Forty-seven
Ash couldn’t sleep. Instead, he sat watching Mason sleep in his cot, with Ruby snuggled in her soft dog bed nearby.
All day yesterday, Mason had looked for Harper. His room had her scent, there were still some items that belonged to her in the bathroom, her bedroom, even in Mason’s room, that Ash kept expecting her to walk through the door any second.
Yet she’d hurt him in the deepest way possible.
It was a stark reminder why he never got close to any female. It’s why he kept that two-week shelf-life on dating—if they made it that long. He did it for the carefree lifestyle, his lack of commitment, skipping on the responsibility. The two-week dating rule was supposed to protect him so he could avoid all the pain and drama of being in a relationship. Harper was a prime example of why he had a two-week rule, when she’d been here eighteen days.
And the thought of Harper potentially stealing his son had him grinding his teeth.
His. Son. Mason Riggs deserved to be here, because this was his home. The work Ash was doing wasn’t for himself anymore. This was a legacy he would pass down to his son.
Filled with fiery annoyance, he stormed out the front door, in dire need of fresh air to calm down. Harper had betrayed him. Leaving his heart to ache as if she’d smashed it with a branding iron, it struggled to work.
Why didn’t she tell him who she was from the beginning? If Harper had said who she was then, even at the supermarket, he probably would have gladly handed the kid over—like hell he’d do that now.
At the outdoor table, he spotted the new coffee machine, complete with cups and sugar, set below the whiteboard. He rolled up his sleeves and made a pot of coffee. As the caffeine aroma filled the air, he dragged out the papers and started scribbling on the new whiteboard. He had to focus on something other than Harper. He wanted to forget she ever existed, and the best way to do that that was by tackling the mother of all problems—the issue of saving his home.
???
It was hours later when the kitchen screen door creaked, and Ryder’s heavy boots thundered down the side verandah. ‘Morning.’
‘Ryder.’ Ash sipped his coffee, his eyes on the whiteboard. ‘Coffee’s hot.’
Ryder poured himself a cup. ‘That’s the first time you’ve made coffee in the morning.’
Ash winced, rubbing the back of his neck. He’d been an idiot, not only with his slack work ethic, but to Ryder personally. The man who had made their dream of owning a station a reality. ‘Well, it won’t be the last.’ He had a lot to make up for.
‘What’s this?’ Ryder nodded at the whiteboard covered in text and diagrams.
‘I’ll wait for Dex and Cap, to explain it all at once.’ He pointed to Dex coming from the sheds.
Dex jumped up onto the porch, poured his coffee and took a long deep sip. ‘Man, that’s your best brew yet, Ryder.’
‘I didn’t make it. Ash did.’
Dex arched an eyebrow at Ash. ‘Do you need to borrow your son’s night nappies to not wet the bed in the future?’
‘Did I hear right? Ash made the coffee?’ Cap, with his entourage of dogs, casually strolled around the corner.
‘It’s good, too.’ Dex even raised his cup in a salute to Ash, before taking his seat at the table.
‘What’s going on?’ Cap, with coffee in hand, sat beside Dex. His dogs lay across the dried lawn as the sky became a soft salmon pink, where a faint yellow glow grew on the distant horizon. A flock of white cockatoos screeched, and the fresh aroma of outback air carried on the breeze.
Ryder leaned back in his chair at the head of the table. ‘Ash has something to say.’
Ash stood at the other end of the table and faced his brothers. ‘First, I want to say I’m sorry. I wasn’t pulling my weight, I was being slack, and unfocused. But after nearly losing my son …’ he said, patting at his constricted chest, ‘… the fear of Mason being taken away from us, our home—’
‘It hit home at what we’re doing?’ suggested Dex, without any malice.
Ash nodded. ‘I wasn’t committing myself to anyone or anything. I was being irresponsible because it was just me, and if I got into trouble, I didn’t care. But that all changed.’ In the biggest wake-up call of his life. ‘I want to change, not just for you or me, but for my son’s sake. It’s time I put family first and stopped being so selfish.’ It was time for Ash to grow up.
‘So, this is my wish list.’ He pointed to the whiteboard. ‘This is what I know I can do, that will save us time and money. I suggest we start by modernising some of our processes, using precision agriculture technologies, involving the use of drones, sensors, and GPS systems. I know these technologies, I’ve used them extensively, and have seen firsthand how they can optimise our crop management, effectively monitor our livestock, and enhance the station’s overall efficiency, including cutting down on our fuel costs and saving us precious time.’
