“We’ll sort out what we’re doing tomorrow,” Brandon said. “But right now we need showers and food.”
Darcy followed them into the kitchen and his heart stopped. Lara and Faith were frying onions on the stove and laughing at something. The beautiful picture almost made him weep after the day he’d had. Lara grinned at him. “Dad! We’re making frittata for dinner.”
“Sounds great, pumpkin. Have we got time for a shower?” He was still damp and itchy from moving all the hay.
“Yep. We’ll have a beer waiting for you.”
He chuckled. “Just what I need.” On his way past Faith, he gave into his urge and pulled her close to kiss. “Also what I need,” he murmured and then continued out of the kitchen with the hollering teasing of both Brandon and Matt behind him. He had a little more of a spring to his step as he passed Amy in the hallway and ducked into the bathroom.
About ten minutes later he returned to the kitchen. Faith and Amy were cutting up a salad, and the frittata was in the oven. Lara handed him a beer, and he sank down at the table next to Matt, who sliced tomatoes.
“How are your parents?”
“Pretty good. They’re preparing for the rain next week.”
“They can come here if they have any problems.”
“Yeah, mate, they know.” He slid the tomatoes he’d cut into the salad bowl. “What did Dot and Nhi say?”
Darcy didn’t want to think about that now. “Only thing we can do is be alert. Dot suggested we stop taking camp guests for a while, but we can’t afford not to.”
“Did someone start the fire, Dad?”
Damn. “Looks like it, pumpkin. We’re lucky Jay spotted it in time.”
“He was pretty quick,” Lara said. “He said he had a haystack fire at his farm once and it made a big mess.”
At least Jay didn’t have to worry about such things now he’d retired. Though he helped them often enough on the farm that maybe it should be called semi-retirement. Some people weren’t born to completely relax.
When Brandon returned from his shower, Darcy realised Faith still wore the clothes she’d arrived in. “Faith, do you want to borrow more of Georgie’s clothes?”
She smiled. “I brought a change, just in case. It’s in the car.”
“I’ll walk you out to get it.”
As he stood, Matt murmured, “Darcy and Faith sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g…”
Real mature. He shoved Matt lightly and went outside with Faith. The air still smelled of smoke and his muscles tensed.
Faith held his hand. “How are you coping?”
“I can’t think about it tonight,” he said. “If I do, it will do me in.”
“Do you think it’s Stonefish?”
“Who else would it be? There were too many ignition spots for it to be someone being careless with a cigarette butt.”
“What about your neighbours? Anyone in competition with you?”
He shook his head. “We help each other. The market is big enough for all of us and we know how hard it is.”
At her car, she slipped both arms around him and held him. He closed his eyes, leaned his head on her shoulder. He’d forgotten how it felt to share his troubles with someone. If he could stay like this forever, he’d be happy. She stroked the back of his head. “We’ll get through this, Darcy.”
His heart tripped over itself and fell. Foolish, but he wouldn’t regret loving Faith. It was too soon to say the words, so he showed her instead. He turned his head, kissed her cheek and then found her mouth. Slowly he teased and caressed her lips, pouring his emotion into the kiss. Her arms tightened around him and she met him with an equal passion. This. All of this. They were matched, two parts of the one whole, but instead of sinking further into her, he forced himself to pull away. “Stay the night.”
“Yes.” She kissed him one more time and then got her bag from the back seat of her car. “I brought back Georgie’s clothes. She called earlier and said for you or Brandon to call her if you needed anything.”
“Thanks.” Georgie didn’t have time to worry about what was happening at the Ridge.
