Outback Secrets by Rachael Johns

Chapter Ten

On Thursday morning, Henri watched, her heart in her throat, as Liam paddled towards the biggest set he’d attempted since they’d started lessons two days ago. He was a quick learner—which was probably a good thing as she wasn’t known for her patience—and she had to admit she enjoyed watching him much more than she probably should. Even if he was hopeless that would be the case—his broad shoulders, strong hips and muscular thighs were a thing of beauty, not to mention those arms—but he was actually pretty good. Not that she’d gush to him; it was never a good idea to blow smoke up a guy’s trumpet.

He gripped the edges of the board, then pushed to a stand and she bit her lip as he quickly disappeared into the barrel. Would he come out the other side or tumble into the water and get ragdolled?

Long seconds passed and then he appeared again, still upright on the Malibu. The breath gushed from her lungs and Henri couldn’t help grinning.

‘Woohoo!’ she shrieked, the sound lost in the waves and the wind as she paddled over to him.

‘Well?’ Liam asked, his board under one arm, his wet hair flopping over one eye.

‘Well, what?’ she joked.

‘How good was that? I can’t believe it; I did it.’

‘Yeah, it was pretty good.’

‘Pretty good?’ His lovely grey eyes widened. ‘You’re a hard taskmaster, aren’t you, Ms Forward? If I’d known surfing felt like this, maybe I’d have got someone to give me lessons years ago.’

‘Okay. It was great.’ She rolled her eyes, still smiling madly. His excitement was catching, almost as good as conquering a big wave herself. ‘What do you want? A bloody medal? Maybe I should get the medal for being such a stellar teacher?’

‘I don’t know about a medal, but how about I buy you breakfast instead?’

‘Two days in a row, Mr Castle? Tongues will start to wag, you know.’

He winked as they started towards the shore. ‘Isn’t that exactly what we want?’

He was right of course, but sometimes Henri found herself forgetting why they were actually spending time together. Since Monday, she’d spent two out of three nights at the pub, chatting to him down at the bar before retreating upstairs to his bed, and every morning here on the beach. They’d known each other less than a week but it somehow felt much longer. And having Liam to focus on as well as her daytime labour on the farm meant that she was finally sleeping better again.

Her heart still raced every time she thought about what had happened to her on the Riverina, but she felt much more relaxed than when she’d first arrived home.

‘Good morning. How was the surf?’ sang Frankie as they entered the café ten minutes later, Liam holding the door open with one hand, his other firmly clasping Henri’s. All for show of course.

‘Fantastic,’ Henri replied, fighting a blush. As comfortable as she was around Liam, it still felt weird pretending they were together. Especially to people like Frankie.

But it wasn’t only her best friend in the café. Most of the tables were taken and there was a small queue at the counter, where Frankie stood making coffees at her whiz-bang machine. Busy noise drifted from the kitchen and two waiters were rushing about, taking and delivering orders.

‘What are you having?’ Liam asked, retrieving his wallet from his pocket as he nodded towards the menu decoratively scrawled on a large blackboard.

‘Oh, no, no, no, no, no,’ Henri countered, pulling her purse from her handbag. ‘This one’s on me. You paid yesterday.’

‘Already bickering like an old married couple,’ said Sally the vet, standing in front of them in the line.

They smiled at her, both playing along.

Henri inhaled the mouth-watering aroma of fresh sourdough bread and sizzling bacon coming from the kitchen. ‘I’m gunna have the big breakfast with the lot.’

Liam nodded. ‘I’ll have the same.’

There were a number of healthier options on Frankie’s breakfast menu, but Liam and Henri had more than worked up an appetite.

Once they’d placed their order, they scored a table just vacated by the window so they could keep an eye on Sheila who was tied to a post outside, in her element, enjoying the attention of everyone who stopped to stroke her on their way past.

‘Where’d you get Sheila?’ Henri asked as she absentmindedly began to flick through a copy of the Bunyip News that someone had left on the table.

‘Someone abandoned her at the pub when she was just a pup.’

‘What?’ Henri looked up. ‘You serious?’

