‘He was too headstrong for his own good?’
‘No. That he’d be a perfect match for a certain other headstrong person.’
‘And look how wrong such a prediction has turned out to be.’
Connor wheeled his wheelchair out from behind the desk. ‘I don’t know about that, Possum. You looked like you’ve been getting on pretty well.’
She avoided his gaze. ‘It’s been fun having him here, but he still has a city life to return to and now apparently a country one as well if ever discovers who owns Killora Downs. And I …’ She pushed herself out of the chair with a wince. ‘I have a farm to run. But right now, I’m going to have an early shower. My foot’s killing me.’
When Paige left, Connor headed to the kitchen where he could hear Tait. Now that Tait’s secret was out, he wanted to ensure Tait knew he’d always be welcome at Banora Downs, no matter what his father had done. Connor scanned the driveway through the front screen door as he passed. But if Paige and Tait thought no more secrets existed, they were wrong. The day’s dramas weren’t quite over.
Chapter Twenty-two
Tait lived another day.
Paige knew who he was and that he’d deceived her and yet she’d shown him nothing but compassion and empathy. But the weight upon his shoulders refused to shift. Until he held the deeds to Killora Downs in his hands, he couldn’t offer her the proper relationship she deserved. He wasn’t going to stuff her around by not being there for her when she needed him. She already bore enough emotional scars from having been let down by Chris.
Tyres crunched on the driveway and Tait closed the hood of the engine he’d been tweaking. But it shouldn’t be long before he’d know one way or the other what the future held for him. He’d seen the way Connor kept checking the driveway from the kitchen window. He was clearly expecting a visitor, who’d now arrived. Tait scraped a hand over his suddenly tight jaw.
And he knew who that person would be.
But most importantly, he knew why.
He left the shed, Bundy and Dusty by his side, and crossed the bare garden. Bella, Anne’s blue heeler, torpedoed around the corner of the verandah and Dusty and the pup took off to greet her. Tait climbed the back steps and paused to collect himself before entering the kitchen. Anne and Connor were at the table, a wicker basket in front of them. As soon as Anne saw him, she got to her feet, eyes moist. She held out her arms and caught him in a tight embrace. He stood still, before clasping her shoulders. Emotion rippled through her thin frame. She stepped away and reached deep into the basket to pull out a battered, black tool-box.
He remained silent as his own feelings threatened to overwhelm him. Without saying a word, she pressed the box into his hands.
Paige’s boots sounded in the hallway before she limped into the kitchen with a piece of paper in her hand. ‘Dad, was that Anne I …?’ Her voice trailed off as she saw Anne wiping her eyes with a small white handkerchief. Paige moved to her side and put an arm around the older woman’s shoulder. ‘Anne, what’s wrong?’
The librarian dabbed at her eyes again. ‘I’m hoping nothing is.’
Paige stared at her father. ‘Now what’s happening?’
‘Take a seat. You’ll see.’ Connor spoke to his daughter but his steady gaze never left Tait.
Paige did as she was asked and placed the piece of paper she carried in front of her. She looked at the tin box in Tait’s hands that he’d made no move to open. He just needed a little more time before he could guarantee his fingers would work.
‘What’s that?’ she asked. ‘It looks like a burned tool-box.’
Tait finally found his voice. ‘It is.’
He lifted the box to his ear and carefully shook it. Small hard objects rattled inside. Then placing the box on the table, he slowly opened the charred lid. An assortment of metal cars and tractors lay inside. The homely warmth of the Banora Downs kitchen receded until he was once again a small boy playing on the floor in the music room while his mother smiled at him from the piano.
Paige came to his side to peer in at the contents. Her shoulder brushed against his as if to let him know she was there if he needed her.
‘Anne,’ she said softly, ‘how did you get these?’
‘I found them at Killora Downs after the fire.’
Anne reached into the basket and this time withdrew a large white envelope. Tait’s heartbeat hammered in his ears.
‘That’s not the only thing I saved.’ She offered the envelope to him, hand trembling. ‘This is for you, Tait.’
