Julia harrumphed. ‘Don’t get too excited. Having the sign up is one thing. Selling the house is a whole other story. Kevin thinks it could take months. Which only makes me wonder why I didn’t start this whole process last summer.’
Lizzie stared at her friend. ‘You haven’t had your first coffee of the morning yet, have you?’
‘How can you tell?’ Julia angrily crossed her arms.
‘Just a hunch. Look, Jools, you obviously weren’t ready then. You had to take your own time to grieve for your mum and really think about your choices. Sometimes the timing has to be right. It wasn’t right before.’
‘This is really real. I’m selling up and leaving Middle Point forever.’ The tears came again, and she wiped them away. ‘God, what is it about this place?’ Julia turned to the beach and took in a deep breath, the smell of the beach lingering in the breeze.
‘It’s getting under your skin, isn’t it? Middle Point has a way of doing that, Jools. To some of us anyway. It’s okay to let go, you know, to be yourself here. You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not and the real you is a warm, loving, emotional person. Don’t try to hold that all in. It’ll give you wrinkles.’
Julia turned back to Lizzie with a smile but it disappeared when she saw her friend’s frown.
‘Shit, we’ve got company.’ Lizzie’s eyes wandered up the road. ‘It’s my boss slash your ex-lover and his special friend.’
Julia wiped her face again on her sleeve and made a point of playing with her phone instead of looking up to meet the two men, who were approaching sporting identical casual swaggers. She hurriedly repositioned her sunglasses.
Have a nice life, Julia. His last words repeated in her brain, going round and round in her head like irritating song lyrics.
‘Hi guys.’ Lizzie waved casually. Julia stole a quick glance above the lenses of her sunglasses. The black tight-fitting athletic clothing Ry and Dan were wearing indicated they’d been out for a run and she blew out a reluctant sigh. The stretched fit accented every hard angle of Ry’s body, skimming his powerful thighs and clinging to his abs and chest. Damn him if she was going to notice, though.
‘Morning ladies,’ Dan called out as he approached, stepping on to the grassed verge to get a closer look at the large real estate sign. He planted his fists on his hips, reading the detail. Ry hung back on the road, his head turned away from Julia as he made a point of staring out over the dunes to the beach.
‘So, you’re officially for sale,’ Dan said.
‘Uh huh,’ Julia replied.
‘It’ll be tough. You haven’t got the passing traffic of the holiday crowds and a sunny day to encourage people to make rash real estate decisions. You’re moving pretty fast in a tricky market, Julia. I don’t want to scare you off, but this could take a while.’ Dan rubbed his chin.
Julia hung back, shoved her phone into the pocket of her jeans. She hoped crossing her arms over her breasts would quell her thumping heartbeat. The last thing she wanted to hear was sage advice from Ry’s best friend.
‘So I’ve heard.’
‘How many bedrooms?’
‘Three.’
Dan studied the text on the sign a little longer. ‘I didn’t mean to be a buzz kill. Sorry. Don’t worry, Julia. You’ll find a buyer, eventually. They’ll need deep pockets, but this view is pretty rare and bloody spectacular. Isn’t it, Lizzie?’
‘Better than the view from my place, that’s for sure,’ Lizzie agreed.
Dan looked back over his shoulder and called to Ry. ‘Don’t you think so, Ry?’
Ry took a disinterested glance at the sign, then flicked his gaze back to the beach.
‘Sure,’ he said, his face blank.
Such a handsome jerk, Julia decided. When Ry walked right past her house and into his front yard, she couldn’t look at him.
‘Thanks for the advice, Dan. I’m sure you know what you’re talking about but, excuse me, I have some packing to do.’ Julia spun on her heels and marched inside the house, slamming the front door behind her.
After his run and a steaming shower, Ry had dragged on some clothes and headed down to the kitchen to wait, his fingers tapping an impatient rhythm on the marble bench. While the water had washed away the sweat, it had done nothing for the tension knotting his shoulders or the pain in his jaw.
