Luke lowered the microphone and turned back and looked at him.

“Are you even listening to the rest of us?” he asked.

“Sorry.” He couldn’t concentrate. He put the drumsticks down. He should go back to the house before Tom found out he’d left. His orders had been pretty specific.

Luke stepped down off the stage. “We’ll take a break.” He went over to Isaac. “What do you think?” he asked.

Cole sat behind the drums, picked up the drumsticks again and tried to decide what to do. Stay and finish this practice, or go back to the house and talk to Milly?

He watched Isaac scratch the side of his chin.

“You lot won’t even miss me,” said Isaac.

“You could change your mind.”

“No, too much driving.”

Then the shed door opened and Tessa came through followed by Milly. Milly looked a bit damp around the edges, like she’d been crying.

He should have stayed with her, and he shouldn’t have dumped her. He sat there and tried to decide what to do. Can you undo dumping someone? Did he want to? She still had that death wish. And was still leaving.

Tessa wasn’t undecided. She said something to Milly, went to the edge of the stage, climbed up onto the pallets and strode over to him.

“You dumped her!” she hissed. “What were you thinking?”

“Stay out of this, Tess.” He wasn’t having someone interfering in his business, even if he’d known them all his life.

He played the flourish he should have played a couple of minutes ago. He wasn’t going to hang around and watch Milly kill herself.

Tessa grabbed the drumsticks. She wrenched them out of his hands. Then stood facing up to him, hands on her hips.

“No, I won’t.” She leaned in and spoke quietly. “I’ve seen the way you look at her.” She waved the drumsticks at Milly.

Milly stood there back to looking restrained and classy. He knew her well enough now to know that was just the way she acted when she was unsure of herself. But she must have texted Tessa and asked her to come and get her.

Maybe that was because the doctor said she couldn’t drive for a few days. Maybe it was Tessa and Milly working it, so he had to give Milly a lift home.

That wasn’t going to happen.

He tried to grab the drumsticks off Tessa. “Mind your own business,” he told her.

She stepped back. “No,” she said again.

Luke, Adam, Noah and Isaac were all watching the argument.

“Give him back the sticks, Tre,” said Luke. “Break’s over.”

“No,” said Tessa, then turned back to Cole and waved the drumsticks at him. “Milly wants to talk to you, and I’m going to use these to knock some sense into you if you don’t get over there and sort this out. You love her. She loves you. You’re not going to let her leave without patching things up, whatever happened.”

Jesus, he was surrounded by bossy females.

Luke climbed onto the pallets again. “Give him the sticks and get off the stage, Tre. He’s big enough to sort his own sex life.”

“Typical,” Tessa fired at him. “That’s all you can think of.”

Cole stood up. He didn’t need Luke and Tessa fighting over him and Milly. He’d go and find out what she wanted to say. He owed her that.

He leapt down off the pallets and went over to her. The ‘been crying look’ was still there and she bit her lip when he got close.

He’d really upset her. The only other time he’d seen her cry was when he’d killed one of her horses. He should have known her saying, if that’s what you want, was an act.

“Come on.” He slung an arm around her shoulders. He turned her towards the door. He didn’t know how this would turn out, and he didn’t need an audience for whatever happened next.

He heard Luke mutter. “Looks like we’re taking another break.”

Outside, the sun beat down on the dusty driveway and the cars and utes parked there. It looked like someone had just mowed the lawns. They rolled out past the house, the grass smooth and green like velvet.

“What do you want to do?” he asked Milly. She might want to go back home.

“Could we sit over there?” She nodded at a seat under a tree. She sounded tired. Maybe her father and the doctor were right. She should rest.

“Okay.” At least they’d be in the shade and sitting down, and nobody would hear anything they were saying.

Under the tree, Milly sat on the bench with a sigh. Cole sat beside her and leaned, elbows on knees, fingers linked. Now it seemed silly that he’d dumped her. Because maybe Tessa was right, maybe dumping her because she was leaving and because she kept taking risks, meant he loved her, didn’t want her to go and didn’t want her to get hurt.

They sat there without talking.

“Isaac’s parents’ have beautiful gardens, don’t they?” Milly said in the end.

He looked around. Stunning. But then, usually when they came here at least one of Isaac’s parents was working on keeping the place looking good. Fancy that.

“Yeah.” He leaned back and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Tessa said you wanted to talk.”

She swivelled around so she faced him and tucked one leg up. He glanced at her and was caught again by the way she looked and moved. So small compared to him, and graceful. Her hair long and straight and shiny like a horse’s tail. It glowed mahogany where the sun caught it. The flawless creamy skin just touched by the sun. The eyes, a dark amber with dark brown flecks.

Yep, she was beautiful. But she still had that bruise on her cheek from hitting the ground and getting knocked out, because she chose to ride Tobias and that horse couldn’t be trusted.

“I’m not going to be away forever,” she said. “And there’s Skype and email and phones, and WhatsApp, and Facetime.”

“And plane tickets,” he said.

Milly nodded. “And I’m coming back in a year.”

“Yeah.”

“You do still like me, don’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He leaned over the few inches, cupped her cheek and kissed her.

He nodded. “What are you doing for the next week?”

“I was hoping I was spending it with you.” She smiled. “I’m not allowed to ride. I thought maybe you could put that canopy back on your ute, and we could go somewhere?”

“Yep. I could do that.” He stood up and took her hand. “And you could come to the pub and watch us play in the weekend.”

“I’d like that.” Milly smiled.

It looked like they were on again. Tessa was right. He loved her, and she loved him. He could wait for her for a year.

“Come back to the shed. We’ll talk about it when practice is over.”

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The End