Nothing to Gain

by Claire Boston

  “Mai wouldn’t do that,” Nicholas said.

  “How would you know? You’ve only been there for a week.”

  There was no way he would mention how much time he’d already spent with Mai. “You’re right. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

  By the time he hung up, Nicholas’s head throbbed and the antacid wasn’t touching the stabbing pain in his stomach. How had he lived with this stress and tension all of the time? It was ridiculous that he hadn’t noticed it, hadn’t done something about it. The massive anxiety attack after the Baldivis fire had him thinking he was having a heart attack, but still he hadn’t recognised it had been the boiling point of all the stress he constantly lived with. Work was slowly destroying him.

  He hated it.

  There was no joy, no sense of satisfaction, just day after day of trying to live up to his father’s unrealistic expectations. He didn’t have the passion that Mai had for her bakery, about the food she baked.

  What would it be like to wake up and actually look forward to going to work?

  He couldn’t imagine it. Work had been an expectation, a responsibility for so long.

  But what would he do instead?

  A few months ago his father would have gone mental at the suggestion Nicholas wanted to leave the company. Now though … he might welcome the move.

  He stood up and stretched, the time on the oven catching his attention. Shit, he had to get ready for his date with Mai.

  His skin prickled with nervous anticipation. If he was honest with himself, the only thing he really wanted right now was to get to know Mai better, find out what made her tick, surround himself with her optimism.

  He needed some of that in his life.

  Work could get stuffed. And if he quit, he wouldn’t have to worry about a conflict of interest, or mixing business with pleasure.

  He swallowed a couple of headache pills and got ready.

  Tonight he would forget about everything going on in his life and would focus on what he wanted.

  Mai.

  Mai fluffed around her apartment waiting for Nicholas to arrive. She couldn’t sit still, the nerves flitting around her stomach like a deranged butterfly, so she straightened the remote on the coffee table, brushed Calypso’s hair off the couch and reviewed her supply of treats to see if she needed to do more baking. She’d dressed up a little and had enough time to second-guess the decision. The Vale winery was kind of posh, so she’d curled her hair and wore a floral, fifties-style dress, with a big skirt and petticoat that always made her feel feminine and in charge, and a killer pair of black heels.

  When the doorbell finally rang, she picked up her bag and hurried down the steps to the back door. Nicholas had dressed down from his usual business suits. The rolled-up sleeves of his black shirt accentuated his long arms and the slim fit of his beige chinos made Mai consider taking his hand and dragging him upstairs to her apartment.

  “You look beautiful, Mai.” He kissed the back of her hand.

  Heat rushed to her cheeks. “Thanks. You look pretty good yourself.” She kept her hand in his as she walked down the steps to his car.

  As Nicholas opened the door for her, a white hatchback pulled into the car park. Mai groaned as her sister Leanne got out.

  “Hi, Mai.” She gave Nicholas a once over and smiled before focusing back on Mai. “We’ve run out of bread at home and I was supposed to come and get some earlier.”

  Mai raised her eyebrows. “The bakery is closed.” And she was busy.

  “Well, duh, that’s why I came around the back to you.” She waved at Nicholas. “Hi, I’m Leanne, Mai’s sister. You don’t mind if she lets me in for a second, right?” Leanne ignored the daggers Mai sent her and walked over to the steps.

  “Not at all. We’ve got time,” Nicholas said.

  Damn it. “I won’t be a minute,” Mai told him and unlocked the door again. Once inside Leanne said, “Who’s the hunk?”

  Mai’s face heated as she moved down the corridor out of Nicholas’s hearing. “That’s Nicholas Shadbolt. He’s new in town.”

  “The property developer? The guy who’s shutting you down?” Leanne gaped at her.

  “Yes and no, he’s not shutting me down.” She greeted Sylvia who was counting the till. “Have we got any loaves left?”

  “Just the rye. I was just going to pack it up for the CWA.”

  Mai grabbed a loaf and handed it to Leanne.

  Leanne screwed up her nose. “I don’t like rye.”

  “Then you should have come in earlier.” Mai shepherded her back towards the door.

  “Can I get some pastries too?”

  Was she kidding? “No.” At Leanne’s pout, she said, “They’re going to charity and you’ve interrupted my date enough.”

  “Oh, so it is a date?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it serious?”

  They were at the door and Mai shot her sister a shut-up-now look. “We’ll talk later.”

  Leanne laughed. “We’d better.” She waved at Nicholas who leaned against his car, arms crossed over his chest, stance relaxed. “Thanks. I’ll let you two get back to your date now. You be good to my sister, all right?”

  Mai closed her eyes, asking for patience.

  “I will. Nice meeting you, Leanne.” Nicholas smiled.

  Mai waited until Leanne had left before moving down the stairs and climbing into the car. “Sorry about that.”

  “It’s not a problem. It’s not every day I get called a hunk.”

  “You heard that?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah. She seems nice.”

  “She is when she’s not in annoying little sister mode.” Mai smiled. “How was the rest of your day?”

  “Fine.” He frowned.

  “Want to talk about it?”

  He was silent for so long that she wasn’t sure he would answer. Finally he sighed. “How did you know you wanted to be a baker?”

