Bella's Run Read Online Free PDF

she has a rest on the way into town. I reckon she’s going to need it so she can deal with what’s going to be waiting at that hospital.’

    Macca moved up beside Patty, slung his arm around her and led her off, whispering something which sent Patty into whoops of tired laughter.
    Bella heard Patty say, ‘Bossy? You call that bossy? You haven’t seen nothin’, mate. You should try and live with her.’ Bella lost Macca’s reply as the pair jumped into the girls’ borrowed ute. Pulling away, they headed towards the station gateway and town.
    Rodney and Sheila were already in their vehicle and moving off back towards Sheila’s house. Sheila yelled to Bella from the open passenger-side window, ‘I’ll sort out the other two boys. If they’re still at the quarters kitchen give us a yell. I’ll send someone over to pick them up.’
    ‘Righto.’
    And with that, Bella and Will were left standing, silent and alone, looking anywhere but at each other.
    ‘So . . .’ said Bella at last, chancing a look Will’s way. ‘What are you blokes doing here anyway?’ She could see the beginnings of a grin, and his dimples made her catch her breath again. She was a sucker for dimples on a bloke, and these were rippers: gorgeous, deep-set, one on either side of his mouth.
    She took in his tanned and rugged face, his molasses eyes so liquid she just wanted to roll in the sweetness of them. Standing a few inches above her five-foot-seven, he wasn’t overly tall, but the muscled breadth of his shoulders within his chambray shirt and the curl of sun-bleached hair peeping from above the blue singlet spoke of a man used to working outdoors.
    Bella’s heart was thumping so loudly she was sure the whole world could hear it –and she was certain it wasn’t just leftover adrenaline from dealing with the accident.
    Where had she been living for the past twenty-two years? William O’Hara was Patty’s brother. He was pretty much a neighbour. Why hadn’t she noticed him before? The answer came to mind instantly: he’d always been so much older . A blurry figure in the background, off doing ‘big brother’ stuff, at ag college and hanging out with older mates. Sure, sometimes he’d been working at Tindarra while she and Patty had been tearing around having fun, but she’d seen him as a grown-up. He’d never registered on her radar. He was far too old for her. Heck, at twenty-eight he was ancient, gorgeous or not.
    ‘So,’ she repeated. ‘What are you and Macca doing here?’
    She knew she sounded belligerent but couldn’t help herself. First she had missed out on mustering and had to cook. Then there was the accident. And now this. Her body was instinctively responding to Will, leaning like a drunken fence post seeking firmer ground. Where the hell had her free will departed to in the last half-hour? HE. WAS. TOO. OLD. Plus she didn’t need serious man complications. And a bloke like this would mean serious .
    ‘We’ve been up around Mount Isa for a bit, checking out some trucking work for Macca’s old man, your Uncle Bryce. I’m surprised your mum didn’t tell you.’
    Bella was surprised too, mentally cursing her mother for forgetting to share that piece of information. Forewarned was forearmed, or something like that anyway.
    ‘The drought is pretty bad at home and there wasn’t much doing. I’ve sold most of my stock and the lucerne isn’t ready to cut yet. Dad’s irrigating my place as well as his own while I’m away. He’s growing a bit of lucerne now too.’ Will paused and raised an eyebrow. ‘You knew that when my Uncle Bill died, I took over his property next door to Dad’s place at Tindarra?’
    Bella nodded. She’d heard that from Aunty Maggie, who also lived at Tindarra, next door to Will and Patty’s parents. Bella might’ve grown up on her family’s dairy farm at Narree a couple of hours away but her aunt always kept her informed of the goings on up in those mountains. A lifetime of weekends