Hope's Road (19 page)

Back in the clearing, Travis felt Tammy take his hand. He looked at the tanned fingers threaded through his in shock. He hadn't realised he'd kept talking, telling her the whole story. Geez, he'd never done that. Not even with his own mother; he'd preferred to give her the less painful edited version.

He looked across into a pair of empathetic ­burned-caramel eyes, urging him to go on. What the hell, he'd said this much now. ‘We battled along, Billy and me. I took him out to Smithville, and a girl living there with a bloke helped us for a while. But then they left, Billy turned four and was heading for school. It was just getting too hard. My mother, Diane, she lived in South Australia, offered to take on the boy. She was good to him. Good to us both.'

‘It must have been difficult to leave him,' said Tammy quietly. He could see dismay in her eyes, at the thought of him having to leave his child.

‘Yes and no. Yes, because I knew the little bugger deserved better. No, because it'd all become too hard. I'm a bloke. We don't do the nurturing thing like a woman.'

He could see she was having trouble with that thought.

‘You don't agree?'

Tammy shook her head. ‘Nope. You obviously never met my grandparents. My grandmother was not the nurturer in that marriage.'

‘She didn't love you?' said Trav, curious.

Tammy considered that for a moment. ‘I wouldn't say that. She loved me as much as she could.'

‘What do you mean?'

Tammy smiled. ‘Well, Mae was a very beautiful woman . . .'

‘I wouldn't doubt that,' interrupted Trav, looking pointedly at her. ‘The gene's obviously carried through.'

Tammy blushed, seemed to fumble with her thoughts for a few seconds before going on. ‘She enjoyed being the centre of attention all the time, and I guess Grandpa Tom and I pandered to that.' Her expression turned rueful. ‘It was just easier to play along rather than rock the boat with Mae.'

‘Mae? Not Grandma or Nanna?'

‘Oh, heck no!' Tammy shot him a look of mock horror. ‘That sounds waaay too old. Almost doddery!'

‘And Mae didn't do old and doddery?'

‘Nope. Well-groomed perfection was my grandmother. Any messy nurturing stuff like hugs and kisses I had to get from my grandfather. When I was growing up I always wished she could let life be about someone other than herself just for one day. But then when you're a teenager life is all about
yourself
too.' She stopped, soft chuckles rumbling through her chest.

Trav wondered if she knew how laughter lit up her entire face. It made her look more beautiful than ever.

She continued, ‘We were both so selfish, it must've been hell on Grandpa.'

‘He was good?'

Tammy's eyes shone with love. ‘He was awesome, and my escape. He taught me everything I know about farming and it didn't matter to him that I was a girl. He was also the one Mae and I ran to when we couldn't get on with each other. Mind you, technically Mae always won those bouts but Grandpa Tom had this way about him that made us both feel we'd won in the end.'

‘How'd he do that?'

Tammy took a few moments to think about it. ‘I think he just took all the blame onto himself.' Her face turned wistful. ‘I miss them both terribly.'

‘I'll bet you do,' said Travis, wondering whether he could ask about her mum but at the same time cursing himself inwardly for his interest. Wasn't he supposed to be staying away? ‘My mother had a stroke but at least she's still here.'

‘Is that why you came back to Lake Grace? For your mum?'

Travis got up and started to pack up the Thermos and wrappings from their lunch. ‘Yes. It was the least I could do,' he said as he threw it all into a toolbox on the back of the ute. ‘She deserved the best I could give her.' This was all getting a bit too up close and personal. ‘You ready to learn how to set a dog trap?'

Tammy got up off her log and brushed down her jeans. She'd taken his hint the conversation was over. He'd told her more in the last half hour than he'd shared with anyone since Kat left. He just hoped she couldn't see through him now. He liked that his gruff exterior hid the fact that he actually cared a lot. That sort of thing just caused entanglements – and trouble.

