Long Game

by Catherine Evans

  ‘Thanks, Watercress. Trust you to bring it down to that.’ He snorted and rubbed her head. Everything was back to normal.

  ***

  A week later as he dressed to go out, everything wasn’t quite normal. Each day, his head had gone somewhere less and less normal. It began by thinking about this as a date, and more thoughts happened each day, so now it was all he could think about. He hadn’t dated since the issue and this was like a date.

  Except she was his mate’s little sister. More like his brother than his sister even, or so he kept reminding himself. But she had a body that intrigued him. The taste of her teased his tongue relentlessly.

  His mind kept toying with the thought of dating Cress. He had to stop. It’s not this hard. Chuck on a shirt and go.

  But this was all a cover-up. He was dragging his feet. Trying to talk himself out of going by thinking about everything except the venue. He didn’t want to go back. He didn’t want the nightmares the place held for him. He didn’t want the threat of running into those people, even if he wasn’t sure he’d remember what they looked like. Thoughts of Cress were only there to hide his fears.

  There was a thump on his door. ‘You ready, Quin?’ It was as if she knew he was having second, third and fourth thoughts.

  ‘Coming.’ He dragged in a breath, held it and allowed his nerves to settle. Watercress wasn’t going to leave him, she’d be his ferocious protector, and in this situation, he trusted her more than he would any of her brothers. Not that he’d be mentioning that to anyone. If his thoughts and chats with Cress had led him anywhere, it was to realise that women dealt with these kind of threats more often than men, and Cress understood his fears.

  He stepped out of his room. ‘Watercress.’ His breath was stuck and it took him a moment to unhitch it. ‘You look great.’ That was a lame description. ‘Fabulous, even. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress.’

  Cress laughed and spun, making the skirt lift and flirt with her thighs. Good grief, he’d seen her legs in shorts a million times but they looked different with the soft green material slithering over them. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t go out with her. His gut twisted.

  ‘I only own two, so by next week, you’ll have seen my entire wardrobe for dressing up.’

  It was exactly what Quin needed. This was his Watercress, making him laugh. He was back on solid footing.

  She might look soft and feminine in that floaty green dress, but she was still his ferocious, funny Watercress.

  They scrambled outside and into the waiting taxi for the short trip to the hotel. Cress had offered to drive but he didn’t want her to have any more responsibilities than he’d already lumped on her.

  In the taxi, it was hot and sticky and he began to sweat, but since the drive was only for a few moments, he didn’t ask for the air conditioning to be turned on. As soon as they pulled up, he opened the door and tumbled into the cooler air. Except it wasn’t. Sweat clung to him.

  He offered his hand to Cress, helping her out, and turned to pay the driver. When he stood and looked at the hotel, he sucked air as he wiped his hands down his thighs. At least it would be cooler inside.

  Watercress slipped her hand inside his and then jiggled their hands so that her fingers interlocked with his. She squeezed tightly, once, before easing off the pressure but she didn’t let go of his hand. Together they walked inside.

  He didn’t feel the gust of cool air he was expecting. It was still warm. Hot even. ‘Isn’t their air conditioning working?’ He hissed the question in Watercress’s ear as they made their way towards the restaurant. ‘Do you want to go somewhere else?’

  Her face creased and she glanced at him before stopping and leading him into a quiet corner at the rear of the foyer area. ‘It’s on, Quin.’ She pointed to the goosebumps that prickled her skin. ‘How about we stand here for a few minutes? We’re early for the booking anyway.’

  He glanced around at the foyer and before he could make a thought, Cress tugged his hand. ‘Look, tourist things. Come and let me see what you haven’t shown me yet.’ Within a few seconds Cress began pointing to brochures, asking him questions, laughing at the photos on some of the flyers. Her barrage of ‘have you been here?’ and ‘what’s this like?’ kept his mind off anything but answering her. And the air conditioning kicked in.

  A chill darted across his shoulderblades.