He didn’t move.
‘Why now?’
Colour tinged Anne’s cheeks. ‘Please don’t be angry. I’ve been doing my own digging and your parent company, Rural Gro Investments, would appeal to overseas investors. Thanks to the drought, local farms are being snapped up by foreign consortiums and there’s growing concern at the number of offshore buyouts, so I had to be sure.’
‘Sure of what? That I wouldn’t throw everything away again?’
‘No. Sure that you wanted Killora Downs for yourself as a home and not for any commercial venture.’ She looked at Paige, who stood straight and silent beside him. ‘Now I’m sure.’
Still he couldn’t move.
Anne’s hand didn’t lower and the hope in her eyes didn’t fade. She continued to hold the envelope toward him. ‘How did you know?’
‘I didn’t. Not until this morning out at Killora Downs. Three-M stands for Milly, Molly and Mandy Pastoral Company, doesn’t it?’
Anne nodded and moved forward to place the envelope into his hand.
‘Please, take the deeds. I only bought Killora Downs to give it to you. I knew one day Lillian’s son would find his way home.’
His unsteady fingers closed over the envelope. ‘Thank you.’
He pulled out the closest chair and sat, gazing at the envelope for a long moment before opening it and sliding out the documents proving Killora Downs did indeed belong to him. He glanced up at Anne. He couldn’t put his gratitude into words and could only hope his expression said enough. It did. She smiled a full smile and again dabbed the handkerchief to her eyes.
Paige’s hand touched his shoulder before she moved away to collect the paper she’d brought with her into the kitchen.
‘I guess we won’t need this then? I thought I was so clever finding the letter listing the details of the person we needed to contact if we ever saw a problem on Killora Downs. I was sure it would lead us to the mysterious owner.’
‘I’m sorry, Paige, it wouldn’t have.’ Anne nodded toward him. ‘I had to make sure Mr Determined Businessman over there couldn’t trace anything to me. Yes, had there been a problem, you would have reached someone who would have phoned me, but otherwise it would have been a dead end.’
Connor pushed his wheelchair away from the table. ‘I don’t know about anyone else but I need something stronger than a coffee. It just so happens I’ve remembered where a very nicely matured bottle of red is hidden.’
‘I’ll take a raincheck, Dad,’ Paige said, her voice sombre as she returned the paper to the table. ‘I’m going to feed Gidget.’
The kitchen screen door clicked shut behind him as Tait made his way over to Gidget’s small paddock. The enormity of Anne’s incredible gift and the half glass of red warmed him but still he couldn’t shake an inner chill. There was one person who wasn’t sitting around the kitchen table celebrating. He’d held off checking on Paige while she fed the pony, knowing she’d be fine. A few days ago he’d rolled some forty-four gallon drums over to the paddock gate and filled them with the bran, lucerne, chaff and soft weight the pony would need. Even with her broken toe, Paige would be able to scoop the food into a bucket and drag it into the paddock.
With her nose in her feeding bucket, Gidget’s white ears flickered towards them, but until he rested his arms on the gate beside Paige she appeared oblivious to his presence. Her head whipped around, her brief smile a mixture of caution and wariness.
‘Gidget
is hungry,’ he said into the awkward silence developing between them.
‘Yes she is.’
The chill inside him spread like spilled wine on a tablecloth. Even Paige’s voice contained a new reserve. Despite her support in the kitchen, it appeared as though his deception had strung up a fence between them after all.
She cast him a quick glance. ‘Thanks for putting Gidget’s feed into the drums. It makes it so much easier.’
‘You’re welcome.’
The pony raised her head and, still chewing, walked over to Tait. She hung her head over the gate. He smiled and scratched her neck. With a sigh, she leaned closer.
‘Unbelievable. Gidget, the confirmed man-hater who wouldn’t let any boy ride her and only tolerates Dad, comes up to you for a rub.’
‘What can I say? Unlike Miss Princess Polly, who never fails to butt me, Gidget knows a good thing when she sees it.’
