Libby got up from the table amidst cries of protest and put on the kettle for tea. She made two big mugs and walked outside, taking a seat in one of the old chairs. She stretched her feet out in front of her and let her head droop over her chest.
“Takes it out of you, doesn’t it?” Tom asked.
“Yes, but it’s a good feeling. I really enjoy working outside, even if my hands are covered with blisters and feel like they’re on fire. You know, Tom. When I first walked in the house yesterday, I felt like I was home, it was almost as if deep down in my mind, I hadn’t really left. I’ve never felt that in any of the places we’ve lived. Even meeting you, I feel like I’ve known you for ages.”
“Guess that means you’ll be keeping me on then.” Tom chuckled.
“What do you think? At least until you teach me everything you know.”
“Well, now,” Tom drawled, stretching his legs out in front of him. “That could take a mighty long time, being as you are such a slow learner and all.”
Libby almost choked on her tea with laughter. It was so nice to be around a man she felt at ease with.
***
There was no time for a leisurely breakfast in the morning. Josh refused to get out of bed until Libby threatened him with a glass of cold water, and Holly was pensive about leaving Henry home. Winton was at the back door when she opened it, scrubbed clean and in his best jeans and shirt. He looked nervous, but Libby really didn’t have the time to fuss and reassure him as much as she wanted to.
She made them breakfast and packed lunches, using what she had on hand, and herded them all out to the truck for the trip to school. Tom had given her directions and a list of stuff to pick up from the produce store.
After enrolling the kids at school and seeing them to their classes, she drove to the store and parked behind a familiar vehicle.
Damn. It would be childish to drive off and come back later. She would just have to deal with it. She knew she could. She just didn’t know if her hormones felt the same way. After all, five years without sex tended to get one just a little bit testy when a ruggedly handsome man touched her, even if he were a conceited and arrogant brute.
She exited the vehicle and walked into the store. Two men were leaning over the counter, and their conversation stopped as she walked across the wooden floor, her boots tapping a rhythmic tattoo.
Nathan stood and faced her as she walked toward them, and she noticed a smile tugging at his mouth when her step faltered. She managed to pull herself together and continued until she stood opposite him.
“Didn’t expect to see you in here today.”
“Why would that surprise you, Nathan?” she queried. “This is a produce store, isn’t it? Somewhere where one can buy stock feed for one’s farm. At least, that’s what Tom told me. I do hope he wasn’t wrong on that point.”
She gave him her best attempt at sarcasm and tried to look offhand while the guy at the counter appeared amused by the action between the two of them.
“Pete, meet sweetheart. The new owner of Quincy Station...for now,” Nathan said.
Pete leaned over and held out his hand for her to shake. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
“Call me Libby.” She gave him a genuine smile. “All my friends do.”
“Ouch.” Nathan flicked his gaze at Pete. “Told you she was testy. So, how was your first weekend on the station, sweetheart?”
“Just fine, thank you.” Libby looked coolly at him. She turned back to Pete and handed over the list Tom had given her. He glanced over it and nodded as he walked through the storeroom, hefting bags of feed and placing them at the front loading bay as he went.
The silence between them stretched out uncomfortably—at least for Libby, it did. Nathan didn’t seem to mind the lack of conversation as he casually leaned on the counter, his gaze traveling over her body, making her skin heat and her stomach jittery. She turned away in the end, pretending to search the shelves for something she needed. When she risked a quick glance at him, he was looking at her with a strange look on his face. She averted her eyes and wandered around the shop until Pete came back and started to write her order up.
Libby had no choice but to approach the counter again.
“Notice you have fencing supplies,” Nathan said. “Good move on your part to make a start on keeping those mongrels contained.”
Libby glared at him before she spoke. “We’ve already made a start, for your information. But I will reiterate what I said to you earlier. If you have any issues with me or the farm, I would appreciate it if you could talk to me directly and not in front of my kids.”
“Damned if you don’t look cute with your heckles up, Libby.” He grinned. “But let me tell you, it’ll take more than a cute butt and a pretty face to convince me a city barmaid has the makings of a farmer. Just so you know, I don’t think you have it in you, no matter what Tom and Aaron think.”
He picked up his hat, placed it on his head, and calmly walked out the door, leaving Libby fuming.
“Um, will that be all, Libby?” Pete asked after an uncomfortable few minutes.
“No.” She turned back to the man at the counter, pasting what she hoped was a winning smile on her face. “I want some seedlings. Do you have any?”
“Sure we do.” He looked relieved at the change in conversation. He led her outside to a shaded area where tables of seedlings lay in rows.
Libby chose flowers for their pretty colors on the labels and some vegetables she recognized, taking her time while her temper slowly came down from the boil. Pete helped her load her truck with her purchases, and she headed for home.
Libby drove up to the shed so they could unload the feed and fencing supplies. She jumped down from the driver’s seat and slammed the door harder than she meant to. She had to stop letting him get under her skin.
“How did it go at the school?” Tom asked, coming out of the shed, making her jump.
“Jeez, Tom, don’t sneak up on me like that. You scared me half to death.”
