Australia Outback Fantasies

by Margaret Way

  ‘Have you had a busy afternoon?’ she asked.

  Jacob blinked, tried to rein in his thoughts by looking at her feet. She was wearing elegant sandals made from little gold chains and her toenails were painted an attractive berry colour. But what had she said? A busy afternoon? ‘No, not exactly,’ he managed. ‘Have you?’

  ‘Very busy.’ Her smile broadened and he realised that she was glowing and bubbling with excitement. ‘I’ve been shopping. It was so much fun. Come in and I’ll show you. Actually, I need your help with something.’

  As he followed her down the hall to a small room at the back of the house, he tried not to stare at her behind and the way her hips swayed in the neat green dress.

  ‘I’ve put most of the things in here for the moment.’

  Against the far wall, a single bed was piled with bags of disposable nappies, tiny infant clothes and a white wicker basket holding talcum powder, cotton wipes and tubes of baby cream.

  ‘You didn’t buy all these things this afternoon, did you?’

  ‘I’m afraid I did.’ Nell tried to look apologetic, but she couldn’t hide her delight.

  ‘That’s quite a feat.’

  ‘You have no idea how many gorgeous baby things there are. Look at this.’ She picked up a pale blue garment that looked like a micro-sized boiler suit with rabbits embroidered on the front. Her eyes flashed brightly as she grinned at him. ‘Have you ever seen anything so cute?’

  ‘I don’t suppose I have.’ But he only gave the little suit a cursory glance before looking again into her lovely blue eyes.

  Their gazes held.

  And time seemed to stand still.

  Nell’s grin trembled and Jacob’s throat constricted as the happy sparkle in her eyes changed to awareness. Breathtaking awareness. It was as if they were sharing the same memory, the same sensuous tug deep inside, the spectacular rush of mutual appreciation that they’d recognised and explored all those years ago.

  It was over in a moment. Too quickly—way too quickly, Nell looked down and folded the tiny garment with extraordinary care.

  Jacob scratched at his jaw. ‘So what help do you need?’

  ‘Oh, it’s the cot.’ She became businesslike at once, pointing to a room across the hall. ‘I’ve assembled it in there, in my room, but I’m worried that I haven’t got the wing-nuts tight enough. I’d hate the thing to collapse the minute I try to put Sam in it.’

  The irony almost made Jacob smile. Right at this moment, there was nothing on this earth he wanted more than to follow Nell into her bedroom, but hell, he was getting sidetracked. This wasn’t part of his plan.

  ‘Aren’t you jumping the gun?’

  ‘What gun? What do you mean? I need to have everything ready.’

  Ahead of him, she pushed open her bedroom door and he caught a glimpse of a king-size bed covered with an exquisite handmade quilt in shades of aqua, lavender and deep blue silk.

  He stopped short of the doorway, averted his gaze from the bed. ‘What’s the rush to assemble the cot when we still haven’t discussed what’s happening with Sam?’ Damn! That wasn’t what he’d meant to say, but he couldn’t go into that bedroom now.

  Nell whirled around. ‘I thought—I assumed—’ Her eyes were round with worry. Her mouth opened and shut.

  ‘Wasn’t the plan to discuss Sam’s future over dinner?’

  She sagged against the door jamb. ‘But I thought—’

  She looked so disappointed that Jacob felt an urge to wave the whole matter aside, to say anything, do anything to make her smile again, to see her as happy as she’d been when she’d showed him the bunny suit.

  But he curbed the urge. He had a plan and he didn’t want to jeopardise it.

  ‘Let’s go to dinner,’ he said gently. ‘There’ll be plenty of time to tighten wing-nuts tomorrow, before we pick up Sam.’

  The restaurants of Lygon Street spilled out on to footpaths packed with crowded tables. Laughter and the happy chatter of diners filled the summer night.

  Nell and Jacob, however, were shown to a table in a discreet alcove inside.

  ‘I thought it would be easier for us to talk in here,’ Jacob said, as soon as the waiter left them.

  Nell nodded her agreement and wished she felt calmer about the impending conversation. Trying to share Sam was complicated, but that wasn’t the only reason she was feeling tense.

