Seventeen
Sitting on his bed, as the first sign of sunrise barely breached the escarpment, Ash slid on his jeans, then his boots. He stamped the floor, a lifelong habit to ensure they were on tight, and grabbed his shirt lying over his gamer’s chair. He sniffed at it. Meh, it was clean enough to wear another day.
His computer screen came on with the movement, and he scanned over the emails and messages. He’d been up late last night, watching his kid sleep. His. Kid.
He shifted the mouse and put the PC to sleep. He was lucky if he’d had a few hours’ sleep himself. Of course, he could play all night, and he’d still show up for the job he loved as a stockman, with the hope of sneaking in a nap sometime during the day.
But his brothers were having a meeting with Charlie this morning, to prepare for their first muster as the new owners of Elsie Creek Station. It was enough to create an excited energy to bristle through his veins like the ultimate sugar rush.
Talking about sugar, he opened his desk’s bottom drawer, which was filled with assorted snacks perfect for late-night gaming sessions. He even had a small bar fridge next to his desk, stacked with more snacks and energy drinks. He wanted to make sure he was stocked up for the muster.
He dug through the goodie drawer filled with packets of red liquorice sticks, energy bars, and mints, when his fingers brushed against a red packet. It was shortbread.
He didn’t eat shortbread, but he knew someone who did.
Kicking the drawer shut, he snuck across the hallway into the kitchen, where a coffee cup sat on the table. It was Harper’s, who strangely enjoyed drinking cold black coffee.
He washed her cup out at the sink, dried it, then put it on top of the shortbread packet on the table.
He then grabbed his own mug and poured a hot cup from the coffeepot made earlier, by Ryder no doubt. Ryder rarely slept, but he drank a lot of coffee, then he’d pace the verandah with his heavy boot steps.
But then Ash didn’t sleep much either, playing video games most nights.
He straightened the packet of biscuits, hoping she’d see it when she came into the kitchen.
‘Morning.’ It was Harper, dressed in a summer dress, slipping her hair into a ponytail.
‘Uh…’ Damn, she was pretty. ‘Morning.’
Her pretty brown eyes dropped to the table. He pulled his hands away and stood straighter.
‘Is that shortbread?’ The shine in her eyes was like she’d swallowed the sun as she picked up the biscuit packet. ‘Did you do this?’
He shrugged.
‘Why?’
‘At the supermarket when we were both looking for a miracle cure, you said shortbread was good for the soul.’ He also remembered she’d called shortbread the food of the gods to cure tummy upsets, bad hair days, and break-ups.
‘Why?’ she asked again.
‘Um…’ He felt like an idiot, but the words spilled. ‘I saw it on the shelf when I stocked up for my sugar stash in my desk. And, well, you said last night that you suffered with nightmares, too. And I thought it might help.’ He enjoyed doing these little things for Harper to make her time easier at the station.
Her hand clutched her delicate throat, and her eyes got all glassy. ‘Thank you.’ She may have whispered it, but he felt it hammer deep into his soul. Gratitude on this woman was stunning.
He had to turn away, using the excuse of pouring her a cup of coffee. ‘I bet it tastes better with hot coffee, too?’
‘Thank you.’ She dragged out her chair. ‘Is it wrong to eat one for breakfast?’
He didn’t need to reply. She’d already expertly torn open the package and was offering him some. ‘I bought them for you.’
‘You have a sugar stash. And this is buttery sugar. Take one. I don’t mind sharing.’ But then she wrapped her kissable lips around the butter-coloured biscuit, her eyes closed, and she moaned with pleasure.
It punched straight to his groin. He dropped into the nearest seat, just to watch her eat. The coffee was too hot, but he didn’t care as he took a deep mouthful to stop his mouth watering as she took another bite. She brushed the crumbs from her lips, that he wanted to lick off before crushing her lips with his.
Back off, brother, the lady has boundaries.
‘So, what was your nightmare about?’
