When she was ready to tell him, she would.
‘I really think she just needs some friends right now. Will you help me?’ Travis asked, finally laying it all on the table.
‘Was there ever any doubt?’
The persistent melody finally penetrated Kelli’s sleep addled mind. Bleary-eyed she reached out and silenced the device without checking who was calling. It didn’t matter who it was, she didn’t want to talk to anyone.
She closed her eyes, burying her face into the pillow and tried to return to the blissful realm of her dreams; to a place where her brother was still alive, a place where her childish goading hadn’t resulted in his death. Despite the mid-morning heat warming the room more than was pleasant, Kelli felt her mind drift again and her body relaxing.
Knock-knock. Knock-knock.
Cursing profusely, Kelli dragged herself from the bed. Was she ever going to get any peace?
She hadn’t been able to sleep at all by the time she got home last night. Instead, she’d stayed up until almost dawn, sorting through Jimmy’s things. At least, she’d tried to sort through his things. But the pile of belongings to send to the charity bins was decidedly small. She couldn’t bear to part with any of it.
Stepping carefully round the pile of guitar picks, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her eyes were blood-shot and baggy, no doubt from the early morning crying, and her hair was a mess of knots. She contemplated fixing herself up a little before answering the door, but when the knocks came again she gave up on the idea. Seriously, if someone wanted to turn up unannounced they could deal with her at her worst.
She pulled the door open, prepared to blast the person from here to infinity but the words froze in her throat. Leaning against the door jamb, wire-rimmed sunglasses nested comfortably in his luscious, dark hair, stood Travis. With his navy, loose-fitting board shorts, and white polo shirt, he looked as cool and perfect as if he’d walked straight out of nirvana. His eyes drifted over her, lingering on the expanse of exposed leg evident beneath the t-shirt of Jimmy’s she’d taken to sleeping in. Cursing herself for not grabbing a robe, or slipping on some pants before she stormed out here, Kelli tried to tug the shirt past mid-thigh level, without a great deal of success. Almost-familiar heat sizzled over her bare skin beneath his inspection.
‘Are you right?’ she demanded, hand on hip and eyebrows raised. She had no hope of lengthening the shirt but maybe she could force his eyes up with shame. She’d let him get too close yesterday. Physically and emotionally. She couldn’t afford to do that again.
It was unfortunate her body hadn’t got the message. If he didn’t stop staring soon, she was afraid her legs might incinerate from the heat in his gaze.
‘Just… admiring the view,’ he answered with a lazy grin, finally raising his eyes to hers.
‘They’re just legs,’ Kelli grizzled, eyes narrowed.
‘Don’t sell yourself short, Kelli. They are a spectacular set of legs.’
It was hard not to grin at his unabashed pleasure in her body. But she had to. Her sanity depended on it.
‘So that’s why you’re here, unannounced? To perv at my legs?’
‘I wouldn’t be unannounced if you answered your phone.’
At least now she knew who’d been ringing. ‘I was sleeping,’ Kelli grumbled, though she could feel her defences dropping. She wanted to cross her arms, to put up a barrier between them, but was extremely conscious any movement of the kind would bring her shirt up perilously close to the top of her thighs.
‘It’s eleven am.’
‘So?’ Kelli shrugged. ‘It’s the weekend. I can sleep in if I want.’
‘Of course you can. But I was actually wondering if I could tempt you with a day at the beach. We’re just heading down and I thought you might like to join us?’
A bubble of warmth thumped to life in Kelli’s chest. ‘Who’s us?’ she asked, barely daring to breathe. Could he possibly be asking her on a date?
‘Just a group of friends,’ he told her, running a hand through his hair. ‘Ana’s waiting in the car,’ he added, pulling off his sunglasses, palming them from one hand to the other.
‘Oh,’ Kelli let slip, the bubble in her chest bursting, shrinking to a hard lump in the bottom of her stomach. There was something in the way he couldn’t quite meet her eyes that didn’t sit right. ‘Is this a sympathy invite?’
‘No...’ But there was a shadow in his eye again, a hesitancy that belied his words.
