Dave took his drink into the restaurant and grabbed a seat at a table set for two. He half hoped Adam and Tiffany would invite him to join them, but they were sitting with their backs to him and hadn’t seen Dave come in.
Listening as Adam laughed and talked, Dave took another sip of his beer. He really needed to be the one to pull them all together, he decided. They couldn’t lose their family and Wind Valley Farm just because of in-house fighting. Or, rather, Sam fighting with Dave.
Grabbing the notepad and pen that he always kept in his pocket, he jotted some ideas down:
Weekly meetings.
Everyone able to speak without being interrupted.
Include Mum and Mandy so everyone feels involved.
Ownership.
Enterprise planning so everyone knows what is going on.
An enterprise each??? Dad—hay making, Dean—cropping,
Adam—cattle, Me—sheep??
Mediation????
He was sure his dad wouldn’t agree to either the idea of an enterprise each or the mediation, but it was worth throwing out there. He thought about the time frames—Dean and Mandy would be back from their honeymoon by the middle of January, which was an ideal time for everyone to have this discussion. When they got back, the budgets would need to be done and planning completed for the twelve months ahead. The bank would be wanting to do a review of their finances and would need all this information.
‘What can I get you, love?’ Katrina, the waitress interrupted his note-taking. He moved his hand over the writing, not wanting her to see it. Katrina was the biggest gossip the town had known and she was friends with Tiffany’s mother.
As he looked up, he could see by the expression on her face that she’d already read some of it.
‘How are you, Katrina?’ he asked, hoping if he engaged her, she might forget.
‘Busy.’ She looked over her shoulder at the filling restaurant. ‘What can I get you?’
‘Steak. Medium rare, chips and salad. Thanks.’
‘Bring it out to you.’ She nodded and gave him another hard stare before going back to the kitchen.
‘Hey Mum,’ Dave said as he breezed through the kitchen the next morning. He stopped at the smell of chocolate cake and leaned over and put his finger in the bowl. ‘Yum, raw mixture. My fav. Where’s Dad?’
‘Stop that or I’ll give your knuckles a rap,’ Carlene answered mildly. ‘I need all the mixture I can get to feed the hordes arriving.’
‘Everyone will be here tomorrow?’ he asked.
‘Yeah.’
Dave looked at the piles of sheets and blankets on the kitchen table and realised she was cooking and still had to make up beds for all the relatives. ‘Do you want me to take any of these down to the rooms for you?’ he offered. ‘Have the extra beds been made up in the shearers’ quarters?’
‘Yep, they’re all done. I did them while you were out last night.’
Carlene looked up and he saw the beads of sweat on her brow. She looked tired, too. ‘Can I do anything for you, Mum?’
She shook her head. ‘No, love. I’ve got everything under control. Your Aunty Peg will be here tomorrow and she’ll be able to give me a hand. Once all the CWA ladies get here…well, you won’t know the place.’
Dave paused. ‘What about Mandy’s family?’
‘The morning of the wedding. I think she and Dean decided not to see each other the week leading up to it.’
Dave didn’t respond to that. There were too many things he could say: how about a bit of help was the first one which came to mind.
‘And the CWA ladies will be here tomorrow as well. We’ll start setting the tables up on the lawn, but we won’t put out any of the decorations until the morning of the ceremony. Don’t want them getting dusty or faded.’
‘Are you doing all of this by yourself?’
‘No, no, like I said the CWA ladies and Aunty Peg will be here. I’ve got everything all organised. The tablecloths and decorations are in the other lounge room, which we never use. I’ve already got five beds made up, only another four to go. The caterers…’
‘So, in other words you are doing this all by yourself, Mum. You’ve organised everything.’ Frustration coursed through him. His brother was nowhere in sight. If it had been his own wedding, Dave would be around as much as he could, helping tidy the garden and lug tables and chairs around, not expecting his mother to do it all. Instead, it seemed Dean had disappeared not only from the farm work, but everything else.
‘Where’s Dean?’ he asked.
‘I guess he’s still in the cottage. He has to get the painting finished so they can stay there on Saturday night. He’s still got three rooms to go, from what he said last night.’
‘Should dry pretty easily,’ Dave commented. ‘Maybe once he’s finished, he can come and help here.’
His mum fixed him with a pleading stare, but didn’t say anything.
He was thrown back to his grandfather’s words, once again: ‘Be aware of your actions and words, because someone is always watching.’ He wondered what his maternal grandfather would’ve made of the way life was on Wind Valley Farm now? Having lived here very briefly before his death, he’d spent hours when Dave was younger, telling stories and wandering the paddocks together. Dave missed him and knew his mum did too.
Both Dean and Adam spoke to Carlene the way Sam did. They’d learned it from their father. He briefly wondered why he hadn’t done the same. But that thought wasn’t relevant because he was nothing like his dad and didn’t want to be.
‘Dave,’ his mother put down the wooden spoon and looked at him, ‘this is going to be such a special time. Dean’s only going to get married once and I want to make sure it’s perfect for him and Mandy.’
‘They could have helped you.’
‘They’re busy. At least this way I can make sure everything
