She stared at him and grinned. ‘Who is this man?’ Her grin turned into a chuckle. ‘What have you done with my cousin, the photographer?’
Seb had pulled on a pair of old work trousers and a khaki shirt. The only hint of the metro-sexual from the city was the man bun that Lucy knew was tucked beneath the battered Akubra.
‘He’s here and he’s ready to get to work.’ Seb held his camera up. ‘Let’s go if you want to catch this light.’
Lucy enjoyed the next hour. Positioning Garth against a tree trunk, with the light filtering though the dark green leaves behind him, meant she had to run her hands down his muscled arms. Removing his hat, running her fingers along his jaw and tilting his head and mussing his hair sent a tremble to her legs. She swallowed and focused on being professional.
Seb clicked away as Lucy instructed Garth where to put his hands.
‘And stop smiling.’ She stepped back and put her hands on her hips and regarded those sexy lips set in a smile. ‘I want you to look rugged, yet mysterious. It will be a real contrast to the sexiness of the underwear.’
‘Sorry, I can’t help it. Never thought I’d find myself in this position.’ The quiet confidence in his voice as Garth tried to compose his face into a serious expression put paid to any embarrassment she thought he might have had. He was more professional than most of the models they worked with in the city and as Lucy lifted a hand up to Garth’s hair again, Seb winked at her.
‘If cattle and wheat prices go down he can come to work as a model in the city, what do you think, Lucy?’
She caught Garth’s eyes on her and smiled up at him and nodded. ‘Sure could.’ Reaching over to adjust the sleeves of his T-shirt, she pushed them up a little so that the curve of his bicep caught the light. Her fingers lingered over his warm skin, smooth and tanned beneath her touch.
As she reached across he leaned down and his breath whispered against her ear. ‘I’m enjoying this.’
Heat rushed up her neck at the same time as goosebumps rose where his breath had lifted her hair away from her neck.
So was she, and it had nothing to do with the advertising campaign she should be focusing on.
‘Light’s gone.’ Seb put his camera down. ‘Great work, guys. How are you going to get the shots to the agency, Luce?’ They’d despaired of the dodgy internet connection when Seb had tried to download some files this morning.
Garth pushed himself away from the tree trunk and came across to them. ‘Feel free to come to my place. Remember I said you can use my connection.’
Lucy nodded. ‘I will, much appreciated.’ She was surprised to hear her voice so calm. The feel of Garth’s skin and muscles was burning her fingertips and her legs were like jelly. The warm and earthy smell of him wafted over as he moved closer and she looked up. His T-shirt was now damp with perspiration, despite the deepening dusk, and she stared at him, unable to help herself. The shadow of stubble along his jawline, and the lock of hair that fell across his brow conspired to keep her eyes fixed on him. He had grown into a fine looking man.
As she watched he glanced across at Seb, and she wondered if she was the only one to hear the reluctance in his invitation.
‘We’ve got some yabbies here to cook up. Would you like to stay and have some?’
To Lucy’s relief, Seb shook his head and turned towards the ute. ‘Thanks, but no. Gran wants Liam and me to look at the cattle records with her tonight, while the numbers are fresh in our minds.’ He glanced back at Lucy and grimaced. ‘She’s coming around slowly, but she wasn’t too impressed to hear why I had to come out here and meet you.’
Garth gave a rueful grin. ‘And I’ll have dropped even lower in her opinion.’
‘No, Garth. She’s going to apologise to you. It didn’t take long for her to see that you were right about Brian.’ He opened the ute door and placed his camera carefully on the passenger seat. ‘So you don’t want a lift back, Luce?’
‘No, but I won’t be far behind you.’
She stood close to Garth as Seb drove off. Once the noise of the motor receded, all was quiet and she kicked nervously at the dust with her boot. There was a tension between them that had begun as she was touching his skin and she knew it wouldn’t take much for it to burst into flame—on her side anyway.
‘Speaking of flame,’ she said and then stopped as a wave of heat flamed her face when she realised she’d put her thoughts into words. ‘I mean, do you want me to gather some sticks to start the fire?’