He stopped scratching Gidget’s neck and she moved away to sink her nose back into the feed bucket. Instead of resting his forearms on the gate, his hands settled around Paige’s waist and he lifted her onto the forty-four gallon drum beside him.
Her fingers clutched at his shoulders but as he sat her on the lid of the drum she released her hold. Not caring she was as stiff as old leather, he used a knuckle to push the brim of her Akubra higher so he could better see her face, and then looped his arms around her. Even though her lips were sealed shut, when he stepped in closer her thighs pressed themselves against his hips.
The brown eyes that held his remained guarded.
‘Are you still angry about me not being who you thought I was?’
She shook her head, her fingers entwining themselves together in her lap. ‘I do understand why you felt you couldn’t tell us … me … but …’
‘But?’
‘But there always seems to be something you’re not telling me.’
‘It’s been a hell of a day, but there isn’t anything you don’t know about me now.’
‘Anything?’
He shook his head, keeping a tight rein on his emotions. It hadn’t been such a good idea to sit Paige on the drum to see what she was thinking because she could also easily read his thoughts too. And there was something else she didn’t know yet. A simple and inescapable truth. He loved her. He broke eye contact to glance at Gidget as she stamped her foot against a pesky fly. But telling Paige such a truth was something he hadn’t yet worked out how to reveal. Apart from his mother, he’d never said the words ‘I love you’ to any woman.
‘So,’ he said, ‘here I am, warts and all, and finally free to offer you the world.’
But no smile broke through the strain on Paige’s face.
‘Did you do some thinking last night, like I asked you to?’
She swallowed, nodded and looked down at her linked hands that he could see were now white-knuckled. The coldness gripping him deepened. This conversation wasn’t going where he’d hoped it would go.
‘And?’ he prompted, throat tight.
‘And …’ The pain in her eyes told him what she’d decided even before the words left her lips. ‘And I thought that I could, but I can’t.’
‘Can’t what?’
‘Can’t …’ She gestured between them. ‘Do us.’
‘Why?’
She blinked.
‘Why?’ he continued. ‘Because I’m nothing but a convenient shag?’ Hurt darkened her eyes and he forced his tone to soften. ‘Why? Because you really are going to run off with the postman? Or why, because you need some time to think about things?’
She hesitated. ‘I need more time.’
‘No problem. Seeing as I’m staying there will be plenty of time.’
‘Staying?’ Her eyes widened and the legs bracketing his hips tensed. ‘But you said you’d see Cheryl in three days, and that’s tomorrow.’
‘That was the plan but not after today. Besides, I wasn’t going to Sydney. Cheryl was coming to Glenalla to help play detective. I wasn’t leaving without a last attempt at finding out who owned Killora Downs.’
‘Tait, you don’t need to stay. You have your own things to do. Especially now Killora Downs is yours.’
‘True, but I’m not letting you keep Banora Downs alive on your own.’
‘I’m not on my own. Dad and now Anne are here.’
He smiled as though he hadn’t noticed that Paige had shown no pleasure that he would be staying. ‘Until your foot heals, or it rains, I’m not leaving.’
Still no pleasure relaxed her face. She simply stared at him as through he’d grown two heads.
He stepped away so she wouldn’t feel his tension and lifted her from the drum. He was a patient man. He’d waited a long time for Killora Downs to be a part of his life again and he’d wait twice as long to make sure he didn’t lose the woman he loved.
‘So, Miss Very Important Princess, start looking happy. You’re stuck with me.’
But as Paige shuffled to the homestead without once looking back, panic roiled in his gut. What if she’d never be okay about him not telling her of his true identity? What if she didn’t want to be stuck with him? He caught a last glimpse of her slim figure before she disappeared through the kitchen door. Was she doing more than walking inside? Was she walking out of his life? He knew she had feelings for him but what if she had more time to think and still couldn’t see a future together? His patience might prove no match for her stubbornness. He jammed his fisted hands into his jeans pockets. He couldn’t have one dream fulfilled, only to have another snatched away. Having Killora Downs back wasn’t enough. He needed to fill the homestead he’d rebuild with laughter and love. His mouth dried. Because without his beautiful, spirited and unselfish country girl, Killora Downs would never be a home.
