by Camryn Eyde
Chapter Sixteen
“When are they coming!” Robbie shouted across the yard at her as she left the stables.
“Who?” Aimee asked.
“Aaron!”
“Aaron? Who’s Aaron?”
Robbie, who had run across the yard to reach Aimee, punched her in the arm. “Stop it.”
“Ow!” Aimee rubbed her arm and flinched in sync with Robbie when Sally screamed at them from across the yard.
“Robert James Higson! If I catch you punching a lady ever again, I’m going to take the whip to you for a solid month!”
“But Mum,” Robbie whined. “Aimee was teasing, and besides, she’s not a lady.”
Aimee gasped with offence. “You little brat!” Robbie took off laughing, giving Aimee something to chase. “Get back here you feral. I’m going to teach you about manners!”
Dodging and feigning, Robbie outwitted his aunt until taking a sharp left towards the machinery shed.
“Gotcha,” Aimee muttered, pre-empting her nephew, and running around the outside of the shed as he ran through it. “Cheeky little sod!” she said when she caught him on the fly, hooking her arm around his neck and knocking off his hat to ruffle his hair. Spotting the dirty hay and horse manure she had just finished mucking out of the stables, Aimee grinned ruefully. “You, my darling nephew, are about to pay for hitting me, then inferring I’m not a lady.”
Robbie saw where she was dragging him and did his best to anchor his feet into the ground. “No! Don’t!”
Thankful for the strength working on the farm gave her, Aimee wrestled her constantly growing nephew to the waiting pile.
“Aimee! Don’t! I’m sorry! Mum!”
Sally called across the yard. “Don’t come crawling to me. You got into this all on your own. And Robbie? Don’t you dare come near me until you shower twice and wash those clothes.”
Aimee chuckled and shoved Robbie into the pile. What she didn’t bargain on was his scrawny, but ruthless arm latching onto her and pulling her in after him.
With a screech, the pair of them belly flopped into the dirty hay and manure.
“Gross,” Robbie moaned as he hurried out of the pile.
“Why’d you pull me in you little turd,” Aimee muttered and threw a handful of manure at him.
“Hey!”
Aimee poked out her tongue and threw another lump of something at him.
“Stop it!” Robbie yelled before grabbing his own ammunition to toss at his aunt. Caught in a battle of hay flinging, neither heard nor saw the car pull up in the yard. It wasn’t until the dust blew over them from the arrival, that they looked up.
“Shit,” Aimee muttered.
“You swore. I’m telling.”
Aimee narrowed her eyes at her dobbing nephew and smooshed a lump of mud into his hair. “Don’t you dare. You tell, and I might mention to Mum about that magazine Gav showed you.
Robbie’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
Aimee grinned at him and threw her arm around his shoulders. She quickly pulled back grimacing. “You stink.”
“Yeah, and you smell like roses.”
They looked at themselves and winced. “Gross,” Aimee whispered.
“Will you two quit playing with the horse poo and get over here already!” Sally yelled at them from the front verandah.
Walking over with bits of hay and manure dropping from their clothes, Robbie and Aimee stopped when Sally held up a hand with a disgusted look on her face. “You two are revolting.”
Aimee ignored her and looked at Justine. Smiling, she moved in for a hug but Justine yelped and jumped away.
“I don’t think so. I may love you, but trust me, it only goes so far.”
“If you love me, then you’d take me, manure and all.”
Justine shook her head and smiled before leaning up for a chaste peck on the lips. “There. Now go sanitise yourself.”
“Okay.” Aimee grinned and turned to find Robbie and Aaron looking revolted, and Sally bouncing on the spot with her hands cradled to her chest.
“Oh, my God. That was just the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Aimee scowled at her sister and went to walk past her into the house.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“For a shower.”
“In my clean bathroom? I don’t think so. See that hose over there…use it.”
Aimee looked over to the patch of lawn they kept green all year around with bore runoff from the windmill nearby. Aimee shrugged and walked over, stripping her top off as she went.