  There was the Jacob factor.

  Jacob Tucker—gorgeous, passionate Jacob Tucker, the man who’d turned her world upside down—was back in her life.

  In. Her. Life.

  They’d gone beyond the chance meeting, beyond the chat to fill the gaps in the past twenty years, and now Jacob was adding an unnecessary extra step by taking her out to dinner. Any way Nell looked at that move, it felt like a date.

  And how was she expected to stay calm about that? The very thought … the tiniest possibility that she and Jacob might …

  No, she couldn’t let herself think about any kind of relationship with him. She’d had her chance when she’d been nineteen. Now she had to concentrate on Sam, on her responsibilities as a grandmother.

  In a bid to calm down, she paid attention to their surroundings, to the whitewashed walls and trailing plants, terracotta floor tiles and red and white checked tablecloths, stout candles in amber glass covers.

  She picked up the menu and studied it carefully, paying meticulous attention to every ingredient in every dish and then instantly forgetting what she’d read.

  ‘I can recommend the mussels,’ Jacob said. ‘And the beef is particularly good.’

  ‘So you’ve been here often?’ she asked, surprised.

  ‘A couple of times.’

  Over the top of her menu, their eyes met and he smiled. Oh, help. His smile was sexy and slow and lit up his grey eyes and she was awash with girlish shivers and flutters.

  Get over it. Remember Sam. His future is a serious matter.

  ‘Would you like some wine?’ Jacob asked.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You choose something.’

  ‘Do you have a preference?’

  ‘I like white.’

  It seemed to Nell that Jacob only had to raise an eyebrow before the waiter was hurrying to serve them. He ordered the very best Semillon Blanc.

  ‘You’ve changed,’ she commented, remembering the raw country youth with his unassuming manner and shy smile.

  ‘I haven’t really.’

  ‘You seem … worldlier now.’

  Jacob shrugged, gave her an offhand smile. ‘People don’t change, Nell. I’ve moved on, that’s all.’

  Was he right about that? Nell had to admit that Jacob had always radiated an arresting born-to-rule quality, even when he’d been her father’s lowly employee.

  ‘You’ve done well, haven’t you?’ she said.

  ‘Well enough.’

  Her uneasiness gave way to intrigue. ‘I read about your success a few years ago. How did you manage it, Jacob? You had to start from scratch with nothing more than a jackaroo’s wage. And cattle properties are so expensive these days.’

  ‘Don’t you remember the strategy I planned?’

  Nell found herself blushing. She and Jacob had had many long conversations on the river bank, but after twenty years she mostly remembered the lovemaking.

  The waiter arrived with their wine and went through the ritual of removing the cork, offering the wine for tasting, then pouring.

  After he left, Jacob raised his glass and smiled another of his melting-moment smiles. ‘Here’s to us and to the next twenty years.’

  Gulp. What on earth did that mean? Nell wished her hand wasn’t shaking as she lifted her glass to touch his. ‘Here’s to Sam,’ she said softly. After all, it was because of Sam that they were here, wasn’t it?

  Jacob’s response was a mere dip of his head.

  Nell took a sip of wine to find it was crisp and dry and delicious.

  She set her glass down. ‘You didn’t answer my question, Ja
cob. I’m still curious about your success. I remember your big dreams, but I was never sure how you were going to put them into practice.’

  He gave her a considering look, as if he was weighing up the benefits of discussing his business with her. He took another sip of his wine, put it down and settled back in his chair.

  ‘I got wise fast,’ he said. ‘I knew the banks weren’t going to lend me much money, so I had to look at alternatives. I decided there was no point in trying to find cash to buy land when I knew that livestock brought the real returns.’

  ‘So what did you do?’

  “I bought the cattle and leased the land I needed.’

  ‘And it worked?”

  ‘Sure. City companies often lease their offices, so I looked for the best land leasing and agistment deals. I had to start small, of course, but whenever I had a chance to buy more stock I leased pastures in different parts of Queensland, so I got a good geographical spread.’

