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Matt frowned as he made his way back to his car. He didn’t want to be interested but he just couldn’t help it. Kellie was like a magnet he couldn’t resist. He felt himself being drawn towards her in spite of his efforts to keep his distance. She exuded life and hope and joy. He had never met someone with such an exuberant boots-and-all mentality before. She went at everything like a bull at a gate, which made him realise how much he had shut himself away over the years. He was lonely, there was no point denying it. He craved the easy companionship of a secure relationship, having been denied it during his formative years.
Madeleine had been so stable, so dependable and reliable.
But totally predictable, a little voice piped up, seemingly from nowhere.
He got behind the wheel and gripped it with both hands until his knuckles turned white.
He liked predictable, at least in his private life. He liked knowing what was going to happen next.
Matt couldn’t imagine Kellie being predictable, or at least not from what he had seen from her so far. She was impulsive, for one thing. Her scheme to bring the single mothers together was well meaning but fraught with disaster. She was new to the community. She had no idea of how things worked out here. She would no doubt go in with all her social-conscience guns blazing and end up with some of her bullets ricocheting back to hurt her.
He gunned the engine and put the car into gear. It wasn’t his problem if she got hurt. What did he care? He had only met her a couple of days ago. She was a city chick who was here for six months and six months only.
But somehow as he drove towards his property he couldn’t quite rid himself of the image of Kellie walking alongside the spotty-faced, scowling Ty Smithton. She had taken the time to stop and speak in a respectful way to a troubled young boy who was hell bent on ruining his life. She hadn’t turned up her nose or shrunk away in fear. She had faced the young boy as an equal and asked him to help her.
The least Matt could do was support her during the time she was here, which reminded him he had promised to organise for someone to fix that sticking window.
No reason why it couldn’t be him.
Kellie couldn’t believe the chaos at the Smithtons’ house. Ruth had clearly made some headway but there was still a lot to be done. There was a roomful of clothes that had been washed and dried but not sorted. Kellie had never seen such a mould-ridden bathroom and the boys’ rooms were like war zones.
Ruth was clearly finding it harder than she had expected and communicated that once the boys had retreated to their rooms. ‘I can’t believe how messy they are,’ she said as she wiped the benchtops yet again. ‘I no sooner clean up after them and they’re at it again. And eat! I can’t believe what they can put away.’
‘They’re boys and they’re fully loaded with testosterone,’ Kellie said, ‘It’s entirely normal for them to eat like gannets, believe me.’
Ruth gave a sigh. ‘Tegan was the opposite. She hardly ate a thing, especially after I married Dirk. I often wonder if things would have been different … you know, if I hadn’t gone ahead with the marriage. Tegan missed her father—he died when she was eight. I was lonely and then Dirk came along and we got along quite well. I hadn’t worked since before Tegan was born so I think I might have been looking for security more than anything. It was a disaster from the word go.’
‘Stepparenting is a difficult task for most people,’ Kellie offered.
‘Yes,’ Ruth said, sighing again. ‘Dirk wasn’t the most patient of men and he had rather strict ideas on what girls should and shouldn’t do. There have been rumours over the years that he had something to do with her disappearance but I wouldn’t have thought him capable of something like that. But even now I lie awake at night and wonder if I missed something somewhere.’
‘I really don’t know how you’ve remained so strong,’ Kellie said.
‘The first few years were the worst,’ Ruth said. ‘Dirk passed away eighteen months after Tegan disappeared. He had a massive heart attack. I had to keep myself together in case Tegan came back. I kept thinking what if she had run away and then came back only to find her mother had given up on life? I could so easily have ended it all. I wanted to end the torture of not knowing but I think I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that I might never know the truth.’
‘I think it’s amazing how you help people in spite of your own suffering,’ Kellie said. ‘Look at what you’ve done for Julie and the boys for instance.’
‘I spoke to Julie this afternoon and her hand is recovering well,’ Ruth said. ‘She is being released the day after tomorrow.’
After she had helped Ruth bring some sort of order to the house and spent a few minutes helping the youngest boy, Cade, with his homework, Kellie asked if the three boys were interested in doing some yard work for her.
Ty, the oldest at fifteen, grunted something unintelligible but fourteen-year-old Rowan and twelve-year-old Cade showed a bit of interest, although it was somewhat guarded.
‘I thought it might be nice for when Dr and Mrs Montgomery come back if the garden was spruced up a bit.’ Kellie explained her plan. ‘I know the drought makes things difficult, but if we start now there are still things that can be done to make the place look neat and tidy by the time they return.’
‘Are you going to pay us, Dr Thorne?’ Cade asked with a wary expression.
‘Of course!’ Kellie said. ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch, right?’
She told them how much she was prepared to pay them and arranged to meet them at the Montgomerys’ house on Saturday morning.
