by Donna Alward
Cam stiffened and opened his mouth. Tess dug her elbow in his ribs. ‘Can’t you see it’s true love?’ she murmured, leading him further into the depths of the barn.
‘But it’s a show chicken. It won’t lay a tuppence worth of eggs.’
‘And yet Krissie doesn’t care...and neither do I.’ She wanted to sing! ‘Let’s find Ty.’
They found him being licked to within an inch of his life by six puppies. Cute, round, roly-poly puppies. When he saw Tess and Cam he picked one of the puppies up and clambered to his feet. He hitched up his chin. ‘I thought about it very long and hard,’ he vowed. ‘This is the absolutest, bestest puppy in the world for me. I don’t need to look any more.’
Cam’s mouth dropped open. ‘We were only supposed to look!’
But she’d started laughing. ‘Cameron, you have a lot to learn about children if you really thought all we were ever going to do today was just look.’
* * *
They went home with a chicken and a wire cage loaned to them by Mr O’Connell, a puppy, a dog basket, a collar and lead, and plenty of pet food.
And their picnic.
Tess set up a card table in the backyard to keep the food out of reach of their furred and feathered friends, and two camp chairs for her and Cam. Children and animals cheerfully settled on the blanket until they’d finished eating, and then Krissie and Ty set about introducing Fluffy and Barney to the backyard.
Tess selected a pikelet liberally slathered in butter and jam and bit into it, closing her eyes for a moment to savour it. If she didn’t stop eating like this soon, she’d outgrow all her clothes. She took a second bite. ‘I can’t believe that chicken is following Krissie about as if it’s a dog.’
‘I can’t believe you bought a White Bearded Silky instead of a Leghorn or a Rhode Island or...or anything that’s a proven layer. You know that thing is going to lay next to no eggs.’
She just grinned at him. ‘Have a piece of sultana cake.’
He had a piece of fruitcake instead. ‘And a black Labrador?’ He shook his head.
‘Labrador puppies are the cutest in the world.’
‘They don’t stop being stupid until they’re about four years old. It’ll chew everything it can find, you know?’
‘That’ll teach the kids to pick up after themselves. And while Barney may not prove to be the cleverest of dogs, I suspect he’s going to be loving and loyal.’
‘He’ll never be a working dog.’
‘We don’t need a working dog.’ She polished off her pikelet and licked her fingers. ‘Cameron, I know we’re breaking every rule of being proper country folk, but look how happy they are.’ She found herself grinning like an idiot. ‘How can that be a bad thing?’
He glanced at her and those green eyes of his softened. ‘It’s not, I guess. Not when you put it like that. I just can’t help feeling you’ve taken on more work than you realise. And I’m responsible for that. If I’d known earlier what would happen—’
‘I’m glad you didn’t! You’re responsible for the kids remembering all the good things they wanted from our move to Bellaroo Creek. You’re responsible for them being happy that we moved here rather than afraid. Do you always focus on the negatives rather than the positives?’
He didn’t answer. His eyes had lowered to her mouth and there was absolutely nothing negative about his gaze. What if he had kissed her earlier? What would that have been like? She swallowed. Heat circled in slow spirals through her veins. She recalled in microscopic detail the feeling of being pulled up hard against him and the need that had roared through her.
The world contracted about them. She touched her lips—lips sensitised beyond measure. Her index finger traced her bottom lip. It swelled and throbbed...until she encountered something sticky.
Sticky? She closed her eyes in sudden mortification. Jam!
She had jam all over her face? No wonder Cameron was staring. She scrubbed it off and when she opened her eyes she found him staring straight out in front of him at his precious forty hectares.
She scowled but it didn’t slow the thud of her heartbeat.
‘Why did Lance yell at you?’
She shifted on her chair. Lorraine had said Cameron and Lance hadn’t spoken in ten months. She didn’t want to make that situation worse.
‘I will find out so you might as well tell me.’
