by Karly Lane
‘How’s young Ollie coping?’ His father’s gruff tone couldn’t hide the fondness he had for the Dawsons.
‘He’s started on the windrowing.’ Technically, Griff hadn’t actually been helping Ollie, but then there wasn’t a whole lot of anything he could do until harvesting started.
‘Yeah, well, just remember we have our place to keep on top of too. After we’ve got ourselves sorted we’ll head over there and do whatever we can to help them finish up. But I want you to focus on this place first.’
It went without saying that they had their own business to take care of and it rubbed him the wrong way to have his father point it out. He’d almost given up waiting for the day his dad remembered he was an adult and not still some kid who needed constant supervision. While it was true that over the last few years his father had taken a step back from a lot of the day-to-day operational matters, leaving Griffin to take over, there was still no doubt who had final say in most of the major decisions.
There was a fine line to walk in the running of a family business. When it worked it was great, but there were times when his father’s decisions went against the direction Griffin wanted the property to take and the relationship got tense. His mother always said it was like two bulls locking horns in the paddock. Age and experience over youth and enthusiasm. The age-old battle.
Griff knew he still had a lot to learn from his dad. Hell, he’d grown up in awe of the man. But sometimes he wished his father would have more faith in him and his vision for the property and let him make a few of the decisions. Today, though, he was feeling too good to let it bother him, so he kept his mouth shut and his head down.
His good mood lasted all the next day as well. While he consulted with the contractors and sorted out the machinery maintenance schedule, his mind constantly returned to Olivia. He’d been replaying yesterday over and over, feeling a mix of surprise and cockiness as he recalled the exhausted yet satisfied smile that had played on Olivia’s lips when he’d kissed her goodbye. It still didn’t seem real. Olivia and him … back together. No, he corrected quickly, not together. Her words came back to him: ‘Casual,’ she’d said. She wanted to keep it casual. He frowned. He’d gone down the casual route with Ashley, but that wasn’t what he wanted with Olivia.
Although what else could it be? She was only visiting. Could he handle a long-distance relationship? It didn’t seem very practical. Then again, if it meant having more time to convince her there was a future for them, he’d be willing to give it a shot.
The only thing he knew for certain was that whatever they’d had years ago was still just as potent now.
Griff muttered under his breath as his thumb hesitated over the number on his phone screen. It shouldn’t be this hard to make a simple phone call.
‘Hi,’ Liv answered, after only a couple of rings.
‘Hey.’ He cleared his throat quickly. ‘I, ahh,’ he started again and swore under his breath quietly. ‘How are you?’
‘I’m fine.’ There was the slightest touch of amusement in her tone. ‘How are you?’
This was not going as smoothly as he’d hoped. This was Olivia, he reminded himself. He’d managed to talk to her like a normal human being before, it shouldn’t be any different now. Only it was. Now they were in uncharted territory. They’d slept together, but this time they were adults, not kids. ‘Yeah, I’m good. I just thought I’d call and see how you were.’ He groaned silently.
‘Maybe a little disappointed that I managed to have a skinny dip without anyone springing me,’ she replied.
‘Skinny dip?’ He sat upright at that. Finding her topless had been a big enough surprise yesterday, but naked … ‘Sorry? What?’ he said abruptly when he realised she’d been talking and his mind had been wandering.
Her chuckle told him that she knew exactly what he’d been thinking about. ‘I said,’ she started pointedly, ‘do you have any plans for later?’
‘I was thinking this might be the last chance we get for a while to spend some time together before harvesting starts. Did you want to come over here tonight?’ Griff asked hesitantly.
‘To your place?’
‘Yeah. You could stay the night,’ he said. The line went silent. ‘So you don’t have to drive home,’ he added, then started to doubt the wisdom of his invitation. ‘It’s no big deal if you don’t want to … I just thought …’ He let the words trail off. He’d obviously thought wrong. Maybe she wasn’t as eager to continue this after all.
‘I can’t,’ she said after a moment.
‘Why not?’
‘Because …’ She let out a frustrated breath. ‘What would your parents think?’
He let her question sink in for a moment. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. Maybe it wasn’t that she wasn’t into him. ‘They’ll think that we’re two adults spending the night together,’ he replied calmly. He had never hidden the fact he had women stay over now and again. While his parents probably didn’t approve, they at least knew how to respect boundaries. He was an adult who lived in his own place, and they’d never interfered.
‘I can’t, Griff,’ she finally said.
‘Look, I guess I know why you’d prefer to keep it quiet, but it’s not going to be possible for long. I mean, if you want to keep … seeing each other, that is. They’re going to find out one way or another.’
He heard her sigh on the other end of the line and wished he was there with her.
‘Griff, I don’t even know what this is … I really don’t want everyone knowing that we’ve been … well, that we’re …’
‘Having sex?’ he supplied helpfully.
‘What’s the point in people knowing about it if it’s just a bit of … fun? It’s only going to get them excited over … well … nothing.’
