Laura explained the situation to her boss and pretty much moved in with Phil.
Another employer might have made trouble about fraternisation between staff and guests, but Agatha wasn’t your typical boss. She and her husband, Doug, ran Topaz Island as a family affair, even if it was an award winning eco-resort. They had bought the island decades ago when Doug was a newly returned Vietnam veteran, one having trouble adjusting. Agatha had been an anti-war protestor. Both had embraced an alternative lifestyle and headed north. They’d never looked back.
Laura had met Agatha a couple of years ago at a conference focussed on conservation of the Great Barrier Reef. Despite the differences in their age and experience, they’d shared the same vision and a similar sense of humour. When Agatha heard a government hatchet man had cut Laura’s project, she’d offered her a job.
Topaz Island versus returning unemployed to Sydney? Laura had said thanks and taken the job on the understanding that she’d be applying for other positions. Agatha had been cool with that.
‘I like your man.’ Agatha stood beside Laura on the veranda of the main resort building and watched Phil fold himself almost in half so that old Mrs Glendinning could give him a goodbye kiss before boarding the ferry to the mainland. That meant the resort would be free of guests till tomorrow’s ferry brought the next lot.
‘He’s a good guy,’ Laura agreed. The best: smart, funny and happy to make it obvious to all that he was into her.
Life on Topaz Island had acquired a dream-like quality, as if it existed outside of time. Her days were spent helping people determined to enjoy themselves do just that. Her nights were spent with Phil and were hotter than any fantasy.
He had changed in four years, his body older and more powerful. Success had paradoxically eliminated the touch of arrogance he’d occasionally displayed. It was as if he no longer had to prove himself. That confidence, the challenge to take him as he was, presented an irresistible dare.
‘Are you going snorkelling this afternoon?’ Agatha asked.
Laura nodded. ‘Phil wants to film red coral. Doug recommended we try the northern reef.’
‘You should find angelfish there, too.’ Agatha was a big fan of Rafe, Phil’s animated alien. In fact, she had high hopes that the little fellow’s next adventure — an animated Rafe cavorting in front of real footage of the Great Barrier Reef — would encourage responsible ecotourism. And for those who preferred to reduce their carbon footprint, Doug was installing an underwater solar-powered webcam focused on the protected northern reef. People would be able to view the wonders of the changing coral landscape without leaving home.
Phil strolled towards them. He wore shorts and a T-shirt again, and had bare feet. A sexy guy, barefoot on a beach, smiling.
‘Enjoy,’ Agatha said under her breath, and with a wave to Phil, departed in the direction of her private quarters.
Phil stopped in front of Laura. ‘Ready?’
Only he had the power of a smile that affected her like a kiss. It was intimate, provocative and challenging.
She put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the warmth of the sun on his cotton T-shirt and the underlying warmth of his body heat. She rose on tiptoe and kissed him.
He wrapped both arms around her and responded enthusiastically. So enthusiastically that she ended up bending backwards while a passing fellow staff member whistled in approval and envy.
Phil pulled back a fraction, but kept her dipped. ‘We could snorkel tomorrow?’
‘Or we could snorkel now and skinny dip this evening.’
He hauled her upright. ‘Cruel. How am I to concentrate on anything when I’m imagining you naked in the moonlight and water?’
‘You’re a focused kind of guy.’ She patted his chest, enjoying how sexy he made her feel. ‘You’ll manage.’
He swatted her butt as she sashayed past him. She laughed. He slung an arm around her shoulders and she slid hers around his waist. They walked like that back to the lodge to change into their shortie wetsuits and cover their bare arms and legs in sunscreen.
Laura anchored the dingy a few metres away from the reef where the anchor couldn’t damage the fragile coral. Familiar with the process, she fastened her flippers and fitted her mask, slipping easily over the edge and into the shallow water.
She held onto the side of the boat and waited a minute while Phil looped the lanyard of the video camera over his head before fitting his own mask and snorkel. When he was right, they swam effortlessly over to the reef, their wetsuits adding a useful bit of buoyancy.
The coral garden was simply stunning. As often as Laura viewed the wonders of the Great Barrier Reef, she never lost her awe of them. The coral gardens were more beautiful and more vivid than a modernist painting, but it was knowing that they were living, breathing creatures, incredibly fragile and yet resilient that compelled her complete attention. Coral could turn an old wreck into a display of colour and design.
She’d swum the northern reef before, and keeping her movements slow so as not to startle the fish, she trod water as she pointed out a patch of red coral.
Phil gave her a thumbs-up and flippered over there. The shallow, clear water provided a magazine-style background to the muscular strength of his black wetsuit-clad body.
She watched him swim over and around the red coral before adjusting his camera. His focus on the task at hand was sexy. He was just as focussed when his intent was her pleasure. The memory darted through her, as shiver-quick as an arrow fish. If she weren’t careful, she’d spend the entire dive simply staring at him, infatuated. It half-fascinated, half-appalled her to discover he was the one thing that could distract her attention from the marine environment.
Unlike Phil, her interest wasn’t the coral, but the juvenile fish that called it home. Coral reefs provided a sheltered and food-rich environment for baby fish. They were natural hatcheries where vital species spawned. For two years she’d been working on a conservation project that brought commercial and recreational fishers, environmentalists and tourism operators together to protect the sheltered waters of the Great Barrier Reef.
