Until He Met Meg

by Sami Lee

  ‘Tell me about it. I had to hire someone else but between you and me, he’s not really working out. If you find Meg, you can tell her I’ll give her one more shot at that interview.’

  ‘I will,’ Bryce said, before saying his goodbyes and hanging up. Raelene’s words lingered with him though, leaving his blood cold.

  If you find Meg.

  A disturbing truth hit Bryce. He had no idea where the woman he loved was.

  Chapter Twelve

  Karawak Downs was the same as Meg remembered. Same main street with its meagre selection of retail outlets, dominated at one end by the Imperial Hotel and at the other by the Karawak Downs Heritage Centre. Same dry and dusty streets with the same people gossiping on corners. Same hardware store.

  When she’d come back home last week, Meg had offered to work for her dad at the store like she used to. It didn’t take her long to realise he didn’t need the help anymore. He’d hired a local boy to fill her spot and he was doing a fine job. Meg hadn’t exactly had a plan when she got on the bus to come home, but she’d at least expected there would be a job waiting for her.

  It seemed she’d been made redundant everywhere.

  She’d come back home on instinct, like a homing pigeon without the brains to understand why it flew in the direction it did. Her first night home, she’d lain awake, staring at the stars outside the window of her childhood bedroom, wondering why she didn’t feel comforted by the familiar surroundings. The truth came to her even though she didn’t want it — the house in Rose Bay felt more like a home to her now than the house in which she’d grown up. Too bad, Meg. You’re not welcome there, she’d told herself, and cried long and silently into her pillow.

  ‘Why don’t you go get us some lunch, Meggie?’

  Her father’s voice broke Meg out of her sombre reverie. She glanced up from the papers she’d been sorting through on his desk to see Bob Lacy’s solid frame filling the small office doorway. Meg looked at her watch. It was only eleven o’clock. ‘You want lunch now?’

  Bob shrugged. ‘I’m hungry now, so is Tommy. But we can wait if you want to spend some time in town…you know, shopping or something.’

  A hot tingle spread across her chest, moving inexorably upward as Meg began to realise her father was trying to get her out of the hardware store. ‘Oh, sure. I could do some shopping.’ She had no money and there was only one dress shop in town, but if that’s what he wanted. Her voice turned quiet as she bent her head to pull her handbag from beneath the desk. ‘I’ll just get out of your hair.’

  ‘Meggie…’

  ‘No, it’s all right, Dad. I know you don’t need me here.’ No one needed her, apparently.

  ‘It’s just that I didn’t expect you back, honey. You were so determined that you wouldn’t give up on your dreams.’

  ‘Dreams are for little girls. I’ve grown up and realised they don’t come true.’

  Her dad frowned. ‘I hope you don’t really think that. Your mother would be disappointed.’

  Meg flinched and turned away, the burn of tears threatening as it had so often this past week. Her father stepped forward and placed a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. ‘All I want is for you to be happy, Meggie.’

  ‘I know that.’ Despite her father’s difficulty with expressing emotion, Meg knew he loved her and that at least was a comfort. ‘The thing is, I don’t know what’s going to make me happy anymore. I failed in Sydney. I didn’t get a great job or a nice apartment. I ran out of money and now I’m back to square one.’

  Square one plus a broken heart. She was worse off than she’d been before she left Karawak Downs.

  ‘If you want to go back, I’ll give you the money you need.’

  ‘Oh, Dad, no.’ Last time she’d moved to Sydney she’d used her own savings — it had been very important to her that she did things independently. Bob Lacy wasn’t wealthy and he needed everything he had to keep the business going.

  ‘I’ve got a little tucked away,’ he said, surprising Meg. ‘I want you to have it. You don’t belong in Karawak Downs. You’re destined for bigger things.’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with Karawak Downs.’

  Meg defended her hometown instinctively, yet something her father said resounded in her mind. She didn’t belong here. She’d felt it her whole life, like someone out of place. Most of the people who lived here were content and they didn’t want to be anywhere else. Meg had always wanted to go places and do things other than work, gossip and, on the weekends, drink at the pub. She’d wanted to leave even more after her mother died, and when she’d finally taken the steps to go, she’d felt free.

