He put the car in park and jumped out, walking slowly towards the animal. That was enough to get it moving, followed by the small herd waiting on the other side of the road. Nathan automatically ran an appraising eye over them. They looked healthy and well fed. Cameron – or Bub, Harry, whoever, he quickly corrected himself – would have no trouble finding a market for them when the time came.
‘Anyway,’ Xander said impatiently, leaning forward as Nathan got back in. ‘Who’s Jenna Moore?’
Nathan focused on the road as he drove. He realised he had never actually told the story out loud – he’d never been asked to – and suddenly wasn’t sure where to start.
‘It was all years ago,’ he said eventually. ‘I was nineteen, so Cam must have been seventeen. Yeah, he was, actually, because he was still underage.’
Bub gave an amused grunt from the passenger seat at the suggestion that Balamara observed the legal drinking age with any real enthusiasm.
‘It was around this time of year,’ Nathan went on. ‘The week between Christmas and New Year, when everyone who’s coming back has come back. All the property kids were home from school or uni or their city jobs or whatever they’d been doing.’
Cameron had been on holidays ahead of his final year of boarding school in Brisbane, while Nathan had been splitting his time between working on Burley Downs and nurturing a hot and heavy mutual flirtation with golden-haired Jacqui Walker next door.
‘There was this party in the dunes outside town,’ he said. ‘I can’t even remember who organised it. Some of the Atherton guys, I think. Anyway, we all drove in for it. Some kids we’d done School of the Air with back in the day, a few of the station hands, backpackers, that kind of thing. Most people had left school, so were more my age than Cam’s, but he was welcome to come along. Everyone knew him, obviously.’
It had been a good night, Nathan remembered. Warm, but not too hot for once, and the inky sky was heavy with stars as they parked their utes and four-wheel drives in the sand. Someone lit a campfire and cranked up the music as the booze was passed around.
Nathan had driven there with Cameron, and had spotted Jacqui the minute they’d pulled up. She had been sitting by the fire with another girl, who was laughing at something and idly braiding and unbraiding her thick hair in the orange glow of the flames. They were both sipping beer. Jacqui had seen Nathan and given him one of the smiles she’d been giving him lately and Nathan had nearly fallen over himself in his haste to get out of the car. He’d almost forgotten Cameron was even there until his brother appeared at his shoulder, his tall shadow flickering against the ground.
‘The girl, Jenna, was working on Jacqui’s dad’s property,’ he said. ‘She was English, out here backpacking with her boyfriend. The boyfriend had had to stay behind and work at the station, so she’d come alone to the party with Jacqui.’
It had been a good turnout, for around there. Fresh beers were cracked open as soon as a bottle ran empty and the sound of laughter and chatter had swelled as mates caught up in person, for the first time in years in some cases. The numbers at the party grew as a handful more people arrived, then dipped occasionally as the booze flowed and the night wore on and couples – some established, some brand new – made the most of rare face-to-face time by disappearing together into the dark of the dunes for half an hour. Nathan was biding his time. Neither he nor Jacqui was expected home that night and they had plans and a mate’s empty house waiting for them in town. Cam knew where the back of the car was when he was ready to crash out.
Nathan remembered putting his arms around Jacqui and seeing her hair shine in the light of the campfire as she smiled at him. He knew what was in store later and was feeling pretty great about life in general. He wasn’t sure when he’d first noticed Cameron and Jenna together. Maybe when Jenna had stood up to get them both another beer, stretching her arms high above her head and exposing a flash of taut skin as Cam gazed up at her. She had definitely been watching Cam watching her, as she’d walked slowly all the way over to the coolbox, then slowly all the way back, and sat down again right beside him. Nathan could picture that clearly.
‘Jenna was older, I remember,’ Nathan said. ‘I think she was about twenty at the time.’
Cameron had been at that awkward in-between stage. In his school uniform, face scrubbed and hair combed, he looked like a teenager. In his work clothes, on the property, with his back and shoulders and forearms honed from physical work, he could be mistaken for a man. In the uneven firelight through the hazy film of alcohol, he could have been either.
‘And it was obvious Cam was interested,’ Nathan said. ‘A couple of people said Jenna had this boyfriend back on the station, but it didn’t seem to bother her, so it didn’t bother any of us. I didn’t see her even talking to anyone else much, it was mainly her and Cam together for most of the night.’
Nathan had had a few drinks himself by the time he’d next looked over and seen Jenna sitting in the sand by the campfire, leaning against Cameron’s legs. Cam said something and she laughed. He said something else and her face tilted up so it was close to his. They were each holding a beer bottle. Their free hands were entwined.
When Nathan had looked over next, they were kissing and Cameron’s hand was now stroking Jenna’s semi-braided hair. Nathan had fleetingly wondered if he should have a quick man-to-man word with his younger brother, but suspected Cam wouldn’t thank him for it. Then Jacqui had stretched up on tiptoe and whispered something in Nathan’s ear and all at once it was time to go.
They’d tossed Nathan’s car keys at Cameron and told him to give Jenna a lift back to town later, or make sure someone else did, then driven to their mate’s empty house as fast as Jacqui’s red four-wheel drive could take them.
Nathan glanced at Xander now in his rear-view mirror.
‘So I left the party with your mum to make sure she got back to town safely –’
Bub smirked and Xander pretended not to notice.
‘– and the next morning, we ran into a few people from the party. A girl Jacqui knew and a couple of the blokes from Atherton, and everyone was talking about how after we’d left, Cam and Jenna had –’ He saw his son’s reflection and hesitated.
‘Had a root?’ Bub supplied from the passenger seat.
‘Yeah. Thanks Bub.’
It had actually seemed pretty funny, Nathan remembered. They’d all laughed about it. Cameron Bright, home on his school holidays, managing to nail a backpacker behind the dunes.
‘So that was it. Bit of gossip floating around. Pretty standard morning after,’ Nathan said. ‘I found Cam sleeping it off in my car behind the servo with a pretty pleased look on his face. Jacqui went to track down Jenna, and me and Cam came home.’
Jenna had slept in the staff accommodation at the pub along with a few of the other casual workers. She had been fine on the drive back to their property, Jacqui had told him later. A bit quiet perhaps. Embarrassed, maybe. Hungover, definitely. But fine. She hadn’t offered a word about Cameron and Jacqui hadn’t asked.
‘And that was that, for about a day,’ Nathan said.
Cam had been grinning like an idiot out of Nathan’s passenger-side window the whole way home. He’d still been grinning when the call came through the next afternoon.