  He stared at her, blinked twice, and then his lips firmed and lifted. ‘You’re a miracle worker, Watercress. We can go in now.’ She’d annihilated his fear without him even noticing what she was doing. There wasn’t a drop of distress inside him. He’d cooled, was safe, and as he looked around the hotel, nothing happened to his body.

  ‘Oh, good, because I’m starving.’

  Thank goodness she hadn’t called him a drama queen. He was. His reaction had been ridiculous, yet she took it in her stride almost as if she hadn’t noticed his overreaction.

  He chuckled as they went towards the restaurant and the promised seafood buffet. Cress had been salivating about it every night this week, and he hoped she wasn’t going to be disappointed.

  She wasn’t. She oohhed and aahhed as she filled her plate. The decadent sounds only increased as she ate, savouring every bite.

  ‘We need to eat more seafood,’ he said when her mouth was full. She nodded, fast, making him chuckle. They already ate seafood twice a week but it was mostly fish, not everything that was on offer tonight.

  ‘This is so fresh. You can taste the salt. It’s not like that after it’s shipped to Grong Grong.’ Cress waved an empty oyster shell as she spoke.

  Quin chuckled. He remembered having a similar reaction when he first moved to Sydney. ‘I’d forgotten.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘The different taste of fresh seafood on the coast, to frozen at home.’

  Cress grinned. ‘Have you forgotten the taste of fresh lamb?’

  Quin frowned and thought about that for way too long.

  ‘Quin, you haven’t?’ Cress seemed horrified.

  ‘I didn’t eat it as often as you Kennedys.’

  ‘Next time you’re home, we’re having a BBQ. I’ll make sure Dad has some fresh chops. And we can bring meat back for you.’ She took a long breath. ‘I can’t believe you’ve forgotten.’ She shook her head as if horrified at the thought.

  She paused halfway through peeling a prawn. ‘What else do you forget when you’ve been here so long?’ She bit her lip. ‘I don’t know that I want to forget anything about home.’

  Such a forlorn statement made his heart ache for her. ‘Watercress, you won’t be here all that long. You’ll be heading home soon. You won’t forget anything.’

  ‘You have.’

  He smiled. ‘My memories from home aren’t always as strong as yours.’

  She frowned, jammed her elbow into the table and leaned towards him. Her movements seemed to indicate that she was ready to argue with him. ‘Why not?’ Her tone was gentle, probing, the softest she’d used with him tonight.

  ‘My favourite memories of home are being at your place. With just me at home, it was quiet, so never much fun.’

  ‘I never think of you being anywhere but at the farm.’ Cress’s smile was soft and wistful. ‘Would you move back to Grong Grong, after footy, I mean, or are you completely a city slicker now?’

  Quin shrugged. ‘I haven’t thought of finishing footy.’ He saw Cress’s eyebrows lift and added with a grin, ‘I reckon I’ve got at least a few years left in me.’

  ‘You haven’t, um, planned for life post-football?’ She waved the prawn she was peeling as she spoke.

  ‘No. Have you?’

  Cress grinned and nodded. ‘I don’t want to say that it’s a set in concrete plan, but yes, I’ve thought about it and talked about it with Dad.’

  ‘Farming?’

  Cress nodded. ‘I love it, Quin.’ She peeled another prawn and added it to her stack of peeled prawns before picking up another ready to shell. ‘No
ne of the boys do, and that’s fine, because it’d never support all of us. But Dad and I have talked about how we’ll manage the succession planning so it’s fair for me taking it on, but still giving the guys something to inherit.’

  ‘Really? Your dad’s what, fifties, and you’re early twenties, you’ve both got years ahead.’

  Cress nodded. ‘Hopefully. But a couple of accidents and unexpected deaths years ago made Dad start thinking about it and talking to us about what we all wanted to do.’ She shrugged. ‘I guess since there’s only him, he’s always been pretty open about death and our responsibilities, and what we should do if anything happened.’

  ‘I didn’t know that.’ He pinched a peeled prawn from her plate, and surprisingly, she just grinned at him. ‘We’ve never done anything remotely like that. I wouldn’t have thought of it.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you have to worry, Quin, but losing Mum so young probably made Dad more aware of how quickly things can change. If they hadn’t had things in place, he could have been in a tough spot, financially, not just with five kids to look after and a farm to run.’