  Coming back here had been a mistake. Hearing her father tell her to go back to Sydney only confirmed that belief, which had been niggling all week. She may have grown up in Karawak Downs, but it wasn’t her home anymore.

  ‘Maybe you’re right, Dad. Maybe I gave up too soon.’ Or maybe she’d been so blindsided by Bryce’s stinging rejection that she hadn’t seen past the need to hole up somewhere and lick her wounds. Well, she’d been doing that for over a week now. Enough was enough. ‘I will go back.’

  Bryce may not want her but the man didn’t own all of Sydney, did he? She could find her way without him. She had to.

  ‘Good for you.’

  ‘However,’ Meg held up a finger. ‘Any money you give me has to be a loan. I insist.’

  Bob shook his head ruefully. ‘You and your pride.’

  ‘I want to make my own way, that’s all. But I’m not so stubborn as to refuse help when it’s offered now.’

  That was one lesson she’d learned. She should have taken the job with Raelene Leonard, because now she’d have to start all over again. Meg squared her shoulders. No matter, you can do it. If she couldn’t get a job in the interior design field she’d work in a sandwich shop or clean houses for a living. Heck, she could even be a nanny again. She only wanted to be in Sydney, the city that had captured her heart, any way she could make it happen.

  Meg gazed at her dad, the man of few words and even fewer displays of affection, and threw her arms around his neck. She gave his bulky frame a tight squeeze while he patted her on the back and laughed a little uncomfortably. ‘Thanks, Dad.’

  When she pulled back, Bob was smiling and his cheeks were filled with colour. ‘That’s all right. You go get ‘em, girl.’

  ‘I will. But first I’ll go fetch those sandwiches for you and Tommy.’

  Feeling lighter than she had in what seemed like ages, Meg left Lacy’s Hardware and began to make her way to the Karawak Kafe, which was located in the centre of town and as such dished out not only food but generous portions of local gossip. She was halfway there when the door to Betty’s Blooms and Gifts opened and a man stepped out, his face obscured by a huge bunch of flowers.

  Betty didn’t have a huge selection, so the man must have bought out the entire shop and strung all the bunches together to create that bouquet. In fact, the man carrying them apparently couldn’t see where he was going. When Meg went to walk around him, he took a step right into her path. They collided with a scrunch of cellophane and a rustle of crushed petals that gave off a heady, sweet aroma.

  From behind the flowers, a deep voice emerged. ‘My fault. Please excuse me.’

  ‘No problem, I should have waited.’

  Meg had no clue how she managed to get the words out. Her face was covered in gerberas and forget-me-nots, for a start. Secondly, her insides tingled fit to turn her organs to jelly because she recognised that voice. Or at least she thought she did. Either that or she was having delusions.

  Heart hammering, Meg reached with trembling fingers to clasp the flowers. Slowly, she drew the blooms apart, creating a tunnel through which she could see the face on the other side. Coffee-coloured eyes rimmed in a band of gold, a strong, straight nose and a pair of lips she’d imagined kissing more nights than she wanted to admit.

  Meg’s breath caught in her throat. The flower stems slipped from her grasp. She t
ook a step back, somehow managing to stumble on a crack in the footpath. She was going to fall on her butt in front of Bryce Carlton. Again.

  She didn’t land with the painful thud she expected. Bryce moved swiftly, dropping the flowers and gathering her against him before she fell. He pulled her into his strong arms with fluid ease, not appearing the least discombobulated. Then he did the most breathtaking thing. He smiled. Grinned in fact, in a demonstrable display of pure joy that made Meg’s knees buckle and rendered it impossible to extract herself from his embrace.

  That silly grin remained on his face, showing his cute dimple, when he said with soft amazement, ‘Meg. Oh Meg, look at you.’

  ‘Look at me?’ Meg eventually spluttered when she found her voice. ‘Look at you. You’re…you’re here. In Karawak Downs.’

  His smile widened. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’ Bryce being in her tiny hometown seemed as incongruous as the Prince of Wales showing up unexpectedly. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘To find you, of course.’

