happy if this was my lot.
They drifted down onto the sand without speaking. A kind of contented silence had built between them. Jackson headed his horse wherever the urge took him and Molly was content to follow. Down on the sand, he headed for the shallows and then, letting that same urge do as it willed, urged his horse into a gallop. Molly followed. They rode side by side, the waves splashing up over their feet and the salt spray misting their faces. When they finally drew to a halt Molly was flushed and laughing and bright with happiness.
‘That was wonderful.’
‘You never learned to do that on a cow.’
‘I did get a horse,’ she admitted. ‘Eventually.’
‘So what in heaven’s name are you doing in the city?’
‘I work in the city.’
‘Your whole attitude screams farm girl.’
‘Gee, thanks. I thought I’d hidden the hayseeds well.’
‘We had a farm ourselves,’ he told her. ‘When I was a kid. My mother owned a holding north of Perth and I spent every moment I could there. And you don’t spend years of your life on a farm without learning a city slicker from a…’
‘From a hayseed?’ Her eyes danced. Honestly, she was gorgeous. He had a sudden almost irresistible temptation to lean over, take her face in his hands and-
Whoa. Where was this headed?
Business. Back to business, Baird. Now!
‘From a hayseed,’ he agreed weakly, and her sudden thoughtful expression had him wondering. Was she feeling what he was feeling? How much a woman of the world was she? Would it hurt to…?
Hell. Business!
‘We’d get a view of the whole place from the cliffs,’ he managed, motioning sideways, and if she could tell his thoughts were disordered she didn’t let on. ‘And it’d be a great spot for lunch.’
‘So it would,’ she said equitably. ‘Okay, MacDuff. Lead the way.’
But the tension didn’t ease.
He didn’t react like this to women, he thought as he finished off the last of Doreen’s sandwiches. Molly had abandoned him on the picnic rug. She’d moved a little way away, aiming to give him space to admire the view. Which was spectacular. He should be concentrating on it entirely instead of being so darned conscious of her that he couldn’t think straight.
Damn, he was never like this with women. He didn’t have to be. There’d always been a woman by his side, ever since his first date aged about fifteen. His combination of money and looks and power proved a powerful magnet that few could resist. And after the last disaster…
Play it light, he told himself, and then he thought, Well, maybe a swift liaison wouldn’t do any harm. Molly wasn’t exactly a teenager. The laughter glinting in the back of her eyes told him she was very aware of his attributes and was sizing him up. She was no fool. She wouldn’t get the wrong impression, as had…
Whoa!
‘There’s wine here,’ he called to her, hauling his thoughts back to practicalities. She was a whole twenty feet away, perched on the branch of a low-growing gum. Below them were the cattle pastures and the slow-moving river drifting out to the sea. The sun was on her face and her eyes held a strange tranquil expression.
How to describe it? It was as if she was hungry, he thought. But not hungry for food. Hungry for life? It was as if she was soaking in every minute of this as if it’d have to last a lifetime.
‘I don’t need wine,’ she told him, hardly changing expression. ‘I don’t need anything.’
Her expression intrigued him. ‘Why do you work in the city?’ he asked curiously. ‘When it’s obvious your love is here?’
‘Sam’s home is in the city.’
‘You moved there when Sam’s parents died?’
‘Wouldn’t you?’
The question took him aback. Would he? He didn’t know, he thought. As the privileged child of wealthy parents he’d never been asked to make the sort of sacrifice Molly was making. Any kind of sacrifice, for that matter.
‘Kids are adaptable,’ he told her, thinking things through. ‘I assume you were living in the country at the time of the accident. Couldn’t Sam have moved there with you?’
‘I tried,’ she said briefly. ‘It was a disaster.’ Should she tell him the whole sad story of Michael? No way. She’d let herself love a rat and it had taken a tragedy to show that to her. She could no longer live in the same small town as Michael. It was hard enough to know he was in the same country.
‘Sam’s parents lived in a plush city apartment and he goes to an inner city school,’ she told him. ‘He needed continuity. So I moved.’
As simple as that. ‘But aren’t you-?’
‘Did you note the carrying capacity of those pastures?’ she demanded, switching track with a definite purpose. ‘It’s amazing. I’ve never read such figures for non-dairy country, and that’s without putting added nutrients on the pastures-something that hasn’t been done for years. If you were to invest in superphosphate-’
‘I’ll invest in superphosphate.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘You mean you’ll buy?’
He corrected himself. ‘
‘It’s a great buy.’
Silence. Somewhere a kookaburra started up, its raucous chortle ringing through the bushland. From where they were settled they could hear the faint crashing of waves on the beach below, and the breeze was a gentle whisper through the gums overhead. The place was indeed magic…
‘This place will sell in two minutes in the open market.’
‘There’s not a lot of buyers with the cash needed to buy a place like this.’
‘I know at least five,’ she said promptly. ‘You want me to name them? You decide against this place and I’ll be on the phone to them in minutes. They don’t know it’s on the market or they’d be beating a path to our door.’
He gave a rueful grin. ‘You do a very pressured sales pitch.’
She smiled. ‘That’s my job.’
‘Selling farms?’
Her smile died. ‘Yes.’
‘But you now sell city properties.’ He was still probing, still searching for what lay beneath. ‘Do you enjoy that?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘There’s no “of course” about it. You’re a country girl, born and bred. Even I can see that.’
‘Well, how about you?’ she asked, trying again to change direction. ‘You spent a lot of your childhood on a farm. Why are you thinking of buying this place? Are you returning to your roots?’
‘You could say that.’
‘From all I hear you spend most of your time overseas.’
‘Until now.’
‘So you’re thinking of settling down here.’ The idea, she decided, appealed to her. This place and this man seemed to suit each other. He sat with his back against a rock, the sun on his face as he gazed out over the pastures to the sea beyond. He looked at peace. Like a man coming home. A man who belonged.
‘Maybe,’ he said at last.
Still she probed. ‘Are you thinking of getting married?’
His face stilled. ‘Why do you suggest that?’
‘I don’t know.’ She shrugged. It was none of her business after all. ‘I guess, when a man thinks of settling…’
‘And Mrs Gray would like a family here?’
‘There is that.’ She smiled as the inexplicable note of tension eased. ‘I hope you’d oblige. After all, it is extremely important to keep the hired help happy.’
‘By having a family?’ He assumed an expression of horror. ‘No way. Not even for the Grays. Maybe I’ll borrow
