For the next couple of days Grace floated a foot above the ground, filled with a sense that something that had been wrong with the world had been made right.
She and Jamie rode each day and she took him to see some of her favourite places—a waterfall, the spectacular wetlands, a valley of grand rock formations. And with each day that passed it was as if an invisible weight lifted further from his shoulders.
If she occasionally stole glances at him…so what? She was only human. She defied any woman not to admire his long-limbed grace on a horse. Or the latent strength in his muscled arms. Or the way he filled out a pair of jeans. It didn’t mean anything.
If he too sometimes stole glances at her, who could blame her internal temperature from skyrocketing? There’d always been a heat, an awareness between them. The difference now, though, was they knew better than to act on it.
She took him hiking to see rock wallabies and when she caught him glancing at her with a frown in his eyes for the third time, she halted and lifted her hands. ‘What?’
‘Sorry.’ He rubbed a hand over his face. ‘I just can’t help wondering how you came to be working here.’
Ah.
‘Last time I asked, you didn’t want to talk about it.’
The difference was they were friends now, though, and she found she didn’t mind answering.
‘After school I did a tourism degree at Brisbane uni. Once I graduated I worked for eighteen months on the Gold Coast before heading down to Melbourne for a bit. From there I went on to Hobart. Then Sydney. Then the Whitsundays.’
‘You always said you wanted to see more of the country.’
She nodded. ‘I did that for five years. It was amazing.’
‘But?’ His gaze sharpened. It felt like a living breathing presence on her skin. She needed to be careful. Being the focus of Jamie’s attention could go to a woman’s head.
‘But after the novelty of each new place wore off, I found myself restless again, and I eventually worked out I was homesick. It wasn’t until I left the Kimberley that I realised how much I loved it. It’s home. It’s hard to explain, but I can’t breathe as well anywhere else.’
He nodded slowly. ‘I envy you that—the sense of belonging.’
Her heart ached. He’d never had that. Everyone should have a place they belonged.
‘So you came home?’
‘I did.’
‘And met Mal?’
Why did he want to know about Mal? ‘I met Mal when I started working at Kings Reach three years ago.’
She watched him digest her words. ‘You’ve been working here all that time? Don’t you have plans to take over your family’s station?’
She blinked hard. ‘I’m afraid we lost the station, Jamie. Four years ago.’
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