An Outback Affair, page 13
Joel’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “A Murrumbidgee sandwich.”
She made sure her eyes grew wide and round. “And what’s a Murrumbidgee sandwich when it’s at home?”
The crinkles deepened. “According to the locals, it’s a wild pig between two bags of flour.”
They laughed.
“Want some good, old-fashioned billy tea?” he asked.
She shook her head slightly. “Is there anything cool to drink?”
“Water.”
“Water will be fine.”
Finally, when they’d finished their meal, Joel suggested a game of makeshift cricket using a plastic ball and small wooden bat.
Cassie moved away from the game area and proceeded to sit on a rather large boulder.
“Come and play, Aunty C,” Sam called.
Joel looked across at her. How handsome he looked against the harshness of the wild bush background. Even from this distance, she could see the dark blue of his eyes, the cool, rugged beauty of his face with its touch of sadness.
A feeling washed through her. A wonderfully nice feeling. Oh, my God, was she falling in love with him? How easy it would be to love him. Forget there was a barrier between them and allow love to have its way.
“Come on, Aunty C. You can be the fielder,” Joel added with a grin, as she obliged them. They played for an hour.
It was becoming hotter by the second. She needed a bath or a swim or whatever one did to get clean and cool when completely isolated deep within the Australian bush.
The river looked cool and so inviting. She got her camera from the car. Good time to take some shots for Jane. She glanced around. There was a myriad of water birds — coots clambering through the river vegetation, bustards, and marsh crake. The river was interspersed with floating weeds and water lilies.
A wallaby poked his nose out of the bushes, sniffed the air, then hopped back to his habitat, and a feeling of serenity overcame her as the stillness of the outback engulfed her. It was like being transported into nature’s fairyland, and suddenly she felt the same passion for the bush that Joel possessed. Through his eyes, she saw the magnificent colors, and the sheer wonderment of the Australian bush.
She spun around to tell him of the phenomenon she had experienced; her pulse beat in her throat. Joel had stripped down to his khaki shorts, his well-developed muscles rippling beneath his sun-bronzed skin at every movement he made. Threaded through the leather belt strapped around his waist was a mean-looking sheathed bowie knife. Her camera clicked and clicked.
She walked over to the fire. “You look like Tarzan.”
His smile came from somewhere deep within him. She felt as light-hearted, and as young as her years.
“You sure you don’t mean Cheetah?”
She laughed. “Cheetah was one very cute chimp.”
His eyes slid down her body. “You can be my Jane any day.”
She took a step closer to him, and his big hand reached out to her. “I don’t have a sarong.”
“You’d look good in anything. Or nothing.”
“Uncle, Uncle Joel, lift me up.” He lifted the boy into his arms. “Can I go for a swim, Uncle Joel?”
“Is it safe?” Cassie asked.
“Safe as houses,” Joel assured her and lowered Sam to his feet.
She took Sam’s hand. “Watch where you walk,” she warned him. “There could be snakes.”
“Don’t make him afraid of nature, Cassie.”
“He doesn’t understand the nature of the bush yet,” she insisted.
“That’s the whole idea of this trip. To observe the bush and its inhabitants,” Joel said.
“I’m keeping my eye on him all the time.”
Joel grinned. “Yes, ma’am.” He looked down at the boy. “Aunty’s right, Sam. Watch where you walk, always be alert. and remember that this is their home not ours, so we must treat the bush with respect.”
“And not kick them or anything,” Sam said.
“Too right,” Joel said.
“Perhaps you can help me get over my aversion to creepy crawlies along the way,” Cassie said.
“I think you’re a lost cause.”
She lifted her shoulders. “I’ll try to be braver.”
“It’ll come. Give yourself time.”
She scrambled inside the car and dug deep inside her bag until she found her green-and-white striped one-piece bathing suit. Dragging the curtains across the windows of the car, she took off her clothes, struggled into her bathers, and, slipping her feet into her white canvas shoes, grabbed Sam’s bathers and two towels and climbed from the car.
It was a wonderful, glorious day. Cassie delighted in the heat on her bare head. Galahs swept through the brilliant blue sky dipping their wings before soaring up into the high, protective branches of the eucalyptus gum.
She stripped Sam down and helped him into his bathers.
They walked to the river’s edge. She knelt down and tested the water with her hand. “Perfect.” She glanced down at her nephew and taking him by the hand, cried, “Ready, set, go.” They fell laughing into the cool, invigorating water. For such a long while, they splashed about in happy contentment.
“It’s getting late,” Joel called. Reluctantly, they made their way out of the water. “Come on, Tiger, and I’ll help you dress while Aunty C changes out of her wet bathers.”
Later, worn-out but exhilarated, they sat on the camp chairs. Sam curled up on Joel’s lap. He kissed the top of the boy’s halo of sandy curls.
What a great day this had been.
Night came quickly, and Joel lit a fire and barbecued sausages, eggs, and tomatoes over the flames. Unable to resist the temptation to show off, he flipped the eggs high with a spatula, catching them on the downward turn.
