‘I’m all out of it. You’ll have to go completely natural, which is better than being plastered with goo anyway.’
That softness intensified. He paid the nicest compliments, even if not quite true. ‘Then I’m nearly done.’ She looked around the bathroom. ‘You thinking about any changes in here?’
Cody nodded. ‘There’s not a room that doesn’t need dealing with. I’ll give you the grand tour before we head out.’
‘The house appears huge.’
‘It is.’ He grinned. ‘I visited when I was fourteen and in the rugby team. The coach owned it, and I’ve wanted something like it ever since.’
‘You got the real deal.’
‘Wanting this place is what started me on the property ladder. A fishing mate and I saved hard to go halves in a rundown shack that we could rent out. Soon we mortgaged it to the hilt and bought another, and then another, until…’ his grin widened. ‘…here I am. Back in Wellington in the house of my teenaged dreams.’
‘Go you.’ She gazed out of the window at the harbour sparkling in the sun, absorbing how much he’d told her about himself. ‘You’ll never get tired of looking at that.’
‘I agree. Even the windy days are wonderful. Then there are the ferries scooting back and forth, and the fishing fleet heading out to the Strait. It’s great.’ He was almost purring.
As they wandered along the Parade hand in hand Cody said, ‘I’m thinking we should hire two paddle-boards and give it a crack before you cancel that order. This could be the one sport you’re great at.’
The sea was so calm she couldn’t use that as an excuse. ‘I haven’t got any gear with me and I’m not immersing this skirt in salt water.’
‘I’d have enjoyed watching as it got wet and figure-hugging.’ He gave an exaggerated sigh. ‘Not my lucky day. I could offer you one of my tee-shirts but that’d be all over the place on you, no figure-hugging going on at all. We’ll have to drop by your place. You think those other two will still be there once we’ve had breakfast?’
‘I have no idea.’ She batted his arm lightly. ‘You make it sound as though we’re definitely following through on your idea of paddle-boarding.’ Her problem being…? Didn’t she want to have fun with him? Hadn’t she been extolling the reasons she should let go and enjoy life?
‘Relax. Your knees will be fine.’
They mightn’t have got the skin scraped off them, but they were going to hurt like stink tomorrow, Harper decided as she stiffened into a slight turn three hours later. Breakfast had been long and leisurely, then there’d been coffee with Suzanne and Steve in her tiny back yard. Now finally they were on the water, and she was wobbling front, backwards and sideways, feeling like a drunk penguin. ‘Keeping my balance is hard work,’ she growled as Cody came close.
‘Relax into the movement of the board, don’t fight it.’
Easy for him to say. ‘Go away. You’re causing waves.’ Show off. Just because he could do this without even trying. So unfair. She’d have to challenge him to a knitting contest next. Except she barely knew one end of a knitting needle from the other.
Damn, but he looked good wet. Those board shorts clung to his butt and thighs, making her mouth moist and her tummy tight. As for his chest… She’d never been a chest girl before but Cody was breaking all her norms.
Now he grinned at her. ‘Waves are when water rises above the level.’
She didn’t deign to supply him with a reply. Instead she pushed the paddle deeper and pulled on the handle to move forward. Her arms were starting to complain about this added activity too. Paddling was definitely more strenuous than inserting IV lines or stitching wounds.
She snuck another sideways glance and had to stare. Cody standing on his board, looking for all the world as if he’d been born doing this, was a picture to remember. He had natural balance. ‘How come you’re so relaxed with this?’ She could see his calf muscles adjusting as the board beneath his feet shifted. Unlike hers, which were tight and unyielding to any movement.
‘Comes from years of staying upright on the deck of a heaving trawler.’ Cody pushed the paddle through the water, his strokes effortless. Didn’t she know it? Her face heated as memories of the previous night flooded her brain.
‘Want to head back to shore?’ Mr Oh-So-Good-at-This cruised close again. ‘I’ll shout you a cold drink.’
‘And an ice-cream.’ What had happened to the diet? Tomorrow. She began working the board around to face the shore—or make that she began trying to head home—but the current had changed and she wasn’t going anywhere in the direction she needed to.
