Expecting Miracle Twins by Barbara Hannay Read Free Book Online Page B

however, was still protesting. ‘But we don’t have the gear.’
    ‘We can stop off at a camping store on the way home. It’ll only take a minute to buy a little stove and a billy and they’re dirt cheap.’
    Jake shook his head but his eyes were warm as he smiled at her, and she could feel that warmth all the way to her toes.

CHAPTER FOUR

    J AKE had to hand it to Mattie.
    Single-handedly, she had given Roy a perfect two hours. The old guy had been deliriously happy, ensconced in an easy chair in their front garden with Brutus snuggled in his lap, while Jake boiled a billy on a small gas ring.
    The morning had been filled with laughter and a huge sense of fun, part of which involved making the billy tea with as much formal ritual as a Japanese tea ceremony.
    Summoning immense dignity, Roy threw a handful of loose tea leaves into the pot. Mattie gave the brew a flourishing stir with the mandatory gum tree twig and Jake swung the billy in a wide arc to mix the brew, pleased that he hadn’t lost the knack.
    They drank their tea out of tin mugs, which Mattie had found in the camping store, and they ate scones, which she’d bought from a bakery and warmed in the microwave, serving them liberally smothered with butter and golden syrup.
    ‘Next time I’ll make you proper damper,’ she assured Roy.
    Jake wanted to tell her that she needn’t worry about next time, that Roy wasn’t her responsibility. But he sensed the advice would be water off a duck’s back for Mattie Carey. She’d taken Roy under her wing in the same way she’dsaved Brutus from the animal refuge, and she’d cared for her grandmother and, no doubt, countless other people.
    It was clearly the way Mattie was wired. She bent over backwards to please people, to find ways to make them happy. Jake wondered how many people went out of their way to make her happy. Who went to great lengths to make her face light up with the same happiness and amazement he’d seen in Roy this morning?
    By the time Roy returned to the nursing home, he was a very different old man. He was walking more confidently and grinning from ear to ear, and Jake could have sworn he saw more colour in his face.
    But it came as a shock to realise that Roy wasn’t the only guy who’d changed in Mattie’s company. Jake felt different too. This morning, buzzing about Sydney in her little car, hunting down camping stores and mucking about with that tiny gas ring, he’d felt more relaxed than he had in years. He’d been more optimistic too, less cynical and not nearly as self-absorbed.
    He really liked the person he became when he was around Mattie. He was beginning to think that if he’d had more time, he would like to get to know her better, to let their acquaintance deepen into friendship. Not that he was in the habit of developing friendships with women.
    His time in Mongolia was so unbearably long and his leave so annoyingly short that he usually spent most of his leave trying to meet as many different women as possible. A deep and meaningful friendship with one woman was not and never had been on his agenda.
    Meeting Mattie, however, had thrown him off balance. He was sure he should do something about that, but he had no idea where to start.
    ‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’ Mattie punctuated her comment with a happy sigh as they headed back into the city, with Jake still behind the driving wheel. ‘Roy’s a darling.’
    Jake chuckled. ‘He’d be red as a tomato if he heard you calling him a “darling”. As far as I can remember, he’s always been shy around women.’
    ‘A lot of those Outback guys are.’ Mattie shot him a cheeky sideways glance. ‘Present company excluded.’
    Jake shrugged this aside. ‘Roy certainly took a shine to you.’
    ‘Maybe…but he’s very fond of you, Jake.’
    ‘Yeah…well…I guess he looks on me as the son he never had.’
    ‘That’s nice.’
    The tone of Mattie’s voice made Jake glance at her. Her smile had turned inward, as if