Twelve
‘I really stuffed that up, didn’t I?’ Mia watched the Riggs brothers scatter from the table. They were all big men, all blessed with good looks, but the older brothers seemed harder. ‘I’ve never cleared a room so fast.’ So much for making a good impression.
‘Not your fault. You weren’t to know.’ Cap sighed, scrubbing at his face.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Why?’ The denim of his jeans tightened around his impressive thighs as he leaned back in his chair.
‘Your brothers must think I’m an idiot.’ She gulped down her beer, the fizzy buzz affecting her brain already. ‘Technically they—you—will be my boss.’
‘Stop. Please.’ His large hand was so tender on her shoulder. ‘I prefer partner in the work we’re doing. I train the pack to be part of a team, and I’m like that with my brothers, and what we do at this station is a team effort. The good news is, we have Dex looking at the grading, which is a great start.’
‘You never mentioned the nursery to your brothers.’ He’d only mentioned the kennels.
‘I, um…’ He gazed up at the corrugated roof with its exposed beams, as if to articulate his thoughts, giving her a clear profile of his masculine face.
He then dropped his head, his eyes dark and clear and so intense, they landed on hers as if to hold them for ransom. She couldn’t look away. Not when his voice dropped an octave. ‘I hadn’t been able to work out the details until you came along.’
Dayummm.
This was a guy who’d already said he wanted her for her brains, her skills, and somehow he knew how to fuel her passion for her work, allowing her free rein to build a native plant nursery her way. But he was also unearthing another inner passion she’d thought she’d long buried.
When most people watched you, they rarely gave you their undivided attention. Normally she’d slide under their radar like an unseen garden gnome. But this was something entirely different.
She tugged at the collar of her shirt, clearing her tight throat. ‘Do you think we can talk Bree into welding up those planting tables in the nursery?’ Her voice was way too high.
‘I can do it, once we’ve finished repairing the drafting yards.’ He sat back in his chair, stretching his muscular legs out before him to cross them at the ankles, with his arms crossing over his powerful chest and his wide-brimmed stockman’s hat shading his eyes. He was a gloriously handsome man beneath all that denim and dust.
Mia sat forward, plucking at the label of her beer bottle to keep her eyes off him. She shouldn’t find anyone attractive, not after what she’d been through. It had to be the beer amplifying her thoughts.
Yet, Cap had inspired such trust in her so quickly. And the more time she spent with him, especially one on one, like they’d done these past few days, the more attached she got. If she was smart, she would be protecting herself before these feelings got any stronger.
Besides, Cap only looked at her like some wounded animal that was helpless and beyond repair. Which, for some parts of her, was true. ‘But Bree—'
‘Doesn’t work for us. So, having Bree help us with the mustering is rare. I won’t take advantage of her generosity.’ He stood and stretched towards the roof.
From her seated position she watched as his shirt came untucked from his jeans, exposing his belly, which rippled with muscle upon muscle. He had veiny forearms to hint at the muscles, but nothing like what she’d seen of those smooth ridges and deep shading of his abs. Just that one small peek had her mouth watering.
This was not happening!
Cap pulled down a large cylinder that was tucked into the exposed beams of the verandah’s roof. He opened the end of the cylinder and produced a roll of large photographic images. ‘I wanted to show you these.’
‘How did you get satellite images?’ She helped him unroll them across the table, using the tin filled with beer caps, empty beer bottles, and coffee cups to hold them in place.
‘Harper got them to help our case against this new mining site trying to claim our water.’
‘Really?’
Cap nodded with a scowl. It didn’t last long as his focus returned to the large satellite images. ‘These give us a picture of the station’s history for the last fifteen years. You can see where the water gathers in the wet season, and where pockets have eroded away, including the stock patterns.’ He pointed to areas of the map, and the ages showing the changes over one-and-a-half decades.
‘This is brilliant stuff. You have lots of natural waterways, billabongs… This is all yours?’
Cap nodded, the smile barely curved on his lips, but the pride shone in his eyes. ‘You should see it from Ryder’s chopper, or the videos Ash has from his drone.’
‘You said you’re collecting the data.’
