AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, usually I’m smoother,” he said, but he was still grinning. Also, she was right there, still petting Bacon, with all that toasted-marshmallow skin beaded with water. He could swear she smelled like caramel and salt, like the best treat there was. Wet or not, cold or not, he wasn’t getting out of here before she did.
“Help me with these, then?” she said. “I believe I may have annoyed my date.”
Beckett turned. Yes, there was the bloke up at the parking lot, watching them. His expression didn’t say, “I enjoy watching you in your swim costume,” which Beckett was pretty surehisexpression was saying. It said, “My ego is badly bruised.”
Wanker.
“Here,” Beckett said, and lifted the first board out of the water with the hand that wasn’t holding Bacon. By the time he did it, Quinn already had the second board, along with her paddle. They marched up the sand to the parking lot like that, tethered by Quinn’s leash, and still, the bloke was silent.
Beckett crouched down, set Bacon beside him, and released the valves to deflate the board. Quinn, who was unfastening the leash, glanced at him, then moved to the other board and copied the motions. The bloke decided to speak, then, saying, “They’re my boards. I’ll do it.”
“No dramas,” Beckett said, and stood up to let him.
Quinn, of course, didn’t back off. She stayed where she was and said, “I’ll get you a towel in a second, uh … Ryan. You look cold.”
The bloke—Ryan—said, “I’m fine.” Stiffly.Good, Beckett thought. Escape with your dignity, mate.Just as he was thinking it, Ryan lost the battle and added, “Martin said you were an original. An original what, is the question. And excuse me,” he said to Beckett in an overpolite tone, “but as I mentioned, I don’t need your help.”
Did Beckett head back over to the playground to check on his kids? For some reason, he did not. He said, “I’ll take that towel, Quinn. I wasn’t planning to get in the water tonight. Underprepared, you could say, and you’d be right.”
She said, “It’s just that I was raised by outdoorspeople,” and set the leash on top of the second paddleboard with a glance at Ryan.
“Raised by wolves,” Ryan muttered under his breath.
Quinn’s mouth twitched. All she said, though, was, “You’ll have to do better than that. My skin’s so thick by now, it can’t even feel that one.” Absolutely cheerfully, which is also how she went on. “Sorry the date didn’t work out, because I’m assuming dinner’s off.”
“I just don’t appreciate you pretending not to know how to paddleboard, that’s all,” Ryan said, attaching his pump to the first paddleboard and starting to work to get the air out. Trying to backpedal, Beckett thought, to rewrite the script. “What was the point of setting me up for that? And then laughing at me?”
“I didn’t,” Quinn said. “Well, I did laugh. Sorry. But—honestly. You didn’t look me up at all? I lookedyouup. I did a background check, in fact. You didn’t even do a Google search?”
Ryan stopped pumping. “A background check?”
“Well, yes. Perfectly legal to check the public record. And I’m a woman.” She was crouched down by the second paddleboard again, pressing out the air, as if she’d never see a task needing doing and not do it. Ryan wanted to say something about that, Beckett could tell, but he couldn’t decide if it would be strong or weak to protest. She went on, “Obviously, you’re fine, or I wouldn’t have gone out with you.”
Ryan said, “Of course I’m fine. I’m an orthodontist.”
She laughed and Ryan didn’t, so she said, “You could be surprised at people’s nasty secrets. If you’d looked me up, you’d have seen that I’m a judge, of course, but I was also a swimmer.”
“Well, clearly,” Ryan said. “I saw you swimming.”
“Yes, but aswimmer,”she said. “Two Olympics. Five medals. Only two gold, but still, they’re medals. That’s probably still at the top of the search results.”
“Five?” Beckett asked. “As a lawyer?”
“Before I started being a lawyer,” she said. “I was sixteen the first time. So I’m sorry, but, yes, I can balance on an almost-three-foot-wide platform. I can also paddle it. Look at me. I’d think it was pretty obvious.” She started folding up her paddleboard, copying Ryan’s movements. Beckett was pretty sure Ryan still didn’t appreciate it, and, yes, the fitness was obvious. Arm muscles. Shoulder muscles.Backmuscles.
And, of course, that arse, since she was on her hands and knees. He was still trying not to look, but it wasn’t easy.
“Martin said you were fit and into the outdoors,” Ryan said. “That usually means she hikes a little and does yoga. He didn’t say you were built like a linebacker.”
“Just my shoulders,” she said, fitting the folded board into its bag. “Can’t do much about that. I’ve been working them for nearly forty years. I swam butterfly,” she told Beckett. “And I should’ve known you were Australian when I met you. How many Australians have I swum against?”
“Enough, I reckon,” he said, “with two Olympics and five medals.”
“Australians are the best swimmers in the world,” Quinn told Ryan. “Why is that?” she asked Beckett. “Other than all the beaches?”
“We have to swim fast to outrun the sharks, maybe,” he said, and she laughed. “Nah. It’s Aussie grit, that’s all, and maybe a passion for sport. All of which you’ve got as well. Haven’t complained yet about being cold, for one thing.”
“I forgot,” she said. “Towels.” She ran across to her ute, which was a midsized pickup with an open bed and enough scratches to say that she hauled equipment in it—a mountain bike, he’d have bet money, and who knew what else—and returned with two quick-drying towels. She tossed one each to Ryan and Beckett.
