‘What’s that?’
‘That is the reason Rainbow Cliffs even exists. The main opal-mining area. The Field of Dreams.’
They circled over what looked like the set of a disaster movie, white heaps pockmarking the area and creating an illusory lunar landscape.
‘What you’re looking at is opal dirt, or mullock, removed from a shaft,’ Jamie explained. ‘It’s not actually dirt but clay. That’s the layer where opals are found.’
‘It’s so ugly.’
He sat silent a moment. ‘You think so? I reckon it’s got a kind of off-beat beauty.’
Eventually they headed back to the airstrip, into a gentle descent and what must have been a textbook landing as Gemma didn’t feel a thing. The morning, which had unfolded as a temporary truce between them rather than the charade she’d envisaged, had proved enjoyable. She was almost sorry to be back on the ground.
‘Thank you. That was ... great,’ she admitted, surprising herself. Still buoyed by the excitement of the flight, she couldn’t keep from smiling.
Neither, it seemed, could Jamie. ‘It’s good to see you starting to relax.’ He grinned at her. ‘Been like old times. Reminded me of the fun we had at uni.’
Her mind immediately filled with half-forgotten flashes, pictures of Jamie’s handsome features creased up in laughter, his boyish grin impossible to resist. Yes, they’d had some exceptionally good times back then. She chuckled.
‘What were you just thinking about?’ he asked.
‘I was remembering that time you fell asleep in Roger’s lecture after we stayed up all night printing posters for the demonstration. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much.’
‘Yeah, the whole hall erupted when the professor asked whoever the snorer was to raise their hand. I did.’ He roared with laughter. ‘But so did a dozen others.’
She felt it coming and just couldn’t stop; a laugh escaping from somewhere deep inside. Her reaction triggered another rich bellow from Jamie and then she was laughing so hard she couldn’t catch her breath and had to hold her side.
Loosening the noose of self-control felt good. She’d laughed, really laughed like this, so seldom in the last few years. Somehow being a single mother with a career in a tough, male-dominated profession like palaeontology precluded any display of a sense of humour. To have it resurrected was liberating, and today had proved more pleasurable than she thought possible.
Jamie considered her thoughtfully. ‘What say we make a day of it? I don’t have to relieve Harry until mid-afternoon. Want to take a closer look at the places we just buzzed?’
Every sensible, practical bone in her body warned her to say no. She had a mission to accomplish; this man was all that stood in her way. He’d just asked her to spend the day with him but she couldn’t seem to think straight with him around. And she still needed a viable plan to convince him to sell Gracie to her, although she did have an idea forming.
Those midnight-blue eyes of his had her mesmerised. It couldn’t hurt to prolong the fun for a little while. ‘Yeah, why not?’
He made a fist, as if grabbing a physical hold of his enthusiasm. ‘Excellent!’ He held open the door of the four-wheel-drive and she clambered inside.
While Jamie drove they continued comparing reminiscences, each one triggering the memory of another, and as they talked and laughed and finished each other’s sentences, the years vanished and the man she remembered returned. What she saw now was not the intractable pain-in-the-butt from last night, but her teenage crush; someone whose laughter pulled at her, someone who reminded her of the girl she’d once been. And, with the distance that being lost in the past provided, it occurred to her that Jamie was right; part of her had been in long hibernation.
Not wanting to think too much about that, she retreated from the thought, focusing instead on enjoying the peaceful interlude. While it lasted.
Over the next couple of hours, she learned what surely amounted to everything there was to know about ‘the Cliffs’. What struck her most was that, tiny though the town might be, the potential for tourism was enormous.
‘This place was flourishing a few years back when we bought the motel,’ Jamie explained as they drove through the centre of town. ‘Had a great community spirit. Over time, though, the big opal finds have become fewer and fewer. Now,’ he indicated an abandoned wreck by the side of the road quickly engulfed by a cloud of red dust as they passed, ‘everyone’s too busy just trying to make a living to give civic improvements a second thought.’
