‘Sorry, mate.’ Lawson barely glanced at his son as he said this. ‘Do you want me to do your back?’ he asked her.
She swallowed, and then handed the tube across to him. ‘Thanks.’
He smiled as their fingers brushed against each other in the exchange and she almost forgot Ned was with them as she felt Lawson’s strong, warm fingers land on her back. It felt good, better than good, as he rubbed the cream in, and she felt her body temperature rising to boiling point, but at least she’d be safe from the sun.
‘There. All done,’ he said, picking up the tube and recapping it.
‘Finally,’ Ned exclaimed as if he’d been waiting weeks to go in the pool. ‘Come on then.’
With barely a glance at Lawson, Megan repositioned her towel and hurried after the kid. She felt Lawson only a few steps behind. Ned stepped onto the bottom of the pool gate so he could stretch up and un-do the latch, then he pushed it open and held it for them.
The moment the gate slammed shut behind herself and Lawson, Ned kicked off his thongs and plunged into the pool. Water splashed up, wetting them both and they laughed as they met each other’s gaze.
‘Ladies first,’ Lawson said, gesturing to the sparkling water in front of them.
Megan didn’t need to be asked twice. She dived right in, relishing the cool reprieve of the water. When she emerged, Lawson was right beside her, his hair wet and his tanned broad shoulders glistening like some kind of Greek water God.
‘Thanks for offering those thoughts about expanding Tabitha’s ice-cream venture,’ he said, reaching up and running his hands through his hair. ‘You’ve got quite a head for business. Have you run one before?’
She shook her head. ‘No, I’m just interested.’ The closest she’d ever got to small business was reading the brochure for the course offered in prison. She’d had no ideas for business back then so had chosen the more hands-on practical courses instead. ‘I actually always wanted to be a teacher,’ she found herself telling him. ‘Both of my parents were teachers and so passionate about their jobs, but things kind of derailed for me after they died. I lost my way for quite a few years.’
This was an understatement but even if she felt ready to risk telling Lawson the truth about her past, her story wasn’t the kind you told around young ears. Before he could say anything to this, she looked to Ned, who was now perched atop a massive blow-up toy. ‘I thought you said I could use your pink flamingo!’
Chapter Twenty-two
As Meg struggled onto the pink flamingo he and Ned had given Tabitha as a joke for Christmas, Lawson considered this little nugget of information she’d just told him. She’d wanted to be a teacher, her parents were teachers—he didn’t know them but now that she’d said this he could visualise her in this profession. Right from the start she’d been gentle and caring towards Ned, treating him like a little person. And Ned thrived on this. In a short time, he’d grown to adore Meg.
As much as this pleased Lawson, as much as he enjoyed watching Meg and Ned interact, he couldn’t suppress a tiny bit of irritation that he didn’t have her all to himself. As they splashed about, laughing over the blow-up flamingo, Lawson found himself reliving the feeling of sliding his hands over Meg’s smooth neck and shoulders as he’d helped her with the sun-cream. Doing so had been both pleasure and torture and he’d had to summon all the unsexy images he could think of to stop himself developing another inappropriate erection. It was the middle of the day and they were with his son, for crying out loud, but he’d had more erections in the last couple of weeks, while thinking of Meg, than he’d had in the previous four years.
Thankfully the water in the pool now covered his annoying problem and he swam over to join them, telling himself to stop sulking and just try and enjoy the day.
‘When do I get to go on the flamingo?’ he asked, coming to stand beside Ned who was treading water alongside Meg.
‘Never. You’re too big, Dad. Remember the last time you tried to get on, you almost broke it.’
‘We couldn’t have that,’ Meg said, sharing a secret smile with him as she wrapped her arms around the flamingo’s long neck. He imagined himself in the position of the flamingo, her arms wrapped around his neck as he stooped his head to kiss her. Dammit, now he was jealous of a stupid blow-up bird.
‘I might swim some laps,’ he said, and then churned off through the water, hoping the exertion would ease some of the tension charging through his body.
