Page 78 of Outback Secrets

Smirking, he put said flowers down on the dresser and held up the chocolates. ‘What about these?’

She thrust out her hand. ‘Give ’em here.’

Chuckling, he tossed them to her and as she tore off the plastic wrapper, he sat down on the edge of her bed. ‘You know … you’re kinda cute when you’re cranky.’

‘You’d be cranky too in my position,’ she said through a mouthful of chocolate. ‘My mother is driving me insane with her fussing and I can’t even run away.’

‘Sometimes I get cranky for a lot less. Does it hurt?’ He gestured to her bandaged foot, which looked twice the size of the other.

She sighed loudly. ‘What do you think? Luckily, the doc gave me some really strong painkillers.’

‘Is it really broken?’

‘No, thank God. Hurts like hell, but it’s not torn or broken—I just did a really good job of spraining it. I should be back on my feet in a couple of days, a week max. For a moment there, I thought I was gunna have to pull out of my next contract.’

‘You’re still going?’

‘I hope so. The doc says if I spend the next week resting, I should be okay.’ At least that’s what Liam thought Henri said but her mouth was once again full of chocolate.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand he was happy for her, on the other he found himself a little disappointed. He’d sort of got used to having her around.

Unsettled, he took a moment to check out the room and realised it was divided in two distinct halves. One side decidedly feminine—pink frilly bedspread piled with cushions, purple walls and a rainbow mural—the other, the total opposite. Henri’s bed, which boasted a doona with old-fashioned planes all over it, occupied this side and the walls here were lime green and covered with old country-music posters and photos of aeroplanes.

‘I’m guessing you used to share this room with Tilley?’

‘Yes,’ she groaned. ‘It was painful. I was so excited when she got engaged to James and moved into town with him, but Mum refused to let me redecorate and take over. I think she was hoping all that pink stuff would rub off on me.’

He reached out to pick up a photo frame on her bedside table and smiled down at the image of a slightly younger Henri standing in front of a small plane, mostly blue with a yellow stripe down the middle, propeller at the front and a miniscule cockpit. There was a large hangar in the distance and a smile on Henri’s face that reminded him of her expression yesterday afternoon when he’d just kissed the living hell out of her.

‘What kind of plane is this?’ he asked, not sure how to broach the subject he really wanted to talk about.

Henri gazed fondly at the photo. ‘That photo was taken on one of my very first proper jobs—it’s a radial powered Dromader. You have to coax them into life until an idle is established. Most of them bleed a bit of oil down the side of the aircraft, bad ones can haemorrhage. I actually flew one again in the Esperance bushfires in 2015 and the oil bleed was so bad that after a couple of hours, the windscreen was partially obscured by a trail of oil right up the side of the fuselage. Every time I refuelled, I also had to put fifteen litres of oil into the engine.’

‘So you don’t fly these aircraft now?’

She shook her head. ‘Very rarely. Mostly I fly AT502s or Thrush 510s. Both are 500 US gallon machines. The AT802s are mainly used when I do fire contracts, as they can hold 500 US gallons, but even they’re being used for some ag flying now. Last time I was topdressing in Victoria, the company I was with used Beavers—they’re Canadian aircraft and I quite like them too.’

He had no idea what she was talking about, but he nodded as if he did.

‘Sorry …’ she said. ‘I get a little excited when I talk shop.’

‘Hey, don’t apologise.’ It was good to hear her talking so passionately about flying again. He reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. ‘You’re not boring me at all. Promise.’

She met his smile with one of her own. ‘That’s sweet of you to say.’

Liam wasn’t sure whether it was the chocolate or the plane talk that had improved her mood, but he was glad she seemed a little happier than when he arrived.

‘You know …’ She gestured to the box of chocolates in her lap. ‘As much as I appreciate these, you didn’t have to come all this way.’

‘You make it sound like I trekked across the Simpson Desert to get to you. It’s barely a ten-minute drive and I wanted to check you were okay. I would have come last night but by the time Drew mentioned you were hurt, it was too late to come out.’

‘I’m sorry for worrying you. I did call as soon as we got back from the hospital. I left a message with Lara.’

‘I know. Unfortunately, she didn’t remember to tell me until after we’d closed.’

‘Whoops.’ A gorgeous blush tinted her cheeks. ‘I had no idea when I asked you to help me the extent you’d have to go to.’

He slid his hand over her jaw and down her neck to her collarbone. ‘It hasn’t been that much of a hardship.’ Her skin felt like velvet, and she shivered beneath his touch.