##
When Garth spread the old yellow and black checked picnic blanket on the red dirt, Lucy looked at him from beneath lowered lashes. She could have sworn it was the same one he’d had in his old ute when they’d swum at the dam the summer before she’d left Spring Downs and headed for university. After their year twelve exams were over, in that glorious summer holiday before Lucy had left town, she’d taken every opportunity to spend nights out at Prickle Farm with Gran and Pop. Mum and Dad had teased her; they’d known full well that the attraction was not the farm or her grandparents. It had been an idyllic summer; she and Garth had swum, and hiked and fished for yabbies. They’d lain on an old checkered rug looking at the brilliant stars in the clear night sky and sharing their dreams. They’d explored each other’s bodies and slept under the moon and stars.
The water in the large battered pot was just short of coming to the boil on the crackling flames. Lucy sat and stared into the yellow, gold and blue fire, lost in her memories while Garth opened the lid on the bucket and when the bubbles began to rise, he carefully dropped the yabbies in the water. She grinned and glanced down at her watch. It had always been her job to time the cooking.
‘Three minutes, I know.’ She nodded as Garth held up three fingers. She stood in front of the fire watching the pot swing on the tripod.
How had she let go of that wonderful time they’d spent together? It was as though the tragedy in their family, and the loss of her mother and two aunts had pulled a curtain over that part of her life. She hadn’t forgotten those happy weeks; it was just that, when Mum had died, she’d pushed anything to do with Spring Downs and Prickle Farm into a part of her memories that she never ventured into.
Now, sitting out here in the warm night, staring into the flames, the years disappeared. Garth must have sensed her introspection; he pottered around quietly and she looked at him gratefully when he lifted two camp chairs and a small fold up table from the back of the ute.
‘I remembered how much you hated the cat’s-eyes,’ he said with a smile.
Nostalgia flooded through Lucy. How could she have walked away and never called him? Not once had she contacted Garth after she’d moved to Sydney and started her new life. He’d been relegated to the place where she’d grown up, the place she kidded herself she’d hated.
‘One minute to go.’ She looked at her watch as she sat in the comfortable chair. Garth lifted an esky from the ute and she smiled again as he lifted out a bottle of tomato sauce and a jar of mayonnaise and put them on the table. He reached in again and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses.
‘You did have this all planned, didn’t you? Just as well we caught some yabbies.’ Lucy took the glass of wine Garth held out. She sat back and sipped as he lifted the pot from the fire with a pair of pliers, and tipped the water down the hill. He sat the now-red yabbies on an enamel plate on the table to cool in the night air, before pulling the other chair over beside hers.
The fire crackled and hissed, and Lucy stared into the flames searching for the right words. Finally she turned to him. Garth leaned back with his head resting on the high soft back of the chair, his eyes closed. His profile was sharply defined against the night sky and a rush of feeling filled Lucy.
‘I’m sorry I lost touch with you,’ she said softly. ‘Everything changed after the accident. I’d only been at uni a few weeks when Mum and her sisters left for that trip.’ He turned and looked at her without speaking. ‘I guess after it happened I just wanted to cut all ties
with the place.’
‘No need to explain, Luce. I was just as slack. I should have come down and seen you or at the very least called you.’ He turned back to the fire and leaned forward. ‘I went to uni in Western Australia that same month. I qualified as an engineer and I worked in the mines over there. I’ve only been back on the property six months.’
Lucy shook her head. ‘That makes me feel a bit better.’ She looked down as he reached for her hand. ‘But now that we’ve reconnected, I hope we don’t lose touch again.’
‘We’ll make sure we don’t.’ Garth held her hand as they sat quietly staring into the flames.
Finally he broke the silence. ‘So tell me, what’s going on with your grandparents. How come you’re all home? Is everything okay?’
‘I don’t know.’ Lucy shook her head. ‘I mean, yes, apart from getting old, everything is fine with them. I just don’t know if I’m okay with the way things are going.
Garth’s glance was curious and she squeezed his hand before she let go and reached for her wine.
