by Mia Terry
“Yeah,” Rhys half winced, “I can totally see that. I have to say I’m a little too spoiled by perfect blue seawater to ever be too tempted by water holes. But we can see when we get there. I went quite a few years ago with my parents, and it really was so beautiful they insisted on swimming in their underwear. It was prime embarrassment material for a guy almost in his teens, I can tell you.”
Everyone in the car laughed at that. Meeting Rhys’s mum made it very easy to imagine.
“I adored your mother by the way,” Jai said. “She said she does the Thursday Farmer’s Market. Do you think she’d let me come with her and help?”
“Um,” Rhys pretended to deliberate. “Handsome, charming man who wants to provide free labor. Yeah, she’d love for you to come, and she is used to doing it so you don’t have to stay all morning. You could just visit her.”
“What is the fun in that?” Jai answered. “I’ll call her tonight and arrange to meet her early. If I’m going to be a farmer/stallholder, for the day, I’ve got to do it properly. Anyway, who said anything about free, I will see if I can get a few pastries in payment.”
Rhys laughed and Ollie could see how much he liked Jai. “Hide them early. She usually runs out in the first hour, they are a particular favorite of her customers.”
Ollie held even tighter to Rhys’s hand as he easily conversed with Jai. Normally Ollie was in there playing at being the charming one, but he was still re-discovering his normal equilibrium. Somehow with Rhys, the stakes had risen, and Ollie was still finding his feet now he realized he cared.
The road turning bumpy had everyone bouncing. “Sorry,” Rhys said. “I should have reminded you about this. Not everyone loves driving through this crap. It’s only this potholed for another few kilometers and it probably got worse after the rain.”
“No dramas,” Luke replied, and it was obvious from his voice he meant it. “This is nothing. Country cop remember. You should see some of the almost non-existent tracks I end up driving down occasionally. And Billy behind us is probably having a great time.”
“Especially as it isn’t his car he is driving,” Jai added.
Ollie, Jai, and Luke laughed at that. “He is particularly car proud now he has bought a new car,” Ollie explained to Rhys. “I’ve only been in the car once, but I have rather strong memories about all the rules regarding food and drinks.”
“Yeah, they are strictly not allowed,” Jai chimed in. “And don’t think about getting in the vehicle with sandy feet. He actually pulls out the mini vac in front of you.”
“The opposite to my truck then,” said Rhys. “Coffee and very sandy feet and sandy bums are a daily occurrence.”
“It’s reasonably tidy for all that,” Ollie said, weirdly defending the truck he actually really liked.
Rhys dimpled over at him. “Yeah well I do clean it regularly because clients get lifts in it. But just me, and we’re talking sand drift territory.”
Ollie felt vaguely discomforted that he fit into the client category Rhys put on a good face for. The hand still in his probably gave him a different status, but he just wasn’t sure exactly what it was.
Before he got too in his own head, they arrived at their destination. It was still early enough in the morning that there weren’t many other cars around, and the car park, though basic, was surrounded by pretty gum trees.
Billy and Kris parked next to them and as predicted Billy had a wide smile on his face from the drive.
“Now you’d think the mechanic in you would think of the damage done to the car’s suspension,” Ollie teased him.
Billy shrugged. “Nah the mechanic in me probably adds up how much the garage can charge to replace it much quicker.”
Ollie laughed, more relaxed than he’d been all morning. Billy’s friendship had taken longer to achieve than the one he’d so easily struck up with Kris, but it had been worth the wait.
“Did you have a good pizza and naked night,” he asked the younger man.
From the slight blush on Billy’s cheeks, at the question, they had had a very good time. “We won the pool in the toss, so yeah, it was pretty great.”
“I’m still not convinced Kris didn’t have a double-headed coin,” Jai chimed in.
“Sore loser,” said his best friend, smacking a large kiss on his cheek. “We’ll let you have the pool tonight and promise not to peek. Hell, we’ll even put on loud music, so Luke doesn’t get shy.”
