Commitment

Part 89

The next weekend Gray drove over to the farm and went in search of Regan. His heart was racing. Anticipation? Expectation? And he determined that he would re –ignite their on-hold-discussion. She probably thought he had forgotten, because he had not broached it during their telephone chats during this week.

He saw her car at the front of the house, so obviously she was here. He knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. He wondered if she was walking, perhaps at the place where she had her picnic. Then he saw the dairy herd and thought he could check with Bob, because Bob might know if Regan is at the farm or is walking. As he walked towards the shed, he noticed that Bob's car was not here.

Gray found Regan in one of the sheds.

"Regan." He called out. "Regan?"

She stopped, looked up and saw that he possessed a quiet assurance and not a trace of nerves. Unlike her. Her heart was racing in anticipation of striking up a conversation but on the inside she was quaking. All she had to do was stay calm now. Use the techniques she'd developed during her childhood. Pretend to be confident if he brings up the conversation again, she reminded herself. So she squared her shoulders, said nothing and waited for him to come closer, wondering why he was here. They'd spoken on the phone during the last week. Mainly about her health, about Bob settling in, and his various visits to different farms in the south island, but none of their conversation did not include a review of that promised stalled-discussion. As days passed during the week, she was sure he had forgotten about it. Which was a good thing. In any case, the telephone conversation gave the impression that he did not consider her a charity case, but just a friendship. It was platonic!

She hadn't done anything to warrant this visit.

"Hi." He came closer.

She asked calmly and looked serenely at Gray, "What are you doing here?" She knew he flew back from the South island late last night because they spoke while he waited at the airport for his plane.

Gray ignored the question and had a question for her, "Where is Bob?" Gray looked around. He expected to see Bob here not Regan in the shed.

Regan said without any hesitation, "An emergency."

Watching her reaction carefully he said with just a hint of a bite. "Emergency?" Gray hoped he hadn't made a poor decision engaging Bob for this farm.

"Yes. And don't worry." She said in a tone of voice that told him it was obvious "He did the shift. Was going to finished it as per usual, but I told him he could leave. I could finish this, re stacking the hose. I brought the message to him." She narrowed her eyes.

Obviously she had done something to annoy Gray, for she couldn't imagine him going out of his way to come and see her again, given they had discussed the farm issues. And yet here he was. In her shed. Asking to talk to her. Maybe he was back, to discuss her beef herd. She knew his employer was restocking his farm, but she thought sheep, given he had spend the last seven days looking at various operations and breeds in the south island. She tipped her head to the side, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk you." He said bluntly and hoped his statement would jolt her out of her evasiveness from the discussion from a week ago.

"We did that." Red colour suffused Regan's neck and cheeks. "You were at the airport, waiting for your flight back." Regan said, and Gray huffed, he knew her strategy, deflection, swerve, dodge pertinent questions, reveal little and leave you thinking you have sorted it! He'd seen it in operation often enough, when he lived here, more recently, a week ago. But the last week was the foreplay to this discussion, set up the foundations for his intend chat. Any discussion about Bob's working circumstances, his attitudes, his skills and any repercussion from that, was talked about during their telephone chats. Any concerns about her recent ill-health was definitely was put to bed. She was fine. So now he felt he had a chance to advance his plan, because he had moved the various obstacles so that the path was clear.