‘Something is wrong.’ Melly’s bottom lip wobbled and his gut twisted. ‘She looked sad and she’s my friend and she made me feel better when I was sad.’
Her bottom lip wobbled some more. He gulped. ‘When were you sad?’
‘Last week.’
‘Why were you sad?’
Would she tell him? He held his breath. The pedestrian crossing cleared and he pushed the car into gear and started moving again.
‘Because Mrs Benedict smacked me.’
Connor slid the van into a free parking space and tried to unclench his hands from around the steering wheel. That still had the power to make his blood boil…
But Mel had confided in him!
‘You won’t ever have to go back to Mrs Benedict’s again, okay, sweetheart?’
Mel’s eyes went wide, then opaque. Connor couldn’t read her face at all. He didn’t know if she was about to throw a temper tantrum or burst into tears. ‘You said I was Princess Melly today.’
The whispered words speared straight into him. ‘You are, sweetheart.’
‘And that my every wish was your command.’
‘Yep, that’s right.’ If she didn’t want to talk about this, then he wouldn’t force her.
‘Then I want to see Jaz!’
He was hers to command. But how could he explain that neither one of them had the right to command Jaz?
Why was Jaz sad?
The thought distracted him. Perhaps that was why Mel’s escape plan succeeded because, before he realised what she meant to do, she’d slipped off her seat belt, slid out of the car and raced back down the street towards the tattoo parlour.
‘Bloody hell!’
Connor shot out of the car after her. He fell through the front door of the tattoo parlour in time to see Mel throw her arms around Jaz’s waist as Jaz emerged from the back of the shop.
‘What’s this?’ Jaz hugged Mel back but she glanced up at Connor with a question in her eyes.
‘I’m sorry.’ He shrugged and grimaced. Mel clung to Jaz like a limpet and an ache burned deep down inside him. ‘She got away from me. She saw you and thought you looked sad.’ He didn’t know what else to say because it suddenly hit him that Mel was right—something was wrong. Jaz was sad. He didn’t know how he could tell. Nothing in her bearing gave it away.
Two men emerged from the back of the shop—one of them the man who’d kissed Jaz on the cheek earlier. She smiled at them weakly and shrugged, much the same way he just had to her. ‘This is my friend, Melly…and her father Connor. This is Mac and Jeff.’
They all nodded to each other, murmured hellos.
‘Melly saw me and wanted to say hello.’ She knelt down to Mel’s level. ‘I am a bit sad, but I promise I’m going to be all right, okay?’
Mel nodded. ‘Okay.’
‘Now, if you’ll excuse me—’ Jaz rose ‘—I have some work to do.’
Connor saw the question forming in Mel’s eyes and wanted to clamp a hand over her mouth before she could ask it.
‘Are you going to tattoo someone?’
Jaz glanced briefly at him, then back to Mel. ‘Yes.’
He wondered why she sounded so reluctant to admit it. One thing was clear—she did not want them here.
Her sadness beat at him like a living thing. He remembered what had happened to Frieda. She has her friends.
‘Can I watch?’
Jaz crouched back down to Mel’s level. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Melly, and—’
‘I don’t mind.’ The man called Jeff spoke quietly, but somehow his words filled the entire room.
‘Are you getting the tattoo?’ Mel breathed, awe audible in every word.
‘I’m getting a picture of my little girl tattooed here.’ Jeff touched a hand to the top of his left arm.
‘Where is she? Can we play?’
He shook his head. ‘She’s a long way away.’
Melly bit her lip. ‘Is it going to hurt?’
‘Yes.’
‘Will it help if I hold your hand?’
‘Yes, it will.’ With a glance at Connor, Jeff picked Melly up in his great burly arms. Connor sensed that with just one word or look from him, Jeff would release Mel in an instant, but something in the man’s face and manner, something in the way Jaz regarded him, held Connor still.
Then they all moved to the back of the shop.
The tattoo took nearly two hours. Connor had never seen anything like it in his life. Beneath Jaz’s fingers, a young girl’s face came alive.
