Page 51 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

Yes, to putting the payment for the land Bridie had purchased from Judah’s father into the general Devil’s Kiss business account.

Judah had hoped his blunt request for permission to marry Bridie would have got Tom to pick up or at least return the call, but no.

Nothing.

That was two weeks ago.

Even Reid had tried calling. Reid had a lot of time for Tom, because of how helpful Tom had been during that four months or so Reid had been alone out here—before Judah had returned.

That man—his father’s friend, the one who’d helped Reid through those toughest of times, the one who’d pulled Bridie through her almost withdrawal from society—was a man Judah didn’t know.

When he thought of Tom at all it was with a mixture of frustration and anger, and deeply buried resentment that he didn’t dare examine. That night... It had been two against one and Judah and Tom had been on home ground. They could have tackled Laurence, restrained him, neutered him on the spot... Between them they could have done something that didn’t require ending the man. But Laurence Levit had burst from the car and charged them, and Tom, with his twenty-two-calibre shotgun that he’d used for years on the farm, hadn’t hesitated and he sure as hell hadn’t missed.

Judah didn’t blame Tom for taking the shot. Not really. They’d all been running on fear and instinct.

But more and more, Judah railed against keeping secrets from Bridie. The woman who once more wore his engagement ring and who saw more of what lived inside him every day. Hopes and dreams. Struggles and failures. Hard-won success when it came to the simplest of decisions. She did more than simply encourage him. She believed in him.

He had Notice of Intended Marriage paperwork burning a hole in his desk drawer, and he wanted to move on that soon. Just do it, he thought. Tell her you love her and that you’ve never been happier and just marry her and let the past stay buried in a vow of secrecy.

Loving her didn’t have to mean confiding in her, surely.

Even if he wanted to.

These days he didn’t know what exactly it was that shook him from her bed in the dark hours of most mornings, but he tried to make it up to her. He’d taken to collecting wildflowers and greenery, whatever he could find, and returning with a fistful and either leaving them on her doorstep or bringing them with him to breakfast.

Bridie had clear run out of vases but her eyes would still light up every time he handed her a posy.

‘Heard anything from your father?’ he asked one morning after a night that had made him forget his own name and a morning spent watching the sun rise from the top of Devil’s Peak. He was back on her veranda now with a coffee in hand, no sugar, and way too much cream.

‘Yes.’ Bridie sat in an old rocking chair wearing a stripy pink T-shirt and darker pink bed shorts, her hair in a messy bun and breakfast in hand; to Judah she’d never looked more beautiful. ‘He bought an opal mine in Lightning Ridge, complete with underground home and a hole-in-the-wall shop front, and apparently he does mean hole in the wall. I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s too old to be having a midlife crisis and he hasn’t said anything about meeting a woman, but what other reasons are there for his refusal to come home? He has no interest in the management of Devil’s Kiss any more and I truly don’t understand. This is his home. Why won’t he come home?’

So Judah rang again, and this time Tom picked up.

‘You’re a hard man to reach.’ Judah spoke first.

‘And you’re relentless,’ grumbled the older man.

‘Bridie’s worried about you.’

‘’M fine.’

‘Reid misses you too.’ Might as well turn those screws.

‘They have you now.’

Definitely not the answer he’d been expecting. ‘You have a problem with me.’ Statement, not question. ‘Why? I’ve kept every promise I’ve ever made. Especially to you.’

‘What do you want?’ He could barely hear the older man.

‘Permission to marry your daughter.’

‘You don’t need it.’

That wasn’t the point. ‘It’s customary to ask for it.’

The other man said nothing.

Judah gritted his teeth before he spoke again. Bridie loved this man. Reid thought the world of him. ‘You left. The minute I got home you left and I don’t understand why. You have people here who love you and people contemplating big changes in their lives, and you’re not here for them. Why not? What have I done wrong?’

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