Page 22 of It Was Always You

A croaky voice answered at the other end. ‘Hello?’

Whoops. She would have to remember the time difference. ‘Adders? It’s Lily!’ She ignored his evident sleepiness.

‘Oh, hey, Lil.’ She heard a fumbling noise. ‘It’s okay, sweetheart, it’s Lil.’

Ah, Eve’s staying over. Lily bit back the jealousy. ‘So did you hear about the job?’

‘Yeah, yeah, I did.’

Lily was becoming impatient. ‘And?’

‘And… I got it!’ he shouted into her ear.

Tears pricked at her eyes, and she bit the inside of her cheek, knowing not only did that mean he had landed his dream job but that he would, without a doubt, soon be proposing to Eve.

‘Oh, Adders, that’s brilliant!’

‘Isn’t it? I start after the summer break. Not long now. Anyway, how are you? How’s Aus?’

‘Oh, still great and still great!’ she lied. She was homesick. Well, actually, she was Adam-sick. But she wouldn’t share that snippet of useless information. What good would it do?

‘Great. I’m so glad to hear that, Lil. Look, I’ll be honest… I’m worried about you.’

Lily snorted. ‘Worried about me? Why would you be worried about me? I’m having the time of my life, Adders. I’m fine. Honestly. Anyway, gotta go. This call is costing me a bloody fortune! Speak soon. Bye!’

‘Erm, but you’ve got a roaming contract?’

‘Yeah, yeah, bye for now.’ Her words came out in a rush, and she completely ignored what he’d said about her phone contract. She’d had to think of a way to get off the phone.

She hung up and threw her phone down as if it was on fire and stared at it angrily. He was worried. That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear that he missed her. That he wanted her to come home. That he was dumping Eve and wanted to propose to her instead. She laughed out loud at her ridiculous train of thought, but this was followed by a niggle of guilt; Eve was lovely and Lily wouldn’t hurt her for the world. Oh, the dichotomy.

Later on, Lily made her way to meet with a group of friends she had met on her travels. She walked into the crowded bar and scanned the room. Suddenly a pair of big hands covered her eyes, making her jump almost out of her skin.

‘Guess who?’ the husky, deep male voice tickled her ear. Bodhi.

‘Hmm, now let me think. There are so many people it could be…’

Bodhi dropped his hands from her eyes and huffed. ‘Charming.’

She turned to look up at his handsome tanned face. ‘Oh, Bodhi! It’s you!’ She feigned surprise.

Bodhi pouted. ‘Yeah. It’s me.’

Lily immediately felt a twinge of guilt when he looked genuinely hurt.

She tapped his nose with her fingertip. ‘Awww, Bodhi, don’t sulk. I was only messing.’ She slipped her arms around his neck and kissed his chin. A smile made its way across his angular features. He really was rather delicious.

He leaned down and took her mouth with his. He really knew how to make her melt. A moan escaped her as her legs turned to jelly.

He must have felt her wobble as his mouth curled into a smile against hers before he nibbled at her bottom lip. ‘Look, I wondered if we could get out of here instead of staying with the others? I want to take you to the beach.’

It sounded divine. After all, she didn’t really feel like drinking tonight.

‘Do you think we can sneak out before they see us?’ she whispered.

‘Nah, they know we’re here. But I told Marc earlier that I was taking you out, so they’re cool.’

Lily pursed her lips. ‘That was very presumptuous of you, Mr Knight.’