Rose River

by Margareta Osborn

  ‘You do that,’ called Jaime as Stirling drove them away.

  Maybe Marty would get his comeuppance yet.

  The trip back to Polly’s Plains took another two and a half hours. Jaime spent it gazing out the window at the bush fringing the sides of the road. A mob of wallabies sprang through scrubby wattles, startled into flight by the vehicle. An echidna burrowed its way into the soil near an old fence post. She barely saw any of it, she was so immersed in thought.

  Finally, they were on the winding road that led up the mountain beyond Lake Grace. As they drove in the morning light and its comforting solitude, the mountains, valleys and winding river reminded Jaime of her father and the bush he’d loved so much. A love and respect, she now acknowledged, that he’d passed as a gift onto her. Burdekin’s Gap felt like home. That realisation gave her the courage to follow through with the resolution she’d made when she was stuck with Marty on that horrible beach a few hours before. After all, she had nothing to lose now.

  ‘Stirling?’

  ‘Mmm?’ he said. He was frowning at a wombat that had decided it was going to wander along the side of the road.

  ‘Are you going to marry Tiffany?’

  ‘What?’ The four-wheel-drive jerked sideways towards the wombat and Stirling reefed it back. ‘Who gave you that dumb-fool idea?’

  Jaime turned in her seat and glared at him. ‘You did, Marble Man. You practically got engaged to her at the talent quest.’

  ‘I did not!’

  ‘And you kissed her in front of all those people at the fair.’

  ‘She kissed me at the fair. I was so shocked I didn’t respond quick enough.’

  Jaime folded her arms. ‘So you did respond eventually?’

  Stirling looked stricken. ‘No! I mean, I didn’t stop her from kissing me straightaway – I was too shocked. But then I pushed the poor girl away. Not a nice thing to do, but she’s too damned persistent.’

  ‘She organised that grant for Nanny Burgess. You all loved it!’

  ‘Tiffany got the sponsorship from the vet company, but it was actually Jean who organised the donation from Amy and Bert. She and Bluey were going to surprise you with it after the fair. By the way, you’ve got a big fan there. When I couldn’t find you, I rang to see if you were down at the pub. Jean sure gave me a mouthful. Told me when it came to my love life, I was a blockhead.’ Stirling gave a half-laugh, then went on. ‘Anyway, seeing we’re asking a few straight questions, what about you? Are you in love with Marty?’

  ‘Hell no!’ Jaime spluttered. ‘He’s awful.’ She glanced down at her sore knuckles. The skin was broken on a couple of them.

  ‘Why did you go to stay on the island with him then?’

  ‘I didn’t. I went to see my mother. He was there already, but she didn’t tell me.’

  ‘But you don’t really like your mother.’

  Jaime took a breath. ‘I love my mother. She’s just a bit much in large doses, that’s all.’

  ‘You’d said you’d had a gutful of her over Christmas. So why seek her out again so soon?’

  Jaime squirmed. She could feel a headache coming on. ‘I just didn’t want to be around the property for a while.’

  ‘Mmmm.’

  ‘Don’t do that!’

  ‘Don’t do what?’

  ‘That “mmmm” thing!’

  ‘Geez, Jaime, I was out half the night looking for you! I was so worried. Then I found your note. Buster Two must’ve dragged it off the kitchen table and chewed it. I couldn’t make head nor tail of the message with all the slobber and teeth marks, except you’d gone away somewhere.’

  That’d be right: her plan to get away without causing any fuss had been short-circuited by an animal. She didn’t know why she was surprised. It was the story of her life. Or at least her life at Burdekin’s Gap.

  ‘I told Tiff ages ago I wasn’t going to marry her,’ Stirling continued. ‘It’s definitely over between us. Was years ago. I had to remind her of that in no uncertain terms after the fair. She wasn’t happy. Slapped me across the face and stormed off. I probably deserved it too.’

  Jaime couldn’t believe what she was hearing. He loved Tiffany, didn’t he?

  ‘But what about all the things you do with her? The horse-riding, the calfmarking thing, all the other country stuff she’s so good at?’

  The big stockman sighed. ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’

  Not that again!

