Page 34 of Outback Secrets

‘Yeah, she’ll be right. The bench seat’s vinyl, so it’s easy to clean. Over the years Cecil’s seen much worse than Sheila. Trust me.’

‘How long have you had the van?’ he said, climbing in beside his dog as Henri went around to the driver’s side.

‘Since I was sixteen. Dad bought him for my birthday—he was pretty much a bomb, but we did him up together over the next couple of years.’ She turned the key in the ignition and the engine spluttered a few times before finally coming to life. ‘He’s not the most reliable vehicle, I’ll be honest. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve found myself stranded in the middle of nowhere with van trouble, but Dad also taught me how to fix him and most of the time I can.’

‘Why’s he called Cecil?’

She smiled. ‘Cecil was Dad’s middle name—Mum always used it when she was cross at him—but I thought it suited him more than Fred.’

It was impossible not to hear the love she had for her father and the van they’d restored together. It was impossible to ignore the pang in his chest at the thought of his own father.

‘You guys sound like you had a pretty special relationship.’

‘Yeah.’ She nodded as she reversed out of the parking space. ‘We did.’

As the pub was less than a kilometre from the ocean, there wasn’t much time for small talk, and Sheila, being in an unfamiliar vehicle, was much more excitable than usual, which didn’t help either. She kept trying to climb onto Henri’s lap and Liam spent most of the journey trying to stop her from sticking her tongue in Henri’s ear.

They were both laughing so hard by the time she stopped in the small parking area at the beach that they couldn’t escape the van fast enough. Sheila’s tail started swishing madly the moment she smelled the fresh salty air and although she was a good dog and stayed when told, it was clear she was struggling to be obedient as they unloaded the surfboards.

‘Thanks,’ Liam said as Henri handed him a long board that was thicker than hers.

They started towards the dunes, Sheila bounding happily ahead of them.

Although he came down here every day, the view still took his breath away. He and Henri had joked about Bunyip Bay being like a postcard, but a picture could never do justice to the clear turquoise water currently glistening as it rolled and crashed on the pale yellow sand. Having grown up nowhere near the ocean, he was pretty sure he’d never get sick of it. There was one lone dog walker too far away to recognise, a seagull diving in and out of the water and a couple of fishermen standing patiently with their rods waiting for a bite, but apart from that the beach was empty.

As if reading his mind, Henri said, ‘It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? I’ll be honest, sometimes I love this place more than the people. And just as I thought, the waves are perfect for beginners this morning. Come on.’

Liam struggled to catch up as she jogged a couple of hundred metres up the beach to a spot that had ‘perfect curls’. He wouldn’t have called himself unfit, but Henri was fitter.

‘Besides surfing, do you do any other regular exercise?’ he asked when they finally stopped to dump their things on the sand. Panting hard, Sheila flopped down between them.

Henri shrugged as she ripped her T-shirt over her head, revealing a demure, black one-piece swimsuit that on her perfectly toned body looked anything but demure. It felt like his shorts shrunk two sizes and he quickly averted his gaze while he removed his shirt.

‘I go without surfing for long periods of time, and I don’t stay in one place long enough to join a sports team or anything, but sometimes I’ll do a Pilates class and I run most days.’

That’d do it.

He picked up the board, eager to get into the water before she noticed the bulge in his shorts. ‘Time to hit the waves?’

‘Not so fast, buddy. Beginners start on the sand.’

‘Huh?’

‘You don’t want to become shark bait. Standing and balancing on a board isn’t as easy as it looks. You need to practise on land first. Like this.’

She shimmied out of her shorts, then dropped to the ground and lay flat on the board a couple of seconds before jumping to her feet again. Her lean legs were a thing of beauty as they moved, her breasts jiggled a little with the action. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was torturing him on purpose.

‘Now your turn.’

Reluctantly, Liam copied the action.

‘Bravo.’ Henri applauded as if he was a little kid in need of positive reinforcement.

He shot her a warning look. ‘Now can we go in the water?’

‘A little more practice first.’

This time she joined him, but he still felt like an idiot jumping up and down on dry land.