Page 95 of Outback Secrets

She pulled back and held up the net as if it were a trophy. ‘Liam, come help me use my new toy.’

‘That doesn’t look like a toy. That looks like a serious crab-catcher.’

Heidi giggled as Liam pushed to his feet and looked to Henri. ‘Will you be okay? I won’t be long. Do you want me to take you back to the picnic rug first?’

‘I’m fine here. You two enjoy yourselves.’ Henri waved them off, bemused.

She was alone all of five seconds before Grant dropped onto the sand beside her. ‘Hey there. Mind some company?’

‘Of course not. Ryan did a fab job playing Santa by the way.’

‘I reckon. Sexiest damn Santa Claus I’ve ever seen,’ he said with a wink.

Henri couldn’t argue with that, and although on one level Grant’s cheerful, bouncy personality irritated the hell out of her, she found herself warming to him. ‘Do you miss the city?’

‘Not so much. There’s actually more happening here than I imagined, but I’d have moved to Timbuktu to be with Ryan.’

‘How’d you guys meet?’

‘Mutual friends,’ he said, and then told her the story of how it had been hate at first sight. ‘He thought I was a show pony and I thought he was a country bumpkin, but we couldn’t fight the chemistry.’ Grant nodded towards the water. ‘You know how it is?’

Henri followed his gaze to where Liam was holding Heidi’s hand as she scrambled over the rocks.

She nodded. Oh yeah, she knew how it was.

She’d been trying to fight that chemistry since the day she’d proposed their charade. Normally she didn’t like losing anything, but this was one duel she was glad she’d conceded.

‘There must be more than chemistry for you to have moved all this way for Ryan?’

Grant nodded. ‘Of course. Once we started talking, getting to know each other, we found heaps in common. He truly is my best friend in every sense.’

‘Really?’ On the surface Henri couldn’t see what the flamboyant drama teacher and the rugged but handsome farm boy had in common at all.

‘We both have similar values, our sense of humour is almost identical, we like the same movies and music, we both care about health and fitness—although whereas I favour running, Ryan prefers footy training. I guess most importantly we’re on the same page about what we want for the future. We value family above all else and want lots of kids.’

Henri nodded—it was impossible not to feel warm and gooey inside listening to Grant talk about Ryan.

‘What about you and Liam?’

‘Huh?’

‘He’s really good with kids …’ Grant gestured towards Liam and Heidi. ‘Do you guys think you’ll have any?’

At that moment, Ryan—no longer wearing his Santa outfit—dropped down onto the sand beside them.

‘Steady on,’ he said, wrapping an arm around Grant. ‘Liam and Henri are still in that blissful, can’t-keep-their-hands-off-each-other stage—children are probably the last thing on their minds right now.’

‘Sorry.’ Grant gave a sheepish smile. ‘I forget not everyone’s as clucky as we are.’

Henri smiled back. She reckoned these guys were proof that you could still be in that touchy-feely, can’t-get-enough-of-each-other stage and want to procreate. The two weren’t mutually exclusive, but neither did they always go hand in hand.

‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘I don’t mind, but I meant it when I said I don’t want kids, and Liam doesn’t either.’

Grant looked as if he couldn’t even comprehend such a thing, but Ryan grinned and said, ‘Perfect match, then.’

‘How did you guys go in Perth meeting the surrogate?’ she asked.

Grins to rival Heidi’s spread on both their faces.