As he swam back and forth, he shut his eyes whenever he passed Meg, not needing the glimpse of her long bare legs hanging off the flamingo. Finally, when he thought he’d got his embarrassing appendage under control, he emerged at the end of the pool.
‘Can we have a horsey race?’ Ned shouted.
Meg frowned. ‘I don’t see any horses.’
‘He means a noodle race,’ Lawson said, gesturing behind him to the fence where a number of pool noodles were threaded between the poles. Ned was already scrambling out of the pool to get them.
Meg raised an eyebrow. ‘What am I getting myself in for?’
‘Not scared of a little competition, are ya?’ He chuckled, remembering just how competitive she’d been when they played Uno.
‘Hell no.’ She gestured to Ned. ‘Can I have the yellow one please?’
Yellow was Ned’s favourite colour and he always had that one, but it was a testament to how much he adored Meg that he didn’t even bat an eyelid. He tossed her the yellow noodle, threw Lawson a red one and then jumped into the pool with the green one already positioned between his legs. Ned explained the rules of pool horse racing to Meg and she listened intently.
‘On your marks, set, go!’ Ned cried seconds after he’d finished explaining.
‘He didn’t give us a warning,’ Meg objected as Ned paddled his arms and legs like his life depended on it.
Lawson winked. ‘All’s fair in love and horse racing.’ Then before Meg could say another word, he too kicked off the side.
‘I won, I won.’ Ned was bouncing up and down in the shallow end when Meg finally made it.
‘You cheated,’ she said, a massive grin on her face. Lawson loved the way she didn’t pander to Ned. ‘I demand a re-race.’
They raced and raced until Meg exclaimed that she couldn’t take another moment. ‘My legs feel like they’re going to drop off,’ she said. ‘You guys play hard.’
Ned grinned at this huge compliment.
‘We’ve probably been out in the sun long enough anyway,’ Lawson said, his muscles also feeling the exertion.
‘Aw, just five more minutes,’ Ned begged.
Lawson shook his head. ‘How about we get out and go show Meg the baby calves?’ Then he looked to her. ‘That’s if you can stay a little longer?’
She nodded. ‘I can. And I’d love to see the calves.’
This suggestion appeased Ned, so they all climbed out. Lawson tried not to stare at Meg’s nearly naked body as she wrapped the towel around herself.
‘Would you like to have a shower?’ he asked, trying not to trip on the word shower as the image of her in the shower landed in his head. Good Lord, he had a problem.
‘Nah. I’ll just get dry and throw my clothes back on.’
Back at the house, they found Tabitha sitting on the back verandah reading one of her Aussie romance novels. She and Meg chatted briefly about the book—Meg said the author was one of her favourites, Tab that it was a pity none of the guys round there were like the guys in her books—and then they went inside to get changed. Lawson showed Meg to the bathroom and then he and Ned went to their respective rooms to put on dry clothes.
Barely ten minutes later, they were standing in the sheds, Meg going crazy over the cuteness of the young calves. They’d left Cane in the backyard with Bonnie babysitting, much to her disgust.
‘Oh my goodness. You must have the best job in the world,’ Meg said to Tab as she rubbed her hand up and down the back of a one-day-old. ‘I’d be out here with them all the time. I
’d never want to be anywhere else.’
Tab laughed. ‘You become immune to the cuteness. But you’re welcome to come and hang with them any time you like.’
‘You might never get rid of me,’ Meg joked.
Lawson couldn’t see a problem with this.
Ned, clearly wanting to sound grown up and knowledgeable in front of Meg, explained how he and Tabitha attended the calves twice a day during calving season. ‘We feed the babies on the sick mob milk,’ he said.
‘The sick mob?’ Meg asked, looking appalled.
‘Yep, Dad separates the sick cows from the good ones, but they’re not really sick. It’s just something’s a bit wrong with their milk—they’ve either just had a baby or they’ve got infection in their udders so we can’t put their milk into the tanker that the milk company collects.’
‘I see.’ Meg nodded, her head cocked to the side a little as she listened intently to Ned describing in intricate detail their daily routine. He pointed out the milk trailer, explaining that he and Tabitha filled it by hand and then used buckets to pour the milk into the feeder trays, which had plastic teats from which the calves drank.
