Chapter 4
Clem wasn’t sure she’d ever had as many warm waves from other drivers as the day she drove her new coffee van across Penwarra’s bumpy back roads.
And while she was sure it was more to do with the pink-and-white van than her being behind the wheel, the extra waves gave her hope that she’d made the right decision, and that someday soon, when the van was rebranded to reflect the Sunny Cross Farm Gate Cafe, she’d build up a loyal following as her great aunt, Jean Dellacourte, had done.
She pulled up in her driveway beside Jack’s patrol ute, then started the process of manoeuvring the van into place.
A whistle came from the verandah and her brother Jack strode over in his navy-blue police uniform.
‘Did the van tow okay? Hope you checked the lights and brakes before you left, it’d be a bad look if I had to book my own sister for towing an unroadworthy vehicle. Especially when I’m the one who suggested it in the first place.’
Jack rubbed his knuckles on the top of Harriet’s head when she jumped out of the car, grinning as she prepared for the familiar tussle.
Clem dodged the good-natured horseplay and watched Harriet jump onto Jack’s broad back, in fits of silent giggles as she tried to reciprocate by mussing up Jack’s hair. Indi joined in, but it wasn’t long before a clash of heads sent Indi into a flood of tears.
‘Sorry, Indi. Are you okay?’ Harriet rubbed her forehead.
‘Shhh, Indi, you’re fine.’ Clem scooped up and soothed her youngest. ‘Indi was up all night with nightmares about that darn guinea pig again,’ she told Jack.
‘I still can’t believe you let her smuggle it home from Selina’s house.
That furry little finger-munching devil is responsible for more than a month of sleepless nights. ’
‘Are you still salty about that?’
‘Wait until Pop hears about my coffee van plan,’ Clem said, running a hand along the side of the van with Indi on one hip. Jean’s branding was still stretched across it; that would be the first thing she’d replace once the structural issues were sorted.
‘He’ll be chuffed,’ Jack agreed. ‘And you know he’ll send his mates in your direction too, once you’ve got your route nailed down.’
Their grandparents, Arthur and Shirley, had stepped in as carers when she and Jack were teenagers, and not only had Art encouraged them to come back at every opportunity, he’d moved into a retirement village and handed Clem and Jack joint ownership of Sunny Cross Farm several years earlier.
‘Hey Clem!’ Lauren Bickford, her brother’s girlfriend, joined them on the driveway, looking as sunny and perky as ever.
‘I’ve missed Jean’s roving coffee van. This is going to be so good for your cafe.’ She bounced up on her toes, kissed Jack’s cheek, then clamped her hands over his ears. ‘Don’t tell him I said so, but your brother’s a genius sometimes.’
‘Yeah yeah, you’ll keep,’ Jack grumbled, leaning in and giving Lauren the kind of silent, multi-layered look that Clem interpreted as ‘I love you, even when you’re being a smart-arse’.
‘Stop being so adorable, you two. To be honest, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.
Kev, Seb and I were brainstorming ways to boost business just last week, and we only got as far as expanding our catering packages and venturing into the school canteen catering market.
Sebastian was especially pumped when I told him I’d bought Jean’s van. ’
‘Will he be in charge of it?’
Clem shook her head. ‘I’m not sure, he’s stretched thin already with his parents’ wildlife shelter and working full-time in the cafe. And he’s keen to learn the back end of the business too.’
Sebastian had come into their life under a dark cloud, after causing trouble within the district.
But with a gentle hand, and focus on redemption rather than punishment, Jack had helped him choose a different path.
Now Clem found it hard to imagine the bright, diligent and invaluable worker as the disengaged teen he’d been a few years earlier.
‘I’d rather offload some paperwork and ordering so I can be off adventuring with the van. The stories Aunty Jean’s told over the years …’
Harriet, who’d been clinging to her uncle’s back like a baby koala, jumped down with a yell and dashed towards the rose garden.
‘There’s the guinea pig!’ she yelled, and they all turned to see the orange, black and white fluffball standing by the farmhouse garden.
For something with such tiny legs, and a brain the size of a pea, it clearly had in-built survival instincts.
The canny creature had escaped when Harriet had tried to transfer him to an old aviary the night they’d arrived home from school interviews in April.
Today, on this mid-June afternoon, it took one look at Harriet before racing back into the rose bed.
‘Come here, Orange Peel!’ Harriet stomped through the hellebores and seaside daisies, but the thorny limbs of the dormant roses put paid to a thorough search.
