Christmas with her Boss by Marion Lennox

I get my licence I’ll have it on the road. If I get it going before then, I can practice in the paddocks. I can phone him any time I want, and if I’m really stuck he’s even offered to come out here to help.’
    â€˜He really will,’ William said, still smiling. ‘This won’t be any work for either of you. I promise.’ His lovely, lazy smile lit his face and Meg thought frantically she’d have to give those hormones another slap.
    â€˜I have faith,’ he went on. ‘This’ll mean eventually the farm has two cars. By the way, we also went to the motor place in Curalo and bought bits for your wagon, Letty. Your exhaust pipe has to be replaced and the silencer and so does the carburettor. If it’s okay with you, I might make a start this afternoon.’
    â€˜You…’ Meg said, dazed.
    â€˜I can fix cars,’ he said neutrally. ‘And Scott would like to learn.’
    â€˜You want to fix my car?’ Letty said, while Meg simply stood with her mouth open.
    â€˜If it’s okay with you.’
    â€˜Marry me,’ Letty said, and Scott and William laughed—only, for some reason, Meg had trouble laughing. The sight of her boss in jeans was disconcerting enough, but she waslooking at Scott’s flushed face and his shining happiness and she thought, why hadn’t she thought of this?
    Scott was practically stranded here on the farm. His bad leg left him isolated. There were so many days when he simply gazed at his computer, in misery and in loneliness.
    He now had a car to make. And it was an original Mini…
    Mickey would come, she thought, and more. This project would be a magnet. Scott’s mates would come, as they had before the accident.
    She was blinking back tears.
    â€˜What’s wrong?’ William demanded, watching her face and clearly confounded.
    She sniffed and tried desperately to think of something to say. Something to do rather than kiss him again, which seemed an entirely logical thing to do, but some germ of common sense was holding her back.
    â€˜I…I wanted perfume,’ she managed, and her little brother stared at her as if she was out of her mind.
    â€˜Perfume…when you could have these!’
    â€˜They’re not very…girlie,’ she said and somehow she managed to sound doleful and Scott realised she was joking and grinned and hugged her. Which was amazing all by itself. How long since her seriously self-conscious brother had hugged?
    â€˜I’ll let you drive my car,’ he offered, magnanimity at its finest. ‘Second drive after me, the minute I get it going.’
    â€˜What an offer,’ she said and sniffed again and hugged him back and then smiled across at William through unshed tears.
    â€˜Thank you, Santa,’ she said.
    â€˜Think nothing of it,’ he said in a voice she didn’t recognise and then she thought, no, she did know what she was hearing.
    Her normally businesslike boss was just a wee bit emotional himself.
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    It was time for milking. Letty and Meg milked because, ‘I’m not interfering with this, even if I have to milk the whole herd,’ Letty declared in wonder. Meg could only agree, for kids were arriving from everywhere. It seemed William had detoured past Mickey’s with their load—‘just to show him,’ Scott had told them, and Mickey had sent out word, and before they knew it a team of adolescents was unloading the heap of Mini jumble into the unused shed behind the dairy.
    When milking was done Meg checked on Millicent—the little heifer was thankfully showing no signs of calving—then went to investigate. The teenagers were surrounded by Mini parts. William was under Letty’s car.
    â€˜Sorry. I know I said I’d milk, but Letty assured me she could and someone had to supervise…’
    Some supervision. All she could see of William was his legs. He was in his borrowed overalls again and