“Take a seat. Oh, my God, sorry. Let me clear this mess away. Here, hold Dan.”
The bundle of squawking baby was placed in his arms and Donna began shoving nappies and toys into a yellow and white striped bag.
Alex held the baby at arm’s length and stared at the scrunched up face. What was he meant to do with the child? He hadn’t seen his niece, let alone held her when she was a baby, despite his sister’s invitation to visit her Californian beach home. Pressures of work, he’d claimed and moved on to his next project. The fact was he didn’t do babies. Period. There was no communication, at least, none he could see. As Donna disappeared through the doorway, empty baby bottle in hand, a stone settled in Alex’s gut. His gaze flickered around the immaculate lounge room for a safe place to lay the screaming child.
The baby’s cries grew more piercing, and the small figure arched his back. In desperation, Alex jiggled the child, and held him over his shoulder. A sweet milky smell surrounded the baby who squirmed and flailed his tiny fists as his cries reached a crescendo. The baby blanket slipped and tangled in Alex’s fingers. Afraid of losing his hold, he pressed the squirming baby firmly against his shoulder. The tiny body stiffened again and a stream of milky puke erupted from the baby’s mouth and trickled down Alex’s coat.
The cries stopped instantly after the milk explosion. Alex stared at the changeling in his arms and something like a smile flickered across the baby’s cute lips. The tension clenching Alex’s stomach eased and, despite the puke inching down his coat, he used a corner of the blanket and gently wiped the baby’s mouth and chin. “Was that the problem? Better out than in, hey, little fella?”
“Good evening, Alex. I—oh, no.” Lizzy hurried over and took Dan from him. “He’s been a bit colicky lately.”
Cradling the baby in one arm, she pulled a cloth nappy and a couple of baby wipes from the baby bag with her other hand and passed them to him as Donna returned. “Here, use these.”
Grateful for Lizzy’s practical approach, he turned to Donna who fluttered her hands across her mouth and stared at the icky mess dribbling down his Italian jacket.
“I’m so sorry—I shouldn’t have—oh—” With a sob, she crumpled onto the sofa in a flood of tears.
Cradling Dan in one arm, Lizzy hugged her sister-in-law with the other. “Don’t worry, Donna. It’s only a bit of spilled milk.” The suspicion of a grin lifted one corner of her mouth and disappeared as the other woman wiped her cheeks and turned to stare at him.
“That’s right. No harm done.” Alex mopped the worst of the spew and unbuttoned his jacket, folded it inside out and set it down on a nearby chair. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll drop it into a drycleaner tomorrow.”
“We’ll pay for the dry cleaning.” Lizzy stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I’m sorry but I can’t leave her like this. She’s—suffering with PND.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Forget it. What’s PND?”
“Post-natal depression. Baby blues. Look, I do apologise but I’ll have to cancel our dinner. My aunt was called in to work unexpectedly, otherwise she’d be here to mind the baby.”
Another delay loomed and tension knotted his stomach. At this rate he’d be a candidate for an ulcer, like his dad and uncle. And yet he couldn’t fault Lizzy’s dedication to her family. He understood and respected that but there had to be a way to move forward. Any option was better than this state of limbo. “I understand, but what I have to discuss is urgent. Could we meet for breakfast?”
Lizzy settled the baby on her shoulder and patted his back, rubbing small circles as she swayed from side to side. Nothing appeared to faze her—neither depressed sister-in-law nor picking up the pieces after her brother’s suicide. Calm, practical Lizzy met his gaze and shook her head. Was that regret softening her eyes? “I’m on duty early tomorrow. Look, how about we go now and take Dan out with us? Donna desperately needs sleep and Dan should settle now he’s chucked up.”
“Take a baby out to dinner?” Alex’s eyes widened and he slid one finger inside his collar and loosened his perfectly knotted tie with the other hand. It was a pity Dan hadn’t puked on that ridiculous item of clothing. She liked the idea of Alex Carter losing it and undoing his shirt a button or two. Or more.
