Her Happy-Ever-After Family: The Cattleman's Ready-Made Family / Miracle in Bellaroo Creek / Patchwork Family in the Outback

‘I just dropped by to talk lawnmowers. I have a ride-on and thought I might whizz it around this place tomorrow if that suited you.’

Tess shook her head, her hair so dark and her skin so golden it made him ache in familiar and unfamiliar ways. ‘Oh, no, you don’t, Cameron Manning. I can mow my own lawn, thank you very much. Though, a lesson in how to operate your ride-on would be greatly appreciated.’

It was obviously important to her to do it herself. He bit down on his urge to argue with her, although it chafed at him. He nodded. ‘Right.’

‘Woo hoo!’ She punched the air. ‘I get to use a ride-on mower. How much fun will that be?’

Krissie finally smiled.

‘So how did yesterday’s luncheon go?’ He rested back on his hands, deliberately casual.

‘Ooh.’ Tess rubbed her hands together. ‘There must’ve been thirty people there.’

‘It was a Saturday. Everyone would’ve made an effort.’

Ty scowled. ‘You didn’t.’

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘But I really wish I had.’ And he meant it.

His stomach suddenly rolled. Why hadn’t he gone? Eleven months ago he’d have been there. But since Lance and Fiona…Nausea burned his throat. Despite all his precautions he was turning into a recluse like his father.

No! He snapped the thought off. He was leaving Bellaroo Creek so he didn’t turn into his father. He’d forge a new life for himself—an involved and engaging life. The kind of life he couldn’t have in Bellaroo Creek.

Still…The idea of socialising had become anathema and he’d buried himself in station work, rarely going into town. None of that changed the fact that he wished he’d attended yesterday’s luncheon.

Who had yelled at Tess and spooked the kids?

‘A bad man yelled at Auntie Tess,’ Krissie confided.

‘Who?’

Ty scowled again. ‘His name was Lance and we don’t know if we want to live here any more.’

Lance?

He flicked a glance at Tess and a hand reached inside his chest to wring his heart. The raw grief in her eyes as she surveyed the children made his jaw ache. She glanced up, caught his gaze and tried to smile, but he saw the effort it cost her. That was when he realised she couldn’t speak for the tears blocking her throat, and he sensed that crying in front of the children was the last thing she wanted. And probably the last thing either Ty or Krissie needed.

‘Oh, Lance!’ he pshawed. ‘You don’t have to worry about Lance.’

Krissie bit her lip. ‘He’s not a bad man?’

He was a black-hearted traitor, but Cam had enough justice in him still to know Lance would be horrified to find he’d become a bogey man to these kids. ‘Nah, he’s all hot air, you know? He makes a lot of noise, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly. I should know, because he’s my little brother.’

Relief rushed into both the children’s faces and it hit him then how much these kids trusted him. He didn’t know how or why—whether it was a carry-over from all of Tess’s positivity when they’d arrived on Friday, or because he’d brought Boomer over to play, or the fact he knew Old Nelson the blue-tongue lizard, but it made his chest cramp. He couldn’t let these kids rely on him too much. He was their neighbour, nothing more. But instinct told him he’d need to tread carefully—these kids needed kid-glove handling.

He ached to quiz them more about Lance—why he had yelled at Tess—but the kids needed to take their minds off yesterday’s incident. They needed to remember the good things about living in Bellaroo Creek. They needed to be allowed to get on with their fresh start without fear and setbacks.

‘Now I don’t know if this will be agreeable to you guys or not, but because I worked so hard yesterday, and because Boomer’s taking care of things today, I get to take the rest of today off.’ He rubbed his chin and pursed his lips as if in a pretence of thought. ‘So I was thinking you might like to go and check out some chickens and puppies.’

All three faces on the blanket before him lit up. He immediately tried to temper their enthusiasm. ‘Today we only look because these things take a lot of careful thought and planning. It’s a big responsibility to own an animal and you need to be very sure that the choice you make is the right one for you, you understand?’

