The Patterson Girls (15 page)

‘I was born ready.' He grinned, stood up and slipped his phone into his pocket.

Stopping only briefly to deposit their key in the box at reception, they headed outside to the ute. Charlie's stomach rumbled and at the exact same moment Mitch suggested, ‘Shall we stop somewhere and grab some brekkie?'

‘I'm in support of that plan,' she said, clicking her seatbelt into place.

They stopped at a little café on the main street of Bordertown and sat down long enough to refuel—Mitch with bacon and eggs and Charlie with avocado on toast. They'd long ago ceased commenting on each other's eating habits.

‘You look stressed,' Mitch observed.

‘No shit, Sherlock,' she said and then immediately regretted snapping. It wasn't his fault her mind had gone on some weird bender.

‘What can I do to help?' he asked and her heart melted.

As if he wasn't already doing enough. She shook her head and pushed aside the plate of food she'd been unable to finish. ‘I'm sorry. I'm just feeling a little overwhelmed at all I have to achieve the next couple of days.'

She thought perhaps her annoyance with her sisters was starting to garner strength and as they weren't here, she was taking it out on Mitch.

‘All
we
have to achieve.' He reached out and placed his hand on top of hers and as warmth rushed through her at his touch, she wondered why some smart woman hadn't snapped him up. He was hot, hardworking, funny, smart and had the kindest, most generous heart of anyone she knew.

Before she said anything more, he took back his hand, retrieved his phone from his pocket and placed it in front of him. ‘Why don't we make a checklist?' he suggested, opening his notes app. ‘You hit me with everything that needs to be done before we leave Melbourne and I'll get it all down.'

Charlie swallowed, so grateful he was here to help her stay sane. ‘Well, I need to call my landlord and see what we can do about my lease. Maybe help her find a new tenant. I need to go see Dave at the café. I already called to resign and he was so understanding, but I want to go say thanks in person. Then there's packing my stuff. I'll need to get some boxes from somewhere. Redirect my mail … ‘

Mitch's long fingers flew over his phone screen, keeping up with her jumpy train of thought. And when she finally ran out of tasks, she felt a lot better.

‘Maybe you should make the phone calls during the next leg of our journey,' he suggested as he downed the last dregs of his coffee, which thanks to her were probably now cold.

‘You know you're not just a pretty face, Mitch McDonald.' She smiled as she pushed back her chair. ‘Ready to hit the road?'

‘You betcha.' They left the café and before they'd driven out of Bordertown, Charlie was on the phone to her landlord.

They drove through Horsham and on to Ballarat, stopping only in Beaufort to use the public conveniences and raid Lucinda's container of snacks. By the time Mitch parallel parked out the front of the old warehouse that contained her apartment, she felt as if everything she needed to achieve between now and when they drove back to Meadow Brook was doable.

‘Shall I go hunt down some lunch?' Mitch asked as she let them into her apartment and immediately crossed the room to pull back the curtains and open a window. Having been shut up for five days it felt a little stuffy.

‘Do you think about anything but your stomach?' she asked, turning back to look at him.

He shrugged as if to ask, ‘What else is there?' so she rolled her eyes and pointed to a pile of takeaway brochures on her hall side table. They were mostly from organic health food joints and likely wouldn't offer enough meat or grease for Mitch's liking, but she could do her bit to try and save his arteries. He walked over and flicked through them and she headed into the kitchen to put on the kettle.

Mitch might need food but Charlie was in dire need of a soothing cup of tea. She'd retrieved her favourite cat mug and was rifling through her collection of herbal blends when Mitch entered the kitchen, a frown on face and some A4 papers in his hands.

‘Says here you're starting a course in February?'

Damn, another call she'd have to make. That cancellation had totally slipped her mind. ‘Oh, I was,' she said, selecting a bag of Jasmine green tea.

Mitch stalked across the room and slammed the papers down on the bench beside her. She jumped.

‘Do your sisters know about this?' he asked, firing another question before she had the chance to answer. ‘Do they know what you're giving up to come home?'

She swallowed. ‘I'm not giving up anything. I haven't started yet. You can't give up something you haven't started. And besides, I'm postponing it. Dad won't need me forever.'

