Wed in the outback volum.., p.30
Wed In the Outback, Volume 1, page 30
Her lips quivered into a small smile. ‘You’ve served your purpose.’
‘Thought you said I was your hero.’
‘For saving me from a nasty fall...’
He dabbed at her temple. ‘I think a hero would stick around, don’t you?’
She gave a soft laugh. ‘Don’t be getting a big head.’
He recalled her saying the same at the ravine, when she’d told him how impressed she’d been, and he smiled. ‘I wouldn’t dare.’
‘Though I wish mine would stop banging.’
‘You have a headache?’
She nodded and winced in one.
He scanned the room, spied the door to her en suite. ‘Don’t go anywhere...’
‘Fat chance,’ she said softly.
He headed into the bathroom—just as pink, just as girly—pulled open the bathroom cabinet and found a blister pack of paracetamol.
‘I have tablets,’ he said, returning to her side. ‘Do you feel up to taking them?’
She scooted herself up the bed in answer and he poured a glass of water.
‘I’ve really made a fool of myself,’ she grumbled, eyeing him from beneath her lashes, the colour in her cheeks deepening.
‘What you’ve done is worked too hard and your body needs a break.’
He popped out the last two tablets in the pack and offered them out with the glass.
She threw them back with a sip of water and screwed up her face. ‘So much for proving we can run this place.’
He took the glass from her as she sagged back into the pillow.
‘Really messed that up, didn’t I?’
‘You didn’t mess it up at all. Seeing you Waverly sisters in action was quite something.’
‘Quite something...in a good way?’
‘Yes, Eve, in a very good way.’
Her eyes lifted to his. Surprise, doubt, gratitude, a swirling mist within the blue and he had to look away. Look away before the connection brewing got the better of him. He placed her glass back on the bedside table and saw the leather-bound book resting there. Aged and initialled with RW. ‘Is that...?’
She followed his gaze. ‘Yes.’ She swallowed. ‘Rose is ever hopeful I’ll pick it up.’
‘Does she not know how stubborn you are?’
She gave a soft laugh that was music to his still-worry-spiked pulse. ‘Jokes aside, maybe it’s time, Eve. Maybe it’s time we both dealt with our parents head-on. You with your mother’s written word and me with my father.’
‘Are you offering some sort of a deal?’
‘Perhaps.’ He let his gaze drift back to hers, saw the hair that had fallen across one eye and tucked it back behind her ear. ‘But maybe not tonight, hey? Tonight, you need to rest.’
She raised her hand to cover his, held his palm against her cheek. ‘Thank you.’
‘What for?’
Her blue eyes glistened and she wet her lips...
‘Eve?’
But no words came. The room was so quiet save for their gentle breaths, the light so soft it felt as intimate as any embrace. He had the strangest sense of being where he belonged, of being beside the woman he belonged to...
It didn’t matter that she wasn’t the woman for him, that under any normal circumstances she was married to her job just as his father had always been, that she had no interest in marriage, kids, a family of her own.
He wanted her to be the right woman because she was everything he wanted.
‘How’s the patient?’
His head flicked around as Rose stepped into the room.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.’
‘You didn’t, I was...’ What were you doing? Fantasising about a future that wasn’t possible, with a woman who wouldn’t want it in a million years. Because this wasn’t Eve Eve. This was Eve on sabbatical, exhausted and strung out.
‘I’ve asked Lindy to make up one of the guest rooms for you,’ Rose said, rescuing him from his runaway thoughts as she checked Eve over. ‘It’s too late to be travelling back now and it’s the least we can do for all your help today. Not to mention rescuing Bambi here.’
He cocked a brow. ‘Bambi?’
‘Rose,’ Eve moaned. ‘Do you have to?’
‘Sorry, little sis,’ she said softly, ‘couldn’t resist.’
‘You don’t need to know,’ Eve mumbled, reaching for his hand and squeezing it.
‘Need, no.’ He covered her hand around his. ‘But want? Definitely.’
She growled.
‘Eve can explain it to you tomorrow,’ Rose said. ‘For now, I can take it from here.’
He wanted to argue. Say he was happy to stay. But Rose was her sister, and he...well, he was nobody by comparison.
Reluctantly, he stood.
‘There’s nothing to take, Rose,’ Eve said. ‘I’m fine.’
‘You will be when you get some soup in you and a decent night’s sleep.’
‘All things I can do by myself.’
Snatching up the empty strip of pills, Nate headed to the bathroom, listening to Rose fuss and Eve deflect, warmed by the sisterly to and fro. All signs that Eve would be okay.
He flicked up the lid of the pedal bin and tossed the strip in. A good night’s sleep and she’d be—
He froze. Eyes on the contents of the bin as the world spun around him. There, lay the empty blister pack. And beneath it, a tiny mountain of tests—Pregnancy tests.
All with their own version of the same result:
Pregnant
Positive
Eve was...pregnant?
Dazed and confused, his eyes drifted to her on the bed. Rose, in the position he’d vacated...