“Ew!” Robbie complained as he was ordered to follow her. “Keep your clothes on!”
“I’m wearing a crop top for crying out loud. I wear less when I swim in the creek.”
“So…that’s bathers, not underwear.”
“Too bad.” Aimee kicked off her boots and tugged her jeans off, leaving herself in a crop top and boxer shorts.
“So gross.”
“And you’re still a turd,” Aimee said spraying him with the hose as he tried to take his own shirt off.
“Stop it! You’re wetting me.”
Laughing, Aimee drenched the cheeky teen and once again found herself having to fend him off. The pair ended up covered in grass and mud.
***
On the verandah, Sally, Justine and Aaron all looked on. “She’s a bloody child,” Sally muttered.
“Can I go join in?” Aaron asked excitedly.
“You may as well,” Justine said. “I think that party over there is for children.”
Sally chuckled as Aaron sprinted across the yard and tackled Robbie to the sodden earth. Aimee quickly rinsed herself off and left the boys to their fun. Sending a wave in Justine’s direction, she hurried to her loft to change.
“So…love?”
Justine, who was left smiling as she watched her barely-dressed girlfriend saunter across the dirt, turned to look at Sally. She nodded. “For me, yes.”
“And Aimee?”
Justine shook her head with a silent chuckle. “Has trouble saying it.”
“Saying what?”
“That she loves me.”
Sally groaned. “Sounds like she got the same emotional deficiency Joey has. Two perfectly capable and confident people, but get them to talk about feelings, and pfft!” Sally waved her arms as if creating a small explosion. “Their brains turn to mush.”
“I hear congratulations are in order for Joey and Amber.” At Sally’s odd look silently saying, ‘how did you not know they were engaged?’ Justine explained. “Aimee told me about the baby.”
“Ah. Yes.” Sally beamed. She was looking forward to becoming an aunt…finally. Shifting her gaze to the boys now covered in mud, she wondered if Aaron was about to become a nephew sometime soon.
“Mum,” Robbie said as he started to slop his way over with Aaron. “Can we have a swim?”
“Not until you shower. I’m not risking getting horse manure in the pool. If it’s all right with Justine, you boys can go shower down at the shearers quarters then go for a swim.”
Justine smiled and nodded as two pairs of pleading eyes looked her way. “I’ll put your swimmers by the pool.”
“Thanks, Mum!” Aaron said loudly before running off with Robbie.
Smiling indulgently at the boys, Sally turned to Justine and said, “Right! Let’s get your bags and unload your horse.”
***
Aimee returned to the yards in time to find Sally and Justine hefting luggage from the back of the four-wheel drive, and to hear her sister say, “Where do you want to sleep?”
Aimee blushed as she walked up to them. “Umm…Justine, can I have a quick word.”
The woman gave her a quizzical look, but let Aimee draw her away from Sally, who chuckled to herself. “I was wondering, if it was okay with you, if maybe, uh, you’d like to stay with me in the loft?”
Justine nodded as though this news was obvious. “Of course.”
“Umm�
��and maybe Aaron could bunk with Robbie in the house?”
Justine smiled. “He’d like that.”
Nodding, Aimee said, “Yeah, I figured he’d want to hang with Robbie, you know because they’re really good mates.”
“Mmm.” Justine’s eyes twinkled up at Aimee, seeing through the very thinly veiled plan to get the woman alone in her bed.
“So, uh, yeah. I’ll put Dreamer in the stables.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Both Justine and Sally were grinning at Aimee as she unhitched the horse from the shady side of the float. Man, that shouldn’t have felt as embarrassing as it was. There was nothing wrong with wanting alone time with her girlfriend, was there? They’d been sleeping together for months.
“Hey boy,” she cooed at the wary-looking stallion. Coaxing him gently across the yards, Aimee stalled him in the fan-cooled stables and found him some sweet hay to eat. “Kite here will look after you,” she said to him. “Won’t you girl?” Giving Kite a cube of sugar, she stroked her mare’s muzzle and moved on to the next stall and gave the same treatment to Nameless.
