Adam had forgotten about the inscription on the watch, but so what? It wasn’t as if he’d stolen it even though Evie clearly believed he had. Sweat was rolling down her face and she stood like a coiled spring ready to launch. But where would she go?
If they had phone reception, he’d be tempted to google himself so she could see who he really was and explain what he was doing out here—anything to calm her down because the way she was looking at him right now was just absurd.
“Look, Evie,” he said, stepping toward her. “It’s not what you think.”
But before he could explain further, she ran into the wilderness.
Damn!
“Evie! Come back!” Adam took off after her, jumping over bushes as Evie wove between them. She was quick but he was quicker, and he was soon close enough to wrap his arms around her waist and bring her down into the dirt. She screamed and flailed but he couldn’t let her go before she calmed down. She’d get lost out here in seconds. “Is it the heat or are you always this crazy?”
Wriggling beneath him, she pushed her butt into his groin, gasping for air. “Please don’t hurt me.”
“Hurt you?” Adam eased off. “What?”
“The knives.” She sobbed. “The drugs—”
“The truck isn’t mine! I borrowed it from a friend’s cousin in Perth. He was some weird guy called Ted who grows fruit and those knives, and the drugs and the underwear belong to him.” Evie stopped struggling, but Adam pressed on, irritated by her foolishness. “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life! And you shouldn’t run out like that here. You don’t know what’s out there in the dark. Snakes, spiders. No water. You could get disoriented in minutes. Where the hell did you think you were going?”
“Anywhere! I was too frightened.”
“Of me?”
“Yes, of you. What else was I to think?”
What else? Adam bit back his exasperation. Surely there were a million other things to think. If he were a woman stranded alone with a virtual stranger on a deserted highway and came across knives, a wad of cash and cannabis in his truck, he’d think that… that… that…
Right. Then throw in his it’s-no-big-deal attitude to cover up his incompetence and yeah, he could see how Evie had come to her silly conclusions. “I’m sorry.”
She twisted herself to face him. Her lips were only inches away from his chin, and the thick dark line of her long eyelashes framed her big eyes—eyes that he’d at first found unnerving, though he couldn’t think why. They were actually very pretty.
“I don’t know you,” she whispered.
And then Adam became acutely aware of how they were lying on the ground, his body pressed to hers, their bare legs touching, and she was watching him like he was watching her, both waiting for the other to move.
His gaze skimmed her mouth as the tip of her tongue slid out to moisten her lips. All he had to do was dip his head… Adam let go of her and sat up, annoyed, confused and disconcertingly aroused.
What the hell had just happened there?
He cleared his throat. “You might not know me, but I’ve just saved your frickin’ life.”
She sat up too, and for a moment looked just as stunned as he did until she waved his statement off like it was some sort of exaggeration. Which it probably was. Maybe. “But still, you could be anyone.”
“Well, I’m someone,” he said. “How about having these doubts before you accepted a ride from me?”
“Hey, don’t blame me! That’s such a man-thing to do.”
“Well, I am a man. A man who’s just saved your life.”
Evie pursed her lips then pulled her knees in for a hug. Her legs, like his, were covered in red dust. “I found the watch and the money, and the drugs. The knives and the knickers and put two and two together.”
“And made fifty-six.”
She nodded, suddenly looking extra small and fragile, and very unhappy—the wobble of her downturned mouth telling him tears were close. Adam puffed out his cheeks. Strangely enough, he wasn’t in the mood for female weeping.
Growing up, he’d seen plenty of women cry. Usually his father’s girlfriends as they walked out of the apartment after being told it was over. Most had simply left but some had stopped by his room to say goodbye, like he ever cared or had the power to change his father’s mind. Gee, Dad, l liked that one—could you keep her?
“Tell me more about your friend Shane.” Evie sniffed, wiping her eyes with a dirty hand which left streaks on her cheek.
“Shane? Well, um . . . he’s married to Krista and they have a baby called Stefan.”
“Where does he live?”
“Darwin. But he’s currently working away in Sydney.”
“For how long?”
“They’ll be back in six weeks.”
“And the watch?”
“What about it?”
“You said it belongs to Shane, but it’s inscribed to someone called Michael.”
Yeah. Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “It belonged to Shane’s father who passed away recently.” The lies rolled off his tongue with surprising ease. White lies. Adam wouldn’t be seeing Evie again after Darwin, so what did it matter what he told her now as long as it calmed her down enough to trust him? “I picked the watch up from his mother in Perth.”
