My Fair Aussie

by Jennifer Griffith

Plus, as another incentive, if we were married, I wouldn’t have to go backing out of her bedroom in a cold sweat and sleep in the bunkhouse eating my heart out every night. In fact, my mind sped, maybe we could arrange for a way to put me out of my misery, something like an elopement while we waited for the big wedding I imagined her mother dreamed of for her only daughter.

  Yeah, I needed to cool my jets. Take things fast, but still do them right by Eliza and her family. Family mattered—to both of us.

  Our trail paralleled a streambed, which babbled and splashed over time-worn smooth rocks. Beside it, the air was cooler. Soon we’d be enclosed by the trees.

  “So, Eliza. You claim you’ve shot a rattlesnake from horseback.”

  The notch closed in over us, the tree branches creating a bower of shade and seclusion. It felt like we were the only two people on earth.

  “Why? Is there one?” She didn’t seem that alarmed. Cool. “And that depends. With a pistol or a rifle? I’m better with a .22 rifle than with a pistol.”

  “That, my sweet Eliza, is the answer to the question of why you are here.”

  “Because I can take care of my own problems, or because I can shoot a rattlesnake that’s threatening a baby calf?”

  “Yes to both. And because of fish dinners for homeless men, and Channel Foxes, and Sylvie and Chachi, and freshly-bought socks for a stranger.” Not to mention the burning sensation her lips gave mine—actually, they were burning now in anticipation.

  “I’m here because of clean socks.” Her laugh rose up again, but this time it was muffled by the sheer number of trees surrounding us. “Do you know how much I love socks right now?”

  Here, the tree-flanked trail ended, and we entered the little hollow, where the stream drizzled over an embankment, and trees gave way to a dark, calm pool that I knew better than any other body of water on earth. At its far side, a waterfall splashed into it, rippling its surface near the entry point.

  “Oh, Henry. It’s gorgeous!” On her lips, my name sounded regal. I’d like to hear her say it again and again. “I would never have guessed this pool was here. And what kind of trees are these? Do I smell eucalyptus? They had these on the California coast. I used to take a walk on this one street when I was at UCLA and just breathe the air. They made me forget I was also breathing the smog.”

  She took Valiant’s reins, pulling him up to a halt. It looked like she was getting ready to dismount, but she couldn’t until we went a little higher.

  “Don’t stop riding yet. Keep a-coming.”

  “But it’s hot out, and Valiant could use a drink, right?”

  Always thinking of others. That was yet another reason why Eliza Galatea was here at this place where I’d never bring another woman.

  “Are you up for a swim?”

  “That sounds excellent.”

  Gypsy led us up a rocky spillway beside the waterfall. Gypsy and Valiant knew the area and were sure-footed even on the slick ground beside where the waterfall splashed and sprayed. I trusted them both. At the top, I dismounted, and then I helped Eliza to the ground, not because she needed it, but because I wanted to hold her in my arms as she came down.

  She didn’t resist. In fact, she stepped closer and almost melted into my arms. I pressed her to me. She smelled like some combination of fruit and floral, the same way as when I’d held her in my arms on that cliff the first day I’d set foot on the island with her. She’d been so frail in that moment, I’d just wanted to enfold her and make her safe.

  But now, I could see all her strengths. She was a willow branch, strong. She’d bend but never break. With that understanding of her, I still wanted to hold her now. And later today. And tomorrow. And forever.

  “Come this way.” With our fingers interlaced, I guided her to the exact place. It was a rock that protruded out into the sun above the pool, just beside the waterfall. Beside it, the river fell in ripples and splashes, down into the green depths below. I’d jumped from here ten thousand times.

  I was ready to jump again.

  “We never really got around to answering that burning question, did we,” I said. The spray of the waterfall misted against my neck and face. A hot day like today, I would normally dive right in to cool off, but I liked the heat—at least the heat escalating between Eliza and me. That I liked a lot.

  “What question is that?” she asked, nuzzling up against me, and I lost all memory of any questions that might have remained.

