Page 50 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

ARI WAS HEARTBROKEN and Reid was a jerk, but she wasn’t giving up. Sometimes growth came with reckonings and putting one step in front of the other and trudging through bad weather until blue sky broke overhead. Reid had his journey and she had hers, and as she drove west, out of the city, she reasoned that he had been right in some ways. She did still have personal problems of her own to tackle before demanding he tackle his. She was a successful, confident woman with a whole lot of love, energy and encouragement to give. She could do this.

Ari picked up her phone and put a call through to the one living person who’d never let her down. ‘Hi, Gert, I was wondering if I can come and visit for a few days?’

‘You know you can.’ Gert’s voice grounded her. ‘When?’

‘Tomorrow? I’m heading back from Brisbane. I’ll stay in a motel overnight.’

‘I thought you were still at Cooper’s Crossing.’

‘We finished up yesterday and lit out. It’s all done. I wanted to give Reid the good news.’

‘How is he?’

‘Grouchy. Finding it hard to come to terms with what his accident has taken from him.’ She might explain more when she got there. She wasn’t sure how much Gert knew about Ari’s relationship with Reid. Ari hadn’t been hiding it—she’d simply been working hard and out of reach of the real world for most of it.

‘Had to happen eventually,’ Gert said with a sigh. ‘That boy always did present his bright side to others, even after taking some mighty hard knocks. As if people wouldn’t tolerate having him around if he wasn’t all sunshine and light.’

She hadn’t thought of it that way. Something else to chew on during the long drive home and take with her when next she saw him.

‘I want to drop in on Patrick and Jake.’ Her stepfather and stepbrother. ‘Clear some air if I can. Put the whole lot behind me if I can’t.’

‘About that.’ Gert paused as if choosing her words carefully. ‘You might want to reconsider. Patrick’s been on a bender for days.’

Ari closed her eyes. ‘What set him off this time?’

‘Who knows? He’s not a good man.’

‘He might have been once upon a—’

‘No, Ari. That man drank the money set aside for your education, threw you out of the home your mother owned the minute she died, and threatened his son with a beating if they so much as acknowledged you.’

‘Jake’s been nodding at me when he sees me these days. He’s almost eighteen. I can be there with a helping hand if he wants out.’

‘He spat on you.’

‘He was ten.’ Ari had never expected her little stepbrother to defend her when Patrick had turned mean. Granted, she’d never expected her step-sibling to spit on her either, but if it had kept him in his father’s good graces, she could understand the why of it. Neither her nor Jake had been driving the animosity. Someone else had been directing the roles they had to play.

‘I want to help. I want to offer Jake a labouring job on my crew when we do the gardens at the visitors’ centre.’

‘That’d be like asking him to declare war on his father.’

‘I know. And maybe he’ll spit on me again, but I’m still going to offer him a way out of his father’s grasp, same way you offered me one.’

There was a long, long pause. ‘I’ll back you,’ said Gert finally. ‘Let’s fight for him.’

‘Gert...’ Her aunt waited for her to continue. ‘Have you ever heard of a man named Deacon Murray?’

‘Doesn’t ring a bell.’

‘Look him up on the web. See if his face is familiar.’

‘Why?’

‘I think he might be my biological father. I think I’m going to write to him. Ask him what happened and why he sent money—a lot of money—via Reid’s father, but never came near me. See what happens.’

‘Are you expecting anything from him?’

‘Not a damn thing beyond answers—if that’s who he is. I’m just...building the me I want to be, going forward. I owe it to myself to face my demons head-on, right? And clear the way to move forward with confidence in my own value. Enough self-esteem to let love in. Lead by example, even.’

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