Summer Down Under

by Pensy, Alison

  “Yay, I made it!” She cried upon opening her eyes and finding herself still in one piece. Although, she probably wouldn’t have been able to stand at that moment, her legs had turned to jelly.

  “Told you you’d be fine,” Daniel said, giving her a look that Sam could swear was filled with pride. They carried on in the direction of the sheep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The ground from the air had looked flat, but riding across it at full pelt was quite a different matter. It was incredibly bumpy with lots of rocks all over the place. Until this point in time, Sam had never noticed that her boobs were worth acknowledging, insignificant as they were, but today they were making their presence felt loud and clear.

  By the time they got to the sheep, her chest was actually starting to feel quite sore. She would never have imagined that she would need a support bra, but need one she did.

  Daniel explained that they needed to ride slowly behind the flock and move up and down the sides thus keeping them moving forward, but keeping them in a relatively tight group. That way, they would follow the leaders and stay together. Once the sheep were moving, he relaxed a little and fell in beside Sam. They started talking. She loved how easy it was for the two of them to fall into a conversation. She had become quite confident on the four-wheeler and didn’t need to concentrate on balance, so she started to take her eyes off the flock in front of them and looked over at Daniel while she was talking to him.

  “So,” Sam said. “If your intention is to take over this place from your parents, why did you go to college and earn a degree?”

  “Mum and Dad insisted that I did so I could see some of the ‘outside’ world and make up my own mind as to whether or not I wanted to continue on...Sam, watch out!” Daniel yelled, eyes wide.

  Sam turned to see where she was going, but it was too late. She drove straight into a gigantic spider web that was spun between two bushes. The huge spider that had spun it was right at head height. She couldn’t stop in time and rode right through it, the sticky web clinging to her face like a mask. Sam jumped off the four-wheeler, screaming.

  “Get it off me! Get it off me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, hands tearing at her face and hair. She was gripped in panic, deathly afraid of spiders.

  Daniel dropped his bike and was there in seconds. She could feel him pulling gently at her hair, though how he managed it with her hands flailing around her head as frantically as they were, she’d never know. She saw him stomp on something out of the corner of her eye but kept screaming. Her breathing came in rapid gasps. She could feel her hands start to tingle, but they were still clawing at her hair and face.

  “Sam, I got it!” Daniel said, but his words didn’t sink in. “Sam, it’s dead.”

  She felt him grab her out-of-control hands in a firm grip, holding her wrists in his hands to stop her from scratching desperately at her face.

  “It’s dead, Sam. It’s gone!” he shouted.

  Her breathing was still rapid, and she could see little spots dancing around in front of her eyes. She sensed the urgency in Daniel’s voice as he shouted the same words again.

  “It’s dead, Sam. You’re okay.”

  This time she heard him. Her breathing slowed, and she started to let the tension in her arms and hands ebb.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, voice shaky with fear.

  “Look for yourself.” He pointed at a large squished mess on the ground beside her feet. She automatically took a big step backwards.

  Sam’s breathing slowly calmed, but her body started to shake. Daniel took a hold of her shoulders and guided her over to the four-wheeler where he sat the shaken jillaroo down sideways on the seat and kneeled in front of her, taking her hands in his. Sam looked down at his compassion-filled eyes.

  “Sam, it was just a gidgee spider; it wasn’t poisonous. Freaky looking, I admit, but not poisonous.”

  “Like that’s supposed to mean something to me?” she snapped, shooting him an incredulous look to drive home the point. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “That’s not why I freaked out,” she confided, remembering the horrific event that would be forever seared onto the back of her mind. “When I was a kid, about six or seven years old, we had just moved into a brand new house. There were no carpets on the floors yet, just the bare floor boards.” She sucked in a deep steadying breath, trying to push back the image. “I was in bed asleep. Mum used to leave a light on in the hall that shone through my open door acting as a nightlight. I woke up for some reason one night and looked down my bed. The light from the hall created a silhouette of the huge spider that was crawling up my bed and towards my face. I froze. I should have thrown the covers back, but I just froze. As it got closer and closer to my face, I became more and more terrified.