‘We’re all staying here—home—for a few months. To learn about the property and to take it over eventually.’
She saw the glint of his teeth in the firelight as he grinned. ‘That’s fantastic. You’ll be around for—how long?’
‘Three months. We’re taking it in turns. Liam and I are first.’ She spoke slowly as doubt assailed her.
‘So what’s wrong?’ Garth picked up on her hesitation.
‘I think I only agreed to it because the others were so keen. I mean, I don’t want Gran and Pop to sell the place but I’m not sure it’s what I want.’ She waved a hand around at the land surrounding them. ‘You remember. I hated all this stuff. The heat, the smells, the dust . . . really there was nothing I liked about being out here when we came out from town.’
‘Nothing?’ There was a cheeky tone in Garth’s voice.
‘Well, maybe some of it was okay.’ She looked across at him and then put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh no. I totally forgot that you said you had made an offer for the place. You probably don’t want us out here anyway.’
Garth pushed himself up from the chair and crouched in front of her, taking her hands in his. The moon was high in the velvet sky and the pale light glinted off his dark hair. She stared at him and his voice was full of passion as he held her gaze.
‘No, don’t ever think that. Yes, I could expand my land holdings, but I just didn’t want to see the farm go to one of those big foreign investors. That’s why I made the offer.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Half of the Pilliga is being bought up quietly. There’s coal seam gas exploration happening and these companies can see a huge profit in owning land out here.’
‘But they can’t do that.’ Lucy was filled with dismay. ‘You mean put mines like there are all over the Hunter Valley out here in the Pilliga?’
‘Not quite open cut mines here, but it will still have a dreadful effect on the water table. But there is talk of open cut mines out on the Breeza Plains. I’ve joined a farmers’ alliance group and some of the proposals would make your hair curl.’ He shook his head. ‘And it’s all kept very quiet until it’s too late to do anything.’
‘That’s dreadful.’ Lucy squeezed his hands. ‘But how could you afford to buy a property the size of ours?’
‘I’ve got the approval from the bank, but if the place is staying in your family, that’s fine. I really have enough on my plate with mine, and I don’t want to have to hire anyone to help out. I’ve got a couple of young guys who come out after school and on weekends and that’s all I need with my place.’
‘You do love it here, don’t you?’
‘It’s my life,’ he said. ‘I missed it so much when I was over in the west.’ He grinned at her as he stood and pulled her to her feet. ‘There’s no place like home, Dorothy. Come on, your yabbie feast awaits.’
He brushed a light kiss on her lips and turned his attention to the now cool yabbies. Lucy put her hands to her lips. She couldn’t imagine Garth anywhere but here.
The question was, where was home for her?
Chapter 13
The outside security light bathed the new farmhouse and the work shed in bright white light as Garth turned the ute into the parking bay close to the house gate.
‘You built the new house?’ Lucy had asked as they drove past the old farmhouse.
‘Yep. Wanted a place of my own. Made it feel as though it was my place and I wasn’t just back where I grew up.’ He shrugged. ‘I know it sounds silly, but I’m going to make my life here and I wanted it to be mine. You know, not feel like a kid playing on Mum and Dad’s farm? And the harvesters bunk down in the old house. And I’m thinking about doing it up a bit and having farm stays there for city kids who wouldn’t get a chance for a holiday.’
‘Sounds like you’ve got some great plans for the place.’ Lucy looked at him with her head tilted to the side. ‘You’ll be putting a lot of your time and money into the farm.’
Garth sensed the question in her words; he hated sounding like he was building himself up but he wanted Lucy to know he’d done okay. ‘I did okay over in the west; I worked hard for five years. Instead of flying back home for the two weeks after my shift in the mine, I worked on a wheat farm over there. Set me up to buy the olds’ place and left me some spare cash to try some new things.’
The dogs set up a cacophony of barking in the yard and he turned to them, relieved to stop talking about himself.
‘Quiet,’ he yelled and they scurried off surprised at the unfamiliar chastisement.
Garth held out his hand for Lucy to pass her computer down to him before she stepped down from the high vehicle. She was a petite woman, and a surge of protectiveness filled him. Damn shame she was so keen on going back to the city.
