by Tania Joyce
“You make me believe I can do anything. Thank you for being so wonderful.” She turned her head and glanced out of the small kitchen window at the rain. She looked so sad this morning. Why? What was going on? He wanted her to be happy, so it was time to distract her and get on with the day.
He reached out and touched her hand. “Come on. How about that coffee? Let’s get you dressed and I’ll drive you over to the restaurant. Okay?”
Kelleigh vacantly nodded as Troy set about fetching her some clothes.
Chapter 25
Away from the noisy crowd of stranded guests having breakfast in the restaurant, Troy was having a well-brewed coffee while sitting at the counter with Kelleigh in the quiet of the cellar shop. He’d lent her his phone so she could contact her office and her team stuck at Harrigan’s to let them all know she was okay. Of course, she left out all the finer details about nearly drowning.
“There you are.” Maria gasped as she burst through the door and strode toward him. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Don’t you answer your phone?”
Troy placed his coffee down on the wooden counter and picked his phone up from the bench. “Sorry, I had it on silent.”
At the sight of Kelleigh, she hesitated and a smile spread broadly across her face. “I didn’t know you had company. Here I was thinking you were slacking off work because of all the rain.”
He shook his head, feeling his cheeks redden. “Nope. I’ve been rescuing and looking after the injured. Kelleigh got caught in the floodwaters; I got her out and am now nursing her back to health.”
Maria looked down at Kelleigh’s bandaged foot, nodded with a twinkle in her eye. Between her and Grace, they knew everyone’s business.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Kelleigh,” Maria said before turning back to him. “Can you play doctors and nurses later? I’m in a dilemma. I’ve just got off the phone to one hysterical, stressed-out bride. Providing the creeks drop in time, her wedding with thirty guests is here tomorrow. We were supposed to have the ceremony in the gardens, but it’s too wet to even put up the marquee. We can’t do it in the restaurant because we need to lay it out for the reception. I’ve got issues with catering supplies not getting through. Staff can’t get here because of the road cut-offs. I’ve got stranded guests to feed and entertain. On top of all that, Nick’s come down with the man flu and flaked out in bed.” She stopped and pressed the palm of her hand against her head. “I can’t think at the moment. Where the hell can we hold the wedding service?
Maria was like a well-oiled machine when it came to coordinating everything; he’d never seen her look so flustered. “We’ll come up with something.” Troy sipped on his hot coffee, taking a moment to think. “What about the barn or the wine shed?”
“You can’t have a wedding in a production shed around all that equipment, and the barn is filthy,” Maria gasped, looking mortified at his suggestion.
“Is there a reason you can’t do it in here?” Kelleigh waved her finger, indicating to the cellar shop. “It’s gorgeous in here and large enough to accommodate that many people. All this beautiful timber and sandstone tiles would look wonderful with a few decorations. Have you got some candles or fairy lights, ribbons and flowers? It would make it intimate and romantic.”
Troy turned and smiled at her. She was absolutely brilliant. “That could work. All I’d have to do is roll the wine barrels out of the way, clear the displays and set up some seating. What do you think, Maria?”
“I love it.” Maria beamed, clapping her hands. “Kelleigh, you’re a life saver. Troy, can you fill in for Nick and do a wine tasting for the guests in here after lunch, and then I’ll bring all the decorations over. If you could set them up for me, that’d be a great help too. I need to go and call the bride to put her mind at ease and get stuck into the cooking. Now the rain has stopped, let’s hope the creeks drop in time and all goes to plan.” Maria spun around and shot out the door as fast as she had arrived.
“You’ve just won Maria over. This wedding business has taken off and we can’t keep up with the demand. We’ll be set once the new function room is built after this coming harvest.”
“Gumtrees is so beautiful, I can’t believe you only recently started doing weddings here.”
“We’ve been more of a getaway type place rather than a wedding venue. But word-of-mouth spread and now it is one of the most profitable areas of our business. So, if I have to play wedding decorator this afternoon, I need to get some work done over in the shed first. Would you like to come over and hang out or head back to the cottage?”
