Cherish the Land by Ariel Tachna Read Free Book Online Page A

speed up how quickly the doctors came out to talk to them. If nothing else, going to get breakfast would make the time pass faster. “No, I’ll come with you. It’ll do me good to walk around a bit. I’m not used to sitting still.”
     
     
    “M ACKLIN , DO you have a minute?” Seth said when he caught the station owner after breakfast.
    “I can spare one or two.” Ten years ago, the expression—or lack thereof—on Macklin’s face would have sent Seth running for the hills, but he’d learned to see beneath the stoicism and recognize when Macklin really didn’t have time for an interruption.
    “Somewhere private?”
    Macklin looked surprised but led Seth out of the canteen and into the big house. “What’s on your mind?”
    “I… um… I want to come home,” Seth blurted out. “Not just for a visit, but to stay.” Macklin cocked an eyebrow at him and waited, so Seth took a deep breath and plowed on. “I hate Sydney. I mean, I don’t hate it, but it’s big and noisy and people expect things, and it’s not home.”
    “People will expect things here too,” Macklin said. “That’s part of being an adult.”
    “I know that, but the expectations here are that I’ll work hard and pull my own weight, and that if I fuck up, I’ll admit it and get help to fix it,” Seth said. “I can live with those expectations. It’s all the other ones I hate.”
    Macklin nodded, his expression suggesting he understood exactly what Seth was talking about. As far as Seth knew, Macklin hadn’t lived anywhere but Lang Downs since he was a kid, but from the stories he’d heard, Macklin had hidden in plain sight until Caine came along and dragged him out into the open, changing the complexion of Lang Downs for good.
    “Carley said Patrick’s hands were starting to bother him. I could take some of that work off him, and anything else you need me to do, I’ll learn if I don’t already know it,” Seth said. “Please? I… need to come home.”
    “Why?” Macklin asked. “I’m not saying no. I won’t say no, but I need to understand. I can’t help you if I don’t understand.”
    “You won’t tell anyone?”
    “Have you ever heard me telling tales?” Macklin countered.
    Seth hadn’t. He’d heard plenty of gossip when he lived here before, even with the jackaroos trying to protect his “innocent ears,” but none of it had ever come from Macklin’s lips.
    “I broke up with Ilene,” he said, trying to decide where to start. “It wasn’t working between us. There’s… someone else. There always has been, but I can’t…. He’ll never look at me. I know it’s hopeless. He’s with someone else, but at least if I’m here…. Bloody hell, I’m making a complete arse of myself.”
    “Love has a way of doing that to a man,” Macklin agreed. “Here’s the deal. You can stay. This is your home as much as it is his.” Seth grimaced. He hadn’t meant to be that transparent. “But it can’t interfere with your work. Either of your work. If that means you don’t work on the same crew as him, that’s fine. I can assign you to different crew bosses. If that means coordinating your days off so you aren’t off at the same time, I can do that. But it’s up to you to handle the times when you can’t avoid him. In the canteen, in the bunkhouse—unless you’re staying with Chris and Jesse?” Seth had been tempted to do that, but that would be too much like admitting defeat. He shook his head. “Then we’ll need to find you a room in the bunkhouse too. And you’re going to have to deal with the bunkhouse gossip. Neil won’t let them talk about Caine and me, he shuts them down almost as fast when they talk about Jeremy and Sam, and they’re all too scared of Thorne to talk about him and Ian. That leaves Chris and Jesse—who are too domesticated to be interesting most of the time—and whoever might have paired off out there.”
    Seth had heard enough gossip about Chris and Jesse when they were