  He’d known the Kennedys his whole life and never once had anything like this crossed his mind. ‘I don’t know how your dad managed.’

  ‘He had a lot of help, but yeah, he’s an amazing man. Plus he and Mum had things in place in case anything happened to either of them.’ She smiled as she dropped the last peeled prawn to her plate. ‘If you’re going to eat more of these, do you mind if I put lemon on them?’

  Quin chuckled and shook his head. ‘You peeled them, you eat them. I can go get my own.’

  She lifted her brows and tipped her head towards the table. ‘Hurry, or they’ll run out, especially if you wait for me to get more.’

  ‘I’ve got time while you’re eating those.’ He grinned but went to grab another plate of prawns. He owed her at least one.

  When he came back, he placed the plate between them and said he’d brought them to share. Her grin was a fabulous reward.

  He began to peel and eat while he asked about her future plans.

  ‘I’ll play footy as long as they’ll have me in the W.A.R. Dad’s happy to work around that part, even if the season gets extended. So, that’s good.’ She added pepper to her last few prawns and closed her eyes as she ate the first of the peppered ones.

  He wondered why she hadn’t added pepper to them all, but knowing Cress, she’d be savouring different tastes. She was likely to go and get a dressing for the next lot.

  ‘And footy’s here in Sydney, but then you have to play back home too?’

  ‘Yeah, that’s the deal, especially while it’s a short season. I think it’s good, growing the grass roots at the same time as extending the game. It’s a smart way to develop a strong competition, even if it might take longer to have a full-blown female comp.’

  He nodded. ‘But how do you make a life living between the city and the country?’

  The prawn hovered just above Cress’s mouth, distracting Quin. Then she tapped it against her lips, as if she wasn’t even noticing that she was doing it. She ate it in three bites, which he’d bet she hadn’t tasted. Finally, she looked at him. Right at him, as if she could see deep inside.

  ‘In the long run, I plan to go back to Grong Grong and farm. I don’t think I can juggle a relationship and football, so I don’t have to worry about that right now. And I prefer to think of the time I spend in Sydney as football, rather than city living.’ She paused, deep furrows burrowing into her forehead as if she was thinking really hard about what she wanted to say next. ‘Other girls can juggle everything but I don’t think I can. I don’t know that there’s a recipe for life, is there? I’m just kind of living the cards that get dealt. Like I said before, my plans aren’t set in concrete, they’re just plans.’

  He nodded.

  ‘Do you think there’s a recipe, Quin?’

  He shrugged. ‘You’re the only person I’ve ever had this kind of conversation with, so I haven’t thought these things through before. But I kind of expected to play footy, then have a wife and kids and retire from footy at some stage, then run around after the kids as they play footy.’

  Cress looked like she was fighting laughter.

  ‘What?’ He gave her leg a bit of a kick under the table. ‘What’s so funny about that?’

  ‘It’s not so much funny, it’s just that your whole plan revolves around football. What if you get injured? What if your kids don’t want to play? What if you don’t find a wife? What do you do to pay for this life?’

  Quin shrugged and grinned. ‘Like I said, I’ve never thought about this stuff before.’

  ‘If you didn’t come to Sydney, what would you have done for work?’

  ‘Work?’

  She nodded. ‘Yeah, to supplement your footy addiction.’ Her lips were twisted into a wry grin.

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t remember. I got signed while I was at school, so I didn’t really have to think about it.’

  ‘You’ve never worried about injury?’

  ‘Nah.’ He ate a few mouthfuls as he thought. ‘Rather foolish of me not to think of it, I guess. But also, if you think about it, don’t you court it happening?’

  Cress shrugged. ‘Dunno. I don’t think there’s a right answer. I’m just curious.’ She waggled a prawn at him, its black beady eyes and long feelers flapping. ‘And I like finding out more about you.’

  ‘You do? How come?’

