A Kiss to Seal the Deal / The Army Ranger's Return: A Kiss to Seal the Deal / The Army Ranger's Return

‘Fine. Yes, it would help. We would run the samples during the hottest part of the day and move our contact hours to morning and late afternoon. I could get my whole team back down.’

Grant looked out to sea for moments and then brought his clear green eyes back to hers. ‘What sort of a building do you need? Does it have to be hospital-grade?’

Her heart-rate picked up. Was he serious? Was Grant McMurtrie offering to help her? He was built near enough to a gift-horse. ‘No. Just dry, lockable and pest-free. As long as the equipment can be sterile we can work anywhere with power.’

‘How about my garage? It needs a good clean-out but I’m not using it.’

Grant drove a top-of-the-range Jeep Wrangler and it sat out weathering most days. ‘You need that for your car.’

His eyes darkened. ‘No. It’s not … suitable.’

She stared at him. ‘It’s a garage.’ Of course it’s suitable.

‘Do you want it or not?’

Kate’s breath whooshed out of her. ‘Why would you do that? You want us gone.’

His gaze was steady. ‘Despite what you believe, I’m not completely heartless. I grew up with these seals and don’t want to see them persecuted any more than you do. The way I figure it, you can’t get a complete year’s worth of data no matter what happens, so me making your daily tasks more comfortable isn’t going to hurt me, particularly.’

He was right. Volume made all the difference in the world to her, to the validity of her research. But depressingly little difference to him or to the Commission, who were holding out for something more persuasive.

‘What if you’re wrong?’

‘I wouldn’t be offering if I thought there was a chance of that.’

The smug confidence should have infuriated her. But all it did was remind her how much she was drawn to a capable man, with a good mind.

His eyes softened. ‘And I don’t like seeing you hurt yourself. Have you even had a day off since I last saw you?’

And a kind heart, as it turned out.

Kate shuffled. She didn’t want to think well of the man whose self-interest was sending her life into chaos. ‘The clock’s ticking. I’ll have nothing but time off when it’s all over.’

He frowned, knowing full well he was the cause of the rush. ‘You’re welcome to my garage, Kate. Make the best of it that you can.’

Relief hung, suspended and pendulous, waiting for her mind to make a decision. She briefly tossed around the idea of declining, maintaining a high moral ground. But practicality won out; she was nothing if not practical.

The relief released its iron grip as soon as she had the thought and whooshed in a free-fall through her body. ‘Thank you, Grant. That will really help.’ She chewed her lip.

He saw it. ‘What?’

In for a penny … ‘Would it be okay if I set up a camp in one of your sheltered paddocks? With the lab here it would make more sense for me to stay, too. My team can bring things in and out as I need them. Most of them have families to get home to.’

‘You don’t?’

Kate kicked herself mentally for opening the door to that line of enquiry. Gentle warmth flamed up her throat and the contrast between it and the arctic breeze sent a blizzard of tiny lumps prickling down her flesh. ‘Only my Aunt Nancy,’ she hedged. ‘And I don’t really see her all that often these days.’

Mad old Aunt Nancy. She’d got Kate to adulthood after her parents’ accident, but only barely, and mostly by luck. It had been more a case of reverse parenting in the end. Still, Nancy had provided food and shelter and access to a decent school after Kate had lost everything. She’d done the rest herself, miles from the town and countryside she’d loved so much. It had been the beginning of a lifetime trend. She didn’t like to leave anything to chance. Chance had a way of turning around and biting you.

‘Your parents?’ His words were casual enough, but his gaze was intense.

How had they got here? She shook her head knowing there was no way to not answer such a direct question. But her chest still tightened like a fist. ‘Died when I was a kid. Road accident.’

Grant said nothing for a moment. ‘Where were you?’

‘School. I didn’t know until the principal came to collect me at the end of the day.’

‘Lucky you weren’t with them.’

Kate felt the familiar stab deep inside. Her voice thickened. ‘That’s the consensus.’

But some days her personal jury was still out on that one.

