Love or Money Read Online Free PDF Page B

could die suddenly of a heart attack, she reeled from a vicious stab to her stomach. ‘Her doctor’s warned her often enough, and told me she really needs expensive surgery. I have to be there for her.’
    â€˜Bring her down here for a few months. Until you get the house into shape, ready to sell.’ Hamish wasn’t a quitter. ‘There’s a big hospital half an hour’s drive from here. Your cottage is big enough for two. And a sight healthier than the smog-choked city.’ Whatever that annoying man said, it made sense. It was putting her off her dinner.
    â€˜All her friends live in her neighbourhood,’ Erin countered half-heartedly. ‘And she, well, she says she’d die without her friends.’
    â€˜Which is more important, her friends or her sweet, caring daughter?’ Hamish fired back. He’d morphed into a lawyer putting a case to court. ‘And I assure you, the Luna Bay ladies will take her under their warm feathery wings the minute she shows up here. You don’t understand the horsepower that team can churn out when they decide to help someone.’
    Erin accepted that it was time to give up. Sure, she loved the idea of spending an occasional week in Luna Bay’s rustic peace and quiet. But the city, with its 24/7 pulsing life, its shops, cafés, theatres, and people, its chemistry, had shaped her life since birth. At heart, she was, would always be, a Sydney girl. Hamish Bourke would never understand that. Erin liked Luna Bay, but she loved Sydney. She couldn’t live two lives — city and country. She’d change the subject.
    â€˜Okay,’ she said. ‘Sounds like you’re the perfect guy to advise me about my property. How to tidy it up.’
    â€˜I did suggest that you spend some time on the place — real time, not the quick sprint along the cliff-top path. Listen to what the land has to tell you.’
    â€˜You mean listen to the trees? So trees really can talk?’
    â€˜Sure they can. The ancient Druids said they could, and anybody with half an ear open can hear them.’
    Was this smart lawyer telling the truth as he saw it? She’d assume he was just dangling a cute metaphor to draw her in — better that she play along with it.
    â€˜Fine. So I can hear what the trees are trying to tell me if I go for a walk through the property? Maybe hug one or two as I go?’
    â€˜That might help,’ he said. ‘But I hear them loud and clear every time I take a walk there, and I haven’t taken to hugging one yet. It’s all about being open to listening.’
    â€˜And how do I get to be open to listening? Remember, I’m pretty new to tree talk.’
    â€˜Well…’ He hesitated. ‘I suppose it’s alright to tell you this. Since you own the place now.’
    Erin looked hard into his face. What was he holding back?
    â€˜Did your grandmother ever tell you about the Sea Eagle’s Nest?’ he asked eventually.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Well then. I suppose I’d better.’ He leaned back in his chair. She sensed he was less than sure about sharing this secret with her. ‘You know your land falls away pretty steeply towards the sea? Right at the highest point, where the cottage overlooks the ocean.’
    â€˜Yes. I’ve never been down there. It’s scary. A sheer cliff.’
    â€˜You’re right. Which is a good thing. There’s a rope ladder tucked away in your shed. If you take that ladder, and your courage, in both hands, and head towards the cliff, you can hook the ladder to a tree, shimmy down, and find yourself at a pretty exciting place — Sea Eagle’s Nest, Edna called it. It’s a little cave — not much more than a cleft in the rock, actually. Don’t know how Edna found it, but she did.’ He paused, steepled his hands. Satisfied he’d hooked her, he carried on.
    â€˜She set it up as a little shrine to her dead