Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
“He’s a drama queen,” she said with a shake of her head. “And he goes from perfectly content to oops, there’s a small place in my stomach where food could go, and then he’s like a starving demon. There’s only one thing to do and that’s shove food in his mouth. See, back to being a perfect angel. You have to hold the bottle at the right angle or he gets frustrated.”
What the hell had happened? Nate was back to staring up at him like he was completely fascinated and now content to relax and get to know his dad since Mum had been smart enough to know how to soothe the tiny beast.
“Brody, we need to talk.”
He knew that tone of voice. This was the part when she told him he’d fucked up and wouldn’t get another chance. He knew that was what she was thinking. He had to get her thinking something else. Anything else. He said the first thing to come to mind. “He’s my mum’s first grandbaby, you know.”
He watched her struggle between continuing the conversation she knew she should have and asking the questions she’d always wanted. All those months they’d spent together, he’d dodged all questions about his past and his family. When she would ask, he would turn the conversation back to her.
“You never talked about your mom. I wondered if she was still alive.”
Win. “My mum is alive and kicking. Strongest woman I know. She still lives back on Wanga Woo.”
“Excuse me?”
He felt himself flush a bit. “Wanga Woo. Hey, it’s not the worst name in Australia. We’ve got towns like Humpty Doo, Mount Buggery, Dismal Swamp. Quite descriptive if you ask me. Wanga Woo was founded by a couple of brothers who got themselves transported over from England for stealing. Then they got kicked out of Sydney for the same reason and finally found a bit of fortune in Western Australia. What you would call the Outback. They named their station after a particularly punchy kangaroo. And yes, those brothers were Carters. I’m directly descended from them and no, we don’t fight kangaroos anymore. Well, at least we don’t go looking for it. Some of the buggers will find you though.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed. “Your ancestors fought kangaroos?”
“Some people think that’s what went wrong with our brains,” he said.
Nate giggled around the nipple in his mouth.
“That’s right, little fella. Your nanna put a right stop to that. She told me and your uncle that she wasn’t going to stand for none of that kind of roughhousing. She’s a lady, she is.” At least she’d always seemed that way to him. He looked up at Steph. “Not that anyone else would think that. My mum ain’t the kind to wear nice dresses and stuff. She had a station to run, but she always made sure that our bellies got fed and that we went to church every Sunday all clean like. So she’s always a lady in my mind.”
“She sounds like a lovely lady,” Steph replied. “I’d like to meet her someday. Well, as long as the kangaroos won’t attack.”
“Nah, they’re all right. For the most part you leave them alone and they’ll let you alone. And the snakes and spiders are way overblown. Again, you leave them alone and you’ll be fine.”
“And the crocs?”
He snorted. “I’m talking the Outback, luv. Two kinds of crocs in Australia. The saltwater crocs are the dangerous ones and they’re not in the Outback. We’ve got a couple of freshies in what little water you can find, but they’re small and shy. One brushes up against you in the billabong and you give that old boy a good punch on the snout and he’ll slink away. Hell, my brother and I named the one in the river that ran through the back acreage of our station.”
“That is disappointing. I thought Australia was super deadly.”
“The sun’ll get you,” he said, turning his attention back to his son. “So will the quiet sometimes. Being isolated like that, well, it works for some, makes others mean. The heat can make a man crazy. One of the best things I’ve done since joining up with McKay-Taggart is being able to buy my mum a reliable air conditioner. Had to talk her into it though. She was sure it would make her soft.”
“Why did you leave? You didn’t want to work on a station?”
“By then she’d sold off most of the land. She doesn’t make her money that way anymore. She married a man who worked with a mineral company. He had stock in the damn thing and made a mint when they hit natural gas. She’d been working to feed and clothe us all by herself since I was six or seven.” That was when his mum had enough. He wasn’t sure why she’d done it, what had broken her resolve to keep them together despite the fact that his dad had been a piece of shit. He suspected that dear old dad had threatened something Mum had loved far more than her husband. He wasn’t sure, but one day his father had been gone and a year and a half later, the police had shown up to inform his mum that Dad had been killed in a bar fight in Coober Pedy. “My biological dad was a worthless bum who beat the shit out of me and Harry but saved the best for my mum. My stepdad is a vast improvement. He’s a really good man.”