Page 48 of The Geography of Happiness

Panic welled in my chest. Spencer couldn’t be serious about needing my help, could he? I might’ve been brought up on a farm, but there was no way I was getting into a pen with a pissed-off sow the size of a Mini—the four-door version.

“Um... Spencer, I don’t think that I can—” I turned and stopped abruptly at the look of wicked glee shining in both his and Grant’s eyes.

Then they burst into laughter, and I was hit by a memory of watching them in whispered conversation at the back of the ute before we headed for the pens.

Goddammit.I’d been fucking had, the bastards.

“Holy shit, you should see your face,” Spencer managed between gasps of air. Then he turned to high-five Grant who was laughing so hard he was holding his sides.

I narrowed my eyes and shoved Spencer none-too-lightly on the chest. “You two set me up.” Which only invoked more laughter and eventually I joined in. “All right, arseholes. Happy to entertain you. Anything as long as I don’t have to get in that fucking pen with her ladyship.”

Grant clapped my shoulder. “Sorry, son, but it was just too easy. It’s the station’s initiation rite. Everyone gets to meet Mary-Beth.”

I gave a snort of amusement and turned my attention back to Spencer who was still wiping tears from his eyes. “You and I are going to have a conversation,” I warned, which only started him laughing again. “Yeah, yeah. Enjoy it while it lasts. Payback is a bitch, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Good for you. Don’t take any of his shit.” Grant handed me another clap on the back as he headed to where Mary-Beth was watching the proceedings with a baleful gaze. “He’s way too cocky for his own good.”

Spencer flipped him off, then gave me a slow once-over and a lazy smile. “Sorry.”

I shook my head but couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. “Payback still stands.”

He lowered his voice. “I can’t wait.” Then he stood back and zipped up his coveralls while I started to strip out of mine. “I’d advise you to keep them on,” he warned. “If Mary-Beth gets antsy, she starts snouting, and that shit travels miles.” He glanced up and choked out a laugh. “But it’s fair to say you can safely ditch the hairnet, fetching as it is.”

I tore the net from my head. “I fucking knew it. And you needn’t think I’m helping after all this. Also, define antsy...andsnouting.”

Spencer threw one of his sunshine smiles my way as he tapped the side of his nose and said, “Now where’s the fun in that?”

My glare intensified, which only made him grin wider, until I caved to the humour, laughing as I balled the hairnet and threw it at him. “You are such an arsehole.”

He caught it mid-air and threw it back. “No argument there.”

“Whenever you’re ready, kiddies.” Grant leaned against the pen with his arms folded, smiling at us.

Thankfully, as it turned out, Spencer didn’t require anything of me other than to hand him whatever he wanted from his bag while I stood safely on the outside of the narrow race that prevented Mary-Beth from turning around while she was being examined.

Snouting, as I’d quickly discovered, involved the weighty sow venting her fury at being constrained by scooping plugs of wet mud onto her snout and hurling them at any bystander hovering too close, usually me. On occasion she’d switch things up by simply snorting a spray of nasal debris with the force of an afterburner.

With every incident, Spencer and Grant practically choked with laughter, and I was taking names. I was positive Grant usually did my job with a great deal more efficiency than me, but Spencer’s obvious enjoyment at my avoidance antics every time I got within snouting distance of Mary-Beth was priceless, and I didn’t want it to stop.

Needless to say, by the time Spencer had finished with the sow, my coveralls were filthy, Mary-Beth looked inordinately pleased with herself, and I was grinning from ear to ear. Forty minutes had passed in the blink of an eye, and I hadn’t had so much fun in years.

The twenty-minute journeyfrom McEldowney to Lane Station passed in easy conversation as Spencer gave me a fascinating synopsis of the Lane clan, including the fact the station was home to yet another LGBTQ couple—Jules Lane, who managed the place, while his partner, Liam, ran his own business from the property.

I asked more about Spencer’s work and life in the Mackenzie Basin and learned that he and his business partner, Matt, had met at university and got on well enough to try opening a mixed-animal practice together when they were done. The Mackenzie seemed a natural choice. Spencer had driven through the area while on university vacation and fallen in love with the place, while Matt had relatives who lived locally.

Spencer explained, “When we first looked at the Oakwood practice, it was focused only on domestic animals and needed a lot of investment. But we knew there was huge potential if we could expand into the farming sector as well. I had a little bit of money from my father’s life insurance and Matt was able to borrow what he needed from his parents, so it was a done deal. The existing vet was looking to retire, but he agreed to remain on part-time for the first six months until we had our feet under the table. The practice grew slowly from there.”

“Wow.” I regarded Spencer with fresh eyes. “I’m thinking that was a huge risk. I remember taking over my small, run-down hardware store at twenty, and I know exactly how difficult it can be to turn things around.”

Spencer gave a knowing huff. “Tell me about it. If Doc Pierce hadn’t agreed to hang around, we might not have survived. The whole expansion thing was way more complicated than we’d thought. The first thing Doc did was send Matt and me out to work a few weeks on Miller Station. Best idea ever. Boy, did we learn a lot. And Holden’s family became our first big rural clients. After that, it snowballed. Matt and Imight’ve been green, but we had a whole lot of new knowledge around sustainability and modern animal husbandry that we desperately wanted to put into practice.”

I grinned at his enthusiasm. “The new kids on the block trying to make a difference.”

He chuckled. “Something like that. Not all, but many of the existing vet practices had been around a long time and were a little more resistant to new science and technology. But the impact of new government legislation and public awareness regarding conservation meant our timing was kind of perfect. But we were naïve as hell. A classic case of we didn’t know what we didn’t know.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I remember that feeling. I might’ve grown up on a farm, but I was never what you’d call a handyman kind of guy. I knew zip about hardware, or accounting, or health regulations, or any of the red tape you have to wade through to run your own business. Dad helped finance me into it. He wanted me to have something solid to support Hannah. He also held my hand through those first six months, a little like your vet. I don’t know what I would’ve done without him.”

Spencer shot me a smile. “See, I told you we have a lot more in common than you think.”

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