Outback Roads:
The Nanny
ANNIE SEATON
The Augathella Girls: Book 1
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, magazine and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 Annie Seaton
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my loyal readers who love exploring the outback with me.
The Augathella Girls series.
Book 1: Outback Roads –The Nanny
Book 2: Outback Sky – The Pilot
Book 3: Outback Escape – The Sister
Book 4: Outback Winds – The Jillaroo
Book 5: Outback Dawn – The Visitor
Book 6: Outback Moonlight – The Rogue
Book 7: Outback Dust – The Drifter
Book 8: Outback Hope – The Farmer
Augathella Characters
Callie YoungSchool teacher/ nanny
Braden CartwrightOwner of Kilcoy Station
Rory, Nigel and PetieBraden’s sons
Sophie CartwrightBraden’s sister
Jock EvansSophie’s partner
Kent MasonOwner of Lara Waters
Kimberley RiordanSchool deputy principal
Bob HamblinSchool principal
Jon OgilvieContract cattleman
Jim Anderson
Jacinta Mason
Jen, Nat and KristieLocal garage owner
School teacher
Callie’s best friends
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Chapter 1
Spring
Brisbane - Friday
As Callie waited for her cue on the raised weather set she glanced over at the news desk. Greg Broadbent, her fiancé and Channel 8 sports broadcaster, had just wound up the sports news for Friday night. With the weekend coming on, and all the associated football codes heading for September finals, Greg’s sports report had gone over time—as it often did—and the director’s voice had just come through her earbuds telling her she’d lost ninety seconds of her weather segment.
‘Speed it up, Calista. None of the pretty sunsets or “have a fabulous weekend” stuff, tonight. Just give ’em the forecast, and cut it short,’ Rowan said. She could almost hear his teeth clenching. But Greg was the network’s golden-haired boy and he could do what he wanted without penalty.
‘Right, got it,’ she said.
Damn Greg. As much as she wanted to marry him, his selfish behaviour drove her crazy. She’d wasted an hour preparing her script for the weekend weather wrap-up and trimming them to exactly sixty seconds. The ratings and viewer feedback had proven that her personal touch and comments on the Channel 8 weather segment contributed to the consistently high ratings of the news, sport and weather hour. Not quite the poster celebrity that Greg was, but her segment was pulling good ratings too.
Greg had been flippant about her careful planning. ‘You worry too much, Cal. It’s the sport, they want,’ he’d said last night. ‘And your pretty face and boobs stop the viewers switching channels before the current affairs crew come on. They can look out the window and see the weather for themselves, so it doesn’t matter what you say.’
She knew what she should have said to him when he’d dropped his sexist pearl of wisdom, but they’d been in a bar celebrating the ratings improvement with the network guys and Greg had turned his attention away from her to Maxine, the makeup girl before Callie could protest.
Now thanks to Greg and his blatant disregard for the director, the last minute of the weather would have to be shelved. That was three times in the last month.
‘He’s a bloody cowboy.’ Rowan’s voice was short, and it was obvious that Greg was going to cop a serve from the director as soon as they were off air. No matter how many times he was told to wind it up, he’d flash that ten thousand dollar dental-work smile, and go over time.
That dental work meant even though he and Callie were engaged, it was “unofficial” until Greg could afford a ring.
‘Forty-five seconds, Calista.’
She took her position on her mark, and stared at the teleprompt where her script waited.
Callie frowned as she scanned quickly through the rainfall and temperature forecast for the greater Brisbane area, and the rest of the Sunshine State for th
