The Cattleman's Ready-Made Family. Michelle Douglas

her. ‘Are the littlies okay?’ one of the women asked her.

      Tess hesitated, her gaze darting back to the circle of children. ‘I think so.’ She swallowed. She’d given an account of Ty and Krissie’s circumstances in her application letter. Not a full account, perhaps, but full enough. She didn’t doubt that everyone in the room knew about the death of their parents. ‘It’s just that they’ve been through so much in such a short space of time…Little things can unduly upset them.’

      ‘An angry man isn’t a little thing. Especially when you’re five years old.’

      Tess had to close her eyes for a moment. An angry man. The shaking started back up inside her. Lorraine touched her arm. ‘I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Tess. Lance has a lot on his mind at the moment, but that doesn’t excuse his behaviour.’

      Lorraine was obviously appalled.

      ‘It wasn’t your fault.’ But…She twisted her hands together. ‘Is there anything I ought to know?’

      The women surrounding them discreetly melted away, leaving Tess and Lorraine alone. Lorraine gripped her hands together. ‘Cameron and Lance have had the most dreadful falling out, Tess. They haven’t spoken to each other in over ten months.’

      Ten months!

      Lorraine’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I…I certainly didn’t expect any of that fallout to land in your lap, though. I’m absolutely mortified.’

      The older woman’s heartache tugged at her. But…‘That forty hectares?’ she whispered.

      Lorraine blinked hard and swallowed. ‘I knew nothing about it, I promise.’

      The shaking inside her started to slow.

      ‘Tess, I can’t tell you how sorry—’

      She reached out to clasp the other woman’s hands. ‘There’s no need to apologise further, Lorraine.’ She had no desire to make things even harder for the other woman. Especially when she’d gone to so much trouble to welcome them to town so warmly. ‘Let’s forget about it.’ She made herself smile and then turned to check on Ty and Krissie again. She prayed there hadn’t been any permanent harm done there.

      ‘Honey.’ Lorraine moved in close so they were touching shoulders. ‘I understand your concern. Your Ty and Krissie have had a lot to deal with, but…children are remarkably resilient, you know?’

      She gave a shaky laugh. ‘Are they?’ She didn’t have a clue.

      ‘Yes, I promise. And I promise they’ll be okay. All you can do is love them the best you can…as you obviously do. All of us here in Bellaroo Creek will do our best to become a second family to them. It’ll all work out in the end.’

      The other women, who’d moved back in closer, all nodded and murmured their agreement.

      They made it sound so easy.

      Why, then, was it proving so very, very hard?

      CHAPTER THREE

      CAM WENT TO knock on Tess’s front door, but the sound of voices out the back had him redirecting his path around the side of the house.

      Tess, Ty and Krissie all sat on a bright blue rug beside the lemon tree. They sat in a row—Tess in the middle—with legs stretched out in front of them and their backs to the sun, and him.

      The scene hit him in a place he’d thought he’d locked up for good. For three beats of his heart a gnawing, ragged ache threatened to split him open. Reaching out, he steadied himself against the boards of the house. He’d dreamed of being part of a picture like this once. Ten short months ago, in fact, though it seemed like a lifetime ago now.

      A family.

      His jaw clenched. Lance and Fiona had stolen this from him.

      A boulder of a lump stretched his throat. His temples pounded.

      No! He refused to be beguiled by this dream again. He would never again open himself up to the kind of betrayal Lance and Fiona had inflicted upon him.

      Filling Kurrajong House with a family, that had all been a ludicrous, out-of-reach dream. He’d found that out the hard way, just like his father. Unlike his father, however, he had no intention of burying himself on Kurrajong Station and stewing in ‘what might have beens’ and regrets, and waiting for death to come claim him. He’d fill the gaps somehow.