He nodded. ‘A truckie came in for a few beers. Asked if he could bring his puppy in while he ate, and it was a quiet night, so I said it was fine. We had a good chat, seemed an okay guy. He and the dog were staying in his truck in the parking bay just out of town. At least that’s what he said. Anyway, he went to the bathroom and never came back. Didn’t pay for his meal and didn’t take the pup. I figured she was payment for the meal. We’ve been together ever since.’

‘How old is she?’

Liam’s brow scrunched a moment. ‘Must be coming up to eight years.’

‘So it wasn’t that long after you arrived?’

‘No.’

‘I have to say, you’ve really turned The Palace around. I remember it being a bit of a dive when I was a kid. You said you didn’t think about owning a pub when you were growing up, so what the hell drove you to buy ours?’

Liam leaned back in the chair a little. ‘Will it sound crazy if I tell you that it was kind of a spur of the moment decision?’

‘A little.’

‘During my road trip around Australia, I was always quite taken with the old pubs in each of the towns. Locals told me stories of times when they were really happening places, yet so many of them seemed rundown, if not deserted. Then, when I drove into Bunyip Bay and saw the For Sale sign out the front, I thought … why the hell not? At first Arthur thought I was a drunk having a laugh, but when he realised my offer was deadly serious, he made me sign the contract and skipped town before I could change my mind.’

Henri smiled—that sounded right; it was always hard to sell businesses in rural areas. Especially those attached to ancient buildings that needed a lot of upkeep, which definitely described The Palace.

‘I’d always been fairly handy,’ Liam continued as if reading her mind, ‘so I knew I could do a lot of the renovation work myself, and it felt like a fun project.’

‘Weren’t you planning on going back to America? What did your family think?’

‘To be honest … I wasn’t sure.’ He took a quick breath. ‘Things hadn’t been easy before I left, and I was ready for a change.’

There was something in his tone that told Henri she shouldn’t ask what exactly hadn’t been easy, but Harriet, Frankie’s niece, arrived beside them with a tray before she got the chance anyway.

‘Hey, guys, here’s your coffees,’ she said.

Henri did a double-take. ‘How are you old enough to be working here? What about school?’

Harriet rolled her eyes. ‘I just finished Year Twelve. I’m heading to Perth for uni after Christmas, but Mum said I needed to do something in between. It was either help her and Angus on the farm or work here with Aunty Eff. I didn’t want to break a nail, so I’m staying with her and Logan for a bit.’

Henri laughed, her eyes drifting to Harriet’s perfect rainbow manicure. ‘What are you studying at uni?’

‘Psychology. I want to work with teens with eating disorders,’ she replied, before heading back into the kitchen to collect their breakfasts.

Liam grinned as he stirred sugar into his coffee. ‘Someone clearly doesn’t like farming.’

‘It’s not everyone’s cup of tea.’

‘You said you always wanted to fly, but you seem to enjoy farm work as well?’

‘Oh, I love it. That’s why I’m an agricultural pilot. A massive part of my job relies on my knowledge of farming. I need to know about chemicals, how they work, the dangers of using them and how to apply them efficiently and safely. Crop-dusting takes up a good chunk of my time, and that and mustering are my favourite parts of my job.’

‘Would you ever consider giving up flying and working on the farm?’

‘You haven’t been talking to my mother, have you?’ she asked, her stomach clenching.

‘No, I’m curious, that’s all.’ He picked up his mug and took a sip.

‘With two older brothers, farming at Bungara would never have been a real possibility for me even if I wanted to. And I could never afford to buy my own farm.’

‘Shouldn’t you have just as much right to the family farm as your brothers?’

‘Maybe, but I never wanted it anyway and Mum and Dad knew that, so it didn’t matter.’ Henri wrapped her fingers around her mug; even though she wasn’t cold, she sought comfort from the warmth of holding it. If she didn’t fly, she had no idea what she’d do with her life and that was a scary thought.

Harriet returned with two overflowing plates of eggs, bacon, beans, grilled tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms and sausages. They thanked her and picked up their cutlery.

