Milly answered the door when he knocked.

“Cole?” At least she looked pleased to see him, a step in the right direction.

“Hi.” He shoved his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

She leaned towards him, her shoulder on the door frame. “I thought you were finished for the day.” She’d changed out of her working in the stable clothes and had jeans on too, and another little camisole top.

“I have. I’ve come to see you.” Might as well be straight up. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

That had taken some working out. They couldn’t go for a ride because he’d killed one of her horses and maimed the other. He didn’t want to go inside because no telling who would be there. He couldn’t think of where they could go if they went in the ute.

And worse, when he had pulled up at the stables it felt like everyone there watched him go to the door instead of starting work, so they should get away from here.

She nodded. “Do I need to change my shoes?”

He checked out the shoes. Cute. Little laced up sneaker things. “No, I’m not planning on hiking. Where’s your dad?”

Milly smiled. So pretty.

“He’s out. I’ll just tell Mrs Bennett what I’m doing.” She went inside for a few moments and then came back out. “Where should we go?”

“Down by the river? It’s cooler there.”

She nodded.

They wandered across the paddock. He found her hand and held it.

She looked at their hands, then smiled up at him.

“What does this mean?” Classy even in jeans, amazing.

“Not sure.” She seemed to think he was pretty good too. “I keep wanting to kiss you, so it must mean something.” They wandered on.

Then she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder.

“Do you?”

He nodded.

“When are you going to kiss me then?” That took the guesswork out of being with her.

“Just waiting until we are out of sight of the house.”

Milly snorted. “Good idea.”

The beech plantation loomed in front of them. Once they reached those trees, there’d be no chance of them being seen from the house. Not that he planned on a big sex scene, but he didn’t need an audience either.

They reached the dappled shade of the beech trees. Milly stopped walking, leaned back against a tree trunk, and tugged on his hand. He turned to face her.

She dropped his hand, leaned forward a little, and slid her arms around his waist.

He touched her neck with his lips. That’s where the mark from the seatbelt had been, the only flaw he’d ever seen on her. She tasted warm and sweet. His hair brushed against the bark of the tree and he felt a slight tug as it caught.

Then he shifted his lips to hers and the warmth and taste of her moved through him. He could feel that soft kiss. Her hands rested very gently against his chest now. The kiss seemed all warmth and sweetness and light.

This wasn’t even a continuation of the last night. It was its own thing.

She lifted her head. “I wondered all morning how to make you do that again. I wanted to see if it was the same.”

Her lips looked like someone had just kissed them.

“It took me a while to catch on.” Hard to imagine moving to the next stage with Milly though. With girls like Tessa, who went for plain sexy it was easy. Not so much with Milly.

Then she came up on tiptoes and he felt her arms slide up around his neck and her breath come in a sigh. She pulled his head closer and deepened the kiss. He felt her tongue touch the inside of his lips, then his tongue. Her mouth welcoming and like the start of heaven.

He pressed closer, so he could feel her against him, and his body started to respond to hers. No, it wasn’t hard to imagine after all. His hands slipped around behind her, his knuckles grazed against the bark now, he pulled her still closer again, until their bodies moulded together, took the kiss even deeper

He felt her head fall back against the tree trunk.

His hands moved down lower, holding her hips hard against him. He leaned in hard against her. He felt he might fall against her, squash her. Didn’t want to do that. He rested one hand against the tree trunk and slid his foot to the side a little bit to balance.

Milly pulled away a fraction. It took him a moment to adjust to the loss of her. He looked at her, and she smiled, lips redder and fuller than usual.

“That was nice,” she said.

“Yeah. We’ll have to do that again sometime.”

She giggled. He took her hand, and they wandered on a bit. They came to the clearing, where they’d stopped with Wildfire and Hunter that Friday before the accident.

Milly bit her lip. “The last time we came here we rode.”

He nodded. He knew she missed Wildfire, but right now there were other things he wanted her thinking about.

“Poor Wildfire and Hunter.”

“Yeah,” he said. What now?

Milly sat down on the grass. “I think we should stay here for a little while.”

He sat beside her and broke off a bit of grass. He watched her eyes for a moment to see what she wanted. You could never be sure with girls. They’d been known to back off at the last moment, and then there was the whole thing with the horses to make this harder.

