by Diana Fraser
She narrowed her eyes in mock anger. “I’ll have you know, Mr. West, that to arrive at a hypothesis one needs to have a set of related circumstances in the first place. The only connection that I know you have to this land is that we rode out here months ago.”
“It was then that I decided I wanted this land.” He sighed and didn’t say anything further. She knew by now that there was no way to make him speak before he was ready. She resolved to count to ten. In the end it took fifteen counts before he continued. “It was the way it lay—I knew it would be good, self-contained land for growing feed to sell and big enough to keep a viable flock of merino. It’s useful to Glencoe but I could make it a lot more profitable than it currently is. I knew it’d be the perfect piece of leasehold land.”
“Callum’s given you the leasehold?”
“Callum’s sold me the leasehold.”
“Sold? You don’t have any money!”
“As it happens, I do. My mother was paid off. I thought it was by Sir Hugh but it turns out it was Lady Mackenzie. For years Mum wasn’t able to access it. But when we got out of the bush she invested the money in some commercial property in Hokitika. I never wanted a penny from it. Until now. Until I decided that it was time for me and Joe to make a home here.”
Until that moment, Rebecca hadn’t realized quite how much she’d been hoping the “our” in “our house” included her. She turned away and bit her lip. The wind was brisk but she looked up into the bright valley until her eyes watered. She didn’t need to count the seconds now. She had no words for a moment like this.
“You’re not saying anything.” His voice was nearer. He’d moved closer to her but she didn’t turn around. “What do you think?”
She swallowed hard and balled her hands in her pockets. She cleared her throat. “What do I think?” She gestured jerkily. “With all this? I think it’s great. It’s near enough to Lake Tekapo for you to make sure Joe makes lots of friends at school, that he doesn’t miss out on anything. And you’ve got the land that you’ve always loved. And no doubt you’ll have the animals that Joe loves as well.” She screwed up her eyes, willing herself to focus on Morgan’s future, on Joe’s future, but not her future. Then she took in another long slow breath and turned to face him. “I think you’ll both be very happy here.”
She was surprised to see his face solemn. He looked away abruptly. “Is that all you can say?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I know you think we’re total opposites and I’m not denying that. But”—he turned to her and the anguish in his face nearly undid her—“but, you know, it’s not how we look at things, it’s the things we look at.”
“What do you mean?”
“Okay.” He thought for a few moments. If she’d been counting now, she’d have lost count. “When we look at the stars, you see these”—he waved his hand in a vaguely geometric pattern—“triangles and squares and patterns that try to turn your universe into some nice ordered thing and all I see is”—he gestured helplessly—“taniwhas.” She failed to smother a laugh and before she could draw breath he’d taken her in his arms. “But, Rebecca, we’re both looking at the stars and seeing our own kind of magic. It doesn’t matter how we look at things, it’s that we both want the same things out of life. And we do. I’ve seen you with Joe. You’re kind, you’re curious about life, you’re full of life. You’ve lived all over the world but it’s this place that called to you, this place where you chose to make your home.”
She swallowed. It was the most she’d ever heard him say in one go. “You’re right. I knew it as soon as I came here that I never wanted to leave. And you did, too, didn’t you? You avoided it all your life but now you’re here, you can’t leave it. It’s your home. It’s in your blood.”
He nodded, his forehead pressed now against hers. “Say you’ll make this home, yours too?”
She gulped as she tried to contain her emotions. He mistook the pause.
“Rebecca! What do I have to do to persuade you to live here with me?”
She half-laughed, half cried. “You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t have to persuade me to do anything. You’re right. We both see the beauty in the world. And between my shapes and your taniwhas I reckon we can sort things out. Morgan, I love you and I want to marry you. Will you marry me?”
“Rebecca…” He caressed her chin, her lips and kissed her closed eyelids. “I thought you’d never ask.”
EPILOGUE
Eighteen months later…
Summer seemed to be lasting forever in the Mackenzie country and Rebecca was thankful that Morgan had the foresight to insist on the wrap-around veranda onto which all the rooms opened out. She sat back on one of the cushioned chairs grouped on the veranda to make the most of the view and the cooling breezes, and drank from a long glass of cold mint tea.
She picked up an old diary from the top of a pile of books and papers she’d been sorting through and fanned herself with it, shifting her swollen belly into a more comfortable position as she did so.
It was past five in the afternoon and Morgan and Joe had just left the newly built barn and were returning to the homestead through the grass that grew all around them like a sea of gold.
Joe had shot up in the past eighteen months. It was clear he was going to be as tall as Morgan, if not taller. But that wasn’t the only way in which he’d changed.
There were no more nightmares, no more being startled at the sound of gunshot, no more long silences. She smiled to herself as his freckled face turned up to talk to Morgan who listened but obviously didn’t see the need to reply beyond the occasional affirmative grunt.
Joe ran up the steps onto the veranda and plonked himself in the chair beside Rebecca.
“Hey!” he greeted her.
“There’s some home-made lemonade in the fridge.” He jumped up. “And some baking on the bench.”
“Cool.”
As Joe disappeared inside, Rebecca shouted out after him. “And bring some out for your dad.”
“You spoil that boy,” said Morgan coming to halt before her. He dropped his hat onto the table and stood, hands on hips, looking her over. It never ceased to have an effect on her. “You shouldn’t be baking in this heat. You remember what the doctor said… rest.”
She waved her hand. “Oh, I’m fine. Don’t fuss. It’s just a baby.” She patted her stomach, her finger lingering as she met his heated gaze.
He placed his hand over hers and smoothed it gently around her stomach. “Not just anything. He’s our son. Joe’s brother.”
“And my little scientist.” She grinned.