She seemed to deliberate for a long time on what he thought was such a simple question. “I don’t want to get in your way. I’ll go back to the cottage, watch TV and rest my foot. Will you come back and have lunch with me?”
Being separated from her, even if it was only for a few hours until lunchtime, seemed too long and weighed down heavily in his chest. What on earth was going on with him? He couldn’t let her get to him anymore, because once those creeks dropped she was out of here. Reassuring himself, he nodded and forced a smile. “Lunch it is. Come on, let’s get going.”
***
Having spent enough time cooped up inside Troy’s cottage, Kelleigh joined him over in the cellar shop while he did a wine tasting with a small group of six stranded guests. She sat out of the way, perched on a bar stool at the end of the timber counter and sipped on a semillon while Troy kept the wine flowing into the glasses of each guest.
Twisting her glass between her fingertips, she watched and listened to Troy as he shared his knowledge on wine, the vineyard and Gumtrees’ history. The sound of his deep voice held her entranced as he spoke with heart. She wished she could be passionate like that about something.
With her head starting to buzz from the wine, and Troy’s voice filling the air, images of her private wine tasting with him in the main cellar danced through her mind. His tasty lips on hers after each glass, his tantalizing hands on her as he slowly undressed her and then taking her from behind. The delicious memory would stay with her forever. This wine tasting was simply nowhere near as good in comparison.
She was pulled from her thoughts when the large wooden door opened with a gush of air. Troy held it for all the guests to tumble outside and seconds later Maria trundled in with a trolley with four large boxes strapped to it.
“Here you go,” she said, standing the trolley upright. “These are all the wedding decorations for you to put up, please. I’ll leave it in your very capable hands to make this room look spectacular.”
Troy mumbled under his breath and Kelleigh giggled, topping up her glass with wine from the bottle Troy had left her with.
“Please let me know when you’re done. I have a list as long as the Nullabor Highway to get through, so I’ll catch up with you later. Thanks for this. You’re a treasure.” Maria patted Troy on the side of his face before rushing off out the door.
As the door clicked closed behind her, silence took over the room. Alone with Troy again.
He sighed heavily. “A man’s work is never done,” he said as he started to unload the boxes off the trolley and opened up each one. “Shit, look at all this stuff. Fairy lights. Material. Ribbons. What the hell am I supposed to do with all this?”
“You want me to help?” Kelleigh offered. “I love setting up party decorations. Come on, this will be fun.”
“I doubt it,” Troy walked over to the center of the room and grabbed one of the wine barrels that was used as a bar table, tipped it sideways on to its rim, and rolled it toward the far end of the room.
Kelleigh tilted her head to the side. Biting down hard on her lip as she watched his strong arms flex as he rolled the barrel along.
“You right there?” His sapphire eyes flashed in her direction.
She blinked, heat flushing her cheeks.
“Okay, you want to help?” he asked, planting his hands on his hips. Kelleigh nodded. “Could you work out something to do with all that,”
he pointed to the boxes of decorations, “while I clear away the rest of the barrels?”
“Sure.” She slid down off the stool, being careful of her sore foot, but he found her eyes drifting back toward his backside as he moved the next barrel.
“Kelleigh,” he called out to her from the other end of the room.
“Mmm.”
“You’re going to have to stop watching my ass or we won’t get anything done in here.”
“I was just admiring the view.” She sculled the rest of her drink and turned her attention to the boxes of decorations.
“You’re so bad,” he chuckled. “I’ll just go and a grab a ladder, hammer and nails to put up some of those lights.”