Driving into the Montgomerys’ driveway a few minutes later, she caught sight of a slinking shape near the rainwater tank at the side of the house. At first she thought it might have been a fox or even a dingo, but when it moved away into the shadows of the night she could see its tail was long and thin not bushy and the colour not golden but more like a patchwork of brown and black and white.
She turned on the back light once she got inside and looked out over the yard but there was no sign of any movement.
A few minutes later her mobile phone rang just as she had taken her last mouthful of her daily allowance of chocolate. ‘Hello?’ she answered from a full mouth.
‘Kellie, it’s Matt …’ He paused for moment. ‘Have I caught you having dinner?’
‘No, I had a snatch-and-grab meal with Ruth and the boys. That was my chocolate hit for the day. What can I do for you?’
There was a little silence.
She heard him draw in a deep breath before he spoke. ‘I promised to fix that window for you. When would be a convenient time?’
‘I thought you were going to get someone else to fix it. I didn’t realise you were going to do it yourself.’
‘I had to do the same to one of the windows at my place a while back,’ he said. ‘It’s no trouble really.’
‘What about tomorrow after work?’ she suggested. ‘That way I can cook you dinner in payment.’
‘I don’t expect to be paid,’ he said quickly.
‘Nevertheless, I insist on cooking you a meal. Besides, you’ll be doing me a favour by keeping me company for a few hours. I’m not used to being on my own in such a quiet house. It’s sort of creeping me out.’
‘Perhaps a dog might be a good idea after all,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard there’s one hanging about the school, looking for scraps.’
‘I think it was here when I got home a while ago. I saw it slink around the back of the tank.’
‘You could leave out some food for it and see if it’s friendly,’ he said. ‘But don’t approach it unless you’re sure. It might take a nip at you.’
‘I’ll be careful,’ she promised.
There was another silence.
‘Well …’ he said. ‘I’d better let you get some sleep. It’s been a rough couple of days for you. You must be totally wiped out.’
‘I’m pretty used to hard work.’
‘You’ll certainly get plenty of it out here. You’ll have to run the clinic singlehandedly tomorrow as I’m flying out to do the clinic at Warradunga Crossing.’
‘You don’t need me to come with you?’ she asked.
‘Although the appointment book isn’t full, I thought you’d be better to stay in town in case there’s anything urgent,’ he said. ‘The clinic at the Crossing isn’t a big one.’
‘And I don’t suppose the plane is either, right?’
Matt felt a smile tug at his mouth. ‘Not as big as the ones you’re used to but it does the job.’
‘So what time will you get back?’
‘About five,’ he said. ‘I’ll go home, have a shower and get back to your place at about seven, unless you want me to come later?’
‘No, that will be fine.’
‘Good. I’ll look forward to it.’
Not as much as I will, Kellie thought as she placed her phone back on the kitchen bench.
Her skin lifted in a faint shiver of anticipation. She knew the old adage about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach might not apply to someone like Matt McNaught, but she was going to have a damn good try.
CHAPTER TWELVE
KELLIE was putting the last-minute touches to her make-up when she heard the sound of Matt knocking on the front door. She put the pot of lipgloss down and quickly slipped on her high heels and click-clacked her way down the hall.
She opened the door wide and smiled. ‘Hi.’
Matt felt as if he had been zapped with a stun gun. He stood there for several seconds, trying to keep his jaw from dropping at the vision of loveliness in front of him. She was wearing a red-and-white sundress with shoestring straps, nipped in at the waist with a shiny patent-leather belt, emphasising her trim body. Her hair was loose about her shoulders; she had done something to enhance the slight wave in it, the cascade of bouncy curls framing her heart-shaped face giving her a casual but elegant look. She smelt of summer, the delicate notes of honeysuckle—or was it orange blossom?—danced around his nostrils like invisible sprites.
‘Um … won’t you come in?’ she asked.
‘Er … right,’ he said, stepping over the threshold and thrusting a bottle of wine at her. ‘I don’t know if you like red or white but this is from the Roma vineyard. I thought you might like to try it. It’s the oldest vineyard in Queensland. It began in 1863.’
‘I’ve heard of it,’ she said, and closed the door. ‘I’ll open the wine while you play handyman with the window. I got the bedroom one open the other night but it’s still a little stiff.’
Yeah, well, it’s not the only thing feeling that way, Matt thought as she brushed past him. He was glad he was holding his toolkit so he could hide his physical reaction to her.
He went through the house and checked each window, listening to her singing along to the CD player. She had a nice voice, light and pure and enthusiastic as she was about seemingly everything.
I wonder what she’s like in bed.
The thought was like an intruder inside his head. He tried to evict it but it wouldn’t leave. It made it even worse when the last window he had to check was in her bedroom. The intoxicating fragrance of her permeated everything. Even the lightweight curtains smelt of her as he pulled them aside to work the latch.
