Summer Down Under (28 page)

About an hour, and a list as long as Sam’s
arm, later they at least had the amounts and types of food to buy.
It looked like enough to feed an army. Sally also gave them some
tips on what to cook and how to cook everything to make the whole
ordeal a bit easier. The most important meal, she told them, was
breakfast. If the shearers had a good breakfast, they would start
the day off happy, and that was always a good thing.

Breakfast was also the easiest meal of the
day. Eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes and bread. It did mean having
to get up at the crack of dawn, though, so it would be ready for
them to eat at 6 a.m. Not being a morning person at the best of
times, Sam was not thrilled by that revelation, but thought she
could surely handle eggs and bacon, especially with Daniel’s
help.

The other two meals of the day she would be
on her own. Daniel had to get the sheep in the pens for the
shearers, so he would be out for the rest of each day doing just
that.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to nip into town
tomorrow,” Daniel said, after finishing up with Sally. He made it
sound like it was just a quick trip to the corner store. Town
happened to be about fifty miles away.

Sam had all but lost her appetite, not
surprisingly. She managed to force down some food, anyway.

“I’m going to take a shower, care to join
me?” Daniel asked after they had finished washing up. He held out a
hand.

“Sure, why not?” Sam replied. His invitation
putting a smile on her face. The first one since that dreaded phone
call. Taking a shower with Daniel had become one of Sam’s favorite
past times. She took his offered hand and they headed for the
bathroom.

They fell into bed afterwards, exhausted. Sam
curled up with her back against Daniel’s warm chest and he wrapped
a protective arm around her body. Within minutes they were both
dead to the world.

***

“How are we going to pay for all this food?”
Sam asked Daniel as they headed towards town the next day. She
looked up from the immense list they had created the day
before.

“Mum and Dad have an account. It’ll just go
on that and they’ll settle up when they get back,” Daniel
answered.

That’s handy, Sam thought as they drove down
the long straight graded road that seemed to go on forever. There
were no luxuries like black top out there. Every now and then, they
hit a few ‘washboards’ where the rain the other day had washed the
road away, but the four-wheel drive handled it with ease.

“Oh, look.” Sam gasped as she stared out the
window a few minutes later. “Kangaroos, loads of them.”

A group of about eight kangaroos were
bounding along the side of the road. They were the oddest looking
creatures, but they moved so gracefully; their long powerful tails
helping them balance as they hopped.

“Just let me know if they look like they’re
headed towards us,” Daniel replied. “They have a tendency to hop
out in front of cars, and they do heck of a lot of damage.”

“Really? I just thought they looked cute,”
Sam mused.

Daniel looked over at her and smiled. “Sam, I
wish I could see things through your eyes sometimes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as farmers, we see kangaroos as
vermin, sheep as either food or wool, and dogs as working partners.
You see every animal as something that should be cared about, loved
even. Now, that I think is cute.”

Sam felt her cheek’s flush. Getting
compliments still made her a tad embarrassed, but she was sure it
would be something she’d get used to in time, especially, if Daniel
had his way. Sam inadvertently let out a little moue of
happiness.

“What was that for?” Daniel asked, raising an
eyebrow.

“I was just thinking how happy I am out here.
I love this place in the middle of nowhere. It’s going to feel odd
getting back to civilization again when the season is over and I
continue on my travels.”

Just then, Sam realized what she had said.
Everything had been going so well that she had come to think of
Shalroma as her home, but now it hit her hard and fast. It wasn’t
her home. In just a couple of weeks, the season would be over and
Mr. and Mrs. Miller wouldn’t need her anymore. She was only
supposed to be there for a couple of months.

She would set off on her travels again to see
the rest of Australia, just as she had planned. What she hadn’t
planned, was falling in love. A lump rose in her throat. She hadn’t
even thought about leaving there, leaving Daniel, until that
moment. It was inevitable, though, she couldn’t stay.

Daniel could sense a change in her
demeanor.

“Is everything okay?”

