Page 35 of Hard Road Home
“You want somewhere to escape. Where you can be yourself.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why you bought this place. How long ago?”
“Five years. There was a lot of paperwork to get permission to rezone this section. It was finalised a bit over four years ago.”
Hurt blossomed in her chest that he’d done something so major without telling her. She turned to face the neglected clearing. “Yet you haven’t done more than build a shed.”
“I changed my mind. There didn’t seem much point in building a house for me when there was no one to share it.”
Five years ago he’d been having casual sex with her on his regular visits. So who had he been thinking of sharing with? Her gut tightened at the thought. It could have been her. Unless he’d had hopes of making something permanent with someone else in his celebrity world. The trouble was, they’d never talked. Not about anything serious. She’d been too afraid to ask if there was a future and Xander never did. The future had been too shadowed by the past. Unless you counted his half-serious attempts to have her travel with him. Had he really meant it?
“Will you do something with it now?”
“Possibly.” He turned away from the view as a few spots of rain fell, chill and cold on her face. “Come and I’ll show you what we had in mind.”
“We?”
“Leo was going shares in the studio. He has his own place near the lake, so he would live there.”
The relief almost made her dizzy, after the moment of wondering if there’d been a woman involved. “He’s serious about settling locally?”
“His parents have been having health problems.” He didn’t say anything more about that, instead striding along the edge of the rock to a patch of dry grass. “The house will ideally go here to maximise the view. The drop is only a few centimetres, so it would be easily fixable to be safe for children. We thought the studio would go over at the back of the clearing, away from the house with access along the boundary. We could build a couple of cottages for visitors, so the house could stay private. The two spaces could be defined with gardens and trees so they’re separate.”
His excitement was contagious, and she watched him describe the vision in his head, wanting so much to be a part of it.
A gust of wind almost knocked her off her feet and she looked up at the lowering clouds. “It’s going to rain. Serious rain.” Already she could hear it striking the trees further up the slope.
“Run to the shed, I’ll meet you there.”
She didn’t make it before the downpour hit, drenching her in those first moments so she arrived on the covered verandah with water dripping down her neck and glad of Xander’s coat. He hadn’t followed her and she wiped the water from her face, trying to spot him. The scent of bruised eucalypts joined the smell of ozone and wet earth at the back of her throat.
The sound of a car engine fought against the thunder of the rain on the iron roof, the vehicle pulling up close to the verandah. Xander climbed out, holding the esky bag with their food, his hair hanging in wet rats’ tails around his face and his clothes clinging to his body. “I thought we’d need this. It looks like it might be a while before it’s safe to drive down.”
Thinking about the rough dirt road back to the Appleton place, Bonnie could only agree. The track would be slippery and dangerous even if the visibility wasn’t so bad. The storm would soon pass and they had plenty of time.
Xander dropped the esky bag and rummaged in his pocket, pulling out a key ring with a jangle of metal. The door opened smoothly, revealing a clear space and a wall cutting the shed in two. He stepped back and waved her in with a gesture reminiscent of the gallantry of former times.
The shed was a surprise. Fully lined and furnished with second-hand bits and pieces, with grass matting on the floor, Bonnie suspected it would be a light and airy space on a sunny day. There was even a set of bunks against the far wall covered in striped bedspreads in green and yellow and a single black leather armchair angled in front of a freestanding wood-burning stove. Today it had a mustiness from disuse. Out of the wind it was warmer so she removed Xander’s jacket and hung it over a wooden ladder-back chair near the front wall.
Xander shut the outside door and the thunder of rain on the iron roof dulled. “I’ll get some wood.”
He vanished through a door in the partition and re-emerged with an armful of logs. It was enough time to let Bonnie see the contents in that section while she undid her muddy boots and kicked them off.
There was a tractor and other machinery she didn’t recognise, and hand tools hanging on the wall between the windows. “How did you know it was here?”
He dropped the load onto the brick hearth and stood up, brushing his palms together, shedding small fragments of bark. “Briar kept me informed on what he organised.” With a wave of one arm he indicated the furnishings. “He set the place up for the solar installation guys. They were here for months installing it. Having seen the size of the project, I understand why. He did a deal with the company for the solar panels on the roof here, in exchange for the accommodation.”
The op-shop ambiance of the furnishings was explained. Typical Briar. “All those panels. It would have taken ages.”
“They need to come back regularly to check them as well.”
Hunching in front of the stove, he set a fire, using some old newspapers and twigs from a basket. There must have been matches too because a bright blaze sprung into being in minutes. He stayed on one knee, leaning his elbows on his thigh, gaze fixed on the flickering flames. “There should be a kettle over in the kitchenette we can sit on the top of the stove.”
Stirred into action, Bonnie found the kettle on a bench at the end near the water tanks. Along the wall there was a sink and a two-burner gas stove. She hadn’t seen any gas cylinders, but they must be somewhere outside. A small corner room closed off from the rest of the place appeared to be a bathroom. All very logical and convenient. The water ran clear and she filled the kettle, setting it on the iron-plated stove.
Xander sat back on the matting and pulled his heavy woollen jumper off, followed by a fleecy pullover and finally a long-sleeved cotton jersey shirt. All of them were wet to some degree. She had to focus on something apart from Xander’s bare skin and the way it wrapped sleekly over his lean flanks. He didn’t have a six-pack, but his stomach was flat and smooth. Hard to the touch. Not like hers. Automatically Bonnie picked up his clothes and started draping them over chairs.