Adopted: Twins!

But she also looked sort of vulnerable. And underneath the crazy crimplene and riot of fair curls, she looked very, very lovely…

‘You were saying about Tom Burrows?’

‘What?’ It was a big effort to make his mind work on that one when it was thinking about crimplene. Tom Burrows. Who was Tom Burrows? His mind was wandering all over the place-or maybe it was just wandering to one place…

Tom… Oh, right. Orphanage Director. Tom Burrows, the guy who was coming here tonight with pizza while he was having dinner with Charlotte.

Why on earth had he ever agreed to have dinner with Charlotte?

Business! Plans! Future! Get your head screwed back on, McKay, he told himself sternly. He had things he had to tell this lady, rather than stand here like a dummy and try to remember why he’d agreed to have dinner with the best cook in the district-and the lady he’d bought a velvet box…

‘I told Tom you’re welcome to stay here long-term,’ he told her gruffly. ‘Until the Home is rebuilt.’

She paused at that, and turned to face him. Good grief! Had he any idea of what he was offering here?

‘Matt, that’s really nice of you but have you thought it through? Rebuilding might take six months.’

‘That’s no problem. There’s heaps of room, the house is underused, you need a roof over your heads and I’m not putting you out on the street.’

‘The twins can always go into one of our Sydney homes.’ But she sounded doubtful at that.

‘You don’t want them to, though. Do you?’

There was only one answer to that. ‘No,’ she told him. She sighed and looked up at the twins on the tractor.

Which was unusual in itself, Matt thought. He was looking at her, and really seeing her, crimplene and all, but she was totally focused on her responsibilities.

This was a bit of a new thing, as far as Matt was concerned. Good looking and eligible-extremely eligible-Matt wasn’t accustomed to young women looking straight through him.

But there was no doubt about it. She was only seeing the twins.

‘They haven’t had much security,’ she was saying. ‘Bay Beach is mostly it, really. It’s the only place they know. A big city would scare them.’

‘And you’d miss them?’ Still he was focused on her.

She took a deep breath. ‘I only have them between trials of new foster parents,’ she told him. ‘I can’t… I shouldn’t get too attached. Maybe Tom will have organised another couple to give them a try.’

Maybe he would. The thought should have pleased Matt-but then there was a tiny part of him saying that just maybe having this woman and these kids around for a while would be fun.

And suddenly the thought hit home that life wasn’t much fun any more.

Sure he had a great existence, he told himself, surprised by the drab thought that had just entered his head. He had one of the best farms in the district. His stud cattle were internationally renowned, and he had more money than he knew what to do with.

And he had Charlotte.

But…

But what? He really couldn’t say. He could only react to what was going on right now.

William was in the driver’s seat of the tractor and Henry was standing beside him. Tigger was propped up on the windscreen. They’d pushed every button in sight without result, and now Henry was hauling the gear stick, just aching to make something go.

Their aching was irresistible, and so was the need to give them what he wanted himself. Fun.

‘I need to check the cattle in the bottom paddock,’ he called up to them. ‘I’m taking the tractor. Do you want to come for the ride?’

Would they ever? They stared down at him, their eyes as round as saucers.

‘Is it okay with you?’ Matt asked Erin. Maybe he ought to have asked her first.

But her eyes were glowing and he knew straight away that he’d done the right thing.

‘Sure, it’s okay,’ she said, smiling her approval. And then she added a rider. ‘But only if I can come too.’

‘You…’

‘It’s a very big tractor and we can squash,’ she said.

‘There’s no need. I really will look after them.’

‘I’m sure you will.’

‘Well, then…’

‘Well, then what?’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘What, Mr McKay? Why can’t I come?’

‘You mean you want to come?’

‘Of course I want to come. It looks great!’

It looks great… He tried to think of his mother-or Charlotte, for that matter-ever wanting to ride on his tractor and the thought just wasn’t there to conjure. They never would in a million years. ‘I guess you can,’ he said at last. ‘I just didn’t think you’d want to.’

She gave him a look of blank amazement. ‘Why on earth would I want to be left behind? It looks really, really fun.’ She swung herself up into the tractor cab and beamed down at him, a twin at each side. A conspiratorial trio, ripe for adventure, he thought, and he felt stunned.

There were four if you counted Tigger…

‘Can I have a go at steering?’ Erin asked. ‘Please?’

They all had a go at steering.

Matt had to take the long way down to the bottom paddock because a couple of minutes’ steering wasn’t enough for any of them. The tractor was huge. Matt usually used it for hauling heavy harvesting equipment, not for ferrying passengers, but these passengers were entranced and he couldn’t figure out who was the most excited to be in the driver’s seat-the twins or Erin.

The twins went first, of course, with Matt standing behind them carefully controlling their attempts at driving. Then Erin took the seat, and his arms had to lean over her shoulders, just as they had with the twins. But it felt… different.

It was the crimplene, he told himself sternly, feeling just a trifle dazed. He’d never been so close to a woman wearing crimplene.

But the crimplene wasn’t exactly sexy. So why did it feel that it was?

Concentrate on cattle…

The cattle in the bottom paddock were fine. The tractor circled them three times, just to make sure. They circled the cow with her new calf twice, and then, reluctantly, Erin turned the wheel to return to the house.

She was enjoying herself so much! The ride had been wonderful. It really was the most gorgeous day, and they’d been stuck inside with Tigger-washing for most of it. The twins’ faces were glowing, and she didn’t want to usher them back to the white carpets quite yet.

‘Maybe you could drive the tractor back to the house and we could walk,’ she told Matt, but he shook his head.

‘Nope. Not unless you want to walk the long way round. The paddock between here and the house is due for first hay cutting next week and I don’t want you walking in it. There’s too many Joe Blakes.’

‘Joe Blakes?’ The twins were fascinated, as they’d been fascinated by everything Matt said. In their eyes, Matt had achieved almost cult status-not by saving them last night, but by saving Tigger. They thought, simply, that he was the greatest, and they hung onto his every word. Now they waited with bated breath to hear what he had to say about Joe Blakes, and he didn’t let them down.

‘Snakes,’ he said deliciously and they shivered. ‘We breed great big slimy ones hereabouts, and they’ll be all through that paddock.’

Instinctively the boys moved closer to Erin and looked nervously down at the ground around the tractor. But their small boy need for ghoul meant that it was fine-as long as they didn’t have to get off the tractor!

‘It’s safe enough to walk through when it’s cut,’ Matt told them. ‘But not when it’s two feet high.’

‘No.’ They breathed the word as one and Matt grinned. And suddenly he, too, was reluctant to end the day so soon. There was still an hour and a half before Tom was due, and he was expected to leave for Charlotte’s.