Suddenly, she drew her legs into the car and pulled the door smartly shut. Had he been gaping? Perhaps he was more of a country hick than he realised. Through the window, she studied him and chewed her full bottom lip, showing a trace of vulnerability for the first time. ‘I’ve come to see Scott. I hope he’s home,’ she said.
Callum swallowed. He knew she’d come looking for Scott and he should have been thinking about that instead of gaping at her mouth and her hair and her feet!
‘Ah—’ a painful constriction dammed his throat ‘—I’m—er—I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed. Scott’s—’ Stuff this! He avoided looking at her as he blinked stinging eyes. ‘Scott’s not here.’
‘What?’ She stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief and despair. ‘Where is he?’ Her strength seemed to leave her suddenly. She looked crumpled and crestfallen. ‘I’ve—I’ve driven all the way from Sydney. I’ve got to see him.’
Callum shot a hopeless glance to the darkening sky. If it hadn’t been so late in the day, he would have considered breaking the bad news and sending her packing! But there was less than half an hour of daylight left.
Forcing her to go back down the rough Kajabbi track in the dark wasn’t an option. Chances were she’d get bogged again, or even worse she could hit a deep rut and turn this little death trap over.
‘I’ll tow you out of here and you’d better follow me up to the homestead,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’ Her reply came in a whisper and she looked very pale, as if the stuffing had been knocked right out of her. ‘But can I contact Scott from there?’
Callum cleared his throat. ‘It’ll be easier to explain about Scott when we get back to the house.’
Without waiting to see her reaction, he spun on his heel and climbed back into the ute, calling over his shoulder, ‘Let your handbrake off and don’t turn your engine on yet. Just leave it in neutral.’
He edged the truck forward and the creek-bed released her car easily. After towing her to the top of the small rise, he stopped while he unhitched the vehicles. ‘The homestead’s only a kilometre down the track. See you there.’ Without looking her way again, he accelerated around a bend and headed for Birralee.
Scott wasn’t here. It was more than she could bear. Stella fought to stay calm as she guided her little car over the last twists and turns of the bumpy track. She’d been keeping all her worries to herself for too long, but she couldn’t hold on much longer.
She had never been one for confiding in her friends and the events of the past few months had snowballed into an unbearable, secret burden. First, when she’d realised that Scott hadn’t been as committed to their relationship as she’d believed, there had been the unpleasantness of the breakup.
Then she’d discovered she was pregnant!
She’d almost lost the plot when she’d learned that, but after taking time to get used to the idea she’d tried to contact Scott. The message on his answering machine had said he would be out mustering the back blocks of Birralee for several weeks.
The final blow had fallen with a phone call from London and the job offer of her dreams! A British television network wanted to hire her skills as a meteorologist to head the research for a series of documentaries about global warming in Europe.
She couldn’t believe the bad timing!
She’d studied so hard and had worked her socks off in the hope of scoring a contract like this, but the amount of travel involved and the primitive living conditions required on location meant it wasn’t a job for a woman with a tiny baby.
If only she and Scott had been more careful! But there’d been too many laughs…too much country-boy charm…too many empty assurances that she really was the one and only woman for him…
Stella knew they were poor excuses. She was educated. She was a scientist! She knew better! But…for the first time in her life, she’d allowed herself to let go…
She’d let herself be just a little like her mother. And, just like her mother, her mistakes had caught her out.
She carried the consequences within her. The cluster of little cells, multiplying rapidly every day. Oh, God! She’d been carrying the secret burden of her pregnancy for four lonely months now and she couldn’t keep it to herself any longer.
She had to speak to Scott.
The job offer had been too wonderful to resist and so she’d accepted it, but she couldn’t fulfil her contract without Scott’s help. Scott, where are you? At the very least, I need to talk this through with someone.
Ahead of her, Callum had pulled up in front of a typical outback homestead. She’d never visited one before, but she was familiar with the image—a low and sprawling timber house with a ripple-iron roof and deep verandas set in the middle of an expanse of lawn and shaded by ancient trees.
So this was Scott’s home—Birralee. This was where the father of her baby had been born. He’d run on this grass as a little boy. He was at home in this wild, rough country with its rocky red cliffs, its haze of soft green bush and its vast wide plains, so flat you could see the curvature of the earth as you drove across them.
And of course this was Callum’s home, too.
He stood waiting, his blue heeler squatting obediently beside him. His face remained fierce and unsmiling as she parked her car on the grass next to his truck. He’d taken his hat off and she saw the tangle of his dark, rough curls and the golden brown lights that might soften his eyes if he’d let them.
Callum had never looked very much like Scott. Where Scott was blond and boyish, full of sunshine and laughter, Callum was darker and older, more stormy and grim. OK…she had to admit he was still good-looking in his own hard way.
Who was she trying to kid? Callum was incredibly good-looking. Heaven knew, she’d been attracted to him from the very first moment she’d laid eyes on him. But he had a dangerous brand of good looks that fascinated yet unnerved her. There was a magnetic fierceness about Callum that pierced hidden depths in her and threatened her inner peace.
She’d recognised a perilous intensity in him on the night they’d met…
Get a grip! You’ll be a complete mess if you think about that now!
Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to spend too much time around him. She needed inner peace more than ever now. She needed cheering up.
She needed Scott.
Where was Scott? Why hadn’t Callum told her straight away where he was? Her stomach churned and her smile was grim as she climbed out of her little car and stretched cramped limbs.
‘Do you have much gear?’ Callum asked.
‘Just one bag and a bird cage.’
‘A bird cage?’ He didn’t try to hide his surprise.
Her chin lifted. ‘I had to bring my bird. My flatmate’s absolutely hopeless about remembering to change Oscar’s seed or water. Last time I left him with her, the poor darling nearly dehydrated.’
Carefully, she extracted the cage from the back of her car and eyed his cattle dog warily as she made introductions. ‘This is Oscar.’
Callum scowled at the little blue budgerigar.
‘What’s your dog’s name?’
Her question seemed to surprise him. ‘Mac,’ he muttered.
At the sound of his name, Mac’s ears pricked and he sprang to his feet, tail wagging madly.
‘Hi, Mac.’ She shot Callum a cautious glance. ‘He doesn’t like to nip at small birds, does he?’
He cracked a brief smile. ‘He’s a true blue heeler. From when he was a pup he knew that his mission in life was to nip