Committed to Natasha and her job, Roberta played the patience game, which was difficult when it wasn’t one of her virtues. Weekends were the busiest at Lake Barrine. With a nonstop flow of tourists to the teahouse, she ended most days more exhausted than expected. The teahouse closed on Tuesdays, and Officer Molloy had arranged a meeting with Bob that afternoon.
Nothing else consumed her as much as needing to find out more. Her nights were restless. Lack of proper sleep was showing up in all her actions and attitude, compounded by frustration. She couldn’t even hide her irritableness.
She twisted her sheets around her limbs and groaned into her pillow. She had an entire day to wait before Bob arrived at the lake.
The sudden knock on her bedroom door immediately caused her to tense. It could only be Nate, so why the uncertainty? They’d tiptoed around each other since Friday night. He’d barely been around in the afternoons after the teahouse closed, eating somewhere else for the past few nights. She’d shared a couple of dinners with Sally, making up for lost time.
“Yeah?”
“I have breakfast ready. Hurry up and get dressed. We’re going for a drive.”
“What if I don’t want to go?” Yep, that snarky reply summed her up perfectly right about now.
“You do. It’ll keep your mind off things.”
“Where have you been anyway?” she asked, continuing to talk through the closed door.
“With my grandfather. Now get cracking.”
Roberta grimaced but reluctantly shrugged the doona off and got up. With her first day off since starting a week ago, her initial instincts were not to get up at all. This certainly put a dent in her plans to sleep, read and do absolutely nothing until Bob showed up.
Showered and dressed, she opened the door to the divine smell of cooked bacon and eggs. There was even a hint of warm toast and coffee. If she wasn’t at odds with Nate, she’d give him a thank-you hug. But doing so would lead to other things, and she’d firmly pushed all that aside. They were such a bad fit, it was a joke.
“Here, sit.” Nate pulled out a dining chair and gestured for her to get comfy. “We need to leave soon to make sure we’re back in time.”
“Where are we going?”
“For a drive in a southerly direction.”
“Why?”
“Eat. Talk later.”
“What makes you think I want to be back in time for anything?”
Nate skewered her with his gaze, pinning her down. “What makes you think you haven’t been a frustrated, irritable and annoying mess for the past few days?”
Roberta spat out a gurgle of laughter as she sat. “Nice.” She gave him a stink eye. “I’ll have to remember that.”
“My pleasure,” Nate added with a cheery smile. “I knew you’d like that vivid description of your recent self.”
Roberta groaned, picked up her knife and fork and began hoeing into the freshly cooked breakfast. “By the way, thanks for this.”
Nate sat on the opposite side of the small table, his smile slipping for a moment as he contemplated her from his side. “No worries. Now relax and eat.”
The way he said it had her stuck—or frozen by his probing look. Dropping her face, she used a mouthful of food as an excuse to look away. Relax? Yeah, right. She could hardly breathe after that look. As for peacefully swallowing this food, yeah, well, that was another matter altogether. She tightened her grip on the cutlery, willing her racing pulse to calm down.
Yep, still sharing a cottage. Still not going to work.
* * *
“What will I need to bring?” Roberta asked, finishing her last mouthful and getting up.
“Hat and walking shoes. I’ve packed a snack and water to take with us.”
“Right.” She debated if she should clean up the breakfast plates first, but—
“Go. I’ll rinse the plates. We can wash them when we get back.”
Great, he reads minds too.
In her bedroom, flustered, she rotated on the spot trying to remember where her hat was. Dragging out her joggers from inside the built-in, she grabbed the first socks she spotted and pulled them on, followed by her joggers. Her hat eluded her.
“Roberta, hurry, please.”
“I can’t find my hat,” she admitted, rushing out of the bedroom. She halted. Nate was waiting at the front door; on his pointer finger dangled her navy hat. The one she’d picked up on the way past Townsville, with the word Sunshine written broadly across the front in bright yellow.
“What the?”
“Not my fault; it was lying untidily on the couch.” He cocked his face, beaming at her. “Hope I see a little bit of sunshine coming from you today.”
In one swift motion, she snatched it from him. “Could’ve told me,” she growled.
Nate chuckled as he held the door open for her to pass through first. “I may regret this by the end of the day.”
“I already am,” she threw back as she straightened her shoulders and made for the maintenance shed where Nate kept his utility.
Inside Nate’s utility, she slid a messy pile of CDs across the bench seat so she had space to sit. “Hmm … no playlist?”
“Not in this beast. She doesn’t have the technology.”
“You could use your phone?”
“Why would I do that and hurt this old lady’s feelings?” Nate tapped the dashboard affectionately.
While Nate reversed out and drove away from the lake, Roberta picked up the scattered CDs to see what was on offer. Nickelback, U2, Meatloaf and AC/DC were some of the artists she’d heard of. “Quite the collection. Never picked you listening to this type of music.”
“They’re my dad’s. We’ve had some great singalongs with this music over the years.”
Roberta pressed play to see what was already loaded. She upped the volume when Meatloaf’s ‘You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth’ blared back at them. Its sound echoed around the cab, making it impossible to talk. Which was a good thing. She wasn’t in the mood for chitchat.
