Page 108 of Outback Secrets

‘Okay,’ he conceded, only because he found himself desperate to know about Max. ‘I’ll tell you, but only if you tell the Max story first.’

‘Fine.’ She exhaled loudly, blowing her fringe out of her face. ‘I met Max when I was flying in the NT. His family own a massive station not far from Katherine. We had a whirlwind romance. I was smitten and he proposed after four weeks of us being together, so I thought he was too. Two years we did the long-distance thing. I always did the mustering season with his family, but the rest of the year I followed the work. Although I visited whenever I could, it was never for long, and sometimes months went by when we didn’t see each other except on Skype. We were going to get married on the station—all my family and friends were travelling up—and then two weeks before our wedding, the night before I was due up there, his sister called me in tears.’

Liam’s heart skipped a beat as he imagined where this was heading. Lots of accidents happened on farms, and stations in the outback were a long way from medical assistance. ‘Did he die?’

‘No.’ Her nostrils flared. ‘Although after I found out what he’d done, he was lucky I didn’t dismember him. Apparently, he’d been sleeping with their casual workers, sometimes even tourists who came to stay on the station. Keri, his sister, didn’t know how many women there’d been for sure, but it was definitely not just a one-off.’

‘Bastard! Did you confront him?’

‘Damn straight I did.’ Henri reached out and ran a hand over Sheila’s fur. ‘He didn’t deny it and I wouldn’t say he apologised either. He thought I was overreacting cancelling the wedding. He said I was lucky to have him because not many blokes would put up with a Mrs who worked away from home most of the year, that no red-blooded male could go such long stretches without sex. I should have accepted that he had needs that had to be fulfilled when I wasn’t around.’

Liam realised his fists were clenched, his nails digging into his palms. ‘Hadn’t he heard of his right hand?’

She snorted. ‘Apparently not. Although that would probably have required too much work on his part.’

‘If he was so desperate to get laid, how often did he visit you?’ Max should have been travelling to the ends of the earth to see her, not the other way around.

‘Once or twice. In hindsight, it’s easy to see I was the one making most of the effort.’

‘It sounds like you’re better off without him.’

‘Oh I am. Hundred per cent. I’m just thankful I found out before we tied the knot.’

‘How long ago was this?’

She took a moment as if calculating in her head. ‘Just over six years.’

‘And have there been any other serious relationships since?’

‘Nope. Turns out Max was right. Most men do want a partner who’s around on a daily basis.’

Henri sounded resigned to this, but it didn’t seem fair that she had to choose between love and a career. What man had to make such a sacrifice? Liam bet most of her male colleagues had girlfriends or wives faithfully waiting for them at home. And surely there was a guy somewhere who’d see that Henri was a woman worth waiting for too.

Not him, of course. But someone.

‘Anyway,’ she angled herself a little on the pillows so that she was looking directly at him, ‘enough of my sorry story. Tell me about Katie. Why did she give you Baby-Sitters Club books? Forgive me if I’m being judgemental, but I can’t imagine they were the types of books you chose to read?’

Suddenly he wished he’d brought whiskey upstairs when he got the apple pie. ‘You ever do anything when you were a kid to get a guy to notice you?’

‘When I was a kid?’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘Less than two weeks ago I made up a crazy scheme about needing a fake boyfriend to get a guy to notice me.’

He laughed—if he didn’t know Eileen Brady, he’d suddenly be worried.

‘Well, when I was about eleven, I got it in my head that if I pretended to like The Baby-Sitters Club, it would give me something to talk about with my neighbour who was super into them, and who I’d had a crush on since I knew there was a difference between boys and girls.’

‘Did it work?’

‘You saw the books, didn’t you? Katie and I became good friends—totally ruined my street cred with the boys but these are the sacrifices you have to make for love.’

It was Henri’s turn to laugh. ‘And?’

‘And what?’

‘I’m not buying that’s all there is to that story. You kept the books, which tells me Katie was more than a childhood crush. Did you guys ever get together?’

This was where he could lie, but that didn’t feel fair after she’d just ripped open her wound for him.

‘Yeah, we did. We were friends for years first—I read the whole damn series of books, even though they made me want to poke my eyes out. And then in high school, I got her an after-school job at the store. I can’t exactly pinpoint when we became a couple, we just kind of did.’