He went to the back of the vehicle to start unloading the heavy bags of feed as if they were weightless and stored them in the shed. By the time he was done, Libby had taken her tray of seedlings into the house yard and put them on the worktable in her potting shed.
Tom was in the kitchen making a sandwich when she felt calm enough to face him. “Well, how did it go at the school?” he asked again. “I gather you had no trouble getting Winton into school because he’s not in the car.”
“No, no, it was fine. He was still enrolled even though he hadn’t been in to class for a while. Apparently, the principal knew why he wasn’t there, and you had seen him off and on for books so, um, they just put him in Josh’s class, and we’ll just have to see how he does.”
“So what got your panties in a twist then?” he asked, taking a bite of his sandwich, his gaze on her.
Libby dropped her head in her hands. She rubbed her face and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she answered him.
“Nathan,” she answered. She looked at Tom and tried to smile, but felt herself grimace instead.
“What happened?”
“He was at the produce store. He made some smart comments about fixing the fence to keep our mongrels in, and I told him if he had any comments to make, he should do it to me directly and reminded him not to do it in front of the kids.”
“And that was it?”
“No,” Libby mumbled. “He said no matter what you or Aaron thought, he didn’t think a city barmaid like me had it in them to be a farmer.”
Tom looked at her and shook his head.
Libby’s eyes filled as she remembered how humiliated she’d felt in front Pete. Being a barmaid had not been the perfect job or the one she would have wished for if given a chance, but it had kept her kids fed and built a life for them, and she would be forever grateful for the opportunity.
“Why does he have to be such a bastard, and who cares that I was a barmaid? At least I had a job that
fed my family. I don’t care how cute he is, I really don’t need him belittling me for my former profession. A job’s a job at the end of the day. It’s not like I’ve ever done anything to him, for God’s sake.”
“Yeah, you have. You took up Thaddius’s challenge. If you hadn’t, Nathan would have been able to buy the farms.”
“What, so he blames me because he can’t have everything he wants? Well, life is tough, and we don’t always get what we want,” Libby said. “I deal with it, so should he.”
“It gets just a little bit more involved than that, Libby.” Tom leaned back in his chair. “Your uncle had already promised him he could buy the farm when he died. Maybe he didn’t know about you when he made that promise, I don’t know, but I figured that was the reason he was kind enough to return stock rather than shoot it.”
“Great, so now he thinks I’ve stolen his farm by right.” She sighed and ran a hand over the back of her neck, aghast at the idea she’d somehow cheated Nathan out of the land. “I guess that makes him think all of us city folks are all tarred with the same brush then. How dare we try to better ourselves at his expense,” she added sarcastically.
“I don’t think that’s the thing bugging him the most. His fiancée up and left him just before their wedding with some fancy city salesman, and he hasn’t ever gotten over it. Blames all city folk now, I guess.”
“Surely he can’t blame me for that?” Libby asked. “God, life goes on. What’s the point of being all bitter and twisted about it?”
“Don’t see the point myself, but Nathan...well, he never so much as looked at other women. Until you, that is.”
The knot in Libby’s gut tightened even more. He hated her because of his ex-fiancée, and when he looked at her with his smoldering, dark eyes it was with disdain, not lust as Libby had thought. How could she have been so damned stupid?
She pushed herself from the table and leaned over the sink while she drank a glass of water. “What do you have planned for me now?” she asked, squaring her shoulders.
“We need to keep at it with the fencing for the next couple of days. I called the shearers while you were out. They want to come and do the crutching next week. That’ll give us time to round up the sheep before they get here. No luck with getting any extra hands though.”
“We’ll just have to do the best we can then.” Libby sighed and looked out the kitchen window before turning back to Tom. “You’ve managed to keep the place going so far, one step at a time.”
“Well let’s go do some more repairs before you head back to town for the kids.” He pushed his empty plate to one side and looked at his watch as he stood to leave.
“They’re on the bus starting tomorrow morning.” Libby followed him out of the kitchen to the shed, grabbing her hat off the sideboard as she passed. “That will give us more time.”
“Don’t let what Nathan said get to you, Libby. He’s bitter for a number of reasons, and they’re nothing to do with you personally. You just hold your head up high and carry on.”
Libby squared her shoulders and resolved to concentrate of the farm. No good would come of getting het up over Nathan and his issues. If he looked at her thinking she was like his ex, it was his problem, not hers. Her priorities lie with her kids and the farm. This was the only time someone had given her a chance, and there was no way she was going to let it go, no matter what. Who cares if they couldn’t find another farmhand, she’d just work harder. She would never get this opportunity again, and even though she hated the conflict between them, she wouldn’t give Nathan the satisfaction of turning tail and heading back to the city and the life she’d left behind. She wouldn’t do that to her kids, not with him waiting in the wings to take over, not for anything.
CHAPTER FIVE
By early afternoon, Libby was dripping in sweat. “I need a break.” She groaned, dragging her sore hands across her face, picking at the stray hairs stuck to her hot cheeks
“I need to go back to get some more posts for here anyway. These are too far gone. Take a break and sit for a bit in the shade.”
