Chapter 16

Four minutes later, Adam revved the truck at the curb. Evie was buying fruit from an outdoor fruit-and-veg stand a few doors down from the internet place. She hadn’t yet spotted him and it took all his patience not to yell out her name. He checked his mirrors again.

No sign of Skinny Pete, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t right now running up the road with his phone or camera in hand, his friends following close behind in that Jeep of theirs. How long did it take to pack away a roof tent, anyway? Five, ten minutes? Adam hoped to be gone and on the highway in less than one.

If only Evie would hurry the hell up.

She’d taken her change now from the fruit seller but was still deep in conversation. What the hell was there to talk about when buying pineapples and oranges? He revved the truck again, an impatient roar that finally made her look his way. She waved, looked behind her to say goodbye to the fruit seller, then jogged toward the truck with the carrier bags of produce knocking against her legs.

“So that’s what you look like!” She flashed him a wide-open, totally unguarded smile.

Adam stalled the engine. “I had a shave,” he said like a dunce, fumbling for the keys in the ignition. “Let’s go.”

Evie placed her fruit bags in the footwell and climbed in, but while she’d been shuffling for foot space and putting on her seatbelt, a delivery truck had pulled alongside and was now partially blocking their way as it reversed into a loading bay.

Adam’s foot tapped the accelerator. Dammit. He’d made a mistake running away. He should have dealt with Pete at the campground, rather than risk being found out in front of Evie. He didn’t want that.

He wanted a vacation.

He wanted to lose himself in the Kimberleys.

He wanted to be Adam.

Then, two things happened at once. The delivery truck moved over and Evie waved at someone out of the window—someone who was running toward them.

“There’s Pete from the campground,” she said. Adam threw the truck in reverse. “What on earth is he doing?”

Adam kept his eyes trained forward as Evie twisted in her seat.

“He took a photo of us!” She laughed as if she couldn’t quite believe the randomness. “Why would he do that?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea.” Adam drove off. In his mirrors, Skinny Pete got smaller and smaller. “Perhaps he’s still got the hots for you.”

“No way.”

“Well, it wasn’t my ass he was staring at the other night.”

Adam turned right toward the highway, struck by something else from that party. Had Evie told Skinny Pete about their travel plans? Tonight, they’d be camping at Windjana Gorge—the first stop for most people traveling this well-known route, one that Pete and his brothers had just completed, only a leisurely two-hour drive away from Derby.

Adam checked his mirrors again, slowing for the T-intersection ahead. There were no other vehicles behind them, no Jeep following them out of town, but Adam knew he only had a matter of minutes.

“Evie,” he began, leaving the truck idling. “How would you feel about delaying the start of your itinerary for a day?”

“How come?”

“I found this awesome place yesterday. I’d like to show it to you.”

“Really?” Her eyes sparkled with the thrill of adventure. “Where is it?”

“About an hour that way.” Adam pointed in the direction opposite to the Gibb River Road. “And before you ask, there’s a campground nearby. I saw the signs for it. Hey, I’m not a total idiot,” he added when Evie shot him a look. “I can make plans too. So, what do you say? If you don’t like it, we can still go to Windjana later but I think you’d love it.”

Or rather he’d make her love it. Because like hell was Adam going to camp at Windjana tonight. Not when that little punk was bound to turn up and blow his cover.

For the second time in two days, Evie held her breath as Adam lifted her down from a rocky ledge.

“Pretty amazing, eh?”

Evie looked beyond his broad chest, trying not to notice how the strong ocean breeze currently coursing over the mudflats pressed Adam’s T-shirt against his well-defined pecs. She took in the sandy inlet before them. The colors were breathtaking, deep reds and varying shades of yellow and green brought to life under a brilliant and relentless sun.

“So this is where you came yesterday to practice your off-roading?” During the drive here, Evie had followed their journey on her map. They weren’t far from the mouth of the Fitzroy River that fed into King Sound. “How did you find this lookout?”

“I followed the dirt track from the highway, then kinda stumbled across it.”

Evie studied his profile. Without the scruff, his face looked more angular. There were patches of irritation along his jaw and neck where his beard must have itched, but he had a nice face. Really nice. He reminded her of someone . . . someone she’d seen in a film or on TV.

“You’re right,” she said, insanely flattered that Adam had seen something amazing and had wanted to share it with her. “I do love it.”

Evie shouldn’t read too much into it him bringing her here, but her silly crush was making it difficult to remain neutral to anything Adam said or did. Evie glanced across at him as a stupid little flutter somewhere below her navel worked its way up to blush around her neck, and the question she’d been driving herself nuts with for the past two days swelled to the tip of her tongue.

Why didn’t you kiss me?

But Adam was staring intently at the patterns the tidal waters had created in the mud flats, deep in thought. There was something going on in there. Something very private. Something that wore heavy on his shoulders.

“It was just a shave,” he said eventually without looking away from the water. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

“I like the look of you,” she teased, wanting to bring a smile back to his serious face. “Without the beard, you remind me of someone.”

“Who?” His dark-green eyes fixed sharply on hers and his brow creased in anticipation. “Who do I remind you of?”

His jaw rippled as he clenched it, but instead of getting ready to spar with her as she’d hoped, Adam looked… wary. Wary of her. Wary that she fancied the pants off him and that he’d be stuck with her, no anyone else around for a distraction.

Adam’s eyes darted to her mouth, his gaze so intense she found it hard to breathe.

“You look like Tom Cruise,” she said. “Pre-Botox, of course. A younger, taller version.”

He simply stared at her.

She was such an idiot.

But then he threw his head back and laughed, a deep rumbling sound that rang out across the ocean. This was the first time she’d seen him properly laugh and like the bloom of a rare flower or the explosion of a dormant volcano, Evie absorbed the sight knowing it would likely be a while before she’d see it again.

“Now I remember why I grew the beard in the first place,” he said.

“You don’t like Tom Cruise?”

He arched his brow.

“But he was hot in his day! I thought he’d be a compliment.”

“I look nothing like Tom Cruise.”

“But you’re Tom Cruise-esque. It’s in the slightly wonky nose and the set of your eyes.”

“Is that like me saying you’re Bambi-esque because of your eyes?”

“I suppose. But you know, Bambi was a boy-deer so maybe not quite as flattering, and not very original either. I’ve heard that one a million . . . possibly two million times before in my adult life alone. But I’d take Bambi any day,” she added, unable to stop rattling on. “The naughty boys at school used to call me Bug Eyes.”

Adam stared at her again. “Only a supreme idiot would describe your beautiful eyes like that.”

Oh.

Evie blinked. Once. Twice. The clever retort she’d been about to say flattened by the flutter that had rushed its way up again.

Why didn’t you kiss me?

Because—silly crush or not—when he looked at her like that, she was certain he wished he had.