The young dog nudged at his hand and Dan patted his head. Tarzan barked at them from inside the house yard.

“Looks like you’ve got plenty of water but you’ve eaten all your food.”

Spud looked up at him with trusting eyes.

Dan threw a stick for him then turned wearily back to the house.

He knew Paula wasn’t home. She had sent him a text message a few hours ago to say she was going shopping. Her car wasn’t in the shed so she must still be in town. He pushed open the back door and stepped from the clear outside heat to the stuffy warmth of the interior. No wonder she’d complained. It was stifling inside but still too hot outside to open up the house.

He dragged off his boots and went into the kitchen. It was no cooler there. By the look of things Paula had been spending her time in this room. She’d moved the table under the ceiling fan and the pedestal fan was in the kitchen as well. There were a couple of folders on the table, and her laptop. It looked like she’d been doing bookwork.

He poured himself some cold water, picked an apple from the fruit bowl and turned on the radio. The reports he’d heard about the fire down south during his drive home hadn’t been good. He switched on the ceiling fan and lowered himself into the office chair.

The radio update didn’t ease his concern. The fire had spread and now had multiple fronts, and there weren’t enough crews to fight it. With several fires around the state sparked by last weekend’s electrical storms, resources were stretched. At least the wind had eased but the report still didn’t sound hopeful. He’d never had a fire on his property, although most summers there was one somewhere in the district.

Ted’s hay shed had been the only fire nearby so far this season. Dan thought about Ted and what he’d been through. The counsellor had been a big help to him. It had been a huge relief for Ted to get everything out in the open and find a way to deal with his troubles.

Dan rubbed his hand across his forehead. If only he could experience that relief but there would be none for him until this will business was sorted...and he explained everything to Paula, his reasons for not telling her. He rubbed his forehead again. He’d had plenty of time on the drive back from Victoria to think about what he was going to say but it had all sounded rather pathetic once he thought it through. He should have listened to Rowena and told Paula right from the start.