‘If we can appeal to people’s hearts for adoptions tonight that will be grand,’ said Maura. ‘If we can get them to open their wallets, too, that’s all the better.’
Lizzie suppressed a smile. It appeared the Morgan family were born businesspeople. That augured well for the future of Bay Bites—and her own security in Dolphin Bay.
Maura led Lizzie to where a puppy snuggled with a teenage girl. ‘He’s sad, Mrs Morgan,’ she said. ‘He misses his brother and sister who got adopted.’
‘Sad? Maybe a little lonely,’ said Maura. ‘But he’s quiet because he’s exhausted from being run around the yard all afternoon.’ She turned to Lizzie. ‘Meet Alfie.’
At the sound of his name, the puppy sat up. He was black with a few irregular white patches, soulful dark eyes and long floppy ears that made Lizzie think he had some spaniel in him. He gave a sweet little whine and lifted up a furry paw to be shaken.
Lizzie was smitten. ‘Oh, he’s adorable.’ She shook the puppy’s warm little paw.
‘Mother, are you up to your “get the puppy to shake paws” tricks again?’ Jesse spoke from behind her and Lizzie turned. Her heart missed a beat at the sight of how devastating he looked in a tuxedo. She hadn’t thought he could look more handsome than he did in his jeans and T-shirt but he did. Oh, yes, he did.
‘And if a few tricks help a homeless animal find his way into someone’s heart, who am I to miss the opportunity?’ said Maura with the charming smile that was so like her son’s.
‘He’s won my heart already—can I pick him up?’ Lizzie asked.
As soon as he was in her arms the puppy tried to enthusiastically lick her face. Lizzie laughed. ‘Jesse, isn’t he cute?’
‘He is that,’ said Jesse with a smile she could only describe as indulgent.
‘Amy would adore him.’
‘Yes, she would,’ said Maura. ‘A dog can be a great friend to a little girl.’
‘Her grand-maman in France has a little dog that Amy loves. She’s heartbroken every time she says goodbye to her. It might help her to settle here if she had a dog of her own.’
‘But is it practical for you to have a puppy?’ Jesse asked.
‘Not right now,’ Lizzie said reluctantly, kissing the puppy’s little forehead. ‘Who knows what the future might bring for us? But he’s utterly enchanting.’
She turned to Maura. ‘Amy will be here on Wednesday. If Alfie hasn’t found a home by then I’ll bring her to see him.’ She gave the puppy one more pat, to which he responded with enthusiastic wagging of his tiny tail, and reluctantly handed him back to his carer.
Maura put her hand on Lizzie’s arm. ‘You have to do what’s best for you and your daughter. But a dog brings such rewards.’
If Lizzie stayed in Dolphin Bay a dog would be possible. For one thing, she’d be happier if Amy had the comfort of a puppy while she settled into her new home and made new friends. But it was still early days yet.
It wasn’t just the possibility of something serious with Jesse that made her hesitate. She only had a job here if the café was a success. Otherwise she’d be back in Sydney flat-hunting in a difficult rental market with the added hindrance of a dog in tow.
And then there was Jesse’s career. If they had a future together, where might it be?
‘Don’t you have to give your speech soon, Mum?’ Jesse said.
‘Yes, of course I do,’ said Maura. ‘You just keep little Alfie in mind, Lizzie.’
Jesse put his arm casually around Lizzie’s shoulder as he led her down from the platform. ‘Don’t let her talk you into something you’re not ready for. A dog’s a big commitment.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ she said.
She was silent for a long moment. Holding the squirming little bundle in her arms had brought back memories of Amy as a baby. Amy often asked if she could have a little brother or sister, but another baby had never been on the agenda. Why was she thinking about it now?
* * *
As the evening progressed Lizzie couldn’t help being overwhelmed by that déjà vu. They were in the same room as the wedding reception. She was enjoying the opportunity to wear a beautiful dress, do something special with her hair—she loved the effect of having it straight—and wearing more make-up than usual.
