Only when the replete and weary guests at the Golden Wattle gathered by the fire for a final port or schnapps did Eva’s family have the dining room to themselves.

Ryder looked around the table at the people who were now a huge part of his life. Vanessa, of course, Eva and her partner, Jack Walker, and their cute little girl, Poppy, who was asleep in her father’s arms.

Ryder slipped his phone into his pocket and went back to his soup.

‘Mitch not joining us?’ Vanessa said, lowering her spoon.

‘No. I’ve invited him a couple of times, but he keeps refusing.’

‘That’s strange.’

‘Hmm.’

‘Maybe he’s met someone,’ Jack said.

Ryder shook his head. ‘I doubt it. He doesn’t seem to have much luck with the ladies.’

‘That’s surprising,’ put in Eva. ‘He’s attractive, all that dark-auburn hair.’

Vanessa dunked a piece of bread into her soup. ‘Yes, Mitch is the real deal. He deserves somebody nice.’

‘I’m worried about all the painkillers he’s taking,’ said Ryder. ‘He could be suffering the after-effects of that concussion he got during the Hutton case.’

‘Is it affecting his work?’ Jack asked.

Ryder shook his head. ‘Nothing like that. He’s just a bit tired and headachy.’

Vanessa laughed. ‘Maybe he has met someone. Why don’t you ask him, Pierce?’

Ryder reached for another piece of bread. ‘Because I don’t want to know about that.’

‘But we do,’ she said with a cheeky smile at Eva.

Ryder wondered, as he did almost every day, what he’d done to deserve someone as happy and kind-hearted as Vanessa. She was the perfect antidote to all the bad stuff he dealt with daily, and he could tell by her glowing face how much she was enjoying working as a patroller again, and spending time with Eva and Poppy before they moved to the farm.

Ryder spooned soup into his mouth in an effort to ward off the empty feeling in his stomach. This was Vanessa’s final season as a patroller and in eight weeks he’d be done with Homicide and back in uniform. Try as he might, he couldn’t imagine enjoying the work out west, throwing drunks out of the pub on a Friday night and looking for stolen cattle. Then again, he couldn’t imagine life without Vanessa, and he’d had plenty of time to get used to the idea of being a country cop. He’d known from the start that Vanessa was moving home when her parents retired, and it hadn’t taken him long to commit to going with her. Now, that time had come. Her parents were moving on, and he had to do the same.