was staring hard at his mug. ‘Sounds a bit grand when you put it like that, but when I’m out, driving around, I listen to a lot of agricultural radio programmes. It’s a good way to learn things.’
‘According to Ted, you hoard all that info in your brilliant memory and then put it into practice.’ Holly smiled. ‘He also said you’re fantastic with figures. He called you a human calculator.’
Gray shrugged again. ‘That man has far too much to say. I’m not paying him to gasbag.’ His eyes flashed a cheeky challenge. ‘And why are you trying to flatter me?’
‘I’m not flattering you. I’m giving you positive feedback. You can blame my teacher training.’
‘Yeah, right.’ He gave a smiling shake of his head. ‘But shouldn’t we be working out how we’re going to paint these rainbow walls?’
They decided on a plan. They would start at the top with orange just beneath the red roof, then progress downwards through blue and purple to finish with green at the base.
With the plan settled and the undercoat dry, they got back to work. After a short trial run, Gray admitted that Holly could produce the most even spray paint finish, so they agreed that he should hold up the cardboard shield for her.
As they worked, she engaged him in safe topics—mostly about the twins and their first week of school. She told him that Josh was very clever at arithmetic and had developed a passion for Natural Science—particularly frogs.
‘I hope you don’t mind. This afternoon we converted a pickle jar into a tadpole aquarium,’ she told him.
Gray laughed. ‘I was mad about spiders when I was a kid. Tried to start a redback spider farm in an ice cream container.’
‘Eeeeww.’ Holly gave an elaborate shudder, then told him that Anna was the twin who was curious about spiders. ‘She also has beautiful handwriting and a musical ear and an exceptionally vivid imagination.’
Holly enjoyed herself immensely, which surprised her, considering that once upon a time she’d looked forward to sharing this sort of task with Brandon. She’d even been silly enough to imagine that she and Brandon would paint a nursery for their first baby, and she’d actually picked out a colour scheme of white and sunshiny yellow with a brightly coloured rainbow frieze.
How strange that this puppet theatre inspired her now almost as much as her old dream had.
On Sunday morning, Gray rose just as the screeching corellas took off from the trees along the creek bank, and he crossed the frosty grass to the shed where the puppet theatre stood in all its rainbow-walled, red-curtained glory.
He grinned when he saw it. It looked so bright and cheerful and, even if he did say so himself, very professional. Almost as good as the puppet theatre he and Holly had taken the children to see in New York.
His kids were going to love it.
All thanks to Holly, of course…
Without her, he wouldn’t have known such things existed. And without Holly he wouldn’t have enjoyed the final decorating tasks nearly as much. She was so easy-going and comfortable to be with.
Gray totally understood why his kids loved school when Holly was around to help make it fun.
How would they cope when she left?
Soon, he would have to seek her help in posting an ad for a replacement nanny, and then he’d also need her input when he vetted the applicants.
Right now, Gray couldn’t think of a more unpalatable task, couldn’t imagine another woman filling Holly O’Mara’s shoes.
A movie director couldn’t have created a more pleasing scene than Anna and Josh’s discovery of the puppet theatre. They bounced into the kitchen for breakfast, spied the theatre positioned just outside the flyscreen door, and reacted just as Holly had hoped they would—with dancing and squealing and their eyes almost popping out of their heads with excitement.
‘And it isn’t even our birthday,’ Josh exclaimed in grinning disbelief as he and Anna took turns to pull the cord that drew the splendid red curtains open and shut.
Anna was beaming, too. ‘I can’t believe we have a theatre and our puppies. Wow, Daddy, this is so cool.’
Together, the children squeezed inside the ‘back door’ and examined the stage. When they plied Gray and Holly with questions, they were stunned to learn that their dad had actually made this glorious construction with his own hands.
Holly smiled at Gray, taking in the quiet satisfaction in his eyes.
‘They’ll remember this day for the rest of their lives,’ she told him quietly.
He merely nodded, but this time when he smiled back at her, she had to look down. The crackling something in the air was suddenly too much.
After breakfast, the children jumped straight into presenting their premiere puppet show on the veranda, and of course Holly, Gray and Janet were the audience, very happy to sit on a row of chairs, with the basket of puppies at their feet.
‘The puppies have to watch, too,’ Anna had insisted.
Naturally, the show was received with thunderous applause, and afterwards the children rushed straight off to plan their next performance.
‘We’ll soon be calling them Shake and Speare,’ Janet muttered good-humouredly, before she returned to the kitchen to make a batch of scones for morning tea.
Holly might have followed Janet if Gray hadn’t detained her with his hand on her arm. She jumped at his touch as if he’d burned her, and then she felt seriously foolish.
‘Would you like to come for a drive with me?’ he asked.
‘A drive?’ She needed a moment to catch her breath. ‘I’m sure we won’t be able to prise Anna and Josh away from their puppets.’
The tanned skin around his blue eyes crinkled. ‘I wasn’t planning to invite the children. I’m sure they’d rather stay here, and they’ll be fine with Janet.’
‘But—’ Holly’s heart gave a strange thump. ‘Are you sure Janet doesn’t have other plans?’
‘I’m certain of it, Holly. I’ve already spoken to her, and she’d love to spend a day with the twins. In fact, she’s already started on a picnic lunch for us.’
‘Oh? I…I see.’
‘You’ve earned a day off, and I thought you might like to see the gorge.’
It was kind of Gray to take the trouble to entertain her. ‘Thank you.’ Holly’s voice was a shade too proper and polite. ‘I’d love to see the gorge. I’ll explain to Anna and Josh—’
He held up a hand. ‘I can do the explaining while you get ready. You’ll need sunscreen and a hat and sturdy shoes.’
She was being bulldozed—steamrollered—but for once she didn’t mind.
In her room, as she grabbed her shady hat from its hook on the back of her dresser, she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She was, as usual, in a boring old T-shirt and jeans, with her hair tied back and a new crop of freckles on her nose.
If she was in New York, she was quite sure that if a new man invited her out for the day she would go to a great deal of trouble, hunting through her wardrobe for the perfect outfit, ringing her friends for fashion advice, going for a manicure, a pedicure, a leg wax.
It was strange to think that she was now going to spend an entire day alone with a man who was not Brandon, and yet she didn’t feel an overwhelming urge to worry about how she looked. It was rather comforting to know she didn’t have to try too hard with Gray Kidman.
After teaming with him on the puppet theatre, they’d reached a comfortable working relationship and she could save her dating charms for the new man she