When she came out later, she found a cattle truck backed into the stockyards further across the paddock, and she could make out two men, one on a motorbike with a dog, moving the protesting animals into the yards, while the other stood near the gate ready to close it once the cattle were inside.
The man on the bike must be Mick from up the road, while even from a distance she recognised Jamie standing by the gate. He stood, his forearms resting along the top of the rails of the stockyard, one booted foot propped on the bottom rung as he watched the cattle moving towards him. His hat shaded his face from the morning sun and he looked every inch the rugged country heart-throb.
Erin took her phone from her pocket and ran her thumb across the camera icon and began snapping photos. The dew still clung to the grass and turned spider webs into strands of silver thread. The air was crisp and everything smelled new and clean. The light was spectacular. She zoomed in on the cattle. More clicks sounded as she caught the black and tan kelpie running behind them.
She loved the way the stockyard was a dark shadow in the foreground, as sharp spears of light broke through the clouds, hitting objects with rays of liquid gold. It was a breathtaking display from Mother Nature and it almost made up for the rude awakening she’d received earlier.
Moving the camera across to where Jamie was standing, she zoomed in closer. She loved the camera on her phone; the quality was amazing and the zoom was exceptional. She snapped a few photos of his side profile, admiring the play of shadows across his stubbled chin and the low dip of his hat brim. Then suddenly he turned his head and she was looking deep into two navy blue eyes. Her breath seemed to catch in her lungs, even as she took the photo, but then she quickly lowered the phone and took a step back, feeling more than a little awkward at having been caught photographing him.
Roxy often teased her that she was a frustrated paparazzo. Many times they would be out somewhere and Erin would be snapping photos of everything from their food to their surroundings. When asked why she did it, Erin always said the same thing. ‘They’re memories.’ And they were. There was something special about looking back through her photos and reliving her experiences. They were little mementos of her daily life.
She quickly slipped the phone back into her pocket and turned away. She didn’t want him thinking she had nothing better to do than stand around taking photos of him all day. He’d probably enjoy posing for her too, given half the chance. She frowned slightly; maybe she was being a little unfair. Sure Jamie McBride was a pain in the backside and loved nothing better than to annoy the living hell out of her whenever he had the opportunity, but he did have a few redeeming qualities. He’d loved her grandmother and had always been there to lend a hand when she’d needed him. For that alone, Erin could forgive him almost anything.
He was still far too cocky for his own good, though. She could just imagine the laugh he and Mick were having at her expense.
Later, while washing the previous night’s dishes, she looked out the window to see the cattle truck heading up the driveway towards the house, and she cursed under her breath. She’d hoped they’d just go off and continue doing whatever farmers did all day, so she wouldn’t have to face Jamie again. The truck came to a stop and he swung down out of the cab and headed towards the front steps.
With an irritated sigh, Erin wiped her hands on the tea towel and headed outside to see what he wanted.
‘Erin, this is Mick,’ Jamie said as she stepped out onto the verandah. A large-bellied man in his late forties climbed down from the driver’s side of the cab and headed across. His shaggy beard looked in need of a good trim, and the faded flannelette shirt he wore was dusty and had a rip down one side of the seam.
‘G’day. Nice to meet you.’
‘Hello, Mick.’
She watched as he scratched the back of his head self-consciously.
‘I’ve only known your gran a few years, we not long bought the place down the road,’ he drawled.
Erin was beginning to suspect that maybe the actual name of the property was in fact Down The Road. Why else would everyone keep referring to him as Mick from down the road?
‘Sorry to hear she’s not doing so well,’ he continued. ‘She’s a good woman. Make sure you give us a holler if you need anything.’
The roughly spoken words momentarily clogged her throat. ‘Thank you, Mick,’ she said, conscious of Jamie watching her closely.
‘Jamie said you managed to get this mob off the road all by yourself.’ She waited for the punchline about being in her PJs but, surprisingly, nothing came. ‘Thanks for that.’
Erin refused to meet Jamie’s eyes, but nervously waved off the man’s thanks. ‘Sure. Not a problem.’ Just don’t ever ask me to do it again, she added silently.
‘Well, anyway, better get this mob of troublemakers home. I’m sorry about your yard,’ he said, shaking his head as he looked around at the churned-up grass. ‘I’ll come back this afternoon and fix it.’
‘Oh, no, don’t bother,’ Erin hurried to assure him. ‘I’ve been meaning to prune back the garden anyway, and it’s just grass, it’ll be fine.’
‘I don’t feel right about leaving it like this.’
‘She’ll be right, Mick,’ Jamie said. ‘I was planning on dropping by this week and taking a load of stuff to the tip anyway. I promised Evelyn a few weeks back that I’d do a clean-up.’
‘Well, if you’re sure?’
‘Yeah, no worries,’ Jamie assured him.
They watched as the cattle truck reversed out the drive and turned around. With a final wave Erin went to head back inside the house.
‘You really did do a good job this morning,’ Jamie said to her back.
Erin turned around and pinned him with a sarcastic look.
‘What?’
‘Don’t stand there and act like you weren’t laughing your arse off at me this morning while I chased those stupid cows.’
‘Yeah, well, it was funny.’
‘It was not funny,’ Erin snapped. ‘I was terrified they were going to run right over the top of me.’
‘But they didn’t,’ he said and shrugged. ‘You got them off the road.’
‘No thanks to you!’
‘Hey,’ he said, putting his hands up before him in protest, ‘who am I to step in and fix something that ain’t broke? You had it under control.’
