Second Chance At the Ranch Read online

  Still, he wanted to like her, for Juliet’s sake. He cast a glance at his fiancée. She felt his gaze and turned, the same smile on her lips as the day he’d met her. The day he knew she was the one.

  Juliet placed her warm, small hand back on his leg and his large tanned one curled gently around it. As the miles passed, he cast his mind back to that day. He’d entered the house with wedding bells already ringing out clear in his head, but his younger brother hadn’t been convinced.

  ***

  ‘I’m telling you, mate. She’s the one,’ Pete said as he washed his hands under the kitchen tap.

  Nick opened his mouth to contradict him and remind him, ‘hadn’t he said that about so-and-so’ when it struck him that, actually, Pete had never said that. Not once.

  The brothers had both inherited their mother’s good looks and their father’s height. They were well built from working on the station and well educated from attending a top school in the city. The whole package made them very popular with women in the district and, between the two of them, they’d dated a good percentage. Those interested in more of a bad boy persona tended to home in on Nick whilst Pete had a more strong, silent type of reputation going on. Neither was accurate, but if it worked, they weren’t complaining.

  Juliet had arrived on a blistering summer’s day with an Outback Discovery tour that sometimes took in the Websters’ Merino sheep station. Jacob, their leading station hand, had the gift of the gab, and was therefore assigned to answer questions on the tour. He was doing his normal good work when Pete returned from mending fences out on the west paddock and caught sight of a blonde trailing at the back of the group. She wore loose cotton trousers with trainers, and her top half was swamped under an over-sized shirt. A ponytail bounced from the back of a peaked cap. Definitely not what Pete would call his usual type but something about her caught his attention.

  Throwing the fencing he’d been about to unload back in the ute, Pete walked up behind the group. The blonde had fallen behind a little more now and was staring out at the vista as up in front Jacob waxed lyrical about wool fineness and weight.

  ‘Hope we’re not boring you.’

  The woman jumped at the sound of Pete’s voice. She turned and tilted her head back in order to meet his eyes.

  ‘Weren’t you ever told that it’s rude to sneak up on people?’ The admonishment came in a well-spoken English accent, accompanied by a wide smile, and teasing laughter in the gentle green eyes.

  ‘Sorry,’ Pete replied, grinning and not looking sorry at all.

  The blonde smiled again and turned back to the view she had been admiring before he had interrupted. Fields stretched away to the horizon. From here, it looked and felt like they were all alone on the planet.

  ‘I can’t get over the size of it all.’

  ‘Yeah, all the girls say that.’

  The blonde looked up again and met his eyes, laughter showing in her own, ‘Yes,’ she said slowly, ‘but I’m surprised at how big everything is.’ She kept her emphasis on the word ‘big’ and raised one eyebrow. With that she turned and walked off to catch up with the rest of the group, leaving Pete standing on his own, a big grin plastered on his face. And already more than a little in love.

  A short time later, Pete watched the group depart, his eyes focused on the mystery blonde. He didn’t even know her name but, no worries, he would. The driver helped the women into the back of the tour company’s four-wheel drive. Another tourist of similar age to the blonde waited to get in. She made a point of declining the driver’s assistance and hopped into her seat. Pete shook his head. He was all for equality but there were people that took it to extremes and just ended up looking plain rude. He watched as the blonde took the proffered hand with a smile of thanks and disappeared into the cool, air-conditioned interior of the tour vehicle.

  ‘We’re going into town tonight,’ Pete announced as he finished washing his hands at the sink.

  Nick shook his head as he chewed a mouthful of beef stew. Pete dished himself out a portion and sat down opposite his younger brother. Nick was still chewing.

  ‘What do you mean, no?’ Pete asked as he forked up some of the stew.

  ‘I’m knackered, mate!’ Nick complained. ‘Jacob was meant to be helping with the new shed until those flippin’ tourists showed up. Joe and I ended up doing it on our own.’ He took a swig from his beer and swallowed forcefully before peering suspiciously down at his stew. ‘Do you know how long Mum’s had this in the freezer?’

