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“Sure, okay.”
He turned away and I slipped out of the room, my grey sweats and a tight white thermal top in my hand. When I looked at what I’d grabbed, there was one important thing missing—my jocks. Fuck. There I was wearing loose grey sweatpants with nothing holding the package in place and my uncooperative dick deciding it was suddenly taking an interest in a person I had no right to be looking at.
What had happened to me since that morning? It was as if a switch had flipped. I needed to get my head back in the game. And that game was tea. I shook off my thoughts, pressed down on my filling dick and pulled on my trackies and a pair of old sneakers.
“You ri…” Sam choked as I emerged from the room. He coughed and looked away, adjusting the legs of his jeans as he stood. He already had a pair of boots on, their laces loose so they’d be easy to slip off when we got to the homestead.
We walked together, shoulder to shoulder over to the homestead. Scottie was still hard at work with the cattle, Nan standing watch at the fence as he wheeled and turned Tilly on a five-cent piece.
Finding our usual spots at the table, on either side of Ally, I leaned in and asked, “Everything okay?”
“No, not really. We’ll let everyone know when Den gets here.” He walked in the door only a moment later.
“Help yourselves.” Ma dished up two plates and set them aside, keeping them warm in the oven. “Scottie and your nan will be a while, I think.”
After we’d served ourselves and we were all seated again, Ally cleared her throat, calling our attention to her. “So, you all saw what went down this afternoon. Turns out that Macca wasn’t exactly who he said he was. He was here under false pretences. Scottie’s angry. He feels like he’s let all of us down because he let him onto the station. He hasn’t, but he needs to realize that himself. So, give him some space and understanding please.”
“Is it something we need to worry about?” Sam asked and my heart lurched painfully at the uncertainty in his tone.
“We aren’t sure. We’ve got a call into the lawyer to check what rights we have.”
“Why was he here?” Den asked.
Ally smiled sadly. “It’s not something Scottie would want me to talk about. But we’ll take care of it.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Yindi asked.
Ma smiled her thanks. “We’ll ask the lawyer. We’re sorry to be vague. We don’t want to be, but at this stage we don’t know enough to tell you more.”
“He would’ve gone to Longreach. We can head there. Have a chat to him about not coming back.”
Ally smiled and squeezed my forearm. “I appreciate the offer, but no. It’s not worth risking you two landing in jail.”
“I won’t lay a finger on him.” I smiled, taking her hand in mine.
“I don’t believe you.” She laughed, patting my hand with her free one.
The creak of the screen door sounded and conversation ceased, all eyes on Scottie as he stepped over the threshold and paused. He looked at the table and I followed his gaze to the empty spot next to where he usually sat.
Swallowing hard, I looked away, wishing we’d thought to have Den, Waru, and Yindi spread out more. No words were spoken. He squared his shoulders and strode straight past us, his socked feet not making a sound on the hardwood floor. He made for his bedroom, the quiet snick barely sounding as he closed it.
Nan sighed and slipped into her seat. We looked to her, waiting for her comment. When she did, she was confident; there was no room for argument in her tone. “We’ll sort this mess out. We’ve been through worse and come out okay.” She paused and shared a look with Ma who’d just placed her plate in front of her. “Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
There wasn’t much talking after that. We ate, clearing everything off the plates and going in for seconds. When Ma dished up dessert, Sam asked Ally if she wanted to join us for a cuppa on our veranda. “I know you wanted to talk.”
“I did. But I think… Scottie needs me.”
“Go,” he assured her. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
*****
The last two months had been hell. There were some pretty big dramas between Scottie and Macca. They’d kept it all hushed up, and even Ally had refused to fill us in, but the tension in the air could have been cut with a knife. It was frustrating, but Sam had kept at me, saying I needed to back off—he didn’t think it was any of our business if Ally didn’t want to tell us. She said that it was a personal issue between Scottie and Macca, but the mention of lawyers had both me and Sam worried we’d be turfed out again on our arses. Some old wounds were too easily torn open again.
Ally had begged us to trust her and Scottie. She’d promised that the station wasn’t at risk, but that they needed to protect the land itself. It sounded like semantics to us—we didn’t see what the difference was. Then when we saw Scottie up and head into Longreach and come back with Macca in tow, we were even more confused. Ally wouldn’t talk and we’d been pissed off. Ma and Nan had assured us that we shouldn’t beat Macca into the ground and Scottie had told us how much he appreciated our loyalty. But he still wouldn’t budge on telling us what happened. In the end, I’d thrown my hands up and told ’em all I needed to be fed more horseshit if I was gonna be a mushroom and kept in the dark. They’d fucking laughed.
But then things got serious.
The Ekka had come and gone, and Scottie did his lone pilgrimage to the agricultural show in Brissie. Except this time he took Macca. It was the first time he’d gone with another person and there were more than a few raised eyebrows and pissed off mutterings at the dinner table when we’d found out he’d picked the new bloke instead of us. When they came back, Scottie was sick as a dog. A few nights in hospital and he was with us again, but so damn weak it wasn’t funny. The man who’d never missed a day’s work since Sam and me had arrived on the station had been barely able to get out of bed. We were worried, and when Nan got sick and we were fucking terrified. She was the glue that held the station together and if she hadn’t pulled through, I didn’t know what we’d do. It would happen one day—we all knew that—but thankfully not yet.
