Summer Down Under (14 page)

Uh-Oh, was about all her befuddled brain
allowed her to think, as she lay face down in the dirt, her jaw
starting to throb. She managed to roll over onto her back and
slowly pushed herself to a sitting position.

“Oh, cwap,” she moaned as she sat up holding
her chin.

Daniel leapt over the fence and steamrollered
his way through the sheep towards her. Within seconds, he was
crouching in front of the wounded jillaroo, worry written all over
his face.

“Made a bith of a pigth ear of that, didn’t
I?” she spluttered looking up into his eyes, which were filled with
concern. She felt something trickle down her chin and brought her
fingers to her mouth. She knew what she would see when she pulled
her hand away, she could already taste the coppery tang of blood on
her tongue.

Eyes wide, she looked up at Daniel. “That’s
not good.”

“Sam, don’t move, let me check you out,”
Daniel whispered, gently pushing the hair out of her eyes. “Can you
open your mouth?” She tried, grimaced and shook her head.

His words started to sound like they were off
in the distance somewhere. She looked up at him and noticed that
there were now two gorgeous, dust covered faces looking down at
her. She blinked really hard several times. But, no. He still had
two heads. She giggled.

“Sam?”

“Daniel,” she let out another giggle. “You’ve
got two heads, did you know?”

“Sam, sweetheart. Stay with me.” Daniel’s
warm voice reverberated through her head, caressing her throbbing
skull. She became aware of the ground disappearing beneath her and
felt a warm hard chest next to her ear.

Did he just call me sweetheart?
It
went black.

***

“Mum, will she be all right?”

“Daniel, she’ll be fine. She just took a
knock to her jaw, that’s all. Will you stop pacing up and down,
it’s not like she’s not about to have your baby.”

There was silence for a minute.

Mrs. Miller suspended her ministrations on
the injured jillaroo for a moment. From where she sat, perched on
the edge of Sam’s bed, she turned and looked up at her son, eyes
narrowed. “She’s not about to have your baby, is she?”

“No, of course not!” Daniel snapped,
affronted at his mum’s question.

Under his mother’s scrupulous stare, he
dropped his gaze to the floor.

“But you care for the girl, don’t you?” Mrs.
Miller asked.

Silence.

“Daniel?”

Daniel brought his up eyes to meet his
mother’s and cast her a wary glance. He sighed. “Yes, Mum. I really
care about her, but she doesn’t want anything to do with me.
Please, don’t tell Dad, though. You know what he’s like.”

“Of course, I won’t tell your Father,” Mrs.
Miller agreed, turning back to work on her patient’s battered face.
“Anyway, don’t you worry about him, he’ll have a lot more to think
about when I get my hands on him. What was he thinking putting her
in a pen full of sheep? She has no experience handling sheep, yet.
Come to think of it, why did
you
let her get in a pen full
of sheep? That was totally irresponsible, Daniel, and you know it!”
she chastised.

“I didn’t think,” he replied weakly. “She
acts so gutsy, I thought she’d be fine.”

“Daniel, you only met her two days ago and
you feel this way about her already?” Mrs. Miller questioned.

There was another silence. Daniel dropped his
worried gaze to the floor.

“Oh, you didn’t just meet her two days ago,
did you?”

Silence again.

“Daniel?” Mrs. Miller’s voice was
pointed.

“No.” Daniel sighed. “She sat next to me on
the flight from London. This is the Sam from Bali I told you about.
And, no, we didn’t have a fling. I made that up. Like I said, she
won’t let me near her.”

“Why on earth would you make up a thing like
that?” his mum asked.

“I don’t know, wishful thinking I guess. I
haven’t stopped thinking about her since then. I can’t get her out
of my head. I kept turning up uninvited to spend time with her in
Bali. She probably thought I was some kind of creepy stalker guy.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. I told you she doesn’t want anything
to do with me.”

“No wonder, after the way your father blurted
out your supposed affair, the poor girl probably thinks you’re only
after one thing,” she scolded. “I thought I taught you better than
that!”

“Oh,” he mumbled “I hadn’t thought of that,
but then I didn’t think I’d ever see her again, either.”