She’d stayed with the country-school principal for three days until Aunt Nancy had arrived from the city to collect her—her mother’s whispered-about sister. A woman she’d never met. Someone had packed all Kate’s belongings for her and shipped her up to the big smoke in a matter of days. Her family farm and everything in it was sold by solicitors and the money left over after the debts were settled had been put into trust for when she was eighteen. She’d never even been allowed to set foot on her property again. As an adult, she realised everyone had done what they thought was the best thing at the time. But losing your parents, your home and your community in one hit had been brutal on a young girl.

Although, it had taught her how to plan, how to make sure there were never any variables outside of her control. And how good it felt to be standing on land again.

‘It’s tough, being on your own so young.’

She looked at him. Really looked. ‘You sound like you’re speaking from experience.’

‘I left the farm when I was sixteen. Dad and I … It was time for me to make my own way.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Anything I could for the first couple of months. I worked part-time in a timber yard to keep a roof over my head and I put myself through the final year of high-school at a community college. An advisor there got me into a scholarship program for business and law and the rest is history.’

Self-schooled, self-housed, scholarship grades and partner by twenty-eight. This man knew something about being driven. And about being busy.

‘Look at that—something in common! Who’d have thunk it?’ Awkward silence fell and Kate blew the cobwebs away. ‘Anyway, are you happy for me to camp?’

‘No.’ Grant seemed almost surprised by the word he’d uttered. He shoved his hands into deep pockets. ‘I have room in the house. You’ll be more comfortable.’

Kate stared. ‘I can’t stay in your house. I barely know you.’

He shrugged. ‘So? It’s a working arrangement.’

‘But what will people say?’

‘Do you care?’

The glint in his eye said he already knew the answer.

‘No.’ Not when her deadline ticked maddeningly in her head.

‘Look, Kate, I put the toilet seat down and I’m kind to puppies. Despite being on different sides on this, I’m not actually trying to sabotage your work.’

So her jibe from a month ago had stung. Good. She chewed her lip. ‘It would make things go much faster here.’

His eyes narrowed again. ‘How much faster?’

Her lips twisted in a sad smile. ‘Don’t panic. Even if we worked twenty-four-seven we can’t get the buffer ratified. Not without identifying the breeding ground.’

‘That would make that much difference?’

Why did she keep trusting this man with information? He stood between her and her project. Her mouth opened without her consent. ‘I believe so, yes. The Conservation Commission would accept partial research results if we could also hand them a site of significance.’

He looked undecided. Was he about to change his mind about helping her?

‘Don’t worry; I’m no closer to knowing where it is than I have been for two years. Your plans for world domination are safe.’

He matched her smile and the sorrow reached all the way to his eyes. ‘This isn’t personal, Kate. It’s business.’

She looked at him long and hard. ‘I’m prepared to believe it’s not personal between us, but this is very personal between you and your father. Why are you selling the farm? He left it to you.’

His face shut down hard before her eyes. ‘Because I’m no farmer. That’s become abundantly apparent to me this month.’

‘You’ve kept the place running for weeks now.’

‘Barely. I know nothing about stock. Short of feeding them and keeping them watered.’

‘I’m sure there are people who can help you. Teach you.’

‘Like who?’ he said.

‘Like any of the farmers in the district. Leo was a very popular man.’

‘I’m hoping one of those farmers will be champing at the bit to get an outfit this size when it comes on the market. I don’t want to seem desperate.’

Kate realised. ‘You’re trying to build the farm up, make them think you have it all under control, so you get a good price.’ She had to give him points for controlling his environment.

‘Bingo. If they sense the vulnerability, they’ll go for the jugular.’

‘You’re trusting me not to tell them?’

His regard was steady but tainted with a hint of confusion, as if it hadn’t occurred to him until that very second what he was trusting her with. ‘You don’t strike me as someone to play games.’

‘Unlike you, you mean?’

‘Very unlike me. We couldn’t be more different, Kate.’

She shook her head. ‘Crazy world you live in.’

‘It’s human nature, Kate. If they know how much I need to sell, the price will drop.’

‘I wouldn’t have thought you needed the money.’

‘This isn’t about the money. This is my family’s farm. It’s about dignity. The Tulloquay name. Keeping the farm intact. Making sure the person that buys it values it.’