She slumped on a sigh. ‘Fine, but I’ll only tell you if you fill me in on what’s going down with the two of you.’
His nose curled. It shouldn’t look sexy. It didn’t look sexy! ‘I’m surprised nobody filled you in about it yesterday. It’s no secret.’
His curled lip told her that while it might not be a secret, he didn’t enjoy talking about it. She pulled in a breath. ‘Whatever it is, it’s certainly upsetting your mother.’
He snorted. She didn’t understand that.
‘Ten months ago,’ he clipped out, ‘I was engaged to Fiona.’
She stared. Did he mean the same Fiona who... ‘Tall, blonde, ponytail?’
‘That’s the one.’
She stiffened. ‘Oh!’
He smiled but there was no warmth in it. ‘Exactly.’
They both stared out at the backyard, silent for the moment. ‘I, umm...take it,’ she started, ‘that you and Fiona hadn’t broken up before she and Lance...’
‘You take it right.’
Ouch!
She opened her mouth to say something, anything that would offer comfort or commiseration, but he glared at her and shook his head. ‘Don’t.’
Right. She closed her mouth again.
They were both quiet for a long time. Eventually she moistened her lips. ‘Lance wanted to lease the forty hectares from me. When I told him I’d already signed the lease over to you he...became a little upset.’
His eyes narrowed, but he still didn’t look at her. ‘He wanted to lease that land?’
‘Uh-huh.’
His nostrils flared. ‘I knew he was behind that.’
Um... ‘I’m pretty positive your mother had no part in it, though.’
That made him swing to her. ‘Oh, really?’ His scorn could blast the skin from a person’s frame. She darted a glance towards the children. He swore softly. ‘Sorry.’
He raked a hand back through his hair. ‘Look, I’m still angry that I didn’t see it coming, that I didn’t see what was happening right under my nose. That he was—’
He broke off. ‘I underestimated him. None of that is your fault, though.’
‘I’d have said believing in your family was a good thing, not a bad one.’
He didn’t reply. She pulled in a breath. ‘Look, yesterday your mother seemed appalled and shocked when I told her about the mix-up with the forty hectares. I doubt very much she feigned that.’ She bit her lip and then shrugged. ‘I liked her.’
His lips twisted. ‘And let me guess, despite my brother’s bad behaviour you like him too?’
She thought about that for a moment. ‘Hmm, no, I’m not convinced I do. I don’t much like being yelled at. He owes me an apology and until I receive one he’s a...’ He’d stolen Cam’s fiancée! She tilted her chin. ‘He’s a weaselling, snivelling, black-hearted swine.’
Cam stared at her, his jaw slack, and then he threw his head back and laughed. The sound rippled through her, warming her all over. Both Ty and Krissie glanced across at them and grinned. It made Tess realise what little laughter they’d had in their lives these last few months. And probably quite a while before then too if the truth be told.
Oh, Sarah.
At the thought of her beautiful dead sister any desire to laugh along with Cam fled. ‘Cam, about your mum...’
His face shuttered closed. ‘She’s made it clear where her loyalties lie.’
‘She loves you!’ She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.
‘Then she has a funny way of showing it. Besides—’ he rounded on her ‘—this is none of your business.’
‘You should talk to her.’
He didn’t say anything. She clenched and unclenched her hands. Lorraine’s loyalties were obviously torn—she didn’t want to lose either son. Tess understood that, but...
She leaned across and touched his arm. ‘I’m serious, Cameron. I think you need to speak to her. I think the farm is in trouble. Big trouble. I think she needs you.’
The same way Sarah had needed her. Only, Tess had let her down and now she had to live with that knowledge for the rest of her life.
‘Trouble? What makes you think that?’
She didn’t want Cam making the same mistakes she had. ‘Lance said he needed that canola contract. He implied the farm was in danger.’ She bit her lip. ‘He thinks you want to ruin him.’
Cam shook his head. ‘I don’t much care what Lance thinks any more.’
She understood that, but...