Tait staying longer was Paige’s worst nightmare. Yesterday morning her heart and mind had been on the same page. Not any more. It didn’t matter how much her heart may tell her to suck it up, stop being a princess and tell him how she felt, her mind argued otherwise. Honesty was the backbone of any relationship and he hadn’t been straight with her. Again.
She sagged onto her bed and took two attempts to pull off her boots. She would have a shower, eat the dinner Connor would have saved and then let the oblivion of sleep dull her desolation. All day she ignored the protests of her foot that she shouldn’t be driving or out in the paddocks. All day she’d blanked out thoughts of Tait. She’d worked herself into exhaustion and yet, even now, she knew she hadn’t done enough.
Sure, Tait might be as different to Chris as midday was to midnight, but such a difference didn’t guarantee a fairy tale ending. She’d seen the way Tait’s jaw had flexed and his gaze had slid away from hers when he’d said there was nothing she didn’t know about him. There remained a secret between them. She massaged her aching forehead. There was a part of him he kept hidden and a part of him he might never share.
She still remembered her mother’s story about when she’d known Connor had loved her. On a spring day, when the daffodils had been out, he’d asked her to walk in the garden. They’d sat on a bench beneath the old gum and he’d finally opened up about his childhood and why he had trouble expressing how he felt. Her mother had said that through Connor letting her into his world and allowing her to see the real him, his trust had been as powerful as if he’d said he loved her.
Paige fought the slow burn of her sadness. But Tait didn’t trust her. Not with the real him, not with his guilt about failing his mother, and now with something else. He hadn’t wanted her help to find out who owned Killora Downs. His firm voice and the way he’d removed her hand from his chest had left her in no doubt he wasn’t letting her share his burden, let alone his world. She wasn’t a risk taker. Love went hand-in-hand with vulnerability and her love for her country boy wasn’t enough to get her back on board the emotional rollercoaster. Hot tears welled. She had to stay off the ride.
Connor sat in the darkness of the kitchen. Around him all was quiet except for the creak o
f the tin roof cooling in the night air and the thump of his heart as he admitted defeat.
He’d failed.
Failed Paige. Failed Molly. And failed Tait.
His matchmaking plan wasn’t only a shambles, it’d been blown into infinite pieces and carried off by the dry, summer wind. He’d wanted to be in control and secure Paige’s future so that she lived a life untainted by the bitter loneliness he’d endured as a child. He’d desperately hoped strong feelings would develop between his daughter and Tait. He’d even believed that Banora Downs and Killora Downs could operate as one and that the laughter of the next generation would heal the past.
But he was only a foolish old man living in a fantasy world. In the real world his beloved only child had again become a shadow. She flittered in and out of the house, her eyes dull and her mouth set as she went out of her way to avoid Tait. And in the real world an unusually subdued Tait appeared just as determined to bury himself away from Paige in the shed.
His plan might have brought Paige and Tait under the same roof, and Molly may have believed them to be a perfect match, but now he was powerless to make the two most strong-willed people he knew talk. Connor had no doubt that what Paige felt for Tait ran as deep as what Tait felt for her but he couldn’t force them to admit their feelings for each other. He rubbed at his leg that hadn’t bothered him in days. As Anne had said, it was up to Paige and Tait now. It was out of his hands. There wasn’t anything left he could do.
He looked through the kitchen window toward the black and starless sky.
‘Molly, we need a miracle.’
Chapter Twenty-three
Frigging hell. She’d slept in.
Paige kicked off the shorts that doubled as pyjamas and reefed on her jeans. She might be running only ten minutes late to feed the cattle but ten minutes meant the difference between doing the job on her own or having Tait come with her.
A knock sounded on her bedroom door.
Beneath Outback Skies Page 24