Page 38 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

Her pleasure too.

Thank you again.

By the end of her first fortnight at Red Gum Lodge Ari had driven thousands of kilometres from one corner of Cooper’s Crossing station to the next, following waterways and rocky outcrops, stock routes and wildlife corridors. She journalled wildlife sightings and plant species, and if Reid had begun to feature in her daydreams, maybe it was because she’d expected him to turn up one day, out of the blue, and he hadn’t yet, and she was getting edgy.

Her ‘Reid will appear like magic’ scenario that she returned to every night was wishful thinking right up until the afternoon it wasn’t.

She pulled up outside her lodge to find the other lodge occupied and a familiar white work truck parked alongside it.

Bridie Starr stood on the deck of the other dwelling and waved as Ari approached. Lady Blake these days. Award-winning photographer and wife of Lord Judah Blake. Catwalk model in her teenage years, mistress of Devil’s Kiss pastoral station that had now been folded into Jeddah station reserve. Between Jeddah Creek, Cooper’s Crossing and Devil’s Kiss, the Blake Family controlled thousands of acres of south-west Queensland. No mining, only eco-tourism, limited grazing. Conservation.

Bridie turned away from Ari as another figure joined her.

Not her husband Judah, as Ari had expected.

Reid.

Ari approached them with a skip in her step, digging deep for a confidence she was far from feeling. ‘Visitors!’

‘I told him you wouldn’t be far away,’ Bridie countered with a smile. ‘We’ve come bearing fresh-caught barramundi, lemons, salad greens and your favourite biscuits from Gert. I was going to stay overnight, but I’ve been spying on a red-backed kingfisher family all week, and Judah’s just spotted one of the chicks. He’s swinging by to pick me up.’

‘If you ask me, he can’t bear to part with you overnight,’ said Reid, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses and his gait a little stiff. He didn’t attempt the trio of steps that would have brought him from the deck down to her level.

Which left her looking up at them.

‘Either way, Judah’s picking me up in the helicopter in half an hour,’ said Bridie cheerfully. ‘Ari, promise me you won’t let Reid drive the truck.’

‘It’s self-drive,’ Reid protested.

‘And we know how well that works out here, don’t we?’ countered Bridie.

‘It needs a little tweaking,’ replied Reid, and although he didn’t sound defensive he did sound kind of strained.

Not about to get in the middle of that, thought Ari. Although... ‘Hey, Reid, if I drive you wherever you want to go while you’re here, and never stop running my mouth because I haven’t spoken to anyone in a week, that would be a fair exchange, right?’

‘Totally fair,’ Bridie answered while Reid stayed silent. ‘Ari, do you want to do a walk-around while I take some before shots of the outdoor areas for your website?’

‘My...what?’

‘You can tell me what you have planned for the place. I’d love to know. I’m a silent partner in these lodges.’

‘So far from silent...’ murmured Reid.

‘My design’s still in the planning stages.’ Ari felt compelled to explain her lack of progress. ‘So far, it’s been all about the plants. But good to know I don’t just have Reid to impress. Who else do I need to worry about?’

‘It’ll come together,’ said Reid, as if he refused to doubt it for a second, but she noticed his white-knuckled grip on the wooden railing of the deck, and the pinched grooves around his mouth. ‘Although practise your presentation on Bridie, by all means.’

‘You’re not joining us?’

‘Later.’

Something definitely seemed off with him, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Did he not want to be here?

Why had he come if he didn’t want to be here?

And then Bridie joined her, camera in hand, and started walking and there was nothing for it but to give Reid an awkward wave and catch up with the other woman.

Ari began to outline her plans while Bridie nodded and took photos, sneaking in a couple of shots of Ari.

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