It didn’t take them long to catch up to the group. Mac turned as they cantered up the trail behind him. ‘Looking good,’ he said, nodding to Nat. ‘I see you haven’t lost your seat.’
‘Is it something you can lose?’
He shrugged. ‘Never been out of the saddle long enough to know.’ His gaze flicked to Reid. ‘Everything okay?’
‘Someone was hunting rabbits and left a kill there. We took care of it.’
‘Do you want me to make a report?’ Mac pulled out his phone.
‘Yeah, but keep it quiet.’
‘Sure thing, boss.’
They headed up the side of the line, calling out encouragement to those they passed. Lisa shot them an enquiring look and Reid just said, ‘Hunter not tidying up. They’re long gone though.’
She nodded. ‘You want me to stay here or go up front?’
‘Stay here. I’ll send Ben back to you.’
Nat was anxious to get up to Tilly. The dead rabbit had been nothing more nefarious than someone being sloppy and careless, but even so, it had left a tingling sensation between her shoulders that she couldn’t seem to shake and she just wanted to make sure Tilly was okay. She reined Leia to the left of the group to a track that ran parallel to the one they were on and kicked her into a slow canter, Reid following behind her.
‘Hey, sweetheart,’ she said as she pulled up beside her daughter. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Great.’ Tilly’s smile was beaming, her gaze adoring as she glanced over at Ben. ‘Ben is so funny and did you know he’s studying to be a vet? I think I want to be a vet too.’
Uh-oh. Obviously the start of a crush. Knowing there was nothing she could do other than to ask Ben to take care, she smiled. ‘That’s a great thing to aspire to. Especially if you love animals and want to help them.’
Tilly tipped her head to the side. ‘Yeah, I think I do.’
‘I was just telling Tilly we can go for a canter up ahead and she’s really keen to give it a go.’
‘Sounds like a great idea,’ Reid said as he pulled up beside them. ‘Ben, head back to the middle with Lisa and kick them all up. We’ll organise when we’re at the clearing.’
She and Tilly led the canter—half the group giving it a go, the other half walking. After that they watered the horses at the stream and then started the loop trail back home. The rest of the ride went too fast. Before she knew it, they were back at the corral, helping the riders off and encouraging them to feed their horses the chopped-up apples and carrots before she, Lisa and Tilly led them into the cafe to have the drink and scone included in the riding experience package. She was grateful for the cool slide of water down her throat. The day had certainly heated up and she was hot and, despite the dust being down, she still felt the grit of dirt on her skin. She was looking forward to a cool shower.
After waving the riders off as they climbed back onto their bus, she headed back out to see if Reid, Ben and Mac needed help with the horses. They were finished the unsaddling and were washing the horses down—John having come out to help so they could work in teams of two.
‘Can you and Tilly bag the ones we’ve finished with?’ Reid said when she asked how they could help. He bent to wash under the horse where the girth had left a sweat mark. He’d taken his shirt off and was just wearing a tank top, his arms and shoulders golden brown, the muscles moving smoothly under sweat-slicked skin as he worked.
Her mouth watered.
‘Mum, what is bagging the horses?’
He was too good-looking for her own good. She really must stop gawking at him. Friends didn’t gawk at each other.
‘Mum?’
‘What?’ She jerked around and headed towards the stables while gesturing at the washed horses milling in the corral, waiting for their feed. ‘You filled their bags earlier so we’ve just got to put them around their necks.’ She grabbed a couple of bags from where they’d been left at the mouth of the stable and slid through the railings to show Tilly. ‘Like this.’
Tilly followed her lead and soon they were surrounded with horses jostling for the next feedbag. Nat worried for a moment that Tilly would be scared being surrounded by the large animals pushing in at her, but her face was alight with laughter and she kept up a constant chatter, speaking to each horse she bagged before moving onto the next.
Sweat was dripping off Nat’s face by the time they were finished. ‘It sure is hot.’ She wiped her brow and laughed when Tilly followed suit.
‘You should go for a swim,’ Reid said, coming up to sling his arms over the fence.
‘A swim! Can we?’
She was about to say no because there was more work to do when Reid said, ‘Go on. The men and I’ll finish here.’
‘Are you sure?’ Nat asked as Tilly pulled on her arm, leading her through the fence.
Reid chuckled. ‘Sure am, not that I think it would matter given Til’s enthusiasm.’
‘Will you come have a swim too, Reid?’ Tilly asked him. Nat looked at him, begging inside her head for him to say no.
‘Sure. After I’m finished here.’
‘Come on, Mum.’ Tilly was pulling her along the path that led back to their cottage before she had a chance to protest.