  Mai glanced at him. It was an odd question. “When we had to choose our subjects for the final two years in high school, there wasn’t anything that interested me. I’ve always loved to cook, loved providing food for people.” Did that sound stupid? “The school counsellor provided me with some options and the moment I saw baker I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

  “Did you finish high school?”

  “Yeah. There was no way Mum would have let me drop out, but I got a part-time job at a bakery, a kind of unofficial apprenticeship, and I fell in love with it.”

  “You don’t mind the hours?”

  “It was hard getting up so early at first, but I’m used to it now.” They drove along Mortimer Road and Mai pointed out the cafe. “That’s the place I’ve leased.”

  Nicholas slowed down. “It looks nice.”

  Mai shrugged. “It will do in the interim. The owners have given me permission to put in a ramp up to the door to make it more accessible.” A couple of her regulars were in wheelchairs.

  “Word will spread pretty quickly, especially if you put up a notice in the bakery now.”

  “I hope so.” It wouldn’t be quite that easy, but it was a worry for another night. “So what about you? Have you always wanted to be a property developer?”

  His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t expected of me.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  He blew out a breath. “I don’t know.”

  The admission surprised her. He’d seemed so confident when she’d first met him. “Do you enjoy it?”

  “No.” He barked out a surprised laugh. “Wow, I didn’t mean to say that.”

  “Is it true?”

  “Yes.” He tugged on his ear. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. You’re going to regret signing the contract with me.”

  Mai shook her head. “I signed the contract with the company you work for. Even if you weren’t there, I’m sure they’d get the development finished.” She shifted in her seat to better see h
im. “What do you want to do?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  They arrived at the winery and Nicholas got out of the car, ending the conversation.

  She wanted to talk to him about it, he was clearly upset, but she didn’t want to push him. As Mai opened her door she took a deep breath in. The eucalyptus trees bordering the car park had a sharp, fresh scent. Row upon row of grapevines rose up the hill away from the pretty wooden restaurant on stilts. It was a little like a tree house surrounded as it was by the eucalyptus, and underneath the building there were tables and chairs where guests could sit.

  Together they walked across the almost empty gravel car park and up the steps into the restaurant where they were shown to a table with a view of the vineyard.

  Polished jarrah floorboards and the rows of tables set with glassware, shining silverware and crisp white linen tablecloths gave it an air of respectability, but every so often a statue of a quirky fantasy creature peeked out of various spots of the restaurant – in the rafters, behind a pot plant, on a post. “I love the feel of this place,” Mai said. “It’s classy but quirky.”

  Nicholas smiled. “Your place has a similar vibe.”

  Pleasure swept through her. “Thank you. I wanted it to be a place of good food and friendly people.”

  “You succeeded.”

  His praise meant a lot to her and she didn’t want to stop and question why. She opened her menu. “The food here is fantastic.”

  “What would you recommend?”

  She glanced at him over the menu. “What do you like?”

  He smiled at her. “You.”

  Such a cheesy line and yet it sent a thrill through her. She was glad they were on the same page. “I was all set to dislike you when I found out who you were, but it turns out I like you too.” But he was only here for a few months and she needed to remember that.

  His gaze was steady. “I’m glad.” He broke the connection by looking at his menu. “I like seafood.”

  She turned up her nose. “That’s not my favourite, but Kit raves about the chilli mussels.”

  The waiter came over and they ordered their food and wine.

  It probably wasn’t the right time to continue their conversation from the car – too heavy for a first date. “How long has your family had a house down here?”

  “Since I was a kid. We used to come down here a few times a year.”

  “Did you enjoy getting away from the city?”

  “Yeah. My friend Shane and I would go surfing every day.” His smile faded.

  She touched the wound above her eye. “But you don’t surf much now?”

  “No. There’s never any time.”

  She hesitated. She didn’t want to ruin their date by talking about things which made Nicholas uncomfortable but they kept coming back to it. “Do you work a lot?”

  “Too much.” He sighed. “Have you ever done something every day and then suddenly asked yourself why?”

  She took her time with the answer. “I spent the first part of my childhood watching my parents working constantly. I barely saw them and it was my responsibility, as the oldest child, to help my grandmother with the younger kids. I decided then that I wasn’t going to be like that when I grew up. It wasn’t until Dad had a breakdown that things changed and we moved down here. ” She shrugged. “I work hard, but I love it and I also make time for the things I love to do.”

  “I’ve never stopped to ask, never considered anything else.” He looked so conflicted, so concerned.

  “Aside from surfing, what do you enjoy doing?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I’m not being a fun date. I had this epiphany this afternoon that I hated my work and I thought I could put it aside but it’s hit me for six.” He stared out the window at the vineyard. “I don’t know anything else but Shadbolt. I wouldn’t know what else to do.”

  She’d felt the same when he’d announced he was knocking down the bakery. “Is there anything you do like about working there?”

  “Not really,” he finally said, turning back to her, his eyes sad.

  Mai squeezed his hand. She wanted to be able to help him. “What was your favourite subject at school?”

  “Woodwork.”