He turned to her. ‘Look, Tess, the problems associated with my mother and Lance’s station is none of my concern any more. Lance has made that clear through his actions and my mother has made it clear by virtue of her silence.’
She chafed her arms against a sudden chill. Three months ago she’d lost her sister. She’d do anything—anything—to have Sarah back for just one hour. And yet Cam was willing to turn his back on the only family he had? Lance might be a lost cause, but couldn’t Cam see how much his mother loved him?
He rose. ‘I’ll bring the mower around tomorrow.’
‘Thank you.’
He called out a goodbye to the kids and disappeared around the side of the house. Tess rose to find a cardigan and snuggled into it until she started to feel warm again.
CHAPTER FOUR
CAM CLEANED THE last of the tack. He glanced at the neatly aligned rows of bridles and lead ropes, and at the newly polished saddles, but two hours’ worth of rubbing and buffing hadn’t helped ease the itch between his shoulder blades.
With a frown, and a muffled curse that had no direct object, he strode out of the tack room and into the machinery shed to leap on a trail bike and kick it into life. He pointed it in the direction of the northern boundary fence and let loose with the throttle, even though he knew Fraser had trawled along that boundary through the week to check the fences.
He belted along the track for ten minutes when, with another muffled curse, he turned the bike back in the direction of the homestead. Dumping the bike back in the machinery shed, he grabbed several assorted lengths of wood and a roll of chicken wire and threw them, along with his toolbox, into the back of one of the station’s utes and, with a final muffled curse, headed next door to Tess’s.
He might be planning to sever his ties with Bellaroo Creek, but he couldn’t leave a lone woman with two dependent kids to flounder on her own. Not on land he was ultimately responsible for. Not when it was his fault she now had a puppy and a chicken to look after on top of everything else.
Talk to her. That was what Tess had said about his mother.
He swiped a hand through the air. His mother would always have a home with him. She knew that, even if she chose to never accept it.
I think the farm is in trouble.
That was none of his business any more. He fishtailed the ute to a halt in front of Tess’s cottage and the itch between his shoulder blades intensified. He stared out of the windscreen and shook his head. The thought uppermost in his mind, it seemed, wasn’t on building a chicken coop or wondering why his mother refused to come out to Kurrajong, but what Tess might be wearing today—jeans or a skirt?
He rubbed his eyes. When he lowered his hand it was to find Ty and Barney barrelling down the side of the house towards him. ‘Hey, Cam!’
He pushed his door open and found a grin. ‘Hey, Ty, how’s Barney settling in?’
‘I love him best of all dogs in the world!’
It struck him then that Ty looked just like any other seven-year-old boy who’d just got his first puppy—carefree, excited, his face shadow-free.
‘He’s a mighty fine-looking puppy,’ Cam agreed, realising he’d helped to make those shadows retreat. The knowledge awed him, humbled him. He reached behind him to scratch his back.
Then Tess came tripping around the side of the house and all rational thought stopped for more beats of his pulse than he had the wit to count. Shorts. Tess wore a pair of scarlet-coloured shorts and a pale cream vest top. Her bare arms, bare legs and shoulders all gleamed in the autumn sunlight. She made him think of fields of ripening wheat, of cream and honey and nutmeg, of spiced apples and camping under the stars. She made him think of his mother’s sultana cake—his favourite food in the world. He curled his fingers against his palms to stop from doing something daft and reaching out to stroke a finger down her arm.
‘Hello, Cameron.’
He swallowed and then simply nodded, unsure if his voice would work.
‘Auntie Tess said Barney did really good for a puppy. We’ve only had one accident.’
Cam winced. ‘I, uh...’
Her eyes danced. ‘Apologise again and I’ll thump you. That puppy has been a source of pure joy.’ She glanced at his ute and then planted her hands on her hips and sent him a mock glare. ‘Where’s my lawnmower?’
He grimaced. ‘My station manager is currently lying beneath it trying to fix a fuel leak.’
