Summer Down Under (31 page)

“Well, thanks for your hospitality,” said
Bruce as they walked out towards the waiting cars that were already
loaded up with their other passengers. “You did a great job, the
both of you. Your mum and dad would be proud.”

“Thanks.” Daniel and Sam replied
together.

They stood in front of the house and waved as
the shearers drove off and headed towards the road. As they watched
the dust trail in their wake, Daniel put his arm around Sam’s
shoulders and pulled her close. She leaned her head on his shoulder
and took a deep, cleansing breath.

“Well, thank goodness that is over,” Sam
said, relief flooding from every pore. “I’m glad I’ll never have to
go through another shearing again.” She looked up at Daniel, his
eyes were filled with admiration.

“This was only a success because of you,” he
said.

“Don’t be daft.” Sam batted him on the arm.
“You worked your butt off, too.”

“I’m serious, I couldn’t have done it without
you.”

Sam smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“We make quite some team, don’t we?” Daniel
said as he leaned down and kissed her on the nose, then he planted
a tender kiss to her lips sending sparks of excitement down to her
toes. A heartbeat later, he deepened his kiss. Sam parted her lips
to accept the desire he was pouring into her.

Just then a familiar sound caught her
attention and she pulled away.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked, his eyebrows
pulling together.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That,” Sam said, pointing to a spot in the
sky.

“Well, if pigs could fly,” Daniel said as he
caught sight of his father’s plane in the distance.

“Well, I’ll say this for them,” Sam mumbled
sarcastically. “Their timing is perfect.”

They stood rooted to the spot as they watched
the little red and white plane get closer and closer. Within a few
minutes, it was circling above the house as it came into land. Mrs.
Miller waved at them from the cockpit. They subconsciously waved
back at her. After landing safely, Mr. Miller taxied the plane
around to the front of the house and got out when the propeller had
stopped whirring.

The wiry man walked around to the other side,
opened the door for his wife and helped her down from the
cockpit.

“Hi, Mum, Dad,” Daniel called over to his
parents as they wandered towards their son. He took hold of Sam’s
hand and pulled her in their direction. Sam wasn’t so sure they
should be holding hands in front of his father, but decided that
the season was over now, so she wouldn’t be around much longer
anyway, and she didn’t particularly want to let go of Daniel just
yet.

Sam caught Mr. Miller looking at their hands
still clasped together and let go of Daniel. She wasn’t keen on him
making a fuss right at that moment, either.

Daniel gave Sam a pointed glance and scooped
up her hand. Holding it tightly in an apparent act of
rebellion.

“We weren’t expecting you home so soon,”
Daniel said. “Is Aunt Marge better now?”

“Oh, there was never anything wrong with your
Aunt Marge,” Daniel’s dad blurted, as though that was common
knowledge.

Sam’s eyebrows shot up and she stared at
Daniel.

“What do you mean there was never anything
wrong with her?” questioned Daniel. “I thought she was really
ill.”

Sam looked around at everyone with a blank
expression, her confusion growing by the second. She had absolutely
no clue what was going on. Mrs. Miller smiled, walked over to them,
and linked her arm through her son’s.

“Come on, you two,” she said, leading him and
Sam, who was close by his side, towards the house. “We have some
explaining to do.”

That was an understatement, Sam thought
derisively. If she found out they had just been skiving, she was
not going to be a happy bunny. Not that it would make any
difference now, the work had already been done. Thankfully,
everything had gone smoothly, but why on earth would they lie about
something so serious and risk their livelihoods on their young son
and an inexperienced stranger?

Sam followed Daniel and his mum up the steps
into the house. Mr. Miller was hot on their heels. They walked to
the kitchen. Mrs. Miller gestured for them to sit down at the
dining room table.

“You’d better sit down,” she said.

“Well?” Daniel asked, after a moment had
passed in silence.