  Pete looked up from his plate as he chewed. He shook his head and kept on chewing. He gave his plate a questionable look. Nick leant back and grabbed another beer from the fridge. He flipped the top off and pushed the bottle towards his brother. Pete swallowed with the help of the cool drink, glancing down at his own plate.

  ‘Too long.’

  Gathering the crockery, Nick scraped their contents into the bin, then placed the china in the dishwasher. He made a mental note to remember to turn it on before their parents returned from their weekend viewing prospective retirement properties in the city.

  ‘Anyway, that’s why we’re going to the pub,’ Pete announced.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The tourists. Or rather, one in particular.’

  Nick rolled his eyes. ‘Oh right. The girl you’re going to marry.’

  ‘Yep.’

  Nick let out a sigh as his stomach rumbled and complained. ‘Yeah, all right. Let’s just hope they’ve got something other than beef stew.’ He left the kitchen and headed up the stairs towards the bathroom for a shower. ‘You’re driving.’ He called back.

  The Outback tour group was in the pub when the two men entered a while later. Nick watched as his brother’s eyes scanned the crowd for the blonde. Pete saw her. She was sitting at a small table by the window, writing. Her baggy clothes from earlier had been replaced by a long pink sundress with tiny flowers on it, and a pale lemon cardigan. The ponytail had been freed allowing soft blonde curls to bounce on her shoulders.

  ‘There,’ Pete stated, as he flicked Nick on the arm to get his attention before making his way over to her table.

  ‘Hello again.’

  The blonde looked up. She seemed surprised, but not unhappy, to see him.

  ‘Hello.’

  They looked at each other for a minute, neither quite sure what to say next. Nick looked between them, then made a small roll of his eyes.

  ‘Hi.’ He stuck out his hand. ‘I’m Nick.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you, Nick. I’m Juliet.’

  Nick sneaked a look at Pete from the corner of his eye. He didn’t appear to be about to speak anytime soon. His brother bailed him out.

  ‘Pete tells me you were on the tour today. I hope you enjoyed it.’

  Juliet slid her eyes back to the elder brother. ‘Yes, I did.’ She paused. ‘Very much so.’

  Pete’s grin got wider. Nick smiled. He had never seen him like this. He really did have it bad. Again, there was a pause.

  ‘I was just writing to my sister and telling her about the trip to your station.’

  Pete bobbed his head happily.

  Nick rolled his eyes again and couldn’t help smiling. ‘Well, I’m going to get us a couple of beers. Would you like a drink?’

  ‘A beer would be lovely. Thank you.’

  As Nick turned to cross to the bar, he nudged Pete and spoke in a loud whisper.

  ‘Mate, stop just bloody grinning and say something intelligent or she’s going to think you’re the village idiot.’

  It was busy at the bar, but Nick was happy to wait. His brother finally seemed to have got some oxygen back into his brain and was deep in conversation with the lovely Juliet. Nick had to agree there was something about the woman that made you want to know her. She was certainly beautiful, but not in a slap-you-in-the-face, obvious, movie star kind of way. It was gentle and warm but no less appealing for its softness.

  Nick took the drinks over to Juliet’s table.

  ‘
Here we go.’ He sat for a few moments before seeing a neighbour he urgently needed to talk to and left them alone.

  ‘Your brother is very tactful,’ Juliet observed.

  ‘Yeah, he’s all right.’

  Having not only learned her name, as he’d promised himself he would, Pete was also successful in persuading Juliet to change her itinerary and stay in town for a few extra days. He was up to his ears in debt to Nick for all the jobs his brother covered him for on the station whilst he showed his new love around. Juliet had been working in Adelaide for six months after leaving a job she hated in London and had taken some time off to see a little more of the expanse outside the city.

