A Long Way From Home

  A LONG WAY FROM HOME

  Olivia Lucas

  Copyright © 2020 Olivia Lucas

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 9781234567890

  ISBN-10: 1477123456

  Cover design by: Art Painter

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  EPILOGUE

  About The Author

  Books By This Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  Forty hours of transit later, Callie placed her suitcase down on the tarmac at Darwin Airport and swatted an overexuberant fly away with her hand. Then another.

  Blowing out a long steady breath, she stretched out her arms above her head. She was in Australia. Finally. It had been a long time coming. Twenty-eight years in fact.

  The afternoon sun was blazing down and she felt the heat radiating up from the asphalt. The tarmac shimmered with heat haze and she was surprised her shoes weren’t melting into the ground. It was stifling hot. Probably no less than a thousand degrees in the shade.

  Callie was heading to Cobargo, a million-acre station two hundred miles south west of Darwin. When she looked at a map of Australia, it looked like it was quite literally smack bang in the middle of nowhere.

  She had been instructed to wait outside for her charter flight. No airport lounge over here. Things were a little more casual.

  A short, stubby man with a wispy, white beard who looked like Santa Claus was waddling over in her direction. His little arms flapping energetically by his sides. He was kitted out in a disturbingly tight pair of khaki shorts, certainly a few sizes too small, and a gray tank top, which was holier than a block of swiss cheese. All of which, were overshadowed by a ginormous pot belly that caused him to tilt backwards as he walked forward. It was amazing he didn’t trip over his flip flops with such obscured vision.

  As he approached, he flashed a toothy grin and enthusiastically waved a clipboard in the air. “Afternoon! You’re the American lass heading to Cobargo station, right? Callie?”

  “Oh yes, hi. That’s me.” Callie smiled, batting away a pack of flies that were swarming her head and making every effort to climb up her nose. She was fast becoming an insect snack bar.

  “Righto, I’m Trevor. Pleased to meet you. You’re coming with me. I’ll take that for you.” He ducked down and picked up her bag. His scent a mixture of cigarettes and sweat. “We don’t get many visitors so we get a little excited to see a new face. Hot enough for you?”

  Callie rushed to catch up to Trevor. He was already two steps in front of her. His hairy muscular arms pumping like a set of excited pistons.

  “Oh yeah, it sure is. I am from Chicago and it’s fall at the moment so the heat is a bit of a shock to the system,” she said as an appropriately timed bead of sweat trickled down her back.

  “Well, you will be sweating bullets in no time. This is nothing. It will be hot as an inferno in a few months,” he whistled cheerfully. “Welcome to the glorious outback!”

  Trevor stopped in front of a ridiculously small, bird-like plane and Callie felt her heart begin to pound. Couldn’t be more than a six-seater.

  “We will be flying in Julia. Isn’t she a beauty?” Trevor ran his hand affectionately over the metallic frame which was thickly coated in red dust. A fly landed on his lip. “And I am your pilot.” He shuffled his feet in a dance. “I also moonlight as a cook, a stockman, and an electrician down on the station. How funny is that?”

  Callie gulped down hard. That wasn’t funny at all. This guy was a complete nutbag.

  She was terrified of flying. Trevor didn’t look or act like a pilot should. He was wearing a wife beater and worn flip flops for god’s sake!

  “Oh, and you might want to take off your heels. Nice as they are. We are landing on a dirt strip so you will probably sink into the ground with those on.”

  Shit. Shit. Shit . Callie began losing it. Not only was Santa Claus flying her in a toy, matchbox plane called Julia. They would also be landing in a patch of freaking dirt. She tried her best not to hyperventilate by clenching her fists and pressing her nails firmly into her flesh, but it did absolutely nothing to appease her.

  Trevor held open the door to the cockpit. “So, ladies first. You will be sitting next to me.” She briefly hesitated before he motioned with his hand. “Don’t be shy. Jump on in.”

  Callie dragged in a long breath and recited a few prayers under her breath, before she nervously ambled up the steps and took a seat.

  Trevor took a few minutes to secure the doors and then made his way into the seat beside her, tucking his belly under the controls. A pesky fly buzzed between them before circumnavigating Trevor’s head a few times and landing on the dashboard. Drawing his hand back, he paused, then smashed his palm down on top of it, like some adept ninja.

  He smiled like he had won the jackpot and flicked the fly off his hand.

  Callie groaned internally as perspiration gathered between her breasts. This was getting worse by the second.

  Sensing Callie’s trepidation or perhaps seeing her white-knuckled grip on the seat, Trevor tapped her lightly on the shoulder. “Don’t stress love. We will be there in a jiffy.”

  Trevor gave her a headset to wear and checked that she was strapped in correctly. A few minutes later, the propellers kicked into life and before she knew it, they were bounding down the runway. Well that was the assumption anyway because she had her eyes closed.