***
After sorting through the boxes and formulating a plan on how to decorate the room, Kelleigh went about directing Troy on where to hang up the fairy lights. As she sat on one of the bar stools untangling the next strand of lights, she fantasized about the idea of one day having a wedding. A vineyard would be such a romantic setting. The natural surroundings, wine, photos among the trellises, the gorgeous sunsets and luxurious accommodation to retreat to at the end of the night. It sounded like the perfect day. But for her, there was nothing like that in her foreseeable future. Not even a man. Finding one to make her feel like Troy did was going to be a challenge.
She looked up at him as he struggled to nail a set of lights to the beam.
“Can I ask you something?” she asked while continuing to unravel the strand.
“Sure. Anything.” He shifted the ladder along to the next beam.
“How come you never remarried?”
He hesitated as he put his foot up on the first step, fumbled with the lights, before he continued up the rungs. “I guess I’ve never met the right woman.”
“I can’t believe you haven’t found someone else to share your life with. Are you still hung up on your wife? Is that it?”
Kelleigh nearly dropped her decorations when she saw pain inch across his face. “No. Nicola died a long time ago. That’s not the reason at all.” He hammered a nail into the wooden beam with force. She didn’t want him to be defensive or make him uncomfortable, but she sensed he had the capability to love someone, but was afraid to do so.
“What was she like? Your wife? Can you talk about her?”
“Why do you want to know this stuff?” He hooked the lights over the nail and climbed down the ladder. “It’s all in the past. I’ve moved on with work here at Gumtrees and getting to know my son.” With his unsteady voice, was he trying to convince himself?
“You loved her a lot, didn’t you?” She could see it written clearly on his face.
“Yes, I did.” He eased himself down to sit on the bottom rung of the ladder.
“Is she the reason you’ve never been in love again?” She closed her eyes, trying to keep her own feelings for him at bay. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear his answer.
He scratched at the stubble on his cheek. The look in his eyes made her heart ache. “Maybe … we met when I was seventeen, just after I’d gone to the States. We got married when we were twenty-one and after that things started to change.” He hesitated as he stared down at some point on the tiled floor. “She grew very ill. She suffered severe depression and mental health issues after living through her childhood with an abusive father. I did everything I could to help her, but it was never enough. I don’t want to risk losing someone I love like that again.”
She found it hard to swallow as he talked. Seeing the anguish on his face was heartbreaking. It broke her own heart at the same time, knowing he didn’t feel that way about her.
“What if someone came along unexpectedly and turned your world upside down?” Like he had done to her.
“This place is my world. I don’t have time for anything else.”
Her heart lurched inside her chest. Had he really developed no feelings for her in the time they’d been together? How did men do that? Sleep with someone … several times … and remain emotionally unconnected. Goddamn it! She got herself into this mess; she had to get herself out of it. One day, if she was lucky, she’d find someone who loved her as much as he loved Nicola.
“Fair enough.” She looked up to the ceiling. She took several long deep breaths to regain her composure and stop the tears from stinging her eyes. She was a fool to think there was a remote possibility that Troy liked her as much as she liked him. An utter, utter fool. The sooner she could leave Gumtrees the better. “Well, these decorations aren’t going to hang themselves, let’s get on with it.”
***
After two and half hours of hanging up hundreds of fairy lights across the wooden beams, laying out chairs, dressing them with covers and ribbons and decorating the benchtops, it was done. Troy sat on the floor, leaning back against the wine barrels at the back of the room next to Kelleigh as they looked up at all their handiwork. The fairy lights twinkled up above and filled the room with a soft ambient light. He chinked his glass against hers. “To a job well done. There’s no way I would have ever made the room look this good without your help.”
“It was fun.”
“You’re a natural,” he said. “Maybe this could be your new calling. Party decorating extraordinaire.”
She laughed. “You did all the work. I supervised.”
Kelleigh winced in pain , moving to straighten out her leg.
“How’s your foot after all the hobbling around?”
“Sore. I’m concerned about being able to drive, but I don’t want to be a burden on you. If the creeks are down tomorrow, can you give me a lift back over to Larry’s to get my car? I’m sure I’ll be able to make it back to Harrigan’s from there.”
