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“I have a business plan,” I said. “I can run additional astronomy tours. You can charge more. I can take them up to the ridge, or even just here. You can’t tell me people wouldn’t like that.”
He opened his mouth, then he made a thoughtful face. “Um, maybe...? I’d need to think on it. We’d need to run numbers and submit a changed business plan with the permit, and...” He shrugged and his eyes cut to mine. “It could work.”
I grinned and settled back in the seat, gazing out across the wetlands as the sun rose. “If I get to do this during the day,” I gestured out before us. “And you get to do me all night, then we will make this happen.”
He chuckled, then sighed. “You’re serious, yeah? You want this life? It’s remote. It’s new people every few days. It’s tiring, it’s subject to weather, and I’ve had some clients that are, how do I say it?”
“A pain in the arse.”
“To put it mildly.”
“I’m serious. I told you before, Paul. Whatever it takes. My place is here with you. Last night cemented that for me. I can’t go back. My life in Darwin without you was killing me. I feel alive here.”
“You said you’d thought about living in Jabiru?”
I nodded. Jabiru was a small town in Kakadu. There were houses, a fuel station, a fast-food place, and not much more. “I thought it could work, and if they knock back my application to work here with you, then I will look at Jabiru. Seeing you on weekends would be better than not at all.”
Paul’s eyes met mine, warm and filled with understanding. He got it now, just how serious I was.
“My place is with you,” I said quietly. “When you strip away all the bullshit, it’s really kinda simple. Whatever it takes.”
He nodded. “We’ll make it work.”
“Yes, we will.”
Norah’s door opened and Paul stood up as she walked over. “Well, this looks nice,” she said.
“Take a seat,” Paul said. “I’ll make a start on breakfast. Want a coffee?”
Then Marit and Kari joined us, and after breakfast, we loaded up the Cruiser and headed out. The last day was the biggest—a lot of hiking, a lot of driving—but it was by far the best day of the tour.
We were going to the Jim Jim Falls and finishing the tour with a sunset cruise on the Yellow River.
Getting to the waterfalls was an effort. A fair drive along the highway but then a very slow and bumpy drive along a dirt and sand road that ended at a carpark. From there we crossed a river on a punt, then hiked into the falls.
World famous, amazing, ancient, and breathtaking. They were worth the effort.
From the base of the falls, we hiked for a good ninety minutes through the gorge to the private billabongs, which were like plunge pools carved from ancient stone.
It wasn’t an easy hike, and I could see Paul kept his eye on Norah, but she was an absolute trooper. She was sweating and red-faced and puffing and panting. But she never once complained. She was first to her feet when we paused for a drink, and she loved every step.
She swam in the water, she mothered Marit and Kari, and me a little, if I was being honest. At first it was a bit weird, but over the last few days she’d really grown on me.
I offered her my hand when she had to jump down a long step on the way back to the Cruiser. Which I also offered to Kari and Marit as well, and then as a joke, I offered my hand to Paul. Marit and Kari giggled, and from the way they looked between me and Paul, I was sure they knew something was going on between us.
It did make me wonder what we’d do, down the track, if my business proposal became a reality and we ran these tours as a couple.
Would we keep sharing his cabin?
Would we even be acouplewhen we had clients?
I couldn’t take a tent for myself, because then we’d be cutting into how many clients we could manage. But maybe some clients wouldn’t want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a gay couple.
“What are you quiet for?” Marit asked in the Cruiser on the way to the Yellow River cruise. It was now late afternoon, it’d been a long day already, and those hours of missed sleep were now catching up with me. Plus, my mind was running through a hundred scenarios. “You look worried.”
I didn’t miss the flash of Paul’s eyes in the rear-view mirror. “I’m not worried,” I said, offering a smile I didn’t quite rightly feel.
“You don’t want to leave tomorrow,” she said. “We don’t want to leave either. But we fly from Darwin tomorrow night.”
