“Oh this is Brody—my boyfriend.”
The man standing next to her put his hand up and waved. “Hi,” he said.
He was pretty cute actually, with his dark hair and deep brown eyes. If I’d been single, I would definitely have checked him out.
“Lizzie and Riley live on my post run,” Chloe explained to him. “They’re the ones doing up the old house I told you about.”
Brody nodded. “Sounds like you’re doing a nice job of it,” he commented to Riley.
“Thanks. It keeps me busy.” Riley smiled as the elevator pinged and the doors opened.
“This is our stop,” said Chloe. “Enjoy your stay.” She smiled as we stepped aside and let them exit. Once the doors were closed I turned to Riley.
“We plan one dirty trip away and not only does half my bloody family turn up, so does my bloody post lady!”
The elderly gentleman standing beside me smiled.
“Relax, they’re all here for the same reason we are,” said Riley as the elevator stopped at our floor.
That was not a comforting thought. I sulked all the way to room 1505.
My sulking didn’t last long. Once we were inside the room, my mood changed dramatically, helped by the luxurious king-sized bed placed in the center of the room with a view out over the city. At night that view would be spectacular.
“Riley, this room must have cost a fortune,” I said, feeling guilty because I knew money was a bit tight at the moment.
“Actually, this room is an upgrade. I explained the situation we were in to the lady at reception, and she felt so bad for you she upgraded us for free.” Riley gave me the mega-watt smile. I knew his methods. She’d been so dazzled by his smile, she would have given him anything he’d asked for.
I laughed and threw myself down on the bed, spread-eagle style, all thoughts from this morning long forgotten.
Riley took one look at me, assumed it was an invitation and jumped on top. Now I could have chastised him and told him it was in fact not an invitation, but in all honesty, I didn’t want to.
“Hang on a minute,” I said, pushing him aside and reaching for my handbag. “I have to turn my phone off.”
Chapter Eighteen
Afterwards, Riley went to the bathroom for a quick shower. I’d told him to go first as I would take ages, but the truth was, I didn’t want to leave the bed. It was large, luxurious and comfortable. I felt like I had been transported to another planet that consisted of only Riley and me. Once I got ready and stepped outside this room, the real world would come crashing back around me. I stretched and sighed blissfully. I could hear the shower running and Riley humming a tune that played on the radio a lot. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift to sleep.
I was woken by the beeping of a phone. I knew it wasn’t mine as I’d switched mine off, and I hadn’t been in a hurry to switch it back on again. Now the annoying thing about Riley’s phone is that it will continue to signal a message until you actually open the message. I always tell him to change the setting, but he liked it that way. He knows he gets too involved with work and forgets it ever beeped in the first place. This way, he has to answer it.
Unfortunately, he was in the shower and hadn’t heard it. I sighed and rolled out of bed. Reaching the dresser, I picked up his phone and swiped at the screen. It was a message from Jared asking him about a fishing trip they were planning. I left it for Riley to reply to, reminding myself to tell him about it later. I was about to put the phone back down when my fingers—all on their own I promise—hit the back button, taking me back a page to the list of all his prior messages. I knew it was wrong and I should have stopped there, but I couldn’t. Not after I saw the name Allison sitting proudly at the top of the list, with the words Thinking of you xo, underneath.
My heart stuttered as I looked at the closed bathroom door, Riley still humming the song he had stuck in his head.
He’d never have to know if I read them would he? I mean, how would he know? I’d just have a quick look and then put the messages back exactly how I’d found them.
My fingers clumsily touched the screen and I held my breath as I waited the millisecond for the stream of messages to appear.
They were of course in backward order, the last of which read exactly thinking of you xo. Above it was a photo. The image was small and it took me a second to figure out what I was looking at, but once I opened the photo and saw the larger image, I had absolutely no problem making out the naked side boob complete with nipple standing to attention.
My hands fumbled as nausea rolled in my stomach.
The incriminating photo arrived on Thursday night. Right in the middle of dinner with his parents. Now that I think about it, I do remember him receiving a message and appearing to be embarrassed about it.
Thursday 27th 7.32pm
I’m having a hard time concentrating on what your parents are saying. I can feel the heat off your body as I try to sit still next to you. It made me think of the time you and I sent messages to each other during that boring dinner party. I thought this might be fun J Allison xoxo
I once again had to look at the photo, my stomach clenching as I did so.
Thinking of you xo
The blood pounded in my ears as sweat broke out on my forehead. I looked for Riley’s response to her, but there wasn’t one. What did that mean? Did he just meet her in the bathroom and have a show-and-tell in person?
I tried to think about what happened later that night at dinner, and whether or not they were both out of the room at the same time, but I couldn’t remember. The nausea causing the convulsions in my stomach made rational thinking difficult. My knees buckled at the thought of my world being destroyed and I sunk to the floor.
I was so consumed with what I was looking at and the repercussions of it, that I hadn’t heard the shower turn off and Riley re-enter the room.
I looked up at him standing directly in front of me, his face pale, and his eyes huge.