This room was Eve’s. This bathroom was Eve’s. Those tests had to be Eve’s.
She chose that moment to look in his direction, their eyes connecting, hers falling to his foot still on the pedal bin before launching back to his face, panicked and wide.
He knew in that moment. The baby was his.
She started to push herself up.
‘Oh, no, you don’t.’ Rose pressed her back.
‘But, Rose...’
Nate moved before all hell broke loose, heading for the door as everything within him went into full-on turmoil. Every emotion at war. ‘Thank you for the offer of a bed, Rose. I’ll see you both in the morning. We’ll talk then, Eve.’
When she was rested and he was dealing with her at full strength. Because there could be no confusion where their baby was concerned. Where the future was concerned.
The idea that she would simply return to London and take their child with her...that he would become worse than his father, a true absentee dad, access restricted by the miles and granted as and when life permitted. Hell, no.
Eve might have proven that Holt Waverly’s daughters didn’t need husbands to run these lands, but, as the mother of his child, she would marry him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘NATE!’
Eve woke with a start, Nate’s face as he’d connected the dots the night before injecting her with adrenaline and sending her bolt upright in bed. Hand clutched to her chest, she sucked in a breath and another, her heart beating so hard she was sure she’d break a rib.
‘Good. You’re awake...’
She turned at the sound of his voice, her heart struggling to return to its normal rhythm. Immaculate in the clothes from yesterday—dark shirt open at the collar, blue jeans, buckle belt and blond hair styled to perfection—he was everything her panicked heart wanted to see and not.
‘You look...fresh.’ She’d hoped to coax out a smile as he crossed the room, instead she got a cool aloofness that had the hairs prickling along her bare arms. She hugged the quilt to her chest, lowered her gaze from his eyes that seemed to look right past her. ‘I take it Lindy managed to clean your clothes.’
‘Rose insisted.’ He paused beside the bed, pressed a gentle hand to her brow. His touch warm but his voice... ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Better.’ But it came out gruff, fearful, choked with the mood in the room. She glanced up. Took in the shadows under his eyes, his mouth...that mouth, normally so quick to smile, drawn into a pensive line.
She’d done that to him. Worried him. Shocked him. Made him into this cool replica of himself...
‘Where’s Rose?’ Was that really her voice? So quiet and unsure.
‘You’ve been asleep a while. She left shortly after the doctor arrived.’
‘Doctor? What doctor?’
‘He helicoptered in from Marni this morning. His assurances that you weren’t in any immediate danger are the only reason Rose isn’t here now watching over you.’
‘Oh, my God, does she know?’
He backed away, his ‘No’ short. ‘I surmised she had no idea about—about the situation.’
Situation. That was one word for it.
And the feeling of guilt welled with the panic.
Guilt that she was adding to her sister’s burden. Guilt that Nate knew but not from her lips. And panic that she’d lost any grip on the situation as the man before her pulled away. Emotionally as well as physically.
Where was the connection they’d shared not twenty-four hours ago? The man who had nursed her, cared for her...made her feel safe and invincible?
He paused before the window, his back to her, rigid and unmoving. Did he even breathe?
‘I’m sorry.’
He didn’t flinch, there was no sign he’d even heard her.
‘I hate that you found out like that.’
She wrapped her arms around her knees and her rapidly chilling middle. Watched as he turned his head, just enough for her to see his profile, the grim set of his mouth, his eyes downcast. ‘How long have you known?’
She clenched her teeth and swallowed. This wasn’t how she wanted this to go, wasn’t how she’d expected it to go. But then, she hadn’t really known what to expect. She knew what she craved though. Some of his usual warmth, his charisma, his care...
‘I suspected a couple of days ago.’
Slowly he turned to face her. ‘Why didn’t you say anything when I saw you in town?’
‘Because I didn’t know. Not for certain. That’s why I was there.’
‘The pharmacy—that’s what you were doing?’
‘Buying them out of every brand of test, yes. I took them yesterday morning. They say it’s best, more accurate, if you do it then.’
She threw back the covers, making to rise, and he was before her in a heartbeat. ‘Oh, no, you don’t, you’re staying there.’
‘I’m pregnant, Nate! Not debilitated.’ They both froze at her declaration, and it was Nate who recovered first. Taking a step back.
‘I’d appreciate you staying there until the doctor has spoken to you. There are tests he needs to carry out.’
‘I don’t need a doctor.’
‘You fainted, Eve, multiple times.’
‘I just needed sleep and some food. I feel fine.’
She didn’t but she wasn’t about to tell him that. She didn’t want his pity. She did want him to wrap his arms around her and show her that he still cared though.
He surprised her with a curse. ‘You should’ve said something sooner! If I’d known I’d never have let you...’
‘What, ride? Help Rose? You really think you could have stopped me?’
‘But it’s not just you you need to think of now, Eve! There’s our baby to consider.’
‘And don’t you think I know that? I may not have planned to be a mother, I may not have experienced the whole ticking of the biological clock, but I tell you now, I’ll be a good one. I’ll make sure of it.’