“I’d spank your ass if I didn’t think Luke would actually appreciate the loud music, so I’ll take you up on it,” Jai replied, only once poking out his tongue at Kris with a shake of his head. Luke looked a little pained at the conversation, but at the same time looked pleased enough that Ollie was convinced both men were in for a fun night.
It didn’t take them long before everyone was heading down the track. They moved at a good pace, everyone paired next to their partner.
“It’s very Noah’s ark,” Ollie observed to Rhys. “Everyone moving two by two.”
Rhys smiled, but it was a distracted smile. Then after a moment's pause, he asked. “That isn’t why I’m really here, is it? I know you joked about being the fifth man, but you’re not keeping me around just so you have someone to do activities with are you?”
“No,” Ollie said emphatically. He thought Rhys could see their connection was more meaningful than that. Though with his hot and cold behavior this morning he could see why Rhys might be doubtful. “No,” he repeated more gently.
They were the last two in their group on the track so they could slow down and be completely out of earshot.
“I’m thirty years old,” Ollie continued. “I’ve been single most of my adult life, so I know how to be content even in a group of couples. I’m here with you because I want your company not because I need an escort to make me feel less lonely.”
Rhys had almost completely come to a stop while they’d been talking and not taken his eyes off Ollie’s face. “Okay,” he said with a shrug. “I believe that. But what is with you today? You didn’t seem to want to touch me in the apartment this morning and the only thing I can put your behavior down to is post-shag regret, which I have to say would be weird because it wouldn’t have been even the first time we’ve fucked.”
Okay, Ollie had somehow forgotten Rhys was the kind of guy who just came out and asked these things. This was an upfront honesty that wasn’t the norm in the more casual types of dating Ollie normally participated in. But Ollie did owe him at least truthfulness, if not a spitting out of all his feelings.
“Not post-shag regret, I promise,” Ollie smiled. “The sex is overwhelmingly great and I’m not the type of masochist who is going to ever feel sad about having amazing sex. I guess I’m working through some of the things we talked about last night. Our discussion was heavy and I’m a little confused about a few things.”
Rhys’s face was unreadable as he started walking down the trail slowly. “Maybe last night was too heavy a conversation for a holiday romance. I care about the choices you make, but I can back off if you need me to.”
“No,” Ollie’s response was immediate and emphatic enough to surprise even him. “Your opinion means something to me. I can’t say I’m definitely going to take your advice, but I appreciate you giving it to me.” Ollie put out his hand and took Rhys’s in his own. “I’m sorry for being a weirdo this morning. Normally I’m impeccably charming, so I can only apologize.”
Rhys squeezed back his hand. “I actually don’t need the impeccable charm, in fact, I prefer my interactions with you to be sincere, but if we could do away with the cold bastard act, I wouldn’t say no.”
Ollie raised his eyebrows at that characterization but couldn’t argue with his conclusion so could only nod. “The cold bastard is gone for the day.”
This time their walking was far more in synch and Ollie relaxed into the actual experience. They weren’t going to talk about more heavy issues for the moment, so he could look at the details of what they were walk
ing through. Beautiful ancient rainforest trees lined the trail, and the density of the rainforest created a feeling of absolute seclusion. The other men must have gotten far enough ahead that any of their noise was absorbed into the bush. Here, all Ollie could hear was the movement of the trees, sounds from the multitude of birds and Rhys’s footsteps beside him. As uncertain as Ollie was about every part of his future, he couldn’t help feel his body lose most of its tension.
In fact, he had relaxed so much looking at his surroundings he was a little startled when Rhys pulled on his arm. “Eyes on the track,” Rhys reminded him.
Ollie got a bit of a shock that he’d almost walked into the massive trunk of a tree, which had fallen over the path.
“I don’t think the national park rangers get out here very often,” said Rhys. “Anyway, a bit of an obstacle course is part of the charm of the walk.”