“Along with the truck.”
“No. I’m renting the truck from Nutjob Ted.”
“So why the rush to get to Darwin if your friends aren’t back for another six weeks?”
She was testing him now. She no longer looked afraid, but she wasn’t ready to give up on the idea that he was an oddball up to no good.
“Well, um . . .” Adam rubbed the back of his neck again. “You see . . .” And then inspiration struck. “My wallet got stolen in . . . in Monkey Mia.”
“Oh, that’s terrible.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it. So all I have left is the cash you’ve seen in the truck, which out here isn’t going to get me far, not with these fuel prices so I figured as you were wanting to share costs, that would carry me over until Shane’s return. I’ll be staying with him until . . . Christmas and New Year’s.”
Evie was quiet for several seconds, her scrutinizing gaze giving him the impression that she wished she could read minds. Finally, she let out a long breath. “So, you’re really Adam from Edmonton?”
“Yes.”
What else could he say? If he told her the whole truth, there was a chance that his real name wouldn’t be familiar to her anyway. He wasn’t some global Hollywood megastar. And besides, wouldn’t Evie rather be stuck with a down-on-his-luck traveler than a feckless, retired sportsman, rumored to be mentally unstable and on the run from his volatile fake-wife? The truth was too random a thing to tell her. Where would he even begin? It would just sound so false, so far-fetched, and what guarantee did he have that Evie wouldn’t sell him out for Saskia’s $50,000 as soon as they got to Derby?
It was far better to keep quiet.
And yet, Evie looked so sad. He felt bad being the cause of it, but when she squeezed her eyes shut and a tear escaped, Adam recalled the way she’d frowned at her phone in the café earlier that afternoon. Could there be more to her misery than just misguided panic?
“Evie,” he said gently. “What’s up?”
Evie studied the darkening sky as if she’d find some comfort there. Another tear rolled down her cheek, but she quickly swiped at it like she hoped he hadn’t seen.
“He’s had a baby!” she blurted out at last.
“Who?”
“My ex . . . He’s had a baby with someone else. Someone I knew nothing about.” Her voice wobbled as another tear rolled down her cheek. “I used to know everything about him. We used to tell each other everything and now he’s…he’s a father.”
Oh, Christ.
Adam rubbed his temples. He wasn’t good with girl crap, though in view of her tears, he had to show some compassion—but, seriously… boyfriend trouble? Was this all about some guy?
Tears continued to stream down her face. “We only broke up ten months ago.”
That was nearly a whole year! Why the hell was she still upset? “Your ex had an affair?”
Evie’s horrified gasp made him jump. “Do you really think he did?”
Adam didn’t think anything, but her gaze blazed at him as if he had all the answers when really, he didn’t have a clue.
“Do you think he slept with her before we broke up?”
“Er . . .” It was obvious that the idea hadn’t entered Evie’s head and Adam would rather not put any new ones in there. “Well . . . um . . .”
But before he could think of anything else to say, she burst into tears again. Adam scratched his head. If he were a hugger, he’d pull her in, but the thought of it in this heat didn’t appeal and after their bizarre embrace thing just now, he’d rather not touch her again. And besides, no matter if—or how—he comforted her, it wouldn’t change the fact that her dickhead ex had slept with someone else and had a baby.
So as Evie cried it out, Adam sat awkwardly next to her, looking to the sky flecked with pale stars as birds squawked and chattered in the distance. Insects chirped and the tall grasses around them rustled in the breeze with a soft hush hush hush. A nice sound to fall asleep to—if not accompanied by sobbing.
Eventually, Evie hiccupped and swallowed the gunk that came with heavy tears. She sniffed, lifted the bottom of her vest to wipe her eyes and . . . blew her nose on it.
Adam winced, patting his pockets in the hope of coming up with a tissue or some sort of cloth to give her but he only had his own shirt, which he supposed he might have offered—maybe—if she hadn’t just used her own.
“All better now?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you.” She pulled her snot-stained vest off over her head revealing a gray sports bra underneath. “God, I’m a mess.” She finished wiping her face with her top and smoothed back the fuzz of her hair. “You must think I’m a complete head case.”
“No, I don’t.” Living with Saskia, he’d seen far worse. Adam stood and held out his hand to pull her up. “C’mon. We’d better get back to the truck.”
