Page 9

Carter stood in line for the showers and rolled his shoulders.

He’d been right about an early morning wake up, but he’d much prefer to complete the five-kilometre obstacle course set up for them on the track to the top paddocks in the coolness of the dawn, even if they hadn’t been back for breakfast until mid-morning.

He couldn’t thank the ladies in the kitchen enough for the bacon and egg rolls they’d served up.

Ethan whacked him from behind. ‘Dude, where’d you end up yesterday? When I was on the phone? I went looking for you afterwards, but you were nowhere to be found.’

‘I helped one of the girls carry some lucerne hay for an injured baby deer they have down behind the netball courts. It’s the cutest thing,’ Carter told him.

He wasn’t sure if Indy would like him sharing about Blossom, but he also wasn’t sure if there was anything he could do that wouldn’t piss her off.

The burning path she’d traced on his skin when she’d run her hand down his arm, the sweet crispness of her breath against his skin and the coconut smell that’d nearly overwhelmed him replayed in his mind.

No, she hadn’t been pissed off with him then.

Although she’d jumped back as if she’d been electrocuted when he’d spoken.

That was the real reason he left. He hated to think he made her uncomfortable.

He’d never get to know her better if she was uneasy around him.

Two cubicles freed up, and the water that pumped over Carter’s shoulders after he stepped into one was still hot, working through the knots in his neck.

He thought about the morning’s session. Beau had been weirdly quiet, keeping the insults to a minimum.

Maybe his animosity was finally dying down?

Like he was realising that he wasn’t going to get the rise out of Carter that he’d been aiming for.

After hanging up his towel in the room he shared with Ethan, he sank onto the edge of his bed. ‘How did you and Nicole meet?’ he asked.

Ethan was refolding his clothes. The guy was meticulous. ‘We went to high school together.’ He turned around and his mouth opened to say something else, but no sound came out. His eyes widened, focused on something behind Carter.

‘What’s wrong? Why are you looking like that?’

Ethan’s Adam’s apple bobbed furiously and he took a step closer, peering over Carter’s shoulder. ‘Don’t move too quickly, but you should definitely get off your bed. It could just be a cord or ribbon or something …’

Coldness trickled down Carter’s spine and he forced his bunched muscles to slowly rise from the mattress, his heart rate accelerating as if he’d just tackled twenty raging bulls. What he really wanted to do was spring up and out of there. Ribbon, his arse.

Once he was clear, he took a giant but steady step towards the door. Please don’t follow me .

Ethan already had his hand on the door handle and reefed it open as Carter let out a yell that would turn Tarzan’s gorilla mother pink with pride. The long thin point of a tail was slowly flicking along the wall as a lump moved beneath his doona.

The verandah shook with the running feet of his teammates.

‘Holy shit!’ Diego exclaimed, the first to get his head around the door. ‘There’s a fucking snake in your bed!’

Matty pulled Diego back to get a look. ‘It could be a lizard. A bloody big one though.’

Everyone else crammed forwards, pushing Carter back into the doorway.

‘Get out!’ he yelled, yanking the door shut behind him, trapping whatever reptile was in there.

The boys around him groaned with disappointment but Carter was too busy looking over their heads. His eyes met Beau’s. The smug grin on the bloke’s face told Carter everything he needed to know about how that thing had got into his room.

‘Guess Ethan knows for certain now that he’s sharing his room with a snake. Or two,’ Beau said.

Carter saw red. He pushed through their teammates and shoved Beau hard in the chest. ‘Say it again,’ he snarled, limit reached.

The grin on Beau’s face flattened but the gleam in his eye said that this was exactly what he’d been waiting for: Carter to lose it.

‘You’re a snake! Strike as soon as someone’s back’s turned.’ He grabbed the front of Carter’s shirt and shook him roughly. ‘Just like Aaron. Everyone knows we would’ve won that grand final if it wasn’t for you.’

‘Of course you’d think that. You always take the easy way out instead of facing up.’

‘You ruined a good man’s life.’

Fuelled by rage, Carter pushed him hard, causing Beau to release him, but then he was right back, their chests bumping as they stared each other down.

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’

The others grabbed at them, knowing the consequences for inhouse fighting.

‘Stop!’

‘Leave it alone!’

Hands pulled at Carter’s shoulders and Junior, the big second rower, got between them.

‘Walk away, fellas. It’s not worth it.’

Carter battled for control over himself. It was Beau who wasn’t worth it.

‘What’s going on here?’ Ray’s voice cut through the yelling.

‘This isn’t over,’ Beau hissed before letting Junior push him backwards.

‘You’re damn right it isn’t.’

