The Australian Affairs Collection. Margaret Way
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counting to five.
‘Right. If that’s the best you can do.’ She snapped the phone shut and shoved it back into her pocket.
‘You’re worried about him?’
One slim shoulder lifted. ‘Charlie’s been hand-raised. He’s a social bird. Normally he’d be over here, begging for a treat. Everyone who works here is fond of him.’
Dylan glanced across at the emu. ‘You want to go and give him the once over?’
She glanced around, as if to check that no one had overheard him. ‘Would you mind?’
‘Not at all.’
‘It should only take me a moment. I just want to make sure he doesn’t have something caught around his legs. Discarded plastic bags are the bane of our existence—they seem to blow in from everywhere.’
‘I don’t mind at all.’
Besides, he wanted her full attention once Carla arrived. He wanted her focussed on wedding preparations—not worrying about Charlie the Emu.
She moved towards a gate in the fence and unlocked it with a key she fished out from one of the many pockets of her khaki cargo pants.
She glanced back at him apologetically. ‘I have to ask you to remain on this side of the fence. It’s actually against the law for me to take you in with me.’
‘Believe me, I’m happy to stay on this side of the fence, but...’ he glanced across at Charlie ‘...that emu is huge. What if he attacks you?’
He couldn’t in all conscious just stand here and do nothing.
‘He won’t hurt me. I promise.’
‘In that case I promise to stay on this side of the fence.’
Nevertheless, he found his heart pounding a little too hard as she slipped into the enclosure and made her way towards the giant bird. She ran a soothing hand down its neck, not in the least intimidated by its size. He reminded himself that she was trained to deal with these animals, but he didn’t take his eyes from her.
Slipping her arms beneath the bird, she lifted it to its knees, and Dylan could see something wrapped tight around its ankles. The poor bird was completely tangled! He watched in admiration as she deftly unwound it, shoving the remnants into her pocket. The entire time she crooned soothingly to the emu, telling him what a good boy he was and how pretty he was. Charlie leaned into her as much as he could, trusting her completely.
Finally she placed her arms beneath him with a cheery, ‘Up we come, Charlie.’
The emu gave a kind of strangled beep before a stream of something green and vicious-looking shot out of the back of him, splattering all over the front of Mia’s shirt. Only then did the bird struggle fully to its feet and race off towards a water trough. Mia stumbled backwards, a comical look of surprise on her face. She turned towards Dylan, utterly crestfallen and...and covered in bird poop.
Dylan clapped a hand over his mouth to hold back a shout of laughter. Don’t laugh! An awful lot of women he knew would have simply burst into tears. If he laughed and then she cried he’d have to comfort her...and then he’d end up with bird poop all over him too.
Mia didn’t cry. She pushed her shoulders back and squelched back over to the gate in the fence with as much dignity as she could muster. Still, even she had to find it difficult to maintain a sense of dignity when she was covered in bird poop.
She lifted her chin, as if reading that thought in his face. ‘As you can see, Charlie left me a little present for my pains.’
He swallowed, schooling his features. ‘You did a very good deed, Mia.’
‘The thing is, when an emu gets stressed, the stress can result in...’ she glanced down at herself, her nose wrinkling ‘...diarrhoea.’
‘God, I’m so glad those birds can’t fly!’
The heartfelt words shot out of him, and Mia’s lips started to twitch as if the funny side of the situation had finally hit her.
Dylan couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer. ‘I’m sorry, Mia. You deserve better, but the look on your face when it happened... It was priceless!’
She grinned, tentatively touching the front of her shirt. ‘That rotten bird! Here I am, supposedly trying to impress you and your sister with our marvellous facilities...and now you’re going to live in fear of projectile diarrhoea from the native animals!’
The sudden image that came to his mind made him roar until he was doubled over. Mia threw her head back and laughed right alongside him. She laughed with an uninhibited gusto that transformed her completely. He’d glimpsed the mischievous imp earlier, but now she seemed to come alive—as if her mirth had broken some dam wall—as if she were a desert suddenly blooming with wildflowers.
Dylan’s heart surged against his ribs and for a moment all he could do was stare. ‘You should do that more often, you know. Laugh. You’re beautiful when you laugh.’
She glanced up at him, the laughter dying on her lips. Something in the air shimmered between them, making them both blink. Her gaze lowered momentarily to his lips, before she turned beetroot-red. Swinging away, she stumbled across to the tap that stood by the gate in the fence.
Heat pulsed through him. So...the serious Mia wasn’t immune to his charms after all?
The next moment he silently swore. Damn! He deserved a giant kick to the seat of his pants. She’d accused him of flirting earlier—but he hadn’t meant to give her the wrong impression. He didn’t want her thinking anything could happen between them. All flirtation and teasing on his part was entirely without intent.
She knelt at the tap and scrubbed at her shirt with a piece of rag. She must keep a veritable tool shed of handiness in those cargo pants of hers.
He watched in silence as she washed the worst of the mess from her shirt. ‘I have a handkerchief if you need it.’
‘Thank you, but I think this is the best I’m going to manage until I can change my shirt. Shall we continue on to the lily pond?’
‘Yes, please.’
She gestured towards the path. ‘Do you mind if I ring the office to give them an update on Charlie?’
‘Not at all.’
And just like that they withdrew back into reserved professionalism. But something new pounded through Dylan—a curiosity that hadn’t been there before. What an intriguing paradox Mia was proving to be...a fascinating enigma.
Which you don’t have time for.
With a sigh, he pushed thoughts of Mia from his mind and forced his attention back to the impending wedding. He had to focus on what really mattered. He couldn’t let Carla down—not when she needed him.
THEY REACHED THE lily pond two minutes later. The moment Dylan clapped eyes on the enchanting glade he understood why Carla had fallen in love with it. True to its name, large green lily pads decorated a small but picturesque body of oval water. Native trees and shrubs curved around three of its sides. The fourth side opened out to a large circle of green lawn.
Mia pointed to that now. ‘This area is large enough for our medium-sized marquee, which holds sixty guests comfortably. That leaves the area behind for the caterers to set up their tents and vans for the food.’
Carla chose that moment to come rushing up—which was just as well, as Dylan had found himself suddenly in danger of getting caught up on the way Mia’s wet shirt clung to her chest.
Carla grinned at Mia—‘Surprise!’—before taking Dylan’s arm and jumping from one foot to the other. ‘Isn’t this just the most