Chapter 4 #2
Once we hit the spit of a town of Mitchell, I grinned. It was the sort of place you could blink and miss it, but the area held a certain charm. By the time I turned right onto the dirt road where every few feet I hit a new pothole, inevitably Jayden woke.
“The fuck, man? Hit another one of those craters and we’re going to be swallowed whole.” Sitting up, he peered out the window. “Holy shit, the dirt’s really red.”
I laughed. “Yeah, one of the first things I noticed.” I winced when I couldn’t avoid the next pothole, the whole car jerking and jolting.
“Are you just aiming at the things? Hello, precious cargo with a concussion here.”
My mouth twitched. “Precious cargo? More like a sulking toddler.”
Jayden shoved at my arm, the gesture working its magic. For the first time since receiving that call from Nate, my muscles fully relaxed, and I managed a full lungful of air. “Satnav says it’s another two minutes away.”
Angling around to take in the whole surroundings, Jayden tugged off his sunglasses. “This really is the bumfuck of nowhere.”
“Seems to be.”
“Holy shit. You remember that movie we watched when we were at camp?”
“Don’t even go there,” I said with a laugh, remembering exactly what movie he was talking about.
Jayden always had the worst ideas. When we were seventeen, he downloaded a movie on his laptop, and we watched it on the floor of our twin room late one night.
We’d had a whole midnight-feast, horror-movie moment going on.
Single mattresses on the floor, a bagful of candy from the vending machine, and Wolf Creek.
“You were just as shit scared as me.”
I quirked a brow at him and peered over. “That right? I think you remember this story very differently than I do.”
“The mattresses were already on the floor, and it was late, so it made no sense to put them back on the beds.”
“Uh-huh. Yet you still shared my mattress.”
“I was worried about you, and it was cold.”
“It was the middle of summer and seventy-five degrees at night.”
Another look at the man at my side, and I caught his wide grin. I returned it immediately before peering ahead when the satnav announced we’d arrived.
“Huh.”
I pressed down on my lips, taking in the quaint… house? I wasn’t sure if I could call it a house, but it seemed super fitting in the backdrop of red soil, the occasional gum tree, and the empty space behind leading to some scrub.
“You want to grab the keys from the mailbox, and I’ll get the groceries?”
“Sure.” He stepped out of the SUV, putting his sunglasses back on. Understandable, as the skies were blue and endless, and the sun lowering toward the horizon still blasted out some decent heat, despite it being a winter’s day.
When Nate had offered us the house, he’d explained the place wasn’t used often.
It was also an old one-room house that had been expanded over the years, but his uncle had been steadily modernizing the joint.
Looking at the wooden main building with small weatherboard extensions, I could see that.
The tension in my muscles unraveled even more.
While this wasn’t what I’d expected to be doing when I finally visited Australia, we were here, and considering the only property I’d seen was at the beginning of the road, we had genuine peace and quiet. Absolutely perfect.
Once inside, my brows shot up in surprise. “Okay, so not what I expected.”
Next to me, Jayden chuckled. “Right.” The front door opened directly into the main living space.
While it was cozy, it was still big enough for a two-seater couch, an armchair, coffee table, and TV stand, complete with flatscreen TV.
The other side of an ornate archway was a modern, country-style kitchen, just big enough for a small table and chairs.
“This place looks so much better than I expected from the outside.” Jayden peered around the kitchen and turned on the faucet.
The water ran immediately, and a few seconds later, a loud groan erupted in the room.
“What the fuck is that?” Wide-eyed, he swivelled his head, eyeing the door as though something ferocious was going to come blazing in.
I laughed loudly. “You not heard of the dropbears in Australia?” I chuckled when his eyes widened even further. Yeah, I may have researched the whole dropbear legend a while back when Ryan had mentioned them a time or two.
“The hell are dropbears?”
“You not remember Ryan mentioning them a few years back?”
“No?”
I fought hard to straighten my face and suck back my laugh. “It’s the water pump, dufus.”
His features morphed immediately, and he flipped me off. “Asshole.”
I bounced my brows. “That I am.” I dumped the grocery bags next to the stove and collected our bags, still chuckling at Jayden’s reaction. When I returned, Jayden leaned against the wall next to one of the doorways. Amusement flickered in his gaze, and I sighed. “What is it?”
“I found the second bedroom.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, waiting for him to continue.
“Check it out for yourself.”
Opening the door, I failed to control my expression, if Jayden’s laughter was any indication. A bunch of furniture, none of which appeared to be a bed, was piled together in the second bedroom. A ladder leaned against the wall, and a couple of paint cans were next to it.
I closed my eyes, wondering if I counted to ten before reopening them, then I’d see a bed, complete with mattress and ready for me to pass out on. That was not the case.
“The good thing is,” Jayden said, “the bed in the main room is bigger than a double, a queen maybe, and I know this will make you extra happy; there’s no big footboard so no having to bend our knees to fit. We can stretch out all we like.”
Jayden. Stretching out. In bed. With me.
What the hell had I done in a former life to be punished in such a way?
“Come on, man. Don’t look so damn miserable.
It’s not the first time we’ve shared a bed.
Plus we’re in the desert, so it’s going to be even colder here tonight than it was at Ryan’s.
” He shuddered for effect, which I wanted to ignore or maybe smack him around the head, but since he cut off his fake shudder superfast, I expected it had hurt to do so.
Finally, I looked at him. The humor and teasing from a moment ago was gone. “You look tired.”
With a sigh, he offered a pitiful shrug. “I slept the whole journey. How is that even possible?”
“Concussions suck.”
“Yeah.”
“Come on. I’m dead on my feet.”
Concern lit Jayden’s gaze as he studied me. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“A little.” Though it absolutely wasn’t enough. My body was crashing, my eyes tired, my sight a little blurry as exhaustion urged me to get my ass to bed. “Let me put this food in the refrigerator, then I’ll get us both a bottle of water, and we’ll sleep.”
Uncertainty washed over Jayden’s expression, something I rarely saw.
“What is it?”
“You really okay to share?”
I had to play this right and be the friend I wanted and needed to be.
“It’s not the first time, and since I’m your fiancé, I suppose I better get used to it,” I said dryly, fully aware we still hadn’t figured out that nightmare.
Since leaving the hospital, I’d deliberately set my phone to not receive calls.
The gossip making its rounds wouldn’t be going away, so as far as I was concerned, it could all wait.
Sleep and Jayden’s health were more important.
With a smile and bouncing brows, Jayden made his way to the small hallway, which I assumed led to the bathroom and master bedroom. “I’m taking the right side,” he called out. I grinned as I got to work putting the groceries away. That was more than okay with me. The left side was my favorite spot.