She leaned in closer, with those lips parted just a little.

Okay. Didn’t look like she planned on backing off. Or was about to conduct an inquest into Wildfire’s death.

He cupped the back of her head with his hand and pulled her that little bit closer. Her eyes closed, she breathed out softly. He lowered his head, his lips touched hers, her hand went around his neck, and he felt her breathe out.

He checked she was all right with this.

She opened her eyes and gave a little dreamy smile.

Yep, fine with it. This time when his lips touched hers, he lay back pulling her down with him, then gently deepened the kiss, tasting her, lips gentle, tongues just touching.

He could hear the birds in the back-ground, the river near their feet. Her breathing, and her body against his, the softness of her breasts against his chest, the muscles of her arms and the smoothness of her skin.

His hands slid up under her little top, to her bra and then down over her backside, she moved enough to slide her leg between his and her thigh rested on the seam of his jeans. Her lips moved against his.

Perfect. Maybe what happened on the swing bridge, wasn’t all about the bet for her either.

When they got back to the house they found Tom waiting for them. “Good walk?”

Cole nodded, then checked Milly. She looked cool and elegant, the way she usually did, not the way she’d looked under the trees.

That’s good. He didn’t want anything to fuel Milly’s father’s imagination, the way his had been fuelled. They hadn’t gone beyond kissing and touching, but the promise was there.

“Do you want to come in and have something to drink, Cole?” Tom asked.

“No, I need to get home.” And see if his father had a job yet.

Then Milly went to stay with her grandparents for Christmas and New Year. All start then stop, this thing with her. He’d work at the stables for the holidays, then he’d have to get a real job, but for now this was good. Everything at the Gaisford stables stayed tidy and clean because it was his responsibility to keep it that way.

At least he got paid for it and nobody partied there and messed the place up when he wasn’t around. His dad still hadn’t found a job, and because he had plenty of spare time, he’d spent it with a whole lot of mates who seemed to be full of Christmas cheer all the time.

Going home at night wasn’t great, so he tended to meet up with Luke and the others to play music.

Then just after New Year, Milly came home.

He saw her arrive at the house, but he carried on working. After a while she came outside and found him.

“Did you have a nice Christmas, Cole?” She kissed him on the cheek and ran her hand down the front of his t shirt in a way that promised everything. But he wasn’t sure whether they were just carrying on the way they had been.

“Yeah, good. Stayed at home, just me and Dad.” And an endless stream of no hopers dropping in and drinking until all hours. In the end he’d had a go at his father. Told him if he didn’t throw out his drunken mates and clean the place up a bit he’d leave. He’d had enough of living like the pig. His dad had just looked hurt. It had done about as much good as getting angry always did. It had been a relief to get away and come here. He didn’t say that though. Milly didn’t need to know how shit his life was.

“What about you?”

She picked up an armful of hay and shoved it into the net in the stall he was cleaning out.

“Nice. Nana and Grandad are lovely. They still have the nice horse I’ve ridden since I was little. I spent most of the time riding him. It was nice.”

Everything in her world was nice. “Are you going to get another horse soon?” Hunter still had a limp. The walking and swimming hadn’t worked so far. The vet said rest and time were the answer. But it looked like he’d finished his eventing career.

Milly nodded. “I told Dad I’d like to go and see those horses we looked at before Christmas. I’m still sad about Wildfire and miss her so much but Mum said if I had something else to focus on it would help me feel better.”

“When will you go?”

“Next week. Do you want to come?”

“Yeah. But if you are thinking of bringing them back with you, I’m not driving the float.”

She smiled. “No, Dad said we’d take the horse truck and he has to drive that.”

“Good.” They walked on for a while. He had a plan but wasn’t sure she’d agree to it. Or be allowed to go. The only way to find out was to ask her.

“It’s Isaac’s birthday Saturday night. They’re having a party at Cooks Beach at Jess’s parents’ place. Do you want to come? We’re all going and staying the night.”

“Who’s we?”

“Luke, Tessa, Noah. Everyone.”

Milly nodded. “Where are we sleeping?”

“Tents.”

“Okay. I’ve got a tent I can bring.” Just like that she’s coming.