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CHAPTER 14
“Why is my phone not picking up range?” Felicity frowned at her screen. She’d been trying to send her bouncing kangaroo video to Evie and Felix with no luck.
“Range will be pretty patchy until Adelaide,” Oliver said.
“How will I bore everyone with my holiday shots then?”
“You’ll just have to wait until we reach a town.”
“And… when will that be?” They’d travelled for hours now with no sight of civilisation.
The dry paddocks had finally given way to a national park. Majestic trees and plants with spiky leaves lined the highway. Add to that a cloudless blue sky and the haze of heat on an almost empty road and Felicity gave up on her phone, sat back and luxuriated in this strange new landscape.
And maybe dozed a little as Van Morrison floated through the van.
She woke with a jolt when Oliver touched her arm gently and said, “We’re here.”
Looking out the window, her jaw dropped. They’d arrived at a camp site with a few trailers dotted around, facing the most beautiful bay of crystal-clear turquoise water she had ever seen in her life—except maybe in the photoshopped posters in the travel agencies back home. The kind she gazed at with her scarf over her face on bitter February days, willing herself to be magically transported there. And now she had been. And it was all worth yesterday’s debacle to be rewarded with this.
Except had it really gone so badly? Or had the kangaroo incident brought about a new level of ease between them that may not have happened if things hadn’t mucked up? Sharing laughter and pot noodles and wine and a bed…
As Oliver put up his tent Felicity busied herself locating her bathers in her bag. She took a breath before putting them on. It was always a challenge the first day of summer holidays when she stripped off on the beach.
And yet… and yet with Oliver it somehow felt okay. In fact, she was remarkably comfortable with him seeing her scar. This morning she’d not worried at all about showing off Scarlet in her tiny towel. And okay, there had been a slick of heat in her belly when his eyes had slid not to her leg, but to her breasts. Her boobswerebeautifully buoyant. They made up for that other glaring imperfection, and she would be forever grateful to them for that.
They’d razzle dazzled a few guys in their time.
And yep, she was pretty sure they’d razzle dazzled Oliver for a moment. And as for the sight of him doing a caterpillar jump into the bathroom, every time she thought about it, she wanted to giggle.
Tent now up, Oliver came over and grabbed his bag out of the van.
“Getting your swimming trunks?” she asked innocently. Not that she wanted to ogle him in them.Much.
His lips quirked sideways. “We call them bathers. Or sluggos. Or even budgie smugglers.”
“Run that last one by me again?”
“Budgie smugglers.”
“I don’t need to know how they got that name,” she smirked, tightening the sarong around her waist. “Though, come to think of it, there are probably worse jokes about hamsters and cling film back home, but maybe I won’t elucidate.”
“Please don’t. I’m going to get changed.” He ducked into the tent and came out soon after wearing a pair of boardies. And oh golly gosh, was he the bees knees. He had a defined six pack, and the v of muscles that angled either side of his waist accentuated the line of dark hair that ran from his belly button, down, down…Oh!He really had a magnificent physique; it made her realise why he was quite the media darling.
Her eyes scanned down to the bulge in his boardies, definitely more than a budgie, and that of course brought back the feel of his body against hers on the road last night.
Stop! Just stop!
It seemed the only option to cool her raging hormones was to go do a drowning squirrel impersonation in some cold, salty water.
Squinting over the top of her sunglasses, her heart dropped. So much sand. She wished she could say she’d race him to the water, but the truth was, walking in soft sand was beastly for her leg. There was so much of it, piled up in dunes, the water a sparkling blue ribbon in the distance. She’d have to take it real slow.
She said briskly, “You go ahead. I’ll join you.”
He looked at her, perplexed.
“Sand,” she explained, making a face. “I find it really hard to walk on.”
He halted, and his lips formed the kindest smile, so kind she didn’t dare look in his eyes, in case they were even gentler.