He had to know if his plan to win back Julia was going to work. Hell, it was a gamble. But it would prove to her that the last thing he wanted to do was ruin Middle Point. Her words had cut him like a knife.
You’re selling out the place you claim to love so much.
If only she’d listened to what he’d had to say. Maybe this was another way of telling her.
Every minute for the past hour, he’d restlessly checked his phone for emails and messages. He’d thrown down two coffees. Spent some time staring out at the million-dollar view.
The waiting was killing him.
Finally his phone vibrated, thrumming on the marble countertop, and a ping indicated he’d received an email. He grabbed it and scrolled through his inbox. Bingo.
Mr Blackburn,
All has gone well with the local paper. They love the exclusive story and are using it front page tomorrow with the colour shot of the proposed development. The reporter will be in touch this afternoon for the interview. I’ve sent them a headshot of you for the story as well. Don’t forget to mention the wetlands element — they’ve been running a campaign on a threatened local bird species so will be interested in the plans for habitat renewal.
Ry responded with a simple ‘excellent’ and pressed send. Then he sat down and self-indulgently allowed himself to enjoy the moment. His media people had done the job he’d paid them to do. If Julia wouldn’t listen to him, maybe a third-party endorsement would do the trick.
It had bloody well better.
CHAPTER
21
The bell tinkled above the door to Stella’s shop and Julia stepped in out of the cold. Although she was running late for her lunch with Lizzie, she couldn’t be in Port Elliot without stopping by to thank the style maven for her advice on the house.
‘You here Stella?’
‘Julia?’ Her friend appeared from behind a display of beaded necklaces in every colour and shape, hanging from a withered tree branch like ripe fruit.
‘What are you doing here?’ She hugged Julia, and kissed her once on each cheek, Parisian style. ‘How’s the house looking? Are you keeping every thing in the right place?’
‘Of course I am. I don’t dare sit on the sofa in case I ruffle one of the throw cushions.’
‘That’s my girl,’ Stella laughed.
‘I’m here for lunch with Lizzie but I wanted to thank you again for your help. You have a beautiful eye and the place looks just right. If you have time, why don’t you join us? My shout.’
Stella checked her watch. ‘I’m waiting on a delivery from Adelaide. Shall I text you when I’m free?’
Julia nodded. ‘Excellent plan. We’ll be in the café across the road. Near the bakery.’
Julia checked her watch again and looked for a break in the traffic in the main street of Port Elliot. She hated being tardy but the sleep-in, along with the pop-in to Stella, had delayed her. And time in Middle Point was something she didn’t have much of anymore.
The truth was she’d been finding it harder and harder to get out of bed the longer she stayed in her hometown. She felt dog-tired. Her trip back to Middle Point was turning out to be as physically exhausting as it was emotionally draining. She’d expected it to be hard, coming back to the place she hadn’t seen in fifteen years. It was always going to be tough to finally make a decision about selling the house and then having to face clearing out her mother’s things. She’d been expecting that and had, as much as she could, been mentally preparing herself for it.
But seeing Ry Blackburn had thrown a seductive spanner in the works. Being distracted by him, letting herself push history and commonsense into the dar
k recesses of her rational mind, had turned out to be confusing and awful and humiliating. So what if there was still sexual chemistry — undeniably sizzling sexual chemistry — between them. Big deal if he was still, without a doubt in her mind, the hottest damned man she’d ever seen. And big whoop if he could make her toes curl just by looking at her. It simply wasn’t worth it if it meant feeling this way.
Fifteen years before, she’d run away from Ry, this small-town and everything she was in it. But it seemed her trip back to Middle Point had opened a Pandora’s Box, and every humiliating and shameful emotion she’d every had was exploding back into life around her.
The blaring of a car horn snapped Julia back into reality. She dashed through a gap between cars to cross the road, towards the café but stopped at the bakery. Some things didn’t change, she smiled to herself. She’d never managed to walk past it when she was a child. What made her think it was an option now?