‘The older calves also get grain and hay,’ Ned explained. ‘Oh and we put salt and pepper in the milk and if the cows are sick we give them sugar.’
‘Sounds like a restaurant,’ Meg said.
Lawson and Tabitha laughed.
‘Salt and pepper is dairy code for special minerals we give the calves,’ Tabitha said.
‘And sugar,’ Lawson added, ‘is really electrolytes.’
‘Right. I see.’ Meg chuckled. ‘And how old are the cows when they become milkers?’
Lawson shrugged. ‘Between two and two and a half years. In that time we feed them up good with sorghum and corn silage.’
‘And do you grow that here?’ Meg asked. She seemed genuinely fascinated to learn more about dairy farming.
‘We sure do.’
She asked a few more questions about what happened to the male babies and he explained they sold them off for beef, then Tabitha said, ‘Hey, it’s a little earlier than usual but we could feed one of the runts if you’d like to have a go?’
‘Really? Are you sure?’ Meg’s beautiful eyes widened.
Tabitha nodded. ‘Of course.’
They trekked over to the dairy, where Tab filled a bottle with some milk from a tank, and then they all headed back to the nursery shed. Lawson had plenty of jobs he could and probably should have been doing and he’d bottle-fed a hundred calves in his life, yet there wasn’t any place he’d rather be, so he watched carefully as Meg held the bottle while their smallest, newest calf suckled hard.
‘That was amazing. Thank you,’ she said, handing the bottle back to Tabitha when she was finished.
‘We’ll make a dairy farmer of you yet,’ Tab said and Meg blushed and laughed nervously.
‘Shall we go and have some afternoon tea?’ Lawson asked.
Meg glanced down at her watch. ‘Geez, I didn’t realise the time. I should probably get going soon.’
‘Aw,’ Ned whined, ‘but I wanted to play Mario Kart with you.’
Lawson didn’t want her to go yet either. ‘If you stay a little longer, I could show you the milking later.’ He hoped he didn’t sound too desperate, but he really didn’t want her to go.
‘That sounds great.’ She bit her lip, then added, ‘but I don’t want to outstay my welcome.’
‘You’re not,’ said Lawson, Ned and Tabitha in unison.
Meg smiled. ‘In that case …’
They left the sheds and headed back to the house. In the kitchen, Tabitha conjured a packet of store-bought biscuits and apologised that they weren’t homemade.
‘These are my favourite,’ Meg said as she sank her teeth into a Monte Carlo.
She’d barely finished the biscuit before Ned dragged her into the front room, leaving Lawson alone with Tabitha in the kitchen.
‘I really like her,’ Tab said, leaning back against the bench. ‘And I can tell you do too.’
There was no point denying it. He was going crazy with like. ‘But how do I know if she feels the same way about me?’
Tab raised an eyebrow. ‘It’s pretty clear from where I’m standing that she’s interested. I could light a fire from the sparks flying between you two.’
‘Really?’ He couldn’t help grinning.
‘Yes.’ She grinned right back.
He sighed as Adeline’s words from that morning popped into his head. They’d been niggling at him since, despite the fact he thought them ridiculous. ‘But we barely know each other. She occasionally lets something slip about her family and I’ve asked questions, but getting her to talk about the past is like trying to draw blood from a stone.’
‘Lawson, she lost practically her whole family in one go,’ Tab said, her voice low so Meg couldn’t hear them. ‘That’s painful even thinking about. And then the only grandparents she was close to. Be patient. Give her time. She’ll open up to you when she’s ready.’
He nodded. ‘You’re right, I know. Thanks for the pep talk, little sis.’
‘You’re welcome.’ She pointed towards the open door, then hissed, ‘Now go and be with her. Don’t waste your time chatting with me.’
