by Amy Andrews
“Except he was a fraud.” Ari’s eyes glittered as he pointed at his chest. “I’m the real deal.”
Kelsey gave a hysterical laugh. “Exactly,” she yelled. “I don’t know how to be a rich guy’s girlfriend. All I know is how to work hard and scrimp and save. I know how to struggle.”
She wasn’t lying. She had no idea how to rub shoulders with the wealthy. And it terrified her.
“Jesus, Kelsey.” Ari shoved his hand through his hair, driving some calm into the wind blown mass. “I’m sorry I’m rich. Most women would see that as a plus.”
“Not this woman.”
He smiled grudgingly. “I’ve noticed.”
“What if your family thinks I’m some kind of...gold digger?”
Surely they cared about her pedigree? Kelsey had Googled Talia and her grandfather had been knighted by the Queen for services to her majesty. Her father had been high up in the British intelligence services.
Kelsey’s father had been a truck driver.
“My family are going to love you. As much as I do. Because you bought me back to life. And that’s all they’re going to care about.”
As much as I do. Kelsey blinked, the air in her lungs suddenly as heavy as the sand beneath her feet. Oh God. “You love me?”
His hand fell to his side and he took a couple of paces towards her. Kelsey knew she should take two paces back but her legs wouldn’t move.
“Yes,” he said, his voice just above a whisper but she heard him loud and clear. “I love you, Kelsey Armitage.”
Kelsey shut her eyes, shut him out as her body reeled. It couldn’t be true. “Why?” she demanded, her throat raw as tears threatened.
Why would he fall for her when he could probably have just about any woman in the world?
“I don’t know – dopamine, endorphins? Whatever crazy chemical reactions happen in a body when it falls in love. And because you’re you. But I know this feeing, Kelsey.” He took another pace forward and his hands slid onto her upper arms. “I’ve been here before and I know exactly what is. And it’s not a transition thing. It’s the real deal. Don’t you remember it, too?”
She shook her head. She may have loved Eric, but not like this. She’d been nineteen and it had been fun and exciting and, she realised now, totally superficial. She’d been in love with being in love and he’d been dashing and older and he’d picked her.
This thing with Ari was bone deep and...she’d picked him.
Which was what probably scared her the most. She’d never recover if he suddenly got sick of her quaint peasant charms. And how would it even work? He surely couldn’t stay here forever and she couldn’t leave her mother again – not after seven years away and her eyesight deteriorating so rapidly.
Kelsey shrugged out of his hold and his hands slipped away as she took a step back. “I don’t want this, Ari. I’m sorry –” She blinked rapidly to dispel the pressure she could feel building behind her eyes. “I just don’t.”
He stared at her for long moments, his jaw growing tighter. “Malakies,” he said. “I don’t think that’s true.” His voice was taut with control. “I think if it was true you would have asked me to leave Pelican Cove two months ago. You know the one word I haven’t heard from you, Kelsey?” He gave her a beat before he enlightened her. “Leave.”
Kelsey frowned. That couldn’t be true, surely? She’d been putting him off and pushing him away since he got here. She must have told him to go. She racked her brain for that memory.
But...she hadn’t. She hadn’t asked him to leave.
“If you don’t love me then all you have to do is tell me to leave. Send me away. Because I won’t –” he growled the word “- do it voluntarily. You want me to leave? Then you have to tell me to go.”
Kelsey legs trembled as they fought to hold her up. It all seemed so simple – why hadn’t she just told him to leave?
Because she didn’t want him to. She couldn’t even bear the thought. Seeing him every day had been a special kind of hell. But not seeing him every day was going to be worse.
Oh god.
The urge to cry rode her like a demon but Kelsey hung on to her pride with her fingernails. This was for the best. Pulling in a ragged breath, she fished in her pocket and pulled out the cocktail umbrella, her hands shaking. “Go,” she whispered, slapping it against his chest. “Leave.”
