Page 18 of Where the Heart Is

But she didn’t need his pity. She needed a solution to her financial problems. Fast.

‘Thanks for calling, Chris. I’ll sort something out and get back to you.’

‘Make sure you do, because I’d hate for you to lose Hills Homestead, especially when it’s been in your family for generations.’

That made two of them.

‘Thanks, I’ll be in touch.’ Mila disconnected before she did something crazy, like release the scream building in her chest.

She had to come up with the money.

But damned if she knew how.

CHAPTER

11

Sawyer had no idea what possessed him to drive off like a hoon.

Actually, he did, and it had little to do with showing what his prized V8 engine could do, and everything to do with Mila’s honesty.

She’d had a crush on him.

And by the sly glances she’d cast him today when she thought he wasn’t looking, not much had changed.

So where did that leave him, considering the feeling was mutual?

It had been an unspoken rule between him and Will that his best mate’s little sister was off limits. Hell, it was an unspoken rule between most blokes.

But Will was a million miles away in London and Mila was all alone on the farm, doing whatever it took—including marrying Phil bloody Baxter—to save it.

Surely Will wouldn’t begrudge him sticking around to help Mila do that?

As he reached the outskirts of Ashe Ridge, Sawyer swiped a hand over his face. There was a big difference between staying in town longer than anticipated to help Mila come up with a solution to save Hills Homestead and sticking around because in one day she’d got under his skin all over again.

It had shaken him to his core, how much he’d wanted to pummel Phil. Maybe Mila couldn’t see how smarmy the prick was because she’d always seen the best in people, or maybe she’d wanted to save the farm that badly, but whatever her rationale, a huge part of Sawyer was nothing but relieved that one of them had come to their senses and called off the wedding.

At least Phil had done the right thing and shouldered the blame. But if Sawyer remembered correctly, nobody could look sideways in this town without someone pointing a finger and asking why, and that meant Mila would be gossip fodder no matter how chivalrous her neighbour had been.

Sawyer hadn’t driven through town earlier, taking the backroad to Hills Homestead instead, so entering Ashe Ridge now catapulted him back in time.

Nothing had changed.

The two-storey red-brick Main Hotel stood sentinel on one corner after he passed the Ashe Ridge sign, the supermarket on the other. The op shop and Chinese restaurant hadn’t been painted in fifteen years, the post office looked the same, and the three clothing boutiques hadn’t changed bar the fashions in the windows. Two small cafés on opposite corners bookended the other side of town, before he caught sight of the landmarks he hated the most.

Ashe Ridge Primary and Ashe Ridge High School.

His life had been a misery inside the walls of those institutions and even now he broke into a cold sweat remembering how utterly inadequate, how stupid, he’d felt every time he entered a classroom.

The only person who hadn’t made him feel dumb back then was Mila. She saw through his clowning around to the embarrassed kid beneath, a kid so terrified of being labelled a loser by everyone that distraction became his thing.

Even Will hadn’t seen beneath his joker exterior. His friend had stood up for him when kids teased him for being a dummy in primary school, and later Sawyer had fought his own battles in high school as he filled out and played centre half-back for the footy team. Turns out, the girls didn’t mind if he was all brawn and no brains, so he’d gone along with it, but it irked that most treated him like a shallow pretty boy.

He wondered if any of the old teachers were still around and what they’d think of him now. How he’d accumulated wealth through wise investing. How he brokered land deals that benefited all involved. He was damn good at his job and proud of how far he’d come from the laugh-a-minute kid who they thought would never amount to anything.

Thinking about land broking made him ponder Mila’s quandary. He had a few ideas, but he wouldn’t tell her until he had a solid plan in place. Even then, he’d need to couch it in favourable terms because her stubborn streak meant she wouldn’t accept his help.

Hell, he’d virtually offered to marry her himself but she’d shied away from that quick smart. Not that he’d meant it. Not really.

---