‘Oh, right. Yeah. Better in Brisbane. Makes sense.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘It’s fine. Honestly, mate.’
‘It’s not that I don’t like visiting –’
‘I know.’
‘– because I do. It’s –’
‘Mate, I know. You’ve got things you need to focus on. I get it. And you should do it. Get the marks. Go to uni. You’re smart enough for it.’
‘Thanks.’ Xander gave a small smile. ‘You never wanted to go?’
Nathan shook his head. ‘Not for me.’
In fact, he had never considered it, always assuming he would end up back on the property, where the cattle didn’t ask to see your qualifications. Then Cameron had surprised him by applying to a uni course in Adelaide. He’d come back three years later with a degree in agribusiness, a lot of big ideas, and a handful of new friends who occasionally came to get dust on their inappropriate city shoes and look around in wide-eyed amusement. When they spoke to Nathan at all, it was in voices a little louder and slower than normal.
‘It’s weird,’ Xander said, his hands in an open box. ‘Going through someone’s stuff after they’re gone. All these things that were important to Uncle Cam, and now someone else has to get rid of it all, or whatever.’
‘Yeah. They’ll still need a lot of this, though,’ Nathan said. ‘Property still needs to be run.’
‘By you?’
‘I have enough trouble with my own place.’
‘Who then? Bub?’
‘They’ll hire a manager, probably. I guess Ilse will decide. She gets Cam’s half.’
Xander ran his finger through the thin layer of dust on the lid of a battered storage box. ‘Cam didn’t give Bub a bigger share? Or leave anything for Harry?’
‘Doesn’t sound like it. Bub still has his third, though.’
‘Yeah, but you and Ilse have the rest.’
Something in the way he said it made Nathan look over in surprise. ‘So?’
‘So nothing, I suppose. But her half plus your sixth makes a majority. I wonder how Bub feels about that?’
‘He shouldn’t feel anything, it’s exactly the same split as it was with Cam.’
‘But it’s not the same, is it? When Cam was alive, it was him and Bub controlling the place –’
‘I’m not sure Bub saw it like that.’ Nathan thought about his brother scowling at the calendar in the study.
‘Well, either way, it was clearly you in the minority. Now it’ll be more like you and Ilse in control. It’s a different dynamic.’
‘It’s not. There’s nothing –’
‘Dad, mate,’ Xander said, a half-smile on his face. ‘It is.’
Nathan felt a flush creep up his neck. He didn’t reply.
‘Don’t worry,’ Xander said, reading his mind. ‘I don’t think anyone else has noticed. You should think about it, though. When it comes to decisions, who would you side with? Ilse or Bub?’
‘Neither. I’d do what’s best for the property.’ Nathan saw his son’s expression. ‘I would.’