Lawson found Ned and Meg in the lounge room sitting alongside each other on the couch, already ensconced in a game of Mario Kart. Neither of them looked up as he came in but he perched himself on the other end of the couch so Ned sat between them. It transpired that Meg was as competitive on the Xbox as she had been playing Uno and racing in the pool. At one stage she looked up briefly and mentioned that years ago she’d played video games with her brother. Another tiny seed of information that gave Lawson the confidence that she was starting to share more of herself with them.
He and Meg alternated playing against Ned and then finally they took on each other. It was the most fun he’d ever had with the Xbox and also helped release a little of the tension that had been building up in his body throughout the day. Finally the time came when he had to stop and start bringing in the cows.
Reluctantly, he heaved himself up off the couch and stretched. ‘I’m heading out to do the milking. You still want to come and see what it’s all about, Meg?’
‘Do I ever!’
Usually Ned whined and argued at the end of screen time, but this time when Meg put down her game controller, he did the same. Lawson considered telling his son he could keep playing indefinitely, simply so he could have Meg to himself for a while, but parent-guilt got the better of him. How did anyone date with a kid? Not that he and Meg were dating—yet—but between the farm and Ned he felt like the world was conspiring against his desire to rejoin the ‘land of the living’, as Funky had put it.
Then, Tabitha—who had no doubt been eavesdropping—appeared in the doorway and even before she spoke, he knew she’d come to save him. ‘Ready to help me with the calves, Ned?’
‘But I want to help Dad with the milking,’ he said, a pout already forming on his face.
Tabitha twisted her lips in feigned disappointment. ‘Dad’s going to have Meg’s help, so I’d really appreciate it if you helped me.’
Ned looked as if he were about to object, but then he glanced at Meg and seemed to reconsider causing a scene. ‘Okay, Aunty Tab, I’ll just go get my boots on.’
As he marched out of the room, Tab met Lawson’s gaze. Neither of them said anything but he made sure she knew how much he appreciated her intervention. Now it was up to him to make the most of the next hour or so.
He turned to Meg. ‘Are you ready to get dirty?’
‘What am I letting myself in for?’ She grimaced then nodded. ‘Yep. Let’s do this.’
On the front verandah, Lawson pulled on his boots and Meg bent down to slide on her sandals. They were cute little white ones that would never be the same if he let her wear them into the dairy.
‘Here,’ he said, grabbing a pair of Tab’s old gumboots. ‘I know it seems hot for t
hese, but you’ll thank me later. I’ll go get you some socks.’
He trekked into the house, dug a pair of Tab’s socks out of the clean washing basket and then took them back outside. A minute later Meg stood in front of him in her denim shorts, a floaty pink top and Tab’s ancient boots.
‘How do I look?’ she asked as she straightened.
‘Ridiculous,’ he said, while silently thinking sexy-as-all-hell.
She poked her tongue out at him. Smiling, he went to get Clyde, but left Cane fenced in with a still-unimpressed Bonnie in the backyard.
With Clyde racing ahead, Meg and Lawson started towards the shed. He almost took hold of her hand, but they were in plain sight of the house and he didn’t want Ned to see. They met Ethan at the dairy shed and he looked like he’d just awoken from a long nap.
‘You helping us this arvo, Meg?’ he asked, turning on his flirty smile again.
‘She’s helping me,’ Lawson corrected. ‘We’ll bring the cows in.’ That would be more fun for Meg than getting everything ready inside.
‘Aye aye, Captain.’ Ethan saluted him and then turned to head inside.
Lawson indicated the motorbikes they used to help encourage the cattle into the pens prior to milking. ‘Ever ridden one of these before?’
She shook her head.
‘They’re pretty easy,’ he said, ‘but if you prefer you can ride with me.’
‘Are you trustworthy?’ she asked.
He laughed as he swung his leg over and climbed onto the bike. ‘I’ve been riding these things since I was younger than Ned. Come on, live a little,’ he said, patting the spot behind him.
‘Okay then. I’ll trust you.’ Meg climbed on behind him and he sucked in a breath as her thighs connected with his arse.
He swallowed—he might have been riding since Adam was a boy, but it was a long time since he’d ridden with a woman pressed against him and he hoped he’d been right when he’d told her she could trust him.
Talk of the Town Page 23