Mara was pressing her tongue to the roof of her mouth, trying not to cry. She found a smile instead. ‘I think she was running away from George, myself.’
She glanced at George. He was staring at her, those dark eyes intense. She swallowed the nervous lump in her throat.
‘I know the feeling.’ Karen rolled her eyes. ‘Anyway, the thing is … I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind looking after Fluffy for a few more days. I’ve just got home and I’ve got heaps to do and won’t have much time to hang out with the old Fluffster. Would that be okay with you, Mara?’
Karen glanced up. Mara wanted to hug her so hard right now. ‘If it’s okay with Abbie. What do you think, Abbie?’
‘She’d be no trouble.’ As if on cue, or perhaps trained with too many slices of ham, Fluffy climbed into Abbie’s lap.
‘Excellent. But there’s one thing. I’ll have to come visit her every day. Would that be okay?’
Abbie looked up at Mara, her eyebrows raised in question. Mara nodded.
‘That would be awesome.’
Karen stood. ‘You want to know a secret? I thought it would be a good idea to get this vicious hound as far away from George as possible.’ She looked over at him with a wicked grin on her face. ‘Who knows what further damage she might do to this big tough guy, hey?’
Abbie laughed and Mara couldn’t help but join in.
‘Shall we take her for a walk right now, Abbie?’
Abbie was out the front door before she could even say yes.
Which suddenly left Mara and George on their own. They moved to the front window and watched Karen and Abbie cross the road.
They were standing so close that her shoulder nudged his arm when she sighed.
‘Karen is amazing.’
‘Yeah, she is.’
They waited, not moving, until Abbie and Karen disappeared down the wooden steps to the beach.
Mara turned to him. ‘You told her? About Abbie, I mean?’
He nodded. ‘I didn’t want Karen to say anything about being a police officer, or about me being one, so I had to tell her why. You can trust her with this, Mara.’
‘If you trust her, I do, too. She must be a good cop. She read Abbie just like that.’ Mara snapped her fingers.
‘She is. I know she hadn’t planned on letting Fluffy stay. Until the minute we walked in, I thought we were taking the mutt back to her place. I’m kind of relieved, to be honest.’
‘How is she? Karen, I mean. Do you think she’s better?’
She noticed his chest rise and fall. ‘She’s back to her usual ball-busting self, which is a good sign. She always could give as well as she got. She’d lost that before she went away.’
‘You two seem pretty close.’
His gaze wandered from her eyes to her mouth.
‘Not like that, Mara.’
‘Oh.’
A muscle in his jaw twitched. Was she imagining things or was he just a bit closer than he’d been a moment ago? Her knees felt weak and she steadied herself by putting her hands on his chest. Under the soft T-shirt, he was hard muscle and heat. And with just that one touch, she was full of wanting him again. This man she barely knew. This almost stranger.
‘Mara …’ His deep voice rumbled and he covered one of her hands with one of his and gripped her fingers tight.
‘This is nuts,’ she murmured. ‘I barely know you.’
‘Same.’
‘But kissing you …’
‘Yeah?’
She sighed, bit her lip. ‘I want you to kiss me like that again.’
George leaned closer and his breath was on her cheek and then his lips were on hers and his arms were around her, and they were kissing each other in front of the window with the sky blue and bright beyond them. She wrapped herself around him, her hands on his butt, pulling him close, and her heart was beating a thousand times a minute, matching his she was sure, and something stirred in her, deep down in her belly, setting her alight, bringing her to life.
They pulled back from each other, breathless, stupefied by what had just passed between them.
‘This can’t happen,’ he said, as he took a curl of her hair between his fingers and wrapped it around one of his. ‘I’m no good for anyone right now.’
His dark eyes were unreadable.
She tried to catch her breath. ‘Abbie needs to be my priority.’
Mara didn’t know how long they stood there, transfixed, staring into each other’s eyes. She was committing every inch of his face to memory: His short hair which prickled her palm. His almost black eyes. The laugh lines—or maybe they were frown lines—at their edges. The cool planes of his cheeks and his strong jaw. And his mouth. Jokes had tumbled from those lips and then he’d kissed her senseless with them.