Disappointment flitted across Mitch's face. ‘You should have told them. They walk all over you and you let them.'

‘I don't!'

He gave her a reproving look. ‘Did anyone else volunteer to move back to Meadow Brook? No, they just expected that you would. Did you put up a fight?'

Charlie clenched her jaw. Mitch had no right to jump down her throat like this. ‘I'd decided to come home before any of them even mentioned it. I want to be there for Dad. I consider it a privilege.' And that was true, she'd just have preferred it if her sisters had asked rather than assumed.

‘I'm sorry. I'm not angry at you. You're doing a good thing, but they should know what you're sacrificing.' Mitch huffed out a breath and ran a hand through his scruffy dark hair.

‘No. I don't want them to.' Her plan had been to have her diploma certificate in her hand before she ever mentioned it to anyone. That way if she couldn't handle the workload, no one would ever need to know she'd failed. Besides, it wasn't like any of her sisters would rate a diploma in naturopathy. Her eyes prickled with ridiculous tears.

Of course Mitch noticed. He reached out and grabbed her hand. Again a jolt of something hot and raw shot through to her core. ‘Hey, it's okay. I promise I won't say anything.' Then he smiled. ‘But well done, I'm proud of you.'

She laughed. ‘I haven't done anything.'

‘Yes, you have,' he said, before pulling back. ‘Now, I'm off to hunt down a burger with the lot. Do you want a veggie one?'

Charlie shuddered at the thought of exactly what a veggie burger from the kind of burger joint Mitch liked would contain. She shook her head. ‘I've got a pantry full of food.'

Mitch, who'd been standing in front of the pantry, opened the cupboard, peered inside and eyed the jars of seeds and nuts. ‘None of that, my dear,' he said, raising his eyebrows, ‘can be called food.'

‘On that we'll just have to agree to disagree.' She laughed and picked up the kettle as Mitch swaggered back down the hall.

Chapter Ten

‘What are you doing here?' Lucinda had just looked up from the reception desk to see Mrs Sampson standing in the doorway. ‘You're supposed to be on holidays. In Adelaide. With your boys.'

Mrs Sampson stepped inside, the door banging shut behind her. ‘I've been to Adelaide, I've annoyed my daughters-in-law and spoilt my grandkids and now I'm back where I'm needed. What's this about Brian having a heart attack? Is he okay? Why didn't you call me?'

Lucinda chose to answer the questions in reverse order. ‘We didn't call because you are not on the roster this week and Madeleine, Abigail and I are managing just fine.'

Fine, that is, after a couple of days of bickering over who was in charge and who would do which jobs. Just when it was almost time for Abigail and Madeleine to leave again, they'd finally got into a solid rhythm.

‘Dad's fine too,' Lucinda continued. ‘He's taking it easy for as long as we can keep him pinned down but you can imagine how difficult that is. And it wasn't a heart attack. Merely a bad case of angina. Still, the doctor said if he doesn't slow down and stress less, it might turn into a heart attack, so they're sending him off to see a specialist.'

‘Silly man.' Mrs Sampson shook her head and perched her hands on her hips. ‘I'm always telling him he's doing too much, but he's as stubborn as an ox. He needs to learn when to take it easy for his own good.'

Lucinda raised her eyebrows. That sounded like the pot calling the kettle black but she bit her tongue. Thankfully, after a few days with her family, Mrs Sampson looked revived, almost like a new woman. ‘I guess keeping busy keeps his mind off Mum. How did you find out anyway?' she asked.

‘You've forgotten about the bush telegraph. I've lived in this town a long time—I have ears and eyes all over the place.'

Lucinda could well believe it. The bush telegraph even gave Facebook a run for its money. ‘Right, so I suppose you know that Charlie and Mitch have gone to Melbourne to collect her things, and that she's moving back for a bit to help Dad.'

For a moment Mrs Sampson looked a little put out by this prospect. ‘You girls don't need to disrupt your lives. Brian and I—'

Lucinda cut in. ‘Are overworked, and as much as we appreciate everything you do, Mrs Sampson, things can't go on the way they have been.'

Mrs Sampson looked as if she were about to protest but then thought better of it. ‘Fair enough. It'll be good for Brian to have one of his girls home. Is he in the house?'

