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Happy reading!
Nic x
PROLOGUE
This was categorically the best day of Ruby Aston’s life.
She’d thought getting a beaten-up Holden as a gift from her mum on her eighteenth birthday last week had been the best day but she’d been wrong. Attending Brockenridge High’s graduation ball tonight as Connor Delaney’s date easily topped the car. It was even better than that momentous day last month when he’d asked her to go with him.
Her, not Jane Jefferson, the most popular girl in school and the town’s resident blonde bombshell, who proudly displayed her D cups in the tightest T-shirts ever invented. Not Louise Poole, who had the perky cheerleader look down pat and made guys fawn over her with a bat of her mascaraed lashes. Not Becca Boag, who had honed the fresh, wholesome outback girl look that had the boys at school clamouring for a date.
Connor asking Ruby to the graduation ball rather than one of the popular girls had been significant—and the girls hadn’t let her forget it. They’d made her life hell for the last thirteen years, and the fact the most gorgeous guy in school—and the richest in the district—chose her over Jane had ensured they’d ramped up their bitchiness to unbearable.
Ruby pretended not to care, like she’d done forever. But every time one of the terrible trio called her a slag for living behind a roadhouse, or a slut like her mum, who ran the roadhouse and the motel attached to it, Ruby died a little inside. The cyber-bullying was the worst even though the school had tried to clamp down on that. As if that would stop the bitches; they’d opened fake accounts and continued their relentless campaign of hate.
Ruby couldn’t wait to get out of this dead-end country town halfway between Echuca and Swan Hill on the Victorian–New South Wales border and head to Melbourne to start her life. But first, she’d count down the hours until she saw the bullies’ expressions when she waltzed into the ball on Connor’s arm.
Thankfully, they hadn’t seen her just now in the op shop where she’d bought a faux fur stole and crystal drop earrings that resembled mini chandeliers to complement the vintage strapless gold dress she’d found for a bargain online. Those three could afford the best of everything, so spotting them rifling through second-hand stuff was plain weird, but Ruby hadn’t stuck around to find out what they were doing. No way would she let them ruin her big day.
As she left the shop, Natasha Trigg, who worked as a waitress at the roadhouse with Ruby’s mum, waved her over from outside the bakery. Ruby would’ve preferred to rush home and get ready but Tash seemed anxious. She placed her shopping bag in the front basket of her rusty bicycle and strolled across the main street.
‘Hey, Tash, what’s up?’
‘Could you give me a hand? Harry asked me to bring the scones back to the roadhouse for the CWA meeting but I didn’t realise he’d ordered so many and I can’t carry them all to the car.’
‘Sure.’ Given the way the Country Women’s Association members devoured the other delicacies Harry whipped up for their monthly meetings, Ruby thought they didn’t need scones, but Tash looked frazzled and the faster Ruby helped, the faster she could head home and prepare for her big night.
Her mouth watered as she stepped into the bakery and inhaled the tantalising aromas of chunky steak pies, red velvet cupcakes and the town’s signature vanilla slices. Betty’s Bakery had won a recent award for the best vanilla slices in Victoria, as though any one of the three thousand people who lived in Brockenridge needed an award to tell them that—they had been gorging on Betty’s delicious slices for years, long before the bronze award plaque appeared in her front window.
‘Smells good, huh?’ Tash grinned as she hoisted a tray of foil-covered scones off the counter and placed it in Ruby’s outstretched arms. ‘Pity we don’t have time for a quick snack.’
‘Yeah.’ Ruby nodded, knowing she couldn’t eat anything despite the tempting smells wafting from the kitchen. The knot of nerves in her stomach at the prospect of being alone with Connor put paid to squeezing food in there too.
‘My car’s parked around the corner,’ Tash said, lifting the second tray and following Ruby out through the multicoloured plastic strips strung over the doorway to keep out the flies. ‘We’ll dump these in the back seat and you can skedaddle home to get ready.’ Tash