‘Ash is learning to take water samples, too. He’s creating some tech for the water troughs to give daily readings of rainfall and water quality, all at the touch of a button. Hopefully reducing the need to clean troughs all the time, so no wasting water or using fuel and manpower to check on them. At the moment we’re using Charlie’s idea for algae control—dropping a copper penny in each trough. It’s simple, works a treat, while still keeping us on the organic list for livestock.’
‘I can help with that.’
His lips curved, crinkling the sides of his mouth, but again that smile shone in his eyes. It was a struggle to ignore her foolish feelings for this guy when he looked at her like she was the answer to all his prayers. ‘You can?’
‘I’d take daily water and soil samples as part of my job in the mines.’ Call her crazy, but she wanted to help Cap realise his dream. The guy had been her hero, bringing her out here, but also giving her a job she loved. And she was great at her job—if she focused! ‘Can you get a water and soil sampling kit from the hardware store?’
‘Any preferences?’
She reached for Post-it notes sitting beside the coffeemaker, and a pen that sat among assorted office supplies resting beneath a whiteboard listing out jobs for the station.
She scribbled down the water testing kit details. ‘I know they have this brand in town. It’ll be perfect for you guys, easy to read, but it’ll show you the minerals while also detecting any contaminants in the soil and water to keep your livestock safe.’
‘Brilliant.’ He took the paper, their fingers barely brushing, but it was enough to send a spark up to her elbow.
Come on, focus on the job, not on the boss wearing that sexy smile. ‘Where is Ash putting his data?’
He read the note, then pinned it to the whiteboard under a magnet. With a marker he wrote: Harper, can you please collect from the hardware store? Then he drew an arrow, and a circle around the Post-it note. ‘On a spreadsheet, I think.’
‘Well, if you were to lend me your laptop, I’ll give you a copy of the template I used for my mine samples.’
‘You don’t have a laptop?’
She dropped her head, the foolishness of her situation prickling heat along the back of her neck. ‘I did.’ Now, all she had was a phone she couldn’t use, as they were out of range, and her purse stashed in her workbag. What happened to her independence? Her wardrobe? ‘I’m in the market for a new one.’
‘Use mine. I don’t like computers.’
Which made sense when he drove a vintage truck. ‘Can you use a computer?’
‘A bit. I only use it for research.’
‘Not to watch any movies or social media?’
He shook his head.
‘Do you do anything for fun?’
‘Training my dogs is fun.’
The muster dogs were spread out across the strip of grey lawn, always keeping Cap in their line of sight, ready to eagerly follow him with their wagging tails and wide doggy smiles.
‘Aren’t your dogs meant for work?’
‘No. I mean, yeah…’ Again, he reached for the roof beams, this time to stretch his spine, exposing his stomach muscles fully. His biceps stretched the material of his shirt to its limit; they were big enough to suit some Hollywood heart-throb.
Hot. Dayum.
Cap wasn’t doing it to show off. He didn’t seem to realise how magnificently beautiful he was to look at with that raw silent masculine energy underneath. Bree was right, his silence was a strength, a lot more than she realised.
‘My work doesn’t feel like work.’ His deep brown eyes had tiny flecks of amber that reflected the yard’s sunshine as he watched his dogs. His smile flickered, so slight, but it only softened as did his stance where he hooked his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans. ‘You should see their smiles when the muster dogs are working. To them it’s playtime, and that’s enough for me that they get to live and enjoy another day doing what they love.’
Her heart flipped and literally rolled over like a dog in play at the obvious joy he got from rescuing those animals.
‘So there’s nothing else you’re, um, passionate about?’ She licked her dry lips, his eyes tracking her tongue’s movement. ‘Or are you all about work?’
He again turned his attention back to the dogs. ‘I get passionate about new projects, like doing the dog trials and getting your native nursery off the ground. What about you? Don’t tell me it’s just gardening.’
‘No, I have a hobby.’
‘Is it quilt making?’
She screwed her nose up. ‘No.’
