Read Online Mountain Ash by Margareta Osborn - Free Book Online

the calendar?’
    â€˜Since I could read,’ said Milly, rolling her eyes. The little girl flung her plaits over her shoulder with pride. ‘You didn’t know I could do that, did you? Keep track of stuff?’
    No, she hadn’t known. But that was also a bane of a single mother’s life. So busy working, mothering and trying to just stay straight in your own head, you tended to miss the subtleties.
    â€˜So what is Dad’s Day, exactly?’
    â€˜Grandpa’s first anniversary.’
    â€˜Of leaving his house?’
    Jodie glanced at her daughter and realised she was serious. ‘Well, yes. Kind of. His first anniversary of being in heaven.’
    â€˜Good,’ said Milly.
    â€˜Good?’ Jodie reached for her Vodka Cruiser. This conversation was getting weirder by the second.
    â€˜Yes. I can write my prayer for tomorrow.’ Milly dragged her pencil case and homework book from her school bag and started scrawling out her prayer, pausing every now and then to tap the pencil against her teeth.
    Jodie took a swig of her drink, leaned her head back against a kitchen cabinet and watched her daughter. Goodness only knew what she was writing, the child had always been an original.
    Speaking of which, she suddenly remembered Alex had left a note somewhere near the front screen door. She should find it, she guessed. Leaving her daughter scrawling away at the kitchen table she moved into the little hall that led to the front door. There on the table beside the old black telephone was a piece of paper. Alex’s flamboyant script was embossed across the A4 page, taking up all the space with a short message.
    Dear Jodie,
    Sorry to have missed you. My sincere apologies for not helping you shift. I was in Melbourne at an extraordinary series of director meetings with the Water Minister and the Premier.
    In recompense I would like to take you out to dinner tomorrow evening. Say 7 pm? I have booked a table at Narree House and arranged for Muriel Bailey to look after young Milly. Seeing tomorrow is your father’s anniversary, I thought it might be nice if we were able to be together.
    Yours,
Alex.
    She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been taken out for dinner, and at Narree House too. It was just like Alex to choosethe best of the best. She idly studied his signature, all decisive cursive copperplate loops with a full stop after his name. It went with the world of directorships, meetings in Melbourne with ministers and premiers, a whole universe away from the world of a single mother sitting atop McCauley’s Hill. No wonder her feelings were all over the place. She couldn’t help but wonder why he was interested in her.
    â€˜You are captivating, Jodie. So full of life and vigour,’ Alex’s voice echoed through her mind, ‘I am so delighted Robert brought you into my life.’
    All she’d ever wanted since Rhys was someone to take care of her, of them. (Mind you, Rhys had only ever taken care of himself, like her mother. Hindsight was indeed a wonderful thing.) So where were these doubts coming from? Alex was kind, generous, caring. He was trying to look after her in the only way he knew how. It was a bit arrogantly done, especially organising a babysitter without asking her, but that was Alex. He always knew what he wanted and that was a part of him that appealed to her. His solid confidence. Plus he’d been busy – that was why he hadn’t helped with the packing, the moving, the unravelling of a new life for her and Milly. Jodie took another swig of her drink. It was nothing to do with her not fitting in with what he wanted her to do. Namely move in with him. Now. Straightaway. It had nothing to do with the stigma of her being a single mother. He’d obviously got over that somehow without her even knowing it. Not like some people around Narree. When she’d arrived in town three years back, she could almost see the doting