Damn and blast!
‘I knew I should never have told you anything. I don’t want your pity. I don’t need your sympathy. I don’t-’
‘Hey, slow down, calm down, I’m not the enemy,’ he reached out and grabbed her hand, holding it between his in a gesture meant to calm.
‘It’s just…I just…’
‘It’s okay, Kelli, I understand.’ His words were simple, his expression sincere, and for some reason it actually worked. She found herself calming down, concentrating on her breathing until she felt the tension ease out of her.
She removed her hand from his, her eyes apologetic. ‘Sorry.’
‘No need to explain. I do actually understand a bit of what you’re going through. Maybe one day we can exchange stories.’
‘What do you mean?’ The shadow was there again, a stamp of grief across his face that connected with Kelli’s own pain.
‘Everyone has a story, Kel. But today isn’t for stories. Today is for fun.’ He blinked and the shadow was gone, pushed down and away the way she needed to learn to do. ‘And, for the record,’ he continued with a mischievous grin, ‘I didn’t invite you out of pity.’
‘You didn’t? Then why did you invite me?’ she asked, letting him pull her from out of her funk. It was so easy to fall into the comfortable camaraderie they shared.
‘Well, believe it or not, you’re actually a pretty cool chick.’ His eyes returned to hers, bright and direct and she knew he was telling the truth. Her body bathed in the pleasure of his words. ‘We just thought it might be fun to get a group together to hang by the beach. And you know Ana adores you,’ he continued to pile on the charm, smiling at her winningly.
Kelli stared at him, contemplating her options. She wasn’t one hundred percent convinced the invitation wasn’t at least partly due to sympathy. And she hated the idea of being someone’s charity case. But given the chance to spend an afternoon on a gorgeous beach, with a super-hot guy and his fun-loving sister, could she really say no?
The answer was rather easy when she put it like that, though it didn’t stop her from feeling as if she’d betrayed her brother. Again. She didn’t deserve to have fun.
But she couldn’t let herself think like that. Jimmy wouldn’t want her to.
‘Well, I am rather adorable, aren’t I?’ She finally answered, grinning impishly at him.
He stared back at her, his eyes widening, as though he’d been struck by lightning. Just for an instant. But then he blinked, returned her grin and she thought she must have imagined it.
‘That’s one word for it,’ he answered with a wink.
‘What would you call me, then?’ she asked, more provocatively than she intended. To give him credit, he kept his eyes firmly locked on hers, and she swore she saw them melt, just a little.
‘I don’t think we’ll go there.’
‘Don’t you think I can handle it?’ She taunted.
‘I don’t think I can handle it, just yet,’ he answered softly, and the bubble that burst only moments before started to repair and fill with heat, and excitement, and something she was not ready to face.
She stared into his eyes, caught by the hint of emotion, by the possibilities she saw there.
What had got into her lately? She’d never been the dreamy romantic type, looking for hidden meanings and gazing endlessly into someone’s eyes. If she didn’t quit it soon, she’d probably start seeing little cherubic angels flying in the air around his head, Cupid’s arrow aimed at her heart.
‘I might get changed,’ she told him, moving back into the apartment.
‘Probably a good idea,’ he affirmed, making to follow her inside.
‘Do you want me to meet you down there?’ She was suddenly nervous about having him here, in her private space. He was so large he seemed to fill the room, his presence dwarfing the eclectic furniture dotted around the microscopic living area. It had never bothered her before; she had loved the quirkiness of the old apartment. But now she fervently wished it was bigger.
‘No, I don’t mind waiting here,’ he said, looking around the room, not bothering to hide his curiosity.
‘Don’t you want to go back down to Ana?’ She tried one last desperate attempt to get rid of him.
‘Nah. I’d say she’d be in the land of nod by now. She’s a little under the weather,’ he answered euphemistically.
‘She did have a few wines last night, didn’t she?’ Kelli laughed lightly, finally giving up and moving quickly towards her room. The sooner she was out of this night-shirt and he was out of her apartment, the better.
