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“Tea would be great, thank you.”
I shook my head when Karen motioned to the rocking chairs. “We’ve been sitting all day. You sit, please.” Sam leaned against the post, and I reached for the cup and saucer Lynn handed me. It was all incredibly polite and straight out of the 1950s in a weird way, but they were warm and welcoming, brushing off my awkwardness with a smirk or two.
“So where are you boys originally from?” Jono asked.
I hated that question because I knew it always brought up mixed feelings for Sam, but we needed to get it out of the way. At least people who’d experienced station living usually stopped asking about it once Sam told them the basics. “My parents owned a horse breeding operation just outside of Goondiwindi when we were teenagers. We lost it after the drought. Spent a few years in town after that. Then, when we finished school, we travelled to wherever we could get work.”
“Sorry to hear that, Sam,” Jono replied. “I respect anyone who’s made a go of it like you boys. When Scottie showed me your work history that you’d emailed through, I was impressed. You’ll fit right in here with your experience.”
“We’re looking forward to getting started.” If I could get out there that second, I would. It’d only been a couple of weeks since I’d been on a bike, but I’d been shooting the shit with people far more than I was used to, and I was peopled out. I turned my attention to the paddock where the horses were grazing and sighed wistfully. It’d been years since I’d been on a horse. Most stations used bikes nowadays and Sam avoided horses whenever he could. It’d torn him apart to lose Eadie, not that he’d ever admit to that being the reason he didn’t ride anymore. I missed Delilah every day too, but Sam took Eadie’s loss the hardest. I suspected that losing the farm would have been bearable if he’d been able to keep her.
“G’day” came a deep voice from behind us and on cue, Sam and I turned to see a bloke about our age walking up with an aboriginal couple. The woman was wiping her hands with a rag and all three of them were dusty from head to toe. I recognized his voice, but even if I didn’t, I would have known instantly it was Scottie. He had this presence, a natural leader that left no one in doubt he was in charge. But it wasn’t arrogance that radiated off him. It was something else. A magnetism that made me want to hang off his every word. How the hell he did it, I had no idea. He’d literally said one word and I was in awe of him. It was a great start, me being star-struck over his ma and going bloody googly-eyed over the station manager.
I gave myself a mental slap to the head, shaking myself out of my thoughts, and watched as Sam took the stairs in a couple of steps to land in front of Scottie with an arm outstretched.
The two of them were cut from the same cloth, and I smiled at their matching grins as they checked each other’s get up. Both in trackies, old boots and footy jerseys. Sam wore one from the Brisbane Broncos and Scottie wore a Queensland State of Origin one.
They laughed as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you, mate.” Sam motioned to me. “This is Craig. I’m Sam.”
“Scottie, and this is Yindi, our resident genius with anything mechanical, and Waru, our horse expert.” Sam repeated the action with Yindi, the lady, and Waru, the other man. I exchanged hellos with them too and Scottie told us all about the problem that Yindi had managed to fix in the big tractor. Honestly, I was impressed as hell already, with every single person I was introduced to. And it wasn’t lost on me just how capable the women on the station were. Remarkable really.
Conversation moved onto a tour of the station and when tea would be served. It’d be a while yet, Lynn and Karen wanting to wait for us to arrive before they put the pies in the oven.
“When you’ve finished your cuppa, I’ll take you round.” Scottie motioned to the buildings. “Won’t get time this arvo to get on the horses or bikes, but we’ll do that tomorrow.”
By the time we’d finished the tour of the immediate grounds, I was both in awe and jealous of Scottie. Not so much for me, but for Sam. Owning a station had never been on the cards for me. But the farm had been a possibility for Sam, and Scottie was exactly where Sam should have been at our age. Our parents would be ready to retire, and Sam and I would have been running Hayes Horse Farm. It wasn’t until Sam knocked his elbow into me and shot me a look, that I snapped out of it. “What’s gotten up your arse?” he hissed, brows furrowed and teeth clenched as Scottie shut the door to the shed that we’d just walked out of.
“Nothing, sorry I’ll….” My trail of thoughts disappeared, vanished without a trace when I saw her. Slim with long brown hair, she had a husky laugh that had my dick taking notice. I nearly swallowed my tongue when she raised her hand and waved, rocking gently with the sway of her horse until she lithely slid off the saddle, opened the gate for her mount, and closed it again after the big mare had pushed through.
“What?” Sam followed my line of sight and his eyes widened before he turned to me blinking a few times. “Fuck. She’s gorgeous.”
“Need a hand?” I offered as she walked her mount towards us.
“No thanks, boys. I’ve got this.” She petted the big mare affectionately. “This here is ‘Tella and I’m Ally.” We shook hands and I got lost in her eyes—an incredible ice blue with a darker blue ring around the outside, that had me mesmerized. She squeezed my hand and narrowed those beautiful eyes at me when I held onto her a touch too long. Her grip outmatched her brother’s, and it was just as calloused. My initial assessment of the women of Pearce Station had been spot on. Except for one thing. I’d forgotten to add breathtaking; she was nothing short of it.
Scottie clearing his throat had me spinning towards him again as I readied myself for an arse whooping. I knew enough men so protective of their sisters that they’d fire a bloke on the spot if he was caught looking, never mind flirting or making out with that sister. “So, ah, yeah…,” Sam began.
Scottie laughed and shook his head. “She’ll eat you two for breakfast. You fellas are probably exhausted from driving straight through. Ma and Nan will have tea sorted in about half an hour, so you’ve got time to freshen up if you want.” I nodded, still waiting for Scottie to chew me a new one. Sam scratched the five o’clock shadow that was darkening his cheeks and winced, obviously waiting for the same. “Alrighty,” he continued. “Let’s go get you sorted in your cottage. Head on over to the main house for six-thirty tea.”
Our cabin was the one with the bright blue door. Rustic rough-hewn timber planks were laid vertically down the side with the door and window. The lean-to’s corrugated iron roof changed angles at the edge of the cabin, and the protrusion provided some shade over the door and double-hung windows. Iron sheets were fixed to the side of the small building that I could see, and I worried about the heat that the boxy little cabin would hold. I needn’t have. When Scottie held the door open for us, we entered into a small kitchenette with a two-person table crammed into the corner of the room, a two-seater sofa, which had no leg room and a small TV sitting on the kitchen bench. From there, there was a short hallway, big enough for three doorways. One led to a tiny bathroom with a shower stall, sink, and dunny, and the other two were bedrooms, each with a single bed and a small cupboard in it with a large opening window facing south. Ceiling fans were in every room, and there were wide eaves that ran the length of the front and back of the cabin. Heavy curtains hung in both the bedrooms, and flyscreens covered the windows to keep the bugs out.
“It’s not much,” Scottie said, “but we have plenty of room in the main house to spread out and watch tele in or relax. You’re always welcome in there. You can take the table and chairs outside if you like, and we have a firepit and stools out near the main house that we sometimes sit around in the evenings. Make the place yours, however you like.” He paused for a moment, his eyes flitting around the room. “Keep the outside of the building the same though. Nan’s pop built these cabins so they’re historic.”
“No worries, mate. This is great. Heaps bigger than we’ve had in the past, hey?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, excitement making my pulse spike and a smile break out on my face. “This is brilliant.” I wasn’t even sure whether I meant the cabin, the job, or the sister of the man we were speaking to.