With the Parisian dress she felt she had donned some of her old Lizzie party-girl spirit. That Lizzie had been pretty much smothered by maternal responsibilities and anxieties. She loved Amy more than she could ever have imagined loving another person. But there were times she wanted to be Lizzie, not just Mummy or Chef. This was one of them. She was determined to enjoy every second of the evening.
She even enjoyed the speeches. She wasn’t the only one near tears when Maura spoke about the homeless dogs and cats in the area and the maltreatment some of them received before they got to the shelter. Someone else spoke convincingly about spaying and neutering to help bring down the number of unwanted kittens and puppies.
When Maura returned to the table after the speeches, she saw the pride in Jesse’s father’s eyes as he helped his wife of heaven knew how many years back into her chair. She realised Jesse had been brought up in a family where love and kindness ruled.
How very different from her family, where her father, a specialist anaesthetist, believed in excessive discipline, rigorous academic achievement and ruthless competition. No wonder both she and Sandy had rebelled. No wonder her mother had eventually divorced him and moved to another state.
Her father hadn’t been a part of her life for a long time but he had asked to see her when she’d brought Amy back to Australia. She’d hoped he’d regretted the way he’d treated her, maybe wanted to make up for it by developing a relationship with his granddaughter. But no. He wanted to pay to send Amy to an exclusive girls’ boarding school where she could develop her academic potential, away from her mother’s influence. Needless to say, Lizzie had declined the offer.
The food at Maura’s function was good, but not as good as she’d expected from the Hotel Harbourside catering. ‘Should I mention it to Sandy?’ she whispered to Jesse. They were seated together at the Morgan family table, surreptitiously holding hands under cover of the tablecloth.
‘When the moment is right,’ Jesse said, keeping his voice very low, pretending not to be too interested in what she was saying. ‘You’ll need to be diplomatic.’
‘Aren’t I always diplomatic?’ she started to say in a huff.
He smiled. ‘You can’t pride yourself on being both blunt and diplomatic at the same time.’ He squeezed her hand to emphasise he didn’t mean it as an insult.
‘Point taken,’ she said.
Again she marvelled at how quickly Jesse had got to know her. She didn’t feel she knew him as well but was enjoying each revelation of what lay beneath the heartbreakingly handsome exterior. So far she’d discovered he was a thoughtful, highly intelligent man with a good heart, a good head for business and a whole lot of common sense. That was on top of being a master kisser.
‘Do you know what I’m missing?’ she said. ‘The music. I wish I could get up and dance with you. Do you remember how we danced together at the wedding?’
‘How could I forget?’
‘I think dancing with you was when I—’ She swallowed the words that bubbled to the surface. When I thought I might have found someone special.
‘When you...?’ Jesse prompted.
‘When I...when I realised you were so much more than the best man who I, as the chief bridesmaid, was obligated to spend time with.’
And now? Now she was falling in love with him. She’d fought it so hard she hadn’t let herself recognise it. Could you fall in love this quickly?
‘You okay?’ asked Jesse. ‘You seem flustered.’
‘Yes. Yes. Of course I’m okay.’ How did she deal with this?
‘I want to dance with you too,’ said Jesse in a husky undertone. ‘The evening is winding up. In half an hour we leave separately, then—’
‘Yes?’ she asked, her heart thudding.
‘Then we have our own private dance on the beach.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
JESSE WAITED UNTIL a moment when his mother had got back up onstage and was introducing the audience to the dogs. She held up a particularly cute puppy with one ear that flopped all the way over. All attention was on the puppy as the other guests oohed and aahed at its cuteness. He didn’t think anyone would notice him slip away and make his way out of the hotel.
Ten minutes later he saw Lizzie creep out of the Hotel Harbourside exit and cross the road to where he waited. For a moment she didn’t see him and her wary look made his heart leap.