Evie took his hand and once back on her feet, dusted herself off. “You know, you’re not like other travelers I’ve met, and you don’t talk much either. It was one of the reasons I put two and two together and made fifty-six.”
“I’m naturally quiet, I guess.” He led the way back, picking a path through the bushes. “But back to you making fifty-six, if I was out to hurt you, don’t you think I would have done it sooner?” He held out his hand to guide her over a patch of spikey grass. “I mean, why would I make myself look like a complete fool without a jack when I could have pulled up a half hour outside of Broome to rob you. I could have left you for dead then been on my way to Derby to pick up my next victim before nightfall. That would have been more efficient, don’t you think?”
“Okay, now you’re scaring me again.”
“Sorry.” Adam smiled, glad that she’d recovered enough to joke. “So, tell me what else about me is weird.”
“You really want to know?”
Yes, he did. It had been some time since anyone had treated him as just some guy, and the more he learned about how to blend in to this transient backpacker world, the more chance he had of being left alone. “What were your first impressions of me?”
“Well,” Evie said without blinking, “you travel light. I have more stuff in my backpack than you do in your whole truck. And you’re not full of tales of adventure. That’s another thing. It’s like you either don’t want to show off—which would be unusual in itself because most travelers I’ve come across want everyone to know where they’ve been—or it’s like you’re so used to it already that there’s nothing to write home about any more. Except,” she held up one finger, breathed, “you don’t have all the gear of someone who’s been living on the road for months and months.”
Adam cocked his head, taking in every word.
“And you have this energy about you, like you’re . . . you’re always standing in the doorway instead of sitting on the sofa.”
“Okay,” Adam said, unnerved that she’d mentioned his energy after only knowing him for a few hours. Could people really pick that stuff up? It was all a load of mumbo jumbo to him, and yet, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d flopped on a sofa. The closest he ever got to relaxation these days were hard swims, sweaty workouts and painful sports massages.
They reached the highway and the broken-down truck.
“And you don’t have a girlfriend,” Evie added.
“So?” Adam choked out a laugh. “Lots of guys don’t.”
“Not ones who look like you.”
He whipped his head around to face her, but she’d already ducked inside the truck, rummaging for something in the footwell. Instinctively, he angled his head, his gaze sliding to the view of her rounded behind. When she straightened, holding her water bottle, Adam jumped back.
“How do you know I don’t have a girlfriend?”
She shrugged. “You’ve not mentioned one.”
But Adam could tell by the look in her eyes that there was even more to come. He waited as she drank, watching her cheeks indent as she swallowed, his own mouth going dry.
“You’ve got ‘loner’ plastered all over you,” she said, sucking droplets from her top lip as she offered him the water bottle. “That’s another reason why I made fifty-six.”
He took a long drink, then gave her an easy smile as if she hadn’t struck a nerve. “You’re right, no girlfriend.” He handed the water back. “No boyfriend either—just in case you were wondering. Not that I’m gay,” he added when her eyes widened. “Does that make me less weird?”
“No, it just makes you heterosexual.” Then she gasped in that theatrical way of hers that was proving strangely amusing. “You’re not homophobic, are you?”
“Of course not!”
“Good, because small-mindedness offends me.”
Adam had to laugh. He was at least a foot taller, outweighed her by a good thirty kilos and had just taken her down like a ragdoll in the dirt. What, exactly, would she do if he had made some dickhead derogatory comment about gay men?
“For the record, I like guys. Gay, straight, or whatever—just not as bed partners.” Then he shook his head to clear it. How had they got on to discussing his sexual orientation? He put them back on track. “I’m just a quiet, single, heterosexual guy making his way to Darwin to see a friend.”
Evie stared at him a bit longer, then seemed to deflate. “I feel like such an idiot.”
She wasn’t the only one, and because Adam didn’t want to dwell on his own humiliation over the absent jack, he picked up the bag of cannabis on the dashboard and tipped it out over a bush. He hoped this action showed her exactly what he thought about drugs and would put her more at ease, but she still looked worried.
“I’m scared,” she said, looking up at him with big baby eyes. “What if some lunatic drives up to us tonight?”
“They won’t.” Those sad eyes were just too much. “We’ll park out of sight, and with Ted’s knife collection, we’re more ready for an ambush than the average army.”
She gave him a little smile, and he was pleased to see it, though he suspected he hadn’t made her feel any better.