Nothing? She thought this was nothing? His reaction to her comment distracted him for a minute. He hadn’t expected it to hurt quite so much. ‘So that’s what this is? Just a holiday fling?’ he asked cautiously. He genuinely had no idea what she was thinking. It was hard to read her over the phone. Maybe he should have gone over to see her, face to face, as he’d wanted to earlier. He almost had, but then he’d had a sudden attack of nerves. What if she turned him down? Maybe that hadn’t been as stupid a thought as it’d seemed after all.
‘I didn’t exactly plan on this happening, Griff … I live in Sydney, remember?’
‘Maybe we should just see where it goes?’ Even he heard the hopeful tone in his voice.
‘You think it can go somewhere?’
‘Why not? It’s not as though we’re strangers. We already know everything there is to know about each other. I’d say it had every chance of going somewhere.’
‘We used to know everything there was to know about each other,’ she corrected. ‘It’s been a long time since we were a couple.’
‘Maybe, but we have to stand a better shot at it than people who don’t have any history together.’ He hated her silence. He wanted to be able to see her face, to know what she was thinking.
‘Let’s just see what happens,’ she finally said. ‘I’m going down to visit Mum and Dad for the weekend. Maybe we should wait till I get back.’
‘When did you decide this?’
‘This morning. Mum sounded exhausted on the phone, so I figured I’d fly down and see Dad, give Mum a bit of a break and let them know everything’s okay here before I come back in time for harvest.’
‘Who’s taking you to the airport?’
‘I’ll drive and leave the car there.’
‘I’ll take you,’ he said, trying to ignore the fact she was seemingly fine with leaving. God, could he be any more pathetic?
‘There’s no need.’
‘There’s every need.’
‘But that means I’ll need to pull someone away from work to come and get me.’
‘You won’t be pulling someone away. I’ll come and get you.’
‘I don’t remember you being this stubborn before,’ she mumble
d.
‘Then I guess there’s a few new things we need to learn about each other after all, huh?’
They said goodbye and Griff put his phone back on the dash of the tractor, deep in thought. He wasn’t any further ahead in working out where they stood. If anything, it was even murkier than before. She wasn’t saying she didn’t want to continue seeing him, but there was definite resistance about where the whole thing was headed. Could he see them arm in arm behind a white picket fence? Not really. Even though that had always been his dream, to settle down and have his own family. Of all his siblings, he was probably the only one who’d ever really wanted the simple things in life. His sisters were both ambitious and Linc had not made a secret of the fact he was never going to be a farmer. It was Griff who had always known his life would be right here on Stringybark. He hadn’t been pining away waiting for it to happen. He’d just assumed someday it would.
But would it be with Olivia? Her life had always been in the city. Would she want to give that up to be here? There was still a while before she headed home, maybe he could change her mind. But did he have enough time?
Olivia heard her phone ringing, and dug around for it under the paperwork spread across her parents’ kitchen table. It was late for a call but she hadn’t been able to sleep so she’d been up researching the paddock-to-plate idea some more.
‘Hadley, hi,’ she said, seeing the ID on the screen. It had been almost four weeks since she’d heard from her best friend.
‘Hey, stranger.’
‘Hey, you. Are you back home?’
‘Yeah, I flew into Sydney a few hours ago. I’m sorry I haven’t called to see how your dad’s going, it’s been crazy, but I have been thinking of you.’
‘It’s all good. He’s doing a lot better.’
‘I was thinking I might go in and visit him tomorrow. Do you think that would be okay?’
‘He’d like that,’ Olivia said with a smile.
‘How’re things back home?’
‘So far so good. Ollie’s on top of it all as usual.’
‘What about you? How are you coping with everything?’
Trust Hadley to ask the tough questions; probably why she was such a great reporter, she always seemed to pick up on the subtleties. ‘It still doesn’t seem real. I keep expecting Dad to come in through the back door and toss his dirty old hat on the kitchen bench, like he’s always done,’ she said, feeling her throat tighten. It was a daily routine, her father coming in after a long day working outside, and her mother chiding him to Get that filthy thing off my benchtop.
‘Ah, Liv. I know it must be hard,’ Hadley said gently. ‘But he’s going to be back home before you know it.’
Olivia smiled at the thought. ‘Yeah, I know.’
‘How’s my annoying brother?’ she asked.
Olivia found herself momentarily lost for words. ‘Fine. He’s fine … I wouldn’t really know … everyone’s busy at the moment with harvesting and whatnot.’
She heard the suspicious silence on the other end of the line and almost groaned aloud. ‘What’s going on?’ Hadley asked slowly.
‘What?’
‘Liv? Have you and Griff had a run-in or something?’
Or something, Olivia answered silently. Why was she so damn easy to read? It wasn’t fair. ‘No. I’ve just been busy since I got back and I haven’t really seen much of him.’ She tried to ignore the images of exactly how much of him she’d actually seen over the last few days.
‘If he’s still giving you a hard time about what happened at the reception …’ Hadley started.
Olivia closed her eyes tightly at the reminder. ‘No, no, it’s not that.’ Please just stop talking about that bloody night, she thought desperately. ‘So how long are you back for? I’m coming back on Friday, for the weekend, and it’d be great to catch up.’
‘Hoping to be here for a while, unless something urgent breaks—you know how it goes,’ she said, and Olivia could imagine her giving a so-be-it kind of shrug.