She closed the door behind her, feeling decidedly nervous about getting naked with only a small wooden door between herself and Travis. Rummaging through her chest of drawers, Kelli pulled out her favourite swimmers - a little black halter-neck bikini, with intricate gold edging. She slipped off the night shirt and quickly slipped into the two-piece. She grabbed a pair of long denim shorts and slithered into them, throwing a loose white, cheesecloth top over her bikini.
Bracing herself, she took a more thorough look in the mirror.
Aargh! She must have the worst case of bed-hair in the history of bed-hair. How had Travis been able to look at her with a straight face?
She ducked into her en-suite and grabbed a wide-toothed wire hair brush and started yanking at knots, smoothing down the fuzz until her hair resembled something near their normal golden curls rather than a mass of undefined dreadlocks. While she was there she gave her teeth a quick brush, tried to hide the bags beneath her eyes and then dabbed on the lightest touch of mascara and lip gloss, all the while reminding herself this wasn’t a date.
‘Okay, I think I’m ready,’ she announced, slipping out her bedroom door. She grabbed the beach bag hanging from her door handle and threw in her phone, wallet and towel.
‘That’s quite a collection of guitar picks,’ Travis said, gesturing to the pile she’d been sorting through last night.
Kelli paused in her head-long rush to the door, taking the time to glance at the pile herself. ‘They’re Jimmy’s. Were Jimmy’s,’ she corrected, tears instantly pricking the back of her eyelids. Bugger! She didn’t want the quick repair job to have been a waste of time. ‘He was something of a muso,’ she added, a weak smile creeping up at the memory.
‘Was he in a band?’ Travis asked gently.
‘Two,’ she answered, blinking away the tears, and with some effort managed to pull herself back to the present. ‘Though neither of them was all that successful. He worked as an accountant to pay the bills. But he always said the bands were his real profession,’ she added with a laugh, slipping on her sandals, heading out the door and away from the memories.
Travis had been right: Ana was asleep when they reached his forest green Ford Territory SUV. She shuffled around slightly when they hopped into the car, mumbling a brief greeting from behind large black sunglasses.
‘Haven’t the painkillers kicked in yet?’ Travis teased, as he kicked the engine over.
‘It’s not the headache. I’m tired,’ Ana growled at him. ‘Someone woke me up at an ungodly hour this morning.’ She lifted the sunglasses just enough to shoot death-rays at her brother.
‘Nine o’clock is not an ungodly hour,’ he replied laughingly as he pulled into the lane.
‘Why did he get you up at nine o’clock?’ Kelli asked, joining in with their laughter. The camaraderie between them reminded her of the way she and Jimmy had been. It was nice, for once, to remember the good times with him. The pain didn’t hurt so much when she did.
Ana looked pointedly at Travis a moment, before slipping her shades back on and answering Kelli. ‘Apparently, today was too gorgeous a day to waste in bed,’ she huffed.
Kelli looked between the two siblings in the front seat, suspicious. There was more to it than they were letting on, but before she could pursue it further they arrived at Mermaid Beach. Kelli grabbed her bag and jumped out of the vehicle. The heat from the sun was intense; Kelli could feel the instant burn of it through her thin shirt. She turned her head up to the sky, enjoying the sun’s rays beating against her face.
‘Coming?’
Kelli’s eyes snapped open at the husky sound so close to her ear. Unbidden images of Travis, naked beside her, asking the same question with an altogether different meaning flew into her mind. Her pulse sprinted, her breath hitching as she saw him on top of her, surrounding her—
No. No. She wasn’t going there. Bad Kelli!
She pushed the erotic images aside, and twisted her head to see if he’d detected the change in her. His eyes were unreadable beneath the darkened shades of his sunglasses.
‘Always,’ she answered before she could stop herself, finishing it off with a saucy wink. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline and she ran off, her laughter trailing behind her.
Kelli raced down the sand-covered, wood-paling walkway, catching up with Ana as she reached the edge of the beach. Stepping off the palings, Kelli’s feet sank into the burning sand, the soft, white granules burrowing between her feet and her sandals. She dumped her bag on the ground and quickly rid herself of the unnecessary footwear, Ana going through the same motions.