Then she turned on her heel and walked away.
Kelsey was weary to her bootstraps by the time they shut up the Pelican’s Belly for the day. Emotional exhaustion hung around her neck dragging her down as heavy as the storm clouds overhead. She’d decided to walk home, the weather matching her mood perfectly, the wind cool and welcoming against her too-hot, too-tight skin.
She wished she could shed it. Shed everything from these last few months and become a whole new person. Start again.
Start anew.
Ari would be leaving. If he hadn’t already. She’d seen it in his face when he’d goaded her to say the words. And seen it in his eyes when she’d said them. And felt it in his stare as she’d turned and walked away.
She took a deep breath. It was okay, she could do it. She had been doing it. And this feeling, this ache, got better. Eventually. She just had to get past those first horrible days and weeks and months all over again. Restart the clock on the emotional work she’d already done when she’d first returned to Australia.
It would ease. It just took time.
Her head and her heart were so full of turmoil, Kelsey actually strode straight past the access to the cottage and she had to backtrack a little. Walking through the track between the Casuarina trees, Kelsey made a detour to the hammock tied between two sturdy gum trees in the yard. The threatening rain was holding off and it gave good swing and a great view of the water through the tree trunks.
And it was preferable to going inside and talking to her mother. Sure, she’d been very circumspect and supportive at the cafe when Kelsey had come back after her confrontation with Ari. But Kelsey had known she was busting to say something and she just didn’t want to deal with it right now.
It lasted about five minutes before her phone rang. Kelsey sighed and answered. “Hi, mum.”
“Are you on your way home? We need milk.”
“Sorry, just got home. I walked. I’m in the hammock.”
Her mother hung up and Kelsey watched as she came out of the house and picked her way carefully across the grass. She was familiar enough with the yard not to need her cane but her steps were careful.
“You okay?” her mother asked as she groped for the edge of the hammock.
“Yeah.” Kelsey nodded. “Or I will be, anyway.”
“Oh darling.” Her mother’s hand slid on to her leg. “I’m sorry.”
Kelsey shrugged. “Que será, será.”
Her mother didn’t respond for a moment and they were both quiet as a Kookaburra laughed in the distance. “He’s not Eric, you know.”
“Yeah.” Kelsey nodded. “I know.” And she did know.
“Eric left and didn’t come back. This guy travelled half way around the world for you. Stayed for you. Fixed up your town for you. Don’t blow something good because of something that happened a long time ago.”
Kelsey rolled her head from side to side. “It’s not that, Mum.”
“Then what is it? You’re in love with him. And I know he’s in love with you so...what’s holding you back? And you better not say me.”
“No.” Kelsey glanced at her mother. “It’s not you. But... can you imagine him wanting to live here, with us? Forever?”
“So go and live there.”
“Mum...” Kelsey sighed. “I’m not going to take off and live in a palace in Greece while you go blind in a tiny cottage with a leaky roof, banging around with your cane.”
Her mother laughed. “What a delightful picture you paint.”
Kelsey shoved a hand through her hair. “Sorry...I didn’t mean –”
“It’s okay Kels.”
Her mother smiled. “I know what you meant. But I absolutely cannot be a consideration here. All that stuff about where you’ll live and what to do with your old blind mum...they’re all bridges that can be crossed. But giving up because of them? Using them as an excuse? Kelsey...when did you start believing you didn’t deserve to be loved by a man like your dad loved me?”
Hot tears scaled Kelsey’s eyes. She didn’t remember her dad very well. But she did remember the love. “But mum...He’s the prince and I’m –”
“Cinderella?” She made a dismissive gesture. “You know she got the prince right?”
God no, if only. “No, mum. I’m the stable mouse who gets turned into a horse. And guess what? It’s after midnight.”
Her mother made an impatient noise. “Do you love him Kelsey?”
She nodded, more miserable than she’d ever been in her life. “Yes.” Her throat burned with the truth of it.
