Chapter 7
Hayden walked alongside the fence line, the creak of taut wire under his gloved hands a comfortingly familiar sound.
And today, after weighing up this damn bet with Gavin for half the bloody night when he should have been sleeping, he needed home comforts.
Beside him, Gavin was shouldering a coil of fencing wire, his usual swagger muted by the quiet rhythm of hard work.
The two of them moved in unison, boots crunching over the gravelly track that lined the south paddock of Sweetwater Acres.
Strong, hulking Jacko – the young gelding Hayden had been working with the last couple of months for an outback cattleman who wanted a reliable mustering horse – watched them with intelligent, alert eyes from the nearby yard.
His ears flicked with curiosity, his dark bay coat shimmering after a recent brush.
In the paddock alongside him, Duchess pranced up and down the rustic timber barrier, clearly trying to woo her neighbour with her striking grace and sassy strut.
Hayden chuckled to himself as he crouched to assess the bottom of a post. Then he glanced at Gavin, wondering when he’d feel it was the right moment to broach the subject that had been weighing heavily on him.
The conversation between them had been light up until now.
The usual things like weather patterns, broken irrigation, a new feed mix they were planning for the horses.
But as he straightened and leant against the post, surveying the wide expanse of land stretching beyond the fences, the weight in his chest, the one he’d been trying to ignore, settled deeper.
And with that irrefutable sensation, he glanced over at Gavin. ‘I’m out.’
Gavin, tightening the fencing wire with his pliers, didn’t look up. ‘Out of what?’
‘The dare, the bet, whatever it is you want to call it.’ Hayden’s voice was quiet but resolute.
That got Gavin’s attention. He dropped the pliers into the metal bucket at his boots with a clang and turned, brows lifting. ‘You serious?’
‘Deadly.’ Hayden met his gaze. ‘I don’t want to be part of something like this. Not with her.’
Gavin folded his arms, expression unreadable. ‘Didn’t think you still cared about dares and bets at our age. I mean, you’re the one who agreed to do it; I didn’t force you, mate.’
Hayden didn’t flinch. ‘Yeah, and I was a bloody idiot for doing it. I don’t even know why I said yes.’ He let out a slow breath, scraping a gloved hand through his already mussed hair. ‘She’s not some challenge, Gav. Not a game. I don’t want her to be diminished to something as shallow as that.’
Gavin’s posture relaxed slightly, and he reached down to retrieve the pliers. ‘I know.’
‘You know?’ Hayden echoed, frowning.
Gavin nodded and crouched beside the post again, fixing the wire in place. ‘That was the point, mate. Me and the wife came up with the plan the day I wagered it.’
‘What bloody plan?’ Hayden’s tone was short, snappy.
Gavin just shrugged as he kept on working.
‘You’ve been walking around like a ghost for four years.
You haven’t let anyone in. Not really. Not since Casey, well, you know …
. He tightened the wire and gave it a sharp pull.
‘Tilly and I figured if I poked the bear a little, got you thinking about someone other than your horses, maybe you’d finally feel something again. ’
Heck, even Tilly was involved – maybe on the sidelines, but involved all the same. Considering this, Hayden was silent for a long moment as he stared out and over the property.
‘We didn’t mean for you to hurt her,’ Gavin added quietly. ‘Or yourself. But come on, man. You’ve been existing, not living.’
Tilly had been Casey’s best friend. Hayden’s jaw clenched. ‘That’s a shitty way to go about it.’
‘Maybe,’ Gavin said, standing again. ‘But hey, sounds like it worked.’
‘Not really, Gav. I still don’t want a relationship with her.’ Hayden rubbed the back of his neck, shame flickering across his face. ‘Brianna’s smart. Kind. Real. I don’t want to be the guy who screws that up because I’m so screwed up.’
‘Then don’t,’ Gavin said simply. ‘No one’s asking you to date her. But what you can’t do is pretend you don’t feel something when you’re around her. I’ve seen it.’
Hayden didn’t argue. Because Gavin was right.
Because he had felt something. Quite a lot, actually.
Especially for the short amount of time he’d known her.
What was it, two weeks? Maybe a little more, a little less.
And every day that passed throughout that fortnight, the feeling only deepened.
Even when he spent five days distancing himself, staying away from her, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her, and how she made him feel when he was around her.
‘I can’t explain it,’ he muttered. ‘It’s like … like something I wasn’t looking for showed up anyway. And now it’s here, and I don’t know what the hell to do with it.’