  Her stomach lurched as they lifted into the air and almost immediately Trevor began waffling on about life on the station. It was a welcome distraction and she found herself nodding a whole lot. Her eyes still closed.

  Twenty minutes in and with the realization that she was still alive, she began to calm down and slowly peel open her eyes. Her jaw dropped when she took in the vista around her. Red barren land as far as the eye could see. The snake of a river meandering through the plains with only a sprinkling of trees. She had never seen so much space. So much nothing. Cattle were mere dots on the landscape. There wasn’t a hint of city or civilization anywhere.

  “Oh, glad you’re awake now,” chortled Trevor. “So straight under us is the start of your father’s property. One million acres. It’s one of the biggest in the country,” he beamed proudly. “We will be landing in ten minutes so just take it all in. You could get lost out there.”

  As Callie bathed in sunlight washing through the front window, the ground below seemed to shimmer with the heat. She could not fathom the sheer magnitude of his property and suddenly felt like a little, lost bird b
eing released into the wilderness.

  Her father had apparently passed a few months ago and they weren’t close so she had no intention of jetting to the other side of the world, until she received a letter from a lawyer representing her father’s estate saying that Callie, his only child, was to inherit fifty percent of his cattle station in Australia. Tessa and Stevie, presumably his mistress and child, would inherit the other fifty.

  Her mother never spoke of her father and she never asked. Apparently, he had left her mom when she was pregnant. She knew that he was Australian and somewhere in Australia but the fact that he had left her mom was enough for her not to ever seek contact with him.

  The will had allowed for the division of property even without the consent of the other owner so Callie had every intention of selling her share and had already connected with local real estate agents. What on earth would she do with a cattle station on the other side of the planet? The whole notion of keeping it was absurd and only one she lightly entertained. No, she could use the money to buy an apartment in Chicago. That was home now.

  She wondered how Tessa Fitzgerald would handle the news of her selling. She seemed rather invested in the property and couldn’t imagine her being overly thrilled. Hell, it was highly probable that she may even hate her by the end of it.

  As Trevor began to bank towards the strip for landing, Callie tightened her seat belt once more and gripped her seat. Breathe, just breathe . It would be over soon.

  “Hold on,” Trevor quipped. “We are coming into land.”

  One bounce, two bounce and a hop and a skip forward later, and she felt the earth rumble beneath their wings as a swathe of red dust cocooned them.

  Callie checked that all her limbs were intact and let out a sigh of relief. When Trevor finally popped open her door, the heat hit her like a furnace blast and she squinted into the sun.

  Half-blinded, she stepped down the stairs onto the red earth below, her heels immediately sinking like quicksand. Her face colored with pink as she faced a bemused man.

  She should’ve listened to Santa.

  A tall, strapping young fellow wearing a battered cowboy hat, two-day stubble and the bluest of eyes moved forward and greeted her, reaching out his hand. He had a beautiful, engaging smile and shoulders broad enough to carry a piano. “Hey Callie, I’m James. Well, most people call me Jimmy, and I help run this joint. Welcome to Cobargo Station.”

  Callie took her shoes off and then shook his hand. “Hey James, thanks for meeting me.” If she wasn’t gay, she would’ve been swooning all day long. He was hot. Cowboy hot.

  James waved away flies with his hand as a lock of sandy blonde hair fell over his eye. “Hope Trevor looked after you.”

  He crouched down to collect her suitcase, groaned dramatically under the weight and gave her a cheeky wink.

  She liked him already.

  “I always look after the ladies James!” Trevor piped up from behind, slapping a hand down on his shoulder.

  “Yes, he was wonderful,” said Callie smiling.

  Trevor’s cheeks flushed a rosy pink. Just like Santa.

  James laughed and turned to her. “Okay, so let’s get you back to the house quick smart so you can freshen up. You must be exhausted.”

  “Yeah I am.” Callie covered a yawn with her hand. “It took a few days to get here. I feel like I am in some sort of weird time warp. The time. This place.”

  “I can imagine.” James placed her suitcase in the back of the dust covered Land Cruiser 4x4 next to some rolls of fencing. “Well you are literally on the other side of the world now. There is nowhere in the world like out here. Pretty much the same as it was millions of years ago.”

  He waved a hand towards the passenger door. “Jump on in.”

  James started the ignition as the engine rumbled to life. The air conditioning blasted through the vents. “We will be at the homestead in about fifteen minutes.”

  Callie nodded and noted the thin coat of sticky red dust on the dashboard. It seemed to coat everything. She bit her lip as they bounded across the rough dusty terrain hitting potholes and stone along the way. “Nothing is close around here, is it?”

  Trevor stuck his head in the gap between the two front seats. “Nope. Nothing. Closest town is three hours away. Just the way we like it. And even that’s too close.”

  “Three hours?!” Callie said in shock. “How do you survive? Don’t you need to shop?” As much as she loved her country roots, Callie loved to shop and trawl through sales racks. She had inherited the shopping gene from her mom. It was in her DNA.

