeah, I understand. I know you’ll be fine once you have time with your family. Hopefully, after a while, I can come and visit and things can be back the way they were?’

Lines creased around Rob’s eyes as he smiled. ‘I would like that very much. And so would Alice and the kids. Just like old times. So we’re good?’

Izzy felt the tension leave her muscles as she nodded. Yep, they were good. And for the first time in the last couple of weeks she could see herself and Rob getting their old platonic relationship back on track.

HARVEST was flying along at a rapid pace. Izzy’s dad still wasn’t letting her get too involved, but at least Dave was happy for her to catch rides with him to the bin every now and then. Bill also let her go for the odd lap in the header here and there, but he wouldn’t let her drive. It was so stupid – he got no breaks from the long day’s work. She knew she could do so much more. If only he’d just let her.

They were both impressed with some of the crops – they’d gone fourteen to fifteen bags to the hectare, which was great.

That morning she’d taken a quick look in the silo to check the quality of the grain. ‘Dad, you’re going to have to adjust the drum a fraction. The white heads are too high,’ she’d informed him on the two-way. You got docked at the bin if you had too many white heads, the parts that encased the wheat. ‘But on the upside, the rye-grass is much less in this section of paddock. I couldn’t even find any wild oats. You’re into a good section of crop now.’ They also got docked on weeds in the wheat sample, so they liked to keep an eye on things. At least he trusted her ability to sample the grain. Working on the bin sampling the year she’d left school had given her the qualifications necessary to please her dad. It was probably the one thing he actually asked her opinion on.