The young filly, not as nervous as she was when she arrived, was more than ready to be handled and taught some basic groundwork by her new master. Smiling when that very person walked into the stables with her bag, Aimee crossed over to Justine and wrapped her in a much-needed hug.
“I’ve missed you,” Justine whispered into her neck.
“Me too,” Aimee said, lifting Justine off the ground and holding her tight. “I want to show you how much, but first, I have introductions to make.”
“Introductions?”
Aimee smiled and gave Justine a chaste kiss. Leading her by the hand to the yearling’s stall, she let Justine look the young horse over.
“Who’s this?” she asked, pleased when Nameless nuzzled her hand, sniffing for more sugar and snorting when she was disappointed.
“That’s up to you. She’s fourteen months old and has been waiting for her new owner to come to train her.”
Justine was smiling at the horse allowing her to stroke her nose. “She’s beautiful.”
Aimee’s heart swelled. “She’s yours,” she said quietly.
Justine stopped moving and her eyes snapped to Aimee’s. “Pardon?”
“Umm…I thought that maybe you might need your own horse for when you’re on the station.”
“You bought me a horse?”
Aimee licked her lips unsure if this was such a good idea after all. Grand gestures were nerve-wracking. “Yes.”
Justine’s gaze turned back to the young horse.
“Aaron helped me chose her.”
“What? When?”
“Remember the secret stuff?”
“That’s what you two did?”
Aimee nodded. “So…do you like her?”
Justine took a deep breath and studied the horse. “She’s a wary one.”
Aimee nodded at the assessment.
“She’ll require gentle training and a lot of handling.”
“She will.”
“She’ll need a consistent guiding hand.”
“I know.”
Justine turned her attention back to Aimee with her eyes twinkling. “She’s a big commitment.”
Aimee’s mouth curved into a smile, no longer sure if Justine was talking about the yearling or herself.
Justine purposely looked Aimee up and down taking away all doubt the focus of the subject. “I’ll need to spend a lot of time with her.”
Aimee nodded and swallowed down a lump the size of a brick. “Will you stay with her? Maybe…” Aimee felt her ears burn and her head start to spin. “Maybe, umm, you know, like, maybe permanently?” she managed to stutter. She felt like an idiot.
Justine looked amused by her awkward delivery, but refrained from laughing in her face. “Yes, I think I might.”
Aimee shuddered when she pulled Justine against her for a kiss. She was certain that she’d just had the most important discussion of her life. The way Justine responded with a deep moan and arms that latched around her, she suspected she felt the same.
“I think…we should…get your bag upstairs,” Aimee said between kisses.
Justine tugged her toward the stairs, not caring whether the bag came or not.
***
Whistling and feeling like she was floating on air, Aimee entered the homestead on her break-of-dawn quest to find milk to restock her small fridge. Justine liked lots of milk in her coffee and considering she liked coffee when she woke, Aimee wanted to be prepared. She pulled up short when she found Joey sitting at the breakfast bar eating toast. “Oh.”
“Good morning to you, too,” he said, sipping at a steaming cup of coffee.
“Yeah. Morning,” Aimee muttered and went to the fridge, wanting this exchange to end as soon as possible. It had been a frosty two weeks since their argument and despite seeing truth in his words after watching Romancing the Farmer, Aimee had avoided her brother like the plague. Pouring some milk into a smaller bottle, Aimee looked up through her lashes at Joey. She frowned. “Why are you trussed up like a turkey?”
Wearing his version of a suit: tan slacks, crisp white shirt and his best boots, he looked ready for a fancy dinner.
“I’m off to Melbourne.”
“Why?”
“It’s where Amber lives.”
Aimee nodded and returned the larger bottle of milk to the fridge, capping the decanted smaller glass one. “Right. Amber. So…is she moving up here?”