Lizzy giggled at the intriguing idea of this man being uncomfortable with anything. Obviously he’d had little to do with babies. He was a cool customer, a businessman through and through. His raw power had set her on the back foot since they’d met and, if she was honest, she’d had an entirely unusual reaction to him. Lizzy was used to being in control but her body had other ideas when he shook her hand. Ideas that involved getting up close and personal.
But remember, he’d been Jeb’s partner. Her mirth vanished. She didn’t have a clue about his connection with Jeb or his business. Dinner with him was the logical way to find out.
Wanting to push his buttons, she shrugged. “People do it all the time. Where do you want to go?”
“I booked a table at the Red Earth. It’s quiet and discreet.”
“Discreet? Is there something about this business that requires discretion? I’m warning you now, Mr. Carter, if my brother was into anything illegal, it will not continue with me.” Trouble was, she knew little about Jeb and even less about his running of the property. Her property now. The place she’d sworn never to return to. The irony of that still hadn’t sunk in.
“Good to know, Ms. Wilmot. I don’t engage in illegal operations either. However, there are other reasons why discretion is important.”
“Aside from criminal intent or extra-marital affairs, what else is there?”
“Avoiding giving away information to a rival company springs to mind.”
“Oh. Of course.” Sarcasm dripped from her words. Did he think they were involved in international espionage? Tell that to the cows on the range.
His eyebrow arched and she curbed the impulse to say more. Listening to him might give her a better understanding of where Jeb’s property—my property now—fit into his plans. And whether she would work with him. A buzz of excitement shot through her belly at the thought.
“Give me five minutes and I’ll be with you.” She had a feeling that Alex would use whatever it took to get what he wanted. And if that included using his sex appeal, she needed to gather her woolly thoughts and ensure her body was in tune with her head.
Twenty minutes later, he held the door to the Red Earth Restaurant open for her. She manoeuvred Dan’s carrier in and waited by the desk as he gave his name.
“Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Carter. Please follow me.” Alex’s amused gaze flicked between her and Dan. To give him credit, he said nothing and offered to carry Dan’s carrier.
“It’s fine, thanks. He’s not heavy.”
He gestured for her to precede him but, when she skirted a large man with his chair pushed back, Alex’s hand lightly touched the small of her back. Heat zapped through her and she pulled away.
“Will this table be satisfactory, madam?”
The corner would take Dan’s carrier and keep him safely out of the way of the wait staff. “That’s perfect, thanks.”
“Thank you, yes.” Alex’s agreement overlapped hers, like an old married couple as he pulled her chair out and held it. “Do you prefer red or white wine, Lizzy?”
“Either.”
“Could you bring a bottle of the red I had last night, please.”
“Certainly, sir.”
With menus in hand and Dan sound asleep at her feet, Lizzy looked around with interest. The boutique hotel had one of the better restaurants in town but it wasn’t part of her usual social scene.
A couple of women eyed Alex with interest over their wine glasses while their partners talked on, oblivious.
“Do you come here often?” Small talk would fill the uncomfortable silence.
“Other than last night? Once before, when your brother and I met to sign the contract.”
“I thought you could e-sign documents these d
ays?”
“I could have, but I wanted to meet the man who was playing an important role in my company’s work.”
A waiter appeared with water, and waited as they perused the menus.
Lizzy closed hers and handed it to the waiter. “I’ll have the coconut and sesame-crusted barramundi, thanks.”
“And for you, sir?”
“Rare steak with pepper sauce and a side dish of—” He broke off and looked at her. “Would you like to share a salad?”
“Do you like Greek?”
He nodded and closed his menu. “My favourite. And a Greek salad to share, thanks.”
Lizzy sipped her water and waited as the waiter poured two glasses of wine and left them before resuming their conversation. “Your company. Exactly what do you do, Alex?”