‘Righto, Ms McCauley, it's time to get serious.' Travis dragged out a couple of rubber-jawed traps from his ute. Clearing an area right beside the marker tree, he set the first one. Snapping a small but thickish stem from a nearby bracken fern, he scored a nick into the square branch and placed it under the trap plate.

‘Why'd you do that?' asked Tammy, fascinated.

Trav was relieved they were back on the track. He felt much more comfortable talking about practical things than touchy-feely stuff. ‘To stop any marsupials or birds from setting it off,' he said, as he carefully placed a piece of fly wire over the open jaw and sieved some dirt lightly on top. He grabbed an old board and put it on the trap to protect it.

‘Let Tommy off the ute again, will you?' he called to her.

She let the dog go. Tommy ran over to Trav and, at his master's command, pissed over the bark and trap. ‘Beautiful,' said Travis. He ordered his mutt back onto the ute tray. Next he removed the board and stood back to inspect his handiwork. ‘Hopefully now the wild dog will come back, smell the new dog's scent and re-mark his territory. Snap. Got you, you bastard.'

The woman didn't say anything. He cast her a glance. Any sign of a smile was gone, replaced by an expression that was both grim and haunted at the same time. Travis could feel Tammy's eyes watching him as he kneeled and spent some time poking sticks and twigs into the ground around the hidden trap, trying to make sure the dog would put its paw on the correct spot.

It was funny how she could be so quiet. Most females he'd known in the past would feel the need to fill the peace with chatter. Not this woman. She seemed to respect silence. Know that sometimes it was better to say nothing at all. Where did she learn that? From her grandmother or her bastard of an ex-husband? Speaking of which: ‘If this doesn't work I'll bring some of my bitch's piss out here and pour it around the trap. That usually works, especially if the rogue dog is a male.' Travis grinned inwardly, appreciating the irony even if his company wasn't privy to his thoughts.

Tammy stood and contemplated the area. ‘You'd never even know we've been here.'

‘And that's just the way I like it,' said Trav. He turned to the dark-eyed siren beside him and slung her a half-grin. ‘Dogs are a bit like women. The more you
think
you know about them, the less you do
.
'

‘You speaking from experience there, Hunter?'

‘You betcha.'

Chapter 30

It was late when they pulled up at the back door of Trav's house, or shack really. The place looked well worn in – like a comfortable, sloppy jumper the owner loved to bits. It seemed to hunker down on its rocky hill, with scrambling wild vines trying to find purchase on the roof and native shrubs shrouding the walls. The vegetation made the place seemed rooted in the soil, one with the bush. Like its current inhabitant, who was on the phone to Joe, checking to see if his son could stay another night.

Tammy couldn't help but wish she lived here. No expectations loomed from the building other than taking shelter. There wasn't a hundred and fifty years of history mocking you in the face like at Montmorency down the bottom of the hill. And in fact, she should be getting back there. Her relief milker would be long gone by now.

They'd spent most of the rest of the day setting and checking traps and talking with other farmers whose properties abutted the state forest. The landowners wanted the government to do more about the wild dog problem that just seemed to be getting worse. ‘More tucker around. It's the good seasons,' they'd said.

Tammy wished with all her heart this was a good season for
her
. But it wasn't. There were too many things around her that were spiralling out of control as fast as a tornado, and this goddamned dog problem just about topped it right off.

Trav got out of the ute and moved to the back, unloading their lunchboxes, Thermos and coats. Tammy met him coming around her side. She held out a hand. ‘Thanks,' she said. ‘I appreciate your help.' To her horror she found tears were welling. She tried to force them back but to no avail. The minute Trav's warm hand touched hers, she was gone.

The sobs erupted, rumbling through her body like thunder. What the hell? Couldn't her emotions have waited until she was alone? She tried to suck it all back in but the disappointment, the despair, the anxiety she was feeling all came tumbling out in defiance of her efforts.

A pair of strong arms came from nowhere to clutch at her body, to draw her in, to murmur into her hair, ‘Tammy? Oh Tammy, mate.'

