Chapters (50)
- Cover
- About the Book
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sandie Docker
- Book Club Questions
- Welcome to the Kookaburra Creek Café
- Prologue
- One
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Stretched out below them was the entire town – the clock tower of the post office reaching tall in the centre, the wide main street lined with buildings whose awnings formed a pastel rainbow, the houses clustered in pockets around the town centre, the peninsula jutting into the ocean.
‘That’s …’ Nicole pointed to the north.
‘Yep. Your place.’
It looked tiny from where they were, but it was clearly identifiable, perched alone on the northern bulge of coastline. Nicole could also make out the boatshed and the stretch of sand below it.
The deep blue of the sea bled into the green border of bush and trees that gave way to the white and grey and orange of the town that sat like a pin cushion on the soft quilt laid out below her.
She turned to Danny and smiled. ‘Thank you.’
He winked. ‘Come and sit down,’ he said, pointing to a granite boulder in the middle of the clearing.
As she was taking her seat, Nicole thought she’d caught a glimpse of a familiar figure disappearing down a thin track off to the side. She started.
‘Don’t worry,’ Danny said. ‘That’s just Charlie.’
‘Charlie?’
‘Yeah. The guy that lives in the boatshed. Not that you’ve probably met him. Keeps to himself good and proper.’
‘We’ve met.’
‘You have? Well, don’t let him scare you. That,’ he pointed to a thin opening in the scrub that was barely visible, ‘is the other, less fun way to get up here.’ He smiled. ‘This is a fair way off the known tracks and Charlie and I are the only ones who know about this spot. Far as I can tell, anyway. Well, and now you. It’s Charlie’s spot, really. He comes here all the time. Or he used to, though not so much anymore. But we have an understanding. That’s why I tooted before. In case he was up here, to let him know I was coming. As long as I don’t do it too often, he doesn’t mind. At least I don’t think he does.’
So, this is where Charlie comes.
‘I first stumbled, literally, on this place after Grandpa died.’ Danny sat beside her, looking at the town below. ‘We were close, Grandpa and I. It was the day of his funeral. I was upset and I ran off into the bush one day. Found this.’ He spread his hands. ‘Tripped right over this.’ He patted the boulder.