He couldn’t have anticipated how fast things were moving with her. But he was a man used to making quick life-or-death decisions. He had decided he wanted to take a chance on Lizzie Dumont—and no obstacle was going to be allowed to stand in the way of them becoming a couple. That included his own doubts.
She caught sight of him and smiled—a joyous smile tinged with mischief, just like the smile he had fallen for when he had first met her at the pre-wedding outing. She ran over the road to meet him under the palm tree that edged the beach. ‘I feel like a naughty schoolgirl sneaking out like this,’ she said with a delightful giggle.
Funny, he hadn’t been attracted to her when she was a schoolgirl. It was the woman she’d become who’d caught his attention.
‘So where’s the dance floor?’ she asked.
‘Down there.’ He indicated the beach with an expansive wave of his hand. ‘If we dance down there and to the left we’ll be out of sight of the hotel.’
Her gasp of pleasure was the biggest reward he could have asked for. ‘So we twirl and whirl on the sand,’ she said.
She balanced on his shoulder as she leaned down to unbuckle the straps on her silver shoes and slip them off. She tucked them alongside his own shoes, socks and bow tie where he’d discarded them at the base of the palm tree.
‘The wet sand near the edge of the water will be firmer,’ he said with his engineer’s brain.
The full moon was high in the sky and its reflection lit a shimmering path of palest gold from the horizon, over the water to where the tiny waves of the bay sighed onto the sand.
‘Magic by moonlight,’ she breathed.
It was so light he could clearly see Lizzie’s eyes, her face pale, uplifted to the moon, her hair glinting like silver. She looked ethereal, like some kind of fairy princess in her shimmering dress.
Jesse could hardly believe he was thinking such thoughts. He was an engineer. Practical. Mathematical. Madness by moonlight, more like it.
She wound her arms around his neck. ‘I feel like I’m in some kind of enchanted world,’ she whispered. ‘And you’re the handsome prince spiriting me away to dance on moonbeams. Have I found my way onto the pages of one of Amy’s fairy tale books?’
He kissed her, lightly, possessively. ‘If that’s the case, you’re the fairy princess.’ Had he actually said that?
‘I had no idea you were so romantic, Jesse,’ she murmured.
‘I’m not usually,’ he said. ‘It...it’s you.’
This was the Lizzie who had captivated him at the wedding. During the last ten days he’d got to see the other sides of Lizzie. And the more he got to know her, the more he wanted her in his life.
She laughed and the slightly bawdy edge to her laughter reminded him how utterly real and womanly she was. ‘Where’s the music, Prince Charming? Can you conjure it up from the moonlight?’
‘The prosaic engineer in me would tell you I can play music through my smartphone.’
‘Whereas Prince Charming might say we can dance to the music of the stars,’ she suggested.
‘And the rhythm of the waves,’ he said.
‘With those chirping crickets adding some bass.’
He laughed. ‘If you say so.’
‘It’s perfect,’ she whispered.
She went into his arms and together they danced barefoot on the cool, wet sand with the occasional tiny cold wave swishing over their feet and making her squeal. They danced not with the expertise of ballroom dancers—he’d never mastered that art—but in their own rhythm, making up their steps as they went along, her glittering skirt twirling around them.
‘I don’t know that the music of the moon and stars is enough; it hasn’t quite got a beat,’ she murmured. ‘Shall I hum? I can’t sing, so humming will have to do.’
‘Go ahead and hum,’ he said, falling more under her spell each minute, totally enchanted by her.
He stood quite still as she started to hum the tune of the old song about Jesse’s girl that had tormented him for so many years. But in her slightly tuneless hum, it was the most melodious music he’d ever heard. And her particular version of the words echoed in his heart as she murmured them.
He smoothed her hair back from her face, cupped her face in his hands. ‘Do you really want to be Jesse’s girl?’
Her eyes were luminous in the moonlight. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said.
* * *
Lizzie pulled Jesse back for another kiss. She couldn’t bear to spend a minute out of his arms on this magical evening where her own Prince Charming was dancing her along an enchanted beach. Only too soon her prince might have to go across those waters to the badlands to fight his own battles and maybe never come back to her.
