that.’
She rubbed at her forehead, trying to clear her sleep-fuzzed brain. ‘You were so upset last night. Are you sure you want us to stay?’
‘I’ve had time to think, to get used to everything. I’d like the chance to get to know Bella. I’d like her—both of you—to enjoy Serenity.’
‘Will your uncle mind?’
Seth’s face seemed to cave in. Shadows darkened his eyes and his throat worked. ‘My uncle’s not here. He died a couple of years ago.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ she said, but it was hard to feel the appropriate depth of sympathy when she hadn’t known his uncle, especially when her stomach was fluttering madly at the possibility of staying on, alone with Seth.
Amy couldn’t think why she was hesitating. This invitation was exactly what she’d come north to achieve. Twenty-four hours ago, time on Serenity so that Bella could get to know her father had been her primary goal. Her dream.
Twenty-four hours ago, she hadn’t met Seth Reardon. She hadn’t developed a silly, useless and problematic crush that would only get worse if she spent more time with him. But there were other problems, too. There was every chance that Seth would fall for sweet Bella as swiftly and certainly as she had fallen. How would she cope if Seth wanted to keep Bella?
Part of Amy wanted very much to whisk the little girl safely back to Melbourne and to resume her life. She couldn’t give her little girl up.
She would have to make it clear that Bella couldn’t stay at Serenity permanently. That had never been her plan.
Amy knew how Rachel had felt about remote Cape York, and yesterday she’d seen for herself how far Seth’s home was from anywhere else. It was no place for a single dad to try to raise a sociable toddler.
‘Look, I’ll give you time to think about it,’ Seth said, backing down the hall. ‘We can talk about it at breakfast.’
‘No, it’s OK.’ Amy sent him an apologetic smile. ‘It’s a good idea and we’d love to stay. Thank you.’
‘Terrific.’ Seth smiled in a way that put creases in the suntanned skin around his bright blue eyes. ‘We’ll have breakfast on the front veranda at a little after eight. You just have to turn left at the end of the hallway.’
‘OK. Thanks.’
It was only after Seth had gone that Amy realised her wrap had fallen during their conversation—while she was trying to catch the bouncing Bella, no doubt. She’d been standing here, talking to Seth in her fine cotton nightgown, exposed in all its transparent glory.
A glance in the mirror showed her just how much of her Seth had seen, and a blushing river of heat flooded her.
At least he’d been too polite to stare at her breasts.
She wished she could take more comfort from that.
HOLDING Bella’s hand, Amy went down the hallway, turned left, as Seth had directed, and walked into a stream of sunshine.
And an idyllic tropical paradise.
‘Goodness, Bella, where are we?’
Last night, entering by the back steps in the rainy dark, Amy had realised that Seth’s home was comfortable—but now she saw that not one thing about it came even close to her idea of a cattleman’s residence.
The veranda at the front of the house was so deep it formed large, outdoor rooms. She paused in the doorway to take it all in.
From here she could see a dining area and, beyond that, bamboo cane lounge chairs grouped around a coffee table, and, beyond that again, a desk with a telephone and a high-backed chair. Gently circling ceiling fans and huge potted palms gave the whole area an elegant, Oriental air.
She saw the garden beyond the veranda and gasped…Instead of hectares of dry, grassy paddocks, the Serenity homestead was fronted by terraces of smooth lawns and lush tropical gardens where delicate orchids grew side by side with bright bougainvillea and graceful palms. Heavens, there was even a swimming pool on one of the terraces.
The entire grounds were set in a haven of green on a densely wooded hillside, with views to white sandy beaches, a bright, glittering sea, and the dark emerald silhouettes of offshore islands.
It was gorgeous. Unreal. Amy felt as if she’d woken up at a resort and, at any minute, a waiter would appear to offer her a long, colourful drink with clinking ice cubes and a tiny paper umbrella.
Seth rose from the dining table and came towards them, smiling at the stunned expression on Amy’s face.
‘This is amazing,’ she said.
‘Glad you like it.’
‘But—’ She made a sweeping gesture that took in the gardens edged by rainforest and the view. ‘Where are your cattle?’
Seth laughed. ‘We passed through the grazing country yesterday. Over to the west. Not far away at all. There’s only a narrow fringe of this rainforest along the coastal mountains.’
‘But it’s beautiful.’ She could so easily imagine Rachel living here, soaking up the exotic atmosphere.
That thought brought Amy straight back to earth.
Which was just as well. She knew she couldn’t allow herself to be carried away by the beauty of Seth’s home.
It would be prudent to keep Rachel at the forefront of her thoughts. She had to remember that it was right here, in this setting, that Rachel and Seth had been swept away by a passionate liaison.
Bella was tugging at her hand. ‘Look, look! A swimming pool!’ She tried to pull Amy towards the sparkling blue water. ‘My go swimming.’
‘Not now,’ Amy told her. ‘We’re going to have breakfast.’
Bending quickly, she picked the little girl up and hugged her, and as they took their places at the dining table she wished she didn’t feel so unaccountably afraid.
Her desire for Bella to know her father had been driven purely by emotion. Families were important to Amy. Her own family was big and noisy and loving and she hated that Bella knew no one who was related to her by blood. Now, suddenly, Amy was looking at this gorgeous property, and was forced to accept practical realities that outweighed emotion.
Seth Reardon was seriously wealthy. He didn’t merely own vast tracts of land and mobs of valuable cattle. His home was beautiful and comfortable and he had domestic help, and an aeroplane, for heaven’s sake.
Bella was his daughter, his potential heiress, and if Seth wanted to he could hire a nanny for her and she could live here with him quite happily and safely.
Last night, when he’d been stunned and shocked, Seth had agreed that Amy could take Bella back to Melbourne. Naively, she’d had no doubt that
