Read Online An Outback Affair/Runaway Wife/Outback Bridegroom/Outback Surrender/Home To Eden by Margaret Way - Free Book Online

Coming from such a happy, stable home you were ill-prepared to take on Colin’s aberrant behaviour. But I too know all about powerlessness and humiliation. I’ll tell you about it some time. Meanwhile, you’ve got enough on your plate.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    I T WAS mid-morning when the furniture van arrived.
    â€œCareful, Snowy!” Zack warned his young offsider as they tried to manoeuvre a sofa through the small doorway.
    It was clear Snowy wasn’t listening, or he had no aptitude for these activities.
    â€œSteady on, boy!” Zack shouted the caution. “Miss Laura here ain’t gunna be happy if you knock a chunk out of the front door.”
    â€œWon’t go in, Zack. The bloody doorway’s too narrow,” Snowy offered miserably.
    â€œLanguage, son. No need to swear.” Zack cast an embarrassed glance at Laura as though she had never heard a single swear-word in her life.
    â€œSorry, miss.” Snowy made a distraught movement of his ash-blond head.
    â€œPut it down for a minute,” Zack said crossly, his temper still simmering from yesterday. Snowy was always breaking something—forcing it. He still had a lump on his head the size of a plum from yesterday’s mishap with a wardrobe—but Snowy was the wife’s nephew. A more than usually stubborn boy, with not all the cards in the pack. Took after his dad’s side of the family, of course…
    â€œHaving problems?” Evan Thompson appeared on the open verandah of the colonial next door, looking the very picture of the legendary alpha man.
    â€œYou could say that!” Zack replied with sarcasm.
    â€œGive me a minute; I’ll be there.”
    â€œThanks, mate!” Zack called back more cheerfully. A smart guy like Evan would make this manoeuvre the easiest thing imaginable.
    Evan waved a response then went back to the phone, finishing off his progress report to the agent who was eager to market his book.
    Moments later he pushed the little picket gate of the cottage. It needed to be open. Who had closed it? Laura was standing on the tiny porch wearing a little ruffled yellow sundress that made a pool of light. Her long silky hair was drawn back into a knot, exposing her pretty ears, delicate bone structure and the long lovely line of her throat.
    â€œGood morning!” A day and already he was far too involved with this young woman. Certainly his eyes had fallen in love with her beauty. The fatal flaw in him: his susceptibility to beauty.
    â€œGood morning, Evan,” she responded, so happily it touched his iron-clad heart. “It’s so nice of you to come.”
    â€œI’d have been here earlier, only I had to field a few calls. So what’s the problem, Zack?”
    Zack gave him a frustrated look. “Snowy here don’t seem capable of negotiating the front door.”
    â€œYah’d better believe it!” said Snowy, treading backwards and bumping into the planter’s chair he had already placed on the porch.
    â€œI’d be real grateful if yah could take his end, Evan.” Zack snorted his disgust.
    â€œNo problem.” Evan had solved it on sight.
    â€œNot my idea to be a removalist,” Snowy defended himself, relinquishing his end without argument. “I told Mum but she called me a lazy bum. That’s exactly what she said, ‘Snowy, you’re a lazy bum.’”
    Evan laughed. “And you’re saying that’s not the case?”
    â€œI wish she’d listen.” Snowy’s voice dropped dolefully as he watched the two men make short work of getting the sofa through the narrow doorway.
    â€œMake yahself useful, Snowy.” Zack took a couple of beats to yell at him. “Go get the little stuff.”
    â€œI’ll help you, Snowy,” Laura said, anxious to be useful herself, and sorry for the unfortunate young man.
    â€œThat’s okay, miss.” Snowy lost his gloomy look, goinga bright pink