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At the same instant, Carissa blew past him, launching herself down the porch steps and taking off toward the barn.
She was met first by Copper, who had turned into the world’s wiggliest, waggliest dog, barely able to contain himself at the sight and scent of Carissa, who crouched down to greet him. The dog put his paws on her shoulders, while she crooned at him. “Give me hugs and kisses, Coppy! Aren’t you the world’s best dog? Oh, I’ve missed you too!”
When Lena arrived a few seconds later, Carissa leapt to her feet and the two women embraced, rocking side-to-side and both of them talking almost at once, their conversation a flurry of exclamations—You look great! Why has it been so long? I can’t believe you’re really here! This place is amazing! I love it already! I can’t wait for you to meet Heath!
Lachlan felt a twinge at the scene. It wasn’t exactly jealousy, but something close, mixed with a side of what he guessed was yearning. Heath had become a great friend in the year since they’d met at the Returned Service League, and so had some of the other blokes, but there was no one in the world who would greet him the way Carissa and Lena greeted each other. Not even Pickle, though he figured that had more to do with her being a cat than the strength of her feelings for him.
His lack of attachments was by design. Emotional entanglements made his job more difficult—anyone who’d seen combat learned that the hard way. He travelled for work a lot, and goodbyes were never easy. But just because he intentionally avoided putting down roots didn’t stop him from sometimes missing strong ties like the one Carissa and Lena had.
“I can’t believe I forgot!” Carissa leaned away from her friend. The two of them were a study in contrasts—Lena dark haired and bubbly, Carissa fair-haired and cautious—but she hardly seemed the same wary woman he’d woken at Bankstown. “How’s the colicky horse?”
“Better now, thankfully.” Lena wrapped an arm around Carissa’s waist and Lachlan felt another pang as the two women and Copper headed for the barn. He wanted to be the one at Carissa’s side—which was an impossibility. He dated casually or not at all. He’d never been interested in being tied down to anything besides his cat. He liked keeping his options open, and he wasn’t going to risk imploding friendships over something short-term. That was all a relationship with Carissa could be, especially considering it was hard to get farther apart than Australia and California.
Except, why was he thinking about relationships at all? It didn’t make sense, and neither did the way he felt a little left out, like an intruder, watching the two women walk arm-in-arm.
Instead of stewing, he got busy, making good on his promise to bring Carissa’s bags up to her room. When he’d arrived, Lena had offered him his pick of the guest rooms and he’d chosen the one at the top of the stairs, the smaller of the two, leaving the one at the back with the prettiest view of the barns and fields for Lena’s friend. Now that he’d met Carissa, he was doubly glad he’d given her the better room.
That task done, he poked his head into his room to check on Pickle. She was right where he’d left her, curled at the foot of his bed. He smoothed a hand over her long, softer-than-soft fur. She let out a little trilling meow, opened her eyes to slits, just enough to confirm it was him before closing them again and going back to sleep with a rumbling purr.
Then he did what he did best: he got out of there.
He thought about going for a swim at the rock pool, which was just a quick walk away at the end of Digger’s Lane, but what he really wanted was to clear his head, and for that he needed speed. He’d tried to outrun his thoughts when he and Carissa had been on his bike, roaring up Tamworth Road, but that had been impossible with her laugh-screaming through the helmet intercom directly into his ear. Her laugh… He’d liked it. Too much.
He was just settling onto his motorcycle when Heath’s ute pulled in the drive, a gum tree waving its branches in the back. His friend had been pulling long days, working overtime in his woodworking shop on the neighbouring property, finishing all the custom orders he’d gotten for the holidays and delivering them. If all went according to plan, Heath’s cottage on the same property would be vacant by January first, and Lachlan would be renting it as his home base.
“Hey mate! You get the girl home all right?” Heath jumped out of the ute and went straight to the back of it.
“Yeah, they’re out in the barn.” He hooked a thumb in the direction of the stables. “Horse is better, sounds like.”
“Good.” Heath gave him a nod. “Thanks for doing that. Means a lot to both of us.” There was a pause. “What’s she like?”
“Carissa?”
“Yeah.”
“Different from Lena. More…” He couldn’t think how to describe her without giving too much away. He opted for a variation of what Lena had told him. “Opinionated. Less… flexible.” Lena was just plain nice. Carissa was more prickly. Like Heath, but Lachlan wasn’t going to say that.
Heath nodded, as if this information was a confirmation of what he already knew. “I just want it to be a good visit.”
“It will be. Those two are thick as thieves. She might start off a bit wary, but I was a complete stranger. She warms up out of it. Probably she’ll warm up faster to you since you won’t be dragging her onto an airplane.”
“She wasn’t impressed?”
“In her words, ‘absolutely not.’” It might not be the whole truth, but he wanted Heath to know he wasn’t going to do anything to mess this visit up for his friend. If Heath needed Carissa to like him, if he needed her to have a good time but notthatkind of good time, then he could deliver.
Heath gave him a slap on the back. “The Devine smile finally wore out, did it?”
“Didn’t work on her a bit.” They both laughed, though that pang of longing was back. Truth was, the minute he’d seen her, he’d wanted to impress her. He wanted the way she’d held onto his hand at Beth’s Truck Stop to mean something. And he desperately needed it not to.
“Give me a hand with this? I want to wash it off, make sure there aren’t any uninvited guests hiding in the branches.” Heath grabbed onto the potted gum tree and pulled it out of the ute bed. “I thought we could surprise the girls and get the lights put on at least.”
“We’d better get to it, then. Carissa was pretty tired by the time we got here, and they’ve been out in the barn awhile already.”
“Doing the evening feed?”
Lachlan shrugged. “No idea.” Horses weren’t his thing. Though if Carissa was going to exercise horses with Lena, he wanted to watch her ride.
After Coppy,Carissa was the first one through the door. “What’s this?”