It was a popular spot in the town and she’d spent a lot of time their during her childhood. When she closed her eyes, a memory came flashing back of standing in almost this exact spot on the bitumen footpath, her hand safe in her mother’s, the fingers of her other hand fisted around a few precious coins she’d saved up, her heart pounding with the scrumptious burden of choosing the most delicious bun from the display.
The tantalising aromas of buttery pastry, gravy-filled meat pies and the sickly sweet scent of icing wafted out into the street. Julia’s stomach growled in anticipation of her all-time favourite bun: a chocolate-iced doughnut, thick and doughy with a lashing of dark sweetness dribbling from the top onto her sticky fingers. With a determined smile and a desperate need for carbs, Julia raised her hands to part the plastic blind across the doorway.
At that exact moment, someone was pushing their way out. Julia’s hands tangled in the plastic strips that danced and flip-flopped between them and she stepped backwards to let the person pass. She looked up to smile politely and almost died.
‘Julia,’ Ry said.
He looked just as shocked to see her, which was a kind of relief, she decided. Julia backed out of the doorway and Ry followed so other customers could pass. They found themselves standing awkwardly in front of the bakery window, the enticing aromas whipping around them in the wind.
‘Ry.’ It was all Julia could think of to say. A nervous knot had tied itself up in her stomach and she suddenly wasn’t hungry or tempted anymore. She willed herself to meet his gaze, to defy the embarrassment she felt in her cheeks and her pounding chest. He looked so handsome that her heart lurched. God, she hated that it responded in such a way but she seemed to have no control over it.
She didn’t want to want him anymore. Didn’t want to feel as gooey as the chocolate icing on her favourite bun when he looked at her. Anger. That’s what she wanted to feel. She wanted to be pissed off. Furious at him. All the things that would make leaving so much easier. Why didn’t she feel it?
Ry glanced to the doorway. ‘Getting something for lunch?’
‘Oh no, I’m meeting Lizzie for a bite,’ she replied, with her best attempt at nonchalance. ‘I was just going to get something to take home for later.’
He smiled at a memory. ‘I totally get that. I never could walk past this place without going in. It was always the highlight of summer when I was a kid.’
Julia felt a smile tugging at her lips and tried to tamp it down. ‘Yeah, me neither.’
They stood for half a minute, the conversation stalling as they looked at each other.
‘I was just picking up a copy of the local paper.’
Julia could see it, folded in two, sticking out of the green recyclable shopping bag he was carrying in his tanned, strong hand. She suddenly remembered what he could do with those hands and swallowed hard.
‘Actually, I should pick one up too. Kevin says I should take a look at the local real estate section to see what’s selling and what’s not.’
Ry’s gentle face and intense eyes almost knocked her for six. It was so unfair. How could she be angry with him when he was looking at her like that? He lifted his shopping bag in her direction.
‘Here,’ he nodded to it, ‘Take mine.’
‘Take your what?’
He held it between them. ‘The paper. You can have it.’
‘No, really. I couldn’t. I’ll just pop inside and buy one. It’s no trouble.’ Ry took a step closer and reached for her hand. His fingers were warm.
‘Julia. Please. Take it.’ He moved the handles from his fingers to hers, and was standing so close that the aromas of the bakery were forgotten and all she could smell was his cologne and all she could feel was his breath on her cheek.
She sucked in a gulp of cold air and shivered. So this was it. This was the last time she would ever talk to Ry Blackburn. Fifteen years and all that love and sex and misery and madness between them and it was all ending this way. On the street out front of a bakery with a courteous discussion about a newspaper.
Julia was swamped by a wave of regret. It had just hit her that Ry’s presence in the town meant she could never come back. Ever. Even if she’d wanted to. There was no hedging her bets with this one. When she left, as she was about to do, Middle Point would no longer belong to her. It would be Ry’s hometown. He was making his mark on it, would claim it. And that insight left her with a heavy and aching heart at the knowledge that finally, irrevocably, the Middle Point chapter of her life was coming to a definite conclusion. It was time to say goodbye.
‘Thanks for … for the paper Ry. I’ll … I guess I’ll see you round.’
