Page 102 of Resist

“Would be nice, wouldn’t it?” Patsy said. “No bills, no neighbours … no one to answer to.”

I laughed. “Maybe I should buy an island just like it?”

“Ooooh, yes! Can I come and stay?” Cori asked.

I dipped my sunglasses and looked at her over the rim. “Of course.”

“I’ll come if there are no men.”

“PATSY!”

“What? I’m surrounded by half-naked, sweaty men, day-in and day-out. Is it too much to ask to just go to an island occupied by women and women only?”

I reached behind and pulled the string of my bikini, untying the bow. “She has a point.”

Cori drawled. “It does sound tempting.”

“But then … who would fetch our wood and make a fire?” I asked in a girly voice.

Cori bit down on her fingertips. “And who would protect us from the big bad bears?”

“I would,” Patsy deadpanned

Cori and I looked at each other and then cracked up laughing.

“It’s a deal,” I said. “As soon as the tour is finished, I’m buying a girls-only island.”

We high-fived each other just as the guys returned.

“What are you all excited about?” Lucas asked as he sat down beside my towel, his fingertips finding the skin on my back.

“Ah nothing.” Patsy flipped the page of her magazine. “Just a new women’s organisation we’re all considering becoming members of.”

Lucas leaned down and placed a kiss on my shoulder as his fingers caressed the side of my breast. I sucked in a deep breath. He smelled of sweat and sand, salt and man. “Actually, I think I’ve changed my mind.”

“What?” Patsy snapped shut her copy of Biker’s Life. “You suck.”

“Yes, she does.”

My jaw dropped, and I whacked Lucas on the leg just as Josh ran to the water like a Baywatch lifeguard.

“Cori, you coming in? It’s dolphin time.”

She groaned. “Great! My options are stay here and listen to Helena and Lucas talk sex, or impersonate dolphins with my boyfriend.”

Glancing up at Lucas, the sun kissing his hair and skin, I smiled. “I know which one I’d pick.”

Colin didn’t show his faceduring the remainder of our time in Cairns, and after we’d said goodbye to Baz and Bertha II and hopped on a plane to Darwin, I could finally let out the breath I’d been holding. Not just little bits here and there; the entire breath: one big whoosh from my body. Once again, I was thousands of miles away from him, and it was comforting.

Onwards and upwards. Literally.

Our schedule while in the northernmost city of our nation was quite relaxed: two consecutive shows then a week’s break before flying to Broome, Perth, and then home. The finish line was in sight, and I honestly couldn’t wait to return home and see Jason. I also couldn’t wait to see Lucas’s new routine, which he was due to perform any minute, because he’d refused to let me attend his final rehearsal; said I was a distraction.

I had to laugh … because I probably was.

Pushing aside the curtain on stage just enough to sneak a peek at the crowd, I couldn’t help but frown. They were unusually quiet. Subdued. Possibly even the walking dead.

“Tough crowd tonight,” Patsy said as she squeezed her head through the curtain beside mine.