Didn’t that kill her joy? Swapping it with a thick layer of sadness.
‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have … I just thought that …’ Ash had no idea what he was doing. Which was unusual, when he always knew what to say to the ladies.
Yet, conversations with Harper were unlike anything he’d come across, that only fuelled his need for more. ‘What you did for me—last night—I don’t feel like such a mongrel for what I’ve been feeling about Mason.’
‘So I made sense?’
He nodded. ‘I may be a lot of things, but I keep a lot of stuff private. Especially from my brothers, who treat me like I’m still the little kid who raced after them back home.’
‘I can keep secrets, too.’ She sipped on her coffee. Then reached for another shortbread, pushing the packet across the table as if to stop the temptation. ‘I don’t know what it’s like growing up with siblings. Must have been nice.’
‘It was chaotic. I used to idolise my oldest brothers, Dex and Ryder. They were like the cool kids at school, and I’d chase after them, wanting to be like them. But now, as adults, the only thing we have in common is the station and that we’re stockmen with a different set of skills.’ He had no idea why he’d confessed that to her.
But the look she gave him wasn’t a snobby, judgy one. It was a look of concern.
Or was he confusing that with care?
‘If you want to share …’ He shrugged. ‘Like that nightmare?’
She sipped on her coffee, her dainty fingers toying with the handle of her mug. ‘It’s the same one … I, um …’ She inhaled heavily.
Ash didn’t move. He wanted to hear this story.
‘I’d survived this car bombing—’
‘Where?’ He sat straighter, leaning towards her, his stomach twisted in worry for her.
‘Belgium. Just before I came out here …’ She looked so frail, so vulnerable, staring at her fingers. ‘My nightmare keeps replaying those final few moments. I hear my heels on the pavement, passing this small store, and through the window I spotted these biscuits on the shelf.’ She tapped the red packet of shortbread. ‘My work colleagues teased me for wasting time when they climbed into the car to wait for me. I told them I’d only be a quick minute, ducking into the store to buy a packet of this shortbread.’ She held up her half-eaten, creamy-coloured biscuit in her slender fingers.
Ash reached over and gently covered her other hand with his. His thumb brushed over the back of her hand, as he gave her a nod to continue.
‘The bell over the shop door tinkles. A guy whizzes past on his pushbike. A motorbike starts. Our work car’s back door is open, my work colleague scoots across the seat to give me room to climb inside. And then …’ Her voice dropped as her bottom lip trembled. He squeezed her hand to help soothe her. ‘The driver turns the key, and there’s this click, and it’s like time stops …’
Her voice became a whisper, ‘I feel this invisible wave of power hitting me, it lifts me out of my shoes from the blast. I never heard the explosion, just this ringing in my ears. But then the wind slams me against the shop’s wall as dust and glass rains down on me … And that’s when I wake up.’ She bit on the biscuit, staring at her cup of black coffee, thoughtfully chewing.
‘Were you hurt?’
‘Concussion, stitches, and this ugly bald patch…’ She tapped the back of her head. ‘I don’t know if it’s PTSD, or shell shock, but ever since I woke up in the hospital, the nightmares began.’
‘Do you get them every night?’
She peered past him to the open kitchen screen door with a view of the soft, shell-pink skyline, announcing sunrise. ‘Coming out here, they slowed down. Time, right? Heals all wounds.’
‘You would mention time, being a clock-watcher.’ He winked at her and was rewarded with a soft smile, the heavy mood lifting. ‘Talking about time, have you got a minute? I’d really like to run something past you.’
‘About what?’
‘This way.’ He led her to his bedroom, then thought twice about it. His crap was everywhere. ‘Excuse the mess.’ Shifting one pile of clothes to the other.
She giggled, and it was such a sweet sound. ‘Maid’s day off, huh?’
‘We hired a nanny, hoping she’d do that.’
‘This nanny would willingly chip in to pay for a maid. Cleaning is so brutal.’ She held up her small hands, bleached clean. ‘Wow, is this your sugar stash?’