“Then that’s all that matters.” She shook her daughter’s leg. “Kels, don’t you know you’re the author of your own fairy tale? You get to write the ending.”
Sniffling, Kelsey glanced at her mother. “Is it really that simple?”
Her mother smiled at her gently. “If you want it to be, yes. Why not? You were hurt. But so was he. The man lost a wife and yet he’s still willing to put himself out there again. For you.”
A hot, rush of love for Ari swelled in Kelsey’s chest, twisting and lodging in her throat. He loved her. Ari who had been through a tragedy far more wounding than her own, loved her. Wanted to be with her.
“I ask again,” her mother said. “Do. You. Love. Him?”
Kelsey couldn’t speak so she nodded, her face threatening to crumple from the emotion. Despite all the pain Ari had been through, he wanted to take the leap. With her.
“Then go.” Her mother patted her leg. “Write the ending.”
A sudden feeling of absolute certainty descended. Her mother was right. If Ari could take the leap, than so could she. She didn’t know how it was all going to work but she needed to take the first step.
Scrambling out of the hammock as quickly as it was possible to scramble out of a fabric cocoon, Kelsey dashed away tears.
“I’m going to do it.”
Her mother pulled her in for a hug. “Good for you.”
“I hope I’m not too late.”
“Then run,” she said. “Go get your prince.”
Kelsey was not a runner but the tide was going out and the sand was packed hard beneath her feet closer to the water and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the caravan park at the far end of the crescent shaped beach.
She was desperately afraid it was already too late, so much so she barely even registered the rain starting to fall. What would she do if he wasn’t there? Old Kelsey would have taken that as a sign from the universe and left defeated.
This Kelsey, this running Kelsey, would get in her car and do that mad romantic movie airport dash if she had to.
Her heart was hammering and she was a sodden mess and seriously out of breath by the time she stumbled through the beach gate into the caravan park. Given the size of Pelican Cove, the park was quite big and Kelsey had no idea where to start.
“Ari Callisthenes,” she puffed out to a couple who were drinking wine under the shelter of their canopy.
“Number twelve,” the woman said without hesitation, pointing to the left.
Of course the first person she asked would know. His notoriety was such that even visitors to the town knew his name.
Stumbling along to the left it took Kelsey a few seconds to work out the numbering system but, before she knew it, she was standing outside a small white caravan parked on site twelve. The door was shut and she feared the worst as she bashed on the door and called, “Ari! Ari!”
Bending at the waist and planting her hands on her thighs, Kelsey tried to catch her breath. She was dizzy with exertion and almost sick with dread. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to faint or throw up.
When the door opened to reveal Ari mostly naked apart from a towel – of course – swooning became the obvious choice.
“Jesus.” Kelsey stood, her entire body flooding with endorphins, pulsing at the sight of him. He hadn’t left. “You really need to get some house clothes.”
He stared at her incredulously, his gaze roving over her clothes and her hair hanging in wet strips and plastered to her face beaded with raindrops. “Kelsey? You’re soaked. What are you doing here?”
She didn’t say anything for long moments, mostly because she was still out of breath. “I’m writing the ending to my own fairytale.”
If her statement confused him he didn’t show it. “Am I the prince in this fairytale?” When she nodded he smiled a little. “That sounds good.”
It could be. God, it could be. But...love didn’t erase the practicalities and for better or for worse, life had made Kelsey pragmatic. “I just...don’t know how this works.”
“This?”
“Us.” His smile got bigger at the us but she shook her head. This was important. “Do we live here, do we live there? I can’t just abandon my mother, Ari. We just got set up here and she loves it and its –”
“Kelsey,” he interrupted, “of course, you and your mum are a package deal. And I don’t care where we live. We can live here and I can travel when I need to or we can live in Greece or the UK and your mother can live with us if she wants or only part time if she wants or we can all go back and forth and live all over the place. I know you’re a package deal, Kelsey. I’ll take the deal. I love you. I want the deal.”
