Luke pulled up and waited as Hayley ran lightly down her front path towards him. His spontaneous decision to look at cattle had come after he’d spent the morning unable to stop thinking about her. He’d been trying not to dwell on the whole fiasco of the other night, yet questions had been swimming around in his head.
Was it possible two people could be caught up in the same delusion? There was the case of the family who’d all been caught up in the paranoid belief their parents were being chased by someone who wanted to kill them. It had made national headlines. So maybe it wasn’t impossible that was what was happening here. Only he hadn’t been aware that Hayley had been having visions, so how could he have been influenced by her beliefs? Something niggled in the back of his mind. It had been there since that kiss. It was like trying to think of a name or a word but coming up blank. Something important was beckoning him, but he just couldn’t see what it was.
He leaned over to unlock the passenger door, feeling a little giddy when she opened it. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun and secured with a large clip. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, fancy button-up blouse and a pair of the brightest gumboots he’d ever seen. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, but he restrained himself. What if he had another weird experience and ruined everything again?
‘Are you ready?’ he said instead.
‘Yep,’ she said and pulled the door shut behind her.
Hayley wasn’t sure how they were going to proceed after their previous encounter. Although their greeting was a little stilted, it wasn’t too uncomfortable. She’d been caught off guard by Luke’s call only a few minutes earlier to ask if she had time to go look at the Galloways, and she was a flustered mess.
Of course, if she’d simply stayed in the same outfit she’d had on, she wouldn’t have been madly dashing around before he arrived, but she hadn’t. Instead she’d tried on four outfits and two lots of shoes before she heard the car and had to quickly wriggle into her jeans. She’d still been fumbling with the buttons on her blouse as she ran out the front door.
‘I didn’t mean to interrupt whatever you were doing,’ Luke said, giving her a sideways glance.
‘Oh no, I wasn’t doing anything important,’ she assured him, smoothing her hair into place. Oh God, her hair…she hadn’t even looked at that.
‘I just had some time this morning and figured it might be our best chance.’
‘No, it’s fine. I really appreciate it.’
They chatted about cattle for a few minutes, or rather, Luke chatted and Hayley nodded and hoped she looked like she knew what he was talking about. They pulled into a newly fenced property, the posts painted a gleaming white, with landscaped gardens in front of two impressive stone-walled gates. Everything about this placed screamed money. ‘Wow,’ Hayley breathed.
‘Yeah,’ Luke said dryly.
‘You don’t approve?’
He glanced sideways, seemingly surprised. ‘Approve?’
‘Of city people coming here and buying farms?’
He gave a shrug. ‘I’ve got nothing against city people coming out here.’
‘But these people annoy you?’
‘I guess it’s the fact that they seem to have more money than sense that annoys me.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, they bought this place and jumped straight into alpacas. It was the new thing in farming. So they bought all these animals, started breeding them, but for whatever reason they didn’t sell many, so they got rid of alpacas and got into miniature Galloways. Low and behold, after only a couple of years, they’ve clearly gotten sick of them too, and so they’re now selling them off and God only knows what the next trend is going to be.’
‘But they’re not hurting anyone by doing it,’ Hayley said.
‘Nope, and like said, I don’t really have a problem with them, it’s more of an annoyance that they clearly don’t do their research before diving into one project after another. Most people can’t afford to cut such big losses and keep forking out money for something new. I don’t know, maybe it’s jealousy. I’d love not to have to worry that something I invested a stack of money into might fail. Every venture we take on at Lochmanning has to be researched and run past Dad, and then he plays out every possible scenario of what might go wrong. We can’t afford to sink a crapload of capital into something and have it fail.’
The Masons didn’t seem to be struggling, but you never really knew what was going on behind the scenes—for all she knew they could be mortgaged to the hilt. There was always going to be someone richer strutting around and making everything you struggled with seem like no big deal. She’d learned to keep her head down, do her own thing and not worry about anyone else.
As they parked the car, Luke got out and approached a man who’d come out of one of the nearby sheds, extending his hand in a hearty shake before introducing Hayley.
‘Hayley, this is Dudley, he manages the property.’ He looked a little younger than Luke but clearly the men knew each other well. He was stocky with a slightly chubby build, his stomach folding over the waist of his jeans.
‘So you’re looking for some cattle, Luke tells me?’
‘Yes. I’m not really a farmer, I’m just after some lawnmowers really,’ she felt compelled to explain, although she was fairly sure he’d already reached the conclusion she wasn’t a farmer. A real farmer most likely would not have worn bright pink polka-dot gumboots to buy cattle.
‘How many you after?’
Hayley glanced across at Luke.
‘Depends on price and what you’ve got available. We mainly want heifers and cows. Not really interested in steers.’ ‘Steers have been gettin’ some pretty decent returns at market,’ Dudley said, tipping his hat back off his forehead.
‘Yeah, not interested in the whole market thing,’ Luke said, and Hayley had a feeling he was trying to politely explain Hayley’s aversion to raising cattle for meat.
‘Ah. Okay.’ There was a nod of mutual understanding. ‘Well, the heifers are a bit more expensive than the steers. Come and take a look and see what you think.’
The cattle were being held in a large yard and Hayley instantly fell in love with the woolly little creatures. The tallest of the cattle stood about chest height, but the rest were lucky to reach her hip. There were about fifty in total, all different colours and shades, but most with the distinctive stripe across their middle.
Luke asked questions and climbed the fence, inspecting a few of the animals. Hayley was impressed with the confident way he handled them. When he finished talking to Dudley, he came back over to her and climbed the fence to drop lightly at her side.
‘I reckon there’s more than a few good head in there. Some are already in calf, some have calves at foot. And there’s a bloody good bull Dudley reckons we could get for a steal.’
