Stockman’s Showdown (The Stockmen #4)

Forty-eight

Ryder had told Bree he loved her.

If she was honest with herself, she knew he’d felt that way about her for a while now—she just hadn’t let him say it. And she’d never wanted to hear it.

Yet…

It was enough to fill her with heavenly sweet, feel-good giddiness as she sipped her tea at the kitchen sink, glancing over the brimming vegetable garden.

Normally on a Sunday morning she’d prepare a roast, ensuring they had enough leftovers to carry them over for a few days. But with her grandfather accepting Ryder, the guy had earned his seat at the table, so she’d have to double up on everything.

Grabbing her basket and snips to harvest from her garden, like she did most mornings, she spotted Charlie through the kitchen window, at the far end of their yard. It’s where he stood in the same place, every morning, leaning against the fence to raise his tin mug to salute the sunrise as if to say, I made it another day.

It was Charlie’s favourite spot to watch the sunrise spread its large sunbeams over the lush green fields of Drover’s Rest, that stretched to meet the Scary Forest where birds fluttered in clusters above the treetops, under the shadow of the mighty escarpment known as Cattleman’s Keep.

With the murder solved, Leo gone, life could go back to normal, and Elsie Creek Station could get back to being a cattle station again.

Then Charlie collapsed to the ground.

‘ Pop ?’ She dropped her teacup in the sink with a splash. The screen door whacked against the house as her bare feet slapped against the cold flat stones that made up the path.

‘Pop?’ She rolled him over. ‘What’s wrong?’

His breath was raspy, his face red as he struggled for air.

‘Take a breath, Pop, a slow one.’ She loosened his shirt’s collar. ‘It’s just the stress of the past few days, and the late nights, Pop. We’ll get you in the house and back into bed. I’ll put your favourite movies on and—’

‘Hey…’ He grabbed her hand, his face twisted in pain. ‘It’s time.’

‘No. Keep fighting this.’

‘My beautiful Bea is waiting for me.’

‘No. Don’t leave me.’ He was supposed to outlive her. All of them were.

‘It’s time, kid…’ His voice dropped, his breathing laboured, with his left hand squeezed into a fist, as the beats of his heart beneath her hand grew slower, and more erratic.

‘Pop, I can—’ He had a no-resuscitation order in place. As much as she wanted to, he’d been adamant about it, leaving her powerless to do anything.

‘Lift me up, kid. I wanna see that sunrise one more time.’

Oh hellfire, no!

Even though she didn’t want to, she’d always done as he’d asked.

She sat close, propping him up to her chest. He was so heavy. ‘How’s that?’

‘Good. Really good.’ Charlie sighed, but it barely made his chest move, his breaths were getting fainter as she held him against her, as he watched the sun barely breach the horizon to warm his skin. ‘You did good, kid. Don’t ever forget that I’m proud of you…’ His frail hand brushed her cheek, his dulling grey eyes full of love and admiration. ‘I love you, kid.’

She cupped her mouth to stop blubbering, with the thick hot tears against her cheeks.

‘Say it back, kid. Come on.’

‘I love you too, Pop.’

He nodded, satisfied, then slumped against her chest, lying on the stone path, in the garden he’d built with his wife, on the edge of the stock school he’d created, on the land he loved. His body became heavier, his eyes became still on the soft blue summer sky as his last breath left his chest in a whisper on an outback sunrise, and the world became silent.