Page 36

Indy paused at the bottom of her porch stairs to rub her dry, gritty eyes.

Sleep had been extremely hard to find last night.

Swamped by loneliness and confusion, she’d tossed and turned.

Emery had passed on Carter’s message that he wasn’t coming.

But it hadn’t stopped her from glancing at the door with every possible sound, hoping it meant he’d be slipping through. She pulled her cap down further.

Why hadn’t he come? It was driving Indy crazy.

He hadn’t told Emery why. Was he too tired? Did he have too much on? Was he pulling away? Indy let out a frustrated huff. She didn’t understand.

She was headed to the front horse paddock.

That’s what she needed to focus on. She turned right instead of left, taking the shortcut through the trees behind her cabin, and skirted around the dining hall where Carter had sat with his back to her this morning.

It hadn’t stopped her from staring and wanting him to turn around.

With a small shake of her head, she focused on the narrow dirt path.

This was the same track that Carter had taken whenever he’d snuck down to see her.

As she approached the end of the bunkhouse, she heard his voice ring out.

‘I’ll catch up. I’ve gotta change my runners.’

She hesitated, counting to five before peering across the space between the rooms. The door to the room closest to her was clicking shut. Further down, she could see the backs of two figures heading out to the carpark. On a whim, she changed course and stepped lightly towards his door.

Indy didn’t look up until the door was shut behind her and she was leaning against it. Carter was sitting on the edge of his bed, his mouth round in surprise, his dark eyes on hers.

‘Hi,’ she said. Why was she nervous?

‘Indy,’ he breathed. ‘I missed you so much last night.’

It was all she needed to hear. Air escaped her as she went to him, climbing into his lap and pressing her lips directly onto his.

His arms wrapped around her waist, crushing her to him, and her heart soared.

This is exactly what she needed. Her lips parted and their kiss deepened.

The brim of her hat knocked into his forehead.

He chuckled against her mouth, reaching up to whip the cap off her head.

Their tongues danced and she grabbed onto his shoulders as one of his hands ran up to cradle the side of her head.

Three heavy knocks shook the door.

Carter quickly looked around the room. Indy couldn’t be seen from where she was hiding beneath his bed. His heart was ready to pound out of his chest.

‘Carter? You in there?’

Shit. It was Jonathan.

‘Yeah,’ he called. He spied Indy’s cap on his bed and dived to sit on it as the door handle turned. He picked up his pair of black and white runners as the door flung back and Jonathan filled the doorway. ‘What’s up?’

‘You’re not down on the field with the others.’

‘Yeah, I wanted to change my shoes. The other ones were dried out from yesterday, but they were stiff and really not comfortable. It’s a blister waiting to happen.

I figured the best thing to do was switch ’em out.

’ Was he wa?ing? Overthinking things? Shit, be cool .

But he just wanted Jonathan to leave so he could go back to kissing Indy.

He was an idiot for not going to see her last night.

All he’d done was toss and turn with empty arms.

Jonathan crossed his arms against his chest. ‘I wanted a chance to talk to you about a couple of things. Firstly, I haven’t heard any low shots or Aaron’s name since the warning on Monday. Have things stopped?’

‘Yeah, I guess.’ He slipped a shoe on, tying the laces slowly. ‘I mean, nothing’s been said to me or around me.’

‘That’s good … really good.’

Jonathan didn’t say anything else, but Carter could tell there was something else on his mind, he was just working up to it like he would when Carter had been in trouble as a kid and Jonathan was charged with talking to him about it.

It used to amuse Carter how Jonathan hated having to be the bad guy.

This time wasn’t like then. Carter wasn’t entertained, he just wanted his stepfather gone.

‘Anything else?’ he asked, reaching for the other shoe.

‘Yes. The other thing we need to speak about is the rumours circulating about you and one of the girls that work here.’

Fuck. He flipped the laces out of the shoe, working at keeping his breathing even and any reaction from his face. ‘What rumours? And what girl?’

‘You making eyes at the one you went to that community day with.’

‘Indy?’ He leant over to put the shoe on the floor and slipped his foot in, slowly.

‘And it was a careers expo. Besides, if these rumours have come from Beau, then he’s an even bigger wanker than I thought.

