Home Before Sundown

by Barbara Hannay

Liz winced in sympathy.

  ‘She should be okay with help.’ Jack began to tie the rope around the hooves, gently, carefully. Then he wound the rope around his hand to gain leverage.

  As a musician, Liz had spent a lifetime noticing hands. Now she found herself once again fascinated by this man’s hands – workmanlike, strong and callused, but long fingered and gentle, too. And she couldn’t help admiring his careful, unhurried manner and the concentration on his face as he slipped one hand inside the heifer to ease the calf’s legs down.

  The poor first-time mother deserved shade, but there wasn’t a tree nearby and it was disgustingly hot out in the dry paddock. The sky was cloudless and pale, as if the blowtorch sun had blasted away its colour, and Liz felt dust in her throat and sweat trickling down her spine. She wished she’d thought to grab her hat on the way out.

  The muscles in Jack’s arms bunched as he hauled on the rope again, easing one little leg down, and then the other. She found herself holding her breath as she watched him strain, placing a booted foot on the heifer’s rump to gain extra leverage.

  He shot Liz a quick glance. ‘Can you get the jar of Vaseline out of the satchel?’

  ‘Of course.’ She hurried to find it and brought it to him, unscrewing the lid.

  Jack held out a hand, palm up. ‘If you could slap a dollop on there.’

  ‘Right.’ Liz kept a poker face as she deposited a fat blob into Jack’s palm.

  Immediately he turned back to the heifer, gently rubbing the soothing jelly around the edges of the straining birth canal.

  ‘Good girl,’ he murmured, his deep voice calm and soothing. Over his shoulder he said, ‘I’d rather not use the truck to haul it out.’

  Liz would rather he didn’t, too.

  Then, after wiping his forehead on his shirtsleeve, he was pulling on the rope again, steadily, strongly, his face grimaced with the effort.

  Liz bit down hard on her lip, trying to banish threatening memories . . . and at last the little wet calf was slipping from its mother. Jack peeled away the membrane to reveal a dark, silvery grey Brahman.

  It was very still.

  To her horror, Liz found she couldn’t hold back the past. Suffocating memories crowded in . . . another summer . . . The horrible low pain and her fear . . . and then afterwards, the terrible emptiness . . .

  Oh, God . . . the lifeless little body . . .

  She superglued a hand to her mouth to hold back sobs as Jack knelt beside the inert calf, stroking its throat. Surely they wouldn’t lose this little one? Suddenly she wasn’t sure she could cope.

  She prayed Jack wouldn’t notice.

  He did notice. He was frowning up at her. ‘Are you all right? Do you want to go and sit in the truck?’

  Liz couldn’t speak, but she shook her head. Walking away she dragged in deep breaths. The air was hot and dry, but at last she began to feel calmer.

  ‘It’s another heifer,’ Jack said, when Liz returned, his voice lapsing into a quiet, easy drawl.

  ‘But is she all right?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  He looked up and frowned at her again, then snapped off a stem of dried grass and tickled the calf’s nose with it. The new baby lifted her head and sneezed.

  ‘Looking good.’

  The quiet certainty in his voice was something to cling to. Liz managed to smile and Jack smiled up at her, and she sensed a moment of connection that resonated deep inside her.

  ‘Looking wonderful,’ she said.

  Five minutes later, Jack had washed up using water from a jerry can in the back of his truck and disinfectant from the medical pack. Meanwhile the calf had started drinking her mother’s rich, nourishing colostrum.

  ‘About Alex,’ Jack said, staring resolutely ahead at the track as he drove back to the homestead. ‘I had no idea he was so good. I feel like I’ve let him down.’

  ‘Don’t beat yourself up about it.’ Liz was surprised by how sympathetic she felt now. ‘You’ve had a lot on your plate, dealing with the accident and taking the boy in.’

  ‘Alex never spoke much about the music. I guess he thought I was a lost cause. He was always listening to it, though, on his iPod.’ Jack gave a small, self-deprecating laugh. ‘I thought he was listening to rock music. Heavy metal.’

  ‘He might have been. It’s all music, after all.’

