Chapter Seventeen
Liam and Lucy settled into a routine at Prickle Farm. Jemmy and Seb were back in the city but called every couple of days. Lucy listened with surprise as Liam outlined to Seb on the phone what he’d done that week. He hadn’t been as moody as Lucy had expected, and she was happy with the way the work at Prickle Farm had been divided between them. Pop was recovering well and was getting around the property on one of the QuadRunners, albeit under Gran’s eagle eye. Lucy was rarely needed out in the paddocks, and she spent most of her days looking after the farmhouse and working on her current campaigns, in between baking. Garth came over to help out when Liam needed a hand, and Liam had got into the habit of going over to Garth’s place and helping him out, too. And no one had so much as raised an eyebrow at the number of nights that Lucy spent at Garth’s.
On the second weekend after Seb and Jemima had gone back to Sydney, Lucy raided Gran’s garden for cuttings.
“No, Lucy. That won’t strike.” Gran tutted behind her. “Come with me.”
Lucy followed Gran around to the back of the hay shed and stopped dead. A large fern house with an irrigation system spraying moisture onto rows and rows of potted plants lined the back of the large shed.
“Goodness, I didn’t even know this was here.” Lucy stared in amazement.
Gran pointed to the middle shelf. “Anything from there will grow in this soil as long as he keeps it watered and keeps the roos and rabbits away.” Gran pointed, and Lucy followed the direction of her finger. “These big pots are shrubs ready to plant. You can take as many as you like. Then I won’t have to waste water on them.”
Lucy dropped a quick kiss on Gran’s cheek before she took off at a run. “You are a gem, Gran.”
“Where are you going now?”
“I’m going to get Pop’s ute and load it up.”
A variety of plants, trees, and shrubs peeked over the top of the ute as Lucy drove slowly down the dirt road. She had loaded in as many of the plants as she could fit onto the tray. The padlock had been off the back gate since Gran had forgiven Garth, and it was now a short drive between the two properties. Garth was swinging the axe at the side of the woodshed. The mornings already had a tinge of crispness in the air, and the autumn winds had started to blow. A shaft of regret lodged in Lucy’s chest. It would have been nice to sit by the fire with Garth on his soft sofa, but she would be back in Sydney in her cold and draughty apartment before winter set in. She stopped the car and watched, catching her breath at the sheer beauty of him as his muscles flexed and shimmered in the late-afternoon sunlight. He swung the axe high, and a resounding crack echoed through the air as the log split. A pair of cut-off frayed shorts revealed long sinewy leg muscles, and an expanse of bare chest met her eyes as her gaze travelled up from his stomach. Her attention lingered on those broad shoulders, now glistening with perspiration. The reddish lights in his hair caught the sun, and his grin was wide when he turned to greet her.
He walked across to the ute, leaned in, and kissed her. “Hello there, lovely Lucy.”
“Hello.” Lucy smiled up at him. “I missed you this week.” She’d been in Sydney since Monday. Two trips down for the monthly meeting had kept her up to speed with her work, and with the internet connection at Garth’s place, she was handling the telecommuting with ease.
“How was the trip to the big smoke?”
Lucy wondered why his tone was guarded. “It was good. Caleb loves the way the campaign is shaping up.”
“That’s good.” Garth opened the door for her, and after she climbed out she took his hand and led him around to the back of the ute. “What’s all this?”
“I hope you dug the garden beds while I was away,” she said, sensing he didn’t want to talk about her work. A glimmer of disquiet took away the pleasure of seeing him again. She filed that away to think about later.
“You asked me to dig the gardens, so of course I did.” His eyes widened as he looked in the back of the ute. “But I don’t think I dug enough to accommodate all of that.”
“Well, you’re going to have to water these till they get planted.”
“Come and see what else I did.” He put his arm around her shoulders, and together they walked around to the side of the house.
Lucy smiled as she looked at the work he had done around there. “You have been working hard.”
A long row of garden beds edged the length of the house, and a medium-height fence ran along the edge of the pathway. A small wooden gate with an arch above it stood at the end near the back garden.
“Oh, that will be perfect for Gran’s climbing rose.” Again that glimmer of something tugged at her. “Are you going to have time to look after all of this when I go back to Sydney, Garth? I know how busy you are with the farm.” Lucy moved away from his arm and walked up to the arch he had built over the gate.
His back was to the sun and his eyes were shadowed. “I guess I’ll have to.”
For a moment, the silence was tense until Garth broke it with a laugh that sounded a bit forced. “I don’t want your gran coming over here and seeing dead plants. I’m still as scared of her as I was when I was a kid.”
“Come on, let’s get these plants unloaded and I’ll water them.” Lucy followed him back to the ute, and they worked together unloading the plants and carrying them across to the shade in the hay shed. “Where’s the closest tap and hose?”
