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CHAPTER TWELVE
A BEAD OF sweat ran from beneath Kee’s hat and slid down the curve of her jaw. How did anyone get used to this heat? She’d been helping Skylar and Julie in the garden all morning. Julie was crouched over a nearby raised vegetable bed, pulling weeds from between the bush tomato plants. Kee was tying up the snake beans to a latticework, to stop them trailing on the ground. Skylar had gone inside half an hour ago to prepare smoko, and she’d taken Benni with her. This was harder than she expected, especially working in the hot sun, but it was also strangely gratifying. She was starting to see why Skylar took such pride in her garden. It was an integral part of her artful, creative dishes. Skylar told her she used her bush foods as the inspiration for a lot of her signature dishes.
Wiping the sweat away with a gloved hand, Kee desperately hoped for the call to down tools and head inside for a cuppa and something to eat soon. She took a swig of water from the bottle beside her; she’d learned to keep one on hand at all times when she was working outside in this heat, just like everyone else.
Of course, Benni spent every moment she could with the puppies, begging Kee to take her up to see them four and five times a day. And when Kee was busy, Benni would work on Wazza, Dale, or Sasha, instead. The child was incorrigible.
Kee felt bad that she was taking up one of the guest cabins. She could tell the resort was nearly fully booked, and she hoped Daniella hadn’t had to turn away prospective customers just to keep Kee with the roof over her head. So, she’d offered her services wherever they were needed, to try and make up for her board and keep. Daniella seemed to respect Kee’s need not to be a freeloader and let Wazza find her jobs she could do while keeping an eye on Benni.
Like riding the yellow devil the other day. It had taken Kee two hours to mow the large expanse of green lawn. By the end of it, she was sweaty and dusty and really, really hot, but she felt that she’d tamed the ornery machine. And as she’d stood back and admired her handiwork, she decided she’d not only tamed it, but done a good job, as well. Benni had enjoyed riding along on the mower beside her for the first little while, but in the end, Sasha had come to her rescue and asked if Benni wanted to help her fold napkins inside, much to Kee’s relief, as Benni had lost interest and kept wanting to get down. Everyone at Stormcloud seemed to accept having a small child in their midst, and they all pitched in to keep Benni occupied. People in the city would never have been this tolerant and accepting. They were all too busy with their own lives to see what was going on with other people. Always rushing here and there. Kee was learning that living in the country meant living as part of a tight-knit community. Kee would never have been able to ask the next-door neighbor to mind Benni. Her neighbors were strangers to whom she might have given a passing wave when they pulled out of the driveway, but rarely stopped to speak to, or even shout a greeting over the fence. Living in the city could be isolating.
This morning, she was helping in the kitchen garden, and this afternoon she’d offered to help Sasha turn around some cabins before the next guests arrived this evening, as the cleaning lady who normally came from town was sick.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kee noticed Julie stop work to take a drink from her bottle, as well. Kee liked Julie, she was funny, kept things light-hearted. She’d been through a bit of a rough patch recently, Wazza had told her. A crazed stalker had taken her hostage, planning to kill her over some delusional, self-obsessed idea. But Aaron had saved her. And now she and Aaron were together. It was a story straight out of a romance book, but Kee was intrigued. She’d met Aaron for the first time the other day, just after she’d finished mowing the lawn. He was the station chopper pilot, and he’d seen her admiring her handiwork, and stopped to introduce himself on his way down the path to the helicopter pad to drop off some guests to Cairns. He was tall and muscular, and a little gruff, but as long as he was in love with Julie, he was all right in Kee’s book.
Her mind drifted back to her conversation with Wazza the other night. His words had hit home. She needed to learn to trust people again. Including her own daughter. At first, the idea of letting Benni out of her sight had filled her with dread. But with Wazza’s words rolling around in her brain, she forced herself to accept Sasha’s offer of help the other morning. It was nice to know she could rely on other people to help her with Benni.
But, as usual, whenever she thought about Wazza, her mind drifted to that kiss. Two kisses, actually. But the one on her back veranda had been especially hot. So hot she’d nearly forgotten where she was. Had nearly forgotten she had responsibilities, such as a daughter sleeping nearby. Wazza was a bad influence on her, a little like an illicit drug. And every time she saw him, her body would lurch in his direction, hungry for another hit. If Benni hadn’t been there, Kee knew she would’ve made love with Wazza. It’d been a close thing, her brain so addled by the feel of his big hands on her body, the taste of his lips, the way he clearly wanted her, and how his sensual, earthy aura surrounded her that she’d nearly let him undress her right there on the back porch. Heaven forbid, she’d never done anything like that before in her life. Her and Jakov’s love life had been played out strictly between the sheets.
“Time for smoko.” Wazza’s deep voice shook her from her reverie. She glanced up to see him standing over her, grinning down at her as her fingers fumbled with the plant tie. The tight stretch of his blue shirt over shoulders so broad made all sane thoughts go straight out of her head. Oh. Dear. God. He looked good enough to eat, standing there in the sunlight, smirking at her as if he knew exactly what kind of thoughts were running through her head.