“Actually, come to think about it, why didn’t
she
say anything when your father mentioned it?”

“I begged her not to when we were in the
restroom.”

“Ahh, well, it seems to me that she must care
about you a little or she wouldn’t have taken this job, would she?
Maybe fate wants you two together. What are the odds that out of
all the jobs in Australia, she would pick here to come and work?
Giving you both a second chance.” Daniel thought his mum was
sounding strangely philosophical at this point, not a common
occurrence.

“It was Sophie.” Daniel explained.

“What has Sophie got to do with this?”

“Sam was staying at the backpackers Sophie
runs and told her about meeting me in Bali. Sophie didn’t let on to
Sam that she knew our family and persuaded Sam to come and work for
us when you told her mum we were looking for a jillaroo.”

“Trust Sophie to try and play matchmaker.”
Mrs. Miller sighed. “Well, the thing you have to do now, if you
really do care for her, is show her that you do and that you’re not
just trying to get in her knickers.”

“How do I do that?” he asked.

Mrs. Miller shot her son an incredulous look.
“You can start by watching over her tonight. When she comes around,
she’ll need to be observed every hour to make sure there is no
concussion. You’ll also need to keep ice on her jaw for twenty
minutes every couple of hours. Because, in the very least, if she
goes running for the hills as soon as she is well enough to leave,
she might at least thank you for not having a lump the size of
Ayers Rock sticking out of the side of her face.”

***

The sound of voices was like a recording
playing in Sam’s head.
That sounds like Daniel and his mum
talking.
She thought
. Ooh, I can think that means I’m alive!
Yay!
Then she became aware of the slamming pain that was
pounding against her jaw and skull and wished she could go back to
that blissful darkness where she couldn’t feel anything. She
groaned, it was about all she could manage.

“Easy now,” Mrs. Miller whispered. “You took
quite a knock to your face.”

Sam tried to open her eyes, but they weren’t
cooperating with her. She cursed inwardly, the pain in her jaw too
much to bear. She wanted so badly to be out cold again so she
didn’t have to deal with it. At that point, she decided, with no
small amount of disdain, that it would be the last time she went
chasing rams around for a bit of sport.

A few slow moments passed, and finally, she
managed to peel her eyes open. Everything was blurry at first. The
light in the room hurt, but, eventually, things started to come
into focus.

She was back in her room, lying on the bed.
Mrs. Miller was sitting next to her holding an ice pack to her jaw.
Daniel stood next to his mother. He had his head bowed, holding his
chin in his hand and was sheepishly looking at her through his
eyelashes. His brows were pinched, distress apparent all over his
face.

“It doesn’t look like your jaw is broken and
I couldn’t see any broken or missing teeth,” Mrs. Miller explained.
“But you did split your lip, so that’s going to smart for a
while.”

That’s comforting,
Sam thought
sarcastically,
Daniel’s mum has been poking around in my mouth,
no doubt right in front of her son. I bet that was pretty.
Then
she swiftly reprimanded herself. Why should she care what she
looked like? She’d just been knocked out by a ram, her jaw hurt
like a son of bitch, her lip was split and she was worried about
what she looked like.
Sam, you really have to sort out your
priorities,
she told herself sternly.

“Here, you can take some pain pills now; this
should ease it a bit.” Mrs. Miller said, lifting Sam’s head up and
popping them in her mouth.

Sam tried to sip some water, but most of it
ran out the corner of her mouth and onto the pillow. She wished the
bed would swallow her up. She must look horrific, and there stood
Daniel, watching avidly. He did look worried though, she gave him
that.

There was a noise from the front deck. The
front door had just squeaked open, then clunked as it closed. Mrs.
Miller looked up and her face flushed with anger. She turned back
to her patient.

“I’ve told Daniel what to do. He’ll look
after you tonight. I have some other business to take care of.”

Sam smiled with a wince. “Thank you,” she
spluttered.

“No worries, my dear. You’ll be right as rain
in no time,” Daniel’s mum replied with a warm smile, patting Sam on
the shoulder as she stood up.

