The Wildwood Sisters (5 page)

‘Oh my God, really? There's one for rent?' Tia was suddenly wide-awake as she almost leapt through the phone.

‘Yeah, something like that. Um, well—'

‘Reni, you're acting all weird. Just spit it out…' Tia dropped her voice. ‘Is Mr Fancy-pants still there? Is that why you're acting strange? Has he upset you—because if he has I'll come round there and kick him in the balls with my spiky footy boots.'

Renee giggled through her nerviness. Tia was always so protective. Squeezing the phone between her shoulder and ear, she began buttering her toast. ‘My God, draw a breath before you pass out. No, Mr Fancy-pants got sent on his merry way last night, much to his displeasure. And while we're on the subject, I can't believe you set me up with another bloke who cares more about his hair than I do.'

‘Oh, Reni, you aren't going to find that hunky spunk manly man you always talk about here in the city—you should know that by now. Those rough and ready blokes that make you go all tingly and gaga tend to live in country habitat. You know, where there are tractors to be fixed while shirtless and covered in grease, and wild horses to be tamed with their bare hands while wearing nothing but leather chaps.'

Renee laughed. ‘You've been reading too many bad novels. The men in the country are nothing like the ones on the cowboy calendar in your kitchen, Tia.' Although smirking at her best friend's endearing lack of country knowledge, Renee needed to stay focused on what she was about to say. ‘Actually, this is a little more serious than my rotten love life.'

‘Well in that case, I'm coming over. By the sounds of it you're in need of some girly company.'

‘You're buggered from work, Tia, I don't want you to have to do that.'

‘I'm already pulling on my ugg boots and about to head out the front door, so I'm not taking no for an answer. Hope you don't mind the fact I'll still be in my PJs.'

‘Of course not.' Renee laughed at Tia's free spirit. Her best mate had never been one to care what anyone else ever thought of her. She reminded her so much of Scarlet. ‘See you soon mate.'

Half an hour later, Renee opened the door to Tia, who true to her word was dressed in her Paul Frank flannelette pyjamas, her long blonde hair pulled up into a messy ponytail. ‘Looking stylish there, girlfriend,' she said, smiling.

Tia grinned wickedly, then playfully modelled her outfit as she walked through the door. ‘As always.'

Renee gave her a kiss on the cheek, then handed her a steaming cup of extra strong coffee. ‘Wanna hang in the lounge room?'

‘Sounds good to me,' Tia said as she followed Renee down the hallway. Positioning herself carefully on the couch so as to not spill her coffee, she stared at Renee who was busy puffing up the pillows beside her. ‘Well, come on! Don't keep me hanging, Reni. You're making me nervous!'

Renee took a deep breath and prepared herself.
Spit it out Renee, you can do it.

‘I had a phone call from my pa late last night. My nan has had a massive heart attack.'

Tia gasped. ‘Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. Is she going to be okay?'

‘Pa reckons she's going to pull through, but I don't know if he's just telling me that to keep me from going home.'

‘Oh, Reni. Have you had a chance to speak to her yet?'

‘No, not yet. I'm going to give her a call at the hospital this morning. Pa said to call after nine.' Renee sucked in a breath. ‘Tia, I've decided to go back to Wildwood Acres for a little while, to help take care of her, and to help Pa out around the place.'

Tia's manicured eyebrows shot up to almost level with her hairline. ‘Oh my God, Reni, have you seriously stopped and thought about this? I know you love your nan, but what if the nightmares start again, or it spirals you right back to where you were all those years ago with your panic attacks, or God forbid, what if he's still there and he comes after you…'

Renee cut Tia off, determined to try and sound confident about her decision. She didn't need to be reminded about everything that could go wrong either—she had gone over the possible scenarios all night long. ‘It's been nine years, honey. Surely it's safe to go back now—it just has to be. I can't sit here and do nothing. Mick, Pa's offsider, broke his fibula last week after flipping the four-wheeler motorbike on top of himself, so he's out of action for a while, and even though Pa's not letting on, I know he needs help. It'd be wrong of me not to go back at a time like this.'

Renee held her breath. Tia knew her background inside out and back to front, so Renee knew she was going to be as apprehensive about her going back to Wildwood Acres as her pa was. But right now, she needed someone to be encouraging about it.