‘I’ll still help you with Abbie. And so will Karen.’
Mara nodded and wrapped her arms around herself. ‘I still have a few days here. I hope that’ll be enough time to convince Abbie to talk.’
‘You know how Karen said she wants to come back every day to check on the dog? I think she actually has something else in mind.’
‘You do?’
‘Yeah. She told me an hour ago that she’s thinking of quitting the force. Because of everything that’s happened. I think we just gave her a reason not to.’
‘I’m glad.’ Mara looked over her shoulder. ‘You want a cup of coffee? A beer? A glass of wine?’
‘Sure. I have to wait here until they come back from the beach. Coffee sounds good.’
* * *
That night, after a dinner of chicken burritos with homemade guacamole, Abbie helped Mara clean up in the kitchen. She had her hands in the sink, scrubbing a frying pan, when she asked, ‘So, that George dude. Do you like him?’
Mara kept her eyes on the water glass she was wiping. ‘He’s a nice guy. Sure.’
‘That’s not what I mean, Ms Blumberg.’
Mara put the glass in one of the overhead cupboards, neatly placing it in a row with the others in the set. ‘I know what you mean, and no, we’re just friends.’
‘Have you ever been married?’
Mara planned to keep her answers brief; Abbie still felt like a student after all. And it was probably best she did, and that she still called her Ms Blumberg. Mara felt a duty of care to her that had everything to do with having been her teacher. It was best those lines weren’t blurred.
‘I was married. But I’m divorced now.’
‘It didn’t work out?’
‘No.’ That was the only answer she would give Abbie. The truth was more complex than that. Her marriage had ended when her husband had accused her of caring more about her students than she did about him. He’d wanted her to quit. She’d quit him instead.
Abbie put the frying pan into the dish drainer and Mara picked it up.
‘My mum was divorced too, when I was little.’
Mara stilled. Was Abbie ready to talk? ‘That must have been hard on everyone.’
Abbie didn’t respond. She unplugged the sink and it gurgled as the water swirled down the drain. ‘What did you do for Christmas? Did you have a big dinner or anything?’
‘No. I had dinner here in Remarkable Bay with George. It’s funny actually how we met. I’d booked a table for one, and so had he, but there was a mix-up and we were put on the same table.’ Mara waited, wondering if she should ask or not. ‘What about you, Abbie? What did you do for Christmas?’
Abbie turned to her. ‘I slept in the parklands on Christmas Eve. Christmas lunch was a service station hot dog.’
‘Oh, Abbie.’
‘Jared didn’t want to go to a shelter or anything. He said they’d all be full.’
Mara waited, judging if it was the right time to ask. ‘Who’s Jared? What were you doing with him anyway?’
Abbie wiped her hands on the tea towel and kept her gaze on the floor. ‘He was just some guy. I figured it was safer if I wasn’t on my own. But he got weird and started telling me what to do, c
ontrolling me. I wanted to call you so many times but he took my phone. When I finally got it back … that was New Year’s Eve.’
‘Shit, Abbie.’ Tears welled in Mara’s eyes and when Abbie burst into loud sobs, Mara opened her arms wide and clutched the girl to her, holding on tight, trying to show her in that small gesture that she would never be alone and friendless again.
Chapter Fourteen
Karen was true to her word and went around to Mara’s the next day after breakfast to take Fluffy for a walk. Of course, Abbie tagged along on the walk too, which confirmed what George had hinted at. Karen had a plan. There was no doubt she was as whip-smart as she was sassy. How had George described her? Ballsy as hell? Mara hadn’t seen anything from her but kindness and a gentle understanding. She’d just gone through rehab—Mara had no clue about how hard that must have been—and was now throwing herself, slowly but surely, into Abbie’s case. And Karen had lent Abbie her dog. The realisation still brought tears to Mara’s eyes every time she thought about it.