‘Quick little bugger,’ Jack said, squatting beside the garden bed to peer under the house. ‘It’s pretty dark under there, I don’t like your chances.’
‘We’ll never catch him.’ Harriet glared at Clem, her bottom lip trembling now too. ‘Pansy didn’t believe I even had one, not for a moment.’
‘Honey, he was never ours to begin with, you know that.’
‘I’ll help you look for Orange Peel after Jack goes to work,’ Lauren offered, kneeling to wipe the tears from Harriet’s cheeks.
Harriet’s dramatic sobs went up a notch as Lauren patted her back.
Clem shook her head. ‘Anyone would think she’d lost a cuddly, purring kitten, instead of a quivering, snaggle-toothed guinea pig,’ she murmured.
‘Quite the performance. She should channel that dramatic flair into something productive. TV? The big stage? Hollywood?’ Jack grinned.
Spencer Hawkins slipped into Clem’s mind then. He can keep that circus all for himself, she thought, watching Jack walk over to inspect the coffee van.
‘Jean warned me it’ll need a lot of work, with a few structural repairs as well as the obvious branding overhaul,’ Clem said. ‘But she gave me a great deal.’
‘I’ve always wanted to see the inside,’ Lauren said, unlatching the door and stepping in. ‘You’ll get it scrubbed up and back on the coffee circuit in no time.’
The aroma of freshly ground coffee had seeped into the van’s interior, and the small space felt even tighter when Harriet, Indi and Jack piled in after her.
‘It smells like coffee!’ Indi said, making them all laugh.
‘The perfume of champions,’ Clem agreed from the doorway.
‘You’ll have to upgrade the coffee machine, too,’ Jack said. ‘Jean reckons that one was knackered. Are you sure this isn’t going to blow your budget?’
Clem tilted her head from one side to the other. ‘It’ll be tight, but you’ve got to spend money to make money, and diversifying Sunny Cross is the only way forward. I’ve drawn up a business plan, I’ve got a good team, and I listen to business podcasts all the time.’
And just like the sunflower crops she planted each year, and the cafe she’d started from scratch, she was determined to give it her best shot.
Spencer found the days blurring into a mix of orchestrated farm jobs, increasingly tense conversations between Emily, Kyra and Madeline, and the added pressure of having the cameras watching as every small spark, and more than a few foot-in-mouth moments, were caught on camera.
Spencer donned the bee suit on a drizzly Thursday morning, relishing the warmth provided by the extra layers. He was just gathering his equipment when he heard the cameraman directing Emily into position for yet another interview.
‘Turn a little that way, so the wind isn’t messing with the microphone, and we’ll do that again. From the top, thanks. Do you think you’ve got a target on your back, now you’ve won two challenges in a row and locked in two solo dates, Emily?’
Spencer watched as she shook her head, annoyance flashing across her face. It wasn’t easy seeing her in Belle’s pink suit again, but it wasn’t gut-wrenching like it had been earlier in the week.
‘I don’t buy into this idea of pitting women against women,’ Emily told the cameraman, ‘so I’m not worried what they think or if they like me.
It’s about being the contestant best suited for the position—in this case, farming at South Giddi Giddi with Spencer and the Brealys.
I came on the show to find a husband who loves farming as much as me, not a new bunch of besties. ’
‘Are you prepared to give up your role in your family’s almond business?’
Her sigh was one of exasperation. ‘Why does everyone keep focusing on that? How can you put a price on love, on building a future with someone who shares the same values as you? I wouldn’t be wasting seven weeks wearing clichéd pink workboots, jumping through hoops enduring challenges and God-awful dinner parties if I didn’t think it would be worthwhile. ’
Spencer swore softly, backing away. Did he love farming as much as Emily? Would she be furious when she realised that South Giddi Giddi was just one part of his life, not his whole world?
He squeezed the stainless-steel handle of the smoke can, watching the small clouds of smoke puff from the spout then shift and change, just like his take on this damned experiment.
It wasn’t long before Emily finished her interview, and they were given the green light to head for the hives.
‘Remember,’ Spencer said. ‘If the bees get too much, walk away quietly and regroup. No loud noises, running or yelling, okay?’
‘I’ll save the yelling for when I watch myself back on telly.’ Emily adjusted the bee suit with a grimace. ‘And what’s with this miserable weather? I’m only a few hundred kilometres from home, but your climate feels a lot more wintry than I’m used to.’