travel arrangements surely?”
“ Exactly how long have you been here?”
“Not long. Not relevant. I’m sure it won’t come up. So we met in Kalgoorlie and clicked and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Yeah,” he said uncertainly, “That ought to do it. What do you think?”
“Perfect,” she said. She just loved a man who spent time on the important things. Like shopping.
“I’ll get this one,” she said, going to pick up the tab as they left.
“Hey.” His hand came down on hers. “All expenses paid, remember?”
“Yeah, and you just paid for some absolute doozies. So allow me a little pride.”
He took his hand away. “Your wish is my command.”
“Atta boy,” she said with a smile. “That’s definitely more like it.”
The girl at the cash register punched in the order and brought up the total. “That’ll be twenty-five dollars and seventy cents, thanks.”
“There you go,” she said, handing over the notes and change she had ready in her hand. The girl counted it and flicked her eyes up suspiciously.
Scarlett had already turned away. “So where to next?”
“What about your change?”
“I gave her the right money.” She turned and the woman waved all okay.
“So how did you know how much it would be before she’d put it in?”
She shrugged. “I added it up.”
“But there were no prices on the tab.”
“But there were on the menu.”
“You remembered?”
“It’s not rocket science, Mitch, it’s just a lunch tab. Now, what do we do next?”
They spent the rest of the day sightseeing. They walked the length of the main street, most of which Scarlett had already seen in passing, but this was stopping to check out the history of the buildings. And then Mitch took her to the town’s biggest attraction. Scarlett gazed over the massive Super Pit, the gold mine that was more than a mile long, half that wide and a quarter mile deep and that never slept, the sides stepped and dusty from the endless parade of giant trucks up and down the tiered terrain twenty-four hours a day.
It was late afternoon by the time they got there, and Scarlett’s feet were aching in her boots, but the view was breathtaking, the slanting sun casting a golden glow over the walls of the massive mine. Copper Mountain back home in Marietta had always seemed the biggest thing in the world to her, a huge backdrop to the town she’d grown up in, but this thing —this mine—was mammoth.
“Is this like what you do up north?”
“Kind of, but it’s iron ore country up there, rich and red like you wouldn’t believe.”
“What do you actually do there?”
“Lots of things. As a mining engineer it can be anything from feasibility studies to mine planning and open cut design to budgets and reports. It can be physical one day and then you’re stuck in meetings the next. But it’s good. What do you do back home?”
She crossed her arms along the wire fence barrier and looked out over the vast hole in the ground. “Well, that’s a hard one. Drop out of things mostly. I worked in the local diner for a while. Tried a bit of work at the salon where Mom works as a nail technician but it didn’t appeal. I’m not really qualified to do anything. Apart from screwing up. If I could make a living from that I’d be doing great.”
He was about to tell her she was being hard on herself again, but she was leaning her head on her arms looking at him and her green eyes were smiling and the sun was turning her scarlet hair as red as the Pilbara country where he worked . The breeze was turning the loose tendrils of hair around her face into snakes and he thought, beautiful and couldn’t help but lean closer.
“You’ll find something,” he said, snagging a flying tendril and curling it behind her ear, knowing there just had to be something amazing in store that deserved this woman.
“Yeah, that’s what Aunt Margot says. She says sometimes the way isn’t clear straight up but you’re on the
“ Exactly how long have you been here?”
“Not long. Not relevant. I’m sure it won’t come up. So we met in Kalgoorlie and clicked and the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Yeah,” he said uncertainly, “That ought to do it. What do you think?”
“Perfect,” she said. She just loved a man who spent time on the important things. Like shopping.
“I’ll get this one,” she said, going to pick up the tab as they left.
“Hey.” His hand came down on hers. “All expenses paid, remember?”
“Yeah, and you just paid for some absolute doozies. So allow me a little pride.”
He took his hand away. “Your wish is my command.”
“Atta boy,” she said with a smile. “That’s definitely more like it.”
The girl at the cash register punched in the order and brought up the total. “That’ll be twenty-five dollars and seventy cents, thanks.”
“There you go,” she said, handing over the notes and change she had ready in her hand. The girl counted it and flicked her eyes up suspiciously.
Scarlett had already turned away. “So where to next?”
“What about your change?”
“I gave her the right money.” She turned and the woman waved all okay.
“So how did you know how much it would be before she’d put it in?”
She shrugged. “I added it up.”
“But there were no prices on the tab.”
“But there were on the menu.”
“You remembered?”
“It’s not rocket science, Mitch, it’s just a lunch tab. Now, what do we do next?”
They spent the rest of the day sightseeing. They walked the length of the main street, most of which Scarlett had already seen in passing, but this was stopping to check out the history of the buildings. And then Mitch took her to the town’s biggest attraction. Scarlett gazed over the massive Super Pit, the gold mine that was more than a mile long, half that wide and a quarter mile deep and that never slept, the sides stepped and dusty from the endless parade of giant trucks up and down the tiered terrain twenty-four hours a day.
It was late afternoon by the time they got there, and Scarlett’s feet were aching in her boots, but the view was breathtaking, the slanting sun casting a golden glow over the walls of the massive mine. Copper Mountain back home in Marietta had always seemed the biggest thing in the world to her, a huge backdrop to the town she’d grown up in, but this thing —this mine—was mammoth.
“Is this like what you do up north?”
“Kind of, but it’s iron ore country up there, rich and red like you wouldn’t believe.”
“What do you actually do there?”
“Lots of things. As a mining engineer it can be anything from feasibility studies to mine planning and open cut design to budgets and reports. It can be physical one day and then you’re stuck in meetings the next. But it’s good. What do you do back home?”
She crossed her arms along the wire fence barrier and looked out over the vast hole in the ground. “Well, that’s a hard one. Drop out of things mostly. I worked in the local diner for a while. Tried a bit of work at the salon where Mom works as a nail technician but it didn’t appeal. I’m not really qualified to do anything. Apart from screwing up. If I could make a living from that I’d be doing great.”
He was about to tell her she was being hard on herself again, but she was leaning her head on her arms looking at him and her green eyes were smiling and the sun was turning her scarlet hair as red as the Pilbara country where he worked . The breeze was turning the loose tendrils of hair around her face into snakes and he thought, beautiful and couldn’t help but lean closer.
“You’ll find something,” he said, snagging a flying tendril and curling it behind her ear, knowing there just had to be something amazing in store that deserved this woman.
“Yeah, that’s what Aunt Margot says. She says sometimes the way isn’t clear straight up but you’re on the
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