  ‘That’s debatable.’

  They shared another smile as they pulled up at the house.

  ‘Did you know Alex has been practising on the piano at the Gidgee Springs Hall?’ Liz asked.

  Jack shook his head, then sighed. ‘What should I do?’

  ‘He’ll be off to boarding school next year, won’t he?’

  ‘Yeah. I should check them out, find the best music courses.’

  ‘That’s important, yes. And there are music scholarships. I’ll make a few phone calls and see what I can find out.’

  ‘I guess you grew up out here, didn’t you? And you managed.’

  ‘I did. But I was wildly ambitious.’ Liz shrugged. ‘We don’t even know how serious Alex is about his music.’

  ‘That’s true, but I guess I could at least buy him a piano.’

  ‘It would be a nice Christmas present.’

  Jack smiled. ‘And here I was wondering what he’d like.’

  When they got back to the house, Liz made tea and served it to Jack and Alex along with the last of Zoe’s chocolate cake that she extracted from the freezer.

  It was all very companionable with the three of them gathered around one end of the big kitchen table.

  ‘Amazing cake,’ said Alex. ‘Did you make it?’

  Liz laughed. ‘Unfortunately I cannot tell a lie. No. In fact, I’ve never baked a cake in my life. There are good cooks in our family, but I’m not one of them. The baking gene completely escaped me.’

  ‘But I hope you’ve left some cake for me,’ called a voice from behind them.

  Liz turned to see Bella. ‘Um . . . ’

  They’d polished off the lot.

  With a guilty start, Liz jumped to her feet to fetch a fresh mug for Bella. ‘Have some tea. And you won’t mind about the cake when I tell you how Jack saved our heifer and her calf.’

  16.

  ‘Honestly, my sainted aunt – the first eligible guy sets foot on the property and you’re making eyes at him.’ Bella launched her accusation almost as soon as their visitors had left.

  ‘I was not making eyes.’

  ‘Were too.’

  Liz looked affronted for about two seconds, but then she smiled. ‘It’s been a surprising morning.’

  ‘Do tell.’ Bella was pretending to still be miffed about the chocolate cake, although she understood and forgave when Liz had explained about the distressed heifer.

  ‘I must admit you can pick ’em. Jack’s not bad looking for a senior.’

  Liz merely rolled her eyes.

  ‘And I guess I should have noticed that heifer,’ Bella said more soberly.

  ‘You can’t expect to see to everything, Bella. Heavens. How many head of cattle are there on this property? Four thousand? Five? There’s only so much one person can do. If anyone should feel guilty, I should for not getting out there in the heat and the sweaty thick of things.’

  Liz began to gather up the mugs and plates, then paused. ‘Harking back to the chocolate cake and its creator, I’ve been thinking we should invite Zoe and Mac over for a meal.’

  Bella felt a small niggle of disquiet, but she quickly squashed it. She still felt slightly awkward about meeting her new half-sister, but she’d done a little soul searching over the past few days while she’d been out alone with only gum trees and cattle for company and she hadn’t really liked what she’d found.

  After two years away she wanted to believe that she’d changed and matured, but it was possible that people looking in from the outside might not have noticed. People like Gabe Mitchell, for example. She’d prefer to make a good impression on
Zoe.

  ‘I’d like to meet Zoe,’ she said.

  ‘I must admit I’ve been holding off. I’m so jolly hung up about my cooking.’

  ‘Why don’t we have a barbecue? With any luck, Mac or Zoe will help with flipping the steaks, then all we have to do is make salads. We can’t go too wrong with salads, surely?’

  Liz pulled a face. ‘We don’t have any lettuce.’

  ‘Make potato salad and another with pasta or rice.’

  ‘Yes, that should do, shouldn’t it?’

  ‘Easy-peasy. Anyway, the most important thing will be our scintillating company.’

  Liz grinned. ‘You’re right. I’ll phone Coolabah Waters straight­away. You never know, they might even be able to come tomorrow for lunch.’

  ‘Perhaps we should ask Gabe Mitchell, too. And Roy. They’re on their own at the moment.’