Sam was sitting next to him, patiently
waiting for the explanation they had been promised. Daniel’s
expression was one of confusion mixed with a tinge of annoyance.
Sam put a settling hand on his thigh and he covered it with one of
his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. Mrs. Miller noticed their
connection, and a knowing smile curved her lips, to which Sam felt
her cheeks flush, but did not try to pull her hand away.

Mr. Miller sat down next to his wife. They
both looked at their son and Sam with an intensity that was
palpable. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. Sam suddenly
had a feeling like she was in a job interview for a very important
position. A moment of awkward silence ensued, but she still sat
quietly, patiently waiting.

“Well?” Daniel repeated. “Why did you lie to
us?”

“Son,” Mr. Miller began. “Your mother and I
were born into this business and we have run this station for forty
years. We had you much later in life than we intended. We didn’t
mean to pass the responsibility onto you until you were a bit
older, but we are tired, and we’ve wanted to retire from the
business for a few years now and move closer to your mother’s
sister.”

“We knew we couldn’t pass the station onto
you while ever you were on your own,” Mrs. Miller addressed her
son. “You couldn’t run it by yourself. So when Sam arrived and we
saw the connection between the two of you, we thought our prayers
had been answered. We decided to take a chance on you both and put
our theory to the test.”

Sam’s jaw hit the table, and she turned to
look at Daniel. He obviously felt the same way as his expression
mirrored hers.

“You knew about us?” Daniel asked his father
in surprise.

“Son, I could see you two were crazy about
each other the very first day when we picked Sam up in town. Then
when you told your mother she was, in fact, the Sam you had met in
Bali, it just all fell into place. After watching the both of you
working together over the past month or so, I knew for sure. You
work so well as a team, I had no doubt in my mind you were made for
each other.”

Sam picked her jaw up off the table and
wondered who this man was and what he had done with the churlish
sheep station owner she had grown to know. Who knew the heartless
old buggar actually did have feelings and could see past the end of
his nose. Oh, well, she guessed stranger things happened at
sea…maybe.

“So, that’s when your mother and I came up
with the plan to leave you two alone through shearing to see if you
would sink or swim. We knew it would have to be something serious
for you to believe us leaving at shearing time,” Mr. Miller
continued. “And, by all accounts, you swam and did a bloody good
job doing so.”

“Um, how did you know we did a good job?” Sam
piped up, curiosity getting the better of her. “You only just got
back a few minutes ago.”

“Bruce kept in touch with us and let us know
how you were doing each day.” Mrs. Miller explained.

“Bruce was spying on us?” Sam asked,
incredulous.

“Only with the shearing, love. To let us know
if you two were alright. We weren’t far away, so if things started
to go wrong, we would have come back to help out. We didn’t need
to, though. You both did a great job.” Mrs. Miller looked straight
at Sam and added, “I have to say, Sam. I was pleasantly surprised
at how well you did with the cooking. I did have my reservations
after you helped me in the kitchen when your face got hurt.”

Sam felt heat rise in her cheeks again. She
really did start out a disaster in the kitchen, but she had
survived, and Daniel’s mum was right, she had done a pretty good
job. Not that she’d want to do it again in a hurry.

Sam, never having been one to be very quick
on the up take, was starting to let the implications of what they
were saying slowly sink in.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “What have I
got to do with this? I’m just the hired help. I’m going to carry on
with my travels as soon as you don’t need me anymore. I thought
that would be next week, now that shearing has finished.”

“Sam, we are offering Shalroma to the both of
you to manage, and, eventually, Daniel would inherit it. It would
make us very proud to hand it over to our son.” Mrs. Miller told
her, then looked at her son with pride.

“You are?” Daniel gasped.

“What!” Sam cried, looking at everyone in
horror. “No. I-I can’t.”

“Why not?” Daniel asked, his face full of
anticipation.

“Because… No! I can’t.” Confusion filled
Sam’s head. The implications of what they were asking of her not
even beginning to sink in. She couldn’t absorb it all. This wasn’t
happening. Her head started to swim. Sam pushed the chair out from
underneath her as she stood up sharply and looked around the table
at all the expectant faces.

