Kate Hoffmann - Brody

“Maybe.” What Teague said might be true. She and Sam had known each other for years and the passion between them had faded to nothing more than a dull glow. But with Brody, there was fire, flames shooting up into the sky every time their bodies came together. Maybe all the things she didn’t know just kept it more exciting.

“I’m flying into Brisbane day after tomorrow. Do you and Gemma want to ride along? You’d mentioned you wanted to shop.”

“I have to work,” she said.

“We’ll be back before dark. I can’t land on the station after sunset. And I’m sure some of the guys will take over your duties for a day.”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Payday is Friday,” Teague countered. “And I’d be happy to loan you a dollar or two if you’re short.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that.”

“Hey, I think you’re a trustworthy sort.”

“Then you haven’t heard of my criminal past,” she said, laughing. “I met your bother in jail.”

“Callum mentioned something about that. I guess we’ve all done things in the past that we wished we could change.” He stood, then held out his hand to help her up. “Can I ask you something? From a woman’s point of view?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Do you think it’s possible to forgive past mistakes? I mean, if things get royally stuffed up, is it possible to begin again?”

“I don’t know,” Payton said. She’d wondered the same thing. “I’m not sure you can ever go back and fix the mistakes you’ve made. You can just go forward and promise not to make them again.”

He nodded, then smiled. “Yeah, I see what you mean.” He drew a deep breath. “Listen, if it’s all right with you, can we vaccinate those yearlings next week? I’ve got somewhere I need to be.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “Except to Brisbane, if you still plan to take us.”

“That I do,” he said as he strolled out of the stable. Brody passed him as he wandered in with his horse. Glancing back over his shoulder, he sent his brother an irritated frown, then turned to Payton. “What did he want?”

“He just stopped by to say hello,” she said. “We were going to vaccinate the yearlings, but then something else came up.” She slipped her gloves on. “He’s going to fly Gemma and me to Brisbane on Saturday.”

“And what are you and Gemma going to do in Brisbane?”

“Shop. I need to buy some work clothes,” she said, glancing down at Davey’s jeans and shirt. “And maybe we’ll have some lunch and get a pedicure and a manicure. I’d like to get my hair cut, too. I feel like I need a change. This hair just gets in the way.”

Brody rested his hands on her shoulders and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “But I like the way you look right now.” He rubbed a stray strand between his fingers. “And I’m fond of your hair.”

Pulling her against him, he kissed her again, this time more passionately. A shiver skittered through her body and she felt her desire warm. It didn’t take much to make her want to pull him into a stall and tear off their clothes. “We could go to Brisbane together,” he suggested. “Maybe spend the day at the beach instead. Do some surfing.”

“It’s really a girls’ day out,” she said. “I’m sure you can get along without me for a day, can’t you?”

“I don’t know,” he teased.

“We’ll spend the evening together. I’ll be back before dark. Teague said he can’t land once it’s dark.”

“Which means he’ll probably find a way to keep you both in Brisbane for the night,” he said cynically.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think Teague has something else going on.”

“Why is that?”

“He asked my advice. Something about starting over again.”

Brody sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, hell. That can only mean one thing. Hayley Fraser. I figured that’s where he was off to last night. Callum is going to be mad as a meat-ax.”

A giggle slipped from Payton’s lips.

“What?” Brody asked.

“How could a meat-ax get angry? And what is a meat-ax?”

“I don’t know. What would you say?”

“Mad as a…wet hen?” She laughed. “All right. Yours is much better.”

“Wet hen,” he muttered. “That’s just lame. Who would be afraid of a wet hen?”

“Why will Callum be angry?”

“There’s a lot of history between our family and the Frasers. It has to do with a piece of land that Hayley’s grandfather claims my great-grandfather stole from the Frasers. We’ve been fighting about it for years.”

“A family feud. Like the Hatfields and McCoys.” She paused. “The Montagues and Capulets.”

“Yeah, I think Teague and Hayley fancied themselves Romeo and Juliet back when they were teenagers. They were obsessed with each other, to the point where my mum and dad thought they might run away and get married. Then Teague went off to university and a few months later, Hayley ran away. After that, he never mentioned her name again.”

“What happened?”

Brody shrugged. “I don’t know. Teague doesn’t talk about it. He was really messed up for a while.”

“So if they’re Romeo and Juliet, who are we?” she asked. “Bonnie and Clyde?”

He grinned. “I loved that movie. And we did meet in jail.”

“They died in the end of the movie. Riddled with bullets, I think.”

“So you’re expecting a happy ending for us? I can’t think of a movie that ended happily. Casablanca. No, that one really didn’t-how about-no, that one ended badly, too.”

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” she murmured. A happy ending? Payton hadn’t thought about the future at all. It was silly to think that she and Brody would share anything beyond her time in Australia. “Life isn’t a movie. It’s not…perfect.” She reached out and took the reins of his horse. “And I have work to do.”

“Time for a break,” he said. He circled her waist with his hands and lifted her until she could swing her leg over his horse, then handed her a small canvas bag. “Come on. Let’s go for a ride.”

Brody hooked his foot in the stirrup and settled behind her, taking the reins from her hands and slipping his arm around her waist.

“I haven’t been on a horse in years,” she said. “Where are we going?”

“I fancy a swim. And there’s dinner in that sack.”

“I don’t have a suit.”

“Then you can sit on the shore and watch for crocs.”

He gave the horse a kick and guided it out of the stable. They rode in silence past the outbuildings and toward a small grove of trees in the distance. The sun was low in the late-afternoon sky but the air was still warm. Winter in Queensland was more like summer in Maine-the nights cool, sometimes chilly, and the days comfortably warm.

“Won’t the water be cold?”

“The pond is pretty shallow,” he said.

“Are there really alligators?”

“No. We don’t have alligators, we don’t have crocodiles, either. They’re not common in this part of Queensland. Teague was just being cheeky with you.” He paused. “Although, I suppose they could wander in here without us really knowing.”

“Snakes, crocodiles, spiders. It’s kind of easy to get hurt here.”

He nuzzled his face into her neck. “I’ll protect you.”

“Who will protect you?”

They reached the pond a few minutes later. It wasn’t like any pond Payton had ever seen. The water was brown, like the soil around it, and a pipe led from the pond to a nearby windmill. She studied the shoreline, searching for anything that moved. “How long can a crocodile hold its breath?”

“An hour, maybe more,” Brody said. “The saltwater crocs are the bad ones. Freshwater crocs aren’t nearly as nasty. And if they were here, they’d be on the shore, warming themselves in the sun.”