Summer Down Under (17 page)

“Looks like you took quite a beating, my
girl,” Mr. Miller stated. “Maybe I was a bit hasty sending you in
there without first telling you what to do. We’ll rectify that when
your face is better.”

Sam goggled at him. Was that an attempt at an
apology? Daniel said he had never heard him apologize for anything,
so she decided that was probably as close to one as she was going
to get. Sam nodded her understanding.

Sam strolled over to her place beside
Daniel’s at the table.

“Hi, Lucrecia,” Sam said on her way around
the table. The friendly little bird bobbed her head and squawked a
greeting.

Daniel, as always, had already pulled Sam’s
chair out and was waiting behind it for her to sit. Sam looked at
him and threw him a sheepish smile, half expecting him to ignore
her as he did the day before. To her surprise, he beamed back a
bright happy smile. Daniel, obviously noticing the bewilderment in
her eyes, widened his smile even more. Sam relaxed her shoulders.
It didn’t look like he hated her, after all, and for that she was
thankful.

As soon as Sam was seated, and Daniel had
settled himself down next to her, Mrs. Miller’s bustling form came
through the door bearing their breakfast on a large tray. She had
cooked up something special for Sam today, as she knew the poor
girl would have trouble eating. Mrs. Miller placed three bowls of
soft warm oatmeal sweetened with honey on the table in front of
them.

Mr. Miller glared at the bowl placed before
him.

“What’s this rubbish?” he grouched at his
wife.

Mrs. Miller glared back at him and growled a
warning. “Don’t even start with me, Paul.” She looked over at Sam
and smiled. “You should be able to eat that with no problems,
dear.” After giving one last glare to her husband and a wink in
Sam’s direction, the portly woman turned on her heel and went back
to work in the kitchen. Sam fleetingly wondered why Daniel’s mum
never sat and ate breakfast with them, but decided there must be a
good reason behind it. It really wasn’t any of her business anyway,
so she started to attempt to eat her breakfast instead.

Mr. Miller looked down at his bowl of oatmeal
and glowered at it. Daniel and Sam shot each other a surreptitious
glance forcing them to stifle a giggle.

“I can’t do a decent days work on this!” Mr.
Miller spat, to no one in particular.

“I heard that, Paul,” came a reply from the
kitchen, to which the wiry man huffed and started shoveling the
oatmeal into his mouth in defeat.

Sam slowly lifted a teaspoon of oatmeal to
her mouth and angled her head to its good side. Not being able to
open her mouth very wide, eating breakfast turned out to be a slow
process. Luckily, there was no chewing involved. She was amazed at
how good the oatmeal tasted. She hadn’t eaten anything since
yesterday lunchtime and was ravenous. Her stomach gurgled in
appreciation for the whole table to hear.

After they had finished the oatmeal, Mrs.
Miller brought in three plates of scrambled eggs. Mr. Miller’s
expression changed to one of relief, as his and Daniel’s plate also
included bacon and some toast.

“Well, you didn’t think I’d actually let you
go out working without a proper meal in you, did you?” Mrs. Miller
ruffled her husband’s thinning hair.

Sam’s eyebrows rose at the playful gesture.
It wasn’t something she had yet witnessed between Daniel’s
parents.

“I didn’t want Sam to feel like the odd one
out,” Mrs. Miller continued, “and besides, I really wanted to see
the look on your face. It was priceless.” Mrs. Miller said with a
smirk as she bustled back out of the dining room.

Mr. Miller huffed again, but didn’t say
anything. Even though he huffed and puffed a lot, Sam was starting
to get a feel for who actually wore the trousers in that household,
and she would bet on Mrs. Miller every time. Daniel and Sam
exchanged knowing glances at each other before Sam carried on
struggling with her eggs.

During breakfast, Mr. Miller started telling
Daniel what the plan of action was for the day. Sam felt slightly
guilty that she wasn’t going to be able to help them out, but
nursing her jaw the way she was, she couldn’t risk hurting it
anymore. The conversation then changed to a business deal Mr.
Miller had made, and he looked at Sam with a glint in his eye.

