by Karly Lane
‘We better get some sleep,’ he said, still facing away from her.
She lay awake long after she heard the soft sounds of his even breathing beside her. She wished she could turn her thoughts off and sleep as easily as Griff seemed to be able to. It was a long time before she was able to drift into a restless slumber.
Olivia glanced over as Ollie came through the back door later that afternoon. The new fuel tank for the header had still not arrived, so they had an unexpected night off and an invitation to dinner with the Callahans, which was a celebration of sorts to welcome home Linc.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ he said, pushing her feet off the small side table as he walked past.
Olivia sent him an irritable glance as she straightened up in her seat and tried to get comfortable again. ‘Nothing.’
‘Where’s Griff? You two have been joined at the hip for weeks.’
‘He had to drive into town to get parts.’
‘So that’s why you’re moping about here like a loser?’
‘Maybe I just wanted a bit of peace and quiet,’ she shot back pointedly.
‘After spending all day inside a truck cabin alone? Nope, I don’t think so. I may be a mere male, but I know when something’s up with you, so spill.’
God, he was annoying when he went into twin mode. ‘She’s coming back.’
‘Who’s coming back?’
‘Cash.’
‘So?’ He frowned at her, clearly having trouble making the connection to how this was a problem.
‘Griff had a thing for her … remember?’
Ollie eyed her oddly. ‘Yeah, but that was ages ago. She’s practically married to his brother now.’
‘So? They almost killed each other over her, if you care to recall.’
‘Aw, come on, Liv, that was boilin’ up long before Cash came on the scene—you know what Griff and Linc are like. It wasn’t about her,’ he said, grabbing a beer from the fridge before taking a seat at the table.
She did know that Griff and his older brother had a long history of friction and, yes, there had been a lot of other outside factors that had come into play that night, but the fact still remained that she’d seen Griff with his heart on his sleeve over the woman last Christmas—he’d had real feelings for her.
Cash, with her stunning looks and confidence. Her tattoos that should look trashy but only managed to make her even more mysterious and beautiful. Olivia had tried to dislike her—but she couldn’t. She was one of those rare people who was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside. It wasn’t fair to be that blessed. Olivia’s confidence had taken blow after blow as she’d watched Griff fall deeper under Cash’s spell and realised there was no way on earth she could compete. Why would Griff look twice at her when Cash was so damn perfect?
It had made her take a long hard look at herself and her life. She was boring. She had no life—just a career that sapped every last ounce of her energy.
‘Look, from a guy’s perspective,’ Ollie said, and she heard his tone get a little gruff, ‘if you’ve got an issue or want to know something specific’—he lowered his gaze briefly—‘you have to ask him. Guys don’t pick up too well on telepathy.’
‘It’s complicated,’ she said.
‘Isn’t it always, with women?’ Ollie muttered before taking a sip of his beer.
She ignored his comment. ‘I don’t even know what I want to do with my life. I can’t stay out here. What’s the point starting something with Griff that’s not going to go anywhere?’
‘The fact you don’t even know what you want to do means you can’t rule out that it might go somewhere.’
She knew he had a vested interest in all of this; after all, he was going to be the one picking up the pieces of his best mate and his sister if it all fell apart. It would make his life so much easier if they just got together and were happy.
‘Well, you better hurry up and get ready. We’re due over there for dinner soon.’
Olivia tipped her head back and groaned. ‘I don’t think I’ll go.’
‘Fine,’ he said, drinking the last of his beer, ‘but when Lavinia asks where you are, I’m going to tell her the truth—that you’re over here sulking—and then you know she’s going to come here and drag you over to Stringybark herself.’
‘Some brother you are,’ Olivia muttered darkly.
‘Hey, you’d do exactly the same thing for me,’ he said, standing up and putting out his hand to pull her to her feet.
‘Oh, don’t you worry, I’m planning on being right here so I can refuse to cover for you when you have woman trouble,’ she warned.
‘You’ll be waiting a while,’ he said, turning away.
