‘What’s that?’ he asked, gazing into her eyes.
‘That you can dance better than those two.’
He looked to the Countdown couple, still gyrating with flailing arms and eyes closed in rapturous rhythm. ‘You’re on.’
Before Anna could take a step, he’d grabbed her hand and had pulled her on to the dance floor.
CHAPTER
17
Joe was not in the mood for a happy family gathering.
He looked around the long white table that formed the centrepiece of Ry and Julia’s living area. He really missed house-sitting this place. He was back in his old bunk bed in his old bedroom. Sure, he’d grown up in that house too, with those ridiculous pink flamingos cemented in the front garden, but it was hard to believe he’d ever belonged there. For nearly twenty years, Sydney had been home. When he was a young journalist, he’d lived in a conga line of share houses in the inner-west. Since he’d climbed the ladder and especially since he’d been married to Jasmine, home had been a pleasant red-brick, art deco place on the beach with a mortgage to choke a pig. But it was a five minute walk to the cafés of Bronte Beach and he regularly ran to Bondi and back. Life hadn’t been too shabby. Until it had all crashed and burned.
Joe tried to judge how long it had been since he’d been in the middle of this kind of crazy family camaraderie. Across the table Dan and Lizzie sat together, his arm around the back of her chair, protecting her, keeping her close. To their right, Harri and Ry’s mother Barbra were laughing as they tucked into the wine, two old dames who were raucous and sentimental in turn.
‘Everyone ready for dinner?’ Julia returned to the table carrying a large white dish. Ry carried a fresh bottle in each hand. Joe noticed it was champagne, the good kind.
‘Grab your glasses everybody.’ Ry settled the bottles on the table in front of him, stripped the foil from the neck of the first one and gently worked out the cork.
‘I love that my son owns a pub,’ Barbra said to Harri with a wink.
‘Lucky I do, Mum. It’s the only way I can keep you in booze.’ Ry grinned at his mother and half-filled each person’s glass. Joe lifted his close to his face to watch the bubbles fizz into the air. He tasted and nodded at Dan across the table. Dan nodded in return. This was the best stuff. Both men knew something was coming. Joe, because he had a nose for a story, and Dan, because he knew his best friend.
Ry pulled Julia to standing.
‘We’ve got something to tell you all,’ Julia said, pushing her dark curls behind one ear nervously, her words almost lost in her throat.
Joe watched the exchange of glances between Dan and Lizzie. Harri glanced over the table at him with a quizzical expression and Barbra teared up. Joe smiled to himself. Morning sickness, huh? He hadn’t quite believed the concocted story when he’d taken Julia to Anna’s surgery, but had kept his suspicions to himself. No one likes a smart arse, after all, and it was their secret, their happy news. Some people were lucky, he thought. Very lucky.
Ry pulled Julia closer and she dropped her head on his shoulder. ‘We’re having a baby.’
There was an outburst of joy from everyone. His sister and Barbra competed for who was loudest.
‘Oh my God, Jools!’ Lizzie pushed her chair back and half a second later had engulfed Julia in her arms. ‘I’m going to be an honorary aunty! And a godmother. I am going to be the godmother, right?’
‘Of course you are,’ Julia laughed.
‘My darlings,’ Barbra said as she threw her arms wide, ‘Congratulations.’
Ry went to her side and leaned down for a warm hug. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
‘I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandmother. God, I hate that word, don’t you Harri? I’m going to have to choose something else,’ she laughed and cried, mopped the tears from her cheeks with a napkin.
‘I thought Grandmama might suit you.’
‘You’ve got to be joking, darling,’ she laughed, smothering her son with another hug.
Lizzie squeezed her best friend hard and then held her at arm’s length. ‘This is the best news, the best ever, Jools.’
Julia shook her head. ‘I can’t really believe it yet either.’
Joe’s sister and her best friend laughed and cried with each other, while the men react in an entirely different way. Dan walked to Ry, held him in a great bear hug and slapped his back. The two men let each other go and Dan reached out to shake his hand.