Conservation restrictions would reduce the size of the landholding and diminish the forward-investment value. Who would want a coastal farm with no usable coastal strip? Apart from her, that was. Without the valuable coastal kilometres, the remaining land would most likely get carved up for paddocks for adjoining farms.

He wanted Tulloquay to stay a farm, no matter who ran it, even if he didn’t want the property for himself. Leo McMurtrie would have approved of that part, at least.

‘Maybe I could help you? As a thank you for the lab space and room.’

His sceptical expression shouldn’t have surprised her. ‘You know about farming?’

‘My father was the town doctor but we lived on my mum’s dairy farm. I remember the seasonal rotations, the basic preventative care for the stock.’

‘You barely have time for your own work.’

‘I’m not proposing I do it all; you’re a big boy. I’ll just give you some pointers. The rest is up to you and the internet if you’re so determined on the smoke and mirrors.’

It was his turn to frown. ‘Why would you help me? You think I’m a jerk.’

Ass, actually. Kate held his gaze against the flush she could feel rising. ‘It’s in my best interests to keep you amenable. And your father gave me two years of access to the Atlas colony, which I consider priceless. I owe it to him to help you.’ She glanced around. ‘Plus, I’ve grown fond of these sheep and don’t want to see them starve.’

‘Have they starved yet?’

Her laugh was gentle. ‘No. But they’re going to need drenching soon. Have you got that one covered?’

He tipped his head back as he realised he hadn’t. ‘How do I know you won’t sabotage me?’

Oh, Grant. Is that really the world you live in?

‘You don’t,’ she sighed. ‘You’ll just have to trust me.’

Intense eyes blazed into hers as his mind worked with that concept. He had a lot to lose if she betrayed him. Kate fought the tremor that fluttered up her spine and forced her body to remember that this was the man that stood between her and her project. Possibly between the seals and their survival.

There could be no flutters. And if she had to hold her breath then it would be awaiting the outcome of his decision, not waiting to see if he trusted her.

‘Room and lab space in return for some farming advice. Confidential.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘If you think it’s necessary.’

‘It’s necessary.’ His eyes grew serious. ‘You specialise in seal vomit, I specialise in human nature.’

‘Interesting analogy.’ Kate took a deep breath. ‘But you have yourself a deal. On one condition.’ His left eye twitched and its brow lifted. Did no-one challenge him in his world? ‘The AC-DC stays below eighty decibels.’

In the split second before he remembered who he was and who he was with, Grant gifted her with the most spectacular of smiles. She saw more perfect, pearly teeth in that brief moment than she’d seen the whole time she’d known him. A throaty chuckle escaped, and his green eyes creased and reached out and whomped Kate clean in the solar plexus. She couldn’t even suck in a shallow breath, let alone a deep one.

Just when she’d wondered if he couldn’t do more than twist those serious lips.

But as quickly as the smile came it died, and Grant dropped his head so that the sparkling eyes were lost in the shadow cast by his akubra hat. Kate felt the temperature drop around them. As if to punish himself—or maybe her—for the smile, he gravely thrust out his hand toward her and barked a curt, ‘Deal.’

Goose bumps prickled all over her skin as she slid her chilled hand into his furnace-warm, Goliath one. It swallowed hers completely and Kate had a moment of unease; the image aptly represented their parts in this situation.

He might tolerate her presence, he might humour her research, he might even help her in ways that didn’t hinder him. But ultimately Grant McMurtrie held all the power here.

For now.

Her mind went to the nearly finished report for the Conservation Commission, sitting in the back seat of her ute. She straightened her spine and closed her fingers defiantly tighter on his. ‘I’ll move in tonight.’

CHAPTER FIVE

‘YOU do realise you smell appalling?’ Grant scrunched his nose.

Her grin was way too sexy to be good for him. After only a few days, Kate’s presence felt as ingrained in the house as his father’s tobacco.

‘Occupational hazard. The smellier we are, the better the seals like us.’

His nostrils flared. ‘Then they must be ready to adopt you as one of their own today.’

The grin burbled over into a full laugh and those dimples flashed enticingly beneath a layer of dirt and muck. His gut kicked over, and not from the smell. That was happening way too often. He swallowed past the tight ball.

‘We had a good day today, got a heap done. Enough that I can spend all of tomorrow setting up the lab.’