‘But won’t a bull…you know…breed?’
‘That’s the general idea of having a bull, yeah,’ he said with a crooked grin.
‘But what if we end up with a heap of boy cows?’ she said, feeling anxious as she looked over at the cattle. ‘I really don’t think I can do the whole meat thing.’
‘I was thinking about that. What if I went in partnership with you? I’ll put in some cash for the initial purchase and handle all the marking, drenching and anything else that needs doing, in exchange for any steers. You won’t have to do anything but keep them on your property, and I’ll give you a cut of whatever the steers sell for.’
‘It’s that good a deal?’
‘After talking with Dudley, it’s a bloody good deal. There’s more here than you were initially thinking of getting, but it really is too good a bargain to pass up. I can’t put any on our place at the moment because we’ve allotted all spare grazing land for crops, which is why I’m offering to go in partnership rather than buying up the extra myself.’
Hayley looked across at the cattle again and bit the inside of her lip. She really did love the look of them. ‘You think I’ll have enough room for them on my place?’
‘Plenty of room. It’ll only be a few months till we can wean, then we can get rid of the steers, which will cut your numbers back a bit. We’ll make sure we keep a check on how many we keep at a time.’
It was kind of exciting to think about. She’d have a real farm with real animals, not including Errol, Flynn and the chooks of course, she amended. They discussed prices and Hayley did a quick calculation in her head of the amount she’d be putting in added with Luke’s contribution. It was only a little more than she’d been planning to spend, so she felt confident it wouldn’t be breaking the bank. ‘Okay. I trust your judgement,’ she said, agreeing to the deal.
‘We can think about it if you want some more time. I know I’ve put you on the spot.’
‘No,’ she said slowly. She knew it was always a risk to go into partnership with someone, especially with someone she hardly knew, but it felt right. ‘I think it sounds like a good deal.’
Luke held out his hand and took her smaller one in his. It felt warm and safe. ‘Congratulations, partner, you just became a farmer.’
Hayley was doubtful she’d be contributing anything more than money and land in this endeavour, Luke was the one ending up with all the hard work, but it still felt exciting to find herself involved in a business venture. She vowed to make sure she learned as much about the whole process as possible. Luke might be taking on the physical aspects of owning the cattle, but that didn’t mean she intended to sit at home and twiddle her thumbs. She fully intended to learn as much about these cattle as she could.
The future was taking a very interesting turn indeed.
Luke gave a small chuckle as he drove home after dropping Hayley back at her place. He was losing his mind. He had to be. He’d just given Hayley a big lecture about city folk jumping into farming ventures without doing their research, and five minutes later there he was proposing a joint venture with the woman. Okay, so he wasn’t exactly a novice at the whole cattle game, but talking to Dudley had opened his eyes to a potentially lucrative side deal. Hayley was actually on to something with her miniature Galloways. She’d wanted something small and manageable and these cattle fit the bill perfectly. He’d done a bit of reading on the breed and been quietly impressed. As non-selective grazers, they had the ability to forage in less than ideal conditions, yet also perform outstandingly on high-grade pasture. They were used to improve marginal lands, keeping poorer quality feed under control while encouraging the quality grass to grow, which would work perfectly on Hayley’s land that had been sitting unimproved and unused for a number of years.
When it came to calving, the Galloways were an exceptionally fertile breed, regularly producing vigorous calves with ease and an abundant supply of milk. Meat-wise, Galloways were excellent quality with high yields. The fat covering and heavy muscle that was vital for gaining the best prices made them an attractive breed for feedlots getting a higher yield and profit per animal. His father was a Hereford man through and through, but maybe this was Luke’s chance to prove what he’d been saying for years, that they needed to branch out and try something new.
When Dudley had told him the price and how quickly his boss wanted the stock gone, the opportunity seemed to fall into his lap. He hadn’t even considered buying any of the animals for himself—his father would have laughed him out of the room had he mentioned it to him—but he was a businessman as well as a farmer and he knew a good deal when he saw one. It seemed like the perfect arrangement. Hayley wanted cattle to keep her pasture under control, and he had the cattle knowledge. He could get back his initial outlay by selling off the steers, and they’d both have a reliable, if small income on the side.
It also didn’t hurt that he’d have a genuine reason to be in contact with her now; they were business partners. All in all, he was pretty pleased with the day’s work.
He hadn’t completely forgotten their conversation on Saturday night, try as he had to forget it. He was still unsettled by his experience of kissing another woman. He fought the hollow feeling that came with the memory.
As a kid, his gran had told him he was sensitive to things, like her. He hadn’t been sure what that meant at the time—he didn’t see ghosts or hear voices or anything else he’d heard his father saying about Gran. While part of him had been fascinated by the stories she had told him, as he grew older Grant had teased him about believing Gran’s rubbish, and he had found himself distancing himself from her. Part of him had known he’d hurt her feelings by no longer wanting to listen to her stories or spend time together the way he used to. He’d hated that too—hated that he was sensitive or whatever the hell he was supposed to be. He hadn’t wanted to be teased by the rest of his family. He’d wanted his father to be proud of him; he’d just wanted to be a farmer. For a long time, he’d resented his gran, and now looking back, he felt bad for the way he acted. He’d tried to make it up to her over the years and she’d told him more than once that she’d understood, but there was a lingering sadness in her eyes whenever they mentioned it. Sometimes he found her watching him, studying him almost, and he’d have to fight the irritation it triggered. He didn’t believe in her mumbo jumbo. Maybe as a gullible kid he had, but not anymore. Whatever he’d seen the other night when he’d kissed Hayley had unsettled him more than he cared to admit. But, no. It didn’t mean anything.
By the time he arrived home his earlier buoyant mood had been replaced with frustration.