‘My mother knits and one of my sisters is into scrapbooking. Her birthday cards are like works of art. Some are so good she’ll ask me to send them back to her.’ He laughed. The sound was glorious, rich, rolling and full. ‘You said your mother does show dogs as her hobby. So, what’s yours.’
She shared a half shrug. ‘It’s weird.’
‘The way I live and talk to my dogs more than humans, people would call me weird.’ He leaned in so close they were sharing the same air. ‘I know I’m weird, especially to women.’
‘No, you’re not.’
He shook his head as if unconvinced, and started clearing the empty beer bottles off the table.
‘I think it’s incredible what you do, not weird.’ Cap was amazing, and her feelings for him were starting to get far too complicated to control. ‘I make mosaics from bottle caps.’
‘You what?’ Cap arched an eyebrow at her as the glass beer bottles clinked inside the empty beer box.
Mia reached for the large coffee tin that sat in the middle of the table, filled with beer bottle caps. ‘I’m always collecting discarded bottle caps on mining sites, clearing up the rubbish. Whenever I’d see one, I’d tuck it into my pocket to toss into the bin later. Except I’d forget, and I’d empty my pockets out when I did my laundry and find them.’ She grabbed a handful of bottle caps and let them fall like water from her fingers to tinkle like coins spilling inside a treasure chest. ‘I had so many of them collecting in this old tin bucket by the washing machine, that I began making things with them. I did this cool owl for Mum for Mother’s Day. And I was working on a…’
‘On?’
Plonking back into her chair at the table, she turned a single beer cap in her fingers like a coin. ‘I was working on these sunflowers made from broken pallets. They would’ve suited Bree’s garden beds as planting stakes.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want us to collect your gear?’
‘No.’ She rolled the crimped edged metal cap across her palm, it reminded her of the circular rowel found on the end of the cattle spurs Charlie wore on his boots. ‘I’m sure there’s nothing left to collect. Gavin would’ve burnt it or dumped it by now. He doesn’t like to keep junk.’
‘It’s not junk, if you turned it into art.’ Cap wore a serious expression, as if processing her or the situation she was in. But he didn’t make fun of her, more like he was trying to understand her, with that deep patience to wait for her to react to him.
Sweet sassy malassy her body reacted to him alright. In unexpected ways, it was burying her sanity along with her common sense. She forced her attention elsewhere.
‘I could make something for Bree, to thank her.’ She looked up to meet his eyes that were so soft, so clear, where the sun-kissed crinkles born from a life in the sun softened across his face. He was the most handsome man she’d ever met, a man who didn’t hide his soft side to animals, children, and to her. He truly was a rare male unicorn.
Her breath stalled as he held her gaze. It was deeper and longer, as if he could truly see beyond her cuts and bruises, beyond her messy hair and dirty nails, through to her soul. No one had ever looked at her like that, where the air felt positively charged around them.
When Sarge let out an enormous bark, she jumped in fright.
‘Sarge? What do you hear?’ Cap jumped to his feet as the large shepherd, bristling with muscles, stood in the fiercest stance she’d ever seen, barking at the driveway.
‘Stay.’ Cap commanded to the cattle dogs spread out over the nearby patch of dried lawn. Without hesitation, they sat obediently, but alert, with their eyes on Cap.
Ash came to the front door, stepping over the baby gate. ‘It’s probably Harper, coming back from work.’
‘Not with that bark.’ Ryder came from around the corner, tapping on his tablet in hand. Mia could feel his sturdy boot steps through the floorboards. ‘The security camera shows it’s someone else.’
‘It’d be handy if there was somewhere we could all see the security screens,’ suggested Cap as he leaned over to Ryder’s tablet.
‘I’ve ordered more screens to come with the extra cameras, to extend Ash’s intranet idea. Once it’s up we’ll be able to tap into our security system with our phones.’ Ryder turned the tablet around. ‘In the meantime, does anyone know this vehicle?’
Mia gasped, her eyes widening at the large black ute on the screen, that was slowly coming around the bend on the dirt track, recognising it. ‘It’s Leo’s ute.’ Her voice was shrill as she stood quickly, knocking over her chair. With legs trembling, she struggled to stand when all she wanted to do was run for her life!