This wasn’t just any simple tattoo. It was an indelible photograph captured on this man’s arm for ever.
It was a work of art.
Mel watched Jaz’s movements quietly, solemnly. She held Jeff’s hand, stroked it every now and again. Finally she moved to where Connor sat, slid onto his lap and rested her head against his shoulder. He held her tight, though for the life of him he couldn’t explain why. Her relaxed posture and even breathing eventually told him she’d fallen asleep.
At last, Jaz set aside her tools and stretched her arms back above her head. She held up a mirror for Jeff to view the finished tattoo. ‘Thank you,’ he said simply.
Jaz leant across then and placed a kiss in the centre of Jeff’s forehead. ‘May she live in your heart for ever,’ she whispered.
That was when Connor realised why he held Melly so tight.
That tattoo wasn’t a work of art. It was a memorial.
‘Cherish her,’ Jeff said with a nod at the sleeping child.
‘I will,’ he promised.
Then Jeff left the room, closely followed by Mac, and Connor expelled one long breath. He reached out and touched Jaz’s hand. ‘That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.’ He didn’t smile. He couldn’t. But he wanted her to know how much he admired her skill and generosity.
When she turned, he could see the strain the last two hours had put on her—the overwhelming responsibility to do her absolute best work, not to make a mistake. It showed in her pallor, the lines around her eyes and mouth.
He adjusted the child in his arms, rose and put one arm around Jaz’s shoulders. ‘Let me take you home.’
For a moment he thought she would lean into him, but then she stiffened and edged away. ‘Mac will take me home, thanks all the same. Enjoy the rest of your day, Connor.’
Before she could move fully away, Melly stirred, unwrapped an arm from around her father’s neck and wound it around Jaz’s. It brought Jaz in close to Connor again—her arm touching his arm, his scent clogging her senses. The more of him she breathed in, the more it chased her weariness away.
‘That was way wicked!’ Melly said.
A spurt of laughter sprang from Jaz’s lips at the sheer unexpectedness of Melly’s words. She tried to draw back a little to stare into Melly’s face. Melly wouldn’t let her draw back any further than that. ‘Where did you pick up that expression?’
‘Carmen Sears. She looked after me for a couple of hours yesterday and I think she’s way wicked too.’
Jaz grinned. She couldn’t help it. Although she kept her gaze on Melly’s face, from the corner of her eye she could see Connor’s lips kick up too. Her heart pounded against the walls of her chest as if her ribcage had shrunk.
‘Can we go on our picnic now, Daddy?’
‘Your wish is my command.’
‘I want Jaz to come on our picnic too.’
Jaz stiffened. She tried to draw away but Melly tightened her hold and wouldn’t let her go. Oh, heck! Connor had told her he didn’t want her as part of Melly’s life. She should imagine that included attending picnics with her.
‘Princess, your wish is my every command,’ Connor started.
‘You’re going to say no.’
Melly’s bottom lip wobbled. It wouldn’t have had such a profound effect on Jaz if she hadn’t sensed Melly’s valiant effort to hide it. Connor’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
‘Sweetheart, Jaz isn’t anyone’s to command. She’s
her own princess. We don’t have the right to tell her what to do.’
Mel leaned in close to her father and whispered, ‘But Jaz might like to come.’
He hesitated. He nodded. Then he smiled. ‘I guess you’d better ask her, then.’
‘Princess Jaz, would you like to come on a picnic with us?’ She turned pleading eyes on Jaz. ‘Please?’
Thank you, Connor Reed! So she had to play bad guy, huh? She wondered if she could lie convincingly enough not to hurt Melly’s feelings. The hope in the child’s face turned Jaz’s insides to…marshmallow.
‘I would love to come on a picnic with you, Princess Melly…’ That wasn’t a lie. ‘But I’m very tired.’ That wasn’t a lie either. ‘And I really should get back to the bookshop.’ That was only half a lie.
‘But you’re still sad!’
Melly’s grip eased, but she didn’t let go. Her bottom lip wobbled again, making Jaz gulp. If Melly cried…
‘Please come along with us, Jaz.’
