‘Good.’
Joe gave her one of those looks like he knew what she was thinking. ‘You all right? You don’t look all right.’
‘I mean it, Stinkface. Absolutely, definitely no fucking comment. Damn the stupid kettle.’ She twisted off the flame with vicious intent. ‘I just need to get some sleep.’
Then Joe stepped in front of her with the urgency of a traffic cop and grabbed her by the shoulders. ‘I say this out of total love and respect for you, but you look like hell. And you have panda eyes. Why don’t you jump in the shower first?’
That sounded like a plan. She managed a smile. ‘Good idea. You do have them occasionally, you know. And hey,’ she turned to him. ‘Thanks for looking out for me. I do appreciate it.’
Lizzie took a step closer and reached up, planted a big kiss on his cheek and threw her arms around his neck for a big brother-sister hug. Which was when she smelt perfume. Not aftershave. Not cologne. But perfume. Something exotic and feminine.
She dropped her arms and felt a smile tug at the corners of her mouth. No strings attached dancing. Excellent.
Dan thumped the steering wheel, and swore loud enough to be heard above the music blaring in the cabin of his four-wheel drive. He was stuck an hour away from Middle Point on the main highway heading south out of the city. A highway? That was a lie. It was more like a fucking car park in the traffic. He didn’t want to be there. He wanted to be eighty kilometres further south with the afternoon sun on his face, where the only queue was at the local bakery.
He looked around impatiently, in front to check again if the traffic was moving, and then in his rear-view mirror to judge how long the queue behind him was. When he glanced down into the sedan in the next lane, he softened. A small girl, a little blondie secured safely in her car seat, had her tiny fingers pressed up against the glass and was looking right up at him with a shy smile and big blue eyes.
A blondie.
Damn, that kid was cute. And she could have been Lizzie thirty years ago. He let all his tension out in a big exhale and grinned just thinking about her.
He checked his watch. It was five in the afternoon. It wouldn’t be long before he’d see her. He’d been caught up in the city all day, putting the elements of his plan together. He’d left early that morning, before Lizzie stirred, fired up and wanting to get this final piece of the plan in place.
He was ready to make a change in his life. He was done with the nightclubs and partying and women. Had the accident forced the change? Hell, he didn’t know. Didn’t care to analyse why. But to his enormous surprise, the sleepy beachside town of Middle Point was home now. He didn’t want to go anywhere else. Maybe he’d ask Joe to teach him how to surf. Could he do that at his age? Thirty-five wasn’t too old. Would his leg hold up? Maybe. He hadn’t been feeling it lately and that was a good sign. Every month away from the accident was a month of feeling physically better. And what about the other part of him?
A glance over his shoulder into the back seat revealed his special cargo was still safely packed away and he let himself smile about it.
He wondered what Lizzie would think about his plan. The angry sound of a car horn, and the raised middle finger in his rear-view mirror, cut off that thought and he realised he’d missed the green light.
As he took off, every car length taking him that much closer to home, he laughed and gave the guy behind him a wave.
‘Chill, man. You need to do something about your stress.’ Then he grinned like a maniac. ‘Like move to Middle Point.’
Lizzie had scored Sunday off, since it was the day after the Big Wedding, and she needed every bit of it to recover. Amazing what a wedding and sex could do to you. It may have been a brilliant summer’s day outside, with a gentle breeze and a temperature in the low thirties, but she needed to veg out.
After a long and luxurious shower in the morning, she’d thrown on a tank top and some shorts, ferreted out some of her favourite movies, and settled in for a day of no-guilt-involved slacking off. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent the whole day with nothing to do, no one to help, or nothing to think about.
Who was she kidding? There was plenty to think about. Dan, in particular. His note had said ‘soon’. It certainly hadn’t been a ‘pop down the shops’ soon, or even ‘a couple of hours’ soon. She hadn’t heard from him all day, not since the note.
Lizzie shook her head, trying not to over-think it. Maybe it was a root canal appointment that he simply couldn’t miss. She couldn’t think too much about his absence or its mystery.