  ‘What are you saying? If you don’t tell me, I’ll … I’ll …’ Jaime groped for something dire, which was a bit hard while driving along in a car. ‘I’ll jump out of the Cruiser!’

  ‘A woman in your state shouldn’t be jumping anywhere.’

  ‘Do you think I actually enjoyed having a deer’s head shoved up my jumper?’

  ‘I don’t know. I guess the point is, did you enjoy having Marty shove something up your jumper?’

  ‘I punched his nose! You saw me!’

  ‘Yes, I did. It was pretty funny too. But you’re always arguing with me, so why not with him as well?’

  ‘That’s different.’

  ‘What’s different?’

  ‘Us arguing compared to me arguing with Marty.’

  ‘Princess, you’re not making any sense.’

  ‘I’m not making any sense? Why you were running around everywhere with Tiffany? It’s a funny way of showing you don’t want to be with her!’

  ‘A few reasons, but I guess one of them was I wanted to make you jealous.’

  ‘Me? Why?’

  ‘If you can’t work that one out, Princess, you’re blonder than I thought!’

  And then, infuriatingly, he turned up the music and didn’t utter another word until they reached Ryan’s general store. All the way, Jaime cast occasional little glances at him, her mind working furiously. She hardly dared to hope. Didn’t even want to put the thought out there; it was far too precious. But maybe, just maybe, he liked her better than he did Tiffany?

  Chapter 39

  ‘This is Gretchna,’ said Ryan. ‘She helped me out on the Fair Day, remember?’

  Jaime had a vague recollection of two blondes.

  ‘Her sister Freda is across the road …’ Ryan added.

  Not with Skinner?

  ‘… with Skinner. She’s a whiz with animals. She’s finally convinced that damn sheep that thought it was a goat that it’s actually a sheep after all. See.’ Ryan pointed, and sure enough, there was the sheep, still with a collar around its neck, happily cavorting around a paddock filled with other sheep. Jaime could scarcely believe what she was seeing.

  ‘Here’re your keys,’ Stirling said to Ryan. ‘Thanks for the use of the truck.’

  ‘Yes, thanks,’ Jaime added. ‘I really appreciated it.’ She nodded towards Gretchna, winked and said, ‘Good luck.’

  Gretchna beamed. ‘He will needz it!’

  Ryan was grinning hard. ‘We were just going to have a drink, a belated celebration on the success of the fair. Want to join us?’

  ‘Nope. Sorry,’ said Stirling.

  ‘Yes, let’s!’ said Jaime.

  They both stopped and glared at each other.

  Ryan looked from one to the other. ‘So that’s a yes or a no?

  ‘Definitely not,’ said Stirling. ‘I’ve got stock to feed seeing I’ve wasted half a day already.’

  Wasted it?

  ‘If you didn’t want to come get me, you just had to say so!’ said Jaime.

  ‘And leave you with that dickhead? Hardly.’

  ‘You didn’t even know he was there when I rang you.’

  ‘Just as well –’

  ‘Ahem,’ interrupted Ryan. ‘You two might like to ride home and finish your argument there, if you’re not coming to our little party?’ He indicated a newly arrived and smirking Skinner, who was accompanied by a wide-eyed blonde, whom Jaime assumed was Freda, the sheep whisperer.

  ‘And McEvoy?’ continued the store owner, ‘You probably should look into buying a vehicl
e of your own seeing there’s two of you now.’

  ‘My bike does me fine,’ said the big stockman, walking towards his V-Max, which was parked beside a large storage shed. ‘C’mon, Jaime, unless you want me to leave you here to party on.’

  Jaime marched her way over to Stirling. ‘I’m not a party girl, Marble Man, if that’s what you’re implying.’

  ‘I’m not implying anything. Get on.’

  ‘But –’

  ‘Get on, Princess, before I throw you over my shoulder and put you on myself. Again.’

  Oh, great. He was turning Neanderthal again. ‘How come you’re Mr Nice Guy one minute and the next you turn into a grump?’ she grumbled. ‘I can’t keep up.’

  She took the helmet he was holding out for her, twirled her long hair up into a knot and jammed the helmet onto her head. As she’d left her overnight bag back at Dave’s shack, she didn’t have anything to stow in the panniers. No bikini, no G-strings, not even a hair straightener.

