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Oh wow.
Tully must have seen the look on my face when I connected the dots.
“They run this place,” he said again. “Together. They’re a couple. Is that a problem?”
I felt my cheeks redden. “No, not at all. Goodness, no. I don’t mind. It’s great.”
Shut up.
For the love of god, shut up.
“Good,” he said cheerfully, his smile back in place. “So this is the communal kitchen. We’ll probably cook up a BBQ for dinner, I’d reckon. Paul’s a pretty good cook.”
“But not for a few hours,” I mumbled, checking my watch. It was already four o’clock.
Tully laughed, almost louder than the rain on the tin roof.
“But when we’re out on our own, we won’t have a setup this nice.”
I could see now that the camping site was more like a luxury eco-lodge of private tents. The fancy kind with the small wooden decks out front, no doubt nicer than my apartment back in Melbourne.
I hadn’t been expecting that.
And when the rain eased up a little, I could see the view.
The rain was moving north, rolling right over us and heading towards the coast, revealing an entire wetland below us. It was a patchwork carpet of green grasses and forest, stitched together with silvery blue rivers.
“Oh wow.”
“Glad you like it,” Tully said. Then he pointed his chin to the horizon, where the clouds were now dark, where the storms were rumbling. “Because that’s where we’re going.”
Sheets of lightning lit up the clouds, negative charges seeking positive, sheet lightning with crawlers, and cloud-to-ground lightning—an impressive display of nature and destruction.
It made my pulse quicken.
My eyes met Tully’s, and I smiled.
CHAPTER THREE
TULLY
Dinner was a quiet affair,just the four of us sitting around the communal kitchen. Jeremiah gravitated toward Derek. Once Derek mentioned his telescopes and astronomy, Jeremiah was intrigued.
“Science-minded,” Paul said, with an admiring nod toward them both. The sky was dark, the storm long passed, so Derek had his telescope near the edge of the campground, overlooking the wetlands, and he and Jeremiah had been in their own little world for about an hour.
“Does Derek have a limit to the number of questions he allows?” I asked. “Because I think Doctor Jeremiah has far exceeded it.”
Paul laughed. “If it’s questions about stars and planets, there’s never a limit.”
I sipped my water and watched them for a while.
“Are you really taking him for a full week?” Paul asked. “That’s a long time out there.”
I sighed. “Well, I said I normally go for a fortnight, and he asked if he could tag along. How long he lasts is the real question.”
Paul smirked. “Should we take a bet?”
I chuckled. “Probably not.”