  I ventured to move my hands from her hips to the place where her waist curved in. She relaxed her back up against my torso. Her height fit so nicely with mine. We stood just staring at the water.

  “Mm. I don’t know.” I knew she had to be feeling the chemistry brewing between us as much as I was, so thick I could cut it with a machete. “All I have in this moment is a slew of answers.”

  They were all Eliza, Eliza, Eliza.

  “Now I remember the burning question,” she said, breathy and low, and leading me to believe even more that the chemistry was mutual here. “It was, why did you ask me to come? You haven’t answered. It’s still burning there.”

  She turned around and let me wrap my arms around her.

  “Burning, huh?” I gazed down at her lips now. “Don’t ask me to be the fireman. I’m planning on being more of an arsonist.”

  Eliza’s sapphire eyes looked up into mine, and the sparks turned to a conflagration. I had to have her kiss, and soon. I leaned in to take it, but stopped myself, seeing cloud in her face.

  She gulped and looked at the ground.

  “Why me, Henry? I’m nothing.”

  “Nothing!”

  “By that I mean, I’m homeless, unemployed, and can’t even finish my Ph.D. I’m…dust.”

  “Those are all words that would describe me the day we met.”

  She grimaced.

  “Not truthfully. It was just what I assumed at the time.” Our eyes met again, and hers held an apology. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” I curled my fingers and ran the backs of them down her cheek. Her skin was soft like the velvet of Gypsy’s nose, an unflattering comparison for some girls, perhaps, but one Eliza might appreciate. Which made me appreciate her all the more. “But you’re describing yourself by things that don’t matter.”

  “I worked so hard for that doctorate, and it seemed to have slipped away, like sand through my fingers.”

  “If a fancy degree matters to you, we have a few good schools in Melbourne that’d take you in a heartbeat.” This offer presumed she’d be staying here long-term. I was all about shortening up timelines today. “It’s a drive, but we could make it work.”

  “We could?” Her question came a little breathy. I was having an effect. And better yet, she hadn’t been taken off guard by my hint that I’d love to have her stay on at Cherrington Downs for good, if she’d have me.

  “Sure. Unless you’d rather just be done with all that school and spend all your time doing this instead.”

  I’d waited long enough; I took her mouth with mine, sinking into the deliciousness of Eliza. Her mouth responded with tentativeness at first, but soon, she returned my kiss with the level of passion I’d had building in me for weeks and months, ever since I met this incredible girl. I gave her the kiss of my life, and she gave one back. Luscious, tender, a fresh sweetness with every taste of her lips.

  The sun pressed hot against our skin and the sound of the waterfall rushed below, and I was the kiss.

  All I was was this kiss. All I wanted was this woman, this moment, this world. Her body pressed against mine, the earth spinning just for us.

  She pulled the sugar of her mouth away, and I caught my breath. I felt her chest rise and fall against mine as she found her breath as well.

  “I can hear my blood rushing in my ears,” she said. “You make my heart race.”

  It had happened, I’d brought the right girl to this place. Every synapse in my nervous system knew it too. Maybe I was moving things along quickly, but she merited it.


  “That kiss was legend.” I pressed my forehead against hers, and we leaned up against a rocky wall, finding a bit of shade.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “It made me forget all about wanting a doctorate, or anything else. Ever.”

  “A mind-emptying kiss.” I pulled her into my arms again, and she leaned her head up against my chest. Again, something about how she fit against me was right. So right. A bird sang in one of the eucalyptus trees, and Eliza expelled a long sigh, melting against me.

  I could stay here in this moment forever.

  “First,” she said, “it was your smile.”

  In the last several minutes I hadn’t asked the question, not even mentally, about what made her get on the plane, come across the ocean when I called her up, but here she was answering it.

  “My smile. Is that right?”

  “I’ve always been a sucker for great teeth.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Mortensen, and your orthodontic wonders.”

  She thanked Dr. Mortensen, too, and then raised an eyebrow. “Then it was your gait.”

