Expecting Miracle Twins

by Barbara Hannay

  ‘My amazing little mind-reader,’ she would say and sometimes she would hug Mattie, making her feel loved and secure and needed.

  ‘I’m going to scout around for gum trees,’ she told Roy and Jake. ‘You guys sit over at that picnic table and I’ll be back in two ticks.’

  Halfway along the path that circled the ornamental lake, she found a clump of gum trees and she knew the familiar skinny white trunks and dull khaki-coloured tapering leaves would gladden Roy’s heart. Soon she was back with an armful of fallen twigs and gum leaves.

  Jake was smiling and shaking his head at her. He looked puzzled. Roy looked delighted.

  ‘They’ve dried out but they still smell good,’ she told Roy as she dumped them on the slatted timber table top.

  With a shaking hand, Roy reached out and picked up a twiggy branch. He crushed the brittle gum leaves between his fingers and leaned in to smell the distinct aroma of eucalyptus. ‘Perfect,’ he whispered with a blissful sigh.

  ‘It’s only a little way around the lake to see them,’ Mattie said. ‘And I think we can organise billy tea too.’

  ‘No way,’ Jake protested. ‘We can’t have an open fire in a public park.’

  Mattie laid a placating hand on Jake’s arm. Big mistake. High-voltage tension zapped through her. She retracted her hand, took a shaky breath.

  ‘I…I know we can’t have a fire here.’ Her voice was thready and soft. She took another breath and told herself that this morning was all about Roy. Her focus was Roy. Jake was a minor distraction she must ignore. ‘But we could boil a billy over a camping stove at our place,’ she said. ‘And we can even stir the tea with a gum tree twig. That would be authentic enough, wouldn’t it, Roy?’

  Roy was looking a tad dazed, trying to keep up with Mattie and with the undercurrent humming between her and Jake, but he nodded happily.

  Jake, however, was still protesting. ‘But we don’t have the gear.’

  ‘We can stop off at a camping store on the way home. It’ll only take a minute to buy a little stove and a billy and they’re dirt cheap.’

  Jake shook his head but his eyes were warm as he smiled at her, and she could feel that warmth all the way to her toes.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  JAKE had to hand it to Mattie.

  Single-handedly, she had given Roy a perfect two hours. The old guy had been deliriously happy, ensconced in an easy chair in their front garden with Brutus snuggled in his lap, while Jake boiled a billy on a small gas ring.

  The morning had been filled with laughter and a huge sense of fun, part of which involved making the billy tea with as much formal ritual as a Japanese tea ceremony.

  Summoning immense dignity, Roy threw a handful of loose tea leaves into the pot. Mattie gave the brew a flourishing stir with the mandatory gum tree twig and Jake swung the billy in a wide arc to mix the brew, pleased that he hadn’t lost the knack.

  They drank their tea out of tin mugs, which Mattie had found in the camping store, and they ate scones, which she’d bought from a bakery and warmed in the microwave, serving them liberally smothered with butter and golden syrup.

  ‘Next time I’ll make you proper damper,’ she assured Roy.

  Jake wanted to tell her that she needn’t worry about next time, that Roy wasn’t her responsibility. But he sensed the advice would be water off a duck’s back for Mattie Carey. She’d taken Roy under her wing in the same way she’d saved Brutus from the animal refuge, and she’d cared for her grandmother and, no doubt, countless other people.

  It was clearly the way Mattie was wired. She bent over backwards to please people, to find ways to make them happy. Jake wondered how many people went out of their way to make her happy. Who went to great lengths to make her face light up with the same happiness and amazement he’d seen in Roy this morning?

  By the time Roy returned to the nursing home, he was a very different old man. He was walking more confidently and grinning from ear to ear, and Jake could have sworn he saw more colour in his face.

  But it came as a shock to realise that Roy wasn’t the only guy who’d changed in Mattie’s company. Jake felt different too. This morning, buzzing about Sydney in her little car, hunting down camping stores and mucking about with that tiny gas ring, he’d felt more relaxed than he had in years. He’d been more optimistic too, less cynical and not nearly as self-absorbed.