Ash must have kicked the drawer too hard because it stood open. ‘I play games late.’
‘I had one too.’
‘For what?’
‘Work. Chasing deadlines, sometimes we couldn’t go home. This is impressive. Oh, I love those.’ She pulled out the caramel chews.
She had a taste for such old things, like shortbread and caramels, dressing in a timeless wardrobe, but one of quality, that made her look polished but pretty, too.
‘Help yourself, any time.’
‘No. Shortbread is enough.’ She pushed the drawer shut. ‘What do you want to ask me?’
‘You know I play games?’
‘I can see that.’ She tapped on his gamer’s chair.
‘I want to gamify the station somehow.’
She arched her eyebrows at him.
‘The reason I’m talking to you is I need a sounding board over this idea, and if you’ve been to Belgium, you know what goes on out there in the world. My brothers, they’re…’
‘Set in their ways?’
He nodded. ‘Ryder wants to put in security cameras, and I was thinking about using those security cameras for the cattle.’
‘Sounds fair.’
‘But I want to create an in-house system accessing each paddock using those cameras.’
‘You want to create an intranet?’
‘We don’t get internet access past the homestead.’
‘No, in- tra -net. It’s a private network companies use to securely share in-house data. I don’t know how much information you’d need to store for a cattle station, but I know government departments have been effectively using intranets for decades.’
‘So you’ve used intranets before?’
She nodded. ‘If you want to gamify the station, having an intranet would allow for in-house wi-fi access to your cameras, making it a smart investment in the right direction.’ She tapped his gaming chair. ‘I’ve seen security teams watch large buildings all from their air-conditioned offices. To lock and unlock doors—’
‘Like paddock gates?’
‘To adjust the temperature in rooms.’
‘Like adjusting water heights in water troughs, so I don’t need to check on them all the time, especially if we’re getting more cattle.’
She squinted up at him with a coy grin, but the shine, that spark was playful. It was a good look on her. ‘You really hate that job, don’t you?’
‘Do you even know what that job is?’ He smirked at her.
She shook her head, where her grin grew into cheeky smile. It was adorable. It had to be in the top ten of her file of smiles.
‘Thank you for your opinion, and for giving me a good idea of what I’m looking for.’ And for smiling at him. What else could he do to get her to smile?
‘I’m not a tech genius. I wouldn’t know where you’d start setting up something like that, but I know how to use them.’
‘I do. I enjoy playing with tech, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since Ryder wanted to put in cameras. There has to be a way we can use them for the station, to cut down on the need for burning fossil fuels to do the simple task of checking troughs. I’d estimate it’d save us thousands on diesel costs, wear and tear on the vehicles, and saving time—’
‘I’m all for processes that save time on things.’
‘Well, I’m hoping to use that time for other things.’
‘Your drone would play a big part in that, too.’
‘Exactly.’ He nodded, relieved someone else could see it.
They shared a smile for a long beat, but she turned away and looked over his computer desk and its silent screens. It gave him a chance to admire her dainty profile, her delicate chin, slender jaw, and slightly upturned nose. Her ivory skin was so soft, he wanted to gently brush his knuckles over her cheek, to sweep his thumb over those plump lips.
Then the small boy stirred next door.
‘Mason’s awake.’
He peered at the wall that separated them from the child.
‘Do you want to get your son?’
Ash shook his head. ‘I have a meeting with my brothers. We’re planning a muster this morning.’ He was keen to see how he could gamify the station, and to prove to his brothers that his ideas would be a valuable contribution.
Yet he felt guilty for not going to see Mason, especially after last night.
‘Hey, that’s why I’m here.’ She paused, catching the doorjamb on her way out into the corridor. ‘Thanks for the shortbread, Ash, and for not flirting with me.’
‘Boundaries, right?’
‘Boundaries.’
Yeah, well, right now, those boundaries of hers were beginning to suck.