She’d not been one for fairy tales. As a mother, she’d tried to steer Amy in the direction of feminist tales of hard-working women who met men on an equal footing, who had no room for Prince Charmings riding to their rescue on white chargers when they could rescue themselves perfectly well, thank you very much.
But tonight with Jesse she felt differently. Whether it was indeed the magic of the full moon or because she was falling in love with him, she wanted Jesse to be her prince, sweep her up into his arms and carry her away to make her his.
Even if it was only for tonight she wanted this, wanted him. She lost herself in his kisses, yielding to his lips, to his tongue as his mouth claimed hers, trembled with pleasure at the sensation of his hands on her bare shoulders.
‘It’s about at this stage Prince Charming sweeps the princess off to his fairy tale castle,’ she murmured against his mouth.
Jesse lifted his head to meet her gaze. ‘To make her his?’
He had never looked more handsome than at this moment. His hair raven’s wing black in the moonlight, his eyes reflecting the indigo of the deep night sea.
‘Yes,’ she breathed. ‘To make her his in every sense of the word.’
‘Are you sure?’ His voice was deep, husky with a slight hitch that betrayed his fear she might say no.
There was no risk of that. She nodded. ‘My Cinderella garret above the café is all mine right now. On Wednesday the junior princess will be in residence. You might find I turn back into a pumpkin then.’
Jesse laughed, his perfect white teeth gleaming in the moonlight. ‘I think you’re getting your analogies mixed. Even I know it was the carriage that got turned back into a pumpkin. You’ve left your shoes on the beach. It will be the prince doing the rounds of every house in the magical town of Dolphin Bay trying to find whose foot fits the silver stiletto.’
She smiled. ‘So, not a pumpkin. But it’s true that at five a.m. I’ll turn back into a servant wearing rags and clogs as I stoke the fires of the café kitchen. Well, maybe not rags but—’
He dropped a kiss on her nose. ‘The clock is ticking.’
‘My castle or yours?’ she said.
‘As I’m staying in the boathouse, your garret might be more private.’
‘My garret
it is,’ she said.
Laughing, kissing, Jesse danced her over the sand and back up to where they had stashed their shoes. He knelt in the sand and helped her wipe off the sand from her feet. Then he kissed the arch of each foot before he slipped on her silver stilettos.
‘I had to stop myself from doing that the night I massaged your feet,’ he said.
Delicious ripples of pleasure shimmered through her. ‘No need to stop now,’ she whispered.
Totally engrossed in the magic of being with Jesse, Lizzie didn’t care who might see them make their way hand in hand towards her apartment. There, in true fairy tale prince fashion, he gathered her into his arms and carried her up the stairs and into the magical kingdom of her bedroom.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JESSE HAD AGREED with Lizzie to keep secret the new turn their relationship had taken. In the three days since their dance on the beach they’d managed not to arouse suspicion. Neither of them wanted to be subject to the inevitable teasing the revelation they were dating would bring. To him, Lizzie was not just one in a stream of ‘Jesse’s girls’. As far as he was concerned, she was the one and only Jesse’s girl.
This wasn’t something short-term. He was convinced of that. Lizzie wasn’t underhand and dishonest like Camilla had been. He trusted her.
He intended to talk to her today about the proposition he had discussed in depth with Ben. His brother had suggested they pool some of the land they each owned around Dolphin Bay and form a property development company.
Jesse had been involved in the building of the Hotel Harbourside and was a part-owner of the new spa resort Ben was building. At the back of his mind he’d always wanted to go into business for himself; he came from a long line of entrepreneurs. It was a logical—and exciting—next step.
Relocating back to Dolphin Bay would also knock down the major barrier that remained between him and Lizzie—that they lived in different countries. It was a move that checked all the boxes. Importantly, it would give them time to really get to know each other.
A Diamond in Her Stocking Page 13
