I woke early the next morning. Adam was sound asleep. I decided not to wake him and took Molly for a walk. She barked and leapt along the drive towards the road. I hoped her noise didn't wake him. It was a beautiful, clear, crisp morning, and tall straight gum trees stood on either side of the road. Their trunks were lined with rough bark coated with green moss. The canopy was open, allowing the sun to filter through. I inhaled the scent of damp foliage and eucalyptus. The city didn't smell like this. Small Bottle Brush or Banksia grew between the trees. I figured the drive had been left in its most natural state to hide the shed from the road. I was invigorated and happier than I had been in months.

I thought about the way Adam had asked me not to sleep with anybody else while he was in my life and wondered if he considered us a couple. He had committed to an extent and gave me his word he wouldn't sleep with anyone else either. He had also joked about his girlfriend and had said, "Pity my girlfriend wasn't a good girl; she needs to give up night clubbing now she has a boyfriend."

I wish I'd confirmed that statement, but I'd been too upset over my stupid accusation and made light of it. The man I saw was handcuffed and ushered into the police car. My memory was clouded. I grinned at my stupidity and how well Adam had handled it. If he had been one of my old boyfriends, we'd have had a huge fight and would have broken up. I was such a sucker that they would have come back a week later and picked up where they'd left off. I was determined not to handle this relationship the same. I wanted to be strong. My past experiences had taught me that men liked a challenge; if you made it too easy for them, they moved on.

I turned the corner in the drive and met a man on a motorbike. He stopped, undid his helmet and shut off the engine. "Hello there," he said. He was middle-aged with greying hair and a friendly face.

"Hello," I said.

"You must be Adam's friend."

"Yes. Jasmine." I held out my hand and wondered how he knew about me.

"Jasmine. Pretty name. Wally Gadd, how are you?"

"Good." I grinned at him. "And thank you."

Wally sucked in the country air and smiled. "Lovely morning, isn't it?" I agreed, and then he added, "Where's the man? Not in bed, I hope."

"He is," I laughed. "At least, he was when I left."

"The place was clean enough for you then?"

"It's lovely. Do you caretake it?"

"The wife does the cleaning, but we don't see much of Adam anymore. Busy, I suppose. His job is crap. I wouldn't do it." Wally's comment confused me. He said, "We own the farm next door, so it's no trouble. I lease the land here. Run some cattle on it." He lifted his hand and pointed beyond me. "Be careful of the bull in the paddock near the dam. He's a bit touchy."

"Oh..." I looked over my shoulder. We'd been so close to that area the day before. "Okay, thanks. I'll tell Adam."

"I'm pretty sure he knows." Wally nudged his head as confirmation. "Betty told him." He raised his helmet as if preparing to leave.

I said, "How much land is here? How much do you lease?"

Wally scratched his chin. "Ah...between seventy and eighty acres, something like that." He slid his helmet onto his head. "Adam could tell you." He kicked the motorbike to life and yelled over the engine, "I won't disturb him. Tell him I said hello. I'll catch him next time."

I waved as he rode away. How did he know Adam so well? I scuffed the dirt. "Stop reading weird messages into everything," I said, then listed what I did know. Adam's friends own this place. He'd spent time here. Adam must have rung Betty to clean it before we arrived. She would have warned him about the bull. Wally's comment about not liking what Adam did puzzled me. I scolded myself and decided it referred to him working in the city and Wally not wanting to be a boring city worker. I headed back. "Molly!" I slapped my thigh. "Come on, girl!" She ran towards me, barked with joy and loped along the drive.

Adam was sitting on the step with a cup of tea. Molly jumped around and licked his face. He laughed and pushed her aside. She trotted off and sniffed around the garden.

"Good morning, sleepy head," I whispered.

He held his hand out to me. "You're up early."

I grinned, bent and kissed his cheek. "It must be the country air. I didn't want to wake you, so I took Molly for a walk."

Adam tapped the step below him. "Thanks," he yawned.

"Maybe you should go back to bed," I said. "You sound like you need more sleep."

A big grin spread across his face as he said, "If you come with me."

"If I come with you, you won't sleep."

"If you don't come with me, I won't sleep."

I laughed and rubbed his stubbled face. "You need a shave."

"I need a lot of things." He smirked and put his lips to my neck as he murmured, "Shaving's not on the top of the list, going back to bed is."

I spun to face him. "I met Wally." Adam lifted his head and furrowed his brow as I continued, "He said to say hello and he'll catch up with you next time."

Adam gave me a strange look. "Did he say anything else?"

I wondered what the expression meant, but I didn't question it. "He asked if the place was clean enough and said a bull was in the paddock near the dam. We have to be careful of it. He said Betty had told you anyway." I put my finger on my chin in mock thought. "Also said they didn't see too much of you anymore. Did you come here a lot?"

Adam peered at me through hair that fell in his eyes. "Yeah, once."

I brushed his hair back and grinned as I said, "He also said, Hello, you must be Adam's friend." I cocked my head. "Did you tell them you had a friend with you?"

Adam took a sip of his tea. "Yeah, I hope you don't mind. I rang Betty to ask if she could clean the place, and told her I had someone with me."

My curiosity got the better of me. "He also said you would be able to tell me how much land this place was on."

Adam cocked his head and took another sip of his tea. "Why did he say that?"

"He said he leased the land to put cattle on. I asked how much land. Then he said seventy to eighty acres, and that you could tell me the exact amount."

Adam's shoulders lifted. "Don't know why he said that." He frowned and shook his head.

I smiled as he drank the last of his tea and then dragged him to his feet. "Come on, let's go back to bed, I'm cold."

There's Jasmine's imagination going off again. Haha

Wally seems a nice man.

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