An Endless Summer

by C. J. Duggan

  I remained unmoved. “Forgive me, Duncan, if I don’t hold my breath over that.”

  Duncan smiled. “Is there anything I could do or say to make you think otherwise?”

  I smiled sweetly. “Unless you drag the owner up here butt-naked, singing ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah’ while simultaneously cartwheeling…”

  Duncan burst out in laughter. “Well, um, I’ll put it to them if you like.”

  I nodded and looked out over Lake Onslow when Duncan turned to Sean.

  “What say you, Mr Murphy? Do you know the words to that song?”

  My head snapped around. Sean hadn’t moved an inch, still leaning against the door with his arms folded. He broke into a slow smile.

  “I would be confident with everything but the cartwheel,” he said without taking his eyes from me.

  I was stunned – no, make that horrified – trying to grasp what was happening.

  Sean straightened. “Amy, meet Duncan Lawler, my solicitor.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “But, you’re the Sydney buyer’s solicitor.”

  Duncan shook his head. No.

  I looked at Dad, searching for answers. “The Sydney buyer dropped out, love,” he said gently.

  I breathed hard: in, out, in, out. I felt dizzy. “Did you know?” I accused Dad, but Sean cut in before he could answer.

  “No one knew.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Sensing the tension in the air, Dad moved off the balcony to the French doors. “Duncan, um, would you care for a drink downstairs?”

  Duncan moved quickly. “That would be great.” He nodded at me before turning to shake Sean’s hand. “We’ll have some more paperwork for you to sign before you leave.”

  Dad walked over to kiss me on the cheek. “Go easy on him, love,” he whispered. “He remortgaged his lake house to buy the Onslow.”

  Dad pulled away before seeing the look of horror in my eyes. He touched my cheek and made his way to follow Duncan, not before pausing in front of Sean.

  “No one knew, eh?” Dad curved his brow.

  Sean coughed, looking sheepishly at the floor. “Well, no one bar one.” Sean’s eyes lifted, a smile curving his lips.

  “Do I need to guess?” Dad asked.

  “If you were me and you could choose to go partners with someone in this place, who would you choose?”

  Partners?

  Dad broke into a slow smile. “You and Chris are going to do just fine.” He held out his hand.

  Sean visibly sagged as he took Dad’s hand, but before he could register the movement, Dad pulled him into a manly hug, slapping him affectionately on the back, before pulling away with a sniff.

  “The real estate guy was right – it’s turned out to be a beautiful day.” Dad sighed. I knew he was fighting his emotions, yet it wasn’t the pang of sorrow and loss but the resounding relief of knowing the Onslow was going to be in safe hands.

  I didn’t know what to feel.

  With the click of the apartment door sounding, I stood stock still, staring blankly at Sean.

  He sighed. “I wanted to tell you … I tried to tell you.”

  “When?”

  “The day after you stayed at my house, right before Ringer gave you a lift back.”

  I didn’t have to think hard; I remembered the exact moment he was talking about. Vividly. How could I have been so stupid? I’d panicked and fled before giving him the chance, fearing the worst: the ‘we should just be friends’ spiel.

  “Why didn’t you tell me another time? You had plenty of chances.”

  “I thought about trying again, but come on. Amy, you thought putting up scaffolding was charity; what would you have said about buying the Onslow?”

  I bit my lip. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have liked it. I didn’t know what was wrong with me – any kind, helpful gesture he made I met with bull-headed defiance. Apart from my paying off his account, which, in the scheme of things, meant nothing, I had never been anything other than a burden to him financially. What had I to offer him? I felt sick.

  “Sean, I’m so sorry.” My voice shook.

  Sean’s brows creased in confusion.

  I shook my head. “I wish I never came home. I’m sorry for the day I ever came crashing into your life.”

  “I’m not.” Sean’s eyes burned unflinchingly into mine for so long I had to look away. “Hey,” he said gently, “I’m not. You are the only girl I have ever met who didn’t want something from me. The only one who didn’t look at me and see money, a car, a house, my devilish good looks.”

  That made me laugh.

  Sean took in a deep breath and stepped forward.

  “And because of that, I wanted to give them to you. I should have told you.” He swallowed deeply before taking another hesitant footstep out into the open, onto the balcony.

  I pressed my back against the railing, seeing Sean work through his paralysing fear to cross the balcony towards me.

  With each step my heart rate spiked.