An overflowing carful of her gear had been dropped off by two of her team earlier in the day. It sat intriguingly on the verandah now. As though realising that sharing her joy about having made good progress was not entirely appropriate, two frown lines formed between her brows. The dimples flattened out.

‘I’ll go take a shower and leave my work clothes in the lab,’ she said. ‘Hopefully that’ll keep it contained.’

The lab formerly known as the garage.

He’d thought about making it a store room, but then realised he wouldn’t be able to go in and out of there for stuff, so he’d left it empty. Better a science lab than empty as a tomb—although, the latter was more appropriate. Would Kate freak out if she knew? Part of him thought no—she was a scientist and used to much more grisly things than that—but part of him remembered that she’d been fond of Leo.

‘How often did you see my father?’ he asked a little later, when she was back to smelling like a clean, natural woman. She was trucking things from the verandah around to the double-doors of the garage. He lumped one of the bigger boxes as he followed her.

Kate paused and thought about it. ‘Maybe three times a week?’

For two years. That was a lot—compared to him. Yet she could still whack on the pressure when she had to. ‘Must have been tough while he was against your project.’

Kate smiled, and he realised how much he waited for those peek-a-boo dimples to show up. How he lightened just for seeing them.

‘He was no picnic even after he came round.’

I’ll bet. ‘Came round?’

‘Reconciled himself,’ Kate corrected.

Grant’s feet locked up at the roll-door to the garage. No way he was going a step further into that space. ‘To giving up his land?’

Kate dropped her box and straightened, frowning. ‘To giving up his dogged stance. I think he was just being belligerent out of habit toward the end there.’

Grant snorted. ‘He always was contrary.’

She thought about that. ‘No, I think he was lonely. Dragging out the negotiations gave him regular contact.’

Pain sliced unexpectedly low in his gut. He shot up straight.

‘I’m sorry,’ Kate rushed to make good. ‘That’s none of my business.’

‘My father didn’t really do lonely, Kate,’ he said, lowering his voice, critically aware of their location. Leo McMurtrie had liked nothing better than to be alone with his thoughts when Grant was a boy, sitting out high on a bluff somewhere. Leaving his son to find his own amusement.

‘I know he filled his spare time with committees and doing odd jobs for friends,’ she said. ‘But I think you can be busy and still lonely.’

‘Speaking from experience, Kate?’ Her eyes rounded and darkened with pain, then flicked away carefully. Grant gave himself the fastest of inner lectures.

She rushed on. ‘Just as some people can be bored but think they’re content.’

Was that a dig at him? No, she couldn’t know … ‘Bored is not a phrase I associate with Dad, either.’

‘No.’ Did that gentle smile mean she forgave him his snappy response? ‘No shortage of tasks when you’re running a farm single-handed.’

Grant winced. Everywhere he turned there were reminders of the future that his father had wanted for him. He should have been here with his dad, running the farm. Maybe then he could have headed Kate’s research off before it had even started. Maybe then there would have been no question of the surety of their property. Maybe then his dad would still be alive.

And maybe he’d be arguing loudly with an impossible man right now instead of talking quietly with a woman who was intriguing the hell out of him.

They added two more loads of gear to the pile at the roller-door. Grant knew the moment was coming when he’d need to press the remote and open it. There was nothing in there now but dust and storage boxes. But still his pulse began to hammer.

Kate turned to him. ‘Could I ask …?’

His heart squeezed painfully. No, don’t ask. Don’t make me say no.

She nodded towards the garage. ‘Just some of the bigger pieces?’

An icy sweat broke out along his spine. He called on every boardroom tactic in his arsenal to keep it from showing on his face, and then he really scraped the barrel and called on desperate humour.

Not his strong suit.

‘What happened to your fiery independence Ms Dickson? Does it only last until there’s heavy lifting to be done?’

He saw the impact of his words in the dimming of her eyes, in the stiffness of her shoulders. He kicked himself, while at the same time acknowledging that his sarcasm was still better than what he wanted to do: turn and sprint for the hills.

It was stupid not to have anticipated this moment. He should have left her to her unpacking and made himself scarce instead of hanging around like a blowfly waiting for her to smile again. Now he either had to forever position himself as a jerk in her mind or walk into the room he’d found his father in.

