Chapter 11
Troy
“What’s for dinner?”
That came out more growl than anything, and yet nobody moved. My siblings, Scotty, they just stood there, staring.
Waiting.
“I’ll make omelettes then,” I suggested. “Or beans on toast.”
“Troy…”
When I glanced back, Charlie was standing there with a joey clutched tight to her chest, but it wasn’t the animal that caught my attention. That half smile was what stopped me in my tracks.
“Grab pizza from the place in town?” I asked.
“Go to the pub and make sure Mackenzie is alright,” Billy prompted.
With a shake of my head, I made clear my thoughts on that, but my siblings didn’t back down.
“Beau—” Bronson started to say.
“Asked Mackenzie out and she said yes.” God, saying those words was like swallowing a mouthful of hot ashes. They burned all the way down and then sat in my stomach, turning it to acid. “She’s an adult and therefore allowed to make her own decisions.”
“Troy…”
Why did they keep saying my name like that? The weight of their collective gaze, I could almost feel it physically. My jaw tightened, my teeth grinding together. Expectations, everyone always had expectations.
And I was forced to live up to every single one of them.
“Don’t worry about dinner for me,” I said, striding over to the front door where my jacket was hanging on its hook. Shoving my arms into the sleeves, I then dragged out the car keys before tossing them in my hand. “I’ll grab something at the pub.”
“I wanna go too,” Billy said, grinning at Bronson. “If only to watch Troy beat the shit out of that smarmy prick.”
“No beating the shit out of anyone.” Charlie shot me a meaningful look. “Not after last time.”
Last time I was in my early twenties and had only just buried my mother after a long, horrible illness.
Last time I saw red, rearranging Beau’s face so that even now, his nose was set a little crooked.
Because last time, I’d come home to discover my sister standing there, her face milk pale except for a red palm mark across one cheek.
They had been dating, and while he wasn’t who I’d choose for Charlie, I accepted that she knew her own heart.
Of course, when my sister found out that their relationship wasn’t as exclusive as Beau had made out, she hadn’t taken it well.
The argument between them got heated, and the fucker thought he’d end it by slapping her across the face.
Our Charlie popped him right in the jaw, then kneed him in the nuts for good measure.
But it wasn’t enough for me.
I’d found Beau in the pub, joking and talking himself up, so I made sure everyone knew the truth.
Taking it outside was the next logical step.
Some part of him wanted to take me on. He was like one of those little yappy dogs, always posturing to seem bigger, but I hadn’t bothered with countering a single shitty thing he had to say.
Just stepped up to the prick and started beating his arse for having the temerity of thinking he’d lay a hand on a woman.
And I’d do the same thing tonight, if I had to.
“If Beau doesn’t step out of line, I won’t have to kick his arse,” I replied, walking out of the house.
“Troy…” Vance had come out from behind the bar the moment I walked into the pub, intercepting me before I got to the bar. “If there’s gonna be any trouble tonight, you need to take it outside.”
“Don’t anticipate there being any trouble,” I replied, heading over to the bar.
Leaning on the wooden surface, I looked over to see Beau was in full flight. His back was to me, but I heard it all.
“We own the biggest horse stud in the whole of Victoria,” he told her.
“The last few Melbourne cup winners all came from lines we bred.” God, the man had all the self-awareness of a cow pat.
Couldn’t he see the way Mackenzie’s eyes were glazing over?
Did she even know what the Melbourne cup was?
There was no way for her to ask, because he kept on monologuing.
“We import Arabians from the peninsula ourselves, as well as American thoroughbred lines from Kentucky. You would have heard of Ashford Stud?”
“Kentucky is in a whole other part of the US,” she said, but the words didn’t register.
“Quarantine is a bitch and expensive as hell. The horses have to do fourteen days of pre-quarantine and then another fourteen days of post-quarantine…”
And she didn’t give a shit. I straightened up, peering over Beau’s shoulders and then winked when I caught her eyes.
There it was. That shine I saw this morning as we came over the crest of the hill.
It was like the life flowed back into her, forcing her lips to twitch, wanting to smile right back at me.
As she thinned them back down again, she nodded dutifully, making a show of listening to Beau.
“Your beer.”
Vance pushed a glass brimming with amber liquid my way and the old prick’s smirk made clear he knew exactly what was going on.
“Thanks, Vance.” Apparently that was what it took to shut Beau up. He turned around slowly, looking shocked to see me for just a moment, before replacing that expression with a shit-eating grin. “If you could put in an order for—”
“A parma with vegetables, no chips?” he said and I nodded. “You gonna stay and eat it this time?”
“Nothing in this world could stop me from eating one of your delicious parmas,” I replied.
“C’mon, Mackenzie.” My teeth were back grinding against each other when Beau’s arm went to go around the girl’s shoulders. My smile faded as I watched his hand rise in slow motion, ready to land on the bare skin of Mackenzie’s shoulder. “Let’s go somewhere more private.”