  “You should have told me.”

  “I wanted to, so many times.” He took another deep breath before another step.

  “Did you try last night?” I bit out.

  Sean paused halfway across the balcony. “Well, in my defence, I was going to until you attacked me.” He smirked.

  I blushed crimson, looking away from his playful eyes.

  Sean took another deep breath before striding across to me and the railing. I reached out my hand – he took it, stepping into me and grabbing a nearby pole before glancing down.

  “Holy shit, it’s high.” He spun away, his breathing heavy.

  I moved in front of him, turning him away from the view, my eyes flicking over the beautiful lines of his face. It was now ghost white with fear.

  I smiled. “What are you doing?”

  He let out a shuddery breath, closing his eyes. “It’s called diving in at the deep end,” he said, before forcing his eyes open to look down at me.

  I shook my head. “I seriously can’t pay you back for this.”

  Sean laughed, as if he had almost forgotten to be terrified. He snaked his arms around my back, drawing me close. “I understand why you’re spoilt within an inch of your life.”

  I frowned, puzzled.

  “Who could help but want to give you the world?”

  “But your home, Sean. You remortgaged your beautiful home?” I felt hot tears burn my eyes.

  “You’re my home.” Sean stared down at me, his breath laboured for a whole other reason as he slowly closed the distance between our faces, brushing his lips against mine, gently at first, and then more insistently, cleansing me of all the worry and fear as I slid my hands up and along his broad back. He slowly drew away.

  I sighed, shaking my head.

  Sean’s eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “It’s not enough.”

  Sean looked down at me incredulously. “I’m standing on the edge of a balcony, kissing you; I spent seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars on your hotel; and it’s not enough?”

  I shrugged. “I was kind of hoping for naked cartwheeling. The balcony’s been reinforced, you know, I think it could take it.” I grinned.

  Sean shook his head. “There is only one girl in the world I would stand on the edge of a balcony for.”

  “And do naked cartwheels?”

  “That too.” He nodded.

  I laughed. Hmm. I might have to hold him to that one day. “Wow,” I said, “you must really love me.” It blurted out before I could stop it. My playful smile faded as the words hung between us.

  Sean’s eyes ticked over my face in a long study. I thought he wouldn’t say anything, that mercifully he mightn’t have heard me, but then he broke the silence.

  “More than you could ever know.”

  Epilogue

  My feet dangled in the cool, murky lake water as I sat on the deck, chewing thoughtfully on the end of my pen.

&nbs
p; My brow creased as I re-read one of the sentences I had written. My concentration was quickly interrupted by the sound of running and the whoosh of a six-foot-three torpedo somersaulting past me and bombing into the lake, spraying me with a shower of water.

  “Sean!” I screamed, trying as best as I could to protect my paperwork.

  His head broke through the surface and he flicked the excess water from his hair like boys tend to do. He was grinning from ear to ear.

  “You’re such a bloody child!” I said, glaring.

  Sean stroked over to me, his cold, wet hands making me gasp as they latched onto my legs.

  “You looked like you could do with a cool down.”

  “It’s not funny, Sean, you’ve wet all my enrolment forms for uni,” I said, blowing on the smudged writing.

  I had left it until the last minute to fill in my transfer papers, but it hadn’t exactly been in the forefront of my mind lately. Well, not until it had finally become clear to me what I wanted to do with my life. Inspiration comes in all sorts of strange forms and, although nothing had immediately changed with Sean buying the hotel, there were some developments that had been pretty exciting.

  I had joked with Sean that he was now my boss and how he was sure to get a real kick out of that fact, but when he had in all seriousness shrugged and said, “I’m going to need an interior decorator,” my heart had spiked with approval.

  Now that I could do.

  Bringing the Onslow into the new century was a passion Sean and I shared. I could help him with ideas and he was a skilled enough contractor to do the big work himself. So when we had joked that I should do this for a living, it had been a total light bulb moment. So here I was, filling in transfer papers from my uni in the city to the Maitland campus, only half an hour away, where I could study interior design. It was perfect.

  Sean kissed my knee before lifting himself effortlessly out of the water to sit beside me.

  “Sorry,” he said earnestly, a small dimple creasing his cheek when he smiled.

  I shook my head. “Damn you, Sean Murphy.”

  Sean’s brows rose in surprise.

  “You make it so hard for me to stay mad at you.”