‘It’s not a very welcoming place in this heat, but it has got an amazing frontier atmosphere,’ she responded. ‘Kind of wild. Untamed.’
Now that she’d had a chance to take in the town and surrounds up close she could appreciate the appeal of this outback wilderness, so different to the city life she’d become used to.
He nodded his agreement. ‘I reckon it’s a magic place.’
Out of the blue, a flock of galahs swooped noisily over the car to settle in pink and white profusion in the stunted acacias lining the dusty track.
Gemma clapped her hands together. ‘How beautiful!’
‘Sure is from where I’m sitting.’
She turned to find he’d taken his gaze from the road and was looking at her. He grinned at her in his old familiar way before turning his attention back to the road.
She loved the way his eyes crinkled up when he did that. Her gaze slid to his hands gripping the wheel. Remembering the power of the touch of those long fingers set her heart jumping wildly beneath her ribcage.
The strong physical response sparked a sudden desire to have him touch her again. The way he had last night, the same way he had when they were young and falling in love for the first time: pressing himself against her, kissing her with that warm, giving mouth. Wrapping her up in the smell, the feel, the taste of him.
She found herself leaning towards him, wanting to reach out and stroke a finger along those full lips. Instead she moved her hands to her stomach to quell a flutter at the unexpected thought of how it might have been to share her life with this man, to have him know he was her son’s father.
Lost in the moment, she indulged in willing them a new past, fantasising they were meeting for the first time, with no history, no deadlock to keep them apart. But then, if that was the case, she wouldn’t have her beautiful boy. She sighed. No getting past it; she and Jamie did have a past—one she’d spent years shutting out but couldn’t bring herself to totally regret—and the situation with Gracie was an impossible obstruction.
Jamie pulled the vehicle to a stop, bringing her train of thought to a halt with it. She gazed around. On the horizon heat shimmered the air above the lunar-like landscape of the opal fields. Closer, a dilapidated fence, pickets falling over themselves in the dust, surrounded a clutch of ancient markers.
‘Pioneer Cemetery.’ He answered her unspoken question as he climbed down from the car. ‘C’mon, you’ll be fascinated.’
He was right. She’d never been in a cemetery as old as this. She studied the weather-eroded headstones as she wandered the rows of aged graves, her sandals sinking into the warm, soft sand. The names and dates on many were indecipherable but those that could be made out dated from the mid-1800s.
‘The history of this place is amazing.’ She crouched to examine a headstone. ‘Someone ... is it Forster? 1844 to 1864. Beloved wife of George,’ she read. ‘What do you suppose she died of? Disease? Accident?’
Jamie strode over on his long legs . ‘Ahhh, Daisy.’ He said the name wistfully, as if he’d known her personally, as he hunkered down to run a finger over the words. ‘Childbirth, I reckon.’ He nodded at the small grave beside the larger one. ‘She may not have lived long but she’s secured her own little place in history, buried here for people like us to wonder about.’
He raised himself up, towering over her. She had to shade her eyes with a hand against the glare to read his face as she stood up next to him. Hardly a breath of wind stirred the ai
r between them. Hot sand roasted the soles of her feet through her sandals, the odour pungent, but she didn’t want to move, didn’t want to risk interrupting their conversation. His comment intrigued her.
‘You make it sound important to you—to secure a place in history, I mean.’
‘I always wanted to leave my mark on something. Just had trouble figuring out what.’ He gave her a wry grin.
An idea tugged at the edge of her mind, an idea on how to use this to her advantage. Excitement warred with trepidation at Jamie’s possible reaction to the proposal she was formulating, keeping her from blurting it out. She needed a few minutes to think it through before presenting it to him.
‘I think if anyone can leave their mark on the world, you can.’ A rush of hope sent adrenalin pumping through her veins.
His grin nearly split his good-looking face in two. ‘That’s quite a vote of confidence. Maybe one day I can prove you right.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Sadly, time to make tracks.’