Damn it. Of course he said yes and now she was going to have to be in front of him in bathers. Crap. She’d brought some with her as well as a rash vest to hide the scars left from the shooting, but she had nothing to hide the one on her leg. Nobody aside from the doctors had seen that scar. What was she going to do?
When she got to her room, she changed quickly and grabbed a wrap to hide her legs. No, that’s not enough. She then wrapped her towel around them for good measure. She’d just have to be in the pool before Reid got there and do her best to hide this scar from Tilly too.
Tilly was already waiting for her at the front door, and practically pulled her back up the hill towards the main building where the pool was, and for once, Nat was happy with being hurried at pre-teen pace. She just had to make sure to keep hold of the towel.
She opened the pool gate, hung their towels over the fence. ‘Race you in,’ she said, taking off mid-speech and only removing the wrap just before she jumped into the pool.
‘That’s cheating, Mum!’ she heard as the water crashed over her head.
Tilly was splashing around her and they were both laughing and enjoying the cool water when Reid arrived wearing a t-shirt and board shorts.
‘That looks like fun.’
‘Jump in, Reid.’
He took off his t-shirt and dived in, coming up a few feet from her. He smiled, that cheeky, lopsided grin she’d always found so endearing, then quickly turned to face Tilly who’d called out to him from the other end of the pool, the suntanned expanse of his shoulders wet and glistening in the sun. Despite the jagged scar running down his right shoulder blade—she’d heard he was hurt quite badly in the accident that had killed his friend—she couldn’t stop herself from ogling the ripple of muscle and firm golden skin. Oh god, he is so beautiful.
‘Thank you,’ he said, lips twitching as he turned back to face her.
She slapped her hands to her mouth, horrified she’d spoken out loud, then before he could say anything more, she dived under the water and swam away, hiding her face, her entire embarrassed self, from his gaze. When she surfaced, Tilly was shrieking, splashing Reid as he splashed her. Despite her embarrassment, she couldn’t help but smile and soon was pulled in to join their game, Reid and Tilly ganging up on her, and then it was Tilly and her ganging up on Reid. She was puffed out, her cheeks sore when Tilly shouted, ‘Pile on Mum,’ and she was swamped as Tilly and Reid rushed her. She escaped to the shallow end near the steps, hands up, laughing harder than she had in years. ‘Stop, stop. I’m done. You win.’
‘We won!’ Tilly crowed.
Reid high-fived her and winked at Nat. ‘I think your mum is pooped.’
‘I’m not. Look, Reid, I’m like a seal.’ Tilly was off again, under the water.
‘She’s so full of beans,’ Reid said as Tilly swam away from them.
‘That she is. But you’ve gone a fair way to tiring her out.’
‘Did you see me?’ Tilly shouted from the other side of the pool.
‘Sure did. That was amazing,’ Reid yelled back.
‘She swims like a fish.’ Nat looked up to see Barb had come out to the side of the pool, the dogs milling at her feet. ‘She reminds me of you at that age.’
‘Does she?’ Nat watched Tilly as she swam back to them. She never thought Tilly was anything like her. She wasn’t much like Andrew either. She’d always thought Tilly probably harked back to some other relative on either side or was too much of a mix to look like either of them. It was nice to hear that there was something about Tilly that came from her.
‘Hey, Barb. Did you see me swim?’ Tilly popped up out of the water. ‘And did Reid tell you I cantered and everything and helped take the ride?’
‘No, he did not. Why don’t you come with me and I’ll make you an ice-cream sundae while you tell me all about it?’
‘Yeah!’ Tilly was out of the pool and through the gate so fast it made Nat’s head spin. ‘Don’t forget your towel!’ she called after her.
Tilly backtracked, grabbed the towel and then was out the gate, dogs at her feet barking excitedly as she took off towards the door into the kitchen.
‘Don’t let those dogs into my kitchen,’ Barb called out behind her, but the flywire door had already slammed shut. ‘Kids. I better go make sure they’re not stealing food off the benches, the terrors.’
‘Who, the dogs or the kid?’ Reid asked.
‘Both!’ Barb waved and headed off. ‘Oy, get down from there!’ they heard before the door closed.
Chuckling, Nat was ready to get out and follow them when Reid asked, ‘Do you want a sundae too?’
She froze. Water lapped around her as Reid came up behind her, close, too close. Oh, god. They were alone. And he was half naked, all that shining wet glorious muscle on display. And at some stage he would get out of the water, his board shorts plastered to him, and he would shake his head like he’d done when he was younger, reminding her of a joyful dog, and of course his hair would settle around his face and look amazing and perfect, whereas she was more like a drowned rat, hair plastered to her head until it dried and then it would become an uncontrollable frizz ball. Ugh. There was no way she wanted him around when that happened. ‘Uh, no. I don’t need the calories. But you go and get one if you want.’