“Is every paddock this bad?” she asked pouring another mug of water, letting some of it run out the side of her mouth and down her throat, sending a cooling trickle of water between her breasts.
“Yeah, pretty much. I’ll be back in a jiffy.” Tom gave her a nod and left her standing there.
She looked at the fence line they had already done and grimaced at what lay ahead. There were so many posts to replace and wires to retighten, it was getting depressing. But it had to be done, and Libby couldn’t see the point being negative about it.
I’ll bloody well show you, Nathan Miller. You can jump up and down all you want, but you won’t scare me off.
Libby ran a fingertip along the blisters forming on both of her palms. There would be many more before they had the place up to the high standards her neighbor was demanding. The only way to keep her stock away from his top-line breeding cattle was to fix the fences as he demanded. She would do it to keep the peace and deal with the blisters.
If that was one of the hurdles she had to conquer to claim her inheritance, then so be it. She wouldn’t let a pesky little fence-building project derail her. Not if the arrogant Nathan—he of hot body, lush mouth, and hard, sexy eyes—was going to reap the benefits should she fail. No, sir, her libido would be put back into hibernation if it was the last thing she did. Lack of sex was not going to have her caving at his feet.
What was wrong with her? Just the thought of that man made her sweat and quiver.
It was a relief when Tom arrived back with more fence posts. Libby focused on her work, pushing thoughts of Nathan aside until it was time for her to go back to the house and clean up before heading into town to pick up the kids from school.
Libby wriggled her butt in the seat as she drove back to the farmhouse. The sensations in her panties went hand-in-hand with some fantasies in her mind, which had her on the verge of drooling. Focus, girl. Disdain, not lust is how he looks at you.
Forcing her mind away from sex and the man she wanted to feel hard inside her, she gazed out at the lush, open paddocks with thigh-high grasses. It was all so different from what she was used to. Cows chewed contentedly while their calves lay in the shade of the eucalyptus trees, home to the white-crested cockatoos screeching outside her bedroom window early every morning.
“You all right, Libby?” Tom asked, shooting her side glances on the drive back to the house after their final fence was strung for the day.
“Yeah, just a bit hot and thirsty,” she replied, looking out the window. And not in a good way either.
***
Libby only had enough time for a cool, wet cloth over her face and arms before she went to pick up the kids.
The twenty-minute drive through calm, green countryside gave her time to fantasize about what she would do if Nathan was ever nice to her instead of so damned annoying, but as her gaze took in his almost manicured paddocks next to hers, she gave up. It would never happen. They were so different.
She parked under a shady tree by the school gates, and hurried to Holly’s classroom. Standing with another mother, she dragged her fingers through her hair and into a knot on top of her hair. Libby prayed her little girl had settled in. The bell rang just as Libby peeped through the window, and she sighed with relief. Her baby was sitting beside another child, their heads together as they worked at a small table to clear their work away. Task completed, Holly came running out with her hand tucked into her new friend’s arm.
“Mum, this is Hannah.” The girls hunched their shoulders up, glanced at each other, and burst out giggling.
“Hi, Hannah,” Libby greeted the girl. “Did you girls have a nice day?”
“Hannah is my classroom buddy,” Holly gushed. “She said she can be my best friend if I want her to.”
“That’s just great, honey.” Relief washed over her. One bridge crossed. “Let’s get your bag and go pick up your brother and Winton now.”<
br />
Holly put her backpack on and followed her mother to the high school side of the complex. Winton and Josh were sitting on top of a lunch table near their classroom, their bags strewn on the ground around them, surrounded by a group of girls. When he saw his mother, Josh muttered something to Winton, and his face turned into a scowl.
“Hey, Josh, Winton, ready for home?” she asked, smiling. It was obviously uncool in the country as well as in the city to be picked up by your mother, especially when there were girls involved.
“Sure, Libby,” Winton replied quickly. Josh remained silent, a shade of pink covering his cheeks as a couple of the girls called out their good-byes.
“So, did you guys have a good day?” Libby queried as she pulled out into the stream of traffic leaving the school.
“Yeah, it was pretty good, hey, Josh?” Winton said. “Met some people I haven’t seen for a while.”
“That’s good. How did you find the schoolwork?” Libby peered at them in the rearview mirror.
“Not too hard. I had to ask Josh a couple of things, and we have homework, but yeah, I think I’ll be okay.”
“Maybe Josh can help you when you get home then,” Libby suggested. “When you get there, grab a drink and something to eat, and then it’s homework at the kitchen table, okay?”
“Sure,” Winton agreed. Josh merely grunted.
Libby pulled the car into the space by the shed where Tom was waiting, his feet making a dip in the dust as he kicked the ground impatiently. He grabbed the door handle before Libby stopped the engine, his gaze intent on Winton. “Did you have a good day, Winton, I mean did you fit in with the other kids and understand the work?”
“It was good, Tom,” Winton reassured him as he climbed out of the four-wheel drive and headed to his room. “Got me some homework to do now though. Libby said we had to do it straightaway.”
Taming the Outback Page 5