Summer Down Under (7 page)

Several hours, some tall stories, and more
than a few cans of beer later, the stocky guy with curly black hair
escorted Sam to her room. It turned out that he was Canadian, and
everyone called him “Moose”.

“There you go,” he said as he watched her
walk, or more accurately, stumble to her bed. “Goodnight, Sam.
Sleep well. We’ll see you in the morning.” Just as he was about to
turn and leave, he looked back in her direction and continued. “If
you need anything or get worried in the night, just call. One of us
will come and see what’s up.” He gave her a warm smile.

“Thanks,” Sam whispered.

“Not a problem.” He smiled again and
left.

Sam raised her eyebrows as she wandered
towards her bed. Nice guys, what a concept. Maybe she was just
really unlucky with her first and only choice of boyfriend. Maybe
not all men are complete asses, after all. Sam contemplated that
thought for a moment, conceding that she hadn’t met one unpleasant
man on her trip so far. Certainly none of them had made her feel
threatened.

Thankfully, none of the guys sparked any
unwanted feelings in her, not like Daniel had. They just fell
effortlessly into the roles of big brother. She still had feelings
for Daniel she couldn’t explain. Thoughts of him haunted most of
her waking hours until she fell asleep and he was there in her
dreams, too.

It had been six weeks since their encounter
in Bali. Yet even though she knew they would never see each other
again, he still kept creeping into her thoughts on a regular basis,
and she couldn’t keep them suppressed for long. It was hard for Sam
to understand why someone she only knew for three days would stay
with her for so long.

Yet again she pushed the feeling aside and
fell blissfully into a very deep sleep.

***

“Morning,” a faint voice echoed through Sam’s
head.

“Huh?” Her groggy, sleep-fogged brain
responded.

“Had one too many beers last night, did we?”
the bubbly voice continued.

“Ooh, ow.” Sam brought her hand to her head.
Did it have to pound like that? She cracked an eye open to see to
whom the offending voice belonged. Her eye eventually focused in on
Sophie smiling down at her. Sam wondered if she was always so
chipper, or if it was just part of the job description of being
Australian.

Sam groaned. Then kicked herself for getting
drunk.
Samantha Gallagher! How stupid was that?
She inwardly
screamed.
Did you not learn a thing?
Anything could have
happened...Anything!
Sam closed her eyes on her inner diatribe
and brought her palm up to her forehead.

“I told you they were a great bunch of guys,
didn’t I? You look like you had fun last night,” Sophie
shouted.

Actually, she wasn’t shouting, but anything
more than a whisper seemed that way to Sam’s very delicate head at
that moment in time. She opened her eyes and gave the friendly
manager a weak smile.

“We’re all having breakfast in the kitchen,
do you want to join us?” Sophie asked.

“Um, okay. Thanks,” Sam croaked through dried
up vocal chords. “Just give me a minute to get dressed.”

The door made a soft click behind Sophie as
she left the room. Sam dragged herself out of bed and threw on some
clothes. The smell of bacon was wafting in through the door and it
smelled delicious. Sam’s stomach thought so, too; it growled in
anticipation.

“Okay, okay, I’m going,” she said to her
belly button. She was desperate for a glass of water, too. Her
mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage. Not that she knew that
from personal experience, but she imagined the bottom of a birdcage
would probably be as gross as her mouth felt right now.

She arrived at the kitchen a little worse for
wear from the night before, but thought she put a brave face on
it.

A chorus of ‘Hi, Sam, how ya doing?’
resonated from the table.

Sam put up a hand up in recognition. “Hi,
guys,” she responded weakly.

“Here, drink this. You’ll feel better,”
Jensen said, offering her a cup of black liquid.

“That’s what you said last night and look
where that got me,” she replied.

The laughter around the table made Sam
grimace a little at the spike being driven into her skull. She
vowed at that moment to never to drink again.

“Penny for them?” Sophie interrupted Sam’s
thoughts later that day as she sat by the pool staring into space.
She was thinking of the one person she could not for the life of
her get out of her head.

“Hmm?” Sam responded absentmindedly.

“What are you daydreaming about? Whatever it
is it must be good, you’ve been sitting there looking into space
for ages now.”