  ‘On,’ repeated the big man, now sitting on the bike himself.

  She didn’t like his tone, but he made to get off the bike so she scrambled up behind him. He sat back down and they took off in one swift movement.

  The last Jaime saw of Burdekin’s Gap was Ryan, Gretchna, Skinner and Freda laughing as they walked back into the store.

  ‘You didn’t have to be so tetchy about it all,’ yelled Jaime, pulling off her helmet. She’d been fuming all the way home. ‘And I would’ve gotten on eventually. You just had to ask politely.’

  The bike was idling at the gateway to Valerie’s house. Stirling switched it off, removed his helmet and contemplated her. His silence and the look on his face was disconcerting. She couldn’t read what he was thinking.

  She folded her arms. Thrust her chin into the air. ‘Now what did I say?’

  He didn’t answer. Just sat and looked at her.

  ‘Stirling?’ Her tummy was clenching with butterflies. ‘What’s up?’

  He sighed, like he was resigned to something. ‘I love you, God help me, but …’

  Really? But if it was true, why didn’t he sound happy about it?

  ‘Isn’t that supposed to be good news?’ she said.

  He got off the bike and stood in front of her. ‘I don’t know. I thought that if I encouraged Tiff a little, it might make you want me rather than Marty. But at the same time, I was worried you wouldn’t be happy here once you started missing the city life, the parties and all. You’d leave me once the whole peace and quiet thing lost its shine.’ He scruffed at his hair in agitation. ‘Then Tiff appeared, and I really did need a hand with the cattle seeing Valerie’s away. But that’s beside the point. It was wrong of me to use Tiff like that, and it was wrong to try to make you jealous.’

  It had sure done the trick, though! Jaime could never be as good as Tiffany at the whole country thing.

  ‘She’s so good at all the station stuff, Stirling. The horse-riding, working with the cattle and so on.’

  ‘But you were doing well at it, especially seeing you’d never done it before.’

  ‘You didn’t say that when I left the gate open.’

  ‘I thought you were protecting Marty.’

  ‘Correction. You thought I was lying – about Marty, and other stuff.’

  Stirling sighed again. ‘I’ve had a few trust issues. It’s taken me a while, but I realise now you’re not like other women I’ve known. You don’t manipulate the truth to suit yourself, you just blurt it straight out.’ Jaime didn’t know whether to feel affronted or ecstatic at that statement.

  ‘Is that why you’ve chosen me over Tiffany?’ she said.

  He gave a half-laugh. ‘That, and because you’re beautiful, gorgeous and so up-beat. You always see the bright side, you’re funny, you make me laugh – and Lord knows I need a bit of that. You’re kind-hearted and really care about people. You were so thoughtful about Dad. I rang him the other night to see if he’d like to work on some machinery that needs fixing and he jumped at the chance. Haven’t heard him sound so animated in a long time. And then there was the fair, all done for an old lady you’d never even met.’

  Awww, he was so nice. But she wasn’t totally innocent either.

  ‘With Nanny Burgess I was trying to show you I was better than the Tosser,’ she confessed.

  ‘The who?’

  She waved a hand. ‘It’s what I was calling Tiffany.’

  Stirling blinked. Flashed a grin that faded pretty quickly. Jaime knew she’d blown it. Tears started to fall and she was powerless to stop them. And they weren’t fake ones this time, like at the hospital.

  Two big hands landed on her shoulders. A finger tipped her chin upwards. She looked into Stirling McEvoy’s concerned face.

  ‘Princess, don’t cry. I’m sorry. I should’ve believed you, should have known you were telling the truth. And the jealousy thing – it was just because I didn’t want you to go. Can you forgive me?’

  ‘What is there to forgive?’ Jaime said through her tears. ‘We were both being idiots.’

  Her gorgeous, infuriating stockman smiled. And his lips came down on hers, tentatively at first, and then passionately.

  She sank into the kiss, and, feeling her response, Stirling wrapped his whole body around hers. He pulled her so tight into his chest that Jaime felt like she wasn’t ever going to breathe properly again. But was she complaining? No way. She relished the feel of his warm hands moving across her back. The hardness of his chest against her breasts. The heat of his mouth brushing across her lips, her cheeks, down her neck, nuzzling back up to secure her lips again. It was heaven. She moaned.