Tia looked down at her coffee, sighed weightily, and then looked back at Renee. ‘I understand, Reni, I really do, but it worries me, you going back there. I wouldn't be a very good friend if I said I didn't mind.'

‘I know, Tia, but my nan and pa need me, and besides, I reckon it's time for me to go back. It's been years since I left… I can't avoid the place forever. As much as Melbourne is my base now, Wildwood Acres will always be my real home.'

There was a moment's silence before Tia nodded. ‘You're right, Reni. As much as I hate the thought of you going back there, I will support whatever decision you make. No sense in me trying to talk you out of it because I know once you've made your mind up about something, there's no changing it. And to be honest, it's not really too much of a surprise. Since Fay passed away, you've been talking more and more about how much you miss Wildwood Acres and your nan and pa.'

‘Have I really? I hadn't noticed. It's just, Fay's passing has left a huge hole in my life here, and I'm craving having family around me.' Renee smiled softly, willing herself not to cry. Tia was the most beautiful mate any girl could ask for. ‘You know me too well, honey. Thanks for supporting me, it means the world.'

‘You know I'll always be there for you, through anything, as you've always been there for me. It will be good for you to go home for a while. But I have to ask, are you going to go digging around in the past, you know, trying to find out who it was?'

Not wanting to worry Tia, but not wanting to lie either, Renee took her time to answer. ‘Well, I'm not going to go there with guns blazing, but I am going to keep an open mind and if something or someone triggers a gut instinct I'm definitely going to look into it further.'

Tia reached out and took hold of Renee's hand, squeezing it gently. ‘Oh mate, I understand your need to find out what happened to Scarlet, I really do, but please promise me you'll be super careful… Remember, you left there accusing quite a few innocent people of her disappearance. You don't want to go doing that again.'

Renee swallowed and gave Tia's hand a loving squeeze back. ‘I know, and I promise I'll be very careful.'

‘Good, that's what I need to hear.' Tia took a sip from her coffee and then wriggled her eyebrows, smirking. ‘So are you going to look up that sexy bloke you always talk about and try to rekindle the flame?'

Renee sucked in a breath. ‘I don't always talk about him.'

Tia nodded fervently. ‘Oh yes you do, you compare every single guy you date to him!'

‘It's been almost ten years. He's probably got a wife and five kids and a cute little picket fence around his cosy family house by now. So to answer your ludicrous question, no I'm not.' Renee looked away, her mind in another place for a few brief moments as she stared out at the high-rises. ‘And besides, I doubt he'd want anything to do with me after leaving him the way I did.'

‘Hmm, you never know. Time can heal.' Tia placed her empty cup on the coffee table in front of them. ‘But enough talk about hunky blokes. What are you going to do about work while you're away? Is Grant going to be okay with you having time off?'

‘Yeah, I rang him just before you got here, and he's being surprisingly understanding—I think the fact I was a blubbering mess at the time might have had something to do with it. I've got almost six weeks of holidays up my sleeve, and Grant said to let him know if I need any more time on top of that. I'm not really sure exactly how long I'll be gone for, maybe a couple of months I'm guessing. It will all depend on how Nan recovers, and how long it takes Mick to be back in the saddle—and also how I feel when I'm back there. Anyway, you're the nurse—how long do you reckon?'

Kat decided to join the two women on the couch and jumped up in between them. Tia reached out and gave her a loving rub.

‘Well, if it's a fibula it's probably going to take Mick at least nine or ten weeks, possibly slightly more, to be fit for work again. And your nan, well, that all depends—everyone's different and it depends a lot on how fit a person was before their heart attack as to how long it takes to get better.'

‘Well, Nan has always been pretty active, so I guess that's good news.'

‘Yeah, she's a tough old country broad, your nan. She will probably be in hospital for a week, or maybe even two, before she's allowed home. And then she'll just have to take it easy and not go doing too much for a while.'

Renee chuckled. ‘Nan, not doing much? This is definitely going to be a battle.'

Tia chuckled, too, before sighing. ‘What about me? What am I going to do without my sidekick around? I'll be lost without you, Reni!'