  ‘I just decided to leave,’ she told Pete when he asked how she had ended up temping in Adelaide. ‘I was in London, working at a job I didn’t like and I’d had enough. It was cold and it was raining so I went onto the internet, thought of somewhere sunny, and booked a flight out here.’

  They were sitting on a blanket underneath a clear night sky. Juliet shifted a little and gazed up at the stars now showing themselves. ‘Of course, it gave my sister a complete panic attack. She’s so much more organised than me, and likes to plan everything as much as possible. We’re so different in some ways but very similar in others. Does that make sense?’

  ‘Sure. Sounds a bit like me and Nick.’ Pete nodded. ‘So, what does your sister do?’

  ‘She’s a model. It all seems to be going very well, although it’s rather a weird choice for her really, as she’s quite shy. It certainly wasn’t a career she’d ever thought about taking up but she’s doing great! She has this “something”… I don’t have it, I don’t know, a sort of serenity almost. They love that. Oh, that and the fact that she’s achingly beautiful!’ Juliet laughed. There was no jealousy in Juliet’s tone, only pride.

  ‘Do you see her much?’

  ‘Yes. Quite a lot. Well, until I came out here that is, but she managed to visit me a couple of months ago after she did a shoot in Bali.’

  ‘Nice work if you can get it.’

  Juliet laughed. ‘Yes! We text and call and email all the time, but I do miss her dreadfully. I worry about her too. She’s nowhere near as tough as she likes people to think she is.’

  ‘What about your parents? Do they worry as much as you do?’ Pete asked, watching Juliet, and falling further and further in love with every word she spoke.

  A shadow flitted across her expression before she answered. ‘They passed away. Quite a while ago now.’

  Pete pulled himself up. ‘God, I’m sorry, Juliet. I didn’t—’

  ‘It’s all right.’ Juliet touched his arm and then let her hand rest there. Pete covered it gently with his own. ‘We weren’t close. It was a few years ago now. My parents did everything together, went everywhere together. My mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away nine weeks later. It was all a bit sudden. Six months later we buried Dad. He just sort of faded away.’

  Pete put his arm around Juliet as they sat watching the stars glisten in the clear sky. She snuggled into his warmth. ‘My father was a diplomat, and they travelled a lot. I was a novelty, and Hero was … I don’t know. They took so little interest in her, I couldn’t help but wonder why they had her at all sometimes.

  ‘It was heartbreaking to watch her try to please them … but she never seemed to be able to. It made me so mad. I’d look at her sometimes and there was such confusion written on her face. I know it certainly affected her confidence.’

  ‘But being a model must make her pretty confident?’

  Juliet raised an eyebrow. ‘Looks can be deceiving. But yes, she’s better these days. She has a couple of very good friends. And she has me.’

  ‘So, there’s just the two of you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What did you say her name was?’

  ‘Hero.’

  Pete paused. ‘Your parents really liked Shakespeare, didn’t they?’

  Juliet laughed. ‘Yes.’

  ‘So she made it through school with that name?’

  ‘We went to quite a posh school. Unusual names were par for the course.’

  Pete nodded.

  Juliet continued, ‘Actually, it’s been useful with her chosen career.’

  ‘Easy to remember.’

  ‘Hard to forget a Hero!’ Juliet laughed.

  ‘So why Australia, apart from the fact it was somewhere sunny? Or was that our sole attraction?’

  ‘My father was Australian. Hero and I both have dual citizenship. We were born here but left young to be educated in England whilst my parents had various postings all over the world. I’ve not been back so I thought it was about time I spent some time out here myself.’

  Pete sat up. Juliet followed and touched his arm.

  ‘Pete? Are you all right?’

  ‘Would you consider spending some more time out here?’

  ‘I don’t really know. I’d planned on staying about a year and then seeing—’

  ‘I mean out here.’ Pete waved an arm to take in the Websters’ land. ‘I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, being a bit remote like this but …’

  Juliet shifted position on the rug. ‘What exactly are you saying?’