‘So you’re not shooting blanks. Well done, mate.’
‘I was going to call the kid after you. Until that.’
Lizzie rounded her attention on Julia. ‘So exactly how long have you known?’
‘Remember last week when Joe and I were up in Adelaide? I suddenly felt sick as a dog and Joe was totally freaked out when I pulled the car over and hurled in the gutter.’ Julia resumed her seat. ‘It wasn’t my finest moment,’ she chuckled.
‘I was glad she had the foresight to pull over,’ Joe announced. ‘Didn’t fancy driving back to Middle Point in a car that smelled like puke.’
Everyone at the table groaned.
Ry grinned at his wife.
Joe picked up the story. ‘So, there I am sitting in the passenger seat, asking Julia if she’s okay. And in between bouts of – you know – she’s trying to convince me it must have been a bad oyster from the fish restaurant where she had lunch with her client.’
‘And he took great delight in telling me how terrible I looked. Over and over and over.’
Joe sat back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I’m thinking to myself, there’s absolutely no way she can drive home, so I wrestled the keys from her and drove her straight to a doctor.’
‘I barely made it inside Anna’s practice before the nausea hit me again,’ Julia admitted.
‘You went to see Anna?’ Lizzie asked with surprise, directing her question not to Julia. To him. ‘Anna Morelli?’
Jesus, Joe thought, maybe she should have been the reporter. She’d jumped on to that little clue like a seagull on to a hot chip. Joe tried not to react at the mention of her name. He found his best poker face and held it.
‘Well, who else? I’ve been away so long I don’t know any other medicos. Google is a journo’s best friend, you know.’ Joe didn’t look at his sister. He knew full well what she would be thinking and he didn’t want to give her either a clue or, more importantly, any satisfaction.
‘Good choice, mate,’ Dan added.
‘So here I am,’ Julia announced. ‘Up the duff. Unable to drink any of this beautiful champagne. But totally thrilled to bits.’
‘When are you due?’ Lizzie asked.
Julia rolled her eyes. ‘Our timing is ridiculous. Around Christmas, which is, of course, only the busiest time of the year down here.’
‘We’ll be right,’ Dan said. ‘Don’t worry about a thing with the pub.’
‘Thanks, Dan,’ Ry said and raised his glass. ‘To Baby Blackburn.’
Julia scoffed. ‘I think you mean Jones-Blackburn.’
‘Blackburn-Jones,’ Ry grinned.
‘To my first grandchild,’ Barbra called out.
Joe emptied his glass and fought the urge to instantly refill it. ‘To the happy couple,’ he murmured to himself.
Everyone bubbled up with excitement, just like the champagne they were drinking, and Joe withdrew, made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge absent-mindedly. Then shut the door again. When he turned, Lizzie was behind him and staring into his face, all little-sister curious.
‘What?’
‘I was just about to ask you the same question. You all right, Joe?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Aren’t you happy for Ry and Julia?’
‘Course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?’
Was he happy for the parents-to-be? Sure. As long as they realised their lives were about to go down the toilet. A kid would just cramp their style, didn’t they get it? He’d seen it before. A couple of his mates in the newsroom h
ad become fathers and they’d suddenly lost that competitive drive that had driven them throughout their careers. Almost overnight, late nights and work dinners with contacts weren’t top priority anymore and they’d lost their edge. And there was always some young hot-shot journo willing to step up and cover the big yarns. Before you knew it, you’re covering the health or environment round and then you may as well pack up your bat and ball and go home. Kids had never been part of his plan, or Jasmine’s, which he’d thought had made them a perfect match. What a joke.
Lizzie crossed her arms and cocked her head to one side. Joe knew when he was being cross-examined and when he moved past her, he felt her fingers on his forearm.
He stopped, lowered his eyes to where she was holding on to him. He wanted to shake her off but stopped himself. ‘Lizzie.’
‘Joe, you sure you’re okay?’
‘Looking for some more bubbles, Mosquito, that’s all. Stop buzzing.’
