The Search by Margaret Clark Read Free Book Online Page B

face.
    ‘Hi, Nathan,’ she said brightly as Mr Universe came strolling up, wearing purple and green board shorts with blue whales cavorting all over them. On anyone else they’d look ridiculous but on Nathan they looked really sexy. His smooth tanned chest rippled as he flexed his muscles, pretending to yawn.
    ‘Sorry. Rough night.’ He winked. ‘How are you, Angela?’
    ‘Good. And you?’
    She looked sideways at him with her lashes fluttering and gave him a suggestive smile.
    Number twenty-seven? Nathan thought to himself, noting how the high-heeled sandals made her legs look even longer in their short shorts, which he could plainly see through the split at the back of her apron when she bent over. She was practically throwing herself at him, and had been last season too, when she’d had her regular boyfriend Scottie from Geelong in tow. Maybe she’d broken up with him.
    But was she still only fifteen? He usually had chicks who were sixteen plus, because he didn’t want any trouble with minors. Once he’d taken a girl out to the point one moonlit night and was doing the bizzo when her father had come charging up waving a torch in one hand and a rifle in the other. It turned out that she was only thirteen, and the guy had been threatening to call the cops and have him arrested. Nasty scene. She’d been bawling and howling and saying that she was in love with him, which had been even worse.
    Girls in lurve. They acted like stupid cows in heat when they decided that it was true love. He likeduncomplicated chicks like Roxie. She wanted to mess around and have a good time. He was looking forward to her arrival so they could resume where they’d left off. She was hot ! Nineteen and knew what she was doing. But did she count on his scorecard when he’d had her before?
    He winked at Angela as he went into the store. Roxie would be great fun as usual, but there were heaps of attractive girls in the camping ground. It was like a smorgasbord. If she didn’t come across, who cared?
    Flick was serving behind the counter and Kay was frantically making up the bus order. Flick looked at Nathan and gave him a dazzling smile.
    ‘Hi Nathan,’ she said in a low, sexy voice. ‘And what can I do for you? ’
    He gaped at her and recoiled as if she’d poked him with a cattle prod. She’d always treated him with disdain and now she was coming onto him with a full battery of charm. As far as he knew she hadn’t gone out with anyone since she’d been at Coolini Beach, so maybe he was going to get lucky.
    Liz gaped too. She thought Flick hated Nathan’s guts, and here she was beaming out stronger than a halogen light. Flick and Nathan? Unbelievable!
    ‘I’ll have the usual,’ he said.
    ‘One chicken and salad roll, one sausage roll, and one chocolate milkshake coming right up,’ said Flick, making it sound like he’d asked for lobster, caviar and champagne.
    She wrote it down and passed the order through to Kay.
    ‘What’s going on?’ hissed Liz when they met in the coolroom, Liz to get the chicken and Flick to find some more tomatoes for Kay’s ratatouille. ‘I thought you couldn’t stand Nathan!’
    ‘I can’t!’
    ‘Then why are you coming onto him?’
    ‘It’s my new religion.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘I saw this debate on TV last night, a sort of battle of the sexes, and Mark Thornton — you know, that chunk of muscle and no brain — was talking about success. To be really tops you need four things. So I thought, why not? I want to be successful. I want to reach the top. So I’m trying out a couple of these surefire things.’
    ‘What are they?’ Liz was curious. She was hoping to be successful in life too, as an interior designer. She loved matching colours and selecting furniture to create a great atmosphere, and she’d enjoyed helping her parents furnish the beach house.
    ‘Well now, there’s power.’ Flick was ticking them off on her fingers. ‘There’s money. And there’s sex appeal and charisma.