“Sorry,” she breathed before running out of
the room and down the hall.

“Sam!” Daniel called after her.

“Leave her, Son.” She heard Mr. Miller say as
she fled down the hall. “This is a lot for her to take in. Let her
think about it for a while.”

Sam kept on running straight for the place
she had grown to feel as her oasis of calm, the pool. She burst
into the screen room, breathless. Opening the door to the pool, Sam
sat down on the steps leading to the patio.

“Hey, Arthur,” she whispered as she sat
down.

Arthur was in his usual place at the end of
the pool. She was beginning to wonder if he ever actually moved.
Apart from seeing him lick his eye occasionally and catch the odd
flying insect, he could have been stuffed, for all she knew.

Sam sat on the steps hugging her knees to her
chest. She looked out over the sea of grass that surrounded the
house. A warm breeze was blowing, ruffling her hair. A few fluffy
clouds moved languidly across the sky. She really had fallen in
love with this place, but could she imagine running it? Was she
even old enough to take on such a huge responsibility?

Did Daniel’s parents really just offer this
place up to Daniel and her? Surely not, they hardly even knew her.
They wouldn’t just give the place they had spent most of their
lives building over to a near stranger, would they?

Then there was the minor detail that Daniel
hadn’t even discussed a future with her. For all she knew, Daniel
didn’t want her to stay and would think this was a stupid idea. She
heard the door to the screen room squeak, letting her know someone
was coming.

A familiar body parked itself next to hers on
the step, and a warm hand reached out and placed itself on her
knee. Sam didn’t look at him. Her focus held firmly to the sparkles
that danced on the water in front of her. Her head was spinning
with a thousand questions she didn’t have answers to.

“Thought I might find you here,” Daniel
whispered.

She didn’t answer. She was feeling pretty
numb and couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Sam, stay with me. Run Shalroma with me.”
The words were full of hope and anticipation. “I know you love this
place. You could stay, and all of this would eventually be ours.”
He gestured with his hands to the surrounding landscape.

“Daniel, I...” Sam turned her head to meet
his expectant gaze. “I don’t know the first thing about running a
sheep station.”

“Yes, you do,” Daniel said. “You just
successfully helped me through the most difficult time of the year.
I can teach you everything else you need to know. Mum and Dad won’t
leave us until they are certain we know what we are doing.”

Sam turned her attention back to the
sparkling sunlit pool water. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I can’t.”

“Why not?” he asked softly.

“I only have six months left on my work visa.
You know as well as I do that I can’t stay beyond that. Daniel, I
traveled twelve thousand miles to see the whole country. I can’t
stop after just seeing a quarter of it. This is important to me.
And, besides, we have only known each other a few months, if you
count Bali. How do you know if we will even make it? I mean, we
haven’t even discussed a future between us.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

“How?”

Daniel gnawed on his lip. “We could get
married.”

“What?” Sam turned her head and stared at him
in disbelief.

He got up and walked down the steps, dropping
down on one knee. He took one of her hands in his.

“Sam, I love you! Please, stay with me for a
few more months. If it doesn’t work out, we will, at least, have
tried, and you’ll still have time left on your visa to see more of
the country. I don’t want you to think I’m putting any pressure on
you or that I only want you to stay so you can help me with the
station. But, if after a few months you realize what I already
know, that we have something special, that we’re meant to be
together, then we’ll get married. That will solve all your visa
problems with time to spare. I don’t want to lose you, Sam. Stay
with me and we’ll work it out. Please, don’t go.”

Sam blinked several times, her mind a
whirlwind of confusion. Stay there with the man of her dreams or
travel the rest of Australia and fulfill her dreams. She hated
tough decisions.

“If I do stay, that still doesn’t solve my
issue with traveling around the rest of the country.” she
whispered.

“If you stay with me, I promise that we will
spend our lives together traveling the rest of Australia until you
have seen everything you want to see. Wouldn’t it be more fun to
share that experience with the one you love rather than doing it on
your own. We can spend our holiday every year going somewhere
new.”