to pat her. She at least stopped hissing at him for a moment post ‘treatment.’
I was about to argue, with Mr Bonson, with Jai, when the bell on the door jingled. We all turned around to see Hollingsworth walk on in like he owned the place. And maybe he did. Stuart appeared as if summoned.
“Christian,” Stuart said with a warm smile, “come on through.”
“Ms Bruce,” Hollingsworth said, ignoring him and zeroing in on me, “I thought you had given your notice?”
“I have,” I said, eyes darting over to where Jai began to get to his feet. “I needed to finish some stuff for some clients and—”
“Pretty sure she doesn’t have to explain herself to you,” Jai said, towering over the man. The dogs shifted forward to take positions on either side of him, standing there with a quiet alertness.
“Jai Heller, right?” Hollingsworth asked. Jai just folded his arms across his chest. “I’ve heard you’re quite the stockman. We’re looking to develop our own flocks to feed our animals, perhaps create feeding pens where the animals could hunt their own food, replicating their wild behaviour. Perhaps you’d—”
“No.”
“But you haven’t heard my proposal.”
“Don’t need to. I get more work than I can keep up with by hiring myself out to the farms.”
“Yes, I’d heard your people are quite clannish.”
“My people?” His eyebrow shot up. “What people is that?”
“The descendants of German and Scottish immigrants, of course,” Hollingsworth said with a twist of a smile. “What did you think I meant?” When Jai didn’t respond, his eyes swivelled to me. “So you’ve formed a relationship with Mr Heller? Congratulations are in order!”
“Hollingsworth…” Stuart said, his expression becoming increasingly unhappy.
“As Jai said, that’s none of your business,” I snapped, but before anything more could be said, Carla walked in with Izzy, both of them stopping in the doorway, sensing the mood in the room. “Come through, Carla, Izzy,” I said, shifting gears to put my warm client voice on.
“And what happened to your pretty receptionist?” Hollingsworth asked as I walked towards the exam room.
“Janey?” Stuart replied. “We haven’t heard from her. I thought she’d taken a job somewhere else. Which is odd, as she has a lot of personal stuff here still.”
“Well, you know how flighty women can be. Perhaps she’s just lying low for a while.”
Lying low? That was a weird turn of phrase. When I turned around, I saw Jai still stood there, arms crossed over his chest, watching Hollingsworth like a hawk.
“So I hear you’re starting your own clinic!” Carla said brightly.
“Give your excuses,” Jai hissed when I passed by, going to the reception desk to process Carla’s payment. She was rabbiting on about how many appointments she’d be able to book once I went freelance and asking if I’d have the equivalent of a frequent flyer program.
“Um…we’re still working things out,” I told her, feeling Jai’s eyes burning on my skin.
“We… Is that you and Jai Heller?” She gave me a conspiratorial wink. “I always wondered about you two. Your nan seemed to think there might be a match there for a while.”
“She did?”
“She used to talk about you a lot when she was seeing Izzy as a pup. It was so sad when she passed.”
“Yeah, well, I hope Izzy stays stable for a while longer.”
She waved to me as she walked out, Izzy’s thick plume of a tail wagging furiously. I saw Mr Sawyer had arrived with his elderly galah, Floss, nodding to me through the window. Floss liked to pluck out her feathers if I didn’t have a word with her.
“Palm him off, say you’ll see him at the house,” Jai hissed, standing beside me now.
“What? Why?”
“Because Hollingsworth smelled like Janey when he was in here.”
Chapter 20
Jai got his wish after that. I did a quick adjustment on Floss out in the carpark, something that disconcerted Mr Sawyer, but when I told him there was no charge, he was happy enough. After that, we piled the dogs into the car and went to my place.
“Janey?”
I called out her name as soon as I opened the door, but I knew she wasn’t here. The house had that kind of curious stillness about it that empty houses take on. I rushed up stairs to her bedroom and saw it was the same mess it always was. Her suitcase was still in her cupboard, and so were her clothes. There was a half-read book sitting on her bed and a cup of tea, now with a thick skin of milk on