‘These eggs are so good,’ Liam said after taking his first mouthful.

‘Bunyip Bay’s certainly pretty lucky,’ Henri agreed. ‘With Frankie for breakfast and lunch and Macca for dinner, all meals are covered. So, tell me about your woodwork?’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘How did you get into it? Who taught you? I never clicked you’d made all the furniture in the pub until I saw you in your studio. Did you train as a carpenter or something?’

‘No.’ Liam shook his head. ‘It’s just a hobby—took me a while to finish all the pub stuff. I liked the subject at school, but it wasn’t until I moved here that I got properly into it. A lot of what I do is self-taught. I slowly built up my tools and it’s kind of addictive. The more I made, the more I wanted to.’

‘If you weren’t into pubs and you weren’t making furniture, what did you do before you came to Australia?’

‘Are you sure you’re not a journo?’

‘Why?’ She winked. ‘You hiding something?’

‘No,’ he scoffed. ‘You just ask a lot of questions.’

‘It’s called conversation, Liam. Aren’t I allowed to be interested in the man I’m …’ She glanced from side to side and lowered her voice. ‘Supposed to be sleeping with?’

His lips flickered at the edges and their eyes met in a way that made her insides warmer than the coffee. ‘Fair enough. I studied business at college, and I worked in retail. Both come in handy at the pub.’ He pointed his fork at her. ‘What about you? Any hobbies? Besides surfing, I mean.’

Henri took a quick breath. ‘Don’t laugh, but, when I’m not flying, I like geocaching.’

‘Geo-what?’

‘It’s sort of like a global treasure hunt. People leave what are called geocaches, or just caches, at specific locations and then they record the coordinates on the website, so that other members can go find them.’

‘What are in these so-called caches?’ he asked, frowning slightly.

‘Well, usually it’s a plastic container or a tin and there’s a little logbook in there with a pen so people can sign that they found it. Some of the small ones don’t have much else, but others contain little items people have left as a bit of fun, you know, like Happy Meal toys, novelty erasers, tourist keyrings, that kind of thing. The idea is you leave something as well.’

‘I see. And what exactly is the point of this?’

She smirked at his condescending tone. ‘What exactly is the point of a lot of hobbies?’

‘Well, knitting provides things to keep you warm, woodwork things to sit on or use in some way, painting is relaxing and can also provide joy to others, sport keeps you fit, reading informs the mind and entertains, photography—’

‘Okay, okay.’ Henri held up a hand and smiled. ‘The point is it’s fun and you get to go visit places you might not have been or thought to go. And it makes you feel part of something.’

He nodded as if conceding they were reasons enough. ‘Are there any near Bunyip Bay?’

‘Yep. I’ve planted a couple on my last few trips home and tourists have left some too. I think there was five in the surrounding region last time I checked.’

‘Maybe you’ll have to show me,’ Liam suggested.

‘Maybe I will,’ she retorted, before popping a spoonful of beans into her mouth.

By the time their plates were empty, and their coffees drunk, Henri felt they’d put on a good show for the other locals in the café and once again she’d truly enjoyed chatting with Liam.

‘Will I see you tonight?’ Liam asked as Harriet came and cleared away their dishes.

‘Possibly not. I’ve promised Mum I’ll go with her to the Christmas concert at the school. You got anything interesting on your agenda today?’

‘Got some bookwork to do …’ He made a face. ‘And I need to order stock, but hopefully I’ll get some time in the studio as well. Anyway, I better go rescue Sheila, but thanks so much for the surfing lessons. I’m having fun and you’re a very good teacher.’

‘Thanks.’ Henri felt herself blush. ‘It’s the least I could do, considering the way you’re putting yourself out for me.’

‘Ah, it’s not that bad,’ he said with a grin.

After a quick goodbye to Frankie, they left the café and Henri bid farewell to Liam and Sheila as they crossed the road to walk back to the pub. Then she climbed into Cecil and headed home, feeling oddly bereft.

As much as she loved working on the farm, she couldn’t help wishing her breakfast with Liam could have gone on just a little bit longer.