Kelsey smiled. She was still out of breath but she didn’t feel like she was going to throw up anymore.
“I love you, too,” she said and god...it felt good to say those words. Like something had let go inside her and she was floating free from everything that had tethered her to a life of practicalities and pragmatism. “I’m sorry I’ve been so...”
“Stubborn?”
She gave a half smile. “I was going for cowardly.”
“It’s okay. Good things are always worth the wait.”
His slow grin warmed her all over and for a beat or two they just stood smiling at each other, Kelsey getting wetter and wetter as every little niggle and worry she had about Ari’s wealth and how it was going to work between them melted away.
“So...” He cocked an eyebrow. “I should stop packing?”
She laughed feeling positively giddy now. “Yes. You should definitely stop packing.”
“And you should get out of the rain.”
He held out his hand to her and Kelsey moved on wobbly legs to stand in front of him – that towel knot at eye level. With his other hand he reached for something on the bench near his hip and produced another cocktail umbrella, offering it to her. “You ever make love in a caravan?”
Kelsey lost her breath again. Make love. She’d never thought of sex as making love. But she knew without a doubt she was going to spend the rest of her life making love to Ari. She took the umbrella like it was a sacred offering, her heart practically floating out of her chest.
“Nope,” she said as she placed her hand in his.
“Neither have I.”
And he dragged her inside, shut the door and kissed her.
THE END
Read on the first 2 chapters of Amy’s next release - Prognosis Temporary – a hot medical romance.
Prognosis Temporary
When world renowned psychologist, Sebastian Walker, takes up a short term contract at nurse Callie Duncan’s community health clinic, it doesn’t take them long to realise they have a lot in common. They both had tough childhoods, they’re both dedicated to their patients and they’re both professionally driven with absolutely no desire for, or belief in, permanent relationships or happily ever afters.
They’re also totally hot for each other.
When a one night stand leads to a dirty weekend away at a medical conference which becomes a colleagues-wit
h-benefits situation, it’s still okay because it’s only temporary, right? Seb’s contract will end, he’ll leave town and everything will go back to normal. But two months down the track, long nights spent in each other’s arms are also awakening hearts and when an emotionally charged day turns into a passionately reckless coming together, the consequences are real and far reaching.
Neither of them are prepared for a baby. But maybe, just maybe, if they stop pretending they don’t want it, they might just get the fairy tale ending they both secretly crave?
CHAPTER ONE
There were some days a person just shouldn’t get out of bed. For Sebastian Walker today was one of those days. His first one on call as a police negotiator in a new city, a new state, and he’d hit the ground running. He was supposed to be spending the day putting his riverside apartment to rights. After a year in far-flung foreign hotspots he craved the familiarity of his things but his pager hadn’t got the memo.
Thank God it wasn’t a full-time gig.
Swallowing the last bite of the apple he’d grabbed as he’d walked out of his box-strewn apartment, he pulled up at the scene ten minutes after his pager had first bleeped. Not bad considering the streets of Brisbane were unfamiliar territory. Quickly checking the knot of his gun-metal grey tie in the rear view mirror, he exited his vehicle and made his way to the area cordoned off with yellow police tape, flashing his credentials to the officer in charge of the scene.
‘What have we got?’
‘Jumper. With a gun. Her name’s Noelene. She won’t say anything else. Refuses to talk to us. Says she’ll only talk to Callie Duncan.’
Sebastian heard the cluster of groans around him as he strapped on the bulletproof vest he was handed. ‘Who’s Callie Duncan?’
‘A pain-in-the-butt community mental health worker.’
‘Okay.”
He nodded. It didn’t matter how the cops around him felt about this Callie what’s-her-name. She obviously knew the woman on the bridge and if she worked in mental health then she was probably better equipped than most to deal with this situation. “Let’s get her here while I have a little chat with Noelene.’