‘How’s it going?’ she asked from just behind him.
Matt hadn’t heard her approach and nicked his finger on the blade of the chisel. ‘Er … fine,’ he said. ‘I’m just about done.’
Kellie frowned when he turned around and began to wind his finger around his handkerchief. ‘Have you cut yourself?’ she asked.
‘It’s just a scratch.’
‘Let me see.’
‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘I told you, it’s just a little scratch. It will stop bleeding in a second.’
Kellie gave him a reproving look as she reached for his hand. ‘You don’t need to go all macho on me, Matt,’ she said. ‘If I can handle what Julie Smithton did to her finger, I think I’ll cope with what you’ve done with yours.’
She unpeeled the handkerchief and inspected the flesh wound. ‘Mmm,’ she said. ‘It looks like it needs some pressure for a bit longer. I’ll cleanse it for you and put on a sticky plaster.’
‘There’s really no need …’
Her eyes met his. ‘Why are you being so stubborn about such a little thing?’ she asked. ‘When was the last time you allowed someone to help you for a change?’
He held her gaze for a moment or two. ‘All right,’ he said, blowing out of sigh of resignation. ‘Do what you need to do. I won’t put up a struggle.’
Kellie led him by the hand to the bathroom and making him sit on a small stool, attended to his finger with meticulous care. She was acutely aware of his long legs, she had to step around them a couple of times to reach the first-aid cupboard. She was also intensely aware of his hand in hers as she cleansed and dressed the wound. She imagined how it would feel to have those strong, long-fingered hands on her body, touching her face, tilting her head to claim her mouth with his own …
Matt met her brown gaze on a level. She was wearing mascara, which made her long eyelashes even more lustrous. His eyes went to her mouth. This close he could see the tiny sparkles in her lipgloss, making her lips all the more tempting to taste. He watched as the point of her tongue sneaked out to paste a film of moisture on top of the gloss and his insides gave a sudden kick of reaction. It would be so easy to lean forward and—
‘There,’ she said briskly, scrunching up the wrapping of the sticky plaster. ‘I’m all done.’
Matt got to his feet. ‘Thank you, but it was totally unnecessary to go to all that fuss over nothing.’
‘It wasn’t nothing and, besides, I didn’t want you to bleed all over the place. Imagine if Tim and Claire come back to find bloodstains all over their bedroom carpet?’
‘Good point.’
She turned from the basin, where she had been washing her hands. ‘Ready for dinner now?’
‘Sure.’
Kellie led the way to the kitchen where she had an Italian chicken dish simmering. She poured two glasses of wine and handed him one. ‘Thanks for fixing the windows. I really appreciate it. I’m hopeless at household maintenance. I guess it comes from living with six men. They did that sort of stuff while Mum and I got on with the cooking and housework.’
He took the glass with a brief brush of his fingers against hers. ‘Did you resent having to do that?’
She cradled her glass in her hands. ‘Not at first. I took over the cooking when Mum got sick. It was hard once she’d gone to stop doing it. Dad and the boys were devastated. The last thing they needed was a huge shopping list and a week’s menu thrust in their hands.’
Matt thought about how caring she was, how she had put her needs aside for the sake of her father and younger brothers. ‘All the same, it must have been hard, not having a life of your own,’ he said. ‘What about boyfriends and so on? How did you juggle your professional and social life with your family taking up so much of your time?’
Her smooth brow furrowed slightly. ‘It wasn’t easy. I’m nearly thirty years old and I’ve only had one lover. I guess you think that’s pretty pathetic, huh?’
He felt his mouth tip upwards in a rueful smile. ‘I’m hardly one to criticise. I haven’t exactly been out there sowing my wild oats.’
She smiled back at him but he noticed her cheeks were a little pink. ‘I guess I should check on dinner …’
Matt watched as she deftly sorted out plates and garnishes and steamed vegetables as if it was second nature to her. He couldn’t help wondering what she would think of his micro-waved single-serve meals or his two-recipe repertoire of macaroni cheese or savory mince on toast. ‘You obviously enjoy cooking,’ he said into the silence.
‘I love it,’ she said handing him a plate loaded with food.
‘Was your mother a good cook?’ he asked once they were both seated at the small pine table.
‘She was fabulous,’ she said, passing him the pepper grinder. ‘I stood on a step-stool by her side for as long as I can remember. I think she would have loved to have been a chef but she didn’t get the opportunity. She got pregnant with me while she was at college so that put an end to that.’
‘Was she bitter about it?’
She met his gaze across the table. ‘No, of course not. She loved being a mother.’
He looked into the contents of his glass. ‘My mother was the opposite. She also fell pregnant by mistake but it was made very clear to my father and me that it had ruined her life.’