What a woman.
The funny thing was, Mara didn’t think Karen needed protecting from anything. George believed he’d failed her by letting her take the bullet for him. But Karen didn’t seem to hold a grudge, judging by the friendly ribbing she’d seen between the two of them.
George hadn’t come over today, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. The way things had ended up between them after the kiss the day before had been pretty clear. They had people in their lives who needed them. The attraction was right but the timing was all wrong.
There was something else she couldn’t let go of, that she’d been thinking about all night. Abbie’s Christmas Day. She’d woken up in the city’s parklands and had a hot dog for Christmas dinner. The injustice of that burned a hole in Mara’s heart.
She scribbled a note for Abbie—Gone shopping. Be back about midday—and fixed it on the fridge with a magnet picturing the nearby town of Victor Harbor. Which is exactly where she was heading. Mara slipped on a pair of sandals, grabbed her car keys and closed the front door behind her.
* * *
George was glad Karen had left to go and walk her damn dog. Since his first coffee—and all of the night before—she’d been interrogating him about Mara.
It had started the moment they’d got in the car the day before, having left Fluffy in Abbie’s eager care. He’d barely turned the key in the ignition when she started.
‘What’s going on with you and Mara?’
He started the car and pressed his foot on the accelerator to drown out her voice. ‘Can’t hear you.’
Karen jabbed him in the ribs. ‘Spill, Georgeous.’
He reversed onto the road, put the car into drive and they moved off.
‘When Abbie and I got back from the beach, there was some unbelievable sexual tension in the room. You two didn’t slip off into the bedroom while we were out, did you?’
‘Jesus, Karen. I just met the woman.’
Was she inside his head or something? It’s all he’d wanted to do from the moment she pressed her hands to his chest and whispered, so sexy he could barely breathe, ‘I want you to kiss me like that again.’ Holy fuck. He’d wanted to do more than that. Feelings he’d buried deep for a long time had risen up in him and despite what he’d said about needing to make Karen his priority, he’d been torn. For the first time in three years.
‘That may be true, but what I saw there was …’ Karen exhaled and waved herself as if she was burning up. ‘You two have got a thing. A thing you clearly don’t know what to do with, by the way.’
‘I don’t need your advice when it comes to my love life.’
Did he just say love life?
‘Whoa. So I’m right. I’m not a cop for nothing, Georgeous. So what are you going to do about it, huh? You got a hot date planned?’
‘That’s what New Year’s Eve was supposed to be. Then Abbie called and we drove up to Adelaide instead.’
‘Have you kissed her?’
‘That’s none of your damn business.’
‘You’ve kissed her.’
There was no hiding anything from Karen. He caved. ‘Yeah, I’ve kissed her. On the beach at midnight on New Year’s Eve. And just now. Before you came back. And it was … it can’t happen. So quit the questioning, okay?’
Karen stilled. He was fully expecting a teasing retort, but there was nothing. He looked across at her. Her face had dropped and she was wiping her eyes.
‘You crying?’
She answered that by slapping him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t you dare use me as an excuse. Don’t you fucking dare.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘You like this woman. She’s the first one in a long time to get you interested. I’ve been your partner for five years. I know. I can see it in your face and you just admitted it. Don’t use me and what’s happened to me as an excuse to put your life on hold. Don’t you dare use me as a reason not to get involved with Mara. Don’t make me carry that guilt as well. You need to find your own happiness, George. I’m trying to find mine.’
He didn’t say another word on the short drive home. When they pulled up at Karen’s place, she got out of the car, slammed the door so hard the whole vehicle shook, and stormed inside.
* * *
The next morning, when Karen arrived to walk Fluffy, Abbie was still in the shower. She’d been sleeping well, and Mara hadn’t wanted to wake her.
‘Hey, ladies,’ Karen called out as she opened the front screen door and came in.
‘Good morning. Abbie won’t be long.’
Karen smiled. ‘Teenagers, huh? I wish I could sleep like that these days. No matter what I do I seem to wake up at six. It must be the shift work.’ She shrugged.