And he just knew, as he walked back into the living room where Julia, Ry, Dan and the two mavens were sitting, that Lizzie wouldn’t give in that easily. He’d better come up with an excuse for his funk.
That would be so much easier if he could figure out why himself. Was it because everyone in the room seemed to have a plan for their life, were travelling down a road of their own choosing, whether that was towards kids and a family, for a holiday, for a life together or towards a new lease on life as a grandmother?
And where was he? Smack bang in the middle of Nowheresville.
On the one hand, sleeping in his old bed made him feel like a teenager again. On the other hand, battling out a divorce with a cheating wife made him feel very old. He took a slug of his drink. Something had to give. This feeling-sorry-for-himself mood was just bullshit. He had to find the headline for the rest of his life and it sure wasn’t going to be ‘Sad Old Bloke Hides Out In Beachside Town’. He’d wallowed too long in his misery.
CHAPTER
18
‘I’ve been thinking about what you said, Anna.’
Anna turned away from her computer screen and pressed her mobile phone closer to her ear, trying to concentrate on what Julia was saying down the line.
‘You have?’ Anna quickly tried to rewind and remember what she’d said. Her brain had been a jumble lately but she wasn’t going to admit it.
‘And I want you to hear me out on this. You can’t talk me out of it, so don’t even try. I’ve considered the logistics, the travel involved and, of course, we’re willing to compensate you for everything.’
‘Uh huh,’ Anna replied.
‘I’ve decided – or should I say Ry and I have decided – that we want you to be our GP. For the baby.’ The excitement carried down the phone line like lightning. And stung Anna in almost exactly the same way.
‘Julia, I think you should—’
‘Hold on, hear me out. When I saw you last month, when I peed on the stick and you confirmed everything, you said I could do shared care and I went away and researched it all and it sounds just perfect. But I want you to do it alongside the doctors at the hospital. I know it’s all going to work out. Ry and Dan trust you, and that’s good enough for me.’
Anna flopped back into her leather chair and swivelled it towards the window. She inhaled a deep breath and tried to think this through.
Family. Ry and Julia were creating their own and they clearly wanted her in it, as their GP but also as something more. She knew it, could feel their embrace of her eighty kilometres away and down the phone line. She liked Julia. There was a no-bullshit way about her, which appealed to Anna’s radar for the stuff. But being her doctor?
‘Anna? Are you still there?’
Anna swivelled her chair back to her desk, straightened her back. ‘I’m here. Have you really thought this through? I’m a long way away if you need something in a hurry.’
‘We’re up in Adelaide quite a bit, at least once a week. Me to see clients and Ry for a million things to do with his company. You haven’t said an outright “no” yet. I’m taking that as a good sign.’
‘You sure there isn’t a doctor down south who would suit you better?’
‘They’re not you, Anna.’
Anna closed her eyes. Saying yes would be another connection to Middle Point. And everyone who lived there. Which is exactly why it was such a bad idea. But she found it impossible to say no. The thought of shepherding another life into the world was irresistible.
‘Sure. I’ll be your doctor.’
‘You will? Wow, Ry was so totally wrong,’ Julia laughed down the line.
‘About what?’ Anna queried.
‘He said I wouldn’t be able to convince you. Hah! Wait ’til I tell him.’
Anna laughed. She’d been played but it felt strangely good, like she was in on the joke too.
‘Tell him you have superior powers of persuasion.’
‘He knows that’s true. There’s just one thing. Could we keep this on the quiet? I’d rather the whole of Middle Point didn’t know I was pregnant, just yet. Just to be on the safe side.’
‘Sure. I am always discreet with my patients.’
‘So we’ll have to get our story straight. If anyone asks why you’re coming to Middle Point so often, you can tell people, I don’t know, maybe you can tell them you’re having a raging affair with Joe or something.’
Anna throat tightened and she swallowed a lump like concrete.
‘It’ll do his ego some good. I mean, look at you. And with him being dumped by his wife and everything, he might enjoy rumours like that spreading around.’
