Read Online Playing for Love (Summer Beach Vets 1) - Escape Down Under by H.Y. Hanna - Free Book Online Page A

that they would really do it. Sara sighed. This was making her head hurt. She didn’t want to think about it.
    Instead, she went into the living room and retrieved the magazine she had bought at the airport. She spread it open before her cereal bowl as she sat down at the small table in the kitchen. Nothing like a bit of celebrity gossip to take your mind off things , she thought as she sipped her coffee and idly flicked through the pages.
    Then her hands froze as she saw the photograph on the page in front of her. It was Craig. Looking tanned and sexy in jeans and a crisp, cotton dress shirt, he was standing in front of a building which seemed to be some kind of animal rescue shelter. He was holding a kitten in his arms and a cockatoo with a big yellow crest on its head was perched on his other shoulder. Around him stood a small crowd of people, all smiling and clapping, as Craig laughingly cut a ribbon looped around the front entrance of the building.
    Beneath the photograph was the caption:
     
    Celebrity TV vet, Dr Craig Murray, lends a helping hand at the opening of the Haven Paws Rescue Sanctuary, the first of its kind in the Sydney Metro area. Murray, who is the star of the hit TV series, Aussie Beach Vet , has been enjoying a well-earned break, but shooting is about to begin on the third season of the series soon. The programme, which follows the heart-warming—and sometimes heart-wrenching—stories of local pets and their owners at the Summer Beach Veterinary Hospital, has become one of the top-rated shows in the country. Murray is also rumoured to be in talks for a six-figure sponsorship deal with one of the biggest pet food manufacturers in South East Asia.
     
    Sara stared at the page. Her hands felt cold and her head was spinning. No , she thought. No! No! Craig couldn’t be a celebrity, could he? He was so down-to-earth, so genuine and unassuming! But the picture in front of her didn’t lie. Craig was a TV star. And being with him would mean that the cameras would be on her again. Sara felt her heart shrink inside her. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go through all that again.
    “Sara?” Ellie was standing in the kitchen doorway, drying her hair with a towel. “Are you okay?”
    Sara’s lips felt numb. “He’s a TV vet,” she mumbled.
    “What?” Ellie came over to look at the magazine. “Oh, yeah… that’s right. Craig’s TV show.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Sara burst out. “You knew! Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
    Ellie looked at her in surprise. “I… I guess it just slipped my mind. Around here, nobody thinks of Craig as some celebrity. He’s just a regular guy.”
    “What d’you mean he’s ‘just a regular guy’? Look at him! He’s in the damned tabloids!” Sara jabbed the magazine with her finger. “Don’t tell me that people don’t treat him differently now that he’s some hot-shot household name. People always treat celebrities differently. I saw enough of that when I was with Jeff. In fact, they began to treat me differently just because I was dating a celebrity.”
    “Well, maybe…” Ellie looked doubtful. “But all I can tell you is what I’ve seen and heard. And from what I’ve seen, they treat him pretty normally around here. And he expects it too. It’s the whole Australian ‘tall poppy’ thing.”
    “The what? What’s a tall poppy?”
    “It’s… it’s hard to explain. It’s a really big part of Australian and New Zealand culture… like, it’s really important to be humble and be ‘one of the mates’, as they call it. If they think anybody is trying to be superior—you know, to be a ‘tall poppy’ growing above others—then they’ll immediately cut you down to size.” Ellie made a face. “And they can be pretty harsh about it too.”
    She looked down at the magazine again. “Especially for someone like Craig, it’ll be even more important for him to show that he hasn’t forgotten his small-town roots now that he’s