Down Outback Roads (29 page)

What felt like five minutes later, Kree reopened her eyes. She recognised familiar landmarks and knew they’d been driving close to two hours. It wouldn’t be long until they reached Marellen. The white cross of Fergus’s roadside memorial came into view as they rounded the sharp corner. Surprise jolted her fully awake. Ewan wasn’t taking the usual
side road into the homestead; he was driving the road he hadn’t driven since Fergus’s death. She turned to him. Ashen beneath his tan, his eyes were fixed on a distant point and his knuckles shone white on the steering wheel.

She rested a hand on his denim-covered thigh. ‘Ewan? Are you okay?’

He nodded as though words were impossible to speak.

The memorial flashed past and he visibly relaxed.

He released a deep breath. ‘I’m hoping it will get easier.’

‘It will.’

He covered her hand on his thigh with his own. ‘It might have taken a while to get it through my thick head, but you’re right, I need to accept Fergus is gone and that the accident wasn’t my fault.’

Incapable of words, Kree turned her hand over beneath his so their palms touched, and she entwined her fingers with his. Ewan had climbed out of the abyss carved by his guilt. No longer would the past hold him hostage.

The blinker sounded as Ewan turned into Marellen’s driveway. But instead of crossing the cattle-grid he pulled to the side, stopped beside the white picket fence and turned off the ignition.

He smiled an almost boyish smile. ‘Out we get.’

‘Out we get?’

But Ewan had already left the car. He opened the side door and took her hand to help her stand. He wrapped an arm around her waist and turned her to face Marellen’s front entrance. Hip-to-hip, they studied the tree-lined drive. Amber leaves drifted from the twin rows of towering poplars, standing like living flames. The red rooftop of the homestead gleamed in the distance.

‘I’d forgotten how beautiful the drive in is,’ Ewan said, tone hushed.

‘It is, and to think my grandparents planted the poplars.’

‘I know.’ Ewan tugged her against him and she rested her head against the warm wall of his chest. Beneath her ear his heartbeat sounded steady and strong.

He cleared his throat. ‘I thought this would be the perfect place to have our “talk”, if you are up to it?’

She lifted her head to see his expression. The hollows in his cheeks had become more pronounced. Her stomach plummeted to her toes. She’d never be up to having their talk if it travelled along a different path than she wanted it to.

Eyes fathomless, he held her gaze. ‘I was hoping … we could take the no promises card off the table.’

Joy unfurled within her. A joy so exquisite and precious it stole her breath. ‘As in you want to … make promises to each other.’

‘If that’s what makes you feel safe.’

She twined her arms around his neck, uncaring how the quick movement sent the world into a spin. ‘There’s only one thing you could ever say that would make me feel safe.’

Need and hope raced across his eyes. He pulled her even closer. ‘I love you, Kree.’

‘I love you t –,’ she whispered, before he stole her words with a kiss that made her all the promises she’d ever need.

As if from a long distance away, Ewan’s phone played ‘Going to the Chapel’ from within the car.

‘Are you also going to tell me why you have that song on your mobile?’ she said against his mouth.

‘I made the mistake of leaving my phone on the kitchen
table before I left for the tourist centre opening and Tish got to it. I’ve been a little too … distracted … to change it.’

Kree leaned back in Ewan’s arms to see the face she’d once had trouble reading. But no longer were his features a closed book. She could see his every emotion. Now, her slow-smiling and gorgeous Aussie country-boy had let her into his world.

‘I will,’ she said, voice soft.

‘You will? But I haven’t asked you yet?’

‘You have. Just not in words.’ Fingers unsteady, she touched the firm line of his jaw. ‘By your side is where I want to be and it doesn’t matter if it isn’t in Colorado.’ She grinned. ‘Even though I do happen to know of a secluded mountain cabin filled with old west memorabilia that would be perfect for a honeymoon, or for taking Braye and Darby over for a holiday.’

Ewan’s mouth again covered hers and when they drew apart to breathe, happiness lightened his eyes to a clear grey. ‘So, there’s no hope I’ll get the man-cave back?’

‘No hope at all, so you’d better get used to sharing. It just needs some air-conditioning and it will make a perfect art studio. You do realise your confirmed bachelor days are also over?’

‘Absolutely. I’m the first to admit that Marellen will be rather quiet when Tish and the boys leave, so we will need a noisy goat and a boot-chewing puppy.’

She looked over his shoulder at the homestead bathed in the late-afternoon light that would again be filled with love and laughter. ‘And kids.’

‘Lots of kids.’

Hand-in-hand, they walked to the ute. A whirly-wind sent a delicate spiral of ochre dust dancing alongside her. Her fingers tightened around Ewan’s. She smiled.

Love had taken her mother from Marellen but love had brought Kree down red outback roads and … home.

by Alissa Callen

Paige Quinn will let nothing and no one distract her from caring for her wheelchair-bound father, Connor, and fighting for her remote, drought-stricken property, Banora Downs. Least of all a surprise farm-stay guest named Tait Cavanaugh, whose smooth words are as lethal as his movie-star smile.

Except Paige can’t help noticing that, for a city-boy, Tait seems unexpectedly at home on the land. And he does ask a lot of questions …

It doesn’t matter how much he helps out or how much laughter he brings into her life, she soon suspects he is harbouring a big secret – the real reason he has come to Banora Downs …

A captivating rural romance featuring an indomitable young woman determined to save her family farm, and the city-boy who is not all he seems …

Available now!

by Cheryl Adnams

Gabrielle didn’t believe men like this existed in real life – the three Muller brothers are ridiculously good-looking, and they’re officially her new bosses. She’s in need of a change of scenery, and the Mullers’ winery might just be the right place …

Seth Muller isn’t sure it’s a good idea to bet on who can seduce Gabby first, but the new girl working at the winery is too gorgeous to give up to his brothers without a fight. But what happens if he starts to fall for her? Will he lose everything if she finds out what he’s done?

A sizzling rural romance set in the McLaren Vale, with a girl who’s ready for a change and the three brothers who are determined to win her over.

Available now!

Once a teacher and a counsellor, she remains interested in the life journeys that people take. She is also partial to historic homesteads and gardens and has been known to drive hours to visit an open-garden.

She draws inspiration from the countryside around her, whether it be the brown snake at her back door or the resilience of bush communities in times of drought or flood. She currently lives on a small slice of rural Australia in central western New South Wales.
Beneath Outback Skies
was her first novel and
Down Outback Roads
is her second.

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