Read Online The Bark Cutters by Nicole Alexander - Free Book Online Page B

undulating ground. Locating the barely visible track serving as the main road for this part of the property, they settled back for the thirty-minute drive to the sheep yards.
    â€˜So, what’s the story?’ Cameron enquired nonchalantly, turning up the radio and changing the station.
    â€˜About what?’
    â€˜You know. That lame excuse about Sarah not needing to come with us this morning. She’ll be pissed when we get back.’
    â€˜Probably,’ Anthony agreed, his hand moving to adjust the volume.
    â€˜So, you gonna share?’ Cameron continued, his fingers drumming with anticipation on the dash. ‘I heard your ute last night. Sarah was late for dinner.’
    â€˜Share what?’ Anthony attempted to answer with disinterest as three kangaroos bounded across their path. Sure, he and Cameron had spoken occasionally about Sarah, but it was usually his mate giving him a hard time. Surely Sarah hadn’t told him about last night. Not that there was anything to tell. Anthony peered intently at the dirt track ahead wondering how he could worm his way out of his mate’s fact-finding mission.
    â€˜How long have you been here for?’
    â€˜Okay, okay I give up.’ Anthony tapped the radio on/off switch with his forefinger. Suddenly it was deathly quiet. He glanced at Cameron, whose eyes were crinkling in amusement. ‘If you’ve got something to say, I’d prefer it if you just came straight out with it.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    â€˜If you want to ask me something, ask me.’ Anthony gritted his teeth. It was possible Cameron didn’t like the idea of him beingkeen on his sister. If so maybe it was better if Cameron told him how he felt, for Anthony had no intention of jeopardising his position at Wangallon.
    â€˜Okay then, I will. No need to get all feminine on me. I was just wondering how long you’ve been here at Wangallon?’
    â€˜Over a year, you know that.’
    Cameron bolted upright in his seat. ‘A whole year. It took a year for you to make a pass at my sister!’
    Anthony gripped the steering wheel, hastily accelerating with a quick gear change. ‘She tell you that?’
    â€˜What? That it took you a whole year or that you actually did make a pass at her?’
    About to answer, Anthony looked across to find his friend’s face red with suppressed laughter.
    â€˜Well, you are enjoying yourself, aren’t you?’
    Cameron’s chuckling continued until they reached the sheep yards. His face, usually so tanned beneath his blonde hair, remained red for a good minute before gradually resuming its normal colouring.
    â€˜It wasn’t actually a pass,’ Anthony answered quickly, as they pulled a trunk from the rear of the vehicle and carried it, one on either end, into the yards.
    Cameron nodded over his shoulder to where Sarah was pulling up on a quad-runner on the other side of the yards. ‘What was it then?’
    â€˜Well, you two took long enough. Thanks for leaving me behind.’ Sarah walked briskly towards them.
    â€˜Told you she would be pissed off,’ Cameron stated knowingly, as he watched his sister swing her long legs over each railing. ‘Well, if it was a pass, it wasn’t a very good one by the looks of her mood. Need some pointers?’
    â€˜Maybe,’ Anthony agreed with a shrug and a grin. They dropped the trunk near the broken railing.
    Cameron clapped his mate on the back. ‘Anthony was just telling me that, well, it was nothing really,’ he finished lamely at the hostile look in Anthony’s eyes. ‘Let’s get going.’
    Axe in hand, Cameron began to prise the bark away from the trunk. With short taps and a twist of the axe-head, the blade slipped neatly into the incision down the length of the trunk, pulling the bark neatly away. When one side was completed, Anthony and Cameron rolled the tree over to reveal the other incision. Within