Red Dust Dreaming Read Online Free PDF

padded over to the dresser. A photo of Luke as a baby sat in a silver frame. Next to it a shot obviously taken at Christmas. Angela, Caden and Luke captured in a moment of laughter.
    She picked up the photo and studied it closely. Angela looked carefree and happy. How old was the photo? Did her sister already knew her fate or not? Luke’s head was thrown back as he gazed up at Caden whose face clearly showed his affection for the little boy. Elizabeth sighed and placed the frame back on the dresser. Angela may have cut off her flesh and blood but she’d found a family all of her own here in the Outback.
    The top draw stuck a little as she pulled it open. Inside lay several more photos each carefully framed. On top sat the picture she was looking for of Angela’s husband, Mitch. Dashing in his Marine uniform she could see how her sister had fallen for him. Their mother had been outraged when Angela eloped with Mitch, denying Sylvia a much desired society wedding. Perhaps Sylvia’s reaction might have been dampened if Angela had chosen a man from her parent’s echelon. But she hadn’t. The last straw had come when Angela announced her pregnancy.
    Elizabeth placed Mitch’s photo back in the draw and slammed it shut. The contents rattled with the force. At least Angela had carved her own path, found happiness however fleeting. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed. While her sister had loved and lost, become a mother, Elizabeth had let her parents talk her into abandoning her arts degree for law, had let them mould her into a successful corporate lawyer. A successful single corporate lawyer.
    What was done was done.
    She turned to her case and rummaged about for something to wear. Pulling out a simple blue t-shirt and a pair of shorts the colour of clotted cream she hesitated for a moment. There were other prettier combinations in her luggage. Perhaps she should choose something more flattering to wear… An image of Caden long and lean skittered across the surface of her mind. Elizabeth arrested her wayward thoughts before they could go any further. Who cared what Caden thought of her? So what if he found her pretty or not. What on earth was she doing entertaining thoughts like that? She gave herself a good mental shake. Caden hated her or at the very least loathed her. Whatever stories Angela had told him hadn’t included the bit about the two sisters being close, at least during their childhood. She couldn’t hope to change his opinion of her in such a short time but the situation would be better for everyone, especially Luke, if they could give the appearance of getting along.
    She draped her clean clothes over one arm and grabbed her toiletry bag along with the fluffy towel provided for her, then went in search of the bathroom.
    ***
    Caden took a break from the ledgers as he struggled to focus. The numbers had been running together for the last half hour and he’d just read the same column twice without taking anything in. Despite his best efforts his thoughts kept returning to Elizabeth. Angela’s will hadn’t been found. The Langtrees intended to apply to be the boy’s legal guardians and Caden had no rights at all yet a part of him chaffed that Luke could be taken away from him, from them all, so easily. Kirrkalan was the only home Luke had ever known. Surely that counted for something. Caden, along with the rest of the station staff, had helped raise him. They were family. He wished there was some way he could stop it, make Elizabeth see Luke belonged here rather than in New York with strangers.
    Leaving his office Caden wandered to the kitchen where he poured himself a long glass of cold water straight from the fridge. As he closed the fridge door he noticed a photo of Luke and Thelma covered in flour from a baking lesson gone horribly wrong. They were both laughing, the camera capturing the joy of the moment perfectly.
    He sighed and wandered out to the