Darcy drove through and latched the gate behind him before hitting the bitumen. He pressed his foot a little closer to the floor than he should, scanning the roadside for kangaroos, emus or feral goats that might want to mess with him.
Nothing moved.
He accelerated. He couldn’t disappoint his girl.
***
Lara’s father was late. Faith Arnold crossed her arms and tried not to let her agitation show to the young girl next to her. Lara had been the first to finish unsaddling her horse and brushing it down. She’d watched the other parents collect their children.
But instead of doing nothing, Lara had grabbed one of the shovels, and started cleaning up the piles of manure left in the arena after the lesson. Such a considerate kid.
Faith checked the time again. Her own father would be home soon, and if she wasn’t there, he would be furious.
“Where’s your favourite place to ride?” Lara tucked a stray chocolate brown hair behind her ear. “Mine is along the beach.” She normally eagerly waited for Faith’s response to questions, but now her gaze constantly flicked to the road into the pony club.
“I’ve never done it,” Faith said.
That got Lara’s attention. “You’ve never been riding on the beach?” Eyes wide, she stared at Faith as if she was an alien.
Faith chuckled. “Not many places in Perth where I can.” Plus, work took up all her daylight hours. She shovelled the last pile of manure into the wheelbarrow and wheeled it out of the arena, Lara falling into step beside her.
“Well, Retribution Bay is better than Perth,” Lara said. “Perth is noisy and smelly.” She turned to glance back to the road.
“You don’t think manure is smelly?”
Lara waved her argument aside. “That’s normal. The city has all the dirty car smells.”
Faith couldn’t argue with her logic. On those two accounts, the small town of Retribution Bay was better. Lara was silent again, which was unusual for the normally chatty girl.
Faith dumped the manure in the composting pile, and when she turned, Lara’s bottom lip trembled, and her worn boots scuffed the red dirt.
“Do you think he’s had an accident?” Lara whispered.
Nuts. Lara’s grandparents had died in a car accident less than a month ago. Faith placed her hand on Lara’s back and rubbed it. “I’m sure he’s fine. He might have been caught up with something at Retribution Ridge.”
“But he never forgets me.” The conviction was as sweet as it was worrying. If Lara was right, then something might have happened to Darcy.
Faith got her phone out of her pocket. She’d call Amy and check Darcy had left. As she dialled the number, a white ute sped down the road.
“There he is!” Lara yelled.
Faith hung up and waited for the ute to pull up next to the horse float. The man who climbed out was more good-looking than Faith remembered, and her memory put him at pretty darn hot.
He was tall and tanned, with his dark brown hair peeking out below the Akubra, but it was the rangy body of a man who worked with his hands that captured her attention. And his smile sent a shot of lust straight through her body.
“Hey, pumpkin…”
Lara burst into tears and flung herself into his arms. The smile vanished, and he scowled at Faith over his daughter’s back as if she’d mortally wounded his child.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen at pony club? Was Natasha mean to you again?”
Lara was sobbing too hard to answer him. Faith walked closer. Quietly she said, “Lara was worried you might have had an accident.”
The devastation in his blue-grey eyes pierced her soul, and Faith pressed her lips together and turned away. They needed a minute.
Darcy lifted Lara under the arms, and she wrapped her limbs around him, hugging him like a koala. Not a mean feat because the ten-year-old already reached Faith’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, pumpkin. I should have called Miss Arnold, but I didn’t have her number in my phone. A trough out near the sheep was broken.”
Lara’s voice was muffled, but Faith still made out the words. “But you fixed it last week.”