  He really liked the person he became when he was around Mattie. He was beginning to think that if he’d had more time, he would like to get to know her better, to let their acquaintance deepen into friendship. Not that he was in the habit of developing friendships with women.

  His time in Mongolia was so unbearably long and his leave so annoyingly short that he usually spent most of his leave trying to meet as many different women as possible. A deep and meaningful friendship with one woman was not and never had been on his agenda.

  Meeting Mattie, however, had thrown him off balance. He was sure he should do something about that, but he had no idea where to start.

  ‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’ Mattie punctuated her comment with a happy sigh as they headed back into the city, with Jake still behind the driving wheel. ‘Roy’s a darling.’

  Jake chuckled. ‘He’d be red as a tomato if he heard you calling him a “darling”. As far as I can remember, he’s always been shy around women.’

  ‘A lot of those Outback guys are.’ Mattie shot him a cheeky sideways glance. ‘Present company excluded.’

  Jake shrugged this aside. ‘Roy certainly took a shine to you.’

  ‘Maybe…but he’s very fond of you, Jake.’

  ‘Yeah…well…I guess he looks on me as the son he never had.’

  ‘That’s nice.’

  The tone of Mattie’s voice made Jake glance at her. Her smile had turned inward, as if she was thinking about something personal, something that made her pensive and slightly wistful.

  When the silence lingered, he wondered if he’d said something to upset her. He’d merely mentioned that Roy looked on him as the son he’d never had…How had that plunged Mattie into such deep contemplation? Clearly, whatever absorbed her did not involve him.

  To Jake’s dismay, he realised he wanted her attention. Wanted her animated company. Wanted her.

  There it was—the crazy truth.

  Without making a single overt advance, Mattie had crept under his defences. She was so not his type and yet he was attracted. Madly.

  He wanted to know more about her. Wanted to know everything, while there was time.

  ‘Have you always gone out of your way to help people?’ he asked.

  She smiled. ‘’Fraid so.’

  ‘I should have said people and animals,’ he amended.

  ‘Well, yes, it probably started with kittens.’

  ‘Really? When was that?’

  A reminiscent gleam crept into her eyes. ‘Oh, I was about ten. There was a group of us who always used to hang out together. We’d play cricket, go swimming or riding and have picnics down by the river.’

  ‘Sounds like fun.’ Jake was thinking of his lonely childhood on an Outback cattle station, with no brothers or sisters, only his busy parents and a string of indifferent governesses.

  ‘One time, we went swimming in the local creek,’ Mattie continued. ‘And I found a bag of half-drowned kittens that someone must have dumped just before we arrived. I was devastated.’

  A warm ache flowered deep inside Jake as he pictured ten-year-old Mattie, her blue eyes stricken by the pitiful plight of a bunch of kittens.

  ‘I raced back to my place,’ she went on. ‘My parents weren’t home—they were busy at their shop. So I quickly organised my friends, drying the kittens off with bath towels and feeding them bits of sardines soaked in milk. Then I hid them in the bottom of my wardrobe.’

  ‘I hope you didn’t try to keep them there.’

  She made a scoffing sound. ‘I was too smart for that. The next day I piled them into the basket on the front of my bike and peda
lled them all over the district. I reckon I must have visited just about every family from Willowbank to Nardoo.’

  ‘And you found safe homes for all those cats?’

  ‘Every one,’ she said with a grin.

  Jake smiled too. ‘So…what do you have planned for the rest of today?’ he asked her.

  Mattie blinked and bright colour rushed into her cheeks. ‘Oh…um…I should be getting on with my book.’

  ‘But you’d rather not,’ he suggested, sending her his most charming smile. ‘You’d rather come to the movies with me, wouldn’t you?’

  She didn’t answer and Jake’s spirits took a downward dive. She was sitting very still, staring directly ahead.

  ‘I could throw in lunch as well,’ he said.

  ‘But we’re very casually dressed.’ She frowned down at her T-shirt and faded jeans.

  ‘No worries. There’s a terrific fish and chip joint just around the corner from the cinema.’