But she side-stepped Beau, evading his grasp and then picking up her Coke and holding it close to her chest, as if that was enough to ward him off. That had my grin returning with a vengeance.
“A table over here?” she said, making for one of the empty ones.
“I was thinking a booth…”
Turning on my stool, I watched her ignore his suggestion, going to pull out her own chair, only for Beau to rally fast. They both gripped the back of the chair, then he got control of it before pulling it out.
When she sat down, when he tucked it under her, his hands on the back, all the fun went out of me.
I wanted to tell myself it was because I didn’t want any woman within ten feet of Beau fucking Argyle, but that wasn’t what I was thinking.
Cursed to see everything all too clearly, I imagined being the one standing behind Mackenzie.
Did Beau smell that faint floral scent of hers?
Did his mouth water, wondering if she tasted like flowers too?
That was enough to have me turning around to find Vance watching me, patently amused.
“Not a word,” I growled.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He held up his hands to ward my frown off, then grabbed a couple of plates before walking out from behind the bar to deliver their meals.
Beau didn’t stop talking the entire time.
Watching Mackenzie try to interject, only to get spoken over, fucking killed me.
Why the hell didn’t he just shut up for a second and let her talk?
That soft voice, the cute accent, the memory of her getting excited by the emus this morning filled my ears, drowning out all else.
“Your meal.” I spun around, blinking in incomprehension as Vance placed a plate before me. “Knife and forks are there.” He nodded to the jar stuffed with cutlery on the bar. “And if it helps, I don’t think the girl is having much fun. Never known a man to talk so much about himself as that Beau.”
But it didn’t. While the thought of Mackenzie getting emotionally involved with Beau damn near killed me, some part of me couldn’t take pleasure in her discomfort.
“Not sure why,” I grumbled, starting to cut into my meal. “I bet Mackenzie doesn’t give a shit about how many fast horses he and his dad bred. She had a whole life…”
As I glanced back over my shoulder, I watched her sit back in her chair, food untouched. That small frown had her words coming back to me.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” Too late, I thought, studying Mackenzie’s every expression, trying to guess at what she was thinking. “I know something about bad guys.”
What did that mean? I was kicking myself now for overlooking that little titbit of information.
Too focussed on trying to get her to do what I wanted.
That had me flushing with shame. It took a sheer act of will to cut a piece of meat off, but when I started chewing, it tasted like dust in my mouth.
“She’s a pretty girl,” Vance prompted, smiling when I shot him a dark look. “Too good for the likes of Beau Argyle." I kept on cutting, chewing, hoping the old man would take a hint, but he didn’t. “Something she seems to have worked out.”
His look over my shoulder, his eyes travelling towards the door, had me dropping my cutlery with a clatter.
The remains of my beer was drunk down, then I dropped a couple of bills big enough to cover several meals on the bar, because if Mackenzie was leaving, so was I.
Beau, alone, in the car park with the girl.
That was not gonna happen, not while I still drew breath.
Shoving the side door open, I stumbled out into the carpark, just in time to catch him leaning over Mackenzie.
“So I had a nice time…”
No, she didn’t. Working on the farm, you learned to take notice of all the small things.
Wilting crops told me the irrigation wasn’t reaching that part of the paddock, or a fungal infection had set in.
All of the sheep raising their heads at once told me wild dogs were out in the forests.
And Mackenzie plastering that curvy body against the side of the car made clear she did not appreciate the attention she was getting.
Which is why I strode over.
Plucking the keys from where she had one pushed out between her fingers, I had the car unlocked and forced the door open, pushing Beau backwards.
“Mackenzie’s going home now,” I announced and didn’t that have the prick’s pretty face screwing up into a petulant frown?
“She didn’t say—”
“Gotta get up early,” she said, sliding into the passenger side seat. “We’re feeding the cattle first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks for dinner, Beau.”
When he went to get closer, somehow needing reassurance that she really meant that, I stepped between them.
“You heard the lady,” I told him. “We need to get to bed.” His brows drew down hard at that. “Early start tomorrow.”
“I’ll call you,” he said, trying to look around me. “I could take you out to a winery or bring you to the stud.”
As I got in the driver’s seat, she let out a long, shuddering sigh.
“Not if I can help it,” she whispered.
A glance her way and her eyes met mine. My eyebrow cocked upwards in question and she shot me a guilty smile. “That was…” Her grin fading had my hands clenching the keys tight, but I shoved them into the ignition and then took off out of the car park, heading towards home. “That was a mistake.”
I allowed myself one last look at Beau, catching him standing with his hands on his hips as he watched us go, but refocussing on Mackenzie was a relief of sorts.
“OK, then tell me about it.” I could feel her staring at me, but my focus remained on the road. Not just because kangaroos could come bounding out with absolutely no warning, potentially totalling the car. If I looked at Mackenzie now, I wouldn’t stop staring, so I drove on. “What’d that man do?”