‘I don’t doubt it, but we need to talk about what we do now.’
‘What we do?’ She frowned. ‘There’ll be appointments, for sure. I haven’t sorted anything as yet, but I guess with the doctor here...’ Her voice trailed off at the look in his eye. ‘That’s not what you meant, is it?’
‘No. Though we do need to talk about your prenatal care. You won’t want for anything, you or my child. I can promise you that.’
And it should have warmed her, the passion in that statement, only...
‘So if you didn’t mean that, what did you mean?’
‘I want to talk about us.’
‘Us?’
‘Yes.’
She frowned, shook her head. ‘I’m not sure I follow...’
‘You’ve made it clear that love is an emotion you will never fall foul of...that you don’t want it in return and have no desire for it in your future.’
‘Yes,’ she whispered, even as her heart called her out for a fool and a liar. ‘Though I’ll love our child, Nate, don’t doubt that.’
‘I don’t.’
‘So what are you—?’
‘Marry me, Eve.’
Her breath caught in her lungs, her eyes burning as she stared at him. He couldn’t have just said... ‘What?’
‘Hear me out, okay?’
‘Hear you out,’ she repeated numbly, shock fixing her in place.
‘I refuse to be like my father. You already know this about me. I won’t bring a child up wondering when they’ll next see me, when the next scrap of affection will be tossed their way. I wanted for nothing financially growing up, but emotionally...’ He swallowed. ‘I won’t do it. I can’t.’
‘But marriage?’
‘I want to be there every day, not just at weekends or when our schedules permit it. I want a home, with a wife and our child.’
‘But, Nate...’ She was shaking, from her toes to the tips of her fingers. ‘You can’t mean it.’
‘I do. You need a husband to satisfy the conditions of the will and I refuse to let another man bring up my child, Eve. I want you to marry me. I’m asking you to marry me.’
‘You don’t know what you’re saying.’
‘I know exactly what I’m saying.’
‘But you want love, Nate, you deserve love.’
‘What I want is your hand in marriage. What I deserve is a home where I see my child every day.’
Her ears rang, her heart raced.
‘I know you don’t want love, Eve, and I’ll respect that, if you will respect my wishes in return.’
She studied his face, searched for the man she had come to care for so deeply...
‘But where will we live? Have you thought about that? My life is in London, my job, Gran...the idea that I would leave her like Mum once left her...’
‘You won’t have to.’
‘But—?’
‘We’ll move to London.’
‘You’re going to come to London? With me?’
‘I’ll move anywhere to be there for my child, so long as it’s a place that can give them what they need.’
She swallowed. ‘But London?’
He nodded.
‘I can’t believe you’re serious.’
‘Why can’t you? It works for you too. This way, you secure your part in the inheritance and can return to London with a free conscience. Go back to your job, your life.’
Ha. Her life was unrecognisable now. Couldn’t he see that?
‘And you, what will you do there?’
‘I can be a lawyer anywhere.’
‘But what about continuing your father’s good work in Marni?’
‘I’m sure London has its fair share of people in need of legal aid.’
‘But what about your love of the land here, the home and the life you wanted for your child?’
‘We can do all that in London.’
‘In the city? That is as busy and as bustling as Sydney?’
‘I’m sure there’ll be quieter suburbs, somewhere we can both be happy.’
Happy. It didn’t sound happy to Eve. It sounded cold and lonely and...and...she couldn’t bear it.
‘What about when I’m working and my job takes over once more? When I’m no better than your father for the time I’ll have spare?’
He shifted on his feet, not quite so quick. ‘I’ll deal with it. I’m not a teen craving attention any more, Eve.’
No, he was a man craving love. The kind she didn’t trust and sure as hell didn’t know how to give.
‘You don’t need to decide this second. I’ve told Rose I’ll stay on for a few days and help with the muster.’
‘I should be out there helping.’
‘You’re going nowhere.’
‘But, Nate, it’s the busiest time of the year. She needs me.’
‘What she needs is her sister and the niece or nephew she doesn’t know exists healthy. The doctor will decide if and when you’re ready to help again.’
She blinked at him, speechless. How had it come to this? How had she become such an epic burden to her sister who she’d come here to help? And this man who deserved so much more than she felt capable of giving?
‘In the meantime, I’m here to take your place so you needn’t worry about Rose and the station.’
‘And what about your work?’
‘You and my child come first, Eve.’
Something else she’d always known about him...so why did it still leave her cold?
‘I’m going to let the doctor know you’re awake.’
He moved and she shot up. ‘Nate, wait—’
He paused, looked back, but she couldn’t find the words. None that made sense anyhow. Because all she really wanted was for him to hold her. Hold her and make her feel as though everything would be okay. Just like he had that first night.
But she wasn’t so sure that was possible...or if it ever would be again.
As for the offer he’d put to her...marriage, the inheritance, their child.
Was there really any other answer she could give?
‘Eve?’
‘Yes,’ she said over him.
He took a sharp breath. ‘Yes?’
‘I’ll marry you.’