Back inside the vehicle, Jamie’s black fringe stuck to his forehead and glistening jewels of perspiration beaded his upper lip. He raised a muscled forearm to wipe away the sweat before wheeling them onto the track. Gemma fanned the blast of ice-cold air onto her overheated skin.
‘I meant what I said back there.’ She glanced sideways at his profile, licked at her lips. ‘And I think I know a way you could gain yourself a place in history.’
He shifted his gaze from the road to her, his sapphire-blue eyes registering interest. ‘Keep talking.’
She inhaled a calming breath. This was it. Failure was not an option. If she could make him see the worth of her idea, not only would a scientific tragedy be prevented but it’d show them all, Roger included, that she had the balls to succeed. Despite the air-conditioning, sweat trickled down her back.
‘Gracie is one of the most spectacular scientific finds ever made in this country. By selling her to Museum Australasia you’d be associated with the discovery forever.’ Unable to quell her eagerness, she rushed on. ‘We’d have a plaque with your name on the display. Imagine the publicity for your motel. For opening night we’d invite every prominent palaeontologist in the country.’ She stopped to draw breath. ‘What do you think?’
Jamie pulled the four-wheel-drive off the track and slammed on the brakes. They’d reached the outskirts of the opal fields. He shifted his gaze from the rutted road ahead to her without speaking, his narrowed eyes definitely interested.
She tried to hide her impatience but self-satisfaction swelled to breaking point inside. She’d found a way to reach him.
He studied her for some time before looking away. Then, almost invisibly, he shook his head.
She stiffened.
‘Sorry, Gem.’ His voice was pitched low; he refused to meet her eyes.
The words hung between them while she took them in and digested them. An incredibly bitter taste penetrated the back of her mouth as his words sank, together with her heart, to the pit of her stomach.
‘Why not?’ She hated the vulnerable quaver in her voice; willed herself to show some of that inner strength she been working so hard to build back up.
‘I told you last night, it’s complicated. If you can just wait a few days I’ll—’
‘Not good enough, Jamie.’ Where the bravado manifested from she had no idea, but she was incredibly grateful for it. ‘Not a good enough answer.’ She crossed her arms over her chest.
‘This isn’t about you! It’s about something I need to do,’ he said impatiently, flinging her a brief, hard stare. ‘You have to understand, I’ve got dreams.’
He sounded so damn self-righteous, her temper flared. ‘Oh, I understand, believe me. You intend to carelessly destroy something precious for a dream of something better for yourself down the track.’ The words erupted from deep inside her chest, pouring out in a resentful stream. ‘The same way you carelessly destroyed our relationship for a get-rich-quick promise.’
Oh my god, where did all that vitriol come from?
Jamie’s face tightened. ‘I’m not the one who got married within months of our split.’
‘Best thing I could have done,’ she fired back at him. True, but only because she’d needed a father for the child growing inside her.
Jamie gave her words another meaning. ‘Good for you. I’m glad you and the professor are so happy together.’ His tone said otherwise. ‘Now, getting back to what started this, Gracie’s future is not up for discussion.’
She recognised the locked jaw, the stubborn set of those broad shoulders, and knew any hope of penetrating his pig-headedness was futile. Rejected, disappointed and more than a little angry, she shoved at the car door with her foot and clambered out into the heat. She refused to sit next to him for one second longer; needed to walk off the frustrated resentment before it consumed her.
‘Wait!’ he barked after her.
‘No!’ Heading off cross-country, she tossed the word back over her shoulder.
The slamming of the door behind her barely registered as she became aware of the glaring white moonscape in which she found herself. The ground was cratered with bone-coloured heaps of grit, many higher than her chest, stretching away into the distance. Rough dust tracks meandered all over the place between shafts gouged from the earth. Pieces of abandoned machinery lay everywhere, accompanied by huge squares of rusting corrugated iron. She shaded her eyes against the harsh sunlight and took a few more steps.
‘Stop!’ Hard authority marked the tone.
