knelt at the coffee table as Gray fanned the cards onto its smooth glass surface, showing bright photos of kangaroos, pink-flowering gum trees and wide red plains shimmering beneath sunburned skies.
‘Is that where you’re going to take us?’ asked Josh.
Gray nodded.
‘Is your house like this one?’ Anna picked up a card that showed a faded, shabby homestead with a broad iron roof standing alone in the middle of a sparse red desert.
‘More or less,’ Gray admitted with some reluctance.
The little girl stared with large worried eyes at the rather ugly house and stark forbidding landscape.
‘We have more trees than that and quite a decent garden,’ Gray amended, feeling rather like a real estate agent trying to sell inadequate property. ‘My homestead is painted white, and there are lots of extra buildings.’
‘What kind of buildings?’
He realised now that he should have brought proper photos of Jabiru Creek Station, instead of these generic tourist images. ‘We have machinery sheds and storage sheds and houses for the ringers.’
‘What are ringers?’
‘They’re stockmen.’
‘Cowboys,’ added Holly cheerfully as she came into the room with a coffee pot and two black and white mugs.
‘Except that in Australia we don’t call them cowboys,’ Gray amended with a smile.
‘Can we ride horses?’
The animated excitement in Josh’s face was a stark contrast to the sudden fear in Anna’s dark brown eyes. Gray’s chest tightened. His daughter looked so much like her mother. So beautiful, like a delicate flower, and right now, so worried and sad.
‘I have a nice little horse that you can learn to ride,’ he told Josh. For Anna’s sake he added, ‘But you don’t have to ride if you don’t want to.’
He tried to cheer Anna with a smiling wink. She wouldn’t remember how she used to love to ride in the saddle in front of him, while he kept one arm around her and one hand holding the reins. To his dismay, her lower lip trembled. Damn. He had so little experience in handling kids. The simplest thing could suddenly become a huge problem.
Holly, who’d made herself comfortable in an armchair, leaned forward and picked up another card—a picture of blue sky reflected in a large pool of water at the bottom of a steep red-walled gorge.
‘Look, Anna,’ Holly said. ‘Isn’t this beautiful?’
Over the children’s heads, her expressive dark eyes sent Gray a silent message. They needed to change the subject.
‘Do you have beautiful places like this on your ranch?’ she asked him.
‘Sure. We have a fabulous deep gorge and a sizeable river.’
‘Can you swim there?’ Holly asked with an encouraging smile.
Not unless you’re willing to risk being eaten by a crocodile.
Sidestepping that question, Gray said instead, ‘There’s a dam near the homestead where you can swim.’ When it’s not too hot or muddy.
He tentatively touched his daughter’s arm. Her skin was soft and smooth and perfect and his heart lurched. He hated to think of her being muddy or sunburned or in any kind of danger from the harsh environment that was his home.
Would he be able to take proper care of her? He hunted for something positive to tell her.
‘Do you like puppies, Anna?’
She nodded solemnly.
‘I have a nice kelpie and she’s going to have babies very soon. By the time we get home there might be puppies.’
‘How many puppies?’
‘Maybe three or four.’
Anna’s eyes widened. ‘Are they all in their mommy’s tummy?’
‘Yes. They’re growing fat and wriggly and they’re almost ready to be born.’
‘Like Josh and me? We were together in our mommy’s tummy.’
Gray tensed, expecting his daughter to burst into tears now that she’d inadvertently mentioned her mother. His skin grew clammy. His heart picked up pace. Hell. What should he do and say now?
Holly spoke for him. ‘That’s right, Anna. The puppies are just like you and Josh, all together in their mommy’s tummy.’ She said this smoothly and calmly, as if nothing awkward or dangerous had happened. ‘If there are three puppies, they’ll be triplets. If there are four they’ll be quads.’
To Gray’s surprise, Anna grinned, clearly pleased with Holly’s answer.
‘Why don’t you two have a game of Snap while your dad drinks his coffee?’ Holly suggested next. ‘Take the cards through to your room. I’ll call you as soon as lunch is ready.’
‘Is Dad having lunch with us?’ Josh asked.
‘Of course. He’ll be staying here with us for a few days.’
Satisfied, the boy began to gather up the cards and the two trotted happily off to their room.
As they left, Gray sent Holly a surprised smile, shaking his head. ‘They did exactly what you asked. Are they always so obedient?’
She laughed. ‘Heavens, no. Although they’re getting better all the time.’ She poured coffee into two mugs. ‘Here’s your coffee. Drink it while it’s hot.’
‘Thanks.’ He relaxed into the sofa and took a deep sip. The coffee was indeed hot and strong and of very good quality.
Over the rim of his mug he stole a closer look at Holly O’Mara. Although he’d only met her a few times, he was sure there was something different about her. He tried to decide what it was. Was her face thinner? Was that why her dark eyes now looked larger, her mouth more curving and lush, her cheekbones more defined?
Or was there something different about her expression?
The change was hard to pin down, but he sensed a depth in Chelsea’s young cousin that he’d never been aware of before. He knew these past three months must have been very hard on her. No doubt she’d had to grow up fast.
Whatever it was about Holly that was different, the change seemed to suit her. And she’d clearly done a very good job of looking after his children.
‘I hope you realise how very grateful I am,’ he said. ‘Honestly, the way you’ve taken care of the twins has been amazing. Fantastic. It can’t have been easy—being dumped with everything after…after Chelsea…’
Holly nodded. ‘There have been some grim moments, but each day gets better.’
Gray wondered, somewhat anxiously, about the ‘grim moments’. He sat for a bit in silence, wrapped in worried thoughts as they drank their coffee.
‘How’s your ankle?’ Holly asked politely.
‘Oh, it’s fine.’ He pulled a face, remembering the exasperation of the floods, and then the further frustration of his accident. ‘You have no idea how maddening it was not being able to get here any sooner.’
She let out a soft huff. ‘I’ll admit it wasn’t easy at this end, either, trying to convince Anna and Josh that you were held up all that time by floods.’
‘I’m sorry.’
She shook her head. ‘No, you couldn’t help it, and you did the right thing when you asked me not to tell them about the accident. They’d just lost their mom. They would have been devastated if they’d heard their dad was hurt, too.’
‘I wouldn’t have been much