Rhys easily clambered over the tree trunk and waited at the other side for Ollie. “So not for the elderly then,” Ollie replied. He was touched that Rhys so naturally extended his hand to him, so they could continue on the path.
“Well that and the leaches,” Rhys said, matter-of-factly.
Ollie tried, he really tried to hide his full body shiver of disgust. However, holding Rhys's hand made it impossible for the message not to get across. And Rhys’s shout of laughter made it clear he’d understood.
“You can’t possibly be afraid of leeches,” Rhys said, semi-incredulously.
“No, I just love slugs that attach themselves under your clothes and suck your blood, who doesn’t,” Ollie replied.
He knew he’d lost his macho badge, but what he didn’t expect was the gentle way Rhys pulled him into his arms for a soft kiss. “It’s okay darling. I’ll be on leech patrol tonight. I’ll inspect you all over and salt all those nasty leaches away.”
Ollie smiled widely. The “darling” that Rhys used, absentmindedly, almost made up for the fact the word leaches had been in the same sentence. “I’ll hold you to that. Kris and I are good friends, but I think Billy might object to him performing a crevice check on me.”
Rhys threw back his head and laughed. “I can just see you trying to broach that one. You better be nice to me today, otherwise, Billy might insist on being there, prison warden style, when that happens.”
Ollie’s shiver wasn’t all theatrics. But he relaxed again into the walk and had to scramble through a few more obstacles. Rhys wasn’t wrong about the less than perfect maintenance of the track.
The loveliest moment of the walk came when the path came up next to a stream bubbling along filled with shiny wet rocks. Ollie stopped and looked up and took in the beauty of the tree canopy above. There was something so strange about being in the dense forest and then looking up at the perfect pieces of sky, blue against the branches and the million different shades of green in the leaves. It wasn’t just the physical beauty though that stirred Ollie. Perhaps more moving was how Rhys came up behind him silently, wrapped his arm around Ollie’s chest and allowed him to relax back into his strong body. Together they just breathed and took in the perfect snapshot of nature.
They stood there for minutes, taking in the moment, and then as if by arrangement they unraveled and began walking again. This time their pace was a little faster, and all too quickly they could hear Ollie’s friend’s voices ahead of them.
Chapter 12
Walking through the rainforest with Ollie, Rhys tried to focus on the beautiful surroundings rather than his confusing feelings about the man moving next to him. With the emotion that seemed to have been brewing between them all day, it was kind of a relief to hear Billy’s “Coo-hee” and round the curve next to the stream to see the men.
“Finally,” said Kris. “We’ve been waiting so long we’d begun to wonder if you’d ducked off into the woods together.”
“We’ve been waiting all of five minutes,” Luke said with a smile. “I don’t think you should cast aspersions on Ollie’s stamina.”
Rhys laughed with the others. Yeah, Ollie’s stamina wasn’t his problem, though his emotional constipation might be. Maybe it was because Rhys had grown up with parents whose light hippy leanings meant issues were always talked through, but Rhys was beginning to find Ollie’s hot and cold routine more than a little frustrating.
It would be easy if he could just dismiss the man as a boring rich bloke who didn’t know how to come to terms with the problems in his life. But the challenge was he really cared for him, and when they’d stood before, with Ollie relaxed in his arms looking up at the natural beauty of the rainforest, Rhys had felt more at peace with the world than he usually felt in the presence of another person. He was just conflicted that it was this particular person who he felt this way about. Ollie was not only heading back to Sydney but was also serious about a career abroad.
So yeah, it was a relief to be back in the others’ cheerful presence, even as there was part of his body that ached when he dropped Ollie’s hand to answer Billy’s cheerful questions.
Rhys had done the walk enough times to be used to the last slightly muddy bit of the path.
“Shit,” Kris swore, as he splashed mud up his jeans, which were definitely designer. Both Jai and Ollie looked similarly uncomfortable, but stoically didn’t verbalize it. Though Luke’s wink at Rhys told him that no one was convinced.