“I’ll go and get it while you get the last of the pots from the ute.” She watched as he walked out of the shed. Honestly, she had to get over this need to look at him. She’d found herself daydreaming about Garth when she was at her desk in the city. She was letting herself get a bit too involved here. She turned her attention to the plants before she stood back with a grunt of satisfaction as she lined up the last pot in the row of shrubs. There were more than a hundred plants here, and it was too late to start planting them this afternoon. The sun was sinking quickly, and a beautiful pink sky was building over the western horizon. The contented mooing of the cattle in the paddock closest to the house filled the still afternoon air, and a couple of tiny birds chirped as they picked at the hayseed on the floor of the shed. A feeling of peace stole over her, and she pushed away the memory of the noisy city traffic that had bothered her more than usual this week.
As she mused, a couple of drops of water plopped onto her head. She swung around. Garth was holding the water hose, and his lips were stretched into a cheeky grin as he pointed the hose at her.
“Lucy love, you look really hot.”
She backed away as he stepped closer. “Don’t even think about it, Garth.” She squealed as the water arced towards her, catching the late-afternoon sunlight in brilliant droplets. She wasn’t quick enough; a soft mist of water drifted onto her hair and T-shirt.
“You are so in for it, Garth Mackenzie.”
Garth stood there for a moment before putting the hose down, a smile playing around his lips. He turned the tap off and strolled over to her, lifting her wet hair between his fingers and sliding his lips down her damp neck. Lucy shivered. She wasn’t sure if it was from the water trickling down her back or the soft brushing of his lips on her skin.
“So how am I in for it, Luce?”
“You’ll keep,” she said primly, but she couldn’t stop the laugh bubbling up from her chest as he dropped his fingers to her wet T-shirt and began to slowly peel it up.
“Did you know they have a wet T-shirt competition at the B&S ball? You could enter it.”
Heat flooded her face and neck as she looked down at her T-shirt.
…
Garth frowned as he waited in the kitchen. Lucy had gone to the bathroom to dry off, knocking back his offer to get the towel for her. It was great to have her back, but for some reason, she was a little distant this afternoon. He’d managed to make her laugh, but it hadn’t been long before the serious look had come back into her eyes again. He didn’t like the way it was making him feel. He gripped the edge of the kitchen benchtop as he waited for the kettle to boil, staring out over the green paddocks. Winter was coming quickly, and that meant that Lucy’s three months would be up and she would be going back to the city full-time.
What did that mean for them? The speed at which their relationship was building was a problem. Not for him. He was delighted with them taking up where they had left off six years ago.
But he was destined for heartbreak. Lucy was going back to the city. No matter how much she did over at Prickle Creek Farm—the cooking, helping her grandmother in the garden—she was adamant that country life was a temporary thing for her. Helping out the Peterkin family, that’s all it was. And it looked like he was a bit of fun for her on the side.
What if I want more?
He remembered his thoughts a few weeks back when he’d considered that it might be time to take a wife.
They loved the same things. They both shared a passion for country and western music. They watched movies together, argued politics, and both dreamed of holidays in the tropical north. On the nights Lucy stayed over, she seemed to enjoy pottering about his house and garden and soaking in the huge tub with him.
Seemed to. Maybe he was reading too much into it?
But she was a city person now. Although for the life of him, Garth couldn’t understand how anyone could prefer living in Sydney to the outback. He knew the time Lucy was spending here with him was not going to change that. She didn’t want to live out in the country. And he didn’t want to live in the city. Each to his own, he thought, as disappointment shafted through him.
He couldn’t change the way he was; he was a country boy, through and through. The city stifled him. When he had to visit there he missed the golden paddocks of home, and he hated being in the crowded, noisy streets. Traffic blaring, car pollution, and a night sky where the stars were almost invisible closed him in.
Lucy wandered back through the hallway, running a comb through her wet hair.
“Luce?” He kept his voice even; he didn’t want her to hear the desperation he was feeling.
“Yes.” She paused in the doorway and the knowledge that he was going to lose her soon was worse than a kick from an angry steer in the cattle crush.
“Tell me one thing you love about the city. One thing the country can’t give you,” he asked.
“Is this a trick question?” Her voice was light.
“No. I’m trying understand what you love about it so much.”
She put the comb down on the countertop and tapped a finger to her chin. “Well, I can get the best Thai food right at a little place next door to my apartment. And there’s a great little Japanese restaurant around the corner.”
“That’s two things,” he said. “Don’t you miss the stars?”
Lucy’s tinkling laugh lodged in his heart like shards of glass. “Come on, Garth. We have stars in the city, too!”
“Yeah, I guess you do.” He had no hope if the lure of the city was as simple as a Thai restaurant. They needed different things to make them happy. Confusion filled him; Lucy seemed so happy and content out here, but maybe she was making the best of things and putting on a front.
Whatever it was, they’d had fun while it had lasted. Now all he had to do was move on.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts as the kettle whistled. “Want a cuppa?”
God, how domesticated did that sound?