  “My gate?”

  “The way you walked.” Oh, that gait. “Like you were a man who knew horses.”

  “And as a rancher’s daughter…”

  “I would notice.” She offered me a shrug that said naturally. “Even if you seemed like someone who stumbled around in a bus station taking dried food from tour bus drivers and babbled about coyotes and girls named Lori who picked up hitchhikers.”

  “Hey,” I protested a moment, but said, “I guess that’s fair. I probably did seem crazy, being that hungry and discombobulated. In fact, I can’t believe you even let me walk up to you. You should have pepper-sprayed me.”

  “It crossed my mind. But then…the teeth.”

  “See? You’re a good person, kind and caring. It’s what made you irresistible.”

  “Oh, so I’m irresistible now?”

  “Much like myself.”

  “So that’s how it is?” She followed this with an irresistible bat of her eyelashes that made my heart do a flip into my stomach and back. She really did have the most gorgeous eyes.

  “Exactly. And I’m up for hearing all the reasons why I’m impossible to resist. Is there anything else, after the orthodontics and the fetching cowboy walk?”

  “Oh, you mean besides the way you charmed the movie stars at the worst movie adaptation of all time, or the fact that you treated Monique-Noelle nicely even though she’s subhuman? Or do you mean besides your willingness to be game for anything, even if it might risk humiliation, or perhaps how well you handle yourself in the rough on a golf course? Besides those things?”

  “Sure. Besides those.” I could listen to her list things she liked about me all day long, even though the sun beat down on us and the water beckoned below. “Was it my hot Aussie accent? I hear American girls lose their inhibitions when Australian guys start to speak.”

  Or maybe that was just my fantasy, wishful thinking that it could occur in this moment, with Eliza in my arms.

  “That’s just it.”

  “What is?”

  Her head went back and she laughed, up into the trees again, like a happy bird’s lilt.

  “Don’t you see? I only came to your accent after all the other things that attracted me to you. It goes against the very thesis the committee approved.”

  “The committee?”

  “My Ph.D. committee. They rejected three very good ideas—to help the deaf or speech-impaired, as well as an idea to rescue a dying aboriginal language. Then, then they approved a study to prove that American women are highly susceptible to a man with an Australian accent.”

  “We don’t need university research to test how that works. We can handle that right here on Cherrington Downs Station. I’ll be the professor, you be the test subject. This intrigues me.” I shifted into a fake news reporter voice. “Just how susceptible is Eliza Galatea? Can the hot Australian cowboy entrance her even now, as her approved topic suggested?” That would be pure gold, if it were the case. “What words should the Aussie say to test this theory on the chosen subject? Should I quote Shakespeare, or perhaps a good movie? Should I ask you to—”

  She stopped me with another kiss, one that took me to not just the Grand Canyon, but to all Seven Natural Wonders of the World. By the time she finished, I was ready to name her kiss as the Eighth.

  “So, I take it from your kiss that it worked.”

  “There are too many variables.” She laughed. “It can’t be a valid study.”

  “Variables like what?”

  “Like the inner essence that is you, Henry.”

  “Me.” I’d like to hear more on this subject. My personal committee of one approves this research topic.

  “Well, even while all the women at the red carpet or on the golf course were panting and saying they loved a man with an Aussie accent and would have thrown themselves at you in a heartbeat, and Mo-No, too—except the accent had to be accompanied by a huge bank account to make that woman powerless against the accent’s charms—I guess I either didn’t hear it or I was too busy falling for every single other thing about you to get caught up in your accent.”

  “Really. Every single thing?”

  “Including how you calmed me beside the breakers and let me see their beauty for the first time.”

  “I notice you’re not the least bit shaky here overlooking the waterfall.” It splashed and rumbled beside us, its din only a fraction as loud as the ocean at San Nouveau, but she wasn’t exhibiting any nerves.

  “I guess you cured me.”

  “Is that so?” I slid my arms from around Eliza’s waist and grasped her hand, leading her toward the edge of the drop-off. I bent over and tugged off my boots. “So, with that said, are you afraid to jump?”

