Page 46 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

‘No.’ They were his eyes, after all. He was intimately acquainted with what they could and couldn’t do. ‘Did I tell you I’ve found the prettiest girl in the world?’

‘Have you now? Well, it sounds like those eyes of yours may be good for something after all.’ There was a smile in Fink’s voice. ‘I don’t see any neurological evidence of deterioration, so don’t be too disheartened by these latest results. No improvement may mean that your eyesight is stabilising and this is your new normal. Your eyesight test results may go back and forth a bit from now on, depending on the day and how tired you are. Do you have a headache now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Pain scale?’

‘Five.’

‘Have you taken any medication for it?’

‘Not yet. Didn’t want to juice my test results.’

‘Stick to inventing engines, Mr Blake, and get the nurse to give you some ibuprofen on your way out.’

‘Nah, I’m good. I’ll take some when I get home.’

The doctor sighed. ‘I know you Outback types have a built tough reputation to uphold, but do yourself a favour and next time you get a migraine take the medication I’m prescribing you.’

‘Thanks, Doc, but I still have the last prescription you gave me. How about I just get that one filled?’

‘Hmm,’ said the good doc. ‘Do.’

R and R. Rest and recovery. The only people who thought that was a positive thing hadn’t endured endless months of being told to throttle down, kick back and relax, and hand control over to others.

Even Reid’s Brisbane apartment that had been especially set up for rest and relaxation couldn’t soothe him this morning.

Reid had found it especially hard to hand over the reins of the engineering company he’d built, never mind that the ‘others’ in question were reliable, visionary, and didn’t need him at the helm. Reid had chosen his executives a little too well, and even people-shy Judah had stepped up to shoulder some of Reid’s workload. This morning while eye doctor Fink had been telling Reid to take his pills like a good boy, Judah had been presenting the quarterly forecast to Reid’s board of directors. Judah, whose knowledge of solar engines was sketchy at best, but who believed unconditionally in Reid’s timeline for bringing those developments to the market.

Judah’s strategy had been alarmingly simple. ‘I go in, I tell them this is what you want, and they approve it. Easy.’ Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting.

Judah meant well. He was working his arse off keeping all the Blake family enterprises running smoothly while Reid recovered. Stock prices were up, milestones were being met.

Business was booming along without him, and he shouldn’t feel resentful about that, he just shouldn’t. It was a measure of how good he was at building strong business foundations that they stood strong without him.

And yet...the longer his recovery, the more sidelined and useless he felt. Reid’s confidence, his place in his family, was based on his ability to be the wunderkind. The kid who held it together. The young man with vision and work ethic. The mechanical genius who’d built a billion-dollar company using the contacts and start-up money his family had afforded him. He didn’t want to be put out to pasture like a lame racehorse. He wanted to be part of something bigger than himself.

He needed to be sure of his worth.

And for the first time since he was seventeen years old and sitting across from his brother in a petrol-station diner, he questioned it.

Even Ari had taken the reins of her fledgling business and shone. She and her crew were busy creating an outdoor utopia on their sixth and final set of lodges. After that, Ari had another few weeks of rotating around the work sites as she made sure her gardens were growing as they should, and then she’d be gone. Her work was getting noticed, what with Bridie featuring it in her social-media stream, and magazines always keen for editorial featuring what was happening within the mystical Outback Blake empire.

A leg-up had well and truly been given, and Ari was now perfectly positioned to succeed.

Which left Reid’s fairy godmother gig superfluous to requirements, and his Prince Charming feathers charred because he didn’t waltz that well any more.

He’d tolerated being a wounded prince as best he could.

He actively hated the thought of being a permanently broken one.

He leaned against the kitchen counter of his Brisbane home and watched as Judah slung his tailored jacket over the back of a chair and headed for the fridge. Judah could still stare at a dinner menu for a long time before making his selection, but he had the contents of Reid’s drinks fridge well and truly sorted. Kiwi and leafy greens go-go juice if he wasn’t drinking alcohol, Crown Lager if he was. Apparently, it was a green juice kind of day.

‘You have the board’s backing, and the shareholders voted their approval,’ Judah told him, and all Reid could do was nod listlessly, because this latest achievement didn’t really have anything to do with him. ‘Are you listening?’

‘Yeah, of course. Good.’

But Judah wasn’t having a bar of Reid’s fake enthusiasm. ‘I thought you’d be pleased.’

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