She pushed the thought to the back of her
mind, she would deal with it later. Putting on a false smile, she
replied as brightly as she could muster. “Sure, why wouldn’t it
be?”

“Good, I was just checking. You’d tell me if
anything was wrong, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” she lied. Quite apart from the fact
that she didn’t know how to cook, if the shearers didn’t run her
out of town first, she would have to leave shortly, thereafter. The
thought weighed heavily on her heart.

Daniel hadn’t discussed any feelings he may
have for the future. Sam thought that he probably viewed what they
had as a holiday romance. She had to admit, it would be a good
memory of her travels to take home with her, but the thought of
leaving him was choking her up inside.

Again, she tried to push the feeling aside.
She wasn’t ready to deal with it and, certainly, wasn’t going to
address it right now. She would just enjoy the time she had left
and be thankful that she met someone as special as he was. Some
people can go a lifetime not meeting anyone special. Sam, at least,
had that.

They arrived in town after about an hour of
driving, parked the truck outside the grocery store, and headed
inside armed with their foot-long list of provisions to buy.

The storekeeper was incredibly helpful. Sam
guessed that his store must service most of the stations in the
area, so they were used to people coming in and wanting to exit
with most of the contents on the shelves. They filled the truck
with their provisions. It was brimming with everything they hoped
they would need to fulfill the task that lay ahead of them.

“Send my regards to your parents, Daniel,”
the storekeeper said as he finished helping them load up the
truck.

“Will do, Mr. Stanford. Thanks for your
help,” Daniel replied.

“Nice to meet you, miss,” the storekeeper
said to Sam.

“Likewise,” Sam replied and shook his offered
hand.

“Good luck with the shearing, and drive home
safely.” He waved as they drove down the road.

“He was helpful,” Sam mentioned as they
headed out of town.

“Yes, he’s a good storekeeper. Always has
everything you need in stock,” Daniel agreed.

It was midafternoon by the time they got back
to the homestead and unloaded the truck. Sam couldn’t believe the
sheer volume of food they had bought. She took a step back, hands
on hips and admired the fully stocked shelves of their ‘general
store’. Sam had never felt the necessity to wonder what it would
take to feed twelve people for a week and, secretly, hoped she
never would again.

“Sam?” Daniel asked as he came up behind her
and threaded his arms through hers, wrapping them around her waist.
“Would you go and give the shearer’s quarters a once over this
afternoon? They are probably fine. I’m guessing they will only need
a quick dusting.”

“Yeah, no worries,” Sam answered, leaning
back against him. They were in this together, and she was going to
do her absolute best to make sure this shearing went as smoothly as
it could, especially under the circumstances.

It was odd how responsible she felt about
making this work, having no real reason to feel the least bit
responsible. She knew Mr. and Mrs. Miller would not expect her too,
either. Although, something told her that Daniel’s mum knew Sam
would not leave her son to face this by himself.

They prepared a quick sandwich for lunch,
then Daniel went off to muster some more sheep nearer to the
shearing shed. Sam watched with pride as he chose Jess to go with
him again.

Sam turned back towards the kitchen and
grabbed some rubber gloves, a bucket, and some cleaning stuff
before heading out the back door.

“Hop on, Lucrecia,” she said as she walked
past her cage on the way out. “We’ve got some cleaning to do.”

The pink and gray bird squawked and bobbed
her head in excitement as Sam held out her arm for her to walk up.
Once settled securely on Sam’s shoulder, the two headed out the
door.

The shearer’s quarters were behind the main
house. It was a small cottage with a bathroom, a living room, and
three bedrooms set up with two sets of bunks in each. There was a
small kitchenette, but it didn’t look like it had been used in
years.

Sam started by opening up the windows to let
some fresh air in, and then turned on the fridge, which was
possibly the most important appliance in the whole building.
Keeping the shearer’s beer cold, it turned out, was a life or death
situation.

Daniel was right, the place was pretty clean.
Sam only had to wipe down a few surfaces and pull the dustsheets
off the furniture.

“I guess this place only gets used once a
year,” she said to Lucrecia. The bird bobbed her head as if she had
just understood every word the young jillaroo had said.