Connor’s voice, warm and golden, slid through to her very core. Her decidedly marshmallow core.
‘I’d like you to come along too.’
She had to meet his gaze. Those words, that tone, demanded it. Her breath hitched. His autumn-tinted eyes tempted her…in every way possible.
She shouldn’t go.
He couldn’t really want her to tag along.
‘Bonnie and Gail have the shop under control,’ Mac said from the doorway. ‘Go on the picnic, Jaz, it’ll do you good.’
Three sets of eyes watched her expectantly. ‘I…’ Exhilaration raced through her veins. ‘I think a picnic sounds perfect.’
‘Good.’
If anything, Connor’s eyes grew warmer.
Oh, dear Lord. What had she just agreed to?
Melly struggled out of her father’s arms to throw her arms around Jaz’s middle. ‘Yay! Thank you.’
She smoothed Melly’s hair back behind her ears. ‘No, sweetheart, thank you for inviting me along. It’ll be a real treat.’
She glanced up at Connor and for some reason her tongue tried to stick fast to the roof of her mouth. ‘I’ll…umm…just go grab my things.’
In the end, Melly decided it was too far to go to the botanic gardens and chose a picnic spot near Katoomba Cascades instead. Jaz couldn’t remember a time when egg-and-lettuce sandwiches or apple turnovers had tasted so good.
After they’d eaten, they walked down to the cascades. The day was still and clear and cool. Jaz drank in the scenery like a starving woman. She hadn’t forgotten how beautiful the mountains were, but her recollections had been overshadowed by…other memories.
Melly’s chatter subsided abruptly when they returned to the picnic area. She stared at the children playing in the playground—two swings, a tiny fort with a climbing frame and a slippery dip—and the hunger in her face made Jaz’s heart twist.
Melly swung around, her gaze spearing straight to Jaz’s, a question in her eyes that brought Jaz’s childhood crashing back—the crippling shyness…the crippling loneliness.
She made herself smile, nodded towards the playground. ‘Why don’t you go over and make friends?’ Then she remembered Connor. Not that she’d ever forgotten him. ‘We don’t have to go home yet, do we?’
‘This is Princess Melly day.’ He spread his arms as if that said it all.
Jaz wished he hadn’t spread his arms quite so wide or in that particular fashion. If she took just one step towards him she’d find herself encompassed by those arms.
A small hand slipped inside Jaz’s, hauling her back. Melly stared up at her with such trust in her autumn-tinted eyes—eyes the spitting image of Connor’s—that it stole her breath.
‘But what do I say?’ Melly whispered.
Jaz dropped her duffel bag to the grass and knelt down beside Melly. She took a second look at the children playing in the playground. Tourists. ‘I think you should go over and say: Hello, I’m Melly and I live near here. Where do you live? And then…’ Jaz racked her brain. She remembered her own childhood. She could sense Connor watching them intently, but she did what she could to ignore him for the moment. ‘Remember that story we read—was it Tuesday or Wednesday? The one with the wood sprites and the water nymphs.’
Melly nodded.
‘Well, perhaps you could tell them about the wood sprites and water nymphs that live in the Katoomba Cascades.’ She nodded her head in the direction of the cascades. ‘I’m sure they’d love to hear about that.’
Melly’s face lit up. ‘Can I go play, Daddy?’
He spread his arms again. It made Jaz gulp. ‘Is your name Princess Melly?’
Melly giggled and raced off.
Connor lowered himself to the grass beside Jaz, stretched out on his side. ‘Thank you.’
‘I…’ Her tongue had gone and glued itself to the roof of her mouth again.
‘You said exactly the right thing.’ He frowned. ‘How’d you do that?’
Her tongue unglued itself. ‘Why, what would you have said?’
‘I’d have probably told her to just play it by ear.’
Jaz shook her head. ‘I remember what it was like to be Melanie’s age…and shy. I’d have wanted some clear instructions or suggestions about how to get the initial conversation started. You can play it by ear after that.’
Connor watched Melly. ‘It seems to be working.’