All three heads nodded in unison. It struck him how young Tess was—she couldn’t be much older than twenty-five. Too young for taking on all the responsibility she had.

Ty jumped up. ‘Can we leave right now?’

He suppressed a grin at the young boy’s eagerness. ‘You’ll need time to get ready. I’ll pick you up in an hour. Promise you’ll be ready?’

‘Yes!’ Both children raced indoors and Tess laughed. She actually laughed as she watched them and it lightened the unexplained weight that had settled across his shoulders. To see pleasure in her face instead of fear and grief…

She leapt to her feet. He rose more slowly, finding it suddenly difficult to catch his breath. She grabbed his arm, reached up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. ‘I could kiss you, Cameron! Thank you.’

He went to point out that she’d done exactly that, but he couldn’t push a single sound out of his throat. He went to tell her to call him Cam, but his full name sounded so bewitching on those charming lips of hers, he found himself saying nothing at all.

And then she hugged him—hard and fierce—and it knocked the sense and the breath clean out of his body. Every sweet curve Tess possessed pressed against him, and his body soaked up her warmth and vigour. It brought him to aching life and sent a surge of primitive hunger racing through him with the swiftness of a rabbit startled in the undergrowth. A wildfire licked along his veins…carrying the same danger that fire did out here in the bush.

Reason screamed at him to move away. Instead, one of his arms snaked around her waist and he pulled her in closer, hugged her back. His hand rested against the top of her hip. He wanted to move his hand lower, he wanted to mould her against him, wanted her soft and pliant and…

He felt rather than heard her quick intake of breath. She stiffened. A heartbeat passed. A heartbeat in which the fire raging through him threatened all of his control, and then she softened against him.

He let his hand drift down to cup her bottom and lift it against him. She arched into him. He groaned. He couldn’t help it.

Her hands drifted down his chest, her face lifted to his, her eyes soft and her lips parted.

He wanted to taste her. He wanted to explore the fullness of her bottom lip and—

For God’s sake, she hugged you out of gratitude. She wasn’t inviting you to maul her like some low-life sleaze!

He recalled the raw pain he’d witnessed in her eyes a moment before and, rather than snap away, he eased her out of his arms gently. ‘Sorry, Tess.’ His voice came out raspy and hoarse. ‘I forgot myself for a moment.’

She blinked twice before the mistiness cleared from her eyes. Her cheeks flushed bright red. ‘Oh! I—’ She swung away. ‘You and me both. I’m sorry. It’s been an emotional morning.’

He shrugged and tried to appear as casual for her as he had for the children earlier. ‘No harm done.’

She turned back to him. ‘No harm done,’ she echoed, her eyes searching his to test that truth. They both stood there awkwardly until she glanced at her watch. ‘So you’ll be back at around eleven?’

He snapped to and nodded.

‘Should I pack a picnic?’ She smiled impishly and everything slowly returned to normal—the colour of the sky, the sound of birdsong, the racing of his pulse. ‘You wouldn’t believe how much food there was at yesterday’s do. And somehow most of the leftovers ended up in my car.’

He stared at her lips—they were more plum than rose. Hunger stretched through him as he took in the fullness of her bottom lip. His pulse began to race again. ‘Sounds great,’ he said, backing up. ‘I’ll see you in a while.’

He shot around the house and back towards his homestead. It occurred to him that burying himself out on his station for the last ten months might not have been the wisest course of action after all.

Cam’s four-wheel-drive pulled up out the front and Tess hauled in a deep breath and locked the front door. Ty and Krissie raced towards the car with all the alacrity of children promised their heart’s desire.

Cam had done that. He’d found the perfect way to remind them of all the exciting potential that living in Bellaroo Creek could bring. They’d gone from the doldrums to delight.

But she should never have kissed him. She most certainly shouldn’t have hugged him.