“She doesn’t care, Matthew. Take her to the frigging beach.”

“O-kay, Ashley,” retorted Matt playfully.

Jules grinned. “She is right, though. I don’t care. But what about you?” she asked Ash. “Do you want to come?”

“Meh, I’m from Melbourne. I’ve been. Plus, I’ve got a million things to do.” Jules doubted that but didn’t press. Besides, she would get to spend some time with the hot winemaker and maybe even see him in less than jeans and a T-shirt.

*

“I’ve taken the long way.” They had just turned onto an esplanade and the bay stretched out in both directions on the left side of the car. The bay was a lot larger than Jules had imagined and she could only just make out where the coast curved around on the far side.

She’d been watching the street signs and from what she could tell, they’d just left St Kilda and were heading towards Port Melbourne. Throughout the whole journey to the coast, she’d been mesmerised by the streets of Melbourne, especially the main streets, which were lined with stores and dozens of coffee shops. She wondered how people ever chose a favourite when there were so many.

“In case you were wondering,” Matt added.

“I was actually. You said it was close.”

“I wanted to show off Melbourne a little.”

“Well, you’ve done a good job. It’s a gorgeous city. I adored that suburb with the narrow houses.”

“Oh, the terraces? Yeah, most of them go back quite a ways. Some are even heritage listed, and you would have seen some with two storeys?” She nodded. “A mate of mine has one and he and his wife have done it up beautifully. It’s a lot bigger than it seems from the street.”

“Very different from Boulder. We like big houses and condos and not much in between. No, that’s not true, there are some cool converted warehouses. Anyway, I like the terraced houses. And the marinas. Seriously, how many do you have here?”

“Personally, zero.”

“Ha, ha.”

“I’ve never even thought about it, but I guess Aussies just love the water. We do have a lot of it, you know.” He was teasing her. She liked it. “But we don’t have the Grand Canyon or the Rocky Mountains—”

“You’ve got Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef!”

“We could probably have a really good argument about whose country has the best scenery.”

“But don’t you think it’s like what you said about the marinas? When you live somewhere, often things just recede into the background.” He seemed to contemplate the idea. “I think that’s why I like to travel so much—so that when I get home, I see it with fresh eyes, you know? A renewed perspective. Have you been to the States?”

“America? Yeah, actually, I was there a couple of years back. I took a bit of a sabbatical once the winery was in good shape and I could step away for a bit. My mate, Twoey—that’s my business partner—he kept an eye on things while I travelled.”