Lucinda nodded.

‘Very well, I'll go in and say hello, tell the other girls I'm back.'

‘Madeleine and Abigail will be very happy to see you. They try their best, but neither of them are cut out for domesticities.'

Mrs Sampson chuckled and started towards the door, but she turned back to Lucinda at the last minute. ‘You girls are all grown up now. Don't you think it's time you started calling me Sal? Mrs Sampson makes me feel like somebody's grandma.'

Lucinda didn't remind her that she
was
somebody's grandma and neither did she relent and use the housekeeper's first name. Enough things had changed in the last six months, so she needed to hold onto some normality.

Barely two seconds after she'd left, the door opened again and this time Aunt Mags appeared.

‘Don't stand there looking like a stunned mullet, girl,' she barked as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. ‘I'm parched and I need a stiff drink.'

‘How did you get here?'

‘I hitchhiked,' Mags replied, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, ‘and before you start lecturing, I'll have you know I've hitchhiked plenty of times before. I'm a very good judge of character. I'm still alive, aren't I? You young things are far too paranoid these days.'

Feeling a tension headache coming on and knowing there was no point arguing, Lucinda said, ‘What can I get you to drink?'

‘I'll have a Scotch on the rocks.' Aunt Mags stepped closer to reception and dumped her enormous handbag on the desk. She'd always had massive handbags—when the girls were little they'd thought her bag was like Mary Poppins's carpet bag as it always carried special treats. ‘Where is everyone?'

‘Dad, Madeleine, Abigail and Mrs Sampson are over in the house. It's a quiet time of day. I was just about to head in there and continue going through more of Mum's things.'

For a brief second a shadow crossed Aunt Mag's cheerful face. ‘Well, I'll help then. I didn't have anything on today and since we missed out on our family get-together, I thought I'd come for a visit, check that my little brother is behaving himself.'

Smiling, Lucinda walked around the desk and pulled her into a hug. ‘It's lovely to see you, but I do wish you'd called. One of us could have driven over to collect you.'

‘Nonsense.' Mags waved a hand in front of her face. ‘Where's the fun in that? The truck driver who gave me a lift was very nice on the eye.'

Lucinda couldn't help smiling. No wonder Aunt Mags had never married—there wasn't a man on the planet who'd ever be able to tame her. ‘You go on inside. I'll bring your drink.'

‘Bring the whole bottle,' Aunt Mags ordered as she went through into the house. ‘I need to catch up for Christmas Day.'

Seconds later Lucinda heard the excited shrieks of her sisters. Truth was, they could all do with a dose of their aunt's special brand of crazy.

‘I wish Charlie was here,' Abigail sighed. The three sisters, Mags and Dad sat around the kitchen table, enjoying afternoon tea as they pored over an album they'd found in a box alongside Mum's clothes, shoes and other keepsakes. It contained photos from before their parents had married and Mum looked so young, a little hippy-ish—like Charlie.

‘I know,' Lucinda agreed, ‘but we're keeping all these photos, so I'll make sure she sees them when she and Mitch come back.'

‘Oh look,' Abigail shrieked, distracted by a photo of Mum in a tiny psychedelic patterned skirt, huge wedge platforms and a cowl-neck sweater. ‘She looks like Marcia from
The Brady Bunch
.'

The others laughed and Lucinda had to concede there was a distinct similarity. Mum could have been Marcia's twin.

‘She was far more beautiful than Marcia Brady,' Dad mused, staring wistfully down at the photo.

‘Must be why she had so many admirers,' Madeleine noted, flicking through the next few pages in which Mum had a different man on her arm in each photo.

‘Annette was always popular with the boys.' Mags laughed. ‘But who could blame them?'

Dad smiled wistfully. ‘I was the luckiest man alive. She had the pick of all the blokes in town and for some darn reason, she chose me.'

‘Dad!' Madeleine exclaimed. ‘Of course she chose you. You were the cream of the crop, still are. I blame you for me not being able to find a man. None of them live up to the high standards you set.'

‘Is that your problem?' Abigail asked, unable to help herself. ‘I thought it was just because you were such a bitch.'