Riding the Track by Kara Ripley

Author:Kara Ripley [Ripley, Kara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NineStar Press, lgbt, lesbian, bisexual, Vacation, Australia, outback, trail ride
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2018-08-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

That night we stopped in a town called William Creek. Gateway to Simpson Desert and Lake Eyre, as the sign said. Population: six. You read that right. Six. William Creek could boast a few special features, though. First, they had the only gas station between Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta. Secondly, the place had not one but two motels. Plus, a dusty campground, which is where we were to spend the night.

I still didn’t have a signal on my cell phone, but I had to admit, the town possessed a sort of endearing quality to it. Something in the air seemed, I don’t know…calm?

One of the drovers (everyone referred to her and her sister as “the twins”) told us the town was so remote it wasn’t even connected to any sort of government council area. Yet, they still had what mattered most. A pub.

After repeating the routine of finding my tent and luggage, showering (yes, it was just as amazing as the night before minus the near-death experience), and changing clothes, I met up with the others to go into the William Creek Hotel, where the pub was.

“This place came second in the Best Outback Pub competition last year! That’s second best in the entire country,” Dusty told us as the group got closer to our watering hole for the evening. I started to wonder why our hotter-than-the-others drover wasn’t there to share some of those details.

I hadn’t seen Evie since she took the horses off to wherever it was they went at night. Was she as embarrassed as I was? I hoped so. That would mean she’d experienced the same electricity I had, by the stream.

The William Creek Hotel was a low-lying rectangular building, the dirt road in front as red as the sunset on the horizon. I counted four identical yellow signs for XXXX Gold Australian Lager across the top of the building’s facade.

The front bar was one hell of a room. Between the drovers, campground staff, and tourists, the place was nearly filled. But the cozy ambience was not what made it special. The walls. Jesus! I’d never seen anything so bizarre. Business cards. License plates. Underwear. International currency. Miscellany wallpapered the entire space and hung from the ceiling.

“See that one?” Evie was next to me, a phantom emerging from the crowd. Her thigh brushed my hip and my pulse quickened.

“Hmm?” I turned my head and nearly choked on my own breath. Like the rest of us, she’d cleaned up for dinner, but I wasn’t prepared to see her quite like that. Evie’s stunning black hair curled past her shoulders, tucked behind her ear on one side, framing her face on the other. It was the first time I’d seen it down. It was difficult not to reach out and twirl my fingers through it, right there in front of everyone.

“Up there.” She pointed to a lacy black bra pinned to a corkboard above the bar. I’d guess it was a D cup.

“What about it?” I said, attention locked onto the board rather than her.

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