‘Ouch.’
‘It should be fixed in the next day or so.’ He didn’t want her using it if it wasn’t a hundred per cent safe.
She gestured with her head and turned. ‘Come and join the party.’
He followed her. He didn’t even try to keep from ogling the length of her legs or taking an inventory of the innate grace with which she moved. She was like some wonderful and exotic creature who’d deigned to live among the mundane and the humdrum. A creature whose beauty took one out of the mundane and humdrum for a few precious moments.
He wondered what she’d done for a living before she’d moved to Bellaroo Creek—maybe she’d been a dancer. He opened his mouth to ask, but they’d rounded the house and Krissie sat on a blanket with that darn chicken on her lap and when she glanced up and saw him she sent him a grin of such epic proportions it cracked his chest wide open.
He had to swallow before he could speak. ‘Did Fluffy have a good night?’
‘She slept in her cage in the laundry, but I think she’d be happier sleeping in my bedroom.’
Tess sent him a bare-teethed grimace that almost made him laugh. One could toilet train a puppy, but a chicken...? ‘Well, honey, I’ve come around to build Fluffy her very own house.’
Krissie’s bottom lip wobbled. ‘Barney slept in Ty’s room.’
He crouched down beside her. ‘The thing is, Krissie, chickens aren’t like puppies or kittens. They like the fresh air and they like to see the stars at night and be able to come and go as much as they please. So, as much as Fluffy loves you, she’ll be happier out here in the yard.’
She stared at him and he held his breath. ‘She’ll get her very own house, right?’
‘That’s right.’
‘A nice one?’
‘One that she’ll love,’ he promised.
Her face cleared. ‘I can show you a picture of Fluffy’s dream house!’ She plonked Fluffy down on the grass and raced inside.
‘Oh, good Lord.’ Tess groaned. ‘I have no idea what she has in mind, Cameron.’
He had sudden visions of a hot-pink Barbie house and gulped. And then he glanced around. A collection of plastic planters in assorted shapes and sizes battled for space from the back of the house to the lemon tree. ‘Where on earth did all these seedlings com
e from?’
Tess planted her hands on her hips. Sweet hips...long, lovely legs...pretty arms. Cam curled his fingers into his palms again. With a silent curse he uncurled them and shoved them into his pockets. Deep into his pockets.
‘Everyone has been so kind. At Saturday’s luncheon Ty, Krissie and I mentioned we’d like to start our own veggie garden and asked for advice on what vegetables we should grow.’
He shook his head, but he couldn’t help grinning. ‘I guess you got your answer.’
She grinned back. ‘I guess we did.’
Her plum-coloured lips gleamed temptingly in the sunlight. His heart thumped. He kept his hands firmly in his pockets. The itch started up again with a vengeance.
Krissie reappeared brandishing a magazine. ‘This one!’ She held it up for them to see.
‘That’s an awful lot of house for one chicken, Krissie,’ Tess said.
Krissie’s bottom lip wobbled. ‘But we’ll get more chickens, remember? Fluffy will need friends for when I’m at school.’
She turned liquid eyes to Cam and they melted him on the spot. He rolled his shoulders, risked removing his hands from his pockets to take the magazine and survey the picture more fully. ‘Oh, I think we can manage something like this.’ He frantically recalculated the amount of wood in his ute with the amount he still had at the homestead.
‘Give me a list of what we need and I’ll go into the stock and station store to get supplies,’ Tess said, as if reading his mind.
It wouldn’t be cheap. He grimaced. He should’ve found a way to talk Krissie into something less grand and—
‘We’re good for it, Cameron. It isn’t a problem,’ Tess said, again as if reading his mind, which unsettled him. He normally maintained a quiet reserve that made him hard to read. It had been one of the things Fiona had complained about. But this woman, it seemed, had only to glance at him to know what he was thinking.
But her plump dusky lips curved up with such promise he found he didn’t mind at all...or, at least, not as much as he suspected he should.