‘Who are you, and what have you done with our baby brother?’ Dex grinned.
‘Don’t listen to him, keep going,’ urged Cap.
‘I know I’ve said this before, but I’ve never explained it properly …’ Ash paused for a beat, to gulp on his coffee. ‘I want to build an automated system for watering our livestock, ensuring a more efficient use of our water resources in a way that those mining pricks can’t point at us for any environmental issues.’
‘How do we do that?’ Cap asked.
Ash dragged out a map of the station, along with the diagrams he’d been working on all night. ‘We’d use sensors for not only the water levels, but also water quality, all remotely controlled. Without wasting a single drop, we can repurpose the water I normally flush from those troughs into our new paddock to become crop feed or—’
‘Wildlife corridor.’ Cap held up his arm.
‘Anything is possible. With my tech background, and Cap’s knowledge of renewable energy, and Dex’s mechanical skills, we could create our own solar farm, to provide plenty of sustainable power for this station. It would slash our operational costs—’
‘Giving us higher profits.’ Dex nodded. After all, Dex and Ryder were the money men.
‘As for the security cameras, I’d like to create an intranet.’ His heart squeezed at the thought of Harper, who’d been there as his sounding board listening to his ideas. ‘We can use them to monitor our watering points, the stock, so if there are any health issues, we can send out the drone for a closer look.’
‘Or just get in the ute and drive out there,’ said Dex.
‘Or use my dogs to move them,’ said Cap.
‘All of it, or we can create self-mustering gates to do it all for us,’ said Ash. ‘There are only four of us. We each have certain specialised skills and experience, we just don’t have the manpower or enough hours in the day to do everything. But with these things,’ Ash said, tapping on the board, ‘we can make it manageable by using technology to our advantage. And that,’ he said, dragging out the letter from the government, ‘answers points three, four, and five, regarding the environmental impact we’d have on our water on this station.’
That made all his brothers sit back to think long and hard over what he’d said. Ash waited impatiently, hoping he had shown them he was determined to save his home for his family.
‘I may only have one drone, but I know how to use those sensors, and I’ve built solar plants for other stations. I can do that here.’
‘I know you can,’ said Ryder. ‘I’ve just been waiting on—’
‘My list.’ Ash held out his shopping list. ‘This is what I estimate we’ll need as our first investment in the troughs, as a test to show you guys how it’s done. And I’m sure once you see how it works, you’ll want to expand this to our next paddock.’
‘So one paddock at a time, is that what you’re saying?’ asked Cap.
‘Yeah, we’ll start small. Isn’t that what you said, Ryder?’
Ryder nodded as he read over the wish list. ‘Do you want to test out all of your ideas in the one paddock?’
‘That’s a great idea.’ Cap sat on the edge of his seat, leaning his forearms on the table. ‘We should all pick our own paddock to run our own experiments. I’m sure we all have our own ideas, and now we can test our own theories. That way we can see what works and what doesn’t, to then expand across the station as our herd grows.’
‘I’d second that.’ Ash nodded as he tapped on the top edge of the shopping list. ‘I can scrounge a lot of stuff from what’s in the sheds to make a start today. But this is a list of items we can’t cut back on to make it effective.’ He then dropped into his seat and picked up his coffee. ‘Questions?’
‘brEE! Bree-Bree .’ Mason pounded on the screen door.
When did the boy wake up?
In her leather apron and gloves, her skullcap barely containing her red curls, Bree waved from the yard as she carried over a shopping bag.
‘Here, go say hi to Bree.’ Ash lifted his son over the child safety gate.
Mason’s little legs ran fast to Bree, who scooped him up in her arms for a hug. ‘Morning, little man.’ Bree carried him towards the house. ‘Morning, boys. I’m dropping off these cooking utensils I borrowed for the muster. Is Harper around? I’m doing a trip into town later and I want to see if she’d like to come.’ She placed the bag on the edge of the porch.
‘ Arper? ’ The little boy wriggled as Bree put him on the ground and he climbed up the porch steps. ‘ Arper … ’
‘She’s gone.’ Ash scooped up the boy. ‘I’m sorry, mate, but Harper isn’t coming back.’
‘Oh.’ Bree took a step back. ‘Well, I’d better get to it then.’