  “We head to town once a month for food and supplies. If it’s real urgent then Trevor will take Julia and get what we need,” James smiled before his expression turned serious. “Oh, just wanted to say that we are sorry about your father’s passing Callie.”

  “Oh, it’s okay. We weren’t close.” Callie realized this may have come across a bit abrupt. “I mean, I didn’t really know him. I never actually met him.”

  “Oh, I see. Shame he was a great guy. We all loved him.” James spoke with such sincerity that she knew he was being honest.

  As they drove in the Land Cruiser, a garment of dust enveloped them and she noted a kaleidoscope of odd-looking bugs splattered across the windscreen. All shades and sizes. Australia had such a notorious reputation for creepy crawlies and she wondered how she would manage that over the coming weeks.

  “So, how many people work here?” asked Callie as she looked out to the endless stretch of red plains.

  “We have twenty staff. Obviously, we employ more during the muster. Tessa and I basically run the place. Trevor does a bit of everything. Then we have the stockmen and farmhands. Plus a few jackaroos and jillaroos.”

  “Sorry what roos? Are they related to the kangaroo?”

  James let out a laugh. “Close. Some of them are a little hairy, but no they are junior farmhands in training. Jackaroos are male and jillaroos are female.”

  Callie laughed and furrowed her brow. “I am going to have my hands full with all of these expressions.”

  “I’ll try to not bombard you then. You will pick it up quickly though. You are half Aussie after all.”

  “Thank you.” Callie looked out the window and stared into the distance. Half Aussie. That was still such a strange concept to her. Maybe with some time here she could learn to embrace that side. “I can’t get over the size of this place.”

  “You’re not the only one. It’s the size of a small country and flat as a tack, except for the occasional clumps of mulga bush and spinifex.”

  The car slowed as James pulled up next to a beautiful sandstone homestead sitting squarely on the middle of a green lawn. The home had a dark green, corrugated iron roof and a gorgeous wooden porch that appeared to wrap around the entire building. A beautiful patch of tall, lanky sunflowers ran across the left side of the house, in sheer contrast to the encroaching red earth. How on earth did anything grow out here?

  James took her luggage out from the back. “So, let’s head inside.”

  Beside the homestead ran a row of barns piled high with bales of hay. There were several sheds, stables and even an aircraft hangar. Pickups and a medley of farm vehicles were drawn up beside them, and Callie could see men and horses moving about and stirring up dust. This place was a hub of activity.

  Stepping inside, James knocked on an open door to the immediate left of the entry.

  A soft, feminine voice spoke. “Hey Jimmy.”

  “Tessa, Callie has arrived.”

  Callie poked her head around the door and walked in. She was expecting a female version of Trevor so she was a tad bamboozled when she saw her walking towards her.

  She was young and drop dead gorgeous. What did they feed them out here? First James, now Tessa. She had long wavy dark hair that tumbled down her shoulders, sparkling green eyes and a smile that could melt granite. This woman was borderline dangerous.

  It seemed as though Callie shared her father’s penchan
t for beautiful women.

  Her throat tightened as she spoke. “Hi Tessa. Lovely to finally meet you.” She held out her hand, not knowing what else to do in that moment when everything stopped. Including her heart.

  “Callie, nice to put a face to the name. Welcome to Cobargo.” Tessa smiled as she reached forward and warmly shook her hand.

  Electricity crackled through her skin at contact. Her gaze lost in the most beautiful liquid green eyes she had ever seen.

  Ridiculous. She hadn’t felt such an instantaneous, off-the-charts reaction to a woman in years. She thought she had developed immunity.

  Damn it. Why did she have to be so attractive?

  This could potentially complicate matters. Her emails had been short and business like. She should’ve fit the brief. Short, frumpy and middle-aged. She was expecting someone older, several decades older. Tessa must’ve been around her age, some thirty years younger than her father. Outrageous.

  Complications aside, Callie couldn’t help but take her all in. Her faded low-rise jeans were tight and perfectly fitted. Her long sleeve unbuttoned shirt was rolled up at the sleeves and revealed a skin-tight white top underneath, which dipped down just enough to leave the rest to her vivid imagination.

  She had met spades of good-looking women over the years without falling into a heap, but there was something else going on here, something unspoken. And it spooked her.

  Tessa’s gaze dropped to the pair of heels in her hand that were filmed in red dust, before shifting down to her bare feet. “I’d probably suggest wearing different shoes around here. Barefoot is not an option. Plenty of things to bite you.”

  Callie gave an embarrassed smile. They had just met and she had already been admonished for her lack of appropriate footwear. Despite the lecture, her body responded as though she had whispered sweeting nothings into her ear. Her enchanting accent had her heart fluttering once more.

  Her footwear had been a complete oversight but she had no intention of explaining herself. Her trainers were in her carry-on luggage and had it not been for the five-hundred-hour journey that scrambled her brain, she would’ve remembered to swap shoes.