Something about his tone caught her attention, but he was already walking back inside before she could call him on it. She had her own problems to deal with right now, but she would get to the bottom of her brother’s lack of a love life. After all, why the hell should he escape the stress and frustration of love? She wasn’t going to let him get off that easily.
Twenty-one
‘As if I didn’t have enough on my bloody plate,’ Griff muttered on his way home, spotting the car parked near his parents’ house.
He’d been in a bad mood all day. The header had got a flat tyre—it couldn’t have been somewhere easy to access, it had to be in the furthest corner, in the softest part of the paddock, making jacking up a machine with five ton of grain in it extremely difficult. Added to that was the fact he couldn’t raise anyone on the two-way and had to walk all the way back to the bins to get the chaser to empty the grain, then find blocks and spanners to rip the tyre off. Then he’d had to take the tyre to town to get it fixed, then come all the way back and put it on again. He’d pretty much lost the entire day.
On top of that, everyone seemed to be walking around on eggshells due to Linc and Cash’s imminent arrival and it was putting his nerves on edge.
He parked the ute next to his brother’s rented four-wheel drive and a reluctant grin tugged at his mouth, despite the turmoil swirling about him. You could take the boy outta the country but you couldn’t take the country outta the boy.
He climbed the front stairs and followed voices out to the side verandah.
His brother was the first one to catch sight of him. Linc walked across to greet him with a firm handshake and a look in his eye that said more than words ever could. ‘About time you showed up,’ he said, looking him up and down. ‘I swear you’ve got uglier.’
Griff grinned—yeah, everything was back to normal. ‘Nah, it’s just your eyesight failing, old man.’
‘Hi, Griff,’ a softer voice said and he turned to look down at the dark-haired woman beside him. She slipped into his arms and he experienced a sense of relief when he felt nothing more than genuine warmth at seeing her again.
‘Good to see you, Cash,’ he said, pulling away.
He felt, more than heard, a collective sigh of relief around the table, and he hoped to Christ the family would chill the hell out now and leave him be.
Olivia climbed the steps slowly, feeling like a convict on the final walk up to the gallows. She could hear the sound of conversation and general merriment and longed to turn around and go home. Thank goodness she’d decided to bring her own car tonight. Ollie had assumed it was in case she wanted to stay at Griff’s, but the truth was that she hadn’t entirely ruled out leaving early if things didn’t go well.
‘Ollie!’ She heard Lavinia greet her brother and plastered a smile on her face as she waited for her turn. Her gaze found Griff’s as he stood up from the table and headed across towards her.
She felt the gathered crowd’s eyes covertly watching them as he kissed her lightly and led her towards a chair beside him. She knew this was still new territory for his family as well, but she really wished it wasn’t such a big deal.
Gathering her courage, she looked up and greeted Linc as he leaned across the table to kiss her cheek, then Cash did the same. She was just as
beautiful, if not more so. It wasn’t fair. How did the perfect woman manage to get even more perfect? God, she practically glowed.
‘It’s good to see you again, Liv,’ she said in her honeyed tone. Even her voice was sexy.
‘Hi, Cash.’ Olivia was relieved that she managed to sound so normal. She could do this—it was only one night. She could pretend she wasn’t a knotted mass of anxiety. That the man she loved wasn’t going to compare her to this tanned goddess and find her wanting.
Across the table, Griff’s older sister Harmony sat with her two obnoxious children. Actually, to be fair, they weren’t always obnoxious. She found Holder kind of sweet when he wasn’t being snotty, and his sister Payton was just a rebellious fourteen-year-old. Olivia could remember all too well how horrendous those years had been. Added to that they were going through the upheaval of their parents splitting up.
‘Olivia, it’s nice to see you again,’ Harmony said.
The kitchen door slammed shut, followed by a cry of delight, and Olivia spun around in time to see a blur of blonde heading towards her. ‘Hadley? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were coming home.’ Olivia broke out in an enormous smile.
‘Surprise,’ Griff said quietly from beside her.