‘Did you know?’ Ryder stood from the table and glared at Bree.
‘I know a lot of things, cupcake, but as I haven’t polished my psychic’s crystal ball in a while, how about you tell me what we’re all talking about?’
‘That Harper was Mason’s aunt.’
‘Duh. It was obvious.’ She pointed at the boy. ‘They have the same ears, same chin, and so many other familial similarities. Oh, let me guess, you guys were too busy being so self-centred to notice.’
‘Why didn’t you say anything?’ Cap asked.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Ash frowned at Bree.
‘Because Ryder told me to stay out of your family’s business!’ She glared at the man. ‘Remember that conversation, cupcake?’
Ryder’s jaw ticked as he glared down at Bree. ‘I do.’
‘See, I listen. Even though you had to include me on the muster, I stayed out of the family business, as you requested. So, my job is done, and now I’m leaving.’
‘No, you’re running away,’ said Ryder. ‘And you never run from anything.’
She spun around, her eyes like fire. ‘Because I don’t want to get lumbered babysitting and will not put up with the way you all treated Harper.’
‘We were nice,’ said Cap, offended. ‘Harper and I got on well. She spoiled the police dogs, who adored her. And I trust my dogs—they have a good sense about people.’
‘You were, Cap. But you, Dex, you were the worst. Who was she?’
‘Who are you talking about?’ Dex crossed his arms over his chest.
‘The woman that made you hate all women.’
‘Rack off.’ Dex sneered.
‘And you, Ryder, just blatantly ignored her.’ Bree pointed at Ryder. ‘Not once did you ever hold a conversation with Harper. All of you, shame on you. When she was only here for the boy—’
‘ She was going to steal my son!’ Ash’s voice echoed around the porch, as he protectively held his son to his chest.
‘The view from Mount Stupid must look good from where you lot are sitting.’ Hands on hips, Bree fearlessly faced them all. ‘Did you even bother to ask Harper why she was here in the first place?’
‘Did you?’ demanded Ryder.
‘Why would I? When you told me to stay out of the Riggs brothers’ business—’
‘Okay, okay, you win.’ Ryder ripped off his hat. It was that, or he was going to blow his stack. ‘The next time something involves this family you tell us.’
‘Are you giving me permission? All of you.’ She narrowed her eyes at them. ‘To tell the truth and the whole truth, as much as you’d hate to hear it?’
‘I have nothing to hide, but if it affects us like is does with Harper, heck yeah,’ said Cap.
Dex just gave his death glare, but nodded.
‘You could have told us, Bree,’ Ash said in a calmer tone. ‘You were helping me to plan a date with her.’
‘Where I was giving Harper and you the opportunity to really talk. I know she was trying to talk to you.’
Ash remembered how he kept brushing Harper off. How he had distracted her the last time she’d asked to talk to him.
‘Look, I honestly don’t know the details,’ she said, ‘but I purposefully chose not to ask, because Ryder said it wasn’t my business.’
‘Hmm …’
‘Did you just growl at me, Ryder?’
A vein ticked in Ryder’s temple. Tight-lipped, he continued to glare at the redhead.
‘Pfft. I’m outta here. It’s too early in the morning for this much testosterone.’ Bree turned on her boot heels. ‘It’s not my fault you fell in love with the nanny, Ash.’
‘I did not.’
‘Denial is not a good look on you, snowflake. And don’t forget, Harper is part of Mason’s family. At least you now have a way to find out more about Mason’s mother.’
‘Why don’t you crawl back to that cottage where you belong?’ Dex’s voice was full of fury. ‘We don’t need you preaching to us.’
‘Dex is right,’ said Ash, holding his boy. ‘He’s my son. Not yours. Find your own.’
Bree then did the weirdest thing. She daintily picked up the skirt of her leather apron and gave a proper curtsy as if standing before royalty. ‘Your wish is my command, your lordships.’ She then kissed her middle fingers, flipping them a double bird, then walked away.
‘Why do I have a feeling that’s going to come back to bite us on the arse?’ Ryder pointed to Bree walking away.
‘Bree-Bree?’ Mason held out his hand to her, clearly upset. It was heartbreaking.
‘It’s okay, mate, Bree’s busy. She’s got to go to work.’ There went his idea of a babysitter. But he didn’t need one. ‘Let’s get you some brekkie, mate. Come on, you’re hanging out with me today, we’re going to clean some troughs.’