‘I know, I'm going to be lost without you too. But maybe you can come and visit me in the country and play cowgirl for a weekend. Maybe even find yourself that chaps-wearing cowboy. And while I'm away, you can play city apartment owner, rent-free. Just picture it: you can bring your dates home and you won't have anyone to answer to. They can even sleep over
and
you won't have to sneak them in and out of your bedroom window like you do now.'

‘So basically, you'd like me to apartment-sit for an unknown amount of time, out from under my parents' roof for a while—away from my dad who still thinks I'm his little girl, bless him—and I can finally act my twenty-six years of age, rent-free?'

‘You're spot on. There's just one catch.'

‘Oh?'

‘Would you mind looking after Kat for me?'

‘Oh my God, you know you don't even have to ask me that, I love Kat. It's a deal!' Tia reached out and hugged Renee to her, the two women crying and laughing as they embraced each other.

Renee parked her black BMW convertible in the shade of a towering gum tree and then unhurriedly made her way to the back of the churchyard, the sweet scent from the freesias she was holding reminding her of many happy days gone by. Sometimes white or yellow, other times shades of pink and purple, never a day had passed without the beautifully fragrant flowers adorning the centre of her great-aunt Fay's antique French dining table. Although she'd been a lover of anything that bloomed, freesias had been Fay's favourite, and Renee always made sure to bring a bunch to her resting place whenever she visited.

It was the least she could do after the six years she'd spent living with Fay in her quirky two-bedroom cottage in Melbourne's swish suburb of Hawksburn—the same cottage Fay had left her in her will, with a firm request for Renee to sell it if it became a burden. But Renee couldn't bring herself to sell it. It was a piece of Fay that she just couldn't bring herself to part with. Instead she had decided to rent it out to an elderly retired couple, for now. Maybe one day it would feel right to put it on the market, if the need ever arose.

Fay had always made her feel welcome, the rarely complaining, often eccentric, always smiling sixty-six-year-old woman never making her feel as though she was in the way of her posh lifestyle. Although they were sisters, Fay was the polar opposite of Renee's country-loving nan, Pearl. Fay was a single free spirit with no children and no desire to ever settle down and get married. An urban-lover from early childhood, thanks to her childhood and teenage years growing up in the city, Fay had happily taken Renee under her diamond-studded wings, never batting an eyelid at Renee's initially laid-back, and sometimes unkempt, country ways. She had instead gently taught her about city life, and how to hold herself in the company of the swanky, her world-travelled wisdom always amazing and intriguing Renee.

It was Fay's own experience as a top-notch real estate agent and her connections to the real estate kingpins that had inspired Renee to follow the, at first, extremely challenging path of becoming a real estate agent in a very tight market, and it had eventually paid off, big time, when two years ago she had stepped up from being a suburban realtor to only selling the homes of the affluent—which meant much bigger commissions.

So much of who she was, was thanks to Fay, and she missed her exuberant go-get-'em personality immensely. Life in Melbourne was certainly less fascinating without her around, and the large void Fay had left was one of the big reasons Renee had found herself thinking more and more about Wildwood Acres and the life she had had there before Scarlet had gone missing.

Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she knelt down and popped the freesias in the vase embedded in Fay's grave, and then began to give the marble headstone a wipe with a cloth she always brought along, mouthing the inscribed words as she did every time:

In Loving Memory of

Fay Mary Elizabeth Johnston

A Devoted Daughter, Sister, Aunt and Friend

16/3/1947 – 18/4/2014

A smile for all, a heart of gold

One of the best this world could hold

Never selfish, always kind

A beautiful memory left behind

It had been just over a year since Fay had lost her battle with ovarian cancer, but the ache in Renee's heart was still as strong as it was the day she had passed away. Fay had fought long and hard, until the pain had got too much and she'd needed large doses of morphine to help her cope. She'd then refused to eat, the once vibrant woman fading away to skin and bones in a matter of weeks, her feisty spirit long gone before she was. Renee had sat and held her hand when she'd taken her final breath, and continued to sit by her side for hours, not wanting to say the ultimate heartbreaking goodbye. The only peace she got with Fay's passing was that her great-aunt was no longer in pain, her spirit now free to fly with all the rest of the angels Renee already knew were in heaven.