  Bella couldn’t quite believe she’d said this. Her heart was instantly clanging like a bell clapper.

  Liz’s eyes widened, clearly unable to hide her surprise. ‘Sure. It would be good to invite both sets of neighbours. Shall I make the phone calls or would you like to do the honours?’

  ‘You do it.’ Already Bella was wishing she’d bitten her tongue. To her relief Liz didn’t argue.

  Bella escaped to the stables on the pretext that her dad’s horse Striker needed a rubdown.

  There’d been a time when she’d lived and breathed horses. Throughout her childhood, her bedroom had been papered with horsey photos and posters. Later her dad had put up a shelf for the ribbons and silver cups that she’d won in barrel races with her beautiful horse Sassy.

  Impetuously, she’d sold Sassy before she left for Europe. At the time it had seemed like an important rite of passage, the clearing out her old life – horse, boyfriend, dreams – before heading off for new horizons.

  She’d always been fascinated by stories of the Vikings who’d burned their boats when they reached Greenland, so they couldn’t go home and were forced to stay and make a new life in a strange new country.

  Now she was home after all and almost back to normal.

  Perhaps we should ask Gabe Mitchell, too.

  Why the hell had she said that to Liz? Bright heat swept through her as the words echoed in her head.

  Why couldn’t she simply concentrate on her job here, proving herself to her family?

  Why did every random memory of Gabe keep popping up inconveniently like something from Total Recall? Of course there was nothing random about her most pressing memory – that life-changing evening during in her last year at uni when Gabe had come down to Townsville to watch her compete in a rodeo. And then stayed with her for the whole weekend, a weekend which became the culmination of years of waiting and hoping, of hero worship and excruciating teenage angst and earthy, powerful, grown-up lust.

  The sparks between them had been mounting to combustion point, but until that weekend there’d only been a few stolen kisses. For ages they’d both remained cautious, dancing around the truth.

  They’d tried dating others. Bella wasn’t proud that she’d done this more to tease Gabe than to seriously test the dating scene, but she suspected his motives were similar.

  After all, there was potential danger in a burning attraction between neighbours who’d been friends all their lives. If best friends became lovers and the romance failed, for whatever reason these things failed, walking away from each other would be hell.

  Despite that risk . . . Bella had invited Gabe to come to Townsville and it seemed he hadn’t had to think twice.

  It was the first time they’d been away and alone. First dinner in a posh restaurant with just the two of them, eating fancy seafood and even fancier desserts, accompanied by scarily expensive wine.

  Gabe had looked jaw-droppingly handsome in a crisp new black shirt teamed with cream moleskins and RM Williams boots. Bella’s dress was new, too, carefully chosen in the exact shade of green to match her eyes.

  Across a candlelit table they’d exchanged countless smiles, hardly daring to believe they were going to spend the whole night together.

  Gabe didn’t quiz her about her failure to win the prize money that day, so that was good.

  It was all good on that night of firsts.

  As they went back to their motel room they were both tense and tingling with the knowledge that their friendship was about to change forever.

  Bella wasn’t a virgin. That status had been surrendered during her first year at uni in a fumbling, beer-fuelled encounter she’d later tried to delete from her memory bank. But as the door closed behind them and she faced the unfamiliar room with its huge king-size bed illuminated by lamplight, she admitted to Gabe, ‘I’m a teensy bit scared.’

  His eyes widened. ‘Scared of me?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. Not of you, Gabe.’ He was standing so close she could smell the newness of his shirt. Smell his aftershave too. She’d never known him to wear aftershave and it smelled clean and sexy and exciting. ‘I’m nervous because it is you. Because it’s us.’

  She wanted everything about it to be perfect. Not that she was in any way qualified to judge perfect sex.

  But before she could worry too much about this, Gabe slipped his arms around her and brushed his lips along her jaw in an easy, slow caress.

  ‘You think too much, Bella.’

  ‘I do, don’t I?’

  ‘It’s only me.’

  ‘Yeah.’ With his arms about her, she felt better already. ‘And it’s only me.’

  She was smiling as she rested her cheek against his shirt, drinking in the new sexy scent on his skin.