“Lizzie. Please listen to what I have to say. Please.”
I gulped, memories of how I felt only half an hour ago floating in my mind.
“I...I’m not sure if I want to throw up,” I managed to say.
I took a few deep breaths and desperately tried to control the convulsions. Riley ran back to the bathroom, returning with a wet towel. I took it from him and wiped my clammy face, welcoming the coolness. Riley sat down next to me.
“It’s not what you think,” he said, his face full of concern.
“What am I thinking?” I croaked, tears stinging the back of my eyes.
“You’re thinking Allison and I are having an affair.”
Well, it appeared he really could read my mind.
“We’re not. She sent this to me during dinner at my parents’ the other night. I was too shocked to even ask her about it. Then I thought about everything you’d said to me about her and how we argued about it. I thought you were just being silly and jealous, but you weren’t. You were right about her.”
“Why didn’t you delete the message then?”
“Because I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to show you the photo and tell you everything, just not like this though.”
“Is this why we’re here?” I asked.
“Yes. No.” Riley ran his hands through his wet hair. “The night I got the message, I couldn’t stop thinking about you and all the things I’d said to you. How I’d defended her. I felt really bad and I wanted to make it up to you. Plus here, it would be harder for you to run away and not hear me out.”
“Huh. I would not run away!” I said indignantly.
Riley looked at me and smiled. It wasn’t the earth-shattering mega-watt smile. It was his small, intimate smile—the one only the two of us shared.
“Okay maybe I would have, but how should I react to finding a nude photo of another woman on my boyfriend’s phone? What do you expect?”
“I’m not asking for anything more than for you to believe me. I have never encouraged h
er. In fact, if you read through all the messages, you’ll see that.”
I realized I was still holding the phone, almost as if my life depended on it. And to be honest, my life did depend on it.
“Read them all please, Lizzie.” Riley’s eyes pleaded with me.
I opened the phone and scrolled back through the messages, reading them in reverse order. My mind jumbled, but the closer to the beginning I got the clearer it all became.
Prior to the naked photo, Allison was the last to send a message.
Hi Riley. I have some changes I want made to the bedroom. Can you pop over and take a look for me please?
I’m a bit busy atm but I can pop over this afternoon. Is it urgent? I can organize a mate to help if it is.
Oh no. It’s you that I want J
Ok. I’ll message you later and let you know what time.
I’ll be waiting.
Seriously, how could he have not got the meaning in that?
I continued to read backwards and admitted that they were mostly about the work he was doing at her house. I stopped and read the first message she’d sent. It had been the evening of the first time I had met her at her office, back when I thought my only problem was having nightmares.
Hi Riley. It was so good to see you today. Couldn’t believe my eyes J Allison x
Hi Allison. Yeah it was unexpected that’s for sure. btw how did you get my number?
Oh your mum gave it to me. Luckily she hasn’t changed the home number J
Lucky
So how long have you and Lizzie been together??
Eight months
Cool. Do you love her?
Yes. Why do you ask? Is it important to her treatment?
No silly. Just curious.
So he’d told her he loved me.
I turned away from the screen and looked into his eyes. Riley had the most expressive eyes. If you looked closely you could see his emotions dancing right inside them. Right now, they told me he was hurting. He needed me to believe he wasn’t having an affair. He needed me in his life as much as I needed him.
“Please don’t let her destroy us,” he whispered.
I nodded slowly, the fear from a few moments ago disappearing. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”
Riley grabbed me and pulled me into him, his heart beating loudly in his chest. He held me tight...tighter than he’d ever held me before, and I felt like I had so much love for him my heart would explode. What did I ever do so right in this world that I managed to find a man like Riley?
Whatever it was, I was eternally grateful.
* * * *
We’d relented and agreed to meet everyone at the pool for afternoon tea, but I put my foot down for dinner. Riley had promised me a romantic candlelit dinner for two and by crikey, I was going to get one. So at seven o’clock, I stepped out of the bathroom in my favorite white dress. I’d done the smokey-eye thing and had used as much product as I dared to tame the curls. I hoped I’d done enough to impress him.
“Maybe we could have a candlelit dinner in our room,” he said, smiling at me.
“So you like the dress?”
“I’d like you better out of the dress, but seeing how we’re going to the dining room for dinner, this is probably more appropriate.”
I swatted him and followed him to the door.
We made our way to the restaurant in the hotel and waited to be shown to our table. It was all very beautiful, if a little daunting. Sure I’d been to many beautiful, high-end restaurants before, but every single one of them made me nervous. I tended to be clumsy at the best of times. Add nerves to that and the results could be disastrous, but Riley was so relaxed that after a few minutes, I relaxed too.
I looked at him as we sat at our table and almost had to pinch myself. He was wearing a blue shirt, open at the collar, with his black trousers. It was rare for me to see him so formally dressed and it was actually a bit of a treat. He looked sexier than ever with the five o’clock shadow, and as he smiled back at me, those gorgeous sexy crinkles appeared around his bluer-than-ever eyes. He reached out and took my hand, and the butterflies darted around in my stomach. Even after all these months, he still had the ability to make those butterflies dance.