“Hungry, Sam?”
“Yep,” he answered, not stifling the yawn that stretched his tiny mouth.
“And tired, too, I think,” said Cassie. “It’s been a long day for him.”
“I’ve made up his bed in the back of the car. Don’t want him to wake up in the middle of the night and get scared,” Joel said, flashing a grin. “Wouldn’t want him growing up scared of anything that slivers.”
“Thanks for sharing that with me, Doctor Spock.”
It was the way he looked at her that gave Cassie the sensation of floating away into the atmosphere. The glorious day, the three of them together alone in the bush was magical. With all her strength she wished for this to be real and that they would become a real family. “Don’t look at me like that.”
His brows rose in innocent surprise. “Like what?”
“Like I was a strawberry sundae and you haven’t tasted ice cream for a year.”
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll hide my eyes, that way you won’t know where I’m looking — or how.” He lifted his mountain man’s hat from the ground and, placing it on his head, pulled it down until the brim covered his eyes. “Better?”
Sam giggled. “Uncle Joel, you won’t be able to see anything,” he cried, tugging Joel’s shirtsleeve.
“Aunty C doesn’t like my eyes.”
Sam scratched his head. “Why?”
“Because.”
“’Cos why?” Sam demanded.
“’Cos of this,” Joel cried whipping off his hat and pulling a weird face at Sam, who immediately fell into a fit of the giggles.
“Your Uncle Joel is wasting his talents, Sam,” Cassie placed her hands on her hips. “He should be on the stage.”
“The first one out of town,” Joel said, and this time they all fell into peals of laughter.
Joel noticed Sam was toying with the remainder of his food. “Don’t you want any more tucker, Sam?”
The child shook his head. “I’m full up to here,” he said indicating the beginning of his neck.
He glanced over at Cassie. “How about I put him to bed while you finish your dinner?”
She nodded her thanks. She held out her arms and Sam raced into them. She enclosed him into her arms. “Do you know how much I love you?”
Pulling back from his Aunty C, he outstretched his arms. “This much.”
She smothered his face with her kisses. “Good night sweetheart. Sleep tight.”
“Night, Aunty C,” he said, and a yawn stretched his mouth. “See you in the morning.”
Joel lifted Sam into his arms. “Come on, Tiger, I’ll help you get ready for bed.” He hoisted the child high until he was standing on his shoulders. Joel secured his hands around the back of Sam’s legs.
“Look, Aunty C,” he cried, his voice filled with excitement, “I’m bigger than my uncle.”
“Yes, you are, Sam.” She made a great show of craning her neck to see his face.
Sam’s chest swelled with pride. “When I grow up I’m going to be just like my uncle.”
“What do you think about that, Aunty C?” Joel whispered.
I think that if he was only a little like you, he’d be one of the best men around. If she had to choose a role model, then Joel would be it. Oh, how much she wanted Sam to grow up with the same values, the solid strength, and integrity that his Uncle Joel displayed. “He could do worse.”
“Come on, Tiger, time for bed.”
He returned some minutes later sitting across from her on the other side of the fire. “Can you believe it? He was asleep before I took his shoes off!” He laughed. “He’s amazing.” He picked up a log of wood and tossed it on the fire. Sparks flew, dancing around the flames.
“He’s had a lot of excitement.” She glanced at him and turned her gaze to the flames. The same as me, but my excitement comes from just being with Joel. “He’s enjoying this trip enormously.”
He ran a hand through his hair, and that same ever-straying, solitary lock fell over his forehead. She resisted the near-uncontrollable urge to lean over and brush the lock back, and the truth descended on her, and she knew, beyond all doubt, that she was in love with Joel — loved him with every beat of her heart.
Oh this was so not what she wanted. Kissing, yes. Sex, too, bloody right. Love — oh, my God, no.
“And his aunt?”
“I’m loving it,” she said.
“I fell in love with Oriole the first time I saw it.” He stretched his long legs out in front of him. “I hadn’t long been back from Africa and found the confines of Sydney too restrictive. I needed space. I went searching for a property and found Oriole.”
“And you included your family in this venture?”
“My family is very important to me.” He dug at the dirt with the heel of one boot. “My brother and his wife didn’t take to station life. They lasted about a year and then high-tailed it back to Sydney. After their divorce, Luke moved to Melbourne when he was offered work there.”
“And met Claudia.”
He nodded. “Fate.”
Needing to clear the air between them, she said, “Do you hate her? My sister — do you resent her for what she did to Luke?”
She waited for him to accuse her of not believing him at the beginning about Luke being the innocent in the affair. Of calling him a liar. Instead, he said, “No, I don’t. I believe in fate.” Leaning back, he hooked his thumbs inside the waistband of his jeans. “What must be will be, that sort of thing.”
She needed now to tell him the truth about Claudia. “My sister was wild. An uncontrollable girl. My parents indulged her and when they died, I took up the reins and continued giving her everything she wanted.” She leaned forward her elbows on her knees. “I truly don’t think she meant to hurt anyone. It was a game to her. A game that went wrong when she discovered she was pregnant with Sam.”