‘Now I know where the brats get their love of ice-cream. They’re copying Auntie Harper.’
A wave passed under her board and she froze, afraid to move in case she got it wrong and overbalanced. ‘That’s a proper wave,’ she muttered through clenched teeth.
‘Hey,’ Cody was yelling. ‘Back off. Can’t you morons see what we’re doing here?’
Harper risked twisting her head to the left to see who had caused his annoyance and her decidedly wobbly ride, and saw a speed boat about a hundred metres away going full throttle and sending out huge bow waves.
Slosh. Slosh. Water rushed at her, over her feet, and continued into shore. ‘Do I paddle or freeze? Do I try to keep moving while balancing like a stork?’
The left side of the board lifted. Uh-oh. Her hands gripped the paddle handle. Like that’s going to help, she thought as she leaned into the lift. The board dropped back flat while her momentum took her head-first into the tide.
Thunk. As she popped upwards, pain blasted into her skull. The board? It had to be. She kicked hard, hopefully away from it, and surfaced—to get a swipe on the chin from the paddle she’d let go as she’d fallen in. Ow. Pick on me, why don’t you?
‘Harper? You all right?’ Cody straddled his board, reaching out to her, concern etching his face.
‘My knees are fine.’ She spluttered out a mouthful of salt water. ‘Yuk. That’s gross.’
‘Those morons should’ve been driving their boat a lot slower. There are speed restrictions around here,’ Cody muttered as he concentrated on getting her sorted. Catching her hand, he tugged her close to his board, hers following as the cord attached to both her ankle and the back of the board snapped tight. ‘Hey, you’re bleeding.’
‘I got whacked, but not hard enough to do damage.’ Or so she’d thought.
Strong fingers held her chin and tipped her head back gently. ‘You’re the doctor, but I’m thinking you’re needing a couple of stitches on your chin.’
She began to feel a sharpness on the corner of her chin. ‘Guess I’m going into work after all.’ She didn’t doubt he was right. He knew his medicine.
‘I can take you to the weekend emergency surgery. Though that will take longer, since you’re not staff.’ Cody put his hands under her arms and hauled her up to sprawl across his board. As easy as that. ‘Stay still and I’ll paddle us back in.’
She shook her head. Was nothing too much trouble for Cody Brand? He’d never used a board before yet he was already turning them towards shore and calmly pushing his paddle through the water despite that current. It would be too easy to get used to this, to come to rely on him to look out for her.
Harper stiffened. No way. She watched her own back. No one else did. Not even for a few weeks while they had an affair. Huh? They were having an affair now? Why not?
‘You okay? You’ve gone quiet, and I don’t like a quiet Harper as much as the chatty one.’ Above her, Cody was smiling that heart-melting, ‘I will take care of everything’ smile that was his trademark.
‘I’m thinking I like the sound of going to the surgery, wait or no wait.’ There was less chance of people from work knowing she and Cody had been spending the day together.
‘No problem. That cut hurting yet?’
‘I’m trying to pretend it doesn’t.’ The sharp ache was amplified with salt water sluicing over it as they bobbed up and down. The
daily summer sea breeze had arrived, chopping the surface and adding to the pressure pushing them in a direction in which they didn’t want to go.
But Cody had everything under control and within a very short time he jumped off to push the board with her still sprawled over it onto the beach. ‘Here we go.’ He leaned down and lifted her up, placing her carefully on her feet. ‘Let me get that cord off your ankle.’ He looked across the beach to the van that the board-hire company operated from and waved. ‘Give us a hand, will you, buddy?’
*
‘Her sewing skills weren’t too bad.’ Cody dropped an arm lightly over Harper’s shoulders as he led her out of the emergency surgery to a taxi he’d ordered.
She looked a little pale and those black threads weren’t helping her appearance as she muttered, ‘Two stitches, and the poor woman was terrified of making a mistake with you hovering over her. You’re not a frustrated plastic surgeon, by any chance?’
‘Me? Never. More into dress making,’ he quipped.
‘You have absolutely no problem laughing at yourself, do you?’ There was wonder in her voice and those tired eyes.