She only had time for a fleeting glance in his direction before Hadley dragged her aside to get a drink. ‘When I heard Cash and Linc were coming out, I figured you’d be a basket case, so we flew home for an impromptu family gathering,’ Hadley said in an undertone.
‘We?’ Olivia uttered, stunned by the sudden turn of events.
‘Mitch is here too.’ She nodded across at the dark-haired man seated beside her father in tailored trousers and a button-up shirt and looking every inch the handsome TV reporter.
‘I’m not a basket case,’ Olivia muttered, turning back to her friend.
‘Yeah, right. I know you, Liv.’
‘Dinner’s ready! Everyone come and grab a plate before it gets cold,’ Lavinia called, cutting off their discussion. You didn’t mess with Lavinia when there was hot food about to get cold. There was an explosion of activity as people loaded up plates and then settled back down at the table.
‘Ah, before we all start eating,’ Linc said, pushing his seat back and standing up, causing everyone to pause with forks halfway to mouths, ‘I’d just like to make an announcement.’ He looked down at Cash and then around the table. ‘Cash and I are expecting a baby,’ he said simply, but he couldn’t hide the love and pride shining in his eyes as he returned his gaze to the woman beside him.
Instantly Olivia looked at Griffin. He seemed surprised, like everyone else around the table, but then when he saw her watching him his face tightened. She was momentarily distracted by Hadley, who quietly rose from the table and headed inside, unnoticed by the rest of the family who’d recovered from the shock and were clamouring to congratulate the parents-to-be. She pushed her chair back from the table quickly, muttering a hasty, ‘Excuse me,’ and hurried inside after Hadley.
She found her standing alone in her old bedroom at the end of the hall.
‘Oh, Hads,’ Olivia said, walking across the room to comfort her friend.
‘I’m fine,’ she said angrily, but dropped her head on Olivia’s shoulder and cried. ‘It just caught me off guard,’ she sniffled after a minute.
‘Caught everyone off guard, I think,’ Olivia agreed. ‘Mitch still doesn’t know?’
Hadley shook her head. ‘I know I don’t look like it, but I’m seriously fine with it. At least, I was till now, but it’s okay, probably just lingering hormones or something. You go back out before anyone notices we’re missing. I’m happy for them.’
‘Yeah, me too,’ she said, and she was. She headed back outside and slid into her chair, unnoticed by everyone except Griff, who still wore a tight-lipped expression.
The main course ended and dessert was devoured, and the entire time she could sense Griff’s mood deteriorate. When at last they could escape from the table, Olivia began to gather up empty plates, but Griff stopped her. ‘Leave it. We need to talk,’ he said quietly. Unless she wanted to cause a scene, she had no choice but to follow him.
As they walked to his house, Olivia broke the odd silence. ‘What’s wrong? You’ve been fuming all through dinner.’
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, coming to a stop. ‘You seriously have to ask me that?’
Olivia was genuinely dumbfounded. ‘Is this because I left the table earlier?’
‘That,’ he acknowledged, ‘and the look you gave me before you left.’
Olivia frowned. ‘What look?’ She didn’t remember a look.
‘As soon as Linc said Cash was pregnant, you turned that look on me … like you were expecting me to be … I don’t know,’ he said, beginning to pace, ‘devastated by the news or something.’
‘I …’ Okay, maybe she had looked to see his response, but it had been an automatic reaction. ‘I didn’t mean to.’
‘But you did. Because you don’t believe me when I tell you I have no feelings for Cash.’
‘I do believe you,’ she said quietly.
‘If you believed me, you wouldn’t be expecting me to flip the table over and challenge my brother to a duel or something.’
Granted, family gatherings with the Callahans sometimes resembled The Bold and the Beautiful, but a duel would be going a tad overboard, even for them.
‘And then you couldn’t even bring yourself to congratulate them. That was really low.’
‘Hey,’ she said, insulted.
‘Well, it was. Couldn’t you have pretended to be happy for them?’