‘Where do we want to park ourselves?’ Travis asked, coming up behind them.
‘I reckon just down past that dune.’ Ana pointed to a small hillock, sparsely covered in spinifex grass, the pale green blades swaying in the soft, on-shore breeze.
Kelli inhaled deeply, the fresh briny ocean scent filling her senses as she followed the brother and sister down the beach, her feet sinking pleasurably into the soft white sand. She gazed out at the endless blue-green ocean, flecks of white skimming across it in deference to the breeze. A wave crashed to shore, and squeals of childish delight echoed up from the shoreline as a couple of kids tried to outrun the white foam. Kelli felt the tension inside her unwind the way it always did when she was at the beach.
‘Is this all right?’ Travis asked her, dumping his towel in the sand at his feet. He took off his sunglasses and placed them carefully on top of the towel.
‘Yes, but shouldn’t we look for your friends?’ Kelli’s gaze wandered up and down the beach. Although not crowded, there were still quite a few people enjoying the late summer sun, groups of teenagers, couples, both older and younger, and several young families.
‘What friends?’ Ana snorted as though the question was beyond hilarious, and spread her beach towel across the sand.
‘I thought we were meeting your friends,’ Kelli’s words slowed as it became clear she had been misinformed. ‘So this is a pity trip, then?’ she threw at Travis accusingly.
‘Of course not,’ he tried to assure her, but she wasn’t soothed.
‘Then why is no one else here?’
‘I texted a few people but no one’s got back to me,’ Ana informed her. ‘I don’t imagine anyone but old chirpy over here,’ she nodded towards Travis, ‘has emerged from their cave after last night’s party.’
‘Oh,’ Kelli muttered, feeling like a prize idiot. Of course this wasn’t a pity trip. It was rather arrogant of her to assume he’d dragged his sister all the way down here just for her. Thankfully Ana had already buried her head in her arms where she lay stretched out on her towel, and wasn’t witness to the bright scarlet blush that suffused Kelli’s cheeks.
‘Sor—’ she started to say, looking towards Travis, but the apology froze in her throat. Her eyes grew wide as saucers as she watched him lift his shirt above his head, pectorals flexing with the move
ment. The shirt fell to the ground unnoticed by Kelli who couldn’t pull her eyes from the lightly haired, olive-skinned chest.
It beggared Kelli’s belief that any of Ana’s friends would turn down a trip to the beach when this was the view, no matter how hung-over they were.
Trying not to be too obvious, but failing miserably, Kelli’s eyes hungrily followed his hands as they smoothed sunscreen over the broad expanse of muscle and sinew, sliding over his dusky, mauve nipples and through the smattering of dark curls between. The hand disappeared momentarily, but returned with another pile of white liquid that he massaged into his rippling stomach muscles.
Kelli flicked her tongue out, unconsciously running it over her now-parched lips. Her teeth pressed down onto flesh as his hand drifted lower, his fingers rubbing the sun-protection through the snail trail of dark curls that emerged beneath his belly button and continued down into the waistline of the pants sitting provocatively low on his hips. Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers lingered along the waistband, tempting her, taunting her.
‘Sunscreen?’
The deep, huskily spoken offer floated in the air around Kelli, trying to pierce through the onslaught of liquid fire engulfing her. Kelli blinked and pulled her eyes from the waistband of his board shorts.
Oh. God.
How long had she been staring?
Long enough was her answer when she met the blue eyes trained on hers – a potent mix of heat and amusement.
‘Sunscreen?’ he offered again, his lips quirking as she stared at his out-stretched arm, yellow-tube in hand, uncomprehending through the fog of desire still clouding her mind.
She needed to pull herself together. Now.
Anyone would think she was an innocent Victorian virgin exposed to male flesh for the first time. Then again, the flesh currently on display was certainly the most perfect flesh she’d ever been exposed too. Would his assets below the waistband measure up?
A Heart Worth Mending Page 7