His dark eyes seemed almost black in the low lighting and she wished she could see his expression clearly. Was he assessing her, just as she was him?
“It’s a family-owned business—we’re a pastoral company with a side branch in research and development.”
“How did my brother fit into the scheme of things?”
“We agist cattle on ‘Craeborn’. Your brother kept an eye on them and collected scientific data for us.”
“Scientific data? Jeb? I find that hard to imagine.” Even at six-years old, she’d been a better reader than her brother. Hindsight had made her wonder if he’d been dyslexic.
“How well did you know your brother?”
She lowered her gaze to Dan, thumb in mouth and sleeping the sleep of the innocent. What she knew of her brother would fit on a postage stamp, and most of it wasn’t good. Except for her early memories.
If only— regret pricked her conscience. If she’d cared about her brother enough to visit, could she have done something, changed anything? She gripped her serviette, twisting it in her lap, and drew a deep breath. Schooling her unwelcome self-reflection, she met his gaze. “Point taken.”
Alex drank a mouthful of wine and placed his glass between his cutlery. “Jeb gathered data and emailed the results.”
“So, I’m guessing you want to put someone in place to continue that work? If you give me a list of duties, I have no objections to that.”
“Thank you. But I have an immediate problem. Your brother’s—death prevented us following up on some data. His last email to us was missing an attachment with vital statistics needed to complete our current study. We don’t know if he simply forgot to attach the report. He died the day after he sent the email.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Access to your brother’s computer to recover the missing file.”
“It would be in his office in the house. I believe the police are still investigating his death.”
“I thought he committed suicide?”
“That’s the official verdict. Although he was found hanging in the hayshed, there was some concern over medication found in Jeb’s body. The police were searching for a medication packet or bottle.”
“Are you telling me the house is still off-limits?”
“I don’t know. And frankly, I’m not interested.” If she never saw the place again, she wouldn’t care. Pain and loss were all that the house meant to her now. The thought of having to return, even just to gather files, set her stomach roiling.
“Isn’t it your family’s home? I thought—”
“Long story and not for sharing. Look, I’ll phone the police in the morning and find out if you can access the homestead and pick up his laptop.”
“I was hoping you would come with me.”
Her chest tightened and she clenched her hands beneath the tablecloth. Not in this lifetime or the next. “Why? I never want to return to that place again.”
“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to be there without a member of the family present.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking. I can’t.”
“Lizzy, I—”
“Your meals, madam, sir.” A young waitress carefully set their plates in front of them. “Will that be all?”
“That’s fine, thank you.”
Lizzy closed her eyes briefly as Alex dismissed the waitress and topped up her wine. The thought of returning to ‘Craeborn’ sent her stomach tumbling.
She drank a large mouthful of wine, set her glass on the table and took a deep breath. The fresh aroma of coriander and chilli teased her nose and she returned her attention to the plate in front of her. Picking up her knife and fork, she cut into her fish. “I give you permission to be in there.”
“What about private documents, sensitive information Jeb might have been working on that only his family should see? No, Lizzy. I’ll charter a plane to take us there and back in the day, but you should be present.”
“Can’t you get someone else?”
“Who? Your sister-in-law? Face it, Lizzy. There’s only you. Besides, don’t you want to see what you’ve inherited?”
“I know exactly what I’ve got. It’s an unhappy place and I don’t want it, or any of the baggage that goes with it.
“It’s a good holding, and could be profitable again if run well.”
“It’s not worth the cost paid by the women in my family.”
“What do you mean?”
“I left when I was six years old. Even then, I swore I’d never return to a place that had killed my mother, and others before her.”
He looked thoughtfully at her and put down his wine glass. “Funny, I didn’t take you for a coward.”
Her spine snapped straight and her chin rose. How dare he? “I’m not.”
“Prove it.”
Chapter Three
The sun hung low in the western sky as Alex banked the plane in a shallow turn and lined up with the rough runway.