  I was finally able to let out a scream, and Mum came running into my room and scooped it up in her hands just before it reached my chin. Even she admitted it was a big spider, but I think it looked so big to me back then because I was so little. I had nightmares for weeks after that, I couldn’t sleep on my own and certainly wouldn’t enter my room again. Mum eventually had to swap my room with my sister’s room before I would sleep on my own again. I have been terrified of spiders ever since.”

  A few minutes passed while her nerves calmed. Daniel stood up in front of her.

  “Close your eyes,” he whispered.

  Sam wrinkled her eyebrows.

  “I need to finish the job you started,” he said as he brought his hand to her cheek and pulled a strand of sticky web from her skin. Sam’s skin tingled under his touch and she did as he said. She felt his fingers work around the delicate area of her eyes and felt a light tug on her eyelashes. She could feel the warmth of his breath on her face and his nearness spurred a pool of heat low in her belly. His fingers finished around her eyes and snaked a trail down her cheek. The deep breath he drew in prompted her to open her eyes. She saw him cast a worried glance down her cheek before he returned his gaze to her.

  “You gave yourself quite a scratch,” he whispered.

  Had she? She couldn’t feel anything but comfort at that moment.

  Silence stretched between them for a moment. Their faces just inches from one another.

  “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?” Sam said, breaking the tranquility of the moment.

  Daniel paused, searching her eyes. “No, Sam, I don’t. Bad things that happen in childhood are sometimes the hardest things to overcome.”

  Becoming uncomfortable at his close proximity, Sam tore her eyes away and looked over at the sheep. “Oh, no!”

  Daniel turned at her outcry. The neat flock they had gathered was scattering in every direction.

  “Don’t worry,” Daniel said. “I’ve got this.”

  Daniel got back on his bike to get the sheep back together. His deft maneuvering of the flock had them back together in no time. A few moments later, he was back at her side again.

  “What the heck does gidgee mean, anyway?” Sam asked, intrigued by the odd sounding word now that she’d had a chance to calm down.

  “It’s a tree. That’s a gidgee tree over there.” He pointed to where she had just had the run in with the spider. “We call them gidgee spiders only because they spin their webs between the bushes to catch bugs.”

  “Well, that one certainly caught something it didn’t bargain for,” Sam said, trying to add a little humor to shake off her jitters.

  “Are you okay to carry on?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Sorry I freaked out on you.”

  “No worries, everyone is scared of something. You’d laugh at what I’m scared of.”

  That statement intrigued her. She couldn’t imagine someone like him being scared of anything.

  “Oh, yeah? And what would that be?” she asked.

  “I might tell you one day, but you’ll lose all respect for me,” he answered with a smirk and a wink. Daniel turned his bike around and rode off towards the flock.

  Sam s
tarted up the four-wheeler and followed after him.

  They continued to move the flock forward for what seemed like hours. The noise of the sheep braying was almost deafening. Daniel rode ahead to open a gate. At that point, Sam knew they were getting closer to the holding pen they were going to put them in that night.

  He came back to join her at the rear, and as they started to go through the gate, he told her they could turn their engines off.

  “We don’t need to muster them for a while, they will go through the gate on their own now that the leaders are through. We can send Jess out to push them on, if needed.”

  Jess was sitting beside Daniel’s bike panting like crazy. The young dog had been running along beside him the whole time they were pushing the sheep forward. Sam leaned down, cupped her palm and trickled water into it for her. She lapped it up, splashing water all over Sam’s legs.

  Sitting watching the sheep file through the gate, Sam became aware of just how sore her chest had become with all the bumpy riding, and, absentmindedly, started rubbing it.