  He broke into a boyish grin, before leaning forward to kiss my neck.

  “Good,” he whispered into my skin.

  I squirmed against the sensation.

  Sean leaned back, his eyes sparkling with delight. “It’s been an interesting day.”

  I wasn’t the only one who’d had a moment of self-discovery recently. Sean had been approached by the president of the Onslow Tigers to coach the seniors; he’d got to reconnect with his love for the game in a different way. This season I could already see myself sitting in the stands, freezing my butt off, barracking for the Onslow Tigers, and I couldn’t wait. I played down my interest with the odd taunt about how the Perry Panthers were going to dominate the season. Sean just shook his head – these days, rendering him speechless was so easy.

  “Of course! I forgot. How was the meeting?” I shifted with interest.

  “It was just a short catch-up; the real one will happen next week,” he said, playing with the frayed edge of the towel I sat on.

  My eyes narrowed. “You were gone a long time.”

  Sean shrugged. He closed his eyes and linked his hands behind his head. “Oh, I just had to run some errands. The funniest thing happened.”

  “Oh?” I straightened.

  “Mmm. I dropped into Roy’s hardware to pay an account.”

  I froze, my eyes widening.

  “Did you?” I tried to keep my voice even as I casually turned away from him. I caught Sean peeking at me, one eye open.

  “Mmm. Apparently I have a secret admirer.”

  “Is that right?” I said, looking out onto the lake with the deepest fascination.

  “It appears someone has paid out my entire account.”

  “Ha! Imagine that?” I still refused to look down at Sean.

  “Yep! All two thousand, eight hundred and eighty dollars of it.”

  My head spun around so fast I nearly did myself an injury.

  “What?” I managed to croak out. My heart leaped into my throat as I tried desperately to remember the day I had made a cheque out to Roy at the market-come-hardware store. Had I gotten it wrong? Had Roy gotten it wrong? Nearly three thousand dollars? Oh my God, I wanted to peel away and check my balance.

  My panicked thoughts were interrupted by a chuckle. “Seems like you are your father’s daughter, after all.” Sean leaned up on his elbows.

  I blinked, staring down at him, confused.

  He smirked. “I saw the signatures, Amy. It seems you and your dad took it upon yourselves to undo my charity work.”

  Dad? Dad had paid off some of Sean’s account, too?

  Sean sat up, looking directly into my eyes. “You didn’t know about your dad?”

  I shook my head, totally dumbfounded, before my eyes snapped up to meet his face. “Go on, say it.”

  The corners of Sean’s mouth tugged upward in amusement. “Bloody pig-headed, stubborn Hendersons.” He leaned in, slowly claiming my mouth in an achingly tender caress, before he slowly pulled back.

  “And I’m mighty glad to know them.”

  Can’t wait to read more about the

  Onslow Boys?

  Be sure to catch the exciting conclusion in

  C.J Duggan’s Summer Series…

  That One Summer

  By C.J Duggan.

  2014

  It will be that ONE summer where

  EVERYTHING changes.

  Acknowledgements

  For me, writing a novel is the easy part. Trying to convey my gratitude for the people who were by my side when it mattered most – really hard.

  It will always begin with Mick. This book would not be possible without you; it is not easy to be a self-confessed “book widower”, but you always support my dreams with unwavering love and understanding. You are and will always be the best man I know.

  A special thanks to: Sascha Craig, Sarah Billington, Anita Saunders and Keary Taylor. They are not only invaluable members of ‘Team Duggan’ but have also blessed me with the fortune of their friendships.

  Many thanks to all my new connections: my formatters Karen Phillips, Emily Mah Tippets; my proofreaders Lori Heaford and Marley Gibson – I write the words but you make them look beautiful.

  Always grateful for the love and support of my friends and family, especially Mum, Kevin, Dad, Daniel and Leanne.

  My best friend Jenny (and the ladies of the Berwick Book Club) for always making me smile.

  To everyone who read and shared The Boys of Summer, who connected with the story, the characters and me. I have been truly humbled and blessed with your messages, reviews and enthusiasm. Above all, thank you for taking a little piece of Australia into your life.

  About the Author

  C.J Duggan is an Australian author who lives with her husband in a rural border town of New South Wales, Australia.

  An Endless Summer is Book Two in her Mature Young Adult Romance Series.

  For more on C.J and ‘The Summer Series’, visit www.cjdugganbooks.com