Had he meant it the night before when he’d said he was ready to fill his life with things that made him happy? Did she really believe his words when he said he wanted to fill his life with her?
Lizzie refluffed her cushions and settled back down into a more comfortable position. What would that look like? Being happy with Dan? Was it marriage, babies, the white picket fence? Or was it something else, something tentative and slow? Something that didn’t need to be rushed. Julia had seemed ready for the whole marriage kit and caboodle and look at her. Was that what Lizzie wanted too?
Images of the Notting Hill markets flickered before her on the TV screen, filled with flowers and vintage T-shirts and then umbrellas and snow. How crazy was it that she’d never been there when she lived in London? Once she’d got a job and met Billy, she’d never strayed far from her neighbourhood south of the Thames. Had she really been that adventurous, after all? There were lots of things she’d never got to see or do in London before she’d come home. Most of her knowledge of that city had come from movies. Looking back, she realised how much she’d missed.
The sound of a car engine motoring to a stop had Lizzie pricking up her ears. Looking through the big glass windows at the front of the house, she could just make out a big four-wheel drive.
It wasn’t Dan.
Joe ambled inside, a bulging shopping bag in one hand, a six-pack of beer in the other. ‘Hey Mosquito. Thought I’d throw some stuff on the barbie tonight. You up for a snag or two?’ He plonked the load onto the kitchen bench and began pulling out meat, fresh vegies and a loaf of crusty bread.
Lizzie paused her movie and propped herself up to watch the spectacle. Since he’d been back in Middle Point, she’d barely seen Joe eat anything other than tins of tuna and two-minute noodles. He’d resumed the eating habits of his teenage self. Seeing actual food in his hands puzzled her.
‘Sure, a barbie sounds great. Just the two of us?’ Lizzie eyed him suspiciously.
He nodded. ‘I figure I owe you. I’ve crashed here, invaded your space, been a total misery guts. And although I’ve been forced to sit through more romantic comedies than I’ve seen in my entire life, it’s actually been better than I thought, being back here.’
Lizzie almost swallowed her tongue.
‘Hold the phone. You mean the North Shore whore didn’t watch rom-coms?’
‘Nah.’
‘How can you not like rom-coms? What movies did she watch?’
‘Wolf Creek. Saw. That kind of thing.’ Joe grinned at her.
‘That explains a lot.’ Lizzie hopped up from the sofa and joined Joe in the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass of juice.
‘What time’s dinner?’ Lizzie’s stomach rumbled just looking at the ripe tomatoes, the freshly picked spinach leaves and local fetta cheese. ‘Want me to do anything?’
Joe grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around to face him. ‘No, nothing. Go. Get out of here. Whipping up this culinary sensation will take me about half an hour. Why don’t you take a walk? Dinner will be ready by six-thirty.’
‘You sure?’
‘Get out of my hair, Mosquito. Twenty years later and you’re still buzzing around me.’
She chuckled. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, Stinkface. It’s not you, it’s the food.’
Dan didn’t bother to knock; simply pushed open the door he knew would be unlocked and barged right into Lizzie’s house. He found himself in the middle of the living room w
ith the snooty accent of Hugh Grant filling the room.
‘Lizzie? You here?’
‘Hey Dan…Oh shit.’ Joe raced over from the kitchen and scrabbled around on the sofa for the remote control. The room became silent. ‘Lizzie left the movie on. I wasn’t watching it, you got that?’
‘No, of course not.’ Dan smirked.
‘And if you tell anyone, I’ll have your guts for garters.’ Joe returned to the kitchen.
‘Funny, I would have picked you as more of a James Bond fan.’
‘Yeah, shut the fuck up okay?’ Joe laughed and picked up the large blade he’d been using and waved it around like a miniature samurai sword. ‘I have a weapon and I’m not afraid to use it. You looking for Lizzie?’
‘No, I raced back from Adelaide to see your ugly mug. What do you reckon?’
‘I kicked her out for a walk while I get the barbie going.’ Joe regarded him and Dan knew he was doing the big brother checking him out thing. ‘You want to stay and eat with us?’