  If he hadn’t been holding her up, Meg felt quite sure she would have fallen again. It was embarrassing how easily Bryce Carlton could make her swoon. Her mind reeled with questions, while her body responded to the closeness to his with innate acceptance. Instinct told her to burrow into his arms and beg him never to let her go again. But then she remembered.

  This man had fired her, kicked her out of his home and his life. Remnant anger helped her pull herself together enough that she could push against his chest. Bryce released her in a gentlemanly way, although his reluctance was obvious. For some reason that reluctance made Meg mad.

  Hand on hip, she glared at him. ‘What did I do? Leave something at your house? You drove all the way out here to return it?’

  ‘No, you didn’t leave a thing behind,’ he said, expression sobering. ‘That’s precisely the problem.’

  Meg was about to ask him what he meant by that when another presence at her side distracted her. She looked down to see the flowers had been picked off the ground, and were being held out by someone who couldn’t be more than three feet tall. ‘Phillipa?’ Meg asked, not even having to shift the flowers this time.

  The blooms moved and Phillipa looked up at her with her cheeky grin. ‘Hello, Migleesee.’

  ‘Oh Phillipa, you little devil.’ Meg bent down and scooped the girl up, bringing her close to her chest and holding on tight. ‘I’ve missed you like crazy.’

  ‘We’ve missed you.’

  Meg noted the ‘we’ and it made her even more aware of Bryce’s presence beside her, his avid attention as he watched her interact with his daughter. Glancing at him, she noticed for the first time what he was wearing. Those same faded jeans he’d worn to help her paint his dining room and a navy blue polo shirt. He looked devastatingly handsome but there was something a little off about his appearance — something besides the fact that he was in Karawak Downs.

  As Meg set Phillipa back on her feet, she realised what was bothering her. ‘It’s a work day,’ she said, turning back to Bryce but still keeping Phillipa close to her side. ‘Why aren’t you in a suit?’

  His lips tilted. ‘Armani is not really appropriate gear for a ten-hour drive west. Besides, I’ve been working from home a bit lately.’

  ‘You have?’ He’d said as much on that last horrible morning. He’d told her he was going to work from home until he found another suitable nanny, but surely it didn’t take over two weeks to do that. ‘Didn’t you find anyone to replace me?’

  ‘No one could ever replace you.’

  He said it with such fervour that Meg’s body flushed hot with pleasure. Get a grip, girl. She feigned a haughty expression. ‘I suppose you should have thought of that before you let me go.’

  ‘Yes. I should have.’

  He was being so deferential, agreeing with her and all. It was disconcerting. She frowned at him. ‘What’s really going on here, Bryce?’

  ‘Daddy, tell her.’

  Bryce cast a glance at his daughter. ‘I’m getting to it, peanut.’

  ‘Hurry.’

  A muscle in his jaw throbbed visibly as he returned his gaze to Meg. ‘Is there somewhere private we could talk?’

  ‘In Karawak Downs? Not really.’ Already Meg could see a face popping in and out of the Karawak Kafe, half a block away. Dolly Spencer was checking out the man with the cute kid and the flowers and no doubt reporting back to everyone inside about how he’d held Meg in his arms.

  ‘Okay. Can we go for a drive somewhere?’

  ‘Dad-dy,’ Phillipa groaned in impatience. ‘Just tell her.’

  ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘We want you back,’ Bryce blurted. ‘Phillipa and I want you to come back to Sydney with us.’

  Meg stared at him as the blood rushed out of her face. She felt faint again, but this time she wasn’t swooning. Nope, this type of faintness was definitely not a swoon. ‘I can’t believe you,’ she said, her voice little more than a rasp.

  ‘Believe it. The house isn’t the same without you. I need you there, Meg.’