“Sorry? Oh, hi, Sophie, I didn’t hear you
walk over.” Sam said coming back to reality with a bump.

Sophie raised her eyes heavenward at Sam’s
response. “Exactly. What on earth is holding you so
captivated?”

Sam sighed. “A guy I met in Bali.”

Sophie had become a friend in the short time
they’d known each other, and for some reason, Sam felt comfortable
talking to her about Daniel.

“Well, he must have been some guy,” Sophie
responded.

“Yeah, he was,” Sam mused. “Probably the
nicest guy I’ve ever met. He kept turning up unexpected and
uninvited at my hotel, but he really got under my skin. I had a
wonderful time with him. Now, I just can’t seem to get him out of
my head, which is stupid because I’m never going to see him again.
He lives in the middle of nowhere on his parent’s sheep
station.”

“Really?” Sophie said. “And would this Prince
Charming have a name, by any chance.”

“Uh-huh,” Sam sighed again, slipping off into
another daydream. “Daniel. That was his name. Daniel Miller.”

“Hmm, interesting. It sounds like he enjoyed
your company, too, otherwise why would he have turned up more than
once?”

Sam pondered that statement for a second.
“Guess you have a point there. But it doesn’t matter anyway, he’ll
just have to stay in my dreams. It was nice to start off my travels
like that, though.”

“Well, I’ll leave you to your daydream. Who
knows, maybe you may even see this Daniel again one day.”

“Doubt it, Soph. I can’t imagine why I would
travel to the outback. It’s not exactly brimming over with touristy
things to do, is it?”

“No, maybe you’re right. Maybe he’s best kept
in your dreams after all. Well, I have some paperwork to finish
up.”

“Yeah.” Sam sighed, pushing herself up from
the chair she was occupying. “And I have some job hunting to do.”
She had felt so at home there that she decided to stay for a while
and find work.

***

“Brilliant! You’re back!” Sophie squealed
with excitement as soon as Sam stepped foot in the door several
hours later. The job hunting had taken up most of the day. Nothing
had presented itself thus far, but there were some promising leads.
Her sights were set on getting a job on one of the Whit Sunday
Islands; it was a huge tourist destination. The lady in the
recruitment center said that the season was about to start and they
would need people soon.

“What happened? Did someone win the
lottery?”

“Not quite, but I think you’re going to
really enjoy this.” Sophie was positively brimming over with
excitement.

“What?” Sam waited for a response, smiling at
her friend’s exuberance.

“How would you like to go sailing for four
days around some of the Whit Sunday Islands and the Barrier Reef?”
Sophie asked.

“Would I?” Sam exclaimed getting caught up in
the excitement. “Of course, I would. That’s a silly question.” Then
reality hit her and Sam’s smile fell from her face. “Hold on, Soph.
I’m running out of money. I don’t have the funds to go sailing; it
sounds like it would cost a fortune.”

“Not a penny.” Sophie announced smugly.

Sam narrowed her eyes. In her experience, no
one ever gave anything away for free.

“How come?”

“These two brothers go on fishing trips and
invite people from the backpackers to go with them. They love the
company and meeting people from around the world. They have one
space left, and I instantly thought of you.”

“No way! Are you kidding me? I’m not going!”
Sam exclaimed.

“Why ever not?” Sophie asked,
dumbfounded.

“I’m not getting on board a boat for four
days with two guys I’ve never met. Of course, it’s free, they’ll
expect payment in other ways.” Sam stated incredulously.

“Oh, is that all?”

Sam goggled at her. “What do you mean is that
all?”

Sophie put a reassuring hand on Sam’s
shoulder. “Hun, these guys are old enough to be your father. They
have taken loads of travelers out with them, male and female. They
just love the company and want to give people a trip they wouldn’t
otherwise have the chance to experience.”

Sam looked unconvinced prompting Sophie to
add. “Sam, I would never send you anywhere, or with anyone, if I
thought you would come to harm. These guys are great, they would
never do anything to hurt anyone. All I have ever heard back from
people who have gone with them is the wonderful time they had.”