  “Sore?” Daniel asked, raising a very sleek eyebrow.

  Sam felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Mortified, she buried her face in her hands.

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” he continued, noticing her embarrassment. “Try bouncing around on these all day. I know how you feel.” He pointed down to his nether regions.

  Sam pulled her face from her hands and looked at Daniel. Then her eyes, completely against her will, wandered downwards to where he was pointing. They lingered for a moment before she regained control and forced them back to his face. She giggled, then the giggles turned to laughter. His look of bemusement made her laugh even more until tears started running down her cheeks.

  “What?” he asked. “It’s not funny. It’s actually quite painful. Why do you think I told us to stop for a while?”

  Sam got her laughter under control and smiled at him.

  “Think about what you just said to me,” she stated.

  “I only said try bouncing around on these all day.” Once again he pointed to his nether regions. At that moment, the penny dropped and his cheeks flushed. She couldn’t help but giggle again.

  “Oh, very funny,” he groaned, then with a glint in his eye, continued. “I don’t suppose you’d care to, would you?”

  Sam’s eyes widened at his suggestion and her eyebrows shot up. That will teach her to have her mind in the gutter. As indignant as she tried to look, the very center of her started to warm up again, obviously, having its own agenda.

  She cleared her throat and looked down at the handle bars on her four-wheeler. “Not right now, thank you,” she said trying to sound nonplussed. In actual fact, she felt quite flustered inside.

  They sat in silence for a few moments, until Daniel decided to send Jess out to push the sheep along a bit.

  “Way back, Jess,” he commanded, signaling to the dog with his hand.

  Without hesitation, she careened off in front of them, but instead of rounding the flock and pushing them forward, she shot straight through the middle of the mass of wooly puff balls and sent the sheep running in all directions.

  “Useless mutt!” Daniel cursed at the top of his voice, gesturing at the mayhem that was evolving right before their eyes. “That is the reason why I didn’t want to bring her. She has no clue how to herd sheep. Unfortunately, if she doesn’t get it in the next couple of weeks it’s good night for her.”

  “What? You’ll find her a new home?” Sam asked, knowing full well that was not what Daniel meant.

  “Father will put a bullet through her head,” he said grimly.

  Sam could see by the look on his face, he didn’t like the idea any more than she did. But she had no doubt that Mr. Miller wouldn’t think twice about it. To him, they were only working animals; if they didn’t work, then they were a burden.

  Sam decided at that moment she would take it upon herself to train the hapless sheep dog. She had trained her dog back home, so she had some idea of where to start. Admittedly, she’d never trained a sheep dog before, but how hard could it be? One thing was for sure, this usually self-doubting English girl was not about to let Mr. Miller shoot a poor defenseless creature. Not if she could help it.

  “Come on,” Daniel groaned. “Let’s sort this mess out so we can go home.”

  A couple of hours later, as the sun was getting low in the sky, they finally got all the sheep into the holding pen ready for the next day’s work. While they were waiting for the sheep to settle, Sam noticed that the noise level slowly started to abate.

  “They’re quieting down,” she said in a hushed voice, worried she might start them off again.

  “The reason they make so much noise is because the mothers and lambs were separated on the move. Their call is the only way of identifying each other. As soon as the mother finds her lamb, they both stop calling,” Daniel explained.

  Sam started looking for mothers. Just as Daniel said, as soon as a mother and lamb found each other, they stopped calling. By the time the two left them, the flock was almost silent. Sam and Daniel rode slowly back to the house and peeled themselves off their respective motor vehicles.

  Sam wasn’t sure if her legs would ever close back together again or not. She staggered back to her room feeling like one of the bandy cowboys her mother loved to watch in old Wild West movies. She collapsed on the bed. A few minutes later, there was a soft tap on the door. She cracked one eye open to see a familiar face peeking around it.

  “You can use the shower first, if you’d like,” Daniel said.

