Michael shot him a piercing glance. ‘You know my granddaughter almost as well as I do, Gabe. Do you think she’s going to be sensible about everything?’
Gabe hesitated, searching for the best way to answer, but he knew Michael wouldn’t appreciate any pussyfooting around the truth. ‘I’m sure you realise she’s pretty cut up that you want to sell Windaroo.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Michael sighed loudly. ‘But you can understand why I have to, can’t you, boy? I couldn’t go to my grave knowing she’s been left saddled with this place. It’s been getting run down in recent years. There are debts. It would be a huge burden.’
‘Well…I should warn you that she’s planning to outfox you. She’s determined to find a way to stay here.’
To Gabe’s surprise Michael didn’t look as put out by this news as he’d expected.
‘She is, is she?’ he said slowly, and a little of the old sparkle flashed in his eyes. ‘Did she happen to tell you what she has in mind?’
Gabe wasn’t a man to betray a confidence, but Piper had been quite open about her plans. And for some reason he liked the idea of having Michael in the know. The old fellow could vet Piper’s line-up of suitors. ‘She plans to find herself a husband,’ he said.
Michael slapped his thigh gleefully. ‘Well, bully for her.’ He winked at Gabe. ‘She told you this last night, did she?’
Gabe nodded, not at all happy with the shining smile on his old friend’s whiskery face.
‘And?’ Michael prompted eagerly.
‘And what?’
‘And what did you decide to do about it?’
Gabe’s insides took a tumble-turn. ‘What did I decide?’
‘You heard me.’
‘Steady on, old mate. It’s got nothing to do with me.’
‘Hurrumph!’ Michael drooped as if he’d been physically wounded and made no effort to hide his disgust.
‘Hey,’ Gabe cried, leaning forward and shaking Michael’s arm gently. ‘You romantic old fool. You couldn’t possibly have thought I’d propose to her, could you?’
‘Stranger things have happened,’ came the sulky reply. ‘Besides, I know how you feel about her.’
The words seemed to explode in Gabe’s face. It was like the crash all over again. He couldn’t feel his limbs. He was fighting for breath.
I know how you feel about her…What the hell did that mean? The old man was deluding himself. How could Michael know what Gabe himself didn’t know? How was he supposed to feel about Piper?
She was the kid next door. She was special, sure. Gutsy, vibrant, doggedly loyal. He’d always admired her sweet, unaffected nature and her spirit of adventure. He felt a strong bond with her—a sense of responsibility towards her. No doubt about it. But beyond that?
His stomach took a plunge.
No way…The close call with that kiss last night was nothing. It had been an aberration…nothing more. Nothing.
Michael was watching him with the wary attention of a man in the dock awaiting the jury’s verdict.
What the hell did the old fellow expect? Gabe was years older than Piper. Right now he felt as old as Methuselah. He had an uncertain future to sort out. And the stark reality was that he was a damaged man. Even if he wanted to—and he couldn’t honestly say that he did—he couldn’t think twice about shackling himself to a vibrant young woman like Piper.
‘Piper has her sights set on someone much younger and fitter than I am,’ he told Michael.
For an embarrassingly long minute Michael stared at him in disbelief. Then a kind of acceptance seemed to settle in his tired old eyes. ‘Who is he?’ His smile was conspiratorial. ‘We can find out where he drinks and sort him out.’
Gabe laughed. ‘I don’t think she has an actual candidate lined up just yet.’
‘Ah!’ The tension left the old man. He relaxed back into his chair, folded his hands in his lap and smiled contentedly into the distance.
‘But she’s going to start seriously hunting for a husband,’ Gabe added as a warning.
‘Let her hunt,’ came the unexpected reply.
Gabe frowned. ‘I should warn you that she’s looking for a husband in the hope that it will stop you from selling Windaroo.’
‘She’s dead right,’ he responded brightly. ‘I wouldn’t need to sell this place if she had the right man to help her run it.’
‘So you’d be quite happy to see her throw herself on the marriage market?’
Michael eyed him shrewdly. ‘Don’t you think it’s a good idea?’
Gabe shifted uneasily beneath the faded blue gaze. ‘I wouldn’t know what’s best for her. I’m not her grandfather.’
Leaning closer, Michael touched him on the arm so that he had to turn back, and when he did the old fellow winked. ‘I reckon there’s no harm in letting her look around. It’ll help her to see the lie of the land. Right now she can’t see the wood for the trees.’ He winked at Gabe. ‘You’ll keep an eye on her, won’t you, son?’
‘Surely you don’t want me snooping around like some kind of private eye?’
Michael lifted his shoulders in a helpless little shrug. ‘She’s a babe in the woods. There are wolves out there.’
‘I’ll cramp her style.’
But Michael had a trump card up his sleeve. ‘I’m a dying old man. Can’t you do this for me?’
Gabe’s eyes narrowed. He’d never realised Michael Delaney was such a crafty old beggar.
‘You’ll promise me this one thing, won’t you, boy?’
Gabe sighed. ‘I don’t know how long I’m going to be in the district—but OK, it’s a deal.’ Then he shot to his feet.
‘Something smells good,’ Michael said. ‘I’m sure our breakfast’s ready.’
But the conversation had curbed Gabe’s appetite. ‘I need to get back home,’ he said. ‘Jonno’s expecting me to give him a hand with some stockyard work today.’
In the kitchen, Piper was carrying toast and butter to the table when she caught sight of her reflection in a battered old mirror that hung near the hat pegs. She gasped at the sight of herself with her hair all wild and loose around her face like a silky halo.
With hardly a thought to where she dumped the toast, she drifted closer to the mirror. How different she looked. For a moment she forgot the embarrassment of her foolish behaviour last night. She was thinking instead of the gentle, caressing way Gabe had threaded his fingers through her hair and the way he’d stroked her skin.
A tide of pink rose from her neck to her cheeks and she looked happy and rosy. Almost glowing—like a computer-enhanced picture in a glossy magazine.
Idiot!
She had nothing to make her smile. Nothing to go all vain and gooey about. How could she have been so stupid as to ask Gabe to kiss her? Gabe, who’d been kissed and seduced by squillions of sexy women.
She swung away from the mirror. Last night had merely reinforced what she already knew. She had a long way to go before she worked out the finer points of catching a man.
Hurrying into the bathroom, she grabbed her hairbrush and set about flattening her hair, then pulled it back tightly with another elasticised band.
One thing was certain. Next time she practised flirting she’d