His smile was an intimate as a caress. “Then we can let that part of our lives die a natural death?”
“Yes, yes I guess we can.” She didn’t speak for a short time, and then said to him, “Your mother told me about Madeleine and your baby.”
A raised eyebrow. “It was a long time ago.”
“But still painful, I should imagine.”
Hesitation. A long sigh. “Yes, it hurts a little when I think about them for too long. I suppose that will always be there. The regrets, the idea of the could-have-beens. The type of man my son would have grown into.”
Almost too scared of his answer, she asked the question that had been preying on her mind. “You loved Madeleine very much, didn’t you?”
His eyes reflected golden lights from the fire. A small wind blew up from nowhere and flirted around his hair, teasing it, bidding the blond curls to dance at its command. The radiance from the fire enhanced his eyes, making the bronze of his skin dazzle.
“We were both young and eager. It seems such a long time ago now. I thought I’d never get over losing her, but now — ” He shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s like I can place them here,” he tapped his heart, “where they’re safe and get on with living.”
“She would want that. She would want you to get on with your life.”
He smiled at her and her heart skipped a beat. “Yeah, I know she would.”
A comfortable silence. “I’m surprised it isn’t colder,” she said after a while.
“It’ll get colder later,” he told her.
His look, which came to her across the fire-lit space, bamboozled and spellbound her. It brought her to heights she had never before experienced. It crashed her down to earth in a confused heap. He was mystifying, unexplainable, and wonderfully male.
He hit a falling log with the heel of his boot and sparks shot up into the sky like an exploding firecracker. “After my wife and son died, I thought I’d never love again, never have a family. So that made me believe I was the last of the Caine family, and then I learned about Sam. It nearly blew my mind.”
Even in the fast growing dusk, as he spoke, she could see his eyes become jewel-colored. Sam was the eternal link that would hold them together for all time. Bound together by a silken cord.
“I want everything good for him. I want to be good for him.”
Through the stillness of the darkening bush, she said, “I couldn’t imagine you to be anything else to him.”
“This trip has been good for the three of us,” he said. “I feel sort of … aw, closer to you somehow. We needed this time together.”
“I guess we did, Joel.”
His face was inscrutable, eerily lit by the dancing tips of fire. Alone with Joel in this magical night with so many stars, she wanted him to scoop her into his arms and sweep her into a sky opaque enough to dance across.
As if sensing her need, he left his post and took a position sitting beside her. Their gazes locked. She lowered hers first. Her head tilted forward as she reached over to pick up a piece of fallen branch.
She hadn’t realized he had moved until he was kissing the soft skin of her neck. A desire that was all potent. all consuming filled her. Her limbs melted and her heart thumped wildly in her chest.
Her heart quickened at his touch, and she wanted his kisses with a raw emotion that sent her senses reeling.
He moved his mouth until it rested in the indentation of her chin and then to press lightly on top of hers. His tongue moved around the inside of her mouth. Warm, exciting.
He tasted like sweet, heady wine. His skin was smooth, his mouth hot.
He wrapped his arms around her, and desire flooded her. She was fast losing control.
She heard him whisper her name and she pulled back from him. He brought his hand to box the back of her head. His lips still pressed to hers, he murmured, “Want a cup of tea?”
She brushed her lips across his. “No.”
“Want I should make you coffee?”
She giggled. “No coffee.”
“Do you want to go dancing?”
Drawing back from his mouth, she laughed gleefully. “You idiot.”
He cupped her chin and stroked her cheek with his thumb. “You must be tired and we’ve an early start in the morning.”
He moved away from the firelight and walked toward the car. “Joel!”
“What?”
Apprehension slithered in her belly. “Where are you going?”
“Getting our swags.”
“Hurry. It’s getting so damn dark.”
He returned and threw a log on to the fire. “In a few moments you won’t be able to see your hand in front of you,” he said.
The bush around her had darkened to the point that the trees stood out in black relief. Her earlier feeling of ease had vanished and in its place was an ever-growing dread.
Vulnerable, her mind conjured up witches’ claws, wild animals that bit and scratched and stung their poison, and — she shuddered — slithering creatures that wound their way around your body and squeezed and squeezed until you didn’t have a breath of air left inside your lungs.
Goosebumps rose on her arms. She brought a hand to her throat. Panic fluttered. Gain control. Nothing could harm her. Joel was here to look after her. But all the self-talk did nothing to alleviate her fears.
A rustle in the bush behind her caused her to spin around. She strained her ears to hear. Noises seemed to come from all directions. A wail from deep inside the bushes, a hoot over there behind a tree, and the slithering sound of a deadly brown snake rustling through the leaves and dirt. A snake that could kill you with one venomous bite.
She trembled, and her heart beat at such a furious rate. Was she having a minor heart attack?
Where in the hell was Joel?
Another sound invaded her mind — the sound of sanity and she realized Joel was speaking to her. “What?”
Except for the fire, it was now total black. She reached out and grabbed his jeans, clinging on for dear life.