  “Jump? Like off this ledge?” As she protested, I pulled off her boots, too. “Into that?”

  I couldn’t tell whether her voice was quavering, even though I listened hard for any sign of nerves.

  “Sure.” Dropping the syllable casually, I hoped she’d let herself try this new thing.

  She tiptoed to the edge and looked over at the pool below, its deep green waters churning where the waterfall entered it, but calm and dark farther out, including beneath the overhang where we stood.

  Worry crossed her face. “Have you done it before? It’s not shallow here?”

  “A thousand times.”

  The cloud of worry passed, and the blue of her eyes sparkled. “Then I’m in.”

  I stepped forward and pressed her hand in my grasp. She took a sidelong look at me, one side of her smile lifting into a grin.

  And then we jumped.

  Together our bodies splashed into the cool water below. When she came up, she wiped the water from her eyes and pushed her long hair back, and I’d never seen anything so gorgeous in my life as this woman. Then she swam into my arms, and wrapped herself around me, her lips a millimeter from mine, her warm breath caressing my skin.

  Eliza, stunningly beautiful and willing to take a shot at a bear from horseback, had flown thousands of miles when I beckoned, faced her fear of heights and leapt into a dark pool with me, at the best place in the world.

  Now with her soft curves pressed up against me, it was almost like when I was hanging onto that cliff-side at the Grand Canyon to save my own life: I knew I never wanted to let go.

  “I’m so into you, Eliza.”

  “I can’t imagine ever being away from you again.”

  Excellent. That could be arranged.

  My arms encircled her waist as we floated in the cool of the pool. Later, I had several things to ask her, along the lines of what my dad had asked my mom, and my brother his wife, at this place. I had a pretty good idea of how she’d answer, considering the way her lips caressed the skin of my neck, and the rush of breath that she expelled when I ran my arms up and down her back. Yeah, there were a lot more things to say and do with Eliza, soon-to-be Lyon.

  “I’m r
eady to do that research,” I said for now. “Shall we see what effect I can have on you as my test subject?”

  “Okay, cowboy. Talk Aussie to me.”

  EPILOGUE: TWO SUMMERS LATER

  I’m Getting Married in the Morning [Make that Last Year]

  CHERRINGTON DOWNS STATION, VICTORIAN ALPS, AUSTRALIA

  Because we want to know whether our hero and heroine are living happily ever after, right?

  “Uncle Henry! Aunt Eliza!” Our niece Matilda galloped across the stable yard atop Gypsy, both of their manes fluttering back in the December wind. The sight made my heart sing. I’d had no idea I could love a teenager so much until I met Henry’s niece, who was now grinning as she passed at full speed. “I’ll just take Gypsy for a sprint and then come back. I want to tell you something.”

  Her voice faded as she rode away into the hot summer day toward the stream where the cattle were watering for the morning. I was slowly getting used to this December-is-summer thing. Henry was in from the range for an hour, and I was letting the sun warm both me and the baby. Could she really be three months already?

  “Matilda’s happier since you came,” Henry said. “She needed an aunt.”

  “I needed a niece.”

  “You got one, and a daughter in the bargain.” He leaned over my shoulder and gazed at Johanna, still so tiny and sweet and named for his late mother. “I’m glad you taught Matilda to ride. It’s taken her mind off the distractions of being a teenager. Her parents can’t thank you enough. Their cell phone bills have been cut in half.”

  “Gypsy took to her like a frog to water, and vice versa.” I probably should have trained Matilda on a different horse from the stable, rather than Henry’s personal favorite, but the two had hit it off so well. “Do you regret losing your horse?”

  “How could I when I’ve gained so many other things?” Henry reached over and brushed a stray strand of fair hair from the baby’s forehead.

  “Careful. You’ll wake her.”

  “I like her when she’s awake. Jojo laughs when her daddy makes faces at her.” He made one now, even though the baby’s eyes weren’t open. Now he was just making me laugh.