Warmth wormed through her. ‘I’m glad. She’s a delightful little girl, Connor. You must be very proud of her.’
He glanced up at her. ‘I am.’
She gripped her hands together. ‘I’m sorry I came along today,’ she blurted out. But it was partly his fault. He’d caught her at a weak moment.
He shot up into a sitting position. ‘Why?’ he barked. ‘Haven’t you had a nice time?’
‘Yes, of course, but…’ She stared back at him helplessly. ‘But you didn’t want me as part of Melly’s life, remember? I was supposed to keep my distance.’ She lifted her hands, then let them fall back to her lap. ‘But I didn’t know how to say no to her.’ She glared. ‘And you didn’t help.’
She didn’t know if it was a grimace or a smile that twisted his lips. ‘She wanted you to come along so badly. I didn’t know how to say no to her either.’
What about him? Had he really wanted her to come along?
She halted that thought in its tracks. She didn’t care what Connor wanted.
‘I seem to recall you saying you didn’t want me as part of your life either.’
She wrinkled her nose. ‘That was just me wanting to say something mean back to you.’ It had been about erecting defences.
‘It wasn’t mean. It was you telling the truth, wasn’t it?’
She had no intention of letting him breach those defences. ‘Yes.’ She pulled in a breath. ‘There’s a lot of history between us, Connor.’
He nodded.
‘And I have no intention of revisiting it.’
‘History never repeats?’ he asked.
‘Something like that.’
‘For what it’s worth, I think you’re right.’ He was quiet for a long moment, his eyes on Melly. ‘It doesn’t mean you and Mel can’t be friends, though, does it?’
She blinked. ‘But you didn’t want me to…’
‘For better or worse, Melly likes you, she identifies with you.’ He met her gaze head-on. ‘But can you promise me that you won’t leave again the way you did the last time?’
‘Yes, I can promise that.’ She’d grown up since those days. ‘It’s funny, you know, but it’s nice to be back.’ She gestured to the view spread out before them. ‘I’ve missed all this. When I do get the bookshop back on its feet, I mean to come back for visits.’
She’d promised Gwen.
She’d promise Melly too.
‘I have no intention of hurting your little girl, Connor.’
‘I know that.’
She turned and stared back out at the view.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE hunger in Jaz’s face as she stared out over the valley made Connor’s gut clench.
This was her home. She might not be ready to admit that to herself yet, but the truth was as clear to him as the nose on her face…and the fullness of her lips.
He tried to drag his mind from her lips, from thoughts of kissing her. Jaz had made her position clear—there would be no him and her again.
He didn’t know why that should make him scowl. It was what he wanted too.
No, he wanted to kiss her. He was honest enough to admit that much. But she was right. There was no future for them.
But now that she was back in Clara Falls, she shouldn’t have to leave in twelve months’ time. Not if she didn’t want to.
He thought back to Mac—the cheek kisser; Mac of the tattoo parlour. He rolled his shoulders. ‘You’re good with kids.’ Did she plan to have children of her own?
She turned back. He could tell she was trying to hold back a grin. ‘You sound surprised.’
‘Guess I’ve never really thought about it before.’ He paused. ‘You and Mac seem close.’
Her lips twisted. She all but cocked an eyebrow. ‘We are. He and his wife Bonnie are my best friends.’
He felt like a transparent fool. He rushed on before she could chide him for getting too personal. ‘What are your plans for when you return to your real life in the city?’
She blinked and he shrugged, suddenly and strangely self-conscious—like Mel in her attempts to make new friends. ‘You said that returning to run the bookshop was a temporary glitch.’
‘It is.’
She eased back on her hands, shifted so she no longer sat on her knees, so she could stretch the long length of her legs out in front of her. Without thinking, he reached out to swipe the leaves from her trouser legs.
She stiffened. He pulled his hand back with a muttered, ‘Sorry.’
‘Not a problem.’
Her voice came out all tight and strangled. Oh, yeah, there was a problem all right. The same problem there had always been between them—that heat. But it hadn’t solved things between them eight years ago and it wouldn’t solve anything now.
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