Rounding the corner, mud and even leaches were forgotten in the majesty of the falls. They were spectacular today, as the recent rain had kept the river that supplied them full. One hundred meters of sheer rock face and water tumbling down created a rainbow effect.
“Gorgeous,” said Billy next to him. However, Rhys was looking around to see Ollie’s reaction. That the smile on Ollie’s face was genuine and wide, eased something in Rhys he didn’t want to think about too closely. He just knew that seeing it created an echoing smile on his own face.
“Yeah, it’s beautiful,” he said, but he was looking away from the falls.
A sharp look from Billy told him, his attention drift had been noted though not disapproved of.
They weren’t the only ones there today. It was a reasonably popular walking trip and although they’d arrived before the day’s big rush, they would have had to have gotten up far earlier for full privacy. Rhys was almost glad for the lack of privacy. If it had been just them, he’d have been tempted to swim under the falls, but he’d done the walk squishy and wet before and knew it just wasn’t worth it.
The others in his group seemed to have agreed. Maybe it was the sight of the middle-aged bearded man, in his wet see-through saggy underwear slipping on the rocks that made it a less attractive proposition.
Instead, they found a set of rocks where they could sun themselves and settled down with their faces pointed up towards the falls. When Rhys found himself beside Ollie again, he wasn’t sure if he or Ollie had engineered it, so instinctive their pull towards each other seemed to be.
“So how old were you when your parents did the underwear-clad swimming thing?” Ollie asked, with a smile.
“About eleven and I of course had the extreme mortification that only a pre-pubescent boy can experience. Really, I think it was only in deference to me that all the clothes didn’t come off. As it was, I sat over there and put a lot of energy into pretending I didn’t know them. That was a little hard, as they kept on calling to me to tell me how great the water felt.
Retelling his embarrassment was completely worth it, at the sound of Ollie’s lighthearted giggle.
“I love it,” Ollie said. “My parents are definitely far too uptight to do that.”
Ollie’s amusement was enough for Rhys to do something impulsive. “Why don’t you come have dinner with us tonight? I usually go there on a Wednesday, and I’d like you to meet my dad and see my mum again.”
Rhys immediately felt like he had messed up when the easy amusement vanished from Ollie’s face, but it was quickly followed by a kind of reluctant pleasure.
“Are you sure?” Ollie questioned.
“I mean your parents might not like having to host this random guy who is your holiday fling.”
Rhys tried not to be hurt Ollie had referred to him in such a way for the second time that day. He knew Ollie’s feelings were more complex than that, he just wished it didn’t come with dismissing what seemed to be growing between them.
However, challenging Ollie about it at this moment would be counterproductive. So, Rhys carried on. “Well, as my parents know I wouldn’t bring any random to our Wednesday dinner, I’m sure they won’t worry.”
His words were enough for an unspoken look of embarrassment to pass over Ollie’s face. Yeah, the dude could be slightly dickish at times but at least he knew when he had crossed the line.
A gust of wind sprayed some mist of the waterfall their way and Rhys watched mesmerized as Ollie brushed the blonde strands off his own face. The chill was enough for Rhys to want to start the walk back, and as soon as he mentioned it to Luke, they were quickly rounded up and hiking back up the hill this time. There was definitely an advantage to having a very organized policeman in their midst.
On the walk back, Rhys found himself walking beside Kris. It was obvious in watching the group that Kris was Ollie’s closest friend out of the men, so Rhys wasn’t surprised Kris’s curiosity had led him to seek Rhys out.
“Are you enjoying Byron so far?” Rhys asked.
Kris’s smile was wide, leaving no doubt about the sincerity of his answer. “Adore it. Sexy accommodation I’m sharing with my even sexier partner, with my best friends in the cabin next door and amazing scenery and food. What’s not to love?”
“Put like that, Mark should get you to do all his advertising,” Rhys smiled back. He liked Kris with his unfailing energy and obvious adoration for his partner.
