When sparks flew between them, the storekeeper shoved the full bag at her. Kendle spun back around in time to catch it just before it fell to the tiled floor. "Is there a problem?"
She saw Luke's wide shoulders tense from the corner of her eye, wondering if they were about to mix it up, and knew the clerk did too.
When the woman's brown eyes went from unfriendly to mean, Kendle held up a hand. "Of course there is. Let's do it like this. I plan to be here a while. Should I spend my money with the crazy lady across the creek?"
The storekeeper seemed surprised she knew there were other options and shook her head, voice hateful. "No. Come back anytime."
Kendle smiled sweetly as she turned away. "Not even if you bent over and kissed my red ass! Have a great day!"
Luke held the door as she swept out, regal as any Hollywood snob he'd ever seen, and he grinned at the speechless clerk. "I'd pay to see that!"
He slipped out before she could respond and went to help Kendle store their things on the cart attached to the back of the bike.
"She always act like that?"
Luke nodded, waved at one of the four other shack-like, brown and green stores that made up town proper on this side. The Bounty Bay the tourists saw wasn't the real Pitcairn Island. "Yes. Wanna go to Baxter's? They have shoes."
Kendle met his eye, hand on her slender, jean-clad hips, and Luke's gaze moved to her tiny waist.
"Same attitude, right?"
He looked away, voice a low mutter of embarrassment. "Probably."
She frowned, looked around the tiny town again. There were patches of wild roses amid small clumps of Miro trees with multi-colored parrots in the tops that hung over every inch of the town, creating shaded canopies. There were no cars, only two dirt bikes parked by theirs, and she saw the outlines of neat, white-fenced shacks in the distance she assumed were the storekeeper's homes. There were no mailboxes, no addresses on the doors, just gravel walkways and rocking chairs on the porches. There was a striped barber pole on the last shop that made her stomach clench with longing. She missed her home, her country.
"How about we go fishing instead?"
Luke's eyes lit up and Kendle felt her first response to him, to his happiness. There was something there.
"Sounds like a plan. Now?"
She grinned back, feeling soft and attractive for a change, instead of just being grateful to be alive. Another spark flew between them that the people lingering in shop windows felt. "Yes, the sooner the better."