  A corner of her mouth twitched, then her lips curved upwards into a fully fledged grin. She turned to him, offering a full-frontal view of her beautiful smile. Her blue eyes danced. ‘How did you know I can’t resist fish and chips?’

  ‘I’m a deeply intuitive guy.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He pretended to be hurt. ‘Haven’t you noticed my sensitive side?’

  Still smiling, she shook her head, but then, with the speed of a light switch, her smile vanished. ‘This wouldn’t be a date, would it?’

  Jake felt the fun go out of his day. He stopped at a red light and turned to her. ‘I simply want to thank you for helping out with Roy.’ To his surprise, he found himself adding, ‘But would it be so terrible if we went on a date?’

  ‘Ange might think so. Won’t she mind?’

  At first, Jake thought Mattie was joking. What had Ange to do with this? She was already a fading memory, joining the long list of other women he’d dated.

  Mattie, however, was looking distinctly concerned.

  ‘Don’t worry about Ange,’ he said.

  ‘Have you broken up with her?’

  ‘She wasn’t really a girlfriend.’

  Her mouth opened as if she was planning to say something, but then apparently changed her mind. As the lights changed and they took off again, she said, ‘So…what movie are you planning to see?’

  Grinning with relief, Jake bravely named a romantic chick flick that he knew was showing that week. He usually avoided them like the plague, but he was pretty damn sure it was the sort of film Mattie would love. Most girls did. And it was the least he owed her after this morning.

  To his surprise, she screwed up her nose. ‘I can’t believe you want to see a soppy film like that,’ she scoffed. ‘I prefer crime thrillers. Any chance of catching a good one?’

  He was sure she was just being Mattie, trying to do and say the right thing, but this time he wasn’t going to argue.

  Mattie sat in the popcorn-scented darkness, super-aware of Jake’s presence beside her. She tried to concentrate on the screen—it was one of those complicated spy films where you needed to stay focused at the beginning or you’d be hopelessly lost—but Jake’s proximity and the darkness were conspiring against her.

  She was almost bursting out of her skin with lust.

  Good grief. She felt as if she’d overdosed on hormones. How on earth was she supposed to sit still for almost two hours when Jake Devlin was so close?

  She was terrified of making a fool of herself, of bursting the bubble of happiness that had seemed to enclose them today. She’d had such a wonderful time this morning with Jake and Roy. And lunch had been perfect, eating crunchy fish and chips, sprinkled with salt and lemon juice, straight from the paper it was wrapped in.

  Now, however, her lusty thoughts were making it impossible for her to relax and enjoy the movie. She kept stealing glimpses of Jake’s hunky profile, lit up by the glow of the screen. He was gorgeous. She was deeply, helplessly attracted to him.

  There, she’d admitted it. Whether it was sensible or not, it had happened, and her desire felt like a bushfire rapidly burning out of control.

  She allowed herself to wonder how it would feel to trace the line of Jake’s profile with her lips, to kiss his forehead and his dark brows, then his slightly beaky nose, his rough jaw and, finally, his yummy, sensuous mouth.

  Crikey, she was really getting carried away. She tried again to concentrate on the movie. Jake might expect her to talk about it later. He might be the kind of movie-goer who liked to analyse and dissect the plot.

  She’d told him that she hadn’t wanted to see a romance movie, which was totally untrue. She loved them, but she knew guys would rather have their teeth drilled than watch soppy movies. Now, however, an unexpected romance was unfolding on the screen and Mattie found herself drawn in.

  The spy had met a mysterious beauty, a brunette with a waiflike, vulnerable quality. Mattie decided she was almost certainly a double agent. It was obvious, wasn’t it? Why couldn’t the hero see that the woman wasn’t telling him the whole truth? He was obviously smitten. Fool.

  Half an hour later, Mattie had changed her mind about the double agent. She was deeply absorbed in the film, desperate for the good guy to win and for the lovers to get together, when out of the blue the lovely heroine started her car and it exploded in a burst of garish flames and flying metal.

  Mattie screamed.

