The Cattleman's Special Delivery (8 page)

Jess could have hugged him. Michael glared at them both, but after a while his face lost its sneer and he gave a sheepish shrug. ‘Well...maybe you’ll have better luck next time.’

‘Oh, I very much doubt there’ll be a next time.’

‘Rubbish. You’re bound to have a tribe of ankle biters, isn’t she, Reece?’

Reece didn’t grace this question with an answer, but continued stirring savoury mince at the stove, adding extra Worcestershire sauce. Jess was used to working with men in the kitchen, but she found it incredible that Reece managed to look even more intensely masculine and outdoorsy while he was working at the stove. She was beginning to suspect that his muscles and low-riding jeans were an indoor health hazard.

Her breathing would certainly be a whole lot steadier when this kitchen was her sole territory.

* * *

It was shortly after midnight when Rosie started crying.

Reece heard her wailing as he lay in his swag on the veranda, and then he heard the creak of a floorboard as Jess stepped out of bed. He heard Jess’s soft whispers as she tried to hush the baby, and he pictured her lifting Rosie onto her shoulder, kissing the baby’s soft pink cheek and jogging her lightly up and down, trying to rock her back to sleep.

Problem was, he’d spent far too much time today watching Jess with Rosie. He’d been entranced by the way her face softened whenever she looked at her baby, by the way her voice grew gentle and loving. He could have spent ages watching the way she cuddled Rosie close, showering her with soft, sweet kisses. It touched him deeply to witness such tender intimacy and selfless love...

No doubt a shrink would connect his newfound fixation with buried feelings of abandonment by his own mother.

Yeah...

Whatever...

When Rosie’s crying continued, he left the swag and tiptoed through the house to make sure his father’s bedroom door was closed, and for good measure, he closed the doors at the ends of the hallway as well.

He thought about knocking on Jess’s door and offering to heat up a bottle. Imagined encountering Jess in her nightgown and thought better of it.

By the time he was back in his swag, lying with his hands stacked under his head and staring out at the starry sky, the house was silent again. He heard the board creak as Jess climbed back into bed.

So that was that...time for sleep. Only one problem. When he closed his eyes, he was plagued by images of Jess in her nightgown, of the soft see-through fabric and moonlight outlining her slim, pale curves...fantasies of her leaving her room and coming to him...

Damn. It was too late now to admit he’d made a major mistake when he’d invited her here—into his home, his life.

* * *

The next morning Jess cooked breakfast.

‘You might be all right,’ Michael told her with an unsmiling nod as he made short work of bacon and eggs and hot buttered toast. ‘Don’t get too fancy, mind you. Just serve up good plain tucker and you won’t hear any complaints from me.’

Reece rolled his eyes and Jess suppressed a smile.

‘Well, I’m afraid you won’t be able to have bacon and eggs every day,’ she warned Michael.

‘I’ve given Jess the list of foods your doctor recommends,’ added Reece.

Michael scowled. ‘Bloody doctors.’

‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much. There are ways and means,’ Jess said airily. Already, she was getting used to Michael’s grumbles. She could see they were more a habit than genuine gripes and she was actually looking forward to the challenge of winning him around with tasty, healthy offerings.

Once the breakfast dishes were done and Rosie was down for a morning nap, Reece offered to show her the rooms where she and Rosie would sleep. ‘I’m afraid they haven’t been used for quite a while.’

In fact they were in a part of the house that was locked up and Reece had to wrestle with old-fashioned heavy keys to open a door at the end of the passage that led to them. This done, he hurried forward and opened shutters and windows, letting sunlight stream in to reveal a vast space as well as plenty of dust and cobwebs.

‘Hmm...it’s worse than I feared,’ he said, grimacing.

‘But the room’s huge.’ Jess didn’t care about the mess. It would be gone after a day’s hard work. More importantly, this bedroom was as large as the entire living area in her previous flat and it had wonderfully high ceilings that made it feel even more luxurious and spacious. Against one wall stood an old-fashioned iron and brass double bed with a mattress swathed in dust sheets, and along another wall stood a matching pair of old-fashioned wardrobes with long oval mirrors on the doors.

