I roll my eyes. “Yes, Dad.”
“What food have you got?”
“I was going to wander over to the fish and chip place if I get peckish.”
“I s’pose that’s okay.”
“Oh,yousuppose it is?”
“I don’t want you gettin’ into trouble, is all.”
“If you’re that worried, why don’t you join me?”
Sawyer’s neck swivels. Both of his eyebrows are up, questioning me as if I’ve lost my mind. My invitation isn’t that shocking, is it?
I rush to add, “We can hang out.” Unless, of course, he doesn’t enjoy spending time with me. Maybe I scared him off after choosing that awful CD for the drive to Launceston. “Or…not…”
“I’ll see where I’m at.” His fingers tap impatiently on the steering wheel. “Maybe I’ll stop in early when I pick you up.”
“I can walk back.”
His lips press into a stern line.
“It’s notthatfar,” I protest.
“Fifteen minutes in the truck is at least two hours on foot. I’ll be pickin’ you up. What time?”
I shrug. “After lunch? Later? Honestly, I can spend all day at the beach, and I don’t get to the dunes that often.”
“You’ve been before?”
“Once.”
“Who took you that time?”
“No one. I walked.” I stopped at two cafes on the way home and regretted wearing my flip-flops, but it was a magical day.
“Elsie Hoskins,” he growls.
“You’re such a big old grizzly bear sometimes, you know that?”
He doesn’t deny it, and that disapproving line is back between his brows. “You’re goin’ to wait for me to pick you up, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Mr. McLeod.”
“Good.”
Sawyer’s frown reappears when he turns off the main road and onto a gravel track that winds the rest of the way to the dunes. The truck rattles over the uneven surface, and the thick canopy of trees thins. I wriggle excitedly in my seat. Almost there!
Sawyer’s positively scowling by the time he parks and watches me slap on my hat and sling my bag over my shoulder.
“Look.” I gesture at the one caravan that’s also parked there. “There’s basically no one here. I will claim the whole of Peron Dunes for myself. I’m going to be fine. Okay?”
He grumbles something under his breath, but he really doesn’t need to worry.
Iwillbe fine.
After Sawyer’s truck disappears, I walk the short distance from the gravel road to the towering hills of white sand and shield my eyes to scan the beach stretched out below.