  A hint of pink skittered across her cheekbones. ‘Mostly because you’re different to Tris and the others, even if I think about you all as the same.’ There was something about her words that didn’t quite ring true but Quin wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe it was because she’d stopped looking him in the eye, or maybe it was that distracting shade of blush.

  ‘We’ve all done okay for ourselves, so in that way we are the same.’

  She nodded. ‘You’re also the same because none of you have multiple plans. You’re all pretty single-minded about what you want to do in life.’

  Quin leaned forward and grinned. ‘Hello Pot, meet Kettle.’

  There was a pause for a second and then she laughed. Her gaze met his and she was sparkling with merriment. ‘Okay, so we’re all single-minded. But really, I have a backup plan because I’ve got footy and farming, which is more than any of you guys.’

  Quin laughed and reached out to tweak her nose. ‘I’m not sure that counts as a backup plan, Watercress, but nice try.’

  Not once through the night did Quin think about his previous trip there; his entire focus remained on Watercress, his non-date.

  Chapter 13

  Cress took two huge deep breaths. It was ridiculous to be worried about stepping through her bedroom door and meeting Quin. He’d seen her filthy, soaked, sweaty, even scratchy from harvesting oats, and he hadn’t blinked an eyelid. Last weekend had blown it for her. She should never have worn that dress. His eyes had gone all wide and delicious and those memories had her worried about stepping out tonight.

  How could someone see you all the time and the impact be minimal, yet stick girl-clothes on and the impact almost blew your feet off?

  And why did his reaction affect her so much? The non-date had been so much better than any date she’d ever had … except it didn’t end with a kiss, or anything more. That was her fault because she’d run inside, leaving Quin paying for the taxi. Why? She still couldn’t say even after a week of asking herself the question.

  The butterflies tumbling inside fluttered harder than she’d ever felt them. Her damp palm slid on the door handle but she caught it and wrenched the door open before she could chicken out.

  You’re a nut.

  She took two steps but the sound of her heels on the floorboards was drawing too much attention with its staccato beat, so she took the next steps on tiptoes. Much better. She tiptoed down the hall to the lounge room, butterflies still upsetting her insides, and her brain giving her conflicting messages—her logical mind reassuring, but
her sympathetic mind telling her to take flight.

  One look at black-suited broad shoulders and her feet froze, heels clunking down on the floorboards like bricks. Quin spun around and stopped dead. Then his eyes flared. His lips parted. His hand lifted, stretched towards her, but there was half a room between them.

  ‘Cressida Kennedy.’ His tone sent shudders through her that set her butterflies storming.

  She gulped. Went to automatically wipe her sweating palms along her thighs and stopped, balling her hands into fists. Petra had told her at least a dozen times not to rub her hands on her dress. It went along with a heap of other instructions that Cress was sure she wouldn’t remember.

  For now, she had to respond to Quin. Not her normal Quin, but a large, tanned, shiny-eyed, neat, scrubbed, suit-wearing, breathtaking Quin. ‘Quin. You look amazing.’ He did, except she thought her comment might have been something else on Petra’s list.

  ‘I should be the one saying that.’ He moved towards her, the shine from his shoes flashing from beneath his trouser cuffs. Trousers that caught around his thighs like a kiss. She shook her head. That made no sense. Her brain was scrambled.

  She chuckled. ‘We’ll make a good showing.’

  He nodded as he extended his slightly bent elbow. ‘Shall we?’

  Cress drew in another deep breath before she slid her hand into the crook of his arm. Quin placed his fingers over hers and squeezed briefly. ‘I’ve seen your whole frocked-up wardrobe and I’m impressed.’ His lips quirked and he tipped his head as he slowly scanned her from the top of her tousled moussed hair, across her made-up face, over her cerulean sheath-clad body, to her ridiculously strappy silver heels. He let out a low whistle. ‘But it’s a bit like I’ve never known you.’

  As her stomach clenched, all the butterflies calmed. Cress’s heart made an extra beat and her mouth twisted into a grin. She had to keep this controlled. ‘Same old me. Don’t worry. Just different packaging.’

  He winked. ‘We’ll make a dashing pair of scrubbed up, citified Grong Grongites.’