‘Why? Why the hell would I listen to you?’ she demanded, turning to face him while continuing to walk backwards.
He strode with an arm out toward her. ‘Don’t go any further, Gem.’ His voice held an odd note.
‘I’ll go where I damn well want.’ The return of some self-control to her own voice pleased her. He needed reminding she would not be ordered about.
As she turned to continue walking she stumbled, only to find herself grabbed by the forearm and yanked roughly off her feet.
‘What the hell—’
‘Look!’ He pushed with his foot at a solid-looking clump of grass she’d been on the verge of stepping onto. The sand at the edge collapsed inward revealing a massive, apparently bottomless black hole.
‘It’s an abandoned airshaft, Gem. The place is riddled with them. You could’ve been killed.’ The look he shot her would have halted a pack of sharks in a feeding frenzy. ‘If I tell you to stop it’s for a reason, not just to have you follow my orders. Got that?’ he demanded.
Killed? Her heart accelerated to a gallop; her stomach lurched. Drew left motherless and returned to Roger’s far less than loving care?
Something in her face must have given away her distress because a change came over his. ‘Are you okay?’
‘F—fine,’ she managed.
She wasn’t; her knees had gone to jelly. She swayed, nearly losing her balance. If he hadn’t been holding her she would’ve been a puddle on the ground.
‘Sure you are.’ He wrapped one arm behind her and bent down to swing the other arm under her legs. Lifting her effortlessly, he then carried her back to the car. He set her down on the seat and tilted her face up to meet his. ‘You scared the living daylights out of me.’
‘I scared myself.’ She didn’t mind admitting it.
‘Look, Gem,’ he said, massaging his temple, ‘you might not believe this, but I do want to help you. If I could sell Gracie to your museum I would.’ Passionate intensity fuelled his words and the regret in his dark-blue eyes seemed genuine. ‘But I can’t. And you have to take my word that my need to dismantle her is just as important to me as your grant is to you. Maybe even more so.’ He bent over her, caressing her shoulder, as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them to be so close that the warmth of his breath on her cheek was causing her body to tremble and her heart to pound.
Confusion reigned. His words implied that it was necessary and worthwhile to trust his motives, but her head spun with
too many reminders of why he was not to be trusted. And she resented her body’s reactions to him—the blood racing through her veins, pulsing in her ears, and her flesh quivering with every touch.
Twisting out of his reach seemed peevish after he’d just saved her life, but it was the only way to extricate herself. And, man, did she need extricating. Fast.
Professional detachment was the only solution. ‘Please take me back to the motel.’ She tried to keep her face neutral, her tone cool. ‘I have to contact my boss.’
He regarded her in silence for some time. ‘Don’t you get it? Nothing will change my mind.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ she said, her voice as cold as she could make it. Though clutching at straws, she needed him to believe she knew what she was talking about. ‘You leave me no choice. You won’t sell Gracie to me? I’ll organise a legal injunction to at least prevent you from dismantling her.’ She eyed him defiantly.
His gaze turned hard. Then astonishingly he smiled, although his eyes stayed flint-like.
‘Give it your best.’ He gave a dismissive shrug. ‘You won’t find any legislation to support you. Fossil finds come under the Mining Act. That means I can do whatever I want with Gracie, except export her.’
Despite the unbearable heat, ice spread along her spine. From the absolute certainty in his voice he had to know he was right.
The ace up her sleeve had been played. And she’d lost.
Chapter 7
‘See you the day after tomorrow. Look forward to catching up, mate.’
Jamie hung up the phone, typed the opal dealer’s name into the computer then pushed back into the padded leather chair, all the while swearing under his breath. Why couldn’t Lloydy have delayed his visit for another week? By then Gem would be gone and he wouldn’t have to put up with her certain censure over the dismantling of the fossil.
He could see her face now—that expression of distaste she’d mastered so well. Self-righteous, so quick to judge. The picture made him squirm in the chair.
Falling In Love Again Page 7