Reece pushed open white-shuttered doors. ‘And this area needs a thorough clean too, but I thought it might be suitable for Rosie.’

Jess followed him to find a section of veranda that had been closed in with floor-to-ceiling shutters. It was a perfect spot for catching a cooling breeze, or blocking out the sun, and it was also fully fly-screened, which meant she wouldn’t have to worry about flies or mosquitoes or nasty creepy-crawlies.

She grinned with delight. ‘It’s perfect. Actually, it’s better than perfect. It’s like something out of my deepest fantasy.’

‘And the bathroom’s this way,’ Reece said, leading the way into an old-fashioned bathroom with black and white tiles on the floor, a separate shower cubicle and a claw-foot bath. Here, sunlight made green and rose window panes glow despite their grime, and there was also a deep cream washbasin set into a marble-topped silky oak dresser.

By now, Jess was practically turning inside out with excitement. ‘I can’t believe this, Reece. I love it all. Love, love,
love
it.’

She skipped towards him. There was only one thing to do when she was this excited—give the man a great big hug of gratitude. But as she flung out her arms, she heard the sharp intake of his breath, and she stiffened, snatched her hands back just in time.

Yikes. What was I thinking?
Reece was her boss and she was a recently bereaved widow. There were boundaries to be kept. Reece had invited her here because he felt sorry for her, not to start something. No wonder he was looking grim and tense, almost angry.

‘This is very exciting,’ she said instead, and she felt a pang as she wondered what Alan would think if he could see her now. ‘When everything’s cleaned, these rooms will be gorgeous—like something out of a magazine. I can’t wait to get started.’ Then she laughed. ‘And that’s saying something. I’m not usually fond of cleaning.’

‘I’ll help you.’

‘Oh, no, you mustn’t.’ She wouldn’t dream of asking for Reece’s help. ‘You’re far too busy. You have all your cattle to look after.’

His eyes glinted as he sent her a wry smile. ‘The cattle can wait for one more day, and the two of us will knock this over in half the time.’

‘But you—’

‘I’ll show you where the vacuum cleaner is,’ he said, ignoring her protest. ‘And then I’ll collect mops and buckets.’

* * *

Cleaning walls and windows didn’t normally rank high in Reece’s favourite activities, but, funnily enough, working with Jess changed his perspective.

He told himself her enthusiasm was catching, and in a way this was true. It was rewarding to work together and to see the honey-gold timber floorboards emerge from beneath layers of grey dust, or to see white walls and window sills looking fresh and cobweb-free.

But it was equally rewarding to look up every so often to catch Jess’s smile...or to see the colour of her eyes...the deep green of a tree-shaded creek.

He didn’t mind catching her in profile either. Seeing the curving sweep of her dark lashes was a minor miracle...or the soft curving jut of her breasts...or the tempting inches of bare, pale skin that appeared when her T-shirt lifted.

The thing was...he’d sensed an echoing interest from Jess. A certain look, a breathless awareness...small, innocent signals that drove him wild.

Too many times he was tempted to do something about it. To step closer, certain he’d expire if he didn’t let her know that he was desperate to touch her...to kiss her.

But such a move would stuff their plans completely.

This was her first full day here. How hard was it to remember he’d offered her a job, not a relationship?

The poor woman was still mourning her husband. How could he have deluded himself into thinking she was interested?

Proximity was his problem. He wasn’t used to having a young woman so close at hand, but that would soon be solved once he started mustering.

* * *

Grimy and tired, but exultant, Jess stood back to admire the results of their hard work. ‘These are lovely rooms.’

‘It’ll be good to see them being used again.’

‘Have they been shut up for a long time?’

‘We’ve had no use for them,’ Reece said, answering her question obliquely. ‘Too much housework.’

Jess wondered if his mother had lived in these rooms, but she didn’t like to ask, knowing from experience that mothers could be complicated, hurtful creatures. But thinking about Reece as a little boy made her heart yearn in a soft, achy way, which was so
not
how she wanted to feel around him.

Especially not after the day she’d just spent, surreptitiously sneaking peeks at his behind and his muscles and his handsome jaw line—and generally suffering from lust meltdown.