“A little bird tells me that you enjoy riding
horses,” he said.

Sam’s wide-eyed expression told him that the
little bird was correct.

“Well, in a month, we are having nine hundred
head of cattle delivered. It could even be as many as two thousand;
I’ll find out later. I am going to need all hands on deck to push
them on from the gate for about five miles to the paddock I want
them in, which also has the nearest watering hole.”

Sam could hardly sit still. They were going
to ride horses and drive cattle for a whole day.

“We’re not buying them,” he explained,
“they’re coming down from the Northern Territory. They are having a
drought up there, and since we had lots of rain this last winter,
our grass is plentiful. We decided to rent out some of our land for
a few months until the rainy season starts up there again.”

Sam couldn’t believe her luck. She was going
to be part of a real life cattle drive. She didn’t care if it was
only five miles, it was a real life cattle drive. Daniel looked
over at her and caught the excitement bursting from every atom of
her being. He smiled and winked.

“Right then, son. Let’s get going. We won’t
get the lambs marked sitting here chatting.” Mr. Miller barked,
getting up from his seat. He walked out of the dining room.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Duty calls. I’ll see
you later.” He looked towards the door to make sure his Dad had
truly gone and turned back towards the battered jillaroo, planting
a delicate kiss on her bruise. It tingled at his touch sending
little shivers of delight down her neck and straight to her
heart.

Sam smiled as Daniel got up and headed out
the door to follow his father, then she continued eating her eggs.
It was going to take her til lunchtime at the rate she was going.
Having a dodgy jaw was not conducive to eating at any great speed.
Eventually she finished and got up to see if Mrs. Miller needed any
help.

“No, thank you,” she answered when asked the
question. “You need to go and put some more ice on that jaw. Go and
relax today.”

Doing as she said, Sam ambled over to the
freezer and grabbed the bag of peas that had been used for the very
same job the day before. She carried on to her room to lie down
while she iced her face.

Sam lay for a while thinking of nothing but
Daniel and the way he made her feel. Was she falling in love with
him? Oh, that would be too complicated. She was consumed by fear
whenever there was any hint that their friendship might get past a
kiss, and she had no idea how to get past that. She puffed out a
sigh.

Twenty minutes of icing slipped by and her
jaw was once again devoid of all feeling. She returned the package
of peas to the freezer so she could use them in another couple of
hours. Sam decided she would use the time to write a letter to her
mum and spent a good hour doing just that. Unfortunately, her mum
was technically challenged and didn’t possess a computer, so
writing an email was out of the question. She decided to leave out
the part about her jaw, knowing her mother would only worry. There
was nothing her mother could do, and by the time she got the
letter, it would be almost healed anyway.

Once the letter was finished and sealed, she
decided to take full advantage of her day off and go out to the
poolroom to read. She grabbed her book off the nightstand and
meandered through the huge house and out to the deck that wrapped
itself around the outside of the building. She counted the doors as
she walked past them. There were five on the short stretch, which
made up only about a quarter of the size of the whole house. The
deck came to its conclusion at the door to the poolroom.

The room gave off a relaxing vibe, which, of
course, it was supposed to. There were two sets of patio furniture
set up inside. The whole room was screened so you could enjoy the
feeling of being outside without the bugs attacking you, especially
in the evening.

Sam sat down at one of the tables and put her
book down. She gazed outside at the pool water sparkling in the
sunlight and the surrounding pastures that undulated beyond. There
was a slight breeze, which made the acres of silvery green grass
look like waves rippling on an enormous pond. A flock of pink and
gray galahs sat chirping in the treetops directly in front of where
Sam sat watching them as they preened themselves. They were such
pretty birds; it was hard to accept that they were as common in
this place as sparrows were in her home country.

She pulled up another chair and put it in
front of her, put her feet up, and started to read. The chairs were
padded and comfortable. The warm breeze was flowing through the
screens, ruffling her hair. Within minutes, Sam’s book slipped from
her fingers to rest on her chest, as she drifted off to sleep.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep,
but was woken by a splash. She looked out at the pool to see it was
Daniel who had made the splash. He was cutting through the crystal
clear water like a fish, up and down the length of the pool. He
must have gone in through the outside entrance to the pool because
he had not come in through the poolroom. Sam was sure he would have
woken her if he had.

