‘Whatever floats your boat.Just know it’s not your fault.And you can bring back Roman any time with her camera.’Chook handed the heavy camera to Stone.‘I’ll take her out on the dinghy.’
‘I doubt you’ll get her on a boat again, not after this.’Because Romy had been so scared she’d left her camera behind.Suddenly remembering he’d tossed his phone somewhere… Spotting it under the table, he scooped it up leaving the houseboat without looking back.
It made him feel sick to know how scared Romy had been.He looked for signs of trauma as he approached her sitting in the shade of the helicopter.‘Are you okay?’
‘I… Um…’ She nodded, even though she hugged herself, with her eyes darting warily at her surroundings—looking for the next lurking danger, no doubt, and in the outback there were plenty.‘What were you yelling about?’
‘At Chook for putting you in danger like that.I’m so sorry I didn’t act sooner.Here…’ He held up her camera.
Her eyes widened.‘I forgot all about it.’
‘I’m sorry, Romy.’
‘It’s not your fault.’She seemed to calm down with the camera in her hands, like it was a security blanket.
‘Itismy fault.’He dragged his hands over his face, as that ill feeling in his chest crackled like sheets of ice to spread across his skin.He hated that feeling.
‘Are you still up to using your drone?’Giving her something else to focus on might calm her down.‘You can film the east side as we head back to the quarantine station.I’m looking for sheds, humpies.Potential hiding places for those crocodiles.’He wanted her to focus on something other than her near-death experience.‘Can you do that?’
‘Yeah… No—yes, I can.’And she was back, baby, eyes focused and her passion back in play.
The relief was enormous, as he watched the pretty little filmmaker eagerly grab her drone case from the helicopter.Finding himself too attracted to her—might explain how protective he felt about someone he’d just met.
Which had to stop and now.
Stone was done getting close to people.He didn’t have room for anyone new, and especially someone like Romy.
Stone preferred backpackers who were on a holiday with an exit date on their visas.The longest any of them had stayed was two weeks, sparing him the deep conversations, but giving him plenty of party time to help him forget as the backpacker’s played tourist.It kept the house pets happy, and he was even happier when he got to wave them all goodbye.
Yet, the depth of emotions he felt for Romy wasn’t right.He struggled to comprehend how or why he was feeling all this affection tangled with irritation, where desire clashed with caution, and a bone-deep fear that she might see through the walls he’d carefully built.She’d somehow set his world spinning off balance that he was so willing to do whatever it took to protect her.
Even if he didn’t want her to, it was time for Romy to go home.
Twenty-three
The chopper landed softly on the helipad, with a great view of the dried flood plain that ran towards Stone’s house that occupied a small hill.
‘Can I do anything?’Romy asked Stone, who’d been quiet all afternoon.
‘I do it every night on my own.I think I know what I’m doing.’The sarcasm was barely veiled in his voice as he pulled out her drone case from the chopper and left it by the side door.‘You can take the spare scooter, or the ATV, back to the house.’Swaggering back to the helicopter, he didn’t even look at her.
‘Did I do something wrong?’
He frowned at her over his shoulder.‘I’m just refuelling.The fewer people around, the better.Avgas is a tricky beast.’
‘Oh, okay.’She felt silly now, dragging her drone case to the scooter, then balancing it on the floor between her boots.Adjusting her backpack over her shoulders, she peered back at Stone.
With the impressive outback sunset silhouetting Stone’s strong frame, he worked on the helicopter that he used like a car.
She raised her camera to take a few shots, only to pause.Instead, she lowered it to take in the details that the camera could never truly capture—the essence of the man himself.
Stone was the most interesting man she’d ever met.He flew helicopters into dangerous places.He fought a monster with a chair to save her, and then he tenderly held baby crocodiles as he inspected every one of them before putting them into the new quarantine tanks at Craig’s farm.
To Romy, the ponds they’d borrowed from Chook looked like oversized aquariums, made of thick black plastic tubs, as if someone had sliced a water tank in half and fitted them with heaters and filters.They’d added layers of sand to create resting spots on land beneath a series of warming lights, keeping the baby crocodiles safe inside a shed, away from predators.
For the past few hours Stone had teased Amara, calling her Duchess with that brotherly fondness in his voice.He told bad dad jokes to Craig’s wife Izzy, then was like a brother to Craig.While Finn watched over them all, between scrutinising the drone footage that Romy had taken on the way back from Chook’s place.
Even though their personalities clashed occasionally, each member of the Stock Squad had a unique set of skills that Finn had cleverly used to create a team that worked well together.They weren’t the type of staff who’d watch the clock for knock-off time, or balk at job descriptions.They went that extra mile for the welfare of the livestock and their owners.