  ‘That’s clever. Thinking outside the box.’

  He looked pleased that she’d recognised this.

  ‘And it makes so much sense,’ she said. ‘Especially now, with climate change and the unpredictability of the seasons.’ Absorbed by these ideas, Nell gave the stem of her wineglass a thoughtful twist. ‘But that kind of farming would mean expensive trucking costs.’

  ‘I solved that by buying my own trucks.’

  ‘Good heavens. I thought those things cost the earth.’

  ‘I got the first one for a song.’ Relaxing with one elbow hooked over the back of his chair, he couldn’t suppress a smile. ‘I came across it one wet season, bogged in a black soil crossing on the Diamantina. The fellows who bogged it swam the cattle out, but they were going to abandon the truck. I made them a ridiculous offer.’

  Nell laughed, imagining the scene—the squelchy black mud, the cattle in the river, the drivers’ frustration. ‘How did you get it out?’

  ‘Mates with bulldozers. Only took them a matter of days to haul it from the river, but it took me six months to get the truck into working order.’

  ‘Well, good for you.’ She felt excited for him, and could imagine how satisfying his achievements must have felt.

  Their entrées arrived—mussels in a Sicilian sauce for Nell and beef capaccio with lemon for Jacob.

  She wondered when they were going to discuss Sam, but Jacob kept steering their conversation in other directions and she didn’t object. But she hoped he wasn’t waiting until she was relaxed with wine and good food before springing some kind of trap for her.

  He encouraged her to tell him more about her quilt making, which she was happy enough to do. She could rabbit on for hours about textiles and colours and designs, but she didn’t want to bore him.

  Then he asked, ‘Do you still like horse riding?’

  Coming out of the blue, the question caught her off guard. ‘I haven’t ridden a horse in years,’ she admitted.

  But the seed had been sown in fertile ground and suddenly Nell was remembering her girlhood, when she’d thought there was nothing more fabulous than to set out on horseback in the early morning, over grass sparkling with dew, flying down the hill to the creek.

  Nothing had been more exhilarating than the thrill of roaring along the river flats, losing her hat and not caring because the power of the beast beneath her was so magnificent.

  ‘I’ve a beautiful bay mare at Koomalong,’ Jacob said, watching her carefully. ‘You’d love the country up there. We’ve had a good season. The creeks are running.’

  ‘What is this, Jacob? An invitation?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘But I—’ Nonplussed, she stared at him, while her heart galloped wildly.

  The waiter arrived to collect their plates and Nell picked up her wineglass to take a sip, hoping it would calm her.

  ‘You’re inviting me to visit you at your place?’ she clarified when they were alone again.

  ‘You’re planning a month to get to know Sam. Why not do that at Koomalong?’

  Her mouth fell open. ‘A month? You’re asking me to stay for a whole month?’

  ‘You’d enjoy it.’

  ‘I—I—’ She took another huge gulp of wine and tried to think straight. ‘You’re not serious, are you?’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You can’t just drop out of the sky and into my life and say, Hey, come live with me, as if the past twenty years haven’t happened.’

  ‘I realise that.’

  ‘What are you saying, then?’

  His smile did wicked things to Nell’s stomach. ‘I’m saying that we’re grandparents of a baby boy who needs us. We’re both very keen to be a significant part of his life and it’s damned difficult to do that if we’re living thousands of kilometres apart. So my invitation makes good sense.’

  Nell couldn’t think what to say. How could Jacob make such a crazy suggestion sound logical and practical?

  Their main courses arrived—fettuccini for both of them—and she paid careful attention to her food, purposely avoiding his eyes.

  He topped up her wineglass. ‘Think about it, Nell.’

  ‘Believe me, I’m thinking. But my brain’s stuck in a groove.’ She twirled ribbons of pasta around her fork and ate them before she went on. ‘I’m stunned that you can treat this as if it’s nothing more than a simple childminding arrangement.’

  ‘But it doesn’t have to be complicated.’

  She stared at Jacob. How could suddenly deciding to live together for a whole month after all this time be anything but complicated?