  Jake reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. ‘It’s only a movie,’ he whispered, nuzzling her ear as he did so.

  ‘A-a-ah…’ It was the most articulate response she could manage. The on-screen heroine might have gone up in flames, but Mattie was on fire too. Her earlobe and the side of her neck were burning from the gentle brush of Jake’s lips. Their arms were linked now and she was ablaze from her elbow to the tips of her fingers.

  Hot desire pooled in the pit of her stomach. Man! She’d never felt so turned on.

  A desperate sigh escaped her, but it sounded like a moan and she blushed with embarrassment.

  Thank heavens for the darkness.

  Jake was still holding Mattie’s hand when they came out of the cinema. They both blinked at the bright daylight outside and Mattie hoped Jake didn’t expect her to recall every twist and turn in the movie. For the entire second half she had been unable to concentrate on anything except the mesmerising pressure of his thumb gently stroking the back of her hand.

  ‘So what did you think of that?’

  ‘It was pretty good.’ She held her breath, expecting more questions.

  He smiled at her and his dark eyes smouldered. ‘Would you like to go home now?’

  Was this code for something else? Jake was still holding her hand and she felt as if so much had changed since they’d left the flat this morning. This was their last night together. Tomorrow, he was flying back to Mongolia.

  ‘Home sounds good,’ she said and she knew there was every chance she would have agreed if he’d asked her to swim across Sydney Harbour.

  The short journey to the flat seemed to take forever and the whole way Mattie worried. Did Jake feel the same as she did? She was astonished by the force of her attraction for him. She thought she might expire if he didn’t want to make love to her the minute they were inside the front door.

  She thought briefly—very briefly—about her surrogacy plans. But that was in the future—almost a fortnight away—and Jake was only here for this one last night. Right now, at this moment, she only wanted to think about him. She wanted to stop being careful and to simply let go.

  They parked the car and tension hovered above them like a private thunder cloud as they walked together to the front steps. Even before Jake put the key in the door, they could hear Brutus barking a greeting. The little dog jumped around their ankles and then darted outside to explore the garden.

  Mattie dropped her shoulder bag onto a lounge chair. Jake set the keys on the coffee table. They looked at each other. His eyes were intense and yet warm. The muscles in
his throat rippled.

  ‘Mattie,’ he said softly.

  ‘Yes.’

  He looked at her with a slightly puzzled smile. ‘That sounded like an answer.’

  ‘I think it is, Jake.’

  He drew a sharp breath, but he didn’t speak.

  Mattie knew he was waiting. This was it—an all or nothing moment. Bravely, she said, ‘I thought you might be asking if…if I’d like you to kiss me.’

  Before she could say anything else, he closed the gap between them. With a soft sound that might have been a groan, he drew her in and kissed her.

  Oh, how he kissed her.

  His lips were as eager and scorching and greedy as Mattie needed them to be. In a matter of moments, she and Jake were stumbling down the hallway together, laughing a little with surprise that this was really happening, stopping to lean against the wall while they exchanged feverish kisses, stopping again while Jake’s hands stole under her T-shirt, sending a rush of sweet anticipation over her already sensitised skin.

  In the doorway to Jake’s bedroom, however, Mattie froze.

  ‘No, not in here,’ she whispered. Not on those same sheets he’d tangled with Ange. ‘Come to my room.’

  With a soft wordless cry, he scooped her up and carried her down to the little back bedroom and together they tumbled onto the bed, hungry, urgent, eager.

  Lips, hands, bodies sought each other—kissing, touching, nibbling, caressing.

  Jake lifted Mattie’s T-shirt over her head. She heard his swift gasp of surprise and she felt obliged to confess her secret weakness for low-cut sassy lingerie. But she didn’t mention that she’d kept up the tradition even though there’d been no one to admire the effects.

  He chuckled softly. ‘I’m so glad you have a vice.’ With reverent fingers, he touched the lacy trim on her bra. ‘This is a weakness you should never, ever try to give up.’

  Mattie was amazed by how uninhibited she felt with Jake, as if being with him took her straight into her natural element.