Page 11 of Unfinished Desire
Barra shot her a scowl but didn’t seem too perturbed. “And fries flaked with sea salt. Definitely a chocolate lava cake for dessert. I’ve been craving chocolate.”
“Seriously. Can I just finish the letter?” Kendall said, looking annoyed. She waved the letter in the air and pressed her already thin lips even thinner.
Barra held up both hands in surrender, and Isla took that moment to look at Tamsyn, only to find Tamsyn watching her. Isla nearly flicked her eyes down to the dirt, but stopped herself. If one of them had to look away, then surely it should be Tamsyn. She was the one who tried to kiss Isla last night when the moment certainly didn’t call for it. She should be the one to feel awkward. But nope. Tamsyn just stared. Those coffee eyes were like magnets. Isla’s ears felt hot and stuffy. She could barely even hear Kendall finish the letter, because at that moment Isla wanted to reverse time, step back into the forest with the starsabove their heads and let Tamsyn kiss her, let her lead her to the trunk of a river red gum, and let her do to her what she’d done all those months ago.
“Let’s grab our things. We’ve got a challenge to get to,” Kendall said, wrenching Isla back to the present.
THE CHALLENGE WAS SIMPLE—USEa series of rope swings suspended from a large timber gantry built across the creek to a bank where a stack of six wooden boxes waited. Each box was tied with a thick rope, and inside each one were pieces for a puzzle. But before you could undo the boxes, you first had to swim them back through the creek to the starting line where either a pink or white canvas sheet was stretched across the rust-red, iron-rich earth.
Easy peasy.
Or maybe it wasn’t. The ropes were hanging at slightly different heights, and the creek was at least twenty feet wide. The bank was uneven and seemed to be waiting for someone to roll their ankle. Plus, they had to grab those boxes and swim them back across the creek, and they looked heavy.
“AND GO!” Vivian shouted, blowing a horn she’d conjured up out of thin air.
They were off.
Isla shot off the starting line like a bullet. She lunged for the climbing ladder and managed to grab the first rope before Janelle from the opposite team could even get to the top bar. Then she leaped into the air without a second of hesitation. It wasn’t the smartest move. “Shit,” Isla muttered under her breath as the swing threatened to fling her sideways into the creek. Not that she let it. She contracted every single one of her muscles as she threw herself to the next rope and the next. When she hitthe bank with a hard thump, she nearly lost her balance. But not to worry, because she’d done enough runways wearing six-inch stilettos to know her ankles were going to get her through this. Then she raced for the stacked boxes just as Janelle leaped onto the bank behind her.
“FASTER!” Petra called. She was on the same team as Isla and Tamsyn. Together with Nadine, Josie, and Aggie, they made up the blue team.
Isla whipped her head back just in time to see Tamsyn jump onto the bank. Their eyes met, and for a second Isla felt an uncanny flutter deep in her stomach. It was a feeling she could’ve blamed on adrenaline if it weren’t for the way her entire body seemed to tilt toward Tamsyn. Then there was the case of Tamsyn running in slow motion. She was dressed in black shorts and a neon yellow sports bra that made her lovely breasts jut out. With that and the sight of her rippling biceps, Isla felt as though she couldn’t breathe.
“COME ON, GUYS!” Petra shouted again, yanking Isla out of her stupor. “FASTER!”
Isla’s body kicked into gear. She whipped her head forward and sprinted the last few feet to the boxes. When she reached them, she jumped for the top one, swatting it onto the ground in the process. Then she grabbed it and turned back toward the creek just as Petra, who had gone last out of the six, shouted again, this time at Josie.
Josie, who was the least athletically inclined out of all of them, was battling with the second rope. She clung to it for dear life and stared at that last rope as if it were a torture device. Which, technically, it could easily have been.
Aggie and Nadine had just landed on the bank when Isla waded into the cool water.
“Don’t give up, Jo!” she shouted.
At the same time, Barra, who was bringing up the rear for the pink team, finished the second rope and was about to launch herself toward the last one. But then she swung too aggressively. The rope shot forward and then snapped back, and Barra lost her grip. She flailed like a bird and fell into the water just as Josie made the jump to the final rope. And yes, she landed on the bank.
Isla would’ve kissed her in congratulations if she weren’t already halfway across the creek. Tamsyn was right behind her. Isla could see her bright bandana out of the corner of her eye.
They reached the bank together and ran in step toward the canvas sheet.
“We can start untying the boxes,” Tamsyn said breathlessly. “But we have to wait for everyone else to get here before we start with the puzzle.” She dropped to her knees and started on the rope. Her fingers fumbled with the knots, and Isla lost a second, possibly three, watching Tamsyn’s biceps contract.
UGH! Focus.Isla forced her attention back to her box. She got the ropes free just as Josie, Nadine, and Aggie reached the sheet. “I’ll help Josie,” Isla said, turning her back to Tamsyn, who had raced forward to help Nadine. If she couldn’t see her, she couldn’t imagine Tamsyn’s arms folding around her. She couldn’t regret not kissing her last night.
“Blue team, you can start on your puzzle. And that’s a go for the pink team as well,” Vivian announced.
The pieces were thick wooden tiles. Isla flipped one over and saw a streak of burnt orange cutting across it. Then she saw another one shaded in rust-red.
“Sky,” Petra said immediately, dragging pieces toward her.
“No, I think the orange is a cliff face,” Isla countered, already aligning two jagged edges that formed the silhouette of a ridge.
It became clear quickly. The puzzle was the season’s logo—a stylized outline of Wilpena Pound rising against a blazingoutback sunset. The wordOUTLAST HERwas stamped across it in cracked white lettering, and there was a brown curved boomerang slicing beneath it.
“Edges first!” Tamsyn called. “Anything that’s blue.”
“I’ve got two!” Josie shouted, sliding the pieces across the canvas.
The logo was starting to take shape. A strip of pale blue sky was locked into a band of orange horizon. Another piece revealed the jagged ridge line of the Pound, and another, in rust-red, showed the base of the mountain. Isla’s hands were moving so fast, sorting and placing that she barely paid any attention to the pink team. Though at some point she’d heard Barra and Janelle arguing about which piece went where. That could’ve been minutes ago. She was completely focused on the puzzle. All she could think about was that reward, and not Tamsyn.
