But first she needed to breakfast with Nan and catch up on her workload at the Chronicle. That included scheduling a final meeting with CommLink. Even that couldn’t cheer her up. She jumped every time her office phone rang but it was never the call she wanted and Dan didn’t return the messages she left him. By the time she finally pulled up at the farmhouse it was close to five and her nerves were shot. Dan was a distant silhouette, working on the west ridge. He would have seen her car arriving so Jo waited. Five minutes passed, ten and he made no move to come down. Well, what did she expect? Swapping her shoes for the smallest pair of gum boots on the porch, Jo started climbing in as direct a line as the electric fences allowed. A mob of glossy black bulls with massive shoulders, skinny rumps and surly expressions tracked her progress. “He’ll forgive me,” she told them. He has to. The weather had been moody all day, trying on all four seasons like a teenage girl who couldn’t decide what to wear.