  “Thank you,” she replied in earnest. “I’ll take you up on that offer this time. My body aches so much I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to move again.”

  “Let me know when you’re finished,” he asked.

  “Will do.”

  She waited for his footsteps to grow faint down the hallway before rolling off the bed. After quickly undressing, Sam meandered into the bathroom. She must have been on autopilot because she didn’t even remember getting into the shower. She did, however, remember opening her eyes halfway through shampooing her hair and seeing yet another enormous black spider slinking down the wall with ominous intent. She let out a blood curdling scream. What is this? She thought. Is today ‘Let’s stalk Sam day?’ Then wondered if the spiders had some sort of competition going to see who could give her a heart attack first?

  Sam jumped out of the shower and grabbed her robe. Not a moment too soon, either. The door flew open. Daniel burst in and scanned the bathroom.

  “Sam, what’s wrong? What happened?”

  Sam pointed at the hairy arachnid creeping down the wall.

  “A-another one,” she stuttered, eyes fixated on the creature happily making its home in their bathroom.

  Daniel did it again. He leaned over the bathtub and scooped up the offender in his hand, opened the bathroom window and threw it outside.

  “How can you do that?” Sam shuddered. “How can you pick them up?”

  “That one wasn’t poisonous either,” he stated with a shrug. “Sam, you’re shaking again. Are you alright?”

  His gaze shifted and his eyes lowered down the length of her. The self-conscious jillaroo suddenly became very aware that her dripping wet and naked body was covered with nothing more than a thin piece of cotton masquerading as a bath robe, which was also dripping wet and clinging to her every curve. Curves that she was ashamed of and didn’t want any man to see, especially the man standing in front of her at that very moment.

  She grabbed a towel and held it around her trying her best to cover what the robe had failed to do.

  “I’m fine, honestly.”

  He looked unconvinced.

  “Honestly, Daniel. I’m alright. Thank you for removing the spider, but I’d like to finish my shower now.”

  He didn’t move. He looked like he was in a trance.

  Sam clicked her fingers. “I’m not going to finish it with you standing there,” she announced.<
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  Daniel blinked a couple of times and focused his attention back on her face.

  “No, of course not. Sorry,” he said as he backed out of the door, closing it with a soft click as he left.

  The somewhat shaken Sam hesitantly stepped back into the shower and quickly finished rinsing the shampoo from her hair.

  “I’m finished,” she called down the corridor towards Daniel’s room, letting him know she was out of the shower and it was free for him to use. She then hightailed it into her room before he could see her wrapped in nothing but a towel.

  Dinner proceeded just like the day before, and, yet again, Mrs. Miller had cooked up a delight.

  “So, how did Jess work out for you today?” Mr. Miller asked Daniel.

  “Oh, she was…” Daniel started to say before Sam kicked him under the table and looked at him, willing him not to say anything bad about the hapless sheepdog.

  He grunted slightly and furrowed his brows at her before continuing to answer his father’s question. “Great, Dad. She was great.”

  Sam waited for Mr. Miller to turn his attention away from the co-conspirators before mouthing a “thank you” to Daniel. Then she added for good measure “Sorry for kicking you.”

  He gave her his now signature martyred look. She felt that he was probably wondering what the heck he had gotten himself into, having to work with her. Maybe he was wishing she had said something about them being together in Bali. Oh, well. It was a bit late now.

  Sam did an excellent impression of the Tasmanian Devil as she washed up that evening, leaving Daniel drying and putting away. Just as she was about to slink out of the kitchen, he called after her.

  “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

  “I want to write a letter to my mum,” she lied. “So, I’m turning in early. ‘Night Daniel,” she called as she was half way down the hall headed towards her bedroom.

  Having no intentions of turning in, she walked in one door, pulled on her boots and scooted out the other. Making sure to tip toe her way down the deck, through the front entrance, and then headed towards the dog kennels. Sam was on a mission and that was to save Jess from the bullet.