Dan gripped the white envelope in his hand. ‘No. Yeah. Look, I’m not sure. You said Lizzie’s gone for a walk? The beach?’
‘Where else?’
CHAPTER
35
The early evening sun shone upwards into the puffs of streaky white clouds, which were hanging low and full along the coastline in the west. The brilliance of the blue, blue sky made Lizzie stop, dig her toes into the cool sand, and stare upwards. How was it possible, she wondered as she held up a hand to shield her eyes from the glare, that she could still be stunned into silence by that sky? Hadn’t she looked at it every day for almost her entire existence? How was it that it could come to life in a different way every time?
It was clear and in the distance Lizzie could make out the jagged coastline all the way past Basham’s Beach, in curved outcrops to The Bluff at Victor Harbor. She glanced up and down the beach and realised she was alone. Above her, a black-shouldered kite hovered, still, its red eyes on a prize down below in the dunes, maybe a mouse or an insect. A flap of its wings held its spot, and then it turned, flew off.
As she walked, with the tide pulling waves higher up the beach to splash her ankles, she mulled over the fact that another summer was coming to a close. She’d seen so many come and go and, looking back, had barely been able to distinguish one from the other over the past decade. This one felt different and Lizzie wrestled with the sense that more things were ending than the season. This summer hadn’t been like any other. She didn’t feel like the same person she had been at its warm beginnings last December. When she’d reluctantly been conscripted into Operation Dan and knocked on his door with a food parcel, tried to coax him out of hiding but stay out of his life. Hadn’t that plan been a failure. A happy failure, she realised now with warmth in her heart and a smile on her lips.
What hadn’t been a failure was Operation Dan itself. Whoever was responsible, whatever it was that had worked, he was now definitely out of his man cave. And she hadn’t realised it until she’d told Dan her truth, but she finally felt released from her hiding too. There were some things to say to Dan McSwaine, she realised.
An unexpected wave caught her higher on her legs, splashing her knees and she gasped at the chill of it, then giggled, danced in the wave and skipped up the sand to escape the next one.
‘Elizabeth.’
The simple word sent a tremble from her heart to her chilled toes. Had she imagined him, summoned him from her head right into her real life? When a gentle hand touched her shoulder, she knew she hadn’t dreamed him. With a deep breath, she turned slowly to see the setting sun light up his face, crinkling his emerald eyes into a warm smile. His simple white T-shirt and worn jeans looked like the sexiest uniform she’d ever seen. She sighed and bit her lip, deciding at that moment to give up counting how many kinds of handsome he was.
There simply wasn’t a number big enough.
‘Hey,’ she said, suddenly nervous. For a moment, he looked at her, an awareness in his eyes that she could feel in the space between them.
She glanced over her shoulder to the sunset. ‘I was just looking at the sky. Isn’t the view spectacular?’
‘Yeah, it is,’ he replied, not lifting his eyes from her face. ‘It’s beautiful as ever.’
‘So.’
‘So.’
‘I got your note,’ she said, taking in the face she could stare at forever. There was growth on his jaw and a deep tan, too. The mark of a Middle Point summer.
‘Good. I had something to do up in Adelaide.’ Dan took a step closer, threaded a strong arm around her waist, pulled her close. As their bodies touched, pressed against each other, she wondered if he could feel the heat that flamed in her heart and reddened her cheeks.
‘Here.’ Dan had a white envelope in his hands, something that looked like a business letter, with a clear window where the address could show through from inside. He held it up between them. ‘Take it. It’s for you.’ His voice was unsure, ragged.
Lizzie reached for the envelope, turned it over and saw her name and address revealed in the window.
She let out a sigh. ‘This looks like a bill or, brilliant, a speeding ticket. The ones with windows always are. Oh well.’ She bent it in half and moved to shove it into the pocket of her shorts. Dan started and quickly let go of her.
‘Shit, Elizabeth. Don’t do that.’
Now she was confused. The last thing she wanted to be doing with Dan right there, filled with that look in his eyes that melted her bones, was discuss her personal finances. ‘I’ll look at it later, Dan. There’s something I want to say.’