She did know. Over the years they’d had many a plan cancelled because Hadley had had to fly out to some remote part of the world to cover a tragedy of one kind or another. The perils of being an award-winning foreign correspondent for a major television network, she supposed.
They said their goodbyes and Olivia found herself pondering her earlier conversation with Griff again. It was a complication she had not been expecting to happen when she’d decided to come out here. It didn’t have to be a complication, she supposed. They were two consenting adults. There was nothing wrong with having a few weeks of fun. Who said it had to mean anything permanent? Even as she thought the words, she felt a weight of disapproval she knew would come from certain members of her family, not to mention the Callahan women. They’d be planning a wedding and have baby names picked out the minute Griff and her made any kind of public appearance as a couple.
She gave a quick shake of her head and went back to the computer to continue her research. It was pointless to even think about. She was here to help out for a few weeks and then she’d go back home. By then maybe this restlessness will have disappeared and her life could go back to normal.
Fourteen
Olivia was up early. She’d packed Ollie off with enough food to feed a small army and made sure to tell him about the precooked meals in the freezer. Now she knew how Mum felt whenever she left Dad and Ollie alone to come and visit her in the city.
Ollie hadn’t batted an eyelid when she’d told him that Griff had volunteered to drive her to the airport. She’d been jumpy and nervous about telling him, but she needn’t have—he was too exhausted to muster more than a grunt in acknowledgement as he ate a late dinner.
She was packed and ready when Griff knocked on the door, doing a final scan of the kitchen to make sure she’d turned everything off. She turned as he crossed the room, barely managing a squeak of surprised protest as he swept her up in his arms and kissed her.
When they pulled apart, she realised they were headed down the hallway towards her bedroom. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Making sure you remember what you’re leaving.’
‘I’m going away for two days,’ she told him dryly as he placed her on the bed and kicked off his boots.
‘I know. And I’m not sure how I’ll cope,’ he said, shrugging off his shirt.
Olivia sat up, resting on her elbows as she watched the impromptu striptease with more eager anticipation than was quite proper. ‘I’m sure you’ll manage somehow.’
‘You’re still dressed,’ he pointed out, tossing his shirt on the end of the bed.
‘Silly me for being ready to leave for the airport,’ she muttered.
‘We’ve got plenty of time to get there.’
‘You wouldn’t be deliberately making sure I miss my flight, would you?’
‘Would I do something like that?’ he asked innocently. Unfortunately, innocent didn’t quite work on him and she narrowed her gaze. ‘I may have factored in a brief farewell when I told you what time I’d be picking you up,’ he admitted.
‘Oh really?’
He grinned at her droll tone. ‘Get naked, Dawson. You’re wastin’ time,’ he told her as he undid the button on his jeans.
Olivia followed the movement with eyes, finding it wildly distracting and suddenly forgetting why she was annoyed to begin with. Maybe she was a little happy he’d decided to get over here early so they had time for a proper goodbye. As he discarded the remainder of his clothing, her throat went dry. Okay, make that a lot happy.
‘You don’t have to come inside,’ she said when he made to open his door in the carpark of the Griffith airport.
‘But I’m going to,’ he said, pushing the door open and walking to the back of the ute to unclip the tarp and take her small overnight bag from the back.
He slung the handle over his shoulder and took her hand in his as they crossed the carpark and went in through the large sliding glass doors. She checked in and they sat down to wa
it for the flight to arrive.
Olivia gave a small rueful smile as she looked down at their entwined hands. If someone had told her only a few weeks earlier that she’d be sitting here holding hands with Griffin Callahan and secretly fretting that she had to leave him for two whole days, she would have laughed and called them crazy. His large hand, toughened by hard work and wrapped around her own, made her feel safe. Their hands rested on his thigh and underneath she felt the hard muscle, remembering the solid length of it against her own smoother skin only a short time earlier, making her wish they could forget everything and go back to bed.
She risked a sideways glance at him and bit her lip. He looked as miserable as she felt. ‘I’ll be home Sunday afternoon.’
‘I know and I’ll be waiting right here,’ he said, holding her gaze steadily. There was so much spoken in that long look—a promise that made her pulse quicken.
Outside the plane touched down and taxied to a stop on the tarmac.
Olivia got to her feet reluctantly, turning to face Griff. ‘I’ll see you Sunday.’
He didn’t bother answering, he merely stood up and kissed her. How had she fallen for him again so damn fast? The question swirled inside her head. The answer was simple—she’d never really stopped falling for him.
Olivia swore she could still feel the tingle of his lips on her own as the plane made the descent into Sydney two hours later. The older lady next to her smiled and said, ‘Home sweet home.’
Olivia nodded, distracted by the strange feeling the woman’s words inspired. Sydney was her home, it had been her whole adult life. Even though Rankins Springs would always be where she was from, it was Sydney she always thought of as home … until now. No. Not until now. This was her home, she told herself firmly as she merged with a sea of weary travellers moving through the airport. Everything was just out of kilter after her dad’s accident. It was a good idea to get away for a few days. Now she was back here, things would get back into perspective and she’d be able to think more clearly.