“There it is, on the far side of those hills.” Lizzy pressed her lips together as the aching sadness and anger threatened to spill out at the sight of ‘Craeborn’. The last time she’d landed on the dirt airstrip had been to bring Donna to hospital. It was the last time she’d seen Jeb.
And now he was dead.
Lying awake into the early hours, she’d waited for some sense of loss for her brother to grip her. So many years growing up apart had kept her from knowing him, and after the episode of his son’s birth, the only emotion she felt was anger. Deep and dark, nothing would make her think any good of the man Jeb had become.
“Expect it to be bumpy when we land.” Alex eased the chartered Cessna onto the ground with as much skill as Lizzy’s friend, Amy, had.
“Do you fly often?”
“Every chance I get.”
“But you don’t have a company jet?”
“Maybe one day. It’s an expensive status symbol, especially when there are decent regional services available.” He powered down and parked the plane at a distance from the stand of low eucalyptus trees.
Grabbing her backpack, Lizzy shut and locked her door while Alex did the same on his side of the plane. She slung the bag over her shoulder and stood, staring at the dirt track.
The scent of eucalyptus trees and hot dust mingled and carried on a light breeze as the memories crashed around her. Racing Jeb along the track, their mother laughing as she brought up the rear. Hiding behind a termite mound and quaking in terror as their father raged in the yard over some perceived misdemeanour. Jeb with his arm over her shoulder holding her against his skinny ten-year-old chest when their mother . . .
Breathing deeply like her yoga teacher had taught her, she pushed away the memories, pulled back her shoulders, and stepped onto the track. The past could no longer hurt her and the present—she gritted her teeth and strode towards the homestead. One night, she’d promised him. In and out before tomorrow’s sunset. She could do this.
Alex came up beside her and matched his longer stride with hers. “You’re fit.”
“I need to maintain fitness in the SES.”
“What work do you do with them?”
“Whatever’s needed. Fi
eldwork mostly. I’ve just completed my training in search and rescue techniques, and I got my fire fighting accreditation last year.”
“Well done. That demands both strength and endurance.” A note of admiration tinged his voice and eased the ache of returning to her childhood home.
“It helps that I enjoy physical exercise. At school, I loved cross country races and I’ve kept running regularly. You’re pretty fit too. I hadn’t expected that.”
“Why not?”
“I imagined a corporate type would sit behind his desk all day and not get out of the office.”
“You’re right, but I head to the gym before work most days and surf on the weekends.”
Which explained the toned muscles amply displayed by his fitted T-shirt. Thinking about those muscles threw her off her stride and she slowed her pace. The homestead was around the next bend and she was in no rush to reach it.
“Have you ever surfed out here?”
Alex frowned. “The sea is a long way in any direction from here.”
“You mean you’ve never been dune surfing? You’ve missed out on one of life’s great treats.”
Alex’s eyes brightened. “Of course I’ve dune surfed at the beach. Are there dunes nearby?”
“Not exactly. Some of the blokes at work tried their hand at it on a camping trip to West Aussie last year. But there’s a bit of local fun coming up soon down the road in Julia Creek.”
“Wait, I’ve heard about it. They have a red dirt triathlon, don’t they?”
“Yep. It’s one of the toughest in the country. Our SES is entering a team this year.”
“Outback heat and dust; now that would be a tough race. You’re a surprise package, Lizzy.”
Through the trees, the house came into view and her pleasure in chatting about physical activities fizzled. She came to a halt and eyed the building with a growing sense of unease. As much as Alex Carter wanted to get inside to recover his data, she loathed the idea of entering the house again. Stomach roiling, she forced herself to climb the front steps and take the key from her pocket. The metal slipped through her sweaty fingers and bounced on the veranda and she stooped to grab it before it fell through a crack. Besides, if it did, it would only delay the inevitable.
Heartbreak Homestead (Hearts of the Outback Book 2) Page 2
