by Karina Bliss
LOOKING OUT across the packed hall, Liz cleared her throat. The sound reverberated through the microphone. A bad start. To her left, Snowy sat back with a smile.
She straightened her shoulders, stopped playing with her wedding ring. “Snowy Patterson accused me of having a conflict of interest…he was right.” Murmurs broke out around the hall. “The truth is, I never really wanted to support Camp Chance—even when Harry did—because it reminded me too much of where I’d come from.”
Quietly, Liz outlined her history, her voice growing in power as she became caught up in the need to make these people understand. “Projects like Camp Chance need a generosity of spirit—the same spirit that made me choose Beacon Bay as a refuge all those years ago. I won’t believe we’ve lost that.”
Luke stood at the back, wearing one of her campaign T-shirts. For a moment their eyes met, then Liz returned her attention to the crowd. “There’s been a lot of conflict over the site, conflict that’s taken the focus away from what Luke Carter and the other trustees are trying to achieve for those children. Whether I win a second term or not I think it’s time for Beacon Bay to decide what kind of community we want to be. A place that posts a No Trespass sign or a town that says, Welcome, Friend.”
Near the front, Kirsty sat tight-lipped with her arms folded. “I thought long and hard about going against Harry’s wishes and it wasn’t easy for me. You know how we felt about each other…” Her voice broke. “And I know how Beacon Bay felt about him.”
Luke couldn’t stand any more.
Slipping out through a side door, he jammed his fists in his pockets and strode back along the beachfront toward his house. Enough.
There was a fine line between selflessness and masochism and he’d just crossed it.
Pulling his cell phone out of his jeans he rang Christian. He’d never asked a favor in his life; he asked it now.
“Yeah, Jordan and I can step in earlier with the camp.” Luke was grateful that Christian didn’t mention that they’d been trying to share the load for weeks. “You want to talk about this?”
“Not unless you’re a ghost buster,” he said bleakly.
OUT OF THE CORNER of her eye, Liz saw Luke leave but it didn’t worry her. There’d be time later to go after what she wanted. “One of the things I admired most about Harry,” she continued, “was that he had the courage of his convictions. Yes, in this case, his convictions differ from mine. But this is a conscience vote for me and I make no apology for it.”
She glanced at Snowy. “I believe people should always come first, and if you reelect me, they will. Thank you.”
Liz stepped back from the microphone. The sound of her heels on the floorboards echoed through the silent hall as she walked back to her seat.
The applause started, slow at first, growing in volume until it swelled through the hall and carried her back to her chair wearing a smile so big, it made her cheeks ache. One good speech wouldn’t be enough to swing the election in her favor, but hopefully she’d changed enough minds tonight to make a positive difference for the camp.
Delores Jackson sailed up to the microphone, but it was a full minute before she could make herself heard.
After the meeting ended, she separated Liz from a herd of well-wishers with the skill of a cattle rustler. “You should be courting me.” For once her voice was pitched low, and Liz had to strain to hear over the clatter of two hundred people filing out of the hall. “I have enough supporters to be the kingmaker in a tight race, should I decide to concede before the election.”
“Wait a minute.” Liz narrowed her eyes. “Holding the balance of power has been your intention all along, hasn’t it?”
“I know I’m too strident to stand a chance of winning, but I couldn’t have the wrong person in the job.”
Some of Liz’s elation dissipated. “You mean me.”
More people came over to shake Liz’s hand and Delores waited until they’d moved on. “I’ve never approved of your blind devotion to Harry’s causes,” she continued, “but tonight you proved that you’re your own woman.” The old lady stuck out her hand. “Integrity will always come first with me.”
Astonished, Liz took the soft, wrinkled fingers with the iron grip. “And Camp Corporate?”
“If the conditions on development prove as stringent as you say they are…maybe. But tell that man of yours I’ll be watching his every move like a hawk.”
Liz smiled. “I will.” Behind Delores, she saw Kirsty struggling toward them against the outgoing tide of people, and her pulse kicked up a notch.
Kirsty tapped Delores on the shoulder. “Mind if Lizzy and I talk in private?”
The old lady turned around. “It won’t do you any good. I’ll find out anyway.”
“You didn’t know about Luke and Liz,” Kirsty retorted.
“Who says I didn’t?” With that cryptic remark, Delores left.
Liz ventured a tentative smile; Kirsty didn’t return it. “You’re replacing Dad with Luke, aren’t you?”
For a moment Liz didn’t answer. “If something happened to Harriet could you replace her with another child?”
“Of course not!”
“The people you love aren’t replaceable, Kirsty—which is why I don’t want to lose you, too.” Liz hesitated. “But you need to accept Luke.”
Kirsty pulled a face. “Dammit, you and Nev are expecting me to do the right thing, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” Liz’s voice broke. “After all, you are Harry Light’s daughter.
“I hate it when you play that card.”
Liz opened her arms. “Still family?”
Kirsty blinked furiously. “Okay, but no hugs or you’ll make me cry.”