And that just made things worse. Now she was within the comfort of Trav's hug, her sobs became cries, her stream of tears a river. Then she heard him whisper again, his breath sending wisps of her hair curling around her ears, ‘I'll get him, Tammy. I promise you I'll get him.' And in her despair she wondered if he was talking about Shon or the wild dog that was destroying any chance she had of keeping the farm. She didn't really care. They all amounted to the same thing. Ruin and despair.

Her whole world was crashing around her and she was falling and falling further than she'd ever fallen before, further even than after her grandparents died. But wonder of wonders: there was someone there to catch her. And that hadn't been the case for years. Maybe it was okay to soak in the comfort for a little while and pretend nothing else existed beyond Travis Hunter's strong arms.

Tammy had no idea how long they stood there with the dark shadows of the tall gum trees holding them within their embrace.

‘I'm so sorry,' she mumbled into the warm flannelette shirt. ‘I don't know what got –'

‘Stop,' said Trav, as he pulled her in closer. ‘Sometimes we just have to cry it all out. No rhyme, no reason. It's just the way it is.'

Trav wouldn't know how much was riding on getting those calves on the ground. Why should he? She hadn't told anyone but Lucy about the fix she was in. Not even old Joe. How could she tell
Joe
? What would he say when he heard she was going to have to sell Montmorency Downs, the heritage of the McCauley family, to pay out a Murphy?

You'll have to find a way, her subconscious whispered.
Yes, she'd have to find a way. She owed it to the old man. Until recently, he might not have set foot on the place for sixty years but he still loved it. Land was like family.

She went to pull away but he wasn't letting her go. ‘Trav –'

‘Shhh,' he whispered, pointing towards the canopy of the tall eucalypt tree. They both looked up to the tawny frogmouth owl that was staring down. Big round unblinking eyes observed them. Then with a soft hoot he flew away, spooked by the soft growl from a dog on the back verandah.

Tammy was acutely aware of Trav's hard, muscled body. The length of it was burning into her side like a hot slab of iron.

‘How about a cup of hot chocolate?' he said, as he turned back to her, the spell cast by the owl now broken. His look was soft as he gazed down at her. She was vividly aware her own eyes must be swollen and red. In fact her whole face was most likely a blotchy mess.

‘Really, I should be going.' But Tammy found herself reluctant to move from the warmth, the comfort of being
with
someone.

‘Just one hot chocolate. Here – you're shivering now. I can't send you home like this.' Trav took matters into his own hands and walked her across the gravel, through the gate, along the path, to the back door of the little shack.

‘But what about Billy?'

‘He's at Joe's.'

Of course. She knew that. Silly her.

‘Just a hot chocolate then.'

‘Just a hot chocolate.'

Inside, while Trav put the kettle on the old combustion stove, Tammy wandered around the small room that functioned as the kitchen, dining and lounge all in one. On the walls were photos, framed with hand-wrought timber and metal. Big ones, little ones – all landscape shots of arid-looking desert country and a long and ribbon-like chain-mesh fence rolling over red sand dunes that looked like a russet-coloured Loch Ness monster.

‘Are these all the dog fence?' Tammy asked, peering at a close-up of an unconcerned shingle-backed lizard clinging to chain-wire.

‘Yep. The fence has created its own ecosystem. You often see those little beggars hanging there on the wire just taking in the world.'

Tammy turned to the man, realising she wanted to know more and more about him. ‘What other animals did you see?'

Trav smiled as he dished tea leaves into a teapot. A can of Milo stood nearby. He took his time to reply, his eyes seeing something far beyond McCauley's Hill. ‘The mighty wedge-tailed eagle. Dozens and dozens of them. All living off the little critters that call the fence their home. They were something to see. Them and the Woma Pythons. They're a big desert snake about twelve foot long that lives in rabbit burrows. Harmless, but endangered, so we had to help them over the fence when they got stuck. First time I saw one of those it scared the shit out of me, but then I learned how to handle them, what to do.'

She moved around the kitchen bench, drawn by the soft reflective tone of Trav's voice and by the passion in his eyes.