And then Anna couldn’t breathe at all. She grabbed St Christopher, almost yanking it off her neck.
‘What did you say about Joe?’ she managed, trying to hide the squeak in her voice.
‘Oh, poor Joe. It’s awful what’s happened to him. His wife left him last year, the day he lost his job at the paper in Sydney. It’s all been a bit ugly with Jasmine – that’s his wife – his soon-to-be ex-wife. She’s fighting him for the house and they’ve got duelling lawyers at twenty paces at the moment. That’s why he came back to Middle Point last year, before Christmas. His life went to hell in a hand-basket and he needed somewhere to escape to. And where better than Middle Point?’
‘Oh. Yes. Poor Joe,’ Anna managed.
There was a gasp down the phone. ‘Oh my God. I’ve just realised what I’ve said. Oh Anna, I’m so sorry … it must be baby brain. I could kick myself.’
Anna laid her head back against the headrest of her chair. She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. ‘Really Julia, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’
‘I know what you’ve been going through. I didn’t mean to be flippant about it. Oh hell.’
‘Please. It’s okay. Now, I want you to get plenty of rest and take care of yourself and the baby.’
‘Yes, Dr Morelli. I promise.’
‘I’ll put you back to Grace and she can book your next appointment, okay?’
‘That would be great. I’ll be up in Adelaide again pretty soon. Will we see you down in Middle Point over Easter? The weather is supposed to be gorgeous and you’ll have four whole days to relax. Won’t you come down and stay with us?’
‘I’d love to.’ The words popped out of her mouth before she could think them through. Damn her disease to please. What had she done? And now, taking those words back would seem rude and ungrateful and churlish. Why had she agreed so quickly? Wasn’t she trying to stay away from Middle Point?
‘Brilliant. We’ll see you soon. And don’t bring a thing to eat or drink. We’re hosting, remember?’
Anna thanked Julia and then transferred the call to Grace. She checked the time and saw she had half an hour for lunch before her afternoon patients began arriving.
Which meant plenty of time to let the news about Joe sink in. So Joe had been dumped too. The night they’d spent together, the night of Ry and Julia’s wedding, suddenly made so much more sense. She hadn’t been the only
one running from failure, looking for a way around the misery and humiliation of her life.
They were purely a distraction for each other. That night had simply been about two sad, lonely people pretending they were someone else, with someone else.
Heartbreak did that, she knew. You saw things that weren’t true, believed things that weren’t real. Convinced yourself that what you were feeling was something more than it was, when really you were just a desperate fool.
CHAPTER
19
Joe sat on the warm, white sand of Middle Point. It was a brilliant beach day, the sun shining down on him, a mild breeze playing with his hair, a cloudless sky, but he wasn’t seeing it. He’d pulled his knees up, his elbows rested on them, and his phone was pressed to his ear. He’d called Jasmine and he needed to be out here, alone, away from the suspicious eyes and big ears of his little sister. He and Jasmine hadn’t spoken since he’d driven back to Middle Point. Every contact they’d had since then had been via text message, email or lawyers’ letters. It was about time that stopped.
He heard the call connect and it began to ring thirteen hundred kilometres away in the harbour city.
He counted the rings. Three. Four. He knew that after six it would go to her message bank. Five—
‘Hi Joe.’
‘Hi Jas.’ She was there. She’d picked up. Joe had imagined over and over what he would say when they finally spoke. Fuck you had been on top of the list and why? was a very close second. But hearing her voice now, he strangely couldn’t find anger anymore. Maybe the resolution he’d made – and was about to tell her – was the reason.
‘How’s Adelaide?’ she asked politely.
‘I’m in Middle Point.’
‘Oh. Of course.’ Jasmine had never liked Joe’s hometown. Or Adelaide for that matter. She was Sydney North Shore through and through.
‘So Jasmine, we need to talk. I want to sort this all out. The house. The divorce. Everything. I need to make a clean break.’
He pressed the phone closer to his ear as the wind whipped up, picking up sand and flicking it against his legs. There was silence down the line.
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