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‘They’re venomous,’ her son continued, and Annabelle gave him a look to shut him up.
‘That’s only in Australia,’ she said. It wasn’t strictly true, but Sam hadn’t actually been stung, so it was a moot point, and she didn’t want him to be scared of the sea.
‘Listen to your Aunty Annabelle,’ Ron advised. ‘She knows what she’s talking about.’
Sam stood up, holding his leg out to the side, his nose wrinkling in disgust. ‘Are you sure?’ he asked her.
She said, ‘Totally sure.’
‘But Jake peed on me, and so did Pepe,’ he wailed.
‘They were only trying to help,’ Annabelle said. ‘There’s an old wives’ tale that if you urinate on a jellyfish sting it can stop it from hurting as much. They can be excruciatingly painful.’
Pepe, having played his part, scratched at the sand with his hind paws, kicking up a spray of wet granules, then trotted off up the beach in the direction of his mistress, who was calling frantically for him.
‘There’s a standpipe on the causeway,’ Ron said. ‘You can wash your leg there, and there’s a change of clothes in one of the rucksacks. OK?’
Sam nodded. ‘Aunty Annabelle, I’ve got a starfish and a crab in my bucket,’ he told her, and she was pleased to see that the incident didn’t seem to have had a lasting effect.
‘Let’s get you cleaned up, then you can show me,’ she said. ‘Are you hungry? Aunt Beverley has made us a lovely picnic.’
The children raced off to collect their buckets and nets, leaving Annabelle with Ron.
She glanced at him and noticed his lips twitching, and when he turned away she realised that he wanted to laugh but daren’t – not when Sam was still in earshot.
‘I can’t believe how calm you were,’ she said. ‘I was freaking out.’
‘You’re probably still in Australia mode. From what I can gather, nearly everything out there wants to kill you.’
‘Not everything,’ she argued.
‘Duck-billed platypus,’ he stated flatly. ‘A mammal with enough venom to incapacitate a grown man for weeks. I rest my case.’
‘Fair point,’ she conceded. ‘Although, I don’t think they can kill you.’
‘I wouldn’t want to find out, would you?’
Annabelle giggled, feeling quite giddy now the fear had gone. ‘Definitely not!’
‘Now that’s settled, shall we sort the kids out, then grab a bite to eat? All this excitement has given me an appetite.’
Annabelle fell into step alongside him, but it wasn’t food on her mind; it was the way he’d dealt with the children, Sam especially. He’d been calm and level-headed, and once again she had the feeling that he was trustworthy and dependable. The contrast between him and Troy was glaring.
And there was something else: when he’d said, “shall we sort the kids out”, she’d had a fleeting image of what it might be like if he was her children’s father. Quickly followed by what it might be like to have him in her bed.
Because no matter how much she tried to deny it, or how much she didn’t need or want a man in her life, Ron Masters was starting to bore his way into her heart.