I was on the phone last night talking to Mum and he came up with some dumbarse crack about having a girlfriend or two and sneaking down to see her.

’ Shit, now he really was rambling. ‘Anyway, the girl from that day is Indy.’

‘I don’t care about her name.’

Carter’s gaze snapped up at Jonathan’s sharp, bitter tone. His stepfather’s eyes were narrowed.

‘What I care about is making sure you know that she’s not the girl for you.’

‘What?’ His heartrate accelerated at the same time his outrage did. It wasn’t up to Jonathan to determine what girl was for him.

Jonathan took a step in, planting his feet a shoulder width apart. ‘Take my advice, and don’t go there, Carter. She may be pretty, but you can do a lot better than a gold-digging cougar.’

Carter tightened his jaw. ‘That’s a bit far.’ Fuck! His fingers had tightened into a fist instantly and the urge to throw it into Jonathan’s face was strong, but he couldn’t. Instead, he gripped the bedspread tightly.

‘I call it how I see it, son. I always have.’

I’m not your son . He swallowed the words even as his resentment rose. ‘You don’t have anything to worry about. They’re just rumours,’ he said carefully.

Just rumours, because the truth was they’d been doing so much more than just making eyes at each other.

Jonathan gave a single nod. ‘Good. Your future’s really bright, Carter.

You’ve got the skill and the passion to carry your name into the greats, especially with the drama fading.

Tom says there’s next to no media coverage anymore.

Things are looking up. You don’t want to throw that future away on the wrong partner. ’

Carter took a deep breath and hardened his stare. ‘I appreciate you looking out for me, Jonathan. But that’s not part of my life you can control.’

‘I know,’ Jonathan said quickly, nodding. ‘I’m just giving you some quality advice to follow.’

‘Advice received.’ Now fuck off . He was barely able to hold onto the rage that was doubling with every breath. He tightened the laces of his shoe one loop at a time.

Jonathan stopped nodding. ‘Right. I’ll see you down on the field in two minutes.’

‘Not far behind you.’

Jonathan left the room, closing the door behind him. Carter screwed his face up tightly and pressed his fingertips into his eyes. Dread seeped into his anger.

‘Indy?’

There was no reply.

‘Indy? Can you come out?’

Still nothing, not even a rustling of movement. He dropped to his knees and peered under the bed, making out her figure, lying on her back, her chest moving up and down in deep and deliberate movements.

‘Please, baby, come out and we can talk about it. Jonathan’s a dick and I don’t believe anything he said.’

The silhouette of her nose disappeared as her face turned towards him. ‘Yes, you do.’

‘What? No, I don’t. Please come out.’

There was a big sigh and she started to shu?e. He moved back, relief interlacing dread and anger, none of them diminishing.

She wriggled out from beneath the bed, pulling her shirt down as she climbed to her feet and snatched her cap from the mattress.

‘Sorry it’s a bit crumpled, I had to sit on it.’

Indy jammed the cap on her head and made for the door.

Carter stepped in her way.

‘Move.’

‘We need to talk about this, Indy. I don’t agree with anything that Jonathan said. He has no right to speak of you that way nor to dictate who I can have in my life.’

Her eyes flashed with fury. ‘Yeah, and you really told him that. Really stuck it to him and put him in his place.’

‘I did.’

She scoffed with even more sarcasm. ‘“That’s a bit far”? “I appreciate you looking out for me”? “Advice received”? You may as well have rolled over and let him rub your tummy.’

‘What did you want me to do? Tell him everything? Out us? What would’ve happened to your job then, Indy?’

She clamped her mouth shut, fury colliding with hurt in those big blue eyes.

‘No, but you could’ve stood up for me. Told him he was out of line, referring to me as a gold-digging cougar.

Told him that he shouldn’t speak about anyone that way.

Told him that when it comes to your love life, you’re the one in charge and you won’t be taking any unsolicited advice.

But you didn’t. You basically agreed with everything he said. Now move.’

‘It’s more complicated than—’

‘Move!’

He held his palms up and stepped to the side. She opened the door, paused to peek out, then fled.

Carter ran a hand down his face. Fuck! There was a rock and a hard place and somehow, he’d found himself in the middle.