She had been so close to getting their agreement to an ambitious protection program when the government had cut the project’s funding. Short-sighted idiots. She expelled old anger and air from her lungs, took two deep breaths, then dived down to study the shallow sea floor. A school of angelfish broke around her, surrounding her in colour and magic. When she broke through their cloud, her anger had disappeared. How could you be angry when you surfaced to find a turtle swimming past, its wise ancient face looking to the future? She stroked her arms gently to move out of the turtle’s path.
The government could cut her project’s funding, but they wouldn’t stop her working for the good of the marine environment. The Great Barrier Reef was something special, but all marine life deserved protection. The earth and its inhabitants needed healthy oceans.
There was an irony in the liaison work she had chosen. One that had to have struck Phil. She smiled wryly around her snorkel’s mouthpiece.
When she’d destroyed his university project four years ago, his life had changed dramatically. When Rafe the alien had gotten his chance at the big time, Phil had gotten the financial security that had obsessed him. Now that she was older and had lived away from her family’s protection, she understood better why Phil been so intent on commercial success. It wasn’t greed, but a craving for security in every sense of the word.
But destroying his university project and their ugly break-up had also changed the course of her life. In a way, it had been just as dramatic — if not as ultimately successful. She’d learned a harsh lesson in controlling her emotions. Once she’d begun forcing herself not to react from her own perspective without trying to understand the other person’s, she discovered a previously unguessed at talent for mediation. And the better she became at mediation, and the more she saw the strength of everyone pulling together, the more determined she was that it would be her life’s work. She had the academic background to understand and translate the science into real-world terms. What she added was the painfully developed ability to understand other people’s concerns.
She’d been idly trailing a parrotfish while it nibbled at the algae growing on the coral. The sudden appearance of a small stingray startled her back to the present. She frowned, annoyed at herself. Diving, even snorkelling, required you to be aware of your surroundings — and to look out for your dive buddy. She’d forgotten.
She swung around to swim back to Phil and wasn’t surprised to see that he’d surfaced and was treading water, watching her. She spat out the mouthpiece. ‘Sorry,’ she called.
He waited till she was closer. ‘Did you see anything good?’
‘Mmm. A turtle. Did you get the footage you need?’
He patted the camera. ‘I think so. I might take some random footage, try my luck, unless you want to go back?’
‘Twenty minutes?’ she suggested.
He agreed.
This time though, they swam together. They’d done this on other days, with her pointing out special sights. Generally, the fish were too quick for Phil to film them with the precision and focus he wanted, but every so often, they got lucky. And he could always get a good shot of the coral gardens.
He dived so that he could shoot another school of angelfish from below. That was the best angle, allowing for a glittering ceiling of light from the surface of the water and adding a sense of depth to the photography. Rafe, his adorable alien, would have a glorious setting for his next adventures.
Slowly they made their way back to the boat, stopping for a few minutes when she thought she spotted an octopus, then hauling themselves up and into the dinghy. Laura sat a moment, enjoying the tired muscles that came from a good snorkelling session.
Phil stowed his camera safely before pulling up the anchor and starting the engine. He aimed the boat back to Topaz Island. He looked relaxed and happy, shaking his head so water droplets flicked off the ends of his dark hair. ‘It was your dad who taught me about boats. Him and Tad.’ Her brother.
‘They both like you. Dad respected the fact that you worked.’
Phil rubbed his face where a red mark showed where the snorkelling mask had pressed. ‘Do you miss them? You were a close family.’
‘Mum and Dad holiday up here.’ She smiled. ‘You’d think Dad would want some time away from the sea, but no. He likes the fishing off Cairns. Tad can’t get away as often as he’d like, but I fly down and visit. He’s a sergeant in the water police, now.’
‘You said.’ Phil grinned. ‘Does he know how proud you are of him?’
‘I might have mentioned it a couple — of zillion — times.’ She did miss her family, but they stayed close, not just with visits, but chatting on the phone and sharing photos and news via email. She had enough life experience now to value their emotional support, especially since she’d lost her job.
Eyes narrowed against the glare off the water, he concentrated on steering the boat around the island to its mooring. ‘Will you look for work closer to them?’
Laura stiffened. She could only see Phil in profile and his expression gave nothing away. They hadn’t spoken about the future, but for her to move close to her family meant a return to Sydney, where he now lived.
‘I’ve applied for three jobs, all in Queensland.’ She hesitated. ‘I have been looking at positions in New South Wales, but nothing’s been right.’
He tied the dinghy to the mooring, near the ladder up to the short pier. His voice was neutral, too neutral. ‘I guess you’ll know the right job when you see it.’
‘Yes. Then hopefully my prospective employer agrees with me.’ Her attempt at humour faded when he failed to respond.
His wet, black hair was plastered to his skull, leaving his face stark and his grim expression exposed as he studied her.
She wanted to reach for him, but her hand curled instead over the rim of the dinghy — and that epitomised her ambivalence. She wanted him, and yet, something in her resisted opening her life to him.
And he knew it. He stared at her tightly clenched hand.
She released her grip on the boat. She didn’t want her anxieties to spoil their time together. There were too many people like her, qualified marine biologists either unable to find work or locked-in jobs that made no use of their skills. She didn’t want to lead that life of frustration.
And Phil’s return to her life added another layer to her problems. She’d been less than him before, playing at life during their years at university. To continue that pattern would cripple them both. She couldn’t let him offer to support her while she looked for work, to open his home and life to her; that couldn’t be what defined their relationship. She struggled to find words. ‘Phil, my career’s important to me.’
‘I know. You keep showing me and telling me. I get the message. It’s the most important thing in your life. You’re still saving the world.’
Scalded by the bitterness of his comment, she watched him climb the ladder to the dock.