And then it happened so fast she wondered later if it had really happened at all.
Ry stepped in, so close. He reached up, his warm hands cupping her cheeks, holding her firmly in place. His sapphire eyes searched her face, and he leaned in, his mouth a tease away from hers. Then he closed the distance, kissing her as if he knew too that this was the last time. His softness and his strength battled in waves against her and she forgot to breathe.
As their lips crushed against each other, Julia tasting him and feeling him invade her senses, she willed herself to remember every moment of it. This last kiss. The way he looked at her, his passionate eyes. The softness then the insistence in his lips. The hunch of his muscular shoulders. The strength and control in him.
She willed herself to remember every single thing about him.
As suddenly as he’d touched her, Ry pulled away, his face drawn and unsmiling, a crease between his eyebrows. He stepped back, jammed his fists into the pockets of his jeans, and made sure there was a distance between them once again.
When the wobble in her legs faded, she gripped the handles of the bag Ry had given her and turned to walk away. She needed to get away from him, as fast as she could, before she said something stupid.
Like ‘sorry’.
It was only a short walk to the café but Julia took it slowly, wanting to find some equilibrium before meeting up with Lizzie. She was determined to find some happy to share with her best friend, even though she didn’t feel it. Lizzie had borne all her burdens since she’d been back, been her sounding board, her hand-holder and her sympathetic ear. She couldn’t burden her with this latest episode of self-loathing. That wouldn’t be fair.
God, she needed a glass of wine, a hot bath, a good book with a happy-ever-after ending and Melbourne. Then this whole Middle Point chapter in her life would finally be over and she could start afresh. She’d done that before. She knew the drill.
Julia found Lizzie at a table right by the front window of the café and sat down opposite.
‘Sorry I’m late.’
Lizzie waived a hand.’ Don’t stress. I’ve just got here myself. And your timing is perfect. I’ve been debating whether it’s coffee or wine that I need. Which side are you on?’
‘God, wine.’ Julia glanced at her watch and tried to smile. ‘What the hell. It must be wine o’clock somewhere. I’ve asked Stella to join us. That okay with you?’
Lizzie smiled. ‘Of course it is.’ After they’d placed their lunch orders, Lizzie leaned over the table and raised her eyebrows at her friend.
‘You okay?’
Julia sighed. ‘No.’
‘What’s up?’
‘Stella wasn’t the only person I saw on my way here.’
‘He who shall not be mentioned?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Where?’
Just thinking about what had happened a few minutes before made her feel slightly sick. ‘By the bakery.’
‘Not another fight on the street? People will talk, you know.’
Julia couldn’t hold back a smile. ‘No fighting. We kind of said goodbye. He gave me a copy of the local paper.’
Lizzie crinkled her eyebrows. ‘As a going-away present? That’s weird.’
‘Not really. It kind of came up in conversation and he had one and … well … he gave me his copy.’ Julia rubbed her eyes and tried to shake him out of her head. ‘God, I can’t wait to get out of this place and get back to Melbourne. Then I’ll never have to see him again.’
Lizzie played with her napkin and crunched it into a soft ball. When she lifted her eyes, Julia could see the hurt there.
‘Hell, Lizzie, I’ve put my foot in it again, haven’t I?’
‘Jools, I know you don’t mean it, but when you say things like that … well, it hurts. I love it here, you know I always have. You, on the other hand, talk about it like it’s the armpit of the earth.’
Julia stilled. ‘You’re absolutely right. I’m being a total bitch. To everyone. I don’t know why but I can’t seem to stop it.’
Lizzie peered into Julia’s eyes. ‘Jools …’
Julia sighed wearily. ‘I’m tired, I guess.’
Half an hour later, the two women were fed and watered, and Julia felt some of the tension lift. She didn’t want to ruin these last few days with Lizzie. Stella had let them know she couldn’t make lunch after all, and Julia had replied to her text with a simple and heartfelt, Promise to catch up before I leave. XX.
A waitress appeared to clear their plates and Lizzie shook her head at the offer of dessert.
Nobody But Him Page 20