‘Then there were emus, kangaroos, frill-necked and blue-tongue lizards, sand goannas . . . plus the thunder and sandstorms that could rage around you for hours on end.'

‘You loved it, didn't you?' she said softly.

A pair of dreamy blue eyes stared back at her. ‘Yes, I did.'

The kettle on the stove started to whistle, startling them both. Together they leaped to turn the gas off, and their arms collided as the supply shut down. Hand met hand. Fingers met fingers. Tammy looked up to see Trav staring down at her and what Tammy glimpsed was breathtaking. An intensity of gaze she hadn't seen since the night of the dance. The night she turned away. But she couldn't turn away now. Not even when Travis Hunter took her hand in his and slowly drew her in. Not even when his head drifted downwards. Not even when, with one last look into her eyes, he gently covered her trembling lips with his own.

Every nerve-ending in Tammy's body seemed to quiver as Travis slowly traced the outline of her mouth, gently at first, taking his sweet time to taste. Then, as he met with no resistance, drinking where before he'd just sipped. Pulling her in tight to his hard body. Demanding yet soft. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.

And then, just when she thought her legs would go out from under her, he was retreating, moving away. She heard herself whimper. But he didn't go far. His warm mouth languidly traced the gentle curve of her neck, nibbling and sucking, seeking and finding the sweet spots. Tammy let out a low moan as he feasted on her skin. Her body swayed in ecstasy. All she could hear was that same roaring in her ears, punctuated by her own little gasps of pleasure. All she could feel were Travis Hunter's lips. All she could see was the softly curling hair where it met the skin of his neck.

Tammy gasped as Trav's mouth reached the pulse at the base of her throat. He paused, hovered in momentary indecision. Then slowly but surely he trailed kiss after kiss along her collarbone, up her neck and back to the softness of her lips.

She felt him push the kettle off the still-hot hob, and take her hand, drawing her towards the doorway of an adjoining room where she could see a double bed. She didn't want this to stop. She found herself looking up into those eyes, usually a vivid blue but now a dark and dangerous navy. He bent his head down to her and she was carried away in his kiss once more.

Tammy felt his hands move from her sides to the front of her shirt. Starting at the waist he undid her buttons, one by one, taking time to explore the body beneath his hands. Her shirt came off, followed by her bra. And then she was gently picked up and laid down on the bed. Trav stripped his own shirt off in one go and Tammy gasped. His chest was broad, muscled and lightly patterned with soft hair in all the right spots. Then he was upon her, kissing and nuzzling her breasts, licking the soft rosy peaks, which had risen to meet his touch.

Nibbling and kissing his way down to her waist, he slowly eased her jeans from her hips, caressing her skin as he went. Tammy thought she was about to die, so strong was her greed to have this man deep inside her.

‘Your jeans,' she muttered through clenched teeth.

He pulled the rest of his clothes off, piece by piece, with Tammy watching every move. She'd always thought him sexy but, with his clothes off, the man was more than sexy. He was – oh God, what was he? Tammy couldn't think, couldn't breathe, because he was there. Right there. Right where she needed him to be. His fingers. His tongue. Touching. Teasing. Oh my Lord – she could feel herself rising, heading for a peak. Oh, so close. ‘Keep going,' she begged, as she twirled her hips.

‘I intend to,' he whispered.

And then she knew she had to have him. ‘Trav! Please!'

Trav moved fast, up and over her body, thrusting himself into her with one strong, firm stroke. Moving with her, riding the waves that had started to thrum through her body. She felt herself explode, her muscles clenching around his long, hard thickness. And then it was Trav's turn. Up and over he went, gasping, cursing, riding ecstasy. Trav collapsed around her, and reached to cradle her body into his. Eyes closed. Body limp. He pulled and tugged until Tammy was curled up, spooned into him.

Tammy felt a soft kiss land in the nape of her neck, another on her shoulder. An arm came out to haul the now scrunched-up fluffy doona over them. And then there was nothing other than the soft hoot of a night owl abroad.