  She edged higher, letting her cheek touch his bare neck and she heard the intake of his breath. Then she felt the warmth of his hands gliding over her slinky green dress, and she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his neck. He smelled and tasted so good.

  And she thought – Why on earth should I be nervous? We’re going to be okay. This is Gabe, my gorgeous, safe Gabe. Of course she could trust him.

  And she wanted to give him everything.

  Her heart pounded as his broad, familiar hands began a slow, lazy exploration of her waist, her hips, her butt.

  His mouth was hot on her cheek, her chin, her neck and by the time he reached her lips, she closed her eyes and she totally stopped worrying. She was too excited and ready, too willing to surrender.

  Their lips met. Their tongues touched and dizzied – and the world stopped.

  Gabe was her world. As heat swirled through her she had no choice but to press closer, wanting to taste and feel all of him.

  With a groan he kissed her more deeply, his tongue melding with hers, his hands grasping her behind, yanking her close, her damp heat against his hardness. And working entirely on instinct, Bella wrapped her legs around him.

  ‘Nimble, aren’t you?’ He smiled as they broke their kiss momentarily, and then, as he kissed her again, he carried her in a hip-locked embrace towards the big bed.

  ‘Strong and strapping, aren’t you?’ she replied.

  For answer he gently tipped her backwards onto the luxurious linen bed cover and she tumbled easily, eagerly, bringing him down with her.

  At last.

  Now . . . Bella relished the hard, strong length of Gabe enveloping her. When his solid thigh wedged between hers, she spread wider, greedy with need.

  It had never been like this before. She’d never felt so free, so desperate to surrender.

  Somewhere in the lust-crazed frenzy, he eased away, looking down at her, his face intense, different, his grey eyes burning. And then he smiled.

  Her Gabe.

  Bella smiled too. We’re more than okay.

  When he glided his palms over her breasts, cupping her, finding the tips through her dress and teasing, teasing . . . she couldn’t hold back a soft moan. A beat later she was flipping buttons, pushing straps, wriggling out of her clothes.

  ‘Matching undies.’ Gabe’s voice was raspy as he slipped his finger
beneath the green satin strap of her bra.

  ‘I thought only gay guys noticed colour schemes.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’ He eased the strap down her arm and kissed her bare shoulder. ‘That’s why you went to the trouble of finding matching underwear the same colour as your eyes?’

  Caught out, Bella gave a breathless laugh.

  ‘Not that I’m complaining.’ The rough tremble in his voice made her feel powerful.

  Gabe took the power straight back when his thumbs skimmed over her nipples, making her shudder and sigh. He conquered her completely as he peeled the silk away and lowered his mouth to a tight, needy bud.

  She was melting into hot darkness now, morphing into a new and dangerous version of herself, but Gabe was there with her at every kiss, at every lick and every thrust. He was with her when she climbed higher and higher, and when she trembled on the edge.

  He was there when she stepped off into thin air. And when she was flying, he was right there with her. And everything was very okay.

  They’d stayed okay for four days and nights.

  17.

  For long seconds, Gabe stood, frowning at the phone receiver in his hand while he replayed the message, making sure he’d heard it correctly.

  Gabe, it’s Liz Fairburn. We haven’t actually met. I’m Bella’s aunt and I’m sorry about the short notice, but Bella and I were hoping that you and Roy might be able to join us at Mullinjim for lunch tomorrow. Zoe and Mac McKinnon will be here, too, so it should be fun. Can you let me know if you’re free?

  Gabe gave a stunned shake of his head.

  Once he would have jumped at the chance to have lunch at Mullinjim. In the past, even before becoming entangled with Bella, he’d always enjoyed a strong bond with the Fairburns.

  But he would refuse this invitation. No question. He was way too busy to socialise.

  He’d spent an entire afternoon out at a muddy dam, wrestling with three bogged cows. The heat must have driven them a little crazy and they’d ignored the water troughs at the far end of their paddock and broken through the fence lines to get to the last of the dam water.

  A whole mob had rushed through the break as well, but luckily, only a few older, weaker beasts had been bogged.