“Reckless? I’m not reckless.”
“Wally says otherwise,” I replied with a wink, then walked over to her door, pulling it open. Sparky jumped in first, then Mackenzie followed.
“We’re feeding cows not bulls this morning, right?” she said. “How dangerous can that be?”
“We’re about to find out.”
That was said more to me than her as I walked over to the driver’s seat.
“Wow…”
By the time we were driving up and over the hill to the east paddock, the sun was starting to rise and I knew exactly why Mackenzie was leaning out the window to stare. Being a grumpy prick wasn’t the only reason why I did the morning feed run on my own. Looking down at the valley below, every fence post, every gum tree cast in red gold by the first rays of sunlight was a helluva way to start the day.
Apparently she thought the same thing.
“Is that…?” Quivering like Sparky did right before I unleashed him on a flock of sheep, she strained to take a closer look and I quickly saw why.
“Emus?” I snorted, then took a sip of my coffee. “Yeah, they’re common as muck round here. See them mostly early in the morning or late in the evening.”
“But they… Did they just jump over that fence?” She glanced at the closest one. “That’s like five feet high!”
I mentally did the calculations, converting that into metric.
“Probably could clear a six foot one without too much effort,” I replied. “They’re tough buggers. The Australian government fought a war against them.”
“What?”
When she turned around, the morning just got better. That same golden light caressed her face just as gently as I had in my dreams. It had her eyes glittering, making her smile dazzling. I’d seen emus in the paddocks all my life and usually just thought of them as bloody pests, but I swear to God, I’d get Charlie to foster our own mob and get them their own paddock if that’s what it took to keep Mackenzie happy.
Which was a problem.
My face felt stiff from smiling, so I let the muscles relax. The sounds of the cows protesting their lack of food filtered through.
“About twenty thousand of them descended on some Western Australian farmland and decimated everything they could see. The government sent the army in to sort them out.”
“No way!”
“But enough history,” I said, pressing down on the accelerator, sending us bumping up the dirt road to the paddock. “We need to get these beasts their breakfast.”
“So I’ll drive slowly,”I explained when we arrived, the herd already starting to mass around the truck. “You stay on the pack and parcel out the hay. We?—”
“Need to create a long line so every cow gets a chance to feed,” she said. “I know. Your government gave me a six month visa for a reason. I’ve fed cattle before.”
“Right, well…” She undid the tailgate and was about to scramble up, when I was there. Hands on her waist, I picked her up and placed her in the tray and tried really hard not to feel the warmth of her body on my skin after I let go. “What the hell is that?”
Mackenzie had pulled out a little pocket knife from her pocket, opening the blade up.
“A pocket knife,” she said, looking me up and down. “Don’t they have things like that Down Under?”
“You call that a knife?” This was cheesy, but right then the spirit of Paul Hogan was channelling through me. “This is a knife.”
I drew out my grandfather’s old hunting knife and flicked open the blade before handing it to her handle first.
“Did you…?” She snorted and then put her own knife away and grabbed mine. “Well, alright, Crocodile Dundee. Let’s get this show on the road.” With a nod to the mob of cows who were now clustered around us, ready for their breakfast. “The cattle are hungry.”
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. You, sharp objects, and a moving vehicle.”
“Done this before, remember?” she said, pulling out the blade and slicing through the twine, but when she closed it again and then put it into her pocket, my breath escaped in a whoosh.