Liz hugged her anyway.
LUKE WASN’T PLEASED to see her.
Euphoric after her evening’s successes, Liz hadn’t expected the man she intended spending the rest of her life with to look at her as though she was selling something he didn’t want to buy.
Particularly when it was herself.
With a sinking feeling, she remembered he’d never articulated his love. Maybe she’d taken too much for granted. “I know it’s late,” she began awkwardly, “but I thought you’d like to know that it went well. In fact I’ll probably win the—” Behind him, she noticed two bags lined up in the hall. “You’re not leaving?”
“I told you I was moving back to Auckland.”
“But not tonight.” The sinking feeling bounced off the bottom of Liz’s stomach and started its ascent as panic. “What about us?”
“We’ll always be friends.”
Liz pushed him inside, shut the door and leaned against it. “You can’t go. I love you.”
“I know you do—but not enough. In your heart, Harry will always come first.”
Liz steered him as far away from the door as possible, outside onto the sea deck where her panic could take wing. “Let’s talk about this.”
“It won’t do any good, Liz.” Under the bright moon Luke’s expression looked even more remote as he folded his arms. “As the years go by, Harry will go from being a great guy to sainthood in your memory. Hell, he’s already halfway there. A flesh-and-blood man can’t compete with that.”
“It isn’t a competition and I can’t pretend I didn’t love him.”
“Which is why I’m not asking you to.”
She started to feel sick. “When Harry died I swore I wouldn’t let anyone get so close again. That’s why I kept pretending you didn’t matter, but it was only pretense, Luke.”
“I know bereavement,” he said. “My mother abandoned me, my wife divorced me and the only father figure I ever had—my coach—severed our relationship when I retired early from competitive swimming. But I got over it.”
“Now who’s pretending?”
He scowled and looked away. “Be honest, Liz, half your heart will always be buried in a grave with Harry.”
She scrambled for the words that would convince him he was wrong. “We cr
emated him.” Those weren’t them.
“Uh-huh. Where are his ashes?”
“We’re waiting for his brother to come back from overseas before we scatter them…. What?” She was losing him and she couldn’t seem to stop it. “Luke, I haven’t got them in some sort of shrine at home.” Only hours earlier, she’d put Harry’s sweater in a clothing bin and said her last goodbye.
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been invited there.”
“Then let’s go now.”
Liz only realized she was gripping his forearms when he gently broke free of her hold. “It can’t work, Liz.”
And suddenly she understood. “Harry’s not the real problem, is he? You’re using him as an excuse. I hurt you and it made you realize how vulnerable you are. What’s really going on is that the guy with intimacy issues is getting cold feet.”
He didn’t answer, but the grimness of his features told her she was right. Except she didn’t want to be right.
“You want promises, Luke? You want guarantees? I can’t give you any. At some point, love requires a leap of faith.”
For a moment, his mask slipped and Liz saw the child he’d once been in all his aching vulnerability. Saw how much she was asking of a man who’d survived by safeguarding his emotions. “One day,” he said carefully, “you’ll find another Harry.”
If Luke was going to make the right decision she had to help him. “I don’t want another Harry. I want you.” Liz started to strip.
He stopped her. “Sex won’t solve anything.”
“Good—” she shoved his hand away and kept pulling her clothes off “—because I’m not offering any.”
When she was down to bra and pants, Liz grabbed a handful of Luke’s shirt and hauled him closer. “Forget the leap of faith. I’m base-jumping from Everest.” Releasing him, she walked toward the sea.
Torn between conflicting emotions, Luke watched Liz disappear over the top of the sand dune. He reached the top of the dune in time to see her striding into the moonlit sea.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Drowning. Unless you save me.”
“What the—I taught you to swim, remember!”
She didn’t answer, simply threw herself into the next wave and began a slow, careful crawl toward the horizon.
Exasperated, Luke bellowed, “This is crazy!”
She swam out twenty-five meters, fifty. Stopped.
He always knew she’d turn around. Instead she treaded water and yelled, “Remember I loved you!” And began swimming again. A wisp of cloud covered the moon; for a moment Luke lost sight of her and his heart lurched. Then the moon reappeared and he saw the pale blur of her head.
Okay, she could swim, but not that far. And not in deep water.
Luke raced back to the deck for a life preserver but all he could find was one of Harriet’s water toys. Then he kicked off his trousers, hauled off his shirt and dived into the sea. Powering through the swell, he silently swore, twice raising his head to sight her. By the time he reached Liz, she’d stopped swimming and was weakly treading water.
In his relief, Luke almost lifted her airborne. “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” With his free hand, he shoved the pink noodle at her.
But Liz wouldn’t take it. “Is that a yes?”
Forcibly, Luke wrapped her arms around the long bendy noodle and started kicking toward shore, still too shaken to do more than rant. “You realize this is the second time I’ve had to save you?”