Joey narrowed his eyes suspiciously while he contemplated the question. “Yes. I’m helping her move in.”
“Right.” Aimee nodded again and gave him a closed-mouth half-smile. “So…a kid huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Yours?”
“Aimee!”
“What? I’m just checking!”
Joey huffed, climbed off the stool, and shoved his breakfast plates in the sink. Whirling on his sister, he propped his hands on his hips. “Yes, the baby is mine. Yes, we’re getting married. Yes, I love her. This may seem stupid to you, but I’m ready to make a life with Amber and our child.”
“I never said it was stupid.”
“You implied it.”
“No, I didn’t!”
“You’re questioning her morals.”
“No, I’m looking out for my brother. It’s what we do. Obviously, you’ve forgotten that little fact because you’ve done nothing but bark at me for months. Guess what, Joe? I get to make stupid decisions, too. It’s my life, so butt the hell out.”
“Your decisions are costing me money.”
“No, they cost me. That filly is an investment—my investment—but you’re too busy playing Scrooge to see that.”
Joey pursed his lips. “Fine, but what about Justine? How’s that going to work out? There’s a little boy just down that hall that’s going to get hurt.”
“No, he isn’t, because I won’t allow it.”
“Come off it, Aimee. Since when are you so committed? I can’t see you settling down…ever.”
Squeezing the top of the bottle and thankful it hadn’t smashed beneath her grip, Aimee shook her head at her brother. “One could say the same about you.” Turning away from him, she stormed away.
“You’re a bloody idiot!” Sally snapped at him from the hall entrance.
“She’s playing with fire.”
“God, you two are so alike it makes my teeth ache.” Sally shoved past Joey and began to boil the jug. “Justine is in love with her, Joe.”
He scoffed. “More fool her.”
“Jesus, Joseph, will you stop that? Can’t you see Aimee is in love, too?”
“Aimee? Right…”
Sally looked to the heavens and shook her head. “She’s been in a relationship for four months. That should tell you something for starters. She spent every weekend she could with Justine and her boy, and is trying to set a life up for them here.”
Joey frowned. “She went to Sydney
every weekend?”
“Mostly, yes. Aaron show jumps, so they’ve travelled all over the state.”
Joey blinked. That made all the fuel transactions make a lot more sense. “What else?” he asked.
“That filly needs to be handled, and Aimee hasn’t gone anywhere near the training yards with it for two entire weeks. What does that tell you?”
“That she’s been busy?”
“That’s it’s not her horse.”
“But she…” Joey’s eyes widened. “She bought it for Justine?”
“That’s where I’m putting my money.” Sally poured herself a cup of tea. “Aimee’s been talking about extending the loft. She wants to put in a bathroom and a second room.”
“Really?”
“There’s plenty of room for it.”
“I know, but…why?”
Sally put a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “She’s found her other half, Joe. I think she wants to ask them to live here.”
“But…what if it doesn’t work out?”
Sally smiled. “Then let them sort it out.”
“But—”
“No, buts, Joe. Leave her be. I really think she’s happy. Can’t you let her enjoy that?”
Joe scrubbed at his newly shaven chin and sighed. “Yeah…I guess you’re right.”
“Damn straight I’m right. Now, off you go, Romeo. You have a fiancée to pick up and in-laws to meet.”
Joey’s face crumbled to a grimace. “Yeah. Great. Awesome.”
Chuckling, Sally waved him away. “See you in a week. Play nice!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
***
“What’s wrong?” Justine asked when Aimee strode into the loft and slammed the door.
Briefly startled, Aimee eventually answered, “Joey! He’s an arsehole.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Nothing.” Aimee slammed the milk bottle to the bench and tried to escape Justine’s proximity before she became too exposed. Too late, Justine snagged her arm and spun her around.
“Oh, honey,” she said, using her thumb to brush away tears. “What happened?”
Taking a long breath to compose herself, Aimee said, “He doesn’t think this is serious.”
“What? Us?”
Aimee nodded.