Gavin’s voice softened. ‘Maybe you don’t have to do anything. Other than be honest. With yourself. With her. That’s a start.’
Hayden gave a humourless chuckle. ‘You know, you’re a real pain in the arse, but you’re not wrong.’
‘Don’t sound too shocked,’ Gavin said with a grin. ‘I’m right about one thing a month, and this was it.’
They stood in silence for a while, the wind rustling the nearby gums, a couple of galahs calling out overhead.
Hayden turned towards Jacko, who ambled over to the gate and gave a low nicker.
The horse had been skittish and defensive when Hayden had first started with him, but now, with consistency and patience, the trust had returned.
It was a reminder that the things worth having never came easily.
Trust had to be earned. Just like with Brianna.
She was a woman he wanted to be friends with.
A woman he needed to care for his horses.
A woman that deserved to be treated respectfully.
‘I need to make this right,’ he said, more to himself than Gavin.
‘You’re not the same man you were when Casey died,’ Gavin said gently. ‘You loved her, sure. But that chapter of your story ended. And it’s okay to want more pages.’
Hayden didn’t answer, but the words settled inside him like stones dropped into still water.
He glanced towards the house. ‘We nearly lost Diesel. That colic scare? Brianna, she dropped everything to help him. She didn’t hesitate. She saved his life.’
‘Yeah,’ Gavin said with a faint smile. ‘That’s her job, mate, to save animals’ lives.’
‘I know, but with her, you can see she does it because she lives for it, not just because it pays well.’ Dropping his head, Hayden squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‘She’s a good woman, Gav, a great woman, she deserves someone who doesn’t carry a ghost into the room with him.’
Gavin stepped closer and clapped a bolstering hand on Hayden’s shoulder. ‘Then don’t, Pierce. Instead, be the man she sees when she looks at you. Not the one who’s still trying to prove he’s broken.’
Hayden nodded slowly. ‘Much easier said than done, my friend.’
‘Yeah, but, when you’re ready …’ Gavin met his gaze with one of a friend who’d seen him at his worst, ‘it won’t be hard, it will feel like a natural step into your present, and the future.’
Hayden let his best mate’s words reach in, past his armour, then he let each one sink deep inside, way down into his soul, and for the first time in a long time he didn’t feel the past chaining him to the ground.
Instead, he felt something else. A gentle pull.
Towards something real. Something that just might be worth stepping into the unknown for.
‘Thanks, Gav. I really appreciate you, mate.’
‘Oh heck, don’t go getting all soppy on me, Pierce.’ Gavin smirked. ‘But know this, you’ll owe me lots of beers if you two end up together one day.’
Hayden raised a brow. ‘That’s not happening.’
‘Yeah, righto,’ Gavin said with a grin. ‘Just like you weren’t going to fall for her in the first place.’
Hayden rolled his eyes but couldn’t suppress the slight smile tugging at his lips. ‘Come on. Let’s get this last line of wire done before the rain rolls in.’
As they walked back towards the fencing supplies in the tray of the work ute, the wind picked up slightly, carrying the earthy scent of the paddocks with it.
Hayden paused for just a moment, turning his face into the breeze, grounding himself in the feel of the place he called his forever home.
Step by step, he needed to let the past go, and live, just like Gavin had said. And he would try.
For himself – but also by himself.
Because he wasn’t ready to love again, not yet.
* * *
Brianna glanced at the address Molly had texted her and double-checked the GPS on her phone. It wasn’t far from the Gum Boot Hotel, nestled behind a dilapidated weatherboard cottage – somewhere she hadn’t expected to make a house call today, let alone one like this.
The message had been vague: Stray cat. In trouble. Think it’s in labour. Can you come? Please bring gear.
Pulling up alongside the pub, she parked beneath a flowering jacaranda and grabbed her kit from the back of the Hilux. Sherlock hopped down beside her, tail wagging with mild curiosity.
Molly met her at the gate of the abandoned house, her expression unusually serious. ‘Thanks for coming so quickly, Bri.’
‘Always. What’s the situation?’
‘The pregnant cat was under the woodpile over there.’ She pointed as she raced towards it.
‘I’ve seen her lurking around town for a week, looked ready to pop, and very skittish.
Today I heard this awful yowling when I was taking the short cut home, down the pathway.
’ She pointed down yonder. ‘She’s lying in the little open-walled shed, just beside the house.
’ Molly motioned down the side of the house.
‘She’s trying, Bri. But something’s wrong. ’