Sam watched as the portly woman walked to the
door and closed it quietly behind her, then heard a bellow down the
hall. “Paul Miller! I want a word with you!” Her prominent
footsteps stomped off in the direction of the kitchen.

“I’m glad I’m not on the receiving end of
that.” Sam whispered when Daniel sat next to her. She attempted
another smile but winced again and gave up.

Daniel looked at the door his mother had just
exited through. “Me, too,” he mused before turning back to face his
charge. “Sam, I’m so sorry,” Daniel muttered.

“About what?”

“I should never have let you go in that pen.
This is all my fault.”

“Don’t be daft,” she mumbled, trying to move
her jaw as little as possible. “Your dad asked me to go in that
pen, not you.”

“That’s no excuse. I should have said
something.” He dropped his gaze to the bed sheets.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. I’m
not blaming you.”

He looked slightly more relieved for hearing
that.

“I bet I look like something the dog dragged
in, don’t I?” she asked hoping he wouldn’t agree with her.

“Sam, you could be covered head to toe in
bruises, and I would still think you looked beautiful,” he
whispered while gently stroking the hair off her forehead and
leaving his cool hand there. Sam closed her eyes for a moment; the
coolness felt so good.

After a while, she looked up into his
beautiful blue eyes, so full of kindness. No man had ever looked at
her like that. At that moment, she felt cared about for the first
time in her life, and the feeling was overwhelming.

The only experience she had ever had with a
man, was to be treated with contempt. Humiliated at every available
opportunity, and, eventually used for his enjoyment. By the time
she realized what she was allowing to happen, and after ending the
torment, the damage had been done. At this point, she seriously
doubted if it could ever be repaired.

Quite unexpectedly, big fat tears started
leaking from her eyes and continued rolling down her cheeks. She
tried so hard to stop them, but it was too late. The floodgates
were open, and there was nothing she could do about it.

“Sam, what’s wrong?” Daniel asked. His voice
mirroring the pain she was feeling. “Apart from the fact you went
ten rounds with a sheep,” he added.

“Please don’t,” she whimpered.

“Don’t what?”

Sobs wracked her body. She tried to turn away
from him, but that would mean lying on the injured side of her
face. She soon realized that was not going to happen. She had no
choice except to lie there and look at him.

“Sam?” he whispered, “Don’t what?”

“Be so nice to me. I don’t deserve it.”

She was feeling sorry for herself. Right
then, she didn’t think he could have said anything to make her feel
better, so the tears kept coming.

“I’ve done nothing but push you away ever
since I met you, and you just keep coming back for more…” she
paused. “Why do you do that?”

“Think about it, Sam,” he replied. “You
honestly can’t answer that question for yourself?”

She stopped crying for a moment and looked at
him.

“You know your eyes go the most incredible
shade of blue when you cry.” he whispered.

She frowned, and then smiled. “You think
so?”

He nodded.

Sam smiled again.

“That’s better,” he said with relief.

Sam tried to sit up, but when she got half
way, it felt like some invisible entity had shoved a stake through
her brain. The room started to swim.

“Urgh,” she said, falling back onto the
pillow. She closed her eyes.

“Take it easy, you. No sudden movements.”
Daniel’s soft voice drifted in her head. A few moments of silence
ensued. It was not awkward silence, though. It actually felt very
comfortable, something else she wasn’t used to.

Usually, if there was a silence, it made her
nervous; she’d want to make conversation to stop it. Being silent
with Daniel didn’t make her nervous, and she found that she really
liked the feeling. But, then again, she was finding that there were
many feelings she liked when she was around this man.

“Sam?” Daniel asked.

She cracked open her eyes again. “Yes.”

“What happened to you to make you build such
a high wall around yourself?”

“I can’t tell you,” she murmured.

“Yes, you can,” he said softly.

“No, honestly, I can’t. My mouth hurts like
the devil, and I just want to rest my jaw for a while.”

“Oh, of course, I understand,” he said.

Relieved that he believed her story, she
closed her eyes again. The painkillers were kicking in at last. She
started to feel drowsy and drifted off to sleep.

The next thing she knew was soft pressure
being applied to her shoulder.