‘Sorry,’ she said, clipped, frosty and calm. ‘You must have things to do. I’ll be fine.’

He knew that. If he hadn’t been here, she would have managed. All she had to do was take a few things out of the heaviest boxes. She didn’t actually need the help. Whether she knew it or not, she’d been making overtures of friendship since she’d walked in his front door with her paltry belongings two nights ago.

And he’d just thrown it back in her face.

Suck it up, kid. The voice in his imagination was a hybrid of his father’s and his own.

‘Kate, wait.’ He stopped her as she would have turned completely away. ‘That was a bad joke. I’m sorry.’

‘No.’ She shook his hand free, her eyes low. ‘You’ve been more than generous with your offer of lab space and a room. I don’t want to take advantage any more than—’

Grant silenced her by bending and intentionally taking the biggest of the equipment boxes. ‘Can you get the door?’ While he had an armful of box, he couldn’t operate the remote; something told him that was a button-press he simply could not make.

Even if Kate was with him.

That thought brought his head up sharply. Since when had Grant ‘the Closer’ McMurtrie needeed someone to hold his hand? Since never. But, as he watched Kate’s delicate indexfinger activate the remote control and that enormous door began to rumble upwards, he’d never in his life been so grateful for the presence of another human being.

With no chance of stopping himself, he moved one step closer to Kate. Sweat broke out across his top lip.

‘Oh, it’s fabulous!’ She swept in ahead of him, into the large, open space. His heart pounded against his ribs and he forced his feet into action. Alan had rallied some volunteers to tow his father’s car away and help clean the garage out after his death. Only the mayor had known the significance of what they were doing. The resulting space was clean, empty and entirely innocent of the terrible thing that had happened here. The garage was as much a victim of his father’s decision as all of them.

It was due a reinvention.

‘Will this do?’ Only those who knew him best would spot the slight break in his voice.

‘Do? It’s perfect. It’s fully plumbed.’ Kate moved around the large space, checking out the features. ‘It has a fridge.’

‘Dad’s old beer-fridge.’ Beer and, for some reason, bowls of the most disgusting liquid covered in damp tea-towels and foaming away beneath a pancake layer of thick fungi. ‘I think Dad was working on his own laboratory experiment in here.’

At Kate’s quizzical look, he explained what he had found. Not when or why, but what.

Her face softened. ‘Kombucha tea. I’m glad he finally gave it a try. I put him onto it.’

‘What tea?’

‘Kombucha. It’s a fungus. It grows on the top and the tea below ferments and forms a naturopathic cider. It’s good for you.’

‘I can’t imagine how. It looked and smelled disgusting. I imagine the only thing it was good for was the compost heap.’

Why the hell had a grumpy, acerbic old farmer been talking herbal recipes with a gorgeous greenie? How much had the man changed in twenty years? And what kind of a relationship had he had with Kate Dickson? Every conversation Grant had with her led him to imagine the two of them had been more than just business colleagues.

Friends.

Kate’s enthusiasm for her new lab chased more of the shadows away from this place; she was just so excited. But still she turned to him, eager to give him a last chance, presumably.

‘You’re sure you don’t want to use this for your Jeep?’

Not in a million years. ‘It’s all yours. Just don’t blow anything up.’

‘I think you’re over-imagining what kind of work we do here. It’s mostly microscopes and sifting.’

Ah, yes—the vomit. Charming.

Wide brown eyes turned to him. ‘You’re welcome to come in and have a look any time you want.’

He crunched his nose as she turned back to the mountainous boxes. ‘Don’t be offended if I pass.’ For more reasons than one. He couldn’t imagine himself ever getting comfortable in here.

Kate smiled as she hauled more boxes into the lab.

This really was perfect. She couldn’t imagine why Grant wouldn’t want to keep his precious car in here, but his loss was her gain. She’d downplayed the difference having an on-site lab would make to her program, because he was still so sensitive to their progress and because his offer really was a gift from the research gods. The truth was it would make an enormous difference to their ability to process samples and with the hours saved she could dedicate some time to searching up the coast for the seals’ primary breeding-site.