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Hailey watched as his little chin jutted out determinedly, so like his father, and he squinted at the target. He swung back and threw the ball hard, hitting the mark dead on.
The crowd went wild as the seat gave way and plunged the Brisbane General medical director straight into the water. Callum jumped up and down with Tom as Hailey clapped wildly. She hugged Tom and joined them in their father-son jumping.
‘You did it, Tom. You did it.’ She laughed.
Callum was aware of every movement of Hailey’s body against his. The slide of her breasts against his chest. The bounce of her hair around her shoulders, a stray tendril gliding against the skin of his arm. The feel of her hand in the middle of his back strangely intimate.
He stopped jumping, looking down into her painted face, her freckles obliterated by brown and ginger stripes. She smiled up at him, her soft eyes suiting the elaborate feline mask. Her mouth was painted black too and he couldn’t believe that something such a ghastly colour looked so tempting.
They hadn’t been this close since that night. The night they’d almost made love on the lounge. He’d made a real effort to keep his distance this last two months. To treat her with the utmost of professional courtesy and respect. And nothing else.
It had been hard. Treating her as one of the team at work wasn’t easy when she all too readily invaded his dreams at night. And there was nothing collegial about them. Going to work each day and having to edit his thoughts and actions all the time was a strain when in his dreams he was much more daring, took much greater liberties. And, worse, she welcomed them.
Hailey saw the heat warm his grey gaze and pulled away. She faltered slightly before getting her brain back on track. ‘Well done, Tom,’ she said, ruffling his hair one more time.
They stayed and watched as John got dunked several more times, followed by Gabe, who got away relatively unscathed, and then Luca, who seemed to spend more time in the water than out. She was conscious of Callum’s gaze the entire time.
‘Oh, no, poor Luca,’ Hailey teased as she handed her brother-in-law a towel. ‘What a pity Rilla had to work. She would have loved to have seen this.’
‘I’m heading back to the General now.’ He grinned. ‘I suspect she’ll get the idea.’
‘I think Mum videoed it anyway.’
Luca turned and waved at Penny Winters, who was looking through the viewfinder of her handy cam. He groaned and muttered, ‘Dio.’
Tom tugged on Hailey’s hand and she looked down at him.
‘Can you come on the Fewwis wheel with me and my dad?’
Hailey smiled, charmed by his mispronunciation. Just about everything to do with Tom charmed her. And, yes, agreeing to join them was hardly keeping a distance from Callum, but it had been two months, and apart from the erotic dreams and the exchange of one very steamy look earlier, they had been very good. Surely they could ease up a little and share one ride on a big wheel?
‘I love the Ferris wheel.’ She grinned.
They stopped on the way and bought Tom some blue fairy floss. ‘He’s tried all the other colours.’ Callum grimaced.
Hailey cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘That’s a lot of sugar.’
‘I wouldn’t ordinarily but he does love it and, well…it’s a picnic.’ He shrugged sheepishly.
Hailey rolled her eyes at him. ‘Soft touch,’ she teased quietly.
Thankfully there wasn’t a queue and they were ushered straight into one of the open gondolas. Tom sat next to Hailey on one side and Callum took the seat opposite, his legs stretched out in front of him, perilously close to hers. She’d been nervous about what they were going to say to each other but she needn’t have been. Tom took centre stage and she was happy to let him chat away, too conscious of Callum in her peripheral vision.
Tom shared his fairy floss with her and chatted about the picnic and what his favourite parts of the day had been. Food seemed to feature a lot.
‘Three snow cones?’ She looked at Callum.
‘There were a couple of years when he rarely ate enough to keep a sparrow alive. It’s good to see his appetite back. I don’t mind indulging him on special days.’
Hailey nodded slowly. Fair enough. She hadn’t thought about it from that perspective before. She knew anorexia was a major problem with chronically ill children and caused a great deal of stress and anxiety for their parents. She guessed that in situations like that you didn’t care what your child ate as long as they ate something.
The Ferris wheel went round at a lazy pace, giving its riders many more revolutions than they would have had at a normal carnival. The breeze ruffled her hair, lifting it off the back of her neck, and she helped it further by piling it up on top of her head and holding it there, allowing the breeze to cool her neck.
