The Sunnyvale Girls Read Free Page A

the ute. They hadn’t hit a sheep or a rock, but the old rusty bullbar from the front of the Hilux. It had somehow come off and they’d run right over it. Toni burst out laughing too.
    As their laughter eventually died, Toni became aware that Jimmy was still holding her arm. She also realised she was leaning into him.
    Jimmy didn’t move away and there was a new expression in his eyes she hadn’t noticed before, one she couldn’t handle.
    â€˜Toni . . .’ he whispered, staring deep into her eyes, but just at that moment Gypsy barked at them, as if to say, ‘What the hell are you doing? Are we moving this mob or what?’
    Toni jumped up off the ground and brushed the dirt from her pants. ‘Well, we need to shift this bloody thing,’ she said.
    Moments later Jimmy was pulling on a section of rusty steel. Together they dragged it out from under the ute. It squealed as metal ground against metal and they lifted it onto the back tray.
    â€˜Seems like the rust ate out the brackets,’ she said as she walked to the front of the ute. ‘The old girl looks a bit different now.’
    Jimmy chuckled. ‘She sure does.’ His gentle laugh was enough to put them both at ease. But Toni couldn’t forget their moment. What had Jimmy been about to say to her?
    Gypsy barked and they started moving the sheep again.
    â€˜The lambs are looking good,’ said Jimmy.
    â€˜They are, aren’t they? We’ve had such a good drop rate.’
    â€˜Yeah, you were right to change the lambing dates. They’re going great on all the green feed,’ he said, shutting the gate on the mob in the next paddock.
    Toni clenched her teeth to stop her smile spreading. ‘Thank you. I appreciate that.’ Her father had scarcely given her any praise over the years. When she’d used her initiative or suggested an easier way, her father had never acknowledged it. Although she felt a pang of guilt admitting it, even to herself, deep down Toni loved running the farm without her dad’s overbearing self-righteousness.
    She leant back against the frame of the gate and watched the merinos, their heads down eating as they settled into the different paddock. The growing lambs beside their mums did look really healthy, and Toni felt a sense of accomplishment. She worked damn hard on this farm, and it took everything she had to offer. Toni had no idea what ‘personal’ time was. She’d never taken a real holiday. A weekend down the coast fishing was as good as it got. And to think she’d spent her childhood dreaming of getting on an aeroplane and flying far away from Sunnyvale.
    â€˜You look like you’re a million miles away,’ Jimmy said.
    Toni sighed. ‘I guess I was.’ She swatted a fly and turned to face him. ‘Do you ever wonder how different our lives could have been?’
    His face was unreadable and Toni instantly regretted her wayward question.
    â€˜Yes, I’ve thought about it. Like if the bank had given me the loan to buy my father’s farm instead of him having to sell it? But then I wouldn’t have gone looking for work and I wouldn’t have ended up here.’ He shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t have you three in my life and it’d be pretty empty. So I’m glad it worked out this way. Maybe fate had this planned out all along.’
    â€˜Wow.’ Toni knew Jimmy enjoyed working at Sunnyvale but to put the three of them before having his own farm?
    â€˜Sometimes life has a way of working out, even if you don’t realise it at the time. Sometimes —’
    â€˜Sometimes you talk too much.’ She smiled. ‘But I know what you’re trying to say. So, thanks. I know I’m lucky.’
    â€˜Is this about your dad?’ Jimmy asked softly.
    Toni couldn’t bring herself to respond. How did he know? Was she that easy to read?
    â€˜Who do you talk to, Toni? You never leave the farm.