I held eye contact with him and felt an intimacy I’d never known before him, and I prayed to God—please don’t take him away from me.
When I had first met Riley, I remember thinking how I would like to crawl into his skin and stay there forever. That still hadn’t changed. When I was with him the world was a safer place and all my worries and anxieties disappeared.
I was enjoying the moment when I heard a female voice from behind me.
“Oh my goodness, Lizzie. We need to stop meeting like this.”
I looked up to see my post lady, Chloe smiling at me. Tonight she looked better than I had ever seen her look. Usually she wore the brightest high-visibility shirt I had ever seen, her hair color changing weekly. Tonight she wore a really pretty, pink floaty dress, her hair now with lots of blonde highlights, her blue eyes sparkling. Next to her stood Brody, who judging by the look she was giving him, was the reason her smile was so bright.
“Chloe. Hi.” I smiled back. “You look lovely,” I added.
“I feel so uncomfortable,” she said, smoothing her dress. “I’m not used to this sort of dining. I’m more of a pizza kind of girl.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. That’s usually my kind of a night out too, but this is pretty nice,” I said, gesturing around the room.
“I know. I had to try it. Another thing to cross off the Bucket List!” She grinned as the waiter coughed discreetly, suggesting she should move on. “Oh, time to go by the sounds of things. Enjoy your dinner.”
“You too.”
She took a few steps and the waiter held out a chair for her. Looks like they were at the table right behind me. I sighed. So much for a night away where nobody knew who we were.
I will admit that even though fancy dining wasn’t my thing, I did enjoy myself and I only embarrassed myself once. That was when I bumped the waiter’s elbow causing him to spill the wine all over the floor, but he told me it was really no problem and busied himself cleaning it up. Ooops.
I’d ordered a coffee with my dessert—tiramisu and it tasted as good as it looked—and was sitting back in my chair, people-watching. Riley had excused himself to use the little boys’ room, so I used the time to have a good look around. It didn’t take long and the conversation between Chloe and Brody drifted my way.
“Oh my goodness, Brody! I was so embarrassed at work yesterday,” I heard Chloe say.
I felt her pain. Maybe she could add to my book on 101 ways to embarrass myself.
“I had to make a delivery to Mr. Jefferies but he can’t get to the door because he only has one leg, so I leave it with his pain-in-the-ass neighbor.”
I understood pain-in-the-ass neighbors too.
“Anyway, yesterday I delivered Mr. Jefferies his new leg.”
“How did you know what it was?” asked Brody.
“Because it looked like a leg wrapped in brown paper. Anyway, when I opened the back of the van to give it to the painful neighbor, I found Theo sitting on top of it, paper ripped open and gnawing on the toes. Seriously, I nearly fainted!”
I laughed as I visualized this. Theo was Chloe’s little Chihuahua. I’d met him a couple of times as he often rode in the van with Chloe as she worked. He was a cute little thing and would seriously fit in my handbag.
Brody laughed. “He probably thought it was the biggest bone he’d ever had.”
“Yeah, not very tasty though,” added Chloe.
“You deliver some really weird things,” said Brody.
“Yeah, I’ve delivered ashes, legs and hands among other things. The worst was probably the meat I delivered to the local supermarket. Of course it was packed in gel packs to keep it cold, but I don’t think I’ll ever buy meat from there again.”
Me
either after hearing that story.
“Did you just say you delivered a hand?”
“Yeah, an old guy who lives over the back of the retirement village lost his so they posted him another one. Actually you know the guy. You’ve done some work for him.”
“Really? Who?”
“Leo. Leo Burnett. You know, he looks like Droopy Dog.”
“Isn’t his name George?”
“That’s what he goes by, but he has to show ID to take the possession of the parcel and I promise you his name is Leo. Leo George Burnett.” LGB! The hair on my arms stood up.
“So is that why he always wears those cotton gloves?” asked Brody.
“Yeah, he tells people he has a skin condition and maybe he does, but personally I think he doesn’t like people to see the fake hand. Goodness knows why. Loads of people have fake limbs these days.”
Brody said something in response, but I didn’t hear it over the blood pounding in my ears. LGB. Leo George Burnett. George Burnett. Could this be the same man Grandma was dating? I mean that would be a pretty big coincidence, wouldn’t it? Or would it? Just then Riley returned to the table.
“Riley, I think we need to go home.”
“Why?” he asked, stunned.
“I think Grandma may be in trouble.”
Chapter Nineteen
Riley convinced me that maybe I should ring Molly instead. Running home when we didn’t even know if Grandma was with George seemed just plain stupid. Fair enough, I guess.
Only Molly’s phone was either switched off or not in a service area. At least that’s what the recording on the phone told me. Damn.
I tried to call Mum’s house to see if Grandma was home, but no one answered. She also didn’t answer her own mobile phone.
“Why don’t you try that Find My Phone app?” suggested Riley. “That’ll tell you where she is.”
The Westport Mysteries Boxed Set Page 46