He held open the gate for her and she walked into the yard and looked around. A couple of pots filled with dead straggly plants leaned against the unpainted timber fence.
‘Bit different to your Gran’s beautiful garden.’ Garth shrugged. ‘As much as I’d like to get it nice, there’s not enough time in a day for me to look after the place, let alone the garden.’
‘Are you sure you’ve got time for me to be here tonight?’
‘Of course. I’ll get you set up and I can do some paperwork while you do whatever you have to do. That’s one thing I made sure I had, a fast internet connection. My router is hardwired into an antenna on the roof.’
He chuckled at the look on Lucy’s face. ‘What do we have here? A non techno person?’
‘My nickname at work is “technogumby”,’ she said with a smile. ‘I can use the graphics software and send an email but that’s about it. I have an aura where computers are concerned. And it’s not a productive one.’
They walked though the kitchen to the adjacent open plan study where Garth had set up his desk. A surge of pride ran through him as Lucy cast an approving eye over the space.
‘Very nice. Who designed the house? It’s so unusual.’
‘I had a mate over in W.A. who worked at the mine with me. He was an architect doing some design work over there. I told him what I was planning and we drew it up between shifts. It’s designed to be naturally temperature controlled.’
Lucy’s eyes tracked along the slope of the ceiling to the storage loft above the laundry. ‘I love it. It’s almost Japanese, with all the screens.’
‘Still a bit bare, but I’ll get there.’
‘In your spare time,’ she said with a laugh.
‘That’s about right.’ He cleared a space on the desk and pointed to the power point above the desk. ‘You get yourself set up and I’ll put some coffee on.’
He held the chair out for her and Lucy pulled her small computer from her bag and sat down. ‘Coffee will be great. I am a bit sleepy and I have got a lot of work to do. Gran’s kept me busy but you know—I’ve enjoyed being with her and Jemmy in the kitchen.’ Her smile was sweet and Garth caught hi
s breath as she looked up at him. ‘And thanks so much for letting me use your connection. I really do appreciate it.’
‘Truth be known, I’ll appreciate the company too. Gets a bit quiet here at night.’ He laughed as the dogs started barking outside as if on cue. ‘Apart from the dogs that is.’
‘Another visitor?’ she asked.
‘No, it’ll be kangaroos. They come in about this time every night and feed on the new growth where I’m trying to get a lawn growing.’ He spread his palms open and grimaced. ‘Between the dogs and the roos I think I’m going to be living on red dust for a while.’
‘You need Gran over here with her magic touch.’ Her expression was shy as she returned his gaze. ‘Or if you would like, I can repay you for using your connection and come over and help out with the garden.’
Satisfaction spread thought Garth. ‘I’ll take you up on that.’ He held out his hand and took hers. ‘That’s a deal.’
He had to fight the urge to punch the air with delight as he walked over to the kitchen.
##
‘Done.’ Lucy stretched her arms into the air and rolled her neck in a circle as the last file whizzed its magical way to Sydney by email. Seb had done an amazing job with the photos of Garth and she’d worked on the best six and tweaked them before sending them off to the boss.
‘I think we’ve got a winner of a campaign coming together here.’ She turned to the other side of the desk where Garth had been working behind her but the chair was empty. She’d been so focused on her work, she hadn’t even heard him refill her coffee mug; every time she’d picked it up, her cup had been full and piping hot. She pushed the chair back carefully, aware of scratching the polished timber floor but the chair slid back without any noise. Like everything else she had seen in his house, it had been well thought out and the best quality.
Her breath caught as she looked around the room. Garth was on his back on the burgundy chesterfield beneath the window, one arm flung behind his head. His eyes were closed and his chest rose and fell gently as he breathed. Lucy walked over and stood above him; he was fast asleep. His hair, in need of a trim, curled softly over the neck of his T-shirt, His long dark lashes rested on his tanned cheeks and his lips were soft and relaxed and her fingers itched to smooth his hair from his forehead.
Loving Lucy: A Prickle Farm Romance Page 7