The Sunnyvale Girls Read Free Page B

You don’t seem to have any fun —’
    â€˜I have fun,’ she said vehemently.
    â€˜Really? I’ve asked you to come to the club with me for a feed and a game of pool and you never do. Or head to the lake for a swim and just relax. You work too hard, you know that.’
    â€˜I . . .’ Toni closed her mouth again. What could she say?
I don’t go anywhere with you because it would be too much fun
? She didn’t want to like him any more than she already did. It was easier not to be around him – especially in his swimming shorts! It was bad enough in summer when he’d strip off his shirt and stand under the outside shower.
    â€˜What is it that you wanted to do before your dad had his accident?’ Jimmy pressed.
    Oh God.
The million-dollar question. Toni winced as her dreams flooded her mind. ‘Dad couldn’t help it. They had no other choice but to bring me home to help.’
    â€˜That’s not what I asked, Toni.’
    Toni hated the way his jade eyes ate right through to the most fragile part of her. She glanced back to her sheep, the paddock opening up before them along the horizon. ‘I wanted to travel,’ she said at last. She’d never spoken about her desires to anyone before.
    â€˜So what’s wrong with starting that now? You can always take me along,’ he added with a wink.
    Toni laughed, but that shimmer in his eyes was back. She’d always been able to read him, but now he seemed to be sending new messages.
    â€˜I’ll remember that next time I head to the sale yards,’ said Toni, slapping him playfully on his arm.
    â€˜Toni, you never know what life might be about to throw at you.’ He shrugged. ‘Look at me – fate threw me in with three extraordinary Sunnyvale girls. Sometimes things just work out.’
    For some reason Jimmy’s words rattled inside her mind and caused a tingle down her spine. Maybe this would be the year that brought about change for them all. The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was true. She breathed in deeply, the air tinged with dust and eucalyptus, but also something else.
    What did fate have in store for them all?

2
    FLICK turned off the old vacuum cleaner and arched her back as she surveyed her efforts. It had taken her two hours to finish scraping off the old carpet underlay that had stuck fast to the jarrah floorboards. Grandad had always said that floorboards were a sign of being poor, so the moment they could get rugs or carpet, they did. Now jarrah floorboards like these were hot property. This whole house was filled with them, and Flick wanted the boards in glossed glory.
    Maggie’s old room was the last one she’d cleaned. Now Flick could start up the sander she’d hired. She’d already bogged up the cracks in the walls, repainted them and replaced all the ceilings in the rooms where rain had got in and damaged them. The house was transforming before her eyes. Flick didn’t need much effort to imagine it all fixed up. It would be full of charac­ter and charm: high ceilings, wide passageways, a huge built-in pantry in the kitchen, lots of rooms. Flick picked up the vacuum cleaner, took it out the front and dumped it on the verandah by the door. The outside of the house was still the original bricks. Flick touched the perfect rectangles with their swirl pattern. She couldn’t imagine making each one of these by hand.
    Heavy boot steps creaked along the verandah. ‘You need a moment alone with your house?’ Jimmy teased as he stopped beside her. Gypsy found Fella and they ran off into the bush as if they were rally cars, skidding around the trees.
    â€˜How did they do it, Jimmy?’
    â€˜How did who do what?’
    â€˜Rocco and Giulio. You know, the Italian prisoners they had working on the farm. Nan said that they made each one of these bricks by hand and built this whole house with just a tape measure, plumb