He grabbed the envelope, unfolded it, then grabbed her hand and made sure she took it. ‘A man’s trying to give you something here. Open it.’
She stepped back, puzzled at his insistence. ‘Well, okay.’ Lizzie slid her index finger under the flap on the back and pried it open. Inside was a simple A4 piece of paper, folded into three. She lifted the top flap, took in what was printed there. Held her breath.
‘Dan,’ she gasped.
He rubbed his fingers across his stubbled jaw, watched her.
She unfolded the bottom third of the letter and could feel the shakes start in her knees and then in her stomach. She simply stared at it. What it said. What it meant. Looked off into the distance, to the coastline she knew like the back of her hand, and then looked at the letter again.
He couldn’t be serious. This was too much. She tried to control the pounding in her head and the pulse that seemed to be throbbing in her stomach. For the first time in her life, she was totally and utterly speechless.
‘Well?’ Dan asked, eyebrows raised.
Lizzie looked again from the page to the face of the most precious man in the world.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, shrugged. ‘Look, I know it’s not the most romantic thing in the world, a letter from a travel agent. They don’t do real tickets anymore, you know that.’ He chuckled, then reached out to stroke the fine hair by her ear.
Lizzie read the letter again, could finally let the words sink in. It told her that she could pick up a return air ticket, to anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, whenever she wanted.
A gift to Elizabeth Blake from Dan McSwaine.
She could barely get the words out. ‘Dan, I don’t know what to say.’
‘Just say you’ll take it.’ He reached for her hand, twined his fingers in hers. ‘You deserve the big adventure you never got to have, Elizabeth. You packed all your dreams away when you came back from London. What happened to you wasn’t fair. Losing your dream wasn’t fair, either.’
Her dreams. She hadn’t hoped for anything much in her life for so long. Until she met this man, standing before her, with a gift more valuable than an air ticket. He was giving her so much more. This simple gesture, spelled out plainly on a white piece of paper, was worth more than money. He’d given her the gift of knowing her. Of knowing who she really was and of finding his way into her heart.
All
she could do was throw herself into his embrace, her arms tight around his neck, and she wasn’t sure if he’d lifted her but she felt like she was floating on air. This man, who not so long ago was crushed and broken himself, held her tight, his fingers splayed on her back, his heart beating fast in time with hers.
‘Take the ticket. Go see the world. It’ll love you, Elizabeth,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘But not as much as I do.’
She found his lips, kissed him with everything she had and he responded in the exact way she hoped he would. It was fierce, passionate, not just lips joining in love, but two hearts seeing into the future and imagining something good.
He loves me and yet he’s willing to let me go.
Her heart leapt at the sheer simplicity of what had to come next. A calm settled over her and that mysterious confidence she’d been looking for? She felt it. It had been inside her all along.
‘You say you love me but you’re sending me away alone? What if I meet an Italian football player, a Swedish supermodel or even a Greek tycoon…’
‘A Greek tycoon? In their economy?’ Dan laughed and dropped her to the sand. ‘Yeah, maybe I didn’t think this through.’
‘The world is a very big place filled with lots of handsome men. What if someone just as sexy as you tries to sweep me off my feet?’
He tapped a forefinger on his chin, thought for a minute, grinned. ‘Give that back,’ and he lunged forward to snatch the envelope from her hand.
‘Oh no, it’s mine now, Big Guy.’ And she ran backwards, hopping from foot to foot, beckoning him to follow her, which he did with his sexy eyes on her and his long limbs pounding the beach. And then he had her and they tumbled to the sand, arms and legs tangling, both laughing and breathing hard. As she toppled, Dan pulled Lizzie onto him, breasts to chest, heart to heart.
He kissed her, hard and demanding at first, then soft. ‘You’re mine, Lizzie. You know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she murmured. ‘I want to be.’
He held her face in his hands, met her eyes. ‘We’ve got something here and I’m not letting it go. I’ll be waiting for you when you get back. You’d better come back.’
Someone Like You Page 32