  The sting of tears threatened, and her throat was about to close over. Before she crumbled in front of him, Meg forced herself to speak clearly and concisely. ‘I’m sorry that you can’t find another nanny, Bryce. I’m sorry you’ve had to work at home all this time because of that. But you cannot just come here, after everything that happened, and expect me to jump at the chance to work for you again. I can’t. I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear the last time we saw each other and I’m sorry you’ve wasted your time coming out here, but the answer is no. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’

  She stepped around them both, regret piercing her as she caught the anguished look on Phillipa’s face. Phillipa, who resisted Meg’s efforts to be friends for as long as she could and was now here, forcing her father to ask Meg to be her nanny again. She was sure Bryce had agreed to make this last-ditch effort because he loved his daughter to pieces and couldn’t deny his child her heart’s desire.

  Meg cursed Bryce Carlton as she strode up the street, ignoring his calls as he came after her. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to make Phillipa happy but she could blame him for not understanding how much it would destroy her to have him ask this. Her heart hurt as though it was breaking all over again.

  ‘Meg wait! Please.’

  ‘I can’t. I have to go buy lunch.’ It was ridiculous that she even remembered her father’s sandwiches but she had to have something to do, something to take her away from the disaster of seeing Bryce again.

  ‘Meg, honey, you’ve misunderstood.’

  A spike of fury made her whirl on him. ‘Don’t call me honey.’

  ‘I need you to listen.’

  ‘Why?’ Meg threw up her hands. ‘What could you possibly say that I would want to hear?’

  ‘I don’t want you back in Sydney as the nanny! I want you as my wife.’

  That shut her up fairly effectively. Meg stood stock still, absolutely silent as she stared at Bryce. His brows were drawn down in an expression of frustration that was all too familiar to her. She’d seen it a few times when she’d vexed him about one thing or another. It wasn’t the expression of a man who’d just said he wanted to marry her, so Meg had to assume she was hearing things. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Damn it.’ Bryce dragged a hand through his hair. ‘This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. But you can’t even let a man propose without scrambling his brain so much he can’t get the words to come out right.’

  ‘Don’t blame me!’

  ‘Who else? You do this to me, Meg.’ He shook his head, a rueful smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. ‘I had a perfectly decent plan, you know.’

  Meg’s heart thundered, the word ‘propose’ still ringing in her ears. Was he really trying to propose? To her? ‘You…you did?’

  Bryce nodded. ‘I was coming to see you at work. Your father told me he’d keep you there until eleven thirty.’

  ‘You spoke to
my father?’ Even as she said it, a sight beyond Bryce’s shoulder caught her attention. Her father, the emotionally economical Bob Lacy, was standing at the end of the block, watching them with a satisfied smile on his face.

  ‘Of course I did. I had to ask for your hand.’

  Meg stared at Bryce once more. ‘My hand?’

  ‘It’s tradition. It would have been rude not to check with him.’

  ‘Oh, crikey. Lord save me from men who want to decide my fate for me.’

  ‘No, only you can do that,’ Bryce said, softness in his voice. He took her hand, his fingers warm on her skin. His eyes were warm too as they gazed down at her. ‘All I can do is ask that you let me be a part of it.’

  Meg swallowed, struck speechless. She could hardly believe this was happening. Yet Bryce was here, right in front of her, saying he’d asked her father for her hand in marriage. It was like something out of an old movie. Was this the part where she was supposed to fall at his feet in gratitude that he’d picked her?

  If so, she was going to ruin his plans. Again. ‘You hurt me,’ she said, reminding herself as much as him. ‘You broke my heart.’

  ‘I know. I’ll never forgive myself, but I’m asking you to do that for me. Take pity on a man who’s always been a bumbling idiot when it comes to matters of the heart. I didn’t want to admit it two weeks ago, but I love you, Meg Lacy. Please give me a chance to make it up to you. I want to spend the rest of my life trying.’

  With each word he spoke it was growing more difficult to remain stoic. How could a woman in love turn away from such an impassioned offer? Bryce wanted to marry her. He loved her. He loved her! The reality of what he’d said began to penetrate her shocked brain and once it was in there it wouldn’t get out.

  Bryce loved her.

  He wanted to marry her.

  A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Bryce’s expression eased in response, his lips curving in perfect unison with hers. His fingers tightened on her hand and he leaned forward, the intent in his eyes clear. Coming to her senses in the nick of time, Meg pressed a finger to his lips to hold him off. ‘Not so fast, buster.’