Page 40 of The Wedding Forecast

And then I hear the backdoor flyscreen slam.

‘Mac? You still out here, man?’ Luke calls.

We freeze.

‘I’m still out here,’ Mac calls back, after a second.

‘Is Anna with you?’

A pause.

‘No,’ he calls.

I give him a little shove that sets the hammock swinging.

‘Why did you say no?’ I hiss.

‘I don’t know,’ he replies.

‘Now I’ll have to sneak back in.’

Now if Luke sees me out here, it will be a whole thing, because why would Mac lie about me being here if it wasn’t something suspicious.

‘I’ll distract them,’ Mac says.

‘Fine. You go in now. I’ll go in through the side laundry door in five minutes.’

Mac slips his hands off my waist and gets out of the hammock. He starts to go but turns back, leans down and places a quick, soft kiss on my lips, and then walks back to the house.

I wait a few minutes and then I walk towards the house and crouch behind a bush, where I can hear Luke and Mac talking, the two of them just outside the back door. Their conversation is going on and on, and I’m getting cold, and the intense sexiness of the hammock moment is definitely getting ruined. My knee is resting on something sharp and I am scared to move around and get comfortable in case they hear me. This is ridiculous.

‘Let’s go in,’ I hear Mac say, louder than is reasonable.

More talking, then the flyscreen door slams again. I stand up, stretch my legs, then hunch over again and hurry around the side of the house. I can hear them laughing in the lounge room. There’s a bunch of big windows in a row, blinds still open, and I have to pass them to get to the side door. I crouch down and crawl under the windowsill.

‘What are you doing?’

I look up and see Joel looking down at me. He is leaning out of the window.

‘What are you doing?’ I reply.

‘Looking at the moon,’ he says.

This is new. He never cared about the moon when we were together.

‘I was looking at the moon too,’ I say.

‘Why are you crawling?’

Mac’s face appears beside Joel’s out the window.

‘What are you doing in the garden?’ he says, sounding innocently confused, but his eyes are shining with amusement.

‘I’m going to my room,’ I say.

‘Why are you crawling though?’ Joel says. He’s very stuck on this detail.

‘I didn’t want you guys to see me.’