“I can do that.” He reached for the bottle of semillon and topped up their glasses once more. “Have you had enough of me already and want to leave?”
She shook her head, her eyes turned downward. “Far from it.”
He watched her lips as she touched the glass to her mouth and took a sip of wine. Damn, she was so sexy. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the hard wood of the barrel.
“You okay?” she asked, placing her hand on his thigh.
“Yeah, I was thinking about what a crazy couple of weeks it’s been since you came to town.”
He turned toward her to find her gazing at him. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. She was so beautiful.
“We’ve had a bit of fun, haven’t we?”
Whether it was the few glasses of wine swirling through his insides or the magic setting she helped to decorate, or just being in her presence, he wanted to kiss her. Heat surged through his veins as he leaned in toward her and edged his mouth closer to hers. His skin tingled when she rubbed her hand slowly up and down along his thigh. Barely two inches from her mouth, he paused and breathed in her scent, filling up every one of his senses. “I’ll be sorry to see you go.”
Her breath quickened as his own heartbeat thudded in his chest. He closed the gap between them, his lips connected to hers at last. Tasting her top lip, then her bottom lip, and every element of her mouth.
He snapped back away from her when the door opened with a loud bang and Maria backed her way inside carrying a tray laden with hot, steaming food. Her eyes spun toward him sitting next to Kelleigh, and looked horrified for interrupting.
“Oh crap! I’m sorry for barging in. When you hadn’t come in for dinner, I thought you were still in here working. Not … not … you know.”
Trying to hide his embarrassment, Troy ruffled his hands through his hair and glanced at Kelleigh. She blushed while fumbling her hands and fingers together on her lap.
“I’ll leave this here for you.” Maria walked over to the bar and placed the tray of food down before she looked up around the room. “Wow. This place looks amazing. Troy, please tell me you did not do this, otherwise you have a hidden talent that we’ll need to exploit further.”
“No,” he shook his head. “It was all Kelleigh. She ordere
d me around and told me where to put everything.”
“It’s brilliant. I think we’re going to have one very happy bride tomorrow.”
“I’m glad I could help out.” Kelleigh looked humbled.
“Anyway,” Maria dusted her hands off on her cooking apron, “I have cakes in the oven so I’ll leave you two alone. Sorry for the interruption.” Her grin was as wide as the Cheshire cat’s as she turned and scuttled out the door.
“We can’t let hot food go to waste.” Troy stood up, grabbed the tray of food, along with another bottle of wine, before returning to the floor. His belly grumbled as he surveyed the hot dishes of rice, beef stroganoff and home-baked bread. He handed Kelleigh a fork and they tucked into the meal.
Seeing her glow as she enjoyed her food filled him with inner warmth. Her smile caused strange sensations to swirl inside his belly. Her laughter rippled through him and made his heart thump like the thud, thud, thud from a subwoofer. He thought he’d never be capable of ever having feelings like this for another woman again. Her leaving tomorrow was tearing him up inside. He would miss her but they just weren’t meant to be.
After finishing off the bottle of wine, Troy scooped Kelleigh up in his arms and drove her back over to his cottage. She was giggly, bordering on tipsy, and had trouble standing as he helped her through the doorway and on to the couch. He laid her down gently, slipped off her boot and socks, before he realized she’d fallen asleep. Crouching down beside her, he brushed her hair back away from her eyes and stared at her. Saying goodbye tomorrow was going to be difficult. He leaned forward and kissed her on her forehead before he whisked her up into his arms, carried her to his bed and tucked her in for a good night’s sleep.
Chapter 26
With the floodwaters receded, a wedding on and field work to do, today was going to be a hectic Saturday at Gumtrees. Troy strolled into Nick’s office with his laptop, a pile of notes tucked under one arm and a cup of steaming coffee in the other, ready for a quick catch up before the day got underway. Maria was already seated at the small meeting table with her own notes and list of things to discuss.