‘Hendrix, Randall. Problem?’ Ray asked.

‘There’s a snake in Carter and Ethan’s room,’ Diego said. ‘Sounded like Beau put it there.’

‘Prove it.’

‘That’s enough!’ Ray bellowed. ‘Everyone who doesn’t need to be here goes now before I send you on another five kays.’

They scrambled. All except Carter and Ethan.

‘Gray, is there really a snake in there?’ Ray asked.

‘Sure looked like it, sir. Or a big lizard.’

Lighter footsteps came from behind them, and Carter turned, running his fingers through his hair.

‘Someone mentioned a snake in a room?’

Indy stood there, work boots, shorts and shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and a cap on her head. Mara was behind her. For the third time in as many days, Carter wanted to disappear by way of sinkhole.

Indy looked straight at Carter. At least she didn’t seem pissed off at him.

‘There was a tail sticking up the wall and something moving under the covers. It was brown.’ He shuddered. It was probably an eastern brown, the kind Indy had warned them about. If Ethan hadn’t seen it, Carter could’ve been bitten and died.

Indy gave a nod and pointed to his door. ‘This one?’

‘Yep.’

She opened the door slowly and stuck her head in before pushing it wider. ‘Mara, grab that hessian sack from the back of the quad.’

The younger girl sprinted off as Indy entered the room. Carter hovered at the doorway, wanting to pull her back out. Sweat trickled down the back of his neck. He’d kill Beau if something happened to her.

‘Did I also hear right that someone put it in here?’ she asked.

‘We think so,’ Ethan supplied in a tone much calmer than anything Carter would be able to muster through his tight jaw. ‘No evidence of it, though.’

‘Except the giant snake in my bed.’

The tail was gone, but a large bulge beneath the covers at the bottom of his bed indicated where it was. Rather than untuck the covers, Indy slowly pulled the doona back until she hit halfway then, adjusting her grip, she flipped it back. Her shoulders visibly dropped.

‘It’s a big old carpet python,’ she said of the coiled mass of scales having a snooze on the comfy mattress, completely unaware of the drama it’d caused. ‘Non-venomous but they can still pack a punch with their strike. Risk of infection is pretty high with these guys if they get you.’

With the focus of an athlete, she gently pulled at one of the coils, waking the animal up.

Shit, it’s long . Carter stepped back as its head moved along his sheets, seemingly searching for another sleeping spot. With practised ease, Indy wrapped her fingers around the back of its head, holding it securely like he’d seen on those Queensland snake shows.

‘She’s a big one,’ Indy said, as she adjusted the grip of her other hand to support the snake closer to its midpoint, a metre or so from its head. The lower part wrapped around her thigh.

‘Is it trying to squeeze you?’ Carter asked, ready to pull the snake apart if he needed to.

Indy chuckled. ‘No, she’s just holding on. She’s a beauty. Nothing to be worried about. Did you want to hold her?’

‘Are you insane?’ The words slipped out before he could catch them. Luckily, she just laughed a bit harder.

Mara came into the room, holding the hessian bag open. ‘Ready.’

Indy looked from the bag to the tail wrapped securely around her thigh, then at Carter. ‘You can either hold the bag or unwrap the tail so I can get her in the bag.’

Neither option appealed to him.

Sack up, dude .

Without a word, he crouched down and peeled the snake’s lower half from Indy’s leg. His fingertips brushed her leg and a familiar warmth unfurled in his chest.

‘Drop the tail in the bag first,’ she directed. He did and she lowered the rest of the reptile in after he’d gotten his hands out of the way. Mara twisted the top of the bag closed and passed it to Indy.

Ray and Ethan clapping from the doorway made her smile.

‘Is there anything you can’t do?’ Ray asked Indy, an impressed gleam in his eye. ‘You could teach the team a thing or two about courage.’

‘It’s nothing. These beauties like to hang around the chook pen, so we get pretty used to relocating them.’

‘And you’ll be relocating that one far away from here?’ Ethan asked. ‘You know, in case it decides it likes Carter’s bed and wants to come back?’

Indy laughed again. ‘We’re headed into Windale to pick up a few things this morning, so we’ll drop her off in a section of the national park on the way in where there’ll be plenty of better spots than Carter’s bed for her new home.’

‘My hero,’ Carter said with a wink.

‘Any time.’ Indy held his gaze for a beat longer than was considered socially required. ‘Come on, Mara.’

They departed and Ray looked at his watch. ‘You boys have two minutes to get to the field. I don’t want to hear anything more about snakes today. Let it go.’

Carter’s jaw tightened as he grabbed his shoes and socks. It’d take effort to be the bigger man over this.