by Lily Malone
He saw Owen jog down to wait at the foot of the stairs. When she reached him, he opened his arms and swept Liv off her feet.
Ben sighed inside. He couldn’t watch for long. Seeing other people in love only made his own emptiness worse.
The jangle of a set of keys caught his attention.
A man in a tan sports coat, three-quarter-length white pants and loafers, stopped near the van’s sliding door. He had two fistfuls of shopping bags and a leather key-holder in his teeth.
The guy saw the Ducati at the same time as he saw Ben and muttered around his mouthful: “Yougodanithebike.”
Ben smiled carefully. He might be a nutter—so many of the good-looking ones were.
The van owner swapped the shopping bags in his left hand to his right then spat the key into his left palm.
“Sorry. What I said was: you got a nice bike.” Only his eyes weren’t on the bike, they were wrapping around Ben.
He had a great voice, rumbly and low. A reading poetry at two in the morning on the pillow beside him, kind of voice.
“Thanks,” Ben said, tapping his fingers on the leather at his thigh. “Do you ride?”
Epilogue
“Didn’t you get my note?” Owen said. He hadn’t let go of her hand since she’d run into his arms.
“What note? I looked everywhere. I thought you’d up and left me, you bugger. I thought you’d done a runner.”
He squeezed her hand so tight it hurt. “Idiot.”
A family approached the stairs and Owen pulled Liv to the side to make room, leaning back against the timber slats of the deck and dragging her into his chest.
“Do you still think all I’m after with you is a good time? Not a long time?”
“No. I don’t. Not now.” Her entire body felt at peace, like a cat whose fur has been rubbed the right way for hours.
“I want to tell you something, just in case it changes your mind, Liv. And if it does change your mind and you don’t want to be with me, I’ll understand.” He dropped a kiss in her hair.
Liv pulled back so she could meet his eyes. Serious eyes. Very serious eyes.
“In the vineyard you asked me why I chose to work in Antarctica last summer and I said it was because of the money? That I didn’t want to work in the mines?”
Liv nodded. “I remember.”
“That wasn’t everything. I had to get out of town because I broke a boy’s arm. Do you remember I told you about what happened to my Granddad?”
“Someone tried to steal fuel and then bashed him?” Liv searched Owen’s face, trying to understand the reason for the tension written there.
“I found the kid who did it two nights later. Granddad told me who attacked him at the hospital. It turned out we knew the family—not well—but I’d played basketball against his older brother. I didn’t think about it. I took a baseball bat to the kid’s house—he was only nineteen—and I broke his elbow. It shattered like a watermelon.”
The image made Liv flinch. Instantly, Owen released her. “I’ve scared you, haven’t I? You think I’m a thug.”
Liv snuggled closer, using her hand to push Owen’s arm back in place at her shoulder. “I don’t think you’re a thug. But I don’t know why you didn’t tell me the truth?”
“You’ve got all these hang-ups about Neanderthal men. What I did to Jayden Parker was pretty damn primitive.” Owen’s hands rubbed her back. “I thought if you got to know me first, you’d know I wasn’t that man. I’m not some brute who uses his fists to get what he wants.”
Liv thought about it for a while. She wasn’t upset. A little shocked maybe, but not upset.
“I’m dying over here, Lovely. Please tell me what you’re thinking?”
She kissed his jaw, bristly with stubble. “I’ve wished so many times I could catch those dickheads who ran Luke off the road that morning. God, I understand the motivation behind what you did, Owen—but you stopped. And when you look back now, you’re sorry. You can pity that boy, even though he hurt someone you love. That takes strength.”
“Thank you,” he said. He exhaled and she felt the tension flow from him. “By the way, Liv, your dad knows about it, too. Jack and I are on first name terms.”
She groaned. “Firemen are bigger gossips than hairdressers.”
They laughed, and the emotional tight-rope they’d each walked all morning, broke.
He kissed her. A soft kiss, sweet with reunion.
“Come on,” Liv tugged his hand. “I want you to meet Ben.”
Owen arched an eyebrow at the carpark. “It looks like I’m not the only bloke in Mannum lining up to meet Ben.”
Liv turned toward the Ducati and the white van. Two shopping bags sat beside the van’s closed door, one overflowing its fruit and vegetables to the bitumen—not that either man noticed. Both were too busy admiring the Ducati, touching its seat and fuel tank, like kids with a new toy.
“I think you better take a ticket,” Liv said. “Just to be safe.”
The End.
You’ve finished!
Thank you for reading The Goodbye Ride.
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Thank you for sharing a few hours with Olivia and Owen in the beautiful Adelaide Hills.
It’s a lovely part of South Australia.
By this author
His Brand Of Beautiful — Lily Malone — March 2013
When marketing strategist Tate Newell first meets wine executive Christina Clay he has one goal in mind: tell Christina he won’’t design the new brand for Clay Wines. Tell her: Thanks but no thanks. So long, good night.
But Tate is a sucker for a damsel in distress and when a diary mix-up leaves Christina in his debt, Tate gets more than he bargained for.
What does a resourceful girl do when the best marketing brain in the business won’t play ball? She bluffs. She cheats. And she ups the ante. But when the stakes get too high, does anybody win?
Falling in love was never part of this branding brief.
His Brand Of Beautiful is published by Escape Publishing.
View the book and buy it here.
Praise for His Brand Of Beautiful
“From the outset, their interactions were snarky, heated and volatile. Their attraction - instantaneous and sizzling. His Brand of Beautiful had a little bit of drama, witty humor and entertaining interaction between characters. Lily Malone’s descriptive prose was enchanting.”
Musing Maddie, Ravishing Romances
“I found myself completely captivated by the characters and plot right till the end. Both Tate and Christina have personal demons they must resolve in order to have any semblance of a loving relationship, watching this development was enthralling. Lily Malone paints an extremely colorful picture making His Brand of Beautiful jump off the pages.”
ToMeTender