After finishing with the cottage, Sam walked
outside to the deck, dusted off the old patio furniture, and
plopped herself down. She’d been feeling pretty sorry for herself
since the realization had hit that she would be leaving the sheep
station, and Daniel, in such a short time.

“I’m really going to miss you,” Sam whispered
to Lucrecia, who had now climbed down her arm and was sitting on
her knee. She bobbed her head again.

Sam took in her surroundings. The main house
sprawled out in front of her. The poultry coops spread out to the
left, and the vast oceans of grass stretched out beyond.

A heavy-hearted feeling washed over Sam as
she sat there for a while, not wanting time to move forward, but
realizing that it had to, and there was nothing she could do to
stop it.

She had all but moved into Daniel’s room over
the past few days. They had been so exhausted when, eventually,
they fell into bed each night it was all they could do to kiss each
other goodnight before they fell asleep in each other’s arms. But,
it was the best feeling in the world, being that close to someone
and waking up next to them every morning.

It was hard to imagine going back to sleeping
on her own again in a lonely bunk somewhere on this vast continent.
But, there was so much more of Australia for her to see and her
adventurous side spurred her on. So, see it she would.

Sam encouraged Lucrecia back up her arm and
started to stand up. The bird flapped her wings to keep her balance
as Sam rose before she was securely perched on the young woman’s
shoulder.

“Sorry, girl,” Sam said. “Come on, let’s go
see if Arthur is around.”

Sam picked up the bucket of cleaning
supplies. She was satisfied that the cottage was clean enough to
live in and wandered back to the house and on to the pool.

“Hey, Arthur,” Sam said in a hushed voice
when she spied the scaly monster at the end of the pool. “Fancy
seeing you here.”

He was basking in his usual place. Sam asked
Lucrecia to step onto her finger, and when she obliged, Sam moved
her to perch on the back of one of the chairs next to the pool.

The water looked inviting, Sam was glad to
have grabbed a towel as she walked past her room on the way out
there.

Stripping off her clothes, she left them in a
pile on the chair. At least out here, there was no need for a
swimsuit, there was no one about to see. She walked over to the
edge of the pool and dove in. The cool water hitting her sun-warmed
skin made her gasp, but she soon adjusted to it and started
swimming lengths up and down the pool.

The water felt wonderful as it enveloped her
body. The feeling of freedom without the constraints of a swimsuit
was very decadent.

Sam hadn’t been swimming for very long when
she heard a splash. She sucked in a breath as a couple of warm
hands grabbed her around the waist. She turned to see Daniel’s
smiling face.

“I didn’t hear you coming,” Sam said.

“Thought I’d surprise you,” he replied. He
lifted her out of the water and threw her a few feet down the pool.
Sam entered the water with a splash and a girlie shriek, just
managing to pinch her nose before going under.

“Right, just you wait!” Sam squealed as she
came up to the surface and swam towards him. When she reached him,
she pushed down on his head dunking him under the water.

Daniel forced his way up, shaking his head as
he surfaced, splashing her in the face in the process.

“You rotten bugg…” Her sentence was cut off
as his mouth claimed hers. His kiss was full of passion, sparking
flames of desire within her in an instant. The cool water that was
lapping around their bodies did nothing to dampen them. Slowly,
Daniel pulled away, kissing a trail first to one breast then over
to the other. The brazen little hussies pushed themselves forward,
begging for his attention. Sam could swear they were completely
beyond her control at that point.

He put one arm around her back and leaned
forward slightly putting the other under her knees, scooping her up
in his arms. Sam held him around his neck as he turned his
attention, once more, to kissing her with a passion that nearly
made her insides melt. Desire was pooling in his eyes that sparkled
as brightly as the crystal clear pool water.

Sam became aware that the water was receding
from her body and noticed that he had walked them through the water
towards the shallow end. Daniel carried her up the steps that led
out of the pool. He took a few steps onto the soft cool grass that
framed the shallow end of the pool and laid her down, covering her
body with his as he did.