‘I am happy for them,’ she said, wanting to justify herself but knowing that she couldn’t tell him why she had really left the table. If Hadley didn’t want to tell anyone about her miscarriage, then it wasn’t up to her to tell him.
‘It didn’t look like it,’ he said stiffly.
‘I can’t help what it looked like. I’m sorry about my reaction. I don’t know why I thought you might be upset. I’m glad you weren’t.’
‘Of course I wasn’t, because that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you—I’m not in love with Cash. I’m in love with you. But I don’t think you’re ever going to believe me and I can’t spend the rest of my life with you watching me like a hawk every time she’s around.’
He loved her but he couldn’t spend the rest of his life with her? ‘I said I was sorry,’ she said, raising her voice and hating that it quivered.
‘I wish that was enough.’
Olivia fought back frustrated tears. So this was it then? They were at an impasse. For a long while they simply stood there, staring at each other.
‘Me too,’ she said quietly, turning away. She couldn’t believe he was calling it all off, just like that. He didn’t follow her, he didn’t call out for her to wait; there was no dramatic TV ending where he picked her up and kissed her and told her everything was going to be okay.
Olivia brushed the tears from her face as she heard the low murmur of voices somewhere nearby. The last thing she needed tonight was to be dragged back up to the main house and made to explain her red eyes and tear-stained cheeks. She needed to get her sorry butt home without anyone spotting her. She skirted the house quietly and stuck to the shadows near the shed, feeling like a cat burglar. As she rounded the corner of the shed she froze. She’d thought the voices she’d heard earlier had moved on, but now a different sound floated over to her and it wasn’t conversation.
Olivia froze, surprised that she’d stumbled upon a lovers’ tryst. No prizes for guessing who it was—Linc and Cash were still as crazy about each other as they had been at Christmas time. It was obvious to anyone with a set of eyes that they could barely keep their hands off each other. She hoped she could sneak past without alerting them to her presence. She was about to move when she heard a whispered sigh. ‘Mitch.’
Mitch? Olivia felt a chuckle begin to bubble up at her mistake. Tomorrow she’d text Hadley and tease her abo
ut making out with her husband in her father’s shed. But the next urgently breathed words floating across the warm night air robbed Olivia of her smile.
‘God, Harmony, I’ve been waiting to do this all night.’
Harmony? What the hell? Olivia couldn’t move. Harmony and Mitch? She was shocked to her core.
Her first instinct was to rush in there and confront them. How dare two people Hadley was supposed to be able to trust implicitly—her husband and her sister—betray her like this? Just in time, she stopped herself from bursting in like a SWAT team leader as it dawned on her how terrible the fall-out from such a confrontation would be. And it would be another slap in the face for Hadley. She’d just lost a baby, for goodness sake. She couldn’t be expected to deal with a cheating husband on the back of that.
Olivia couldn’t stand there and listen to them any longer without either throwing up or ripping them both to shreds with her bare hands, so she hurried through the shadows and made a beeline for her car.
Her hands were shaking as she tried to insert the keys into the ignition and she muttered a curse beneath her breath. Poor Hadley. How could this have happened?
As she drove down the dirt driveway and back home, Olivia plotted out every conceivable form of revenge against Mitch and Harmony that she could possibly imagine. It helped take her mind off what had just happened between her and Griff. That was still too raw to revisit right now.
Twenty-two
‘Look at you, raisin’ a sweat and all,’ Griff said, handing his brother a beer as he walked into the shed the next night. It’d been a big day, with an early start, and they were only just knocking off now at ten.
‘Raisin’ a sweat,’ Linc scoffed, taking the beer. ‘You pretty-boy farmers in your airconditioned cabins wouldn’t know an honest to God sweat if it jumped up and bit you on the arse.’
‘Sweating as you walk out your front door doesn’t count,’ Griff shot back. He still couldn’t work out why his brother had decided to take over the Papua New Guinea office, living in one of the world’s most dangerous countries, not to mention dealing with the tropical humidity. He couldn’t handle humidity. Give him a sweltering dry out here over energy-sapping humidity any day.