Erin gave a frustrated growl and opened the screen door.
‘I’ll be back this afternoon,’ he called through the door.
‘Whatever!’ she yelled without bothering to turn around.
She went back to the dishes and finally breathed a sigh of relief when she heard his engine start up and saw his ute heading back down the driveway. She ignored the weird little flutter when she checked the clock to see how long it was till afternoon. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact Jamie was supposed to be coming back to fix the garden. Nothing at all.
The conference call went for over an hour, but thankfully without any hiccups, and Erin worked nonstop through lunch. It wasn’t until she heard a noise in the yard that she closed her laptop and went outside to have a look.
She followed the sound around the corner and stopped dead in her tracks. Jamie had just thrown a load of branches into the tray of his four-wheel drive and was pulling his T-shirt over his head, wiping his face with the fabric. With his back to her, he was unaware that she was there, but she knew she couldn’t just stand here and stare at him like this. Move, a little voice inside her head warned, but still she stood there, transfixed by the smooth muscles of his back—not a body builder’s muscles, and not like those in some of the near pornographic images of spray-tanned male models that appeared on her daily Facebook feed, courtesy of Roxy, This was a body muscled by hard work. His thick forearms were tanned, ending in a white T-shirt line which suggested working outside without a top on was not something he did regularly. His waist tapered down into faded denim jeans. They weren’t skin-tight, they were obviously made for working, but they gave a nice view of his backside nonetheless.
Oh, yeah, that pesky little voice breathed, this is why we love country boys. Erin gave a soft snort; the sound alerted Jamie and he turned quickly, catching her watching him. ‘Ah, hi,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘I didn’t realise how late it was.’
‘I figured you were busy.’
‘You really didn’t have to come and do this. I was going to have a day in the yard before I left.’
‘Your gran did ask me to come and cut back some of these bushes a while back. I should have made time before this.’
‘I’m sure Gran knew you were busy. If it bothered her that much she would have called in a yard service.’
‘Yeah, I know, but I feel bad that I didn’t get to it before now.’ He pulled his shirt back on and Erin tried not to acknowledge how disappointed she felt. He leaned across the back of his vehicle and lifted out a small chainsaw.
‘What are you going to do with that?’
‘Prune the hedge.’
Prune with a chainsaw? She glanced nervously at the machine.
‘Stand back,’ he said, moving towards the nearest bush.
‘Just take of a few of the longer—’ The roar of the saw drowned out her words.
‘I can’t hear you,’ he said, shaking his head before running the blade about halfway through the height of the plant and jumping back as it fell to the ground at their feet, then moving on to the next one.
‘What are you doing?’ she shrieked, but Jamie was too busy mutilating the shrub to look. At this rate there wouldn’t be any garden left. Erin tried to get his attention but gave up after a while once she realised it was too noisy for him to hear her. When he finally cut the engine, the quiet almost hurt her ears.
‘There,’ he announced, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his forearm.
‘You sure showed it.’
‘It needed a good trim.’
‘Trim? You call that a trim?’
‘It’ll grow back,’ he said, switching his gaze from her disbelieving expression to the now waist-high hedge.
Erin shook her head in exasperation. Admittedly it was now a hedge instead of a giant row of shaggy bushes, but still . . . did he have to be so brutal about it?
Gran had always been extremely proud of her yard. She loved pottering outside and had done so until only recently. It was clear that it had begun to get away from her, though. She would have hated that, Erin thought sadly.
Jamie began dragging out the bigger branches and heaving them up into the back of his ute. Erin helped by picking up the smaller ones. They worked until the ute was full of the discarded garden cuttings and the lawn was cleared. At least now that the shrubs had been tamed, the yard would get a bit more sun and the constantly spongy ground would have a chance to dry out. Jamie walked around and stomped back the majority of the divots the cattle had churned up in the soft ground. While it wasn’t perfect, it looked a lot better than it had early this morning.
Okay so maybe he was doing the place a favour by cutting it all back so hard, she had to admit. The improvement was pleasantly surprising.
‘Thanks,’ she said as he loaded his chainsaw in the back and prepared to leave.
‘No worries.’
Erin stood there while an awkward silence fell between them.
‘Well, I guess I better get back to work.’
‘Thanks for lending a hand. It made a big difference,’ Jamie said, not making an attempt to leave.
‘Thanks for doing it. You didn’t have to.’
‘It’s for Gran.’
‘She’s lucky to have you and your family as neighbours,’ she said gently, placing her hand on his arm. Gran loved them like her own.
‘How do you keep so positive about it all?’ he asked unexpectedly. ‘She’s fading away in that place. I hate seeing her like that,’ he added, turning away slightly. ‘I half expect her to come out onto the front verandah and call me in for a cuppa. It just doesn’t seem right she isn’t here where she belongs.’
‘I know,’ Erin agreed with a small sigh. The place seemed empty without her. The warmth beneath her hand suddenly reminded her that she was still touching him and she quickly withdrew her hand and dropped her gaze, feeling self-conscious.
When something touched her cheek, she flinched and looked up to find Jamie’s hand lifted to the side of her face. ‘You had a smudge of dirt there,’ he said as their gazes met briefly. He lowered his hand slowly.
‘I better go and do some work,’ she stammered as her insides did the cha-cha-cha. Then she turned away before she could do or say anything stupid. A few minutes later she heard his four-wheel drive start up and drive away. When she realised she’d been staring blankly at the screen for over five minutes, she closed her laptop and went in search of a glass of wine.