He dipped his head and kissed her just as Joe appeared balancing a jug of lemonade, some glasses and a plate of scones, munching as he came.
“I don’t understand why you want a scientist when you’ve Dad and me,” Joe said with a mouthful of scone. “Eh, Dad?”
“That’s right. What more could she want with two big guys like us around?”
She shrugged. “It’s true. But you have to face the possibility that your new brother might go around making lists like I do and he might, just might see using a computer as fun, rather than a punishment.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “No more lists!”
Rebecca laughed. “Joseph West, you’ll just have to get used to me and my lists. We go together.”
Joe bobbed to the ground and picked up a stray piece of paper. “Like this one?” He waved it in the air.
Rebecca colored, immediately recognizing it. It must have fallen out of her old diary that she’d picked up to fan herself. She reached out for it. “Hey, Joe, that’s mine.”
Joe read the piece of paper out loud. “There’s a lot of scribble on this list. But I can just about read what’s under it. Number one…must be self confi…confi—I can’t read the rest and number two, must be ‘re-something’ of women, I think it says. And then some crossings out. Number five is ‘Tall’ and then
more crossings out and the word ‘clever’ is written in.” He looked up at her, frowning. “This is a strange list. What is it?”
Morgan grinned, plucked it from his son’s hands and gave it back to Rebecca. “Some daft fancy of your mother’s.”
Rebecca took it from Morgan with an embarrassed glare. “Sometimes one has to write a list simply to know that it’s the wrong list.”
“What?” Joe exclaimed. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s understandable.” She sighed. “I’m not sure I do.”
“So why was everything crossed out and only your name written at the end, Dad?”
Rebecca blushed and folded the list over and over in her hands. But Morgan just kept looking at her. “Just my name, eh Rebecca?”
“Sometimes all you need is one name. Sometimes you don’t need anything else to describe what you want.”
“I don’t know what you’re all talking about,” said Joe as he took the opportunity of his mum and dad’s diverted attention to stuff another scone into his mouth, while pocketing a third. He stood up and whistled, and a small sheepdog jumped up from beside Annie who lay, one eye open, in the shade. He reached down and petted her. “Good girl. Sasha and I are going to check on the horses, Dad. I’ll take Neptune out for a ride to the end paddock and back.”
“That’s fine, lad. Take your time.”
“Okay.”
They heard Joe walk away whistling. The air seemed to thicken and become airless as Morgan reached down and grabbed her hands and pulled her to standing.
“Because sometimes what you want has been staring you in the face all along.” He kissed her gently on the lips. “Isn’t that right, Mrs West?”
She smiled as he pulled her inside the house. “It certainly is, Mr West.”
The End
THANK YOU!
Thank you for reading The Cowboy’s Craving. I hope you enjoyed it! It’s the fourth book in The Mackenzies series. The complete series is as follows:
The Real Thing (Guy and Lucia—Book 1)
The PA’s Revenge (Dallas and Cassandra—Book 2)
The Marriage Trap (Callum and Gemma—Book 3)
The Cowboy’s Craving (Morgan and Rebecca—Book 4)
The Playboy’s Redemption (James and Susie)—Book 5)
The Lakehouse Café (Pete and Liz—Book 6)
If you’d like to know when my next book is available you can sign up for my new release e-mail list here, or via my website www.dianafraser.com, or visit (like and comment!) my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dianafraserwriter.
Reviews are always welcome—they help me and they help prospective readers to decide if they’d enjoy the book.
Happy reading!
Diana
Book 5 of The Mackenzies—The Playboy’s Redemption—is now available, featuring James.
James Mackenzie is tired of his shallow lifestyle and wants a family. But before he begins his new life he needs to salve his conscience by making sure the future is secure for the woman he wronged ten years before.
The last thing Susie Henderson needs is her ex lover buying the winery in which she works and threatening her independence. Because how can she trust someone who betrayed her, someone who doesn't even believe in himself?
Excerpt
Susie glanced around and saw James had left some papers on the table. Just at that moment he returned, by himself.
She picked up the papers and held them out to him. “Grown forgetful?”
He shook his head, no sign of a smile now. “No. I remember everything.”
“And you still choose to come here and buy a company I’m involved with? I’m surprised.”
“Are you? Why?” Again, he was being deliberately obtuse.
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, layering the sarcasm thickly. “Perhaps because ten years ago I told you I never wanted to see you again?” She could see she’d hit a raw nerve by the tension in the fine lines around his eyes that she hadn’t noticed before. His face was immobile and, for the first time, serious.
“Ten years is a long time.”
“Not so long when the facts remain the same, when the feelings remain the same. When nothing’s changed.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong.”
“No, I’m not. You were a bastard then, and I’m sure you’re a bastard now.”
He shrugged. “A bastard maybe, but I’m also the owner of this winery.” He tapped the papers he was still holding, onto the table between them. “Signed and sealed. Everything has changed.”
DIANA’S BOOKS
The Mackenzies
The Real Thing
The PA’s Revenge
The Marriage Trap
The Cowboy’s Craving
The Playboy’s Redemption
The Lakehouse Café
Desert Kings
Wanted: A Wife for the Sheikh (Book 1)
The Sheikh’s Bargain Bride (Book 2)
The Sheikh’s Lost Lover (Book 3)
Awakened by the Sheikh (Book 4)
Claimed by the Sheikh (Book 5)
Wanted: A Baby by the Sheikh (Book 6)
Italian Romance
Perfect
Her Retreat
Trusting Him
Coming Soon!
—New Zealand Brides—
Yours to Give (Book 1)
Yours to Treasure (Book 2)
Yours to Cherish (Book 3)
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Sensual, Emotionally Intense Romance…
For more information on Diana Fraser’s books, please visit her website:
http://www.dianafraser.net
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