  ‘Juliet, will you marry me?’ He paused, and then made to push away. ‘What was I thinking? I should have done all this properly. You’re not just some—’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Yes!’ Juliet laughed, catching his hand, and holding it up to her face. ‘I will marry you.’

  Pete felt his legs give way and flopped back onto the rug from the kneeling position he’d been in. He landed on his backside, and Juliet grinned, moving across the rug and plopping herself down on his lap.

  ‘You seem surprised.’

  ‘I am a bit.’

  ‘At me saying yes, or the fact that you asked me?’

  ‘Both. I think.’

  Her face clouded a little. ‘Do you want to take it back?’

  ‘No!’ he said, reaching for her, and pulling her close. ‘God, no!’

  ‘Then what’s the problem?’

  ‘I just – you deserve a better proposal than in the middle of a paddock on a lumpy old rug.’

  Juliet smiled and raised her eyebrows. ‘Actually, I think it’s pretty much perfect.’

  Pete recognised the smile and pulled her closer still.

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Very much so.’

  Pete dipped his head, brushing the warm, soft lips of his fiancée as her fingers began working quickly at the buttons on his shirt.

  ***

  ‘Here we are,’ Pete announced as they pulled into the long driveway. A sign told them that they had reached ‘Hill Station’.

  Hero peered through the dusty windows of the vehicle and looked around. ‘Where’s the hill?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘The sign said “Hill Station”, but there’s no … hill.’ She tailed off, suddenly feeling stupid for voicing the question.

  Pete smiled at her in the mirror. ‘You’d be amazed at how many people don’t even notice that.’

  ‘Really?’ Hero asked.

  Pete’s eyes flicked back up to the mirror and in that second, he saw everything he needed to. Under that apparently confident exterior was the girl his fiancée adored. For a split second, he saw through the mask, heard the hint of real pleasure in her voice at his compliment. Pete glanced back again but the childlike glint of delight had gone.

  ‘The name’s kind of a joke. My parents are Jack and Gillian. When they took over the station, it didn’t have a great reputation so they wanted to change the name, do away with the stigma. One night in the pub, some bright spark said something about Jack and Jill going up the hill, and it kind of stuck.’

  Hero was peering out through the dusty glass of the window as the evening sun lowered itself behind the horizon, making way for dusk to wind its way over the land.

  ‘Jack and Gill went up the hill,’ she said softl
y, smiling.

  Juliet cast a glance at her sister and then at Pete. He met her eyes and smiled, with an almost imperceptible nod. She smiled back and released the breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding. The two people she adored most in this world were right here and she hadn’t realised how anxious she had been for their meeting to go well until that moment. But her fiancé’s gesture told her all she needed to know.

  Nick Webster watched the visitor exit the 4x4, her movements fluid. She stood for a moment and looked about her as his brother moved to the rear of the vehicle to deal with the luggage. Nick’s grooming of the mare’s coat slowed as he studied their guest. She was certainly taller than her sister and undeniably beautiful. Pete had mentioned something about her being some hotshot in the modelling world. Nick had let the comment roll off. Fame didn’t impress Nick. People impressed him – what they did, not who they were. The brush came to a stop and Nick felt a nudge on his shoulder from the mare.

  ‘Yeah, yeah. All right,’ he soothed, taking up the motion again, his eyes never leaving the new arrival.

  Juliet was showing Hero the land, pointing in various directions. Nick watched the weak remnants of the evening sun catch subtle highlights in the sleek, swinging sheet of hair. They were looking towards the west now, gazing at the low fire of the setting sun. Long, elegant fingers reached up and dropped sunglasses down in front of her eyes, freeing the hair they had secured. As he watched, she reached into the bag swinging off her lower arm and pulled out a mobile phone. Nick’s mouth twitched in a smile.