The Cattleman's Special Delivery by Barbara Hannay Read Free Book Online Page B

depression, but even when the depression lifted she hadn’t come home. She’d moved back to Sydney, keeping Tony with her, and leaving Reece with his father.
    So...apart from his years away at boarding school, Reece had shared his father’s solitary life, and he understood how a man could reach a point where he accepted isolation and loneliness as his destiny.
    He was pretty damn near that point himself. It was certainly too late to expect his old man to change.
    But accepting this didn’t ease Reece’s current dilemma. If he was to manage Warringa, including this year’s cattle muster, he couldn’t also look after his father. He was going to need help, and he was going to have to find that help fast.
    * * *
    To Jess’s surprise, Reece was waiting outside the café when she finished work. He was on the footpath, standing with his hands sunk in his jeans pockets and a bulky shoulder propped against the trunk of a coconut palm. Filtered sunlight lent his black hair the sheen of crow’s feathers. With the additional bonus of his coal-dark eyes, his craggy cheekbones and a faint shadow of beard, he looked frighteningly attractive.
    She didn’t want an attractive man in her life, so it was perverse of her to care that this hunky guy always seemed to catch her looking her worst. This time, she was in her chef’s gear with her hair yanked back off her face, unattractive trousers, a smeared white jacket and sensible lace-up shoes.
    ‘G’day,’ Reece said with a slow smile.
    ‘Hello, Reece.’
    His smile lingered. ‘Has anyone told you, you make a mean steak sandwich?’
    Jess’s jaw dropped. ‘When did you eat at this café?’
    ‘My father and I had lunch here.’
    She remembered now—in the middle of the lunch-time rush, her boss had grudgingly passed on a customer’s compliments.
    ‘Best steak sandwich he’s ever had,’ Joel had grunted, but Jess had been mega busy at the time and hadn’t given it another thought.
    Now, she couldn’t help wondering why Reece was still hanging around. He wasn’t stalking her, surely?
    ‘So I guess that means your dad’s out of hospital,’ she said quickly. ‘How is he?’
    ‘Not too bad, thanks. Right now, he’s relaxing at the motel, enjoying the air-conditioning and the pay TV.’
    ‘I can imagine. I’m glad he’s OK.’
    ‘Well, he’s not totally OK.’ Reece switched his gaze to the distant horizon where the calm waters of the Coral Sea met the sky. Blue on blue. He turned back to her. ‘Were you heading somewhere now?’
    ‘I’m off to the day-care centre to collect Rosie.’
    ‘Walking?’
    Jess hesitated. She liked Reece—probably liked him too much—and she certainly appreciated everything he’d done for her and for Rosie, but she had to be careful. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to chat her up, and she couldn’t afford to give him the wrong idea.
    To her surprise, his dark eyes took on a nervous flicker. His throat worked and he shrugged awkwardly. ‘If that sounded like a pick-up line, it wasn’t what I meant.’
    Gosh, had he read her mind? Feeling just a little confused, she smiled. ‘The day-care’s this way. Let’s go.’
    Reece fell in beside her and, after a short stretch of silence, he said, ‘I was wondering if you planned to shop for the white goods today.’
    Ah...so his interest was purely practical. Jess squashed a ridiculous ripple of disappointment. ‘No, I won’t be shopping for those things today.’ The sad truth was that, for the time being, she would have to make do with a picnic ice chest and hand washing or the Laundromat, but she was too proud to admit this to Reece.
    Now, however, he stopped abruptly, and once again he shoved his hands deep into his pockets.
    They were standing near the fence of a vividly tropical garden, and afterwards, whenever Jess remembered this occasion, she could recall every detail as if the moment had been imprinted on her.
    The hum of traffic half a block away...
    The heady scent of