“Great.” She got off her knees, turning away from his smile, pretending to finish the last knot on her string, but in reality, composing her features into a bland smile. But when she turned around, he was still staring at her with that knowing smile, and a surge of heat that had nothing to do with the bright sunshine flushed her face.
Julie joined them, and Kee lowered the brim of the hat, so Julie wouldn’t see her pink cheeks. But it was too late. Julie was already narrowing her eyes at Wazza, a question in their brown depths.
“What has Skyler made for smoko today?” Kee asked, desperate to distract Julie. Kee had learned quickly that all of Skylar’s cooking was amazing, even something as simple as chocolate chip-cookies took on a whole new meaning when Skylar dragged them from her oven. Without waiting for an answer, she picked up her water bottle and took the lead, heading up the hill toward the rear entrance of the lodge, which led directly into the kitchen.
“Not sure,” Wazza answered. “It looked like a lemon cake and some finger sandwiches.”
“That’ll be her chia and finger lime cake,” Julie pronounced, from where she was bringing up the rear. Skyler had proudly showed Kee the bush food version of the citrus orchard this morning, so she knew exactly what Julie meant. The finger limes were slightly different from normal lemons, in that they contained hundreds of tiny beads with a fresh citrus flavor. The plant itself was a lot smaller than a lemon, more like a dense shrub, and it was covered in the small, green fruit. Skylar always made double, so the staff usually ate the same as the guests were being dished up. Kee’s mouth began to water at the mere thought of it.
Inside, she remembered to remove her hat and hung it on a hook next to Benni’s now familiar small blue one. Then she and Julie washed their hands at the small basin in a separate mud room off the side of the entrance hallway.
Benni was sitting on a high stool at the end of the countertop, and she jumped down and raced over to Kee as she entered the enormous kitchen. “Mummy.” She wrapped her little arms around Kee’s legs, then looked up into her face. “I’ve been helping Skylar make the sandwiches,” she announced proudly. “I was in charge of buttering the bread.”
“I’m glad to hear that you were being helpful,” Kee lifted her head and caught Skylar’s eye.
“She was a big help,” Skylar replied, without a hint of sarcasm. It made Kee wonder if perhaps it was time she let Benni help her more when cooking. She’d always been so busy, needing to get things done in a hurry, that she’d always shooed Benni out of the kitchen, afraid she’d make a mess. But there was more to it than that, she realized. She’d been brought up to believe it was her job as a mother, to cook and clean for her family. Her own father had never lifted a finger to help around the house. And so, she had pandered to Benni, making sure she always got her favorite foods. That’d gone out the window when she’d stolen Benni, and they’d gone on the run. But still, perhaps it was time to start letting Benni do more around the house when they finally settled down in one place, trust in her daughter’s abilities, like Wazza said.
More people began to file into the kitchen. Dale and Steve arrived together, laughing and joking over something one of the guests had done while out horse riding this morning. Daniella appeared through the hallway from the entrance to the main lodge, with Alek on her heels, frowning down at his clipboard. Julie and Bindi were helping Skylar put out the plates and cut the cake into slices, and Sasha was getting a raft of mugs out of the cupboard and filling them with hot tea. It was nice that all the staff gathered in the kitchen to eat, it felt like one big family, but she could hardly hear what Benni was saying over the buzz of conversation. Kee knelt so she could be at eye level with her daughter.
“What did you say, my bunny?” she asked, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her daughter’s ear.
“Can we stay here, Mummy? I like living with Wazza and Skylar and everyone.”
Her surprising words tugged at Kee’s heartstrings. “Oh, hunny bunny. I like living here, too.” It was the truth, but it caught Kee off guard. She did like living here. Even though, only two days ago, she’d said she hated it, that it was no place to bring up a child. Not wanting to crush Benni’s hopes, Kee decided not to mention that they’d be leaving tomorrow. The car would be ready, and they could continue on their mad dash North.
She caught Wazza staring at them, a strange look on his face. His features quickly cleared when he realized she was looking. Lifting a plate, he beckoned to them, then put a piece of cake and two sandwiches on the dish and handed it to Benni.
“Thank you, Mr. Cowboy,” she said, as he swung her up onto her stool so she could eat at the countertop.
“I can ask her to stop calling you that, if you like,” Kee murmured quietly into Wazza’s ear.
“No, don’t. I like it,” he replied, brushing his shoulder against hers, causing a spike of heat to course through her. Had he done that on purpose?
Before she could do more than narrow her eyes at him, Daniella was suddenly standing by her shoulder. “Have you got a couple of minutes for a chat?”
As usual, Daniella’s clothing was as neat as a pin, not a hair out of place, the epitome of country gentry. Kee nodded and followed her into the hallway, first checking over her shoulder to make sure Benni was okay. Dale had pulled up a stool next to her and was earnestly listening to her tale about helping mummy pull out all the nasty weeds this morning. Kee couldn’t suppress a smile.
