He could hear Paula’s sisters laughing together in the kitchen and beyond that music played somewhere. After only being him and Rowena for so long he appreciated the difference being part of a larger family made.

Dan cast his gaze across the gentle slope of the valley. They’d had good opening rains a couple of weeks back and seeding was nearly done. He’d be on the tractor today but he couldn’t be absent from his own son’s baptism. The season had started well and he prayed for more rain soon to sustain his optimism.

It was hard to believe that a year had passed since he and Paula had been married in Sydney. Dan had been on the tractor the night of their first wedding anniversary. Paula had brought out a meal and stayed while he ate it, then they’d squeezed into the cab and taken their son for his first tractor ride.

“Hello.” A pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders. Paula’s cheek nestled close to his and her fresh floral scent wafted over him. “What are you thinking about, farm boy?”

He squeezed her hands with his. “Well now, little lady,” he drawled, “you know we farm boys don’t think at all.”

Paula eased around him and sat in his lap, the pendant that had been his Christmas gift sparkling against her skin. “That’s just an illusion you use to lure unsuspecting city girls.”

“You’re learning all my tricks.”

“What’s this?” Paula tapped the letter that stuck out from his shirt pocket.

“Rowena gave it to me when she dropped off the food. It’s a letter from Beryl. She thought we’d like to read it. I don’t know why.”

“Oh, come on, Dan. Aren’t you the slightest bit curious?” Paula slipped the page from his pocket, glanced over it and laughed. “The first part is all gush about her new grandchild and how she feels for Rowena who’ll never be a grandmother.”

Dan snorted. “Rowena’s a better grandmother than that Beryl will ever be.”

“But listen to the last part. She finishes up saying how wonderful it was that the baby was a girl as Beryl would have been heartbroken if the young family had been forced to move to a run-down farm in the backblocks of South Australia.”

“The nerve of the woman, after all she’s put us through.”

“She didn’t do it on her own.”

“I know.” Dan snatched the paper and scrunched it into a ball. “I didn’t handle the situation very well either.”

“It doesn’t matter now. Whatever happens, we will face it together.” Paula’s voice was light but her face was serious.

“We will.” Dan looked past her to the rolling brown paddocks again and he meant it.

“Things are going okay at the moment, aren’t they? I know you’d like more rain but worrying won’t bring it.”