‘No. I think I’ll just do a few laps.’ He pushed away from the wall right next to her and began to cut through the water, his style annoyingly perfect and smooth.
Did he do anything badly? And did he have to show himself off in such a way, making her feel so much less? Or worse, make her mouth water because he was just too goddamned gorgeous—the more time she spent around him, the more it was impossible to ignore it. It was almost like he was trying to drive her crazy on purpose.
Stop it, Nat. He’s not trying to do anything. He’s just acting like himself, like a friend. Stop putting thoughts behind his actions that aren’t there. She just needed to get away from him and cool down. Which was a stupid thing to say given she was standing in a pool, but … this was an internal low-down curling heat that really required something more than sun-warmed pool water.
A cold shower. That’s what she needed.
She was out of the pool before she remembered to cover her leg.
‘Shit, Nat. What happened?’
He was staring at the long scar that ran down the side of her leg. Her hand went down to cover it, but it was too late. ‘Nothing.’ She grabbed her towel off the fence and wrapped it around her, covering the ugly mark, and made for the gate.
Behind her, she heard the swish of water as he hauled himself out of the pool. Her fingers fumbled on the safety latch, and then he was there beside her, his hand on her fingers. ‘That scar isn’t nothing.’ He turned her to face him. ‘Were you in an accident?’
‘It wasn’t his fault.’
‘Who? Your husband? Your husband did that?’
She ducked her head, unable to look at him, to see the expression she knew would be on his face. Pity. Disgust. She’d seen it all before.
‘Did he beat you?’
She shook her head. ‘No, it wasn’t like that. It’s not what you think. He wasn’t a wife abuser. Not like that. I wasn’t the only one he hurt.’
‘And that makes it all right?’
She jerked her head up, surprised by the sound in his voice—it was anger. Not at her, for her. But she didn’t want him to be angry with Andrew. ‘You don’t understand.’
She removed her hands from his and turned back to the gate, trying to open it again, but her hands were shaking too hard. He put his over hers. ‘Help me to understand, Nat. Because right now, if he was alive, I’d want to tear your bastard husband limb from limb.’
Nat pulled her hands from under his—he let her go so easily, even stepped back, as if he knew crowding her made her uncomfortable, so different from so many other people when they pushed her about the shit that was her life. ‘I wouldn’t want you to do that. I don’t want what happened to me to touch anyone else, so please, don’t feel like that.’
‘It’s hard not to when I see evidence of such pain in front of me.’ He took another step back. ‘I understand not wanting to talk about things that are painful, but I thought we agreed to be friends. Friends share things.’
‘So, you’ll tell me about Luke and what happened there?’
‘I’ve already told you a bit about that.’
‘A bit. Not much more than I could read in the newspapers. You could read the newspapers about what happened to me. God only knows the media in Perth had a field day with it.’
‘I don’t want to read about it in the newspapers. I want you to tell me.’
‘I’ll tell you about my pain if you tell me about yours.’ They stared at each other, jaws firm, lips pressed together, eyes flashing, the air vibrating with anger and tension and something else she didn’t want to acknowledge. She folded her arms in front of her. ‘We all have our scars, Reid, but some of them don’t need to be shared.’
‘I want to share yours.’
‘Without sharing yours in return?’ She shook her head. ‘That’s not sharing. It’s also not how friendship works.’ She turned, managed to open the gate this time, her fingers steady in her anger.
‘Nat.’
‘No, Reid. Just no.’ She slipped her feet into her thongs, remembered her wrap—damn, it could just stay where it was for now, she’d pick it up later—then, banging the gate behind her, walked as fast as she could out of the breezeway between the main building and the bunkhouse and to her cottage.
A few metres from the cottage she noticed the door was propped slightly open. Damn it. She thought she’d closed it behind her when she left with Tilly after getting changed. It was never a good idea to leave doors and windows open at this time of year, because snakes and possums had a way of getting inside and it was difficult to catch them and get them back—
A crash from inside the cabin interrupted her thought. ‘Damn it.’ A possum had obviously already got inside and was making a mess. She began to run towards the cottage. There was another crash as she pushed the door open. ‘Oh my god!’ Things were spilled all over the floor, smashed and torn. How many possums had got in here? Another crash—it was from her bedroom.
‘You bloody possum!’ she shouted as she ran down the hall. ‘If you’ve made a mess in there, I’m going to skin you and wear you as a coat!’
Something large and black smashed into her as she ran through the bedroom doorway, sending her flying backwards. Her head hit the wall with a loud crack and sparks flew before her eyes, the black thing filling her vision, becoming larger and larger as she slid down the wall and onto the floor and then everything went away.