She was ashamed of herself. She was here to earn and to save and to do a good job of caring for Reece’s home and his father. She would be grateful when he started on his outdoor work—mustering cattle, or mending fences, or whatever it was that cattlemen did.

* * *

Unfortunately...once Reece was distracted by outdoor work, Jess’s gratitude was short-lived.

He rose early, just before dawn, so Jess, as cook, rose early too, but there wasn’t much conversation as Reece downed a hasty breakfast, grabbed a sandwich and an apple for his saddlebag and disappeared on horseback with two blue-speckled cattle dogs trotting behind him.

Jess knew he was joined on the muster by a couple of men from a neighbouring property, who then returned to their place each night, but even with their help Reece didn’t get back to the homestead till after sundown, which meant he was gone for more than twelve hours.

And she missed him.

Which was crazy considering that her life now surpassed her wildest dreams. The cooking and the housework tasks were dead easy compared with working in a busy restaurant. Her accommodation was divine and it was still a daily miracle that she didn’t have to pay rent. On top of that, she loved being a full-time, stay-at-home mum with Rosie, and her little girl was really happy and thriving, having at last settled into a good routine.

To Jess’s surprise, she even liked the outback. Many mornings she hung out the washing to the accompaniment of the smile-inducing sounds of a kookaburra’s laughter. From the kitchen she had lovely views across grassy paddocks and gum trees beneath the blue, blue arch of the sky. She could enjoy the sight of kangaroos sleeping in the shade at noon, or creeping out to graze in the lengthening afternoon shadows. She loved to watch flocks of corellas dive and wheel like fluttering autumn leaves.

It was very peaceful and restorative to be surrounded by nature, far away from the stresses and hassles of the coast. Out here, she could finally begin to forgive Alan for being such a fool with their money. And she didn’t even mind Michael’s grumpiness. They were rubbing along OK.

All in all, she was happy.

Her life really did seem to be taking a turn for the better. She wished she could trust that it would stay that way, but it was hard to trust the universe when you’d been brought up by a mega-wary pessimist. Jess could still hear her mum’s warnings loud and clear.

‘Don’t get too contented, Jess. Life won’t let you, you know. Just when you think you’re on top, the universe will pull the rug from under you.’

Her mum’s series of temporary ‘life partners’ had certainly proved that gloomy theory. Men had arrived in her mum’s life, apparently doting and caring. And all had gone well for six months or so, but things always took a turn for the worse and they left. By the time Jess was twenty or so, she’d realised that her mum never really got to know the men she lived with. She seemed to keep them at an emotional distance, as if she was actually terrified she might fall in love.

Jess had been determined to be different. She wanted to love wholeheartedly. When she met Alan, she was ready to give her
all
to their relationship. Over and over, actually.

Each time Alan had disappointed her, she’d forgiven him and was prepared to start again. But her mother was right. The rug had constantly been pulled from beneath her. And it happened again on the night of the accident.

Even now...when her life seemed to be turning out OK, she had to fight off that inner fear that something would go wrong.

* * *

In the fading light of dusk, Reece perched on the top rail of the stockyard fence, entering details of the mob he’d brought in that day. In one pen there were branded cattle he would truck to a fattening block near Rockhampton. In another were cleanskins he’d found in wild scrub in Warringa’s outer extremities.

These beasts would need to be vaccinated and ear-tagged, a job Reece would normally leave till morning, but this evening he was contemplating tackling the task now...before darkness fell.

At least it would give him another excuse to stay clear of Jess.

Reece grimaced as he recognised this unattractive new trend in his thinking. He wasn’t proud of his avoidance tactics. He knew it made no sense to invite a woman here to the lonely outback and then ensure she was even lonelier by keeping his distance from her.

Problem was, his invitation for Jess to live with him had been fine in theory. And it was dead easy to justify—he’d offered her security and a chance to be with her daughter while she helped care for his father and looked after the homestead.

But, damn it, this beautifully simple plan was incredibly complicated when he put it into practice.

With a soft curse, Reece swung down from his perch on the rail. By now the sun was slanting low, sending long shadows across the paddocks. A cool breeze made his short collar flap as he pondered his new problem.