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“Or this one.” Bindi licked her finger and turned the pages to reveal a delicious-looking pavlova. “Lemon myrtle meringue with mango and macadamia nuts,” Sasha sighed. “This one looks amazing.”
“It is good,” Skylar agreed. “But it might be a little tricky to serve. Especially if it turns out to be a scorcher that day.”
Bindi agreed. The wedding was in three weeks, a few days before Christmas. Dale and Daisy had purposefully set it at the beginning of the wet season, because Stormcloud always shut down over that period. It was usually too wet to do much else, and flooding often hindered travel, so guests found it harder to get in and out of the station. They also needed the time to rest and recuperate, along with the countryside. And wet season was also incredibly hot and humid. Skylar was right, a cake based on egg whites and cream might not fare so well.
“Okay. Well, what about this one?” Sasha turned all the way to the back of the book. “A bush fruit Christmas cake. It uses quandongs and ground pepper berries, with toasted wattleseeds.”
Skylar raised a speculative eyebrow, her blue eyes sparkling. “I think you found it, Sasha. This is perfect. We can cover it in a more traditional white royal icing and have it dripping in wildflowers. It’ll survive the heat better than any other cake, too. I think Daisy will love it.” Skylar sounded excited. “I’m going to start gathering the ingredients today. I’d like to make a sample for Daisy to taste before we commit. Dale loves anything I cook, so he’s easy.” Skylar waved her hand in the air as if her brother were an afterthought in this whole wedding bonanza.
“He’d be eternally delighted if his cake was made of a pile of your pumpkin and wattleseed scones,” Bindi joked, and they all laughed. Everyone at Stormcloud knew how much Dale loved his sister’s scones. Loved everything Skylar made, if the truth be told. But he seemed to have an uncanny knack of smelling if there were scones in the oven from miles away. He’d been known to sneak into the kitchen when he was supposed to be out working and snaffle the hot scones straight off the baking trays while Skylar’s back was turned.
Almost as if he’d been summoned, Dale suddenly appeared in the doorway leading off the hallway.
“Did I hear someone mention my favorite food?” The corners of his mouth turned up in a hopeful smile.
“Sorry, bro,” Skylar replied. “Not today.”
Mack appeared in the doorway behind Dale, and Bindi didn’t hear the rest of what Skylar had to say. She hadn’t seen Mack since last night at the stables. After he’d told her the truth about his accident. After…whatever it was had passed between them. She wasn’t prepared to say it was almost a kiss, because it wasn’t. By the time she’d reached her room, her heart rate had slowed, and she’d almost been prepared to believe she’d been carried away by her stupid imagination. She was just tired and overwrought by Mack’s surprisingly harrowing story. That was all. Once she was safely tucked in bed, she could easily dismiss her feelings as misplaced and juvenile.
But one look at Mack standing there, hands on hip, smiling that wicked smile, and her disloyal heart was galloping a million miles an hour again. There was nothing juvenile about the images that were playing through her mind right now. On purpose, she turned her back and pretended to be busy at the sink. But she tuned back into the conversation, none-the-less.
“What have you got for smoko, then?” Dale asked. “I’m taking Mack out to help me fix a cracked concrete slab beneath the water trough out in the Portico’s Paddock. We need something to keep our strength up.”
“I’ve got leftover muffins from this morning,” Skylar said. “Or I can get you some banana bread out of the freezer.”
“We’ll take the banana bread,” Dale replied, after a second weighing up his options.
“Right, then.” Skylar bustled around the kitchen getting smoko ready and chatting to Dale about the wedding cake they were thinking of making.
Suddenly, there was a voice at Bindi’s shoulder. Mack had snuck up next to her without her noticing, and she jumped, almost dropping the plate she was washing.
“Afternoon,” he said in that low drawl that turned her spine to liquid.
“Hi,” she replied, pleased to hear her voice come out normal.
“Steve’s given me…us…the go-ahead to take off to this rodeo the day after tomorrow. Are you still coming?”
Now was her chance to back out. She screwed up her mouth in a grimace, but the words wouldn’t come. She was committed to this venture, whether she liked it or not. Bindi didn’t trust herself to answer, so she nodded her agreement, scrubbing at a particularly tough stain on the plate.
“Good.” He leaned in a little closer, and Bindi got a faint whiff of his cologne mixed with dust and horse sweat from his day’s work. It was delicious. She held her breath, denying that her traitorous mind had even gone that far. “I want to leave early, so I can check out the lay of the land, get my bearings before the ride. Can you be ready by six?”
Six am? That was ridiculously early, especially since seeing the main event wouldn’t take place until around seven that night. “Sure,” was all she said. He must really have meant it when he said he wanted to get the lay of the land. She glanced up and could see he was deadly serious. A small voice told her that maybe she’d misjudged him. He might have a cavalier attitude when it came to his health, but when it came to riding a bull, he wanted to get it right.
Her gaze locked with his, and for a second she was lost in their tawny depths. Were those flecks of gold she could see scattered through his irises? She leaned in closer to get a better look. Mack’s hot breath flowed over her cheek and her eyes drifted down to his lips. A firm, strong, top lip dusted with a scattering of two-day growth, quirking upward with a knowing smile.
“Mack, you coming?” Dale’s voice cut through the kitchen.
Bindi jumped, dropping the plate into the water. Shit. What had she been doing? Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mack nod in assent to Dale.
“See you ladies tonight,” Mack said, and he was gone from her side.
She didn’t dare turn around, instead fishing the plate out of the sudsy water.
“See you,” Skylar and Sasha chorused, and belatedly, Bindi joined them.
Had anyone seen her strange interaction with Mack? She hoped they’d all been busy getting smoko ready.
Fleetingly, she closed her eyes. When she opened them and turned around, Sasha was smirking at her.
Oh, yeah, they’d seen it all right.
What was she going to do? She didn’t want to be attracted to Mack. Hell, she didn’t even think she liked him. She’d never been this confused about her feelings for a man in her life before. It was high time she got herself under control and stopped this silly infatuation.