“You’re wrong, I’m saving you—” they picked up speed as Liz started to kick, too “—from making the biggest mistake of your life. You’re stuck with me, Luke. And Beacon Bay. I don’t let go of the people I love.” A lilt of laughter entered her voice. “Haven’t I just spent the past two years hanging on to Harry?”
“I can’t believe you think this was funny.”
“Stop being a coward and jump, dammit.”
“Easy for you to say, you’ve done this before.”
“No,” she said. “I haven’t. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”
For a moment Luke stopped kicking. “You’re mad,” he said. “Insane. It’ll probably come out in our kids.”
Liz started to cry. They were close enough to shore to stand up, so he hauled her close, tossed the noodle aside and started kissing her, tasting tears and sea. “I love you…God, Liz, I love you so much.”
Their kisses deepened, hot and salty and full of raw need. He skimmed his hands over her body, sleek and wet, barely covered. Liz hitched her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. As he reached around to unfasten her bra, a wave crashed into them, knocking them over in a tumble of surf. They surfaced laughing.
“This always works so much better in the movies.”
She pulled him into the shallows. “Let’s try this on dry land.”
On the deck, he caught her hand. “Are you sure, Liz?”
Cupping his face, she kissed him. “I’ll take my chances.” Her lips curved in a smile that was pure Fred. “And remember, I only wanted you for your body, anyway.”
EPILOGUE
IT WAS GALA DAY at Camp Chance, and Jordan King’s long hair and Christian Kelly’s Ferrari had been attracting almost as much attention as the stalls and activities, the most popular of which—Super Soak a Politician—had raised over twenty-five hundred dollars.
But right now, all eyes were on the friendly football game between the Camp Chance Raiders captained by Luke Carter and made up of trustees, staff and kids, against the Beacon Bay Butt-kickers.
Also known as Citizens Caning, the team led by recently reelected mayor, Liz Light, was primarily made up age-challenged councillors and ratepayers who were as surprised as anyone to find themselves leading the game six-two.
Particularly when they hadn’t scored a goal.
Amid a howl of protests from the Raiders at the announcement, Luke approached the referee, who sat on the sidelines in an armchair, with the rulebook in her lap. “I think you’ll find—once again—that was our goal, Delores,” he said.
“I’ll just check.” A twinkle in her eye, she beckoned over her two linesmen. “Ladies, they’re disputing the score again.”
Kezia Kelly jogged over, her pigtails bouncing. Her mischievous expression offset the authority of her official uniform of green shorts, T-shirt and long socks. “Actually, Delores, I think the score is fifteen love.”
“Oh, Jeez! Reinforcements!” Luke yelled, and Christian and Jordan joined him.
“No, Kez, you’re wrong.” Fellow linesman Kate Brogan-King, the baby bulge under her green shirt making her look like another football, waddled over. “You’re thinking tennis. In soccer, a try is worth five points. So the Beacon Bay Butt-kickers lead by ten-two.”
The three men looked at one another. “That’s rugby, Kate,” Luke said in a controlled voice. “In football we score a goal and a goal is worth one point.”
“For the hundredth time,” Christian added with exaggerated patience, “That’s our goal there—” he pointed in a direction and obediently everyone looked “—and that’s their goal at the other end of the field.”
“The ball went into our damn goal,” roared Jordan. “End of story.”
“They’re arguing with you again, ref,” Liz said behind them. “Send ’em all to the sin bin.”
“You know damn well sin bins only apply in rugby and to our bedroom, Fred.” Spinning to face his wife, Luke caught Liz’s wink to the other women. “Wait a minute. This is a conspiracy, isn’t it?”
Delores frowned. “Ten minutes in the sin bin for questioning the referee’s integrity. The rest of you back on the field, if you don’t want to join him.”
Everyone scattered. So much for loyalty. Resigned, Luke collapsed on the grass next to Delores. “My big mistake was giving you an open invitation to snoop around camp.”
And next week, construction would start on Camp Corporate’s dorm, which meant they’d be seeing eve
n more of her.
“If you don’t mind, big mouth, I’m trying to referee a game here.”
“Sure you are—Jord, kids on the pitch!”
Jordan scooped up Harriet and Maddie, just as Christian kicked the ball to him. With a toddler on each hip, each with a death grip on his long hair, he still managed a couple of tricks before passing the ball to Moana. The crowd loved it.
Moana aimed for Rosie, but Councillor Bray intercepted with a header, which did serious damage to his comb-over. Both sides raced for the loose ball, then Liz broke free of the pack and, barely in control of the football, came flying down the field.
In goal, Kirsty screamed, “Lizzy, you’re coming the wrong way!” Still running, Liz reached down to grab the ball then did a U-turn. Swerving around her bemused pursuers, she raced down the pitch and arms outstretched, threw herself across the goal line. “Try!” she yelled triumphantly. Everybody erupted into laughter.
Delores looked at Luke. “Should we allow that?”
“Of course.” He looked at his mud-splattered wife, his friends, his kids and his community. And his heart swelled. “It was a home run.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-1296-5
MR. UNFORGETTABLE
Copyright © 2008 by Karina Bliss.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
