Shelley Logan was no longer the cute little teenager Brock remembered.
Sheâd matured. She had a womanâs sensitivity and perception and wasnât afraid to speak her mind. Back then sheâd been way too young for him, but in the interim the rosebud had opened up velvety perfumed petals.
Brock continued to stare at her, holding her gaze captive. Despite the poise he hadnât been prepared for, Shelley was flushed with color. Her wild red-gold hair lay loose around her shoulders. Her beautiful eyes were large and lustrous, her mouth sensitive and her chin prettily pointed.
If it wouldnât have jeopardized their old easy friendship, Brock would have told Shelley she looked damned sexy!
Dear Reader,
Shelleyâs story is the fourth book in my KOOMERA CROSSING miniseries, which chronicles the lives of people who live and love in Australiaâs great Outback. The setting for my series is Queenslandâs Channel Country, a riverine desert and the home of the nationâs cattle kings and big mobs. Itâs a fabulous place, rich in aboriginal Dreamtime legends, full of stark, truly mystical grandeurâbleached cruelty under drought and heart-stoppingly beautiful after the rains when the desert blazes into the greatest gardens on earth.
Shelley Logan and Brock Tyson are both rebels, both hurting from their familiesâ power struggles. Both forever reaching up and outward, reaching for one another and what ultimately is lifeâs greatest prizeâenduring love. This is their story. I had to write it.
The first book in my KOOMERA CROSSING miniseries was the Harlequin Superromance>® title Sarahâs Baby. This was followed by Runaway Wife and Outback Bridegroom in Harlequin Romance>®. Look for Home to Mara, a further KOOMERA CROSSING novel, coming soon in Harlequin Superromance.
SHELLEY hit the pavement with a fast light step that belied her tiredness. It was late Friday afternoon and sheâd all but completed her list of âmust-dosâ in the town of Koomera Crossing. Her first meeting, with the bank manager, hadnât gone too badly, but the meeting with her fatherâs solicitorâthe only one in the townâhad not been so good. Sheâd then ordered fresh food supplies from the general store, where they always did a marvellous job. That had been the most important and most pressing need. Supplies had to be ordered in to accommodate a small party of Japanese guests due in a monthâs time. Those supplies would be airfreighted out to the station before the touristsâ arrival.
Sheâd stocked up on all the non-perishable items, and now she was going to buy a few little treats for herself, just to keep her spirits up. Toiletries, mainly. Soaps, shampoos, creams, a bit of make-up and the like. Usually she spent very little on herself, only peanuts on clothes and cosmetics, but she made sure she looked after her hair and skin. Those precious assets had to last her a lifetime, after all.
She was dog-tired even for a girl with plenty of go, and she had to force her legs to see out the distance. Sheâd started out from home, Wybourne Station, in the pre-dawn, making a fairly quick tripâsome three hours over rough Outback roadsâbefore she hit Koomera Crossing, the nearest thing to civilisation in this part of the world.
South-West Queensland really was the Back OâBeyond, but she loved her desert home with a passion. Nowhere else could offer her such peace and freedom, such vast open spaces. This was the Timeless Land, sacred to all aborigines. Shelley too revelled in her extraordinary environmentâthe living desert, with its vivid pottery colours, undulating red sands and surreal rock monuments. There was nowhere quite like the Outback for mystique. Its very antiquity gripped the soul.
It also kept her close to Sean, her guardian angel, her twin brother. Sean had drowned when they were six. Even now she remembered the sound of his sweet voice calling to her as sheâd run madcap in the homesteadâs rambling, overgrown gardenâ¦
Shelâ¦Shelâ¦Shelâ¦
Sean had always run to her, his twin, for love, for reassurance and comfort, rather than to their older sister, Amanda, or even their mother. And even after the terrible day of the accident, of which Shelley had no clear recollection but of chaos and high, screaming voices, Sean had still accompanied her on her childhood adventures. Hadnât he woken her every dawn of her life, patting her forehead and pulling her ear? âWake up, Shel. The sunâll burn a hole in you.â
Sean! Always destined to remain a beautiful little boy, Titian curls his halo, rosebud lips moving soundlessly, his eyes like shining jewels, a gauzy white radiance all around him.
That was what twins were like. They shared a bond that meant they were never parted, not even in death. Still, heartbreak was never far from Shelley. Her memories of her little brother were bittersweet, but the power and magic of their love for each other sustained her even now.