Sam chewed on her bottom lip for a moment.
Her gut was telling her that Sophie was right. Sam knew the
friendly youth hostel manager that had taken Sam under her wing
when she showed up a week ago, homesick and alone, wouldn’t let Sam
get involved in anything that may hurt her.

Sam smiled. “Okay. Of course, I’d love to
go.”

“Great. I’ll give them a call and let them
know. They sail tomorrow.”

Morning eventually made an appearance after a
sleep deprived night. Excitement had gotten the best of her. Sam
was waiting at the entrance to the backpackers when the two men
arrived to pick her up. There was another lady in the car with them
who smiled at her as she opened the back door and got in.

“Hi, you must be Sam?” a gruff looking man in
his forties asked as she got in the car. “Glad to have you along.
My name’s Bert, this is my Brother Graham,” Graham nodded his
welcome. “This is Donna, she’s a traveler, too.” The lady named
Donna smiled and shook Sam’s hand as she got in the back seat
beside her.

“Pleased to meet you all.” Sam said. “Thank
you for inviting me.”

“No worries.” Bert and Graham said
together.

“We do this all the time,” continued Bert.
“We’ve met some great people over the years, and a few we would
have liked to feed to the sharks!”

They guffawed.

They must have seen Sam’s horrified look in
the rear-view mirror and both started laughing again. “We were only
joking, Sam. You’ll be quite safe with us.”

They drove a few miles to the marina and
pulled up in front of a beautiful catamaran named
Grace
.
Grace
was bobbing rhythmically against the side of the dock
she was moored at. Sam glanced around to see many more boats and
yachts bobbing in time with her, too. The marina wasn’t huge but
there was an interesting array of watercraft in all shapes and
sizes. Sam looked at
Grace
again and decided it was probably
one of the larger of the boats there.

“She’s beautiful,” Sam breathed as they all
got out of the car.

“Isn’t she just?” agreed Bert.

“She’s our baby,” added Graham.

Donna and Sam spent a little while unloading
the supplies and handing them to Graham and Bert while the two
brothers stocked
Grace
with all the provisions needed for
their trip. Needless to say, there were several cases of beer. If
it’s one thing Sam now realized about the Aussies, they certainly
loved their beer.

Bert held out a hand for Sam as she stepped
on board and showed her to her cabin. It was tiny but comfortable.
She certainly wasn’t complaining; they were taking her sailing
around the islands free of charge. What an experience. She could
hardly contain herself, she was so excited.

About half an hour later, the supplies were
all stowed away safely, and most importantly, the beer was in the
cooler and they were ready to set sail. Sam watched while Bert and
Graham undid the mooring ropes and pushed the boat away from the
dock. The engine roared into life; white sea-foam bubbled behind
the boat as the propeller spun under the water.

There was a warm breeze blowing. The sun was
out, and there was not a cloud in the sky. Sam leaned against the
back railing, watching the other boats in the marina bobbing up and
down next to their moorings as they faded into the distance.
Grace
made her way into the open ocean. The water sparkled
in the sunlight, the wake behind them making crests of white on the
aqua blue water. The breeze blew through her hair and she felt on
top of the world.

“You don’t want to be doing that,” Graham
said, appearing beside her holding a can of beer. He leaned over
and rested his forearms on the railing.

Sam turned to look at him, her eyebrows
furrowed. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, not that she knew of.
She didn’t want to get into trouble the first five minutes on
board.

“Don’t want to be doing what?” she asked,
wondering what she could have possibly done wrong staring out to
sea.

“You shouldn’t ever look back,” he
stated.

Sam’s expression turned to one of confusion
and she raised an eyebrow at him in question.

He added. “It’s bad luck to look back. You
should only ever look forward, in every aspect of your life.”

Sam wondered if the man could read her mind.
The past couple of years had been spent constantly looking back on
what had happened to her, knowing that she could have done
something to avoid it; but by the time she realized her mistake, it
was too late. Was it doing her any good to keep dwelling on the
past? Absolutely not. But so far, it was just something she didn’t
seem to have the power to let go of. It annoyed her that she was
allowing something to have that kind of power over her. But,
whenever she asked herself why she couldn’t let it go, no answers
presented themselves.