  Stirling pulled back, frowning. ‘I’m hoping with all my heart that was a happy moan,’ he said.

  She swiped away the last of her tears, then reached up and smoothed his furrowed brow. ‘Oh, yes, very happy.’

  He gently clasped her fingers and held them to the side of his face. ‘So do you think you might be happy spending the rest of your life up here in Hicksville?’

  He sounded so uncertain.

  ‘Do you want me to?’ Jaime asked.

  He looked down at her and she saw the muscle jumping at the corner of his mouth. ‘Well, that depends.’

  She went to pull away. ‘Don’t tell me after all this –’

  He pulled her back against him so she was caught fast. ‘No. But you’re such a contrary thing, Princess, I’m not sure whether to say go so you’ll stay, or say stay and risk you might go. And I really don’t want you to go.’

  ‘So you’d prefer it if I stayed?’

  ‘Yes.’ He couldn’t have sounded more definite.

  ‘And it has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve looked after Valerie’s cat so well he’s now enjoying a holiday on a sun-soaked island in the Gippsland Lakes?’

  ‘You what?’ She felt his chuckle ripple through his chest. ‘Princess, with you around I’m starting to expect anything could happen.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Let’s just say that since you arrived at Polly’s Plains my life hasn’t been boring. What’s more, if things go the way I’d like them to, that state will continue for the next, say, sixty years.’

  Jaime stared at Stirling.

  ‘But in the meantime,’ he went on, ‘how about we just continue with this?’ And his lips came down on hers again, harder this time, more demanding.

  She felt her whole body respond in kind. There were no prizes for guessing what could happen next, if she allowed it. And, oh boy, did she want to give the go ahead, but …

  ‘Stirling, I kind of need a shower. I’m disgustingly dirty and all I can smell is that dratted deer.’

  Her big stockman drew back and gave her a devilish smile. ‘Do you need a hand with the soap? I’m pretty good at that.’

  Didn’t she know it. The memory of his hands doing all those wicked things in the bath made her shiver.

  ‘Last one out of their clothes has to cook dinner,’ she yelled, takin
g off towards the house.

  ‘Why you little …’

  Marble Man was running beside her, then ahead of her, bowling through the back door first, pounding his way towards the shower, stripping off as he went. She caught up with him at the bathroom door as he jigged and jogged, trying to reef off his jeans.

  ‘Might help if you take your boots off first,’ she said, throwing her bra into his face.

  By the time he looked up again, she was standing in the shower stall, naked, beckoning to him.

  His face darkened with want. Her own body reacted with a jolt of power. Need. And then he was right there beside her, sliding his strong hands across her back, over her bottom, rubbing, kneading, kissing, loving her with every part of his body.

  ‘Oh God, Jaime, I’ve missed you.’

  ‘But I’ve been right here.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ he growled.

  Jaime laughed, which turned into squeaks of pleasure as Stirling found the place he was looking for between her legs. And then she couldn’t think or talk anymore.

  Chapter 40

  It was a couple of hours before they finally gathered up their various pieces of discarded clothing.

  ‘Your bra, Princess.’

  ‘Your sock, Marble Man.’ Jaime dissolved into giggles at the expression on Stirling’s face. ‘Yes, it stinks. You need to change them more often.’

  ‘I was in a hurry. Someone had gone missing!’ He fixed her with a stern look.

  ‘Okay, okay. I’m sorry, alright?’

  ‘I’ll forgive you if you promise me more of what we just did for the rest of my life.’

  Jaime laughed. ‘It’s a deal.’

  ‘I’ll meet you back here at six,’ he told her, pulling on his boots. ‘Got to go feed my cattle now.’ And he was gone.

  He was back again right on six, riding the four-wheeler with a long toolbox strapped to the back. Oh no, they weren’t going shooting again, were they?

  ‘Jump on,’ he said, shuffling a little forward on the seat.

  Busters One and Two beat her to it. Both dogs sat there with their tongues hanging out, drooling with happiness. Stirling sighed and got off the bike to call them to their kennels. They weren’t smiling now. He clipped them to their chains and the pair of them sat there sulking.