Mara went to her. ‘Karen, I need to talk to you about something.’
‘Sure.’
‘I have a plan to do something for Abbie. But I need you to keep it a secret.’
Karen rubbed her hands together. ‘I love surprises. What can I do?’
‘Firstly, on Friday, can you come over in the afternoon and can you make it a really long walk, say, about an hour and a half?’
‘I might have to carry Fluffy most of the way, but sure. What’s going on?’
Mara couldn’t hold in her smile. ‘I’d like you and George to come for dinner. Can you tell him about the invitation?’
Karen grinned. Perhaps a little too much. ‘Sure. That sounds like an excellent idea.’
The door to the bathroom opened and Abbie called out, ‘I’ll just get dressed, Karen. I won’t be long.’
‘No worries,’ Karen called back and then lowered her voice. ‘Can we bring anything? And don’t say wine because that would be wildly inappropriate.’
Mara laughed at Karen’s openness. ‘You guys don’t need to bring a thing. I’ll make up a jug of non-alcoholic sangria. And don’t breathe a word to Abbie.’
Karen nodded wisely. ‘Clear.’
Chapter Fifteen
Just as they’d arranged, Karen came late on Friday and took Abbie and Fluffy out for a long walk.
As soon as they were out the door, Mara swung into action. Her shopping trip the day before had paid big dividends. In the shopping centre in Victor Harbor, she’d raided the supermarket and the bargain shop and had found a myriad of marked-down items, from tinsel, bonbons and a Christmas tree to golden baubles for decoration, a tablecloth and napkins. She bought a turkey, which she’d pushed to the back of the fridge and covered with tea towels, and had all the trimmings for dinner and for Christmas pudding, too.
She had an hour and a half. She slipped her iPod on its docking station, selected some Michael Bublé Christmas songs, and got to work.
* * *
Karen had warned him when she left half an hour ago.
‘Wear something nice.’
‘What do you mean nice?’
‘It’s something special for Abbie, so ditch the jeans and the T-shirt, okay? And if you haven’t re
alised it, the woman you’ve got a thing for is inviting us to dinner. So this is your chance to look damn good and do something about it, Georgeous.’
He’d been living in jeans and board shorts and T-shirts since he’d been down at Remarkable Bay, but he did have the trousers and shirt he’d worn for Christmas lunch at the pub. He retrieved them from his pile of clean washing and ironed them. He’d walked down to Ocean Street earlier in the day and had come back with a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates. He wasn’t the kind of man who turned up empty-handed.
This dinner was special for Karen, too. She’d told him, during the long conversations they’d had after dinner the past couple of nights—which consisted of him doing the listening and her doing most of the talking—how much she liked Abbie. He was happy to listen, because he knew that if she was spending time with a kid in trouble, she would have less time to think about what she’d been through, and more time to reconsider her decision to quit the force. For years, she’d distracted herself with booze and getting wasted. He figured spending time with a kid in trouble was a way better alternative.
So he was happy to wear something nice for Karen and for Abbie. And for Mara. Tomorrow would be her last day in Remarkable Bay and, on Sunday, he’d be leaving too. They both had their real lives to get back to.
As he slipped on his shirt and buttoned it, he thought back to the Christmas lunch he and Mara had shared a week and a half ago. He hadn’t known then how big her heart was.
But now he did. And maybe he was willing to admit, for the first time in a long time, that he had one, too. Karen’s accusation had hit him hard. Don’t use me and what’s happened to me as an excuse to put your life on hold. Don’t you dare use me as a reason not to get involved with Mara.
That’s exactly what he’d done. His reasoning had always seemed right: What if he had been shot instead of Karen? How could he put anyone he loved through that? But seeing Karen go through what she had—and seeing the way Mara had never given up on Abbie—had made him realise that that’s what you do when you care about someone.
Would Mara want to get to know him when she might face that one day?
Christmas at Remarkable Bay Page 9