This song was followed by ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’. She focused straight ahead at the rainforest whizzing by, but in her periphery, Nate’s knuckles showed up whiter than normal clutched at the top of the steering wheel. It was such a powerful song, one she knew well. Who didn’t? It was a classic that would never go away. Love was too powerful an emotion to ignore in this song.
It must’ve been the last song on the CD because when the song ended, an awkward silence filled the cab. Desperate to say something, she blurted, “Am I going to be safe where you’re taking me?”
Nate glanced at her, shaking his head in exasperation. “Yes, Roberta, you will be.”
“Are we protesting or something weird with your strange-ish friends?”
“They’re not strange, and no, we’re not. Not today anyway, so you’ll be safe from handcuffs.”
“Well, that’s something, unless you think handcuffs are sexy.”
She wasn’t sure what she said to set him off, but he chuckled. A deep, rumbly chuckle that made her heart skip a beat. Try as she might to keep a smile off her face, it didn’t work. There was something about being with Nate she didn’t understand. They got under each other’s skin so easily, tempers flaring and all that, but when the timing was right, it felt like they’d been together for a lifetime, with an eagerness to spend another lifetime together.
Which was weird. Time to stop those thoughts.
After nearly forty minutes of peaceful driving, in which Roberta restrained herself and chose not to vocalise anything, Nate indicated and pulled to a stop on the side of the road.
“What’s here?” she asked, getting out once Nate had.
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Hmm … interesting.”
Nate took a worn rug from out of a toolbox on the back tray, spreading it out on the small patch of cleared ground. “Except for what nature intended there to be. For a city slicker, I get you don’t often get the chance to be somewhere where man hasn’t destroyed yet.”
“Oh, more of that.” Sarcasm laced her voice. Was she in for another lecture?
“Why don’t you close that pretty mouth of yours and take a moment to look and absorb? Here, I’ll try not to annoy you, but sit beside me and look out at the amazing vista.”
A hint of annoyance attacked her. She was a city slicker, so she shut her mouth just this once. She hadn’t properly looked at where they’d stopped, but when she did, she devoured the natural beauty before her.
“There are many more places more spectacular than this spot, but look at how perfect the mountain range looks. Take note of its greenness, its symmetry and its perfection with the blue sky behind it. This is what nature intended. Not for us to desecrate it for something that hasn’t been fully researched and tested.”
“Are we back on the wind farms again?”
He ignored her jibe. “Follow the top of the mountain range. See where it takes you.”
She did, and at the same time, his shoulder touched hers, sending a shiver along her neck. The mountain ridge went on to infinity, a never-ending undulating wave of mountainous rock covered in forest.
Something tumbled inside her chest. Against such grandeur, she felt so small and insignificant. The magic of the mountain worked on her, slowly making her see so much more, including the passion of the man sitting beside her. There were so many layers to him that peeling them back could take a lifetime. Pity she wasn’t hanging around that long.
Nate pointed to a lone bird flying overhead. “Look, an eagle. So damn amazing.”
It was. Spectacular, in fact, its wingspan an incredible length as it glided within arm’s reach, or so it felt. She raised her arm as though to pat it and then laughed out into the void because that was ridiculous.
“Come.” Nate stood and offered his hand to help her up.
“But where? I was beginning to relax, as you told me to do this morning.”
“I must’ve misled you. There’s another place I want you to see.”
“You do?”
“I do.” He tugged her to her feet before placing a warm kiss on her cheek, heating the spot, making her doubt all her good intentions about them not being the best fit.
Nate gathered up the old rug and returned it to the toolbox, and they were driving off in less than a minute.
“How far this time?” Roberta asked.
“Not far. Just a few minutes.”
They drove through denser rainforest, where dappled sunlight filtered onto the road and danced along her arm closest to the window. It was a mirage of greens and browns. When they emerged from the tunnel of trees, Nate pressed on the brakes suddenly. Forcing Roberta to lurch forward in her seat.
“Look!” Nate said. “A tree kangaroo!”
The knee-high marsupial trembled, perched frozen on the side of the road, giving Roberta the chance to get a good look. It took flight and hopped to the other side of the road, getting lost in the forest. Nate released his hold on the brakes and continued driving. The entire episode took about fifteen seconds, but it was long enough to create another memory to store away. She’d heard of the unique animal from Sally and Liz, but that was all.
“Is this your first tree kangaroo sighting?” Nate’s eyes were darting across the road in case there was more to spot.
“Sure is.”
“Then you’re having a great day, I’d say. They’re elusive as all heck.”
She was feeling lucky. Spotting a tree kangaroo added another element to the day which she hoped would end on a high after she met with Bob.
When Nate parked alongside the road barely a minute later, Roberta got out of the vehicle, making sure to take a proper look at the landscape without being prompted. There would be a reason Nate stopped at this place. She glanced into the distance. The same mountainous range dominated the view, but now it was from a different angle.
Her mouth opened on a silent gasp.
All the pennies dropped.
Now she understood what Nate was trying to show her.