  She sat back in surprise. She couldn’t imagine this business man in a workshop, getting dusty and dirty. Though now the thought was in her head …

  “I spent three months working for a construction company while I was at university and I loved every hot, sweaty minute of it.”

  Mai suppressed the image of him hot and sweaty. “What were you building?”

  “Mostly pre-fabricated granny flats.”

  Maybe she could help him. “Hannah’s building a holiday retreat not far from town. Each cabin is pre-fabricated and she’s doing the interiors herself. If it still interests you, I’m sure she could do with some help.”

  He hesitated and then straightened his shoulders. “Could I have her number? I’d love to take a look.”

  “Sure.” She rattled it off for him and he put it in his phone. “So what do you do when you’re not working?”

  He laughed. “Go out to dinner with you.”

  “I meant back in Perth.”

  He sobered. “Nothing. It was all work, all the time. I’ve been more social here than I’ve ever been.”

  “You can always come jogging in the evenings with Fleur and me.”

  “You surf, you jog, you bake and you volunteer in fire and emergency rescue. How do you find the time?”

  “I make the time. In winter I also ride vintage motocross.”

  His eyebrows rose. “You’re kidding me.”

  “No.” She laughed. “We’ve got a motocross track not far out of town and the club has quite a few members. Fleur is president.”

  Their meals arrived and Mai inhaled the spicy scent of her chorizo and mushroom risotto. “Bon appetit.”

  “To good food and great company.” He raised his wine glass and she gently clinked her glass against his.

  “Cheers.

  It was getting dark when they left the restaurant, the insects chirping noisily as Mai got into Nicholas’s car. She wasn’t ready for the evening to end. They’d talked for hours about favourite movies, world politics and business tactics. She discovered he shared her love of superhero movies and agreed with many of her own ideals. It was fantastic to have such stimulating conversation from a date.

  Nicholas navigated the winding road, shadowy in the dusk, and Mai kept her eye out for kangaroos. As they approached her new cafe, there was a battered dark blue sedan parked in the car park, its headlights on. Mai sat up straight. “Pull in.”

  Nicholas did as she asked and she unbuckled her seatbelt, her heart pounding. It had to be Gordon, but what was he doing there? She reached for the door handle and Nicholas put a hand on her arm.

  “Wait. Shouldn’t we call Lincoln?”

  “No. It’s Gordon – the same guy who almost ran us off the road the other day. I know him. He’s harmless.” She stalked across the gravel as fast as she could in her heels. Gordon probably didn’t know she’d leased the place, but he would soon. And she wouldn’t put up with him dealing drugs in her backyard.

  She turned the corner of the building. “Gordon, what on earth—” Her words caught in her throat as she took in the scene.

  Gordon was on his knees, head bowed, while three guys stood over him. One was the creepy guy she’d seen with him at the park, another a tall blond, and the third was a great hulking man covered in tattoos. The hulking man had a gun pointed directly at Gordon’s forehead.

  Shit.

  All eyes whipped to her as did the gun the man held.

  Mai froze, her eyes locked on the hard metal weapon now pointing directly at her.

  What the hell did she do now?

  “Mai, is everything all right?” Nicholas’s voice was over by the car, but his footsteps were coming closer.

  “Get rid of him,” Creep
y Guy snarled.

  Her palms were sweaty as she forced herself to turn and wave. “Yes. I won’t be a second. Stay there.” She stepped forward, out of Nicholas’s view and prayed he wouldn’t follow her.

  Gordon’s eyes were wide, his face full of fear.

  “You have a nasty habit of turning up where you’re not wanted,” Creepy Guy said.

  She didn’t dare say a word.

  “You’re going to turn around and forget this ever happened,” he continued. “You didn’t see a thing. If you call the police, we’ll kill Gordon and your bakery will burn.”

  Hot flushes of fear swept over her. They knew who she was.

  “You’ve got some lovely sisters as well – very pretty.”

  She wanted to be sick. What would he do to her family? She couldn’t risk it.

  But how could she leave Gordon there by himself? What if they hurt him?

  “Mai, go.” Gordon’s smile was forced. “I’ll be fine. We’re just having a minor disagreement.”

  Creepy Guy nodded. “Listen to your friend.”

  The crunch of footsteps behind her made her decision. She couldn’t drag Nicholas into this, couldn’t risk him getting hurt. She spun around and hurried away, meeting Nicholas halfway across the car park.

  “What was it?”

  “It was Gordon.” In the dark he couldn’t see her fear. “Let’s go.” She grasped his hand and pulled him towards the car.

  Maybe she should call Lincoln. No, she couldn’t. He’d threatened her sisters.

  She had to protect them.

  “What was he doing there?” Nicholas’s voice was loud in the car and she jumped.

  She needed an excuse. “He didn’t realise I’d leased the place, and it’s become a meeting place for drug deals.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “No. He said he’ll move elsewhere.”

  “Are you all right?”

  She shook her head. Her skin tightened, but she couldn’t tell him the truth. Clearing her throat, she said, “Sorry, it upsets me that Gordon is dealing. I went to school with him and he dated Kit for a while.” She paused. “He was made redundant and now he’s struggling to find any work.”