  His grey eyes held hers and he smiled and, in spite of her bewilderment, she felt a delicious warmth spreading through her—warmth that had nothing to do with the wine.

  She tried to concentrate on her food, but she was suddenly remembering another time when Jacob had simplified a very difficult and complicated situation—on the morning she’d told him she was pregnant.

  Will you marry, me, Nell? I’ll look after you, I promise. We’ll be all right.

  If her pig-headed father hadn’t intervened she would have been able to marry Jacob then, to raise Tegan, to be that happy little family they’d dreamed of. She shivered, then gave a shake to dismiss it.

  How amazing to think that now, twenty years later, there was another baby and Jacob was making another proposal. Making it sound so simple, so possible …

  Part of her longed to mindlessly accept, to plunge in. After all, that was how everything had begun. She and Jacob had plunged into the river when the branch had broken and he’d kissed her as they’d scrambled up the bank.

  ‘It’s not such a crazy idea, is it?’

  His voice snapped her out of her reverie.

  Embarrassed that he’d caught her smiling dreamily, she became prickly. ‘We—we hardly know each other now. We can’t go back to the past and expect to take up from where we were at nineteen.’ She hardly recognised herself as being the same person she had been back then. ‘You know next to nothing about me now.’

  ‘I know enough,’ he said very quietly. ‘I know you love the bush and I know you’re a free agent.’

  ‘But you’re totally overlooking how I feel.’

  A muscle worked in his jaw. ‘That’s true.’ His eyes lost their amused sparkle.

  She realised he was waiting for her to go on, to tell him exactly how she felt, to tell him that his proposal was audacious and impossible. There was no way she could live with him because …

  Because …

  To Nell’s dismay, her mind wouldn’t supply an end to that sentence. She gave a frantic shake of her head. ‘Right now, I feel very, very confused.’

  To her dismay, Jacob seemed satisfied with that.

  Unsettled by the happy light in his eyes, she said, ‘I have commitments here. Customers.’

  ‘You can deal with them over the Internet.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I found your website just before I came out tonight. It’s very efficient.’ He pressed
his point home. ’emotions aside, if you look at this practically, you could bundle up your quilting things and take them anywhere.’

  She blinked. Jacob thought he had this all worked out, as if she were an object to be moved as easily as his cattle. But what he very carefully wasn’t saying was that they would be alone together. There might be a baby in the picture, but they would be a couple living together and, even though she was a supposedly mature woman of almost forty, she didn’t think she was ready to ask him what, exactly, that implied.

  She chose a more oblique angle. ‘You can’t just look at this as if it’s part of your business plan, Jacob. Another brilliant stroke of lateral thinking.’

  But he wasn’t listening, Nell realised. He was staring at some people who’d just come into the restaurant. They were behind her and she didn’t like to turn around.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked. Jacob was frowning ferociously.

  He didn’t reply, but the newcomers were passing their table now, a well-dressed couple, the man in an impeccable suit—

  Nell almost choked on her drink as she recognised the neatly bearded figure of Robert Ruthven, accompanied by a young woman in a very fetching red dress. A blonde, like Nell, but at least ten years younger.

  They sat two tables away.

  ‘Is that who I think it is?’ Jacob hissed.

  ‘Yes, it’s my ex,’ Nell admitted faintly. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘I’ve seen photos of him. My mother keeps an eagle eye on all the social pages.’

  Nell wished she didn’t feel so rattled. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she’d seen Robert since the divorce. But she felt uncomfortable to be caught here with Jacob. If she’d been dining with a neighbour or a girlfriend, she might have remained quite calm. But Jacob was the man who’d taken residence in their marriage like an uninvited ghost. Worse, he’d just invited her to go off with him into the Outback.

  ‘Nell!’ Jacob’s hand reached across the table for hers. ‘Are you OK?’

  As he watched her, Jacob’s heart was tearing itself into shreds. He wanted to protect Nell, to rush her away, to save her from this embarrassment.

  ‘It’s OK, Jacob. I’m fine.’ Nell had taken several deep breaths and was back in control, which was just as well, because at that moment Robert looked in their direction.