The Outback Heart Read Online Free PDF

take his plate and go to the table, so she could compose herself, but she should have known it wouldn’t escape his attention.
    His hand came around her shoulders. ‘You okay?’ he whispered.
    Indi forced a weak smile, faced her brother’s compassionate gaze and nodded. ‘Yep. I’m fine.’
    Jasper bit his lip as his Adam’s apple jiggled, his eyes misting over. ‘I miss her, too.’ He rubbed Indi’s back again before collecting two of the plates to take to the table.
    Closing her eyes, with the tongs still hanging in her hand, she sucked in three deep breaths.
    ‘I can smell bacon,’ called Allan as he clomped down the passage from his bedroom.
    ‘Just in the nick of time, Dad,’ said Indi. Feeling in control again, she picked up the last plate and joined her family.
    After breakfast, Indi headed into town to see Mrs Bateson. She parked her old white LandCruiser by the kerb and slammed the door shut. The little wire gate creaked as Indi pushed it open and walked up the meandering brick path through the jam-packed cottage garden to Mrs Bateson’s door.
    ‘Morning, Indianna.’ Mrs Bateson stepped out her front door with an armful of flowers. Even though it was only seven a.m., she was dressed in a cotton dress and apron, and her fingers were stained green from the garden. At seventy, and alone after Mr Bateson passed away seven years ago, Mrs Bateson’s garden had become her life, along with the CWA, her three cats and her dog Peppy, who was barking from the back door.
    ‘Oh, they look lovely, thank you,’ Indi said.
    ‘Just a few bright Liliums,
lancifolium
to be exact,’ she said, handing them over. Her grey-brown hair was brushed back into an impeccably tidy bun.
    Indi could smell the flowers. Their extravagant orange petals were dotted with spots and the stamens stretched out from the core of the flowers like prongs. Mrs Bateson had added a few fishbone ferns and a big yellow ribbon to hold them all together. ‘Thank you so much, Mrs Bateson. Mum will love these,’ she said, giving her a gentle hug.
    A crunching of shoes on gravel caught Indi’s attention. Walking down the driveway of the house next door was Troy. She knew this was where he was staying, but she was still surprised. He looked dressed for an early morning run, in white footy shorts and a blue singlet that gave her too much skin to deal with. It should be a crime to look that hot so early in the day. That was half the reason she hadn’t got around to meeting with him – besides being busy, she was a little intimidated.
    ‘Morning, Troy,’ called Mrs Bateson.
    ‘Morning,’ he called back with a little wave.
    Indi didn’t say anything but their eyes met, and she could see him finally recognise her. She was wearing denim shorts and a pale-yellow T-shirt, with her hair in a soft braid down her back – quite unlike her fluoro work clothes. She smiled, which he returned before walking behind Mrs Bateson’s large bottlebrush bush to the back of his house. She felt a patch of heat rise to her cheeks at the thought of his tanned, lean arms and strong, wide shoulders. Indi turned her back to where he’d been, as if that would help erase the image of his near-naked body.
    ‘Oh, I see Kingy slept out on the verandah again,’ she said, relieved to have something else to talk about, even if it was the town’s biggest drinker and layabout. He was a great shearer in his day but now, in his old age, he got by doing odd jobs.
    Mrs Bateson turned in the direction of her less-desirable neighbour and almost grunted her displeasure. Kingy’s yard was weed infested except for where his dogs had worn paths, or the rabbits fed. His house was a small dump of a place with falling gutters and busted flywire on the windows. Indi could hear him snoring as he lay on his front verandah on an old spring bed with a worn, stained mattress. ‘I see it was a two-dog night,’ Indi said, and giggled as the two kelpie dogs on the bed with Kingy pricked their