“So, how do you know my surname?” Nate meant to ask when they were swimming back to the shore, but Roberta’s glare after his mischievous stunt had him zipping his mouth shut. It was bad enough he’d capitulated and kissed her.
“You, Nate Surrey, have a reputation, apparently.”
“A what?” Now he wished he’d asked when she’d prepared dinner. There was plenty of time as she’d begun from raw ingredients and made the most delicious pasta he’d eaten in a long while. Nothing out of a bottle for Roberta.
“My friend Sally shared some gossip about you.”
“Is this the same Sally who rescued you from the police station? I don’t think I recognise her.”
“Yep.”
“What’s her surname?”
“Sally to you, for now.”
Nate growled in the torch-lit dark path as their shoulders touched, igniting a new energy throughout his body. One he hadn’t experienced for a while. He was secretly excited to learn what Roberta’s mum had buried all those years ago. Smart enough, though, to take great care around the old, colossal beauties. “Sally it is then, I guess.”
Roberta chuckled beside him, her torch light wobbling along the path. “Sally says you disappeared for a while. Where did you go?”
His second groan in less than a minute reverberated around the forest. None of her business, he wanted to point out. Reminded again of how Crystal used him for her own agenda had his muscles tensing. He’d been young, naïve, madly in love—and duped. “I guess without Sally’s surname, I can’t tell you.”
“Lame,” was Roberta’s immediate response.
They arrived at the viewing platform surrounding the two trees. Nate turned towards Roberta, working hard to keep a smile off his face. He liked her no-nonsense attitude and her lack of filters whenever she opened her mouth. It smacked of honesty, no bullshit, and was a refreshing change from the usual crowd he hung around. It was a whole universe away from the carefully articulated life he’d lived with Crystal.
The lack of light made it difficult to read Roberta’s expression, but he was prepared to give as good as she gave. “I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s none of your business.”
She snorted. “Fair.”
He raised his torch from the path to about waist height. Roberta looked at him with a smirk. The urge to cup her cheek in his hand had him curling his fingers into a fist. As relaxed as they were together, he wasn’t so sure he could trust her yet. There were too many unknowns, starting with what they were about to discover.
“Um … is it time to start digging?”
Trust Roberta to jolt him out of his trance. That damn kiss on the lake started something. Nate mumbled inane words under his breath. In her crazy way, she excited him, but it was better not to go there. After Crystal screwed him over, he lacked the confidence to try again. He shrugged in the near darkness, not prepared to let it bother him. For the time being, he was at peace with his life and too busy trying to save the world.
He carried a small shovel and crowbar in one hand which he put down before shrugging off the small backpack he carried. Crouching on one knee, he unzipped it, taking out a couple of headlamps. Offering one to Roberta, he swapped it with her torch, putting it away in the backpack. “It’ll leave our hands free to dig.”
He adjusted his headlamp strap around his head and secured it in place. Rising, he switched it on.
“Can you give me a hand? My strap is twisted.”
“Sure.” Stepping closer, Nate took back her headlamp. He received a tingle in response when their hands touched, but he ground his jaw, hoping to stem it. The Velcro strap was well and truly twisted. Probably left this way by one of the team on their last forage into the forest. As he untangled it, a potent scent assailed his senses. It was of lake water still strong from their swim, mixed with the intoxicating rainforest scent deeply ingrained in his DNA.
As it gently eddied around his nose, he detected a smidgen of something else. Whatever fragrance Roberta used reminded him of fields of wildflowers. The same scent he experienced on his travels throughout the deserts of Northern America. He’d detected it on Roberta before and was certain it was the day they were handcuffed together.
A chuckle almost broke free, but he reined it in, hoping the slight cough that escaped sounded normal. Roberta remained close but was facing the trees. His rambling thoughts only served to remind him of how they’d met. This was enough to push his crazy thoughts away and concentrate on the job.
“Here, I think I have it all sorted.”
