Her phone rang as the second tea shift ended.
‘Tara, Geoff Rayson. I’ve got good news about the cottage.’
‘Wow, that was faster than I expected.’
‘Well, with Christmas only six weeks away, if we don’t act now nothing will happen until February. I’m emailing you all the details and as soon as you have them, give Ryan Tippett in Engineering a call to set up the move.’
Jon walked in just as she hung up. ‘Guess what? That was—’ But her excitement faded. He was pale under his tan and his big frame was hunched over as if he’d just been winded by a tackle. She closed the door. ‘What’s wrong? What’s happened? Is it Ian? The kids?’
‘Tara, breathe. Everyone’s fine.’
‘Then why do you look like your best friend just died?’
‘I feel like part of me just died.’ A long sigh rattled out of him. ‘Al just called about Saturday.’
The thought of having to see Kelly and Rhianna at the cricket barbecue pumped nausea through her. ‘Actually, I just saw Kell—’
‘They’re replacing me with Paul Simpson. I won’t be playing.’
The nausea churned harder. ‘Bastards!’
He shook his head. ‘I’ve been expecting it. Hell, when I was captain, I changed the team around. The point is to win. I just didn’t think they’d shaft me completely.’
‘So you’re not even twelfth man?’
He shook his head and she closed her eyes as the fallout of the decision battered her. Football and cricket were a huge part of Jon’s life and this was yet another loss—a mighty one.
‘What about coaching?’ she said. ‘Going on the committee? They owe you that. And if they think they’re getting money from us next year—’
‘I know you’re trying to help, T, but I’m not up to problem-solving yet. I’m too raw.’
‘Sorry.’ She squeezed his hands. ‘It’s just I was already angry at Rhianna and Kelly. They gave me a serve at the bakery for letting them down.’
‘How?’
‘By stopping going to coffee. By not inviting them over. By suggesting Fatima talk at book group.’ He crooked one brow. ‘Yeah, okay, that one was deliberately baiting Kelly. But I’m so furious with them. Lorraine said I needed to give them time to adjust, that they’re grieving in their own way for how things have changed. But compared to how our lives have changed, theirs have barely altered. I can’t support them through this as well as you and the kids and work—’
‘And you don’t have to,’ he said calmly.
She sought his gaze. ‘Do you think we’ve only been good-time friends? If this had happened to them, would we be as self-obsessed and clueless?’
‘Who knows. I’d like to think that even if we didn’t fully understand, we’d have at least invited them over.’
‘That’s hardly a change in behaviour. You invite everyone over.’
A faint smile tugged at his lips. ‘True, but we’ve done other stuff for them. When Kelly had Hudson you took over a few meals and ended up cleaning their kitchen and bathroom.’
‘Why do you remember that?’
‘Because Al thanked me for sending around a tiler to regrout the shower as a baby present.’
She laughed. ‘I’d forgotten that. I think because Tingledale has the space and lends itself to entertaining, we became the social glue for the group without realising.’
He shrugged. ‘All I know is that every time I catch up with Brent and Al for a drink, I miss Chris.’
‘I think our best friends went to New York and left us with pale imitations.’
‘I think you’re right.’
‘So what do we do about Saturday? If we don’t go they’ll call us bad sports, and if we do go, we’ll have to endure them either telling us how we’ve failed them or have them carry on as if nothing’s changed when everything has.’
‘I reckon by Saturday, there’s a pretty big chance one of the kids will be conveniently sick.’
She smiled. ‘Well, there’s a lot of gastro going around. Poor Monique had all three kids home with it.’
‘There you go. Problem solved.’ He kissed her. ‘Let’s talk about something else. What were you telling me when I walked in?’
It took her a moment to remember, then she clapped. ‘You won’t have time for cricket anyway. We got the cottage!’
His face brightened. ‘That’s awesome.’
A knock sounded on the door and it opened. ‘Police are here,’ Samantha said.
Sergeant North stood in the garden section surveying the damage. ‘The fact we’ve got the same tagging and general trashing says it’s the teenagers again. I hear you’ve employed the Atallah boy. You might think you’re helping, but you’re just making things harder for yourselves.’
‘We were being broken into before we employed Amal,’ Tara said.
‘But as you’ve pointed out, never this way. Does Amal work in this part of the store?’
At training, Amal had asked if he could work in the garden section. Given Darcy and Sabrina didn’t know a sprinkler from a shovel or a vegetable from a vinca seedling, Tara had thought it a great idea. Three customers had sought her out to tell her how helpful he’d been. She’d even sent him home with a small gardenia they couldn’t sell, saying he had time to nurture it into a healthy plant for Fiza for Christmas. He’d smiled politely and she’d realised her faux pas—of course the Atallahs didn’t celebrate Christmas.
Now Tara swallowed, unwilling to answer the question—not just because Denny North would give her an I-told-you-so look, but because she didn’t want doubts eroding her new faith in the young man they’d trusted. ‘He does but—’
‘And is that ladder usually there?’
‘No.’
‘Have you ever seen it there before?’
She glanced at Jon who shook his head. ‘No.’
‘I think we can safely rule out teleporting, although there might have been some black magic involved,’ Denny said.
‘Amal’s our best casual,’ Jon said.
‘And I know him,’ Denny said. ‘Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, but insolence runs just under the surface. There’s more than one way of being a shit and there’s a pattern. Every time something like this happens he’s never far away. The smart ones are
