Page 44 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

His smile came swiftly and, she liked to think, appreciatively. The shaking of his head suggested no, but then, ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I’m in.’

By the time they arrived home that night a new understanding had sprung up between them.

No more pretending to be strong and invulnerable for either of them. Eccentricities were welcome—between them they had a fine selection—and upon request they would take a stab at explaining where they came from.

Trust didn’t come easily to Bridie, but regardless of what had happened this weekend she still trusted him.

As for Judah’s trust in her, Bridie figured he’d made some small headway with that this weekend, what with all she’d learned about him. They weren’t friends—sorry, Reid, not a chance in hell, what with the sexy bondage times and the jewellery fit for a princess, not to mention all the button talk.

But they were something.

CHAPTER TEN

‘WHAT HAVE YOU done to my brother?’

Reid stood on her veranda, hands on his hips and the dust from his buzzbox helicopter settling into every crack and crevice and on every surface it could find. ‘How many times do I have to tell you?’ she muttered sternly, and tried to look mean and ornery from her spot at the kitchen door. ‘No helicopters in the home paddock. And what do you mean what have I done to your brother? I am his friend. I listen when he speaks, argue with him on occasion and try to keep up with the way he thinks.’

She’d also made it abundantly clear that he was welcome in her bed at any time, but so far he hadn’t taken her up on that invitation.

‘He’s up at five every morning for push-ups and a workout, and then there’s the daily meal menu—deviate from that at your peril—and then he has meetings until one, and every day he makes a point of grabbing me to watch the sun set and to tell me what he’s been doing in as few words as possible. Yesterday his exact words were “I just bought a demo salt pond power plant to our west, and now I want all the land in between as well.” Millions and millions of dollars’ worth of deals, just like that.’

‘Really not seeing your problem. Your brother’s a powerhouse who now owns a powerhouse. Embrace it.’

‘He still doesn’t sleep in his bed.’

‘Ah.’ Sometimes he came to visit Bridie and told her all sorts of things about his hopes and dreams and what he wanted to achieve. Sometimes he took a stack of her print photos and took himself out to the veranda and laid them all out and then spent a good hour or more choosing his favourite.

She’d come to learn that it didn’t really matter if there was something drastically wrong with the picture he chose. Celebration lay in the fact that he’d managed to choose one.

Sometimes he spent the night on the daybed on her veranda. But he spent it alone and come morning he’d be gone, with nothing to show that he’d ever been there in the first place, except that one time when a generous handful of paper daisies had appeared outside the French doors that led from the veranda to her bedroom.

If they now took pride of place in a cut crystal vase on the top of her bedroom chest of drawers, that was her business.

‘Your brother’s healing. He’s finding himself and making up for lost time and doing a brilliant job of it. Be proud of him.’

Reid threw his hands up in surrender. ‘You are so utterly gone on him.’

‘Am not.’

‘Are too. Last night he stripped the house of every item of green clothing, including mine, and now I can’t find my best jacket.’

And he never would. ‘The jacket is gone. Sacrificed to last night’s bonfire. Something to do with never wanting to wear or see prison greens ever again.’

‘It was my favourite jacket!’

‘Have you tried wearing more pink?’ She had. ‘Or yellow? Or bright florals? Because you can probably influence your brother by colour alone, but don’t tell him I said that. It’s my secret weapon. Oh, and if you’re looking for bath towels there’s more coming. I ordered them this morning. Very colourful. Lots of spots and pretty patterns.’

‘We already have a million bath towels,’ Reid muttered as he stomped up the steps.

‘Had,’ she corrected. ‘Apparently they were threadbare, or white gone grey, or something.’ It really had been a magnificent bonfire. Very cathartic.

‘Aargh!’ Unlike his brother, Reid wasn’t slow to let his emotions out. ‘Why are you enabling him? I’ll have no clothes left! There is eccentric and then there is Judah!’

There was some slight...more than slight...truth to Reid’s words. ‘Want some coffee? I have freshly baked Anzac biscuits for dunking?’

‘I hope they’re the size of dinner plates. I’m in a mood.’

‘Yes. Yes, you are.’ This earned her a teenage glare.

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