For once, Roberta was quiet when she turned back, and it unnerved him. He wasn’t game enough to look directly at her but felt her gaze. Heat rushed up the back of his neck. He was glad it was too dark for Roberta to detect anything.
Tucking her long, dark curls behind her ears, he carefully strapped the headlamp in place before switching it on. He chanced a glance and regretted it the instant he did. Her large, luminous eyes looked at him, her mouth partly open and inviting as all hell.
“Oh, fuck,” he muttered, his hands finding their way to her shoulders as he pulled her in closer and found her mouth. Light from their lamps blazed behind his closed eyelids as Roberta’s warmth touched him in all the right places, weakening his resolve to stay the hell away from any entanglement.
The occasional click of their lamps touching wasn’t enough to break the spell that had him wrapped up in this woman. When her tongue darted into his warmth, he groaned but willed the kiss to go on. She didn’t seem to mind either and confirmed this by tightening her hold around his waist.
Only when common sense pervaded his senses did he step back, almost stumbling over the shovel and crowbar. His hands shook as he picked them up. “Sorry, okay?”
“Don’t be sorry, Nate. You’re really nice.”
“Nice!” It suddenly reminded him of how he’d been just like that for Crystal. He swung the shovel in one hand as he walked to the edge of the platform. “Is that all I get? A nice?” He was tired of being the nice guy and vowed never to be that man again.
Roberta burst into laughter, disarming him completely. He stepped off the platform but sat back on it, laughing with her.
“To improve on nice, you’ll have to repeat that all over again.”
This was enough to sober him up, and Nate stopped laughing. “But this is all wrong. Remember how we met? I hated you on sight.”
“Same here,” Roberta replied, giggling. “Oh well, nice it will always remain.”
This was ridiculous. Here they were, laughing, smiling and pretending nothing momentous had just happened. “Where are we digging?” He stood, needing to distance himself from this enigmatic woman. His lips still tingled, and he enjoyed it way more than he should have.
Roberta stepped off the platform, pointing to the left tree. “Behind that one, left-hand side of the largest protruding root.”
“You’re joking, right?” No Mr Nice Guy here.
“Nope.”
“Remind me again, how many years ago was this?”
“Twenty-eight, actually.”
“And you are how old?”
“I’ll be twenty-eight in about nine months.”
“Right.” Nate dragged the word out. “So, your mother was pregnant when she buried it?”
A vulnerable look came over Roberta’s face. “I guess you could say I’ve been here before.”
Nate’s heart plummeted, getting a gist of her take on the situation. Reminded of what finding this box meant to Roberta, he left the shovel and crowbar leaning against the platform and held his arms out. “Need a hug?”
“You suck; how do you know?” she argued half-heartedly, accepting his invitation.
Nate tightened his arms around her, pressing her against his chest. He dropped his face into her thick, lustrous hair and, despite her headlamp digging into his skin, caught a whiff of those wildflowers again. He filled his core with its scent. “If the box is there, we’ll find it. Then you might get the answers you’re searching for.”
Roberta stepped back. He continued to hold her arms, his thumbs gently kneading her skin.
“Thanks, Nate. You really are a Mr Nice Guy.”
“No, Roberta, I really am not.”
When she finally dropped her gaze, she took another step away, breaking the connection tethering him to her.
“Ready to dig?” she asked.
Nate picked up his tools and walked to the base of the left tree. “We better.” For more reasons than he could count. Once she had what she was after, Nate didn’t doubt Roberta would leave. It would annoy the heck out of Tash, but she’d recover and find someone new. Roberta came to Lake Barrine for one purpose, and he got that. He was about to help her achieve it.
She was better gone, anyway. You’d think he’d learnt his lesson already. Some women were trouble, and Roberta was a red flag from the instant they met. But why was there a small ache in his chest, one he wanted to investigate further?
Leave it be, idiot. Easier said than done. His heart and head were two different identities, and at that moment, they weren’t talking to each other.