Sitting up straighter in her chair, Sam
watched him swimming for a while, mesmerized by his long athletic
body moving sleekly through the water. His muscles rippled in his
back with every stroke he made, his powerful legs propelling him
forwards with ease. It was then she realized he was not wearing any
swim trunks. A mischievous smile played on her lips. For a second,
she thought about looking away. She felt a little ashamed of spying
on him like this. It was obvious he didn’t know she was there, he
had not acknowledged her at all, or given any indication that he
was being watched.

In fact, he looked so free. Free of all the
constraints usually associated with polite society. Skinny dipping
was almost like eating forbidden fruit, there was always a risk
that someone might see, especially during the day.

Several minutes passed and Sam could not pull
her eyes from his sleek muscular form cutting through the water
with ease. She felt the familiar tingle in the center of her being,
something that happened on a regular basis whenever Daniel was
near. At that thought, Sam dragged her attention from his body to
the end of the pool and her eyes widened. She flew out of her chair
and stood by the screen.

“Daniel!” she cried. “Look out, there’s a
monster at the end of the pool and you’re headed right for it!”

At the end of the pool, basking without a
care in the world, was a green, scaly dinosaur looking creature.
Nose to tail, it was almost as long as the pool was wide.

Daniel stopped dead in the water at Sam’s
anxious cries, looking perplexed firstly at her, then down to the
end of the pool to where she was pointing frantically.

A wry smile curved Daniel’s lips and he
looked up at her and chuckled. “That’s not a monster,” he said,
with laughter in his voice. “That’s Arthur.”

“That
thing
has a name?” Sam asked,
incredulous.

“He’s not a
thing,
” Daniel replied.
“He’s an Iguana, and, yes, he has a name.” Then he added with a
very Aussie twang in the direction of the prehistoric creature.
“G’day, Arthur. How ya going?”

“Don’t tell me,” Sam sighed, hands on hips.
“You rescued him, too.”

“Not exactly. Arthur kind of adopted us. He
turned up one day about five years ago and has been hanging around
ever since. He likes the pool, I think. He’s harmless, come out and
meet him.”

Daniel was standing now. The water reached
just below his waist and his wet skin glistened in the sunlight.
Sam chastised herself for doing what could only be described as
ogle the picture of masculinity that stood before her on the other
side of the very thin wall. Her eyes lingered on his defined chest
for just a moment, then try as she might to stop them, they
wandered down his chiseled abs tracing the thin line of dark hair
to where it disappeared under the water line. Sam dragged herself
back to her senses and forced her eyes back to meet Daniel’s. His
expression was undecipherable. Sam’s, however, was probably not.
She could feel her cheeks burning.

“You’re sure he’s not dangerous?” she asked,
unconvinced.

“Well, they don’t bite or sting to my
knowledge, but if they are being chased by something they might see
you as a tree to escape up and scratch you. That wouldn’t be so
good as they excrete some kind of enzyme which makes the wounds
very hard to heal. Just move slowly and he won’t feel
threatened.”

Sam wasn’t quite sure whether Daniel’s answer
was all that reassuring, and due to her luck with the animals on
the job so far, she decided to stay on her side of the screen for
the time being.

“No, thanks. I think I’ll pass.”

“Sam, do you seriously think I would put you
in any danger?”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t stop me
going in with those sheep, and look what happened.” Sam stated
bluntly, pointing at her bruised face that was now smarting after
shouting her warning.

Daniel hung his head. “I know, I’m sorry. I
certainly won’t let anything like that happen again. But this is
different. Arthur won’t hurt you, I promise. He’s used to being
around humans. You can’t pet him, though. He is still wild, but he
won’t mind you getting a bit closer to take a look at him.”

Sam fumbled with his words for a minute, but
was intrigued to have a closer look at such a strange looking
beast. Curiosity, once again, got the better of her and she opened
the door and headed outside.