Read Online Down Outback Roads by Alissa Callen - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alissa Callen
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His words slowed. ‘Kree, I’m not married, and never will be. I’m a confirmed bachelor.’
C HAPTER S EVEN
Dammit.
Kree flinched as she missed second gear and grated into third, the long-suffering ute engine groaning in protest. So much for making a dignified exit out Marellen’s poplar-lined driveway. The grinding sound would have carried to where Ewan was working in the machinery shed. She’d reassured him she was getting the hang of the right-hand drive stick shift.
Liar.
She had as much control over the Tylers’ farm ute as she did over her emotions.
If she’d thought living under the same roof as a married Ewan would be difficult, it was nothing compared to coexisting with a very single Ewan. Her hormones didn’t care if he was a confirmed bachelor; they happy-danced at the news he wasn’t attached and ignored all reminders that the Aussie country-boy wasn’t for her. There was only room in her life for Seth.
Ray had taught her she couldn’t be in a relationship while being both mother and father to her brother. When Seth hadbroken his wrist at the skate park, in his skater-boy phase, her ex-fiancé had resented Kree cancelling their holiday plans. When Seth had been studying for his senior year SATs, Ray had railed against Kree for not dropping everything to be by his side at corporate functions. Her ex-fiancé was a part of her past and the man behind her simply couldn’t be part of her future.
Marellen’s front entrance loomed. Kree held her breath and changed down to first gear. The ute didn’t miss a beat.
Yeah, take that, stick shift.
Once over the bumpy cattle-grid, flanked each side by a white picket fence, Kree followed Tish’s directions and turned right. As she sent the ute rattling along the corrugated red gravel road, she glanced to her left where the four brick chimneys of the homestead were visible through the trees. Last night when she’d followed Ewan from Berridale, they’d taken a side road into Marellen, bypassing the main driveway. She’d have to see if she could remember the way when she returned from the Tylers’ this afternoon.
Her foot eased onto the ute’s brake as she neared a roadside memorial. A simple white cross sat off the road. Around the cross grew a neat garden of pink and white daisies and strappy agapanthus. Her heart went out to the family who’d lost a loved one and had erected the poignant memorial. Thousands of miles away, a wooden bench sat in a Rocky Mountain children’s park with a brushed-gold plaque to commemorate her parents’ lives. Her throat ached. Her farm-sitting at Berridale had come at the perfect time. This month marked the eighteenth year anniversary of her mother’s death and she’d hoped by keeping busy the familiar pain wouldn’t bite quite so hard.
She rounded the sharp corner past the memorial and then,at the crossroads, turned onto the ribbon-straight tar road that would take her to town. For the next fifty minutes, she marked locations for future photo opportunities. Perhaps next time she wouldn’t be in such a rush to avoid Ewan and would remember her camera. Perhaps next time he appeared with shower-damp hair and a smile in his clear grey eyes, she wouldn’t stare and drop her knife on her toast plate.
The weathered signs advertising local businesses became more regular and it wasn’t long before the large, rectangular sign indicating she’d arrived at Glenalla, population nine hundred, flashed past. She slowed to the speed limit. Whenever she’d visited previously, she’d either been asleep in Ewan’s ute or immersed in the fog of fear that Seth wouldn’t be found. What a difference ten days made. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head so she’d have an unfiltered view of the town.
Seth finding work near Glenalla was no coincidence. They knew little of their mother’s past other than that she was an only child and had no family. Then, last year, Kree had gone through her mother’s books to
C HAPTER S EVEN
Dammit.
Kree flinched as she missed second gear and grated into third, the long-suffering ute engine groaning in protest. So much for making a dignified exit out Marellen’s poplar-lined driveway. The grinding sound would have carried to where Ewan was working in the machinery shed. She’d reassured him she was getting the hang of the right-hand drive stick shift.
Liar.
She had as much control over the Tylers’ farm ute as she did over her emotions.
If she’d thought living under the same roof as a married Ewan would be difficult, it was nothing compared to coexisting with a very single Ewan. Her hormones didn’t care if he was a confirmed bachelor; they happy-danced at the news he wasn’t attached and ignored all reminders that the Aussie country-boy wasn’t for her. There was only room in her life for Seth.
Ray had taught her she couldn’t be in a relationship while being both mother and father to her brother. When Seth hadbroken his wrist at the skate park, in his skater-boy phase, her ex-fiancé had resented Kree cancelling their holiday plans. When Seth had been studying for his senior year SATs, Ray had railed against Kree for not dropping everything to be by his side at corporate functions. Her ex-fiancé was a part of her past and the man behind her simply couldn’t be part of her future.
Marellen’s front entrance loomed. Kree held her breath and changed down to first gear. The ute didn’t miss a beat.
Yeah, take that, stick shift.
Once over the bumpy cattle-grid, flanked each side by a white picket fence, Kree followed Tish’s directions and turned right. As she sent the ute rattling along the corrugated red gravel road, she glanced to her left where the four brick chimneys of the homestead were visible through the trees. Last night when she’d followed Ewan from Berridale, they’d taken a side road into Marellen, bypassing the main driveway. She’d have to see if she could remember the way when she returned from the Tylers’ this afternoon.
Her foot eased onto the ute’s brake as she neared a roadside memorial. A simple white cross sat off the road. Around the cross grew a neat garden of pink and white daisies and strappy agapanthus. Her heart went out to the family who’d lost a loved one and had erected the poignant memorial. Thousands of miles away, a wooden bench sat in a Rocky Mountain children’s park with a brushed-gold plaque to commemorate her parents’ lives. Her throat ached. Her farm-sitting at Berridale had come at the perfect time. This month marked the eighteenth year anniversary of her mother’s death and she’d hoped by keeping busy the familiar pain wouldn’t bite quite so hard.
She rounded the sharp corner past the memorial and then,at the crossroads, turned onto the ribbon-straight tar road that would take her to town. For the next fifty minutes, she marked locations for future photo opportunities. Perhaps next time she wouldn’t be in such a rush to avoid Ewan and would remember her camera. Perhaps next time he appeared with shower-damp hair and a smile in his clear grey eyes, she wouldn’t stare and drop her knife on her toast plate.
The weathered signs advertising local businesses became more regular and it wasn’t long before the large, rectangular sign indicating she’d arrived at Glenalla, population nine hundred, flashed past. She slowed to the speed limit. Whenever she’d visited previously, she’d either been asleep in Ewan’s ute or immersed in the fog of fear that Seth wouldn’t be found. What a difference ten days made. She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head so she’d have an unfiltered view of the town.
Seth finding work near Glenalla was no coincidence. They knew little of their mother’s past other than that she was an only child and had no family. Then, last year, Kree had gone through her mother’s books to
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