Through tear-blurred eyes she looked over Gabe’s shoulder to the fat white moon and the wide, star-stippled outback sky. She was trusting her old friend to understand how devastated she felt, but maybe she was asking too much of him. After all, he’d been away in the army for ten long years, and he’d had his own problems during twelve months in and out of hospital.
He loosened his hold on her and leaned back so that he could read her face. ‘So you think that if you find a bloke to marry you Michael will change his mind about selling Windaroo?’
She sighed and stepped away from him. If she wanted Gabe’s help she needed to explain this very clearly. ‘It’s the only solution I can think of. Men of Grandad’s generation can’t come to terms with the idea of leaving a girl in charge of a cattle station. A husband would make all the difference.’
‘I guess you’re right.’ He looked at her sharply again. ‘I suppose marriage could be a solution. But it’s a mighty big step.’
‘I know. That’s why I could do with some help.’
‘But Piper, for Pete’s sake—’ Gabe shook his head. ‘Why the blue blazes would you need my help to catch a man?’
She gulped and looked away. Time to swallow her pride and make a painful confession. ‘’Cause the guys around here don’t seem to have noticed I’m female.’
He had the bad grace to chuckle. Loudly—and for far longer than was necessary.
Piper slapped his arm. ‘I’m serious. Your brother Jonno and the rest of them—they just don’t think of me as a woman.’
‘Oh, Piper,’ Gabe wheezed between chuckles. ‘You can’t be serious.’
‘Why would I make up something like that? Honestly, the fellows around here just see me as one of them, and I’m sick of it.’
‘But no one could think you were a bloke. You’re so—so—little. Besides, we all know you’re a girl.’ Thumbs loosely hooked in the belt loops at his hips, he stared at her. ‘You’re not joking, are you?’
She almost stamped her foot. ‘Of course not!’
‘Well, I think you’re wrong.’
‘How would you know, Gabe? When was the last time you came to a party out this way? You wouldn’t have a clue. The problem is that because I can muster with the men, and I can leg-rope a bullock or turn a baby bull into a steer, they forget I’m a girl. They don’t even try to crack on to me. I have buddy status and that’s all. I’m just good mates with them—the way I am with you.’
Gabe’s smirk faded and he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘Well…you have to remember that blokes like to be able to impress a woman. Maybe your problem is that you can do everything they can—and you do it too damn well.’
‘I hope you’re not suggesting I become weak and useless.’
His gaze ran over her and he grinned. ‘Heaven forbid.’ Then he turned and cast a long, searching look over his shoulder at the surrounding paddocks before glancing at his watch.
Piper sighed. They’d been out here for four hours and there’d been no hint of cattle duffers. Gabe was probably thinking that her request for help to stake them out had simply been a ruse to get him on his own so she could regale him with her problems about the opposite sex.
‘I can’t promise the duffers will show up tonight,’ she said. ‘But they usually strike at full moon, when it’s easier for them to work.’
On the last full moon Windaroo cattle had been taken from a holding yard near a bore on the southern boundary, and a similar thing had happened to a block in the east the previous month.
The duffers had been following a familiar pattern—moving into a remote area and doing a quick muster, then trucking the beasts out of the valley along back roads.
Tonight Piper and Gabe were watching a paddock on the western boundary. She’d seen the tracks of trail bikes there a few days ago, and suspected that someone was casing the area.
‘At least we can make ourselves more comfortable,’ she said, thinking of his bad leg, which was probably much more painful than he let on. ‘We can spread our swags out here and I can bribe you with soup.’
Together they found flat ground, flicked stones away and unrolled their canvas swags and bedding. Piper rummaged in her backpack, extracted a Thermos and filled two mugs with hot, fragrant, homemade tomato soup.
‘Sorry to dump my hassles on you,’ she said, after she’d taken her first warming sip.
‘No need to apologise.’ Gabe grinned. ‘I’m used to it.’
And wasn’t that the truth? Just sitting here with Gabe, having him home again, made her remember all the times she’d come to him with her problems. And how desperately lonely she’d felt when he left. She’d never really understood Gabe’s urge to get away, but she knew that somehow it had reinforced in her an even stronger desire to stay on Windaroo—as if she’d needed to prove to him and to herself that life out here was worthwhile, worth fighting for.
‘That’s a long face,’ he said, pulling her sharply back from her thoughts.
She smiled and shrugged. ‘I’ve got a lot to think about.’
He set his soup mug on the ground and his gaze held hers. He wasn’t in shadow any more, and in the moonlight his eyes were dark and brooding rather than the lively green she knew them to be. ‘You don’t need to worry about finding a husband, Piper.’
She groaned. ‘Don’t tell me you think I should give in and let Grandad sell Windaroo?’
‘Under certain circumstances it could be a good idea.’
‘What kind of circumstances?’
‘What if…what if I were to buy Windaroo? Michael would sell it to me.’
Surprise sent such a savage jolt through her that she almost dropped her mug. She had a blinding, instantaneous vision of herself and Gabe living for ever on Windaroo, running the property—working partners and steadfast friends way into their old age. Now that was a dream she could live with! ‘Would you really want to do that?’ she asked in a hushed, awe-filled whisper.
‘Well, it’s a possibility. I know Jonno’s interested in buying out my shares in the Edenvale property, and I’ve a substantial payout from the army. I’m looking for an investment. I could buy Windaroo and hire some extra hands, appoint you as manager, and you could go on living here and running the place for as long as you want to.’
She frowned. ‘But what about you? What would you do?’
He shrugged and she saw a shadowy bitterness tighten his features. ‘I’m not sure. I haven’t decided what I want to do with the rest of my life yet. I can’t fly Black Hawks any more, but I could train helicopter pilots for cattle mustering, or I could set up my own chopper mustering business. Or there’s always the city. I still have quite a few options up my sleeve.’
Cradling her cooling mug in both hands, she drew circles in the dust with the heel of her riding boot and tried to shake off a crazy sense of disappointment. Of course Gabe didn’t want to settle down and live here. He’d left the bush because he craved adventure.
Why would he want to live on this rundown property with her when there was an enticing world beyond the Mullinjim Valley? A world of excitement, adventure and sophisticated, sexy women.
How could she have let herself forget that Gabriel Rivers was a cool, tough Black Hawk hero and a knock-em-dead lady-killer?
She swallowed the lump of pain in her throat. ‘Your offer is very generous, Gabe, but I don’t really like the idea. I—I don’t want to be a tenant