by Bowes, K T
Leilah nodded. “Maybe a little, yes. I was never quite sure of him because of that. I figured he masked his true self in all the women he slept with. Until he died. Then I knew the truth.”
“But you slept with him,” Tane said, his voice low and husky. “You must have known then.”
Leilah inhaled, relieved it hurt a little less each day. “Desperation, loneliness and rejection do hideous things to your head. I did, yes and I’m sorry I baited you; it was unkind.” She fixed eyes filled with compassion on her friend and tried to lessen his pain. “At the end, he said he was sorry but looked at you, not me.” She swallowed as memories of the pain and blood filtered back into her inner vision. “He apologised to you,” she repeated. “Dante always believed you were Seline’s father. He felt he had nothing to lose, so he took the bullet for both of us.” Leilah bit her lip and swallowed again, her throat growing tight.
Tane nodded and ran a hand across his face from top to bottom, his classic stress tell. “Dante’s dad died last night. He never knew what happened; he was too sick near the end to deserve to hear any of that. Mari kept telling him Dante got called back to work and he stopped asking after the medics increased the morphine.” Tane swallowed. “Dante killed Baxter up at your place. A lawyer in Auckland contacted me after the media reported his death. He left a signed confession. It was all over some dead cert land deal apparently.”
Leilah shook her head, pondering on the wretched waste of lives for the sake of money.
Tane watched her, regret in his eyes. “Everyone thought it was you and me in love, Lei. Secrets made us close, so they all assumed. A few weeks after you left for uni, Ted saw me with Miriama and ripped me a new one, called me a cheating bastard and heaps more stuff. He socked me in the jaw, saying you’d only just gone and couldn’t I wait.” Tane laughed but it wasn’t a humorous sound. “That’s why Miriama doesn’t like you; she thinks everyone hates her because of you.”
Leilah nodded. “And you have a redheaded daughter so she made assumptions about Seline.”
Tane looked surprised but didn’t question it. “Maybe.”
Leilah smiled and her beauty returned in the millisecond’s worth of affection. “Seline actually looks like her paternal grandmother, doesn’t she?”
“Sure does.” Tane’s mind wandered back in time to the tattered photo Seline’s father kept in his wallet, a red haired woman with pale skin and a fragile, haunted look. “Why didn’t you come back, Lei? When you knew you were pregnant.”
Leilah smiled. “I did. I fought with my father and went looking for help. I bumped into Ted in the cafe and he said my boyfriend was cheating on me.”
“He meant me.” Realisation dawned on Tane’s face and he recoiled in shock, a hand raised to his mouth. “I’m so sorry, Lei. I’m really sorry. I’d started seeing Miriama by then.”
Leilah sighed, tired by the conversation and Tane put his hand back on the door handle. “Dante wasn’t gay, was he?” she repeated the phrase, not waiting for a reply this time. Miriama’s agonised words filtered back through her brain, blaming Tane’s distance in his marriage on a misplaced affection for Leilah. “He wasn’t gay, but you discovered you were.”
Chapter 54
Hector’s House
Leilah stood at the bottom of the driveway and stared up at the house in the lea of the mountain. Half the weatherboard shone with a pristine glow and the other half still resembled a building site, bare wooden planks looking dull against the wood filler and replacement struts. The gates hung from newly sunk strainer posts, upright and proud under a coat of fresh black paint. Leilah stroked the hard metal and smiled, her expression wistful. “You’d love these, Dad,” she whispered. “They look as good as you thought they would.”
A vehicle on the main road slowed and the driver tooted his horn. “Hey, miss,” Corey shouted, pulling over behind Leilah’s car. “It’s looking good, aye?” He ran his hands through a long fringe, the rest tied behind his head in a short ponytail.
Leilah nodded. “Yes, they’ve done well.” She smiled at Corey’s eccentric hairdo. “You’re rockin’ the man-bun,” she said, pointing to his head.
The young man wrinkled his nose. “Old misery guts says it’s gay,” he said. “So now I can’t cut it. He’ll think I care what he says.”
“Don’t you?” Leilah asked, her blue eyes like sparkling orbs in the sunshine.
Corey shrugged and squinted up the driveway at the house. “They’ve totally rebuilt it,” he commented. “Looks different inside; not the same place at all.” His lips receded into his face as he sucked them in, awkwardness descending over his usual easy going style.
Leilah brushed the moment away like an irritating fly. “It needed to be, didn’t it?”
Corey nodded, his frantic movement resembling a bobble-head doll. “You comin’ up to see the boss?” he asked. He chewed his lip and smirked. “I can warn him and then he might put some pants on.”
Leilah laughed at the image of Vaughan walking around in his boxer shorts, banishing the vision as it tried to expand into something else. She shook her head. “No, I won’t, thanks. He’s quite safe from me.”
With a cordial wave, Leilah got back behind the steering wheel and put the car in gear, running over the new surface with ease. Fresh gravel pinged beneath the car, making less of a dust plume than when it was dirt. New piles supported the old structure and the house had lost its frightening backward lean. Leilah’s chest tightened at the sight of the old lounge doors, replaced with a modern ranch slider, the room behind the glass altered beyond recognition by an obliging Hamilton architect and an extra payment to the Waipa District Council. The architect and the council visited regularly. Leilah didn’t.
Claus met her at the porch, waving his arm in an expansive motion to demonstrate the new decking and the altered look of her childhood home. Leilah smiled and shook his hand, wishing she could be anywhere else but there. “Sorry to drag youse out here, missus,” he said, apology in his eyes. “But the fancy pants architect says you have to sign off before we keep going.”
“It’s fine,” Leilah said. “Just give me the paperwork and I’ll sign it.”
“But don’t you wanna see?” Claus looked stricken, the work of his hands unappreciated and wasted.
Leilah shook her head and then changed her mind, not wanting to hurt him. He looked different, clean shaven and neater somehow. “You look well,” she said, distracting herself and delaying entry into the house.
Claus grinned. “Thanks. Got me a lady. She neatens me up.” He patted his hair and Leilah got a whiff of hairspray. Tori had snagged the builder, fresh blood in cow town.
“Let’s do it.” Leilah stiffened her spine, the shoulder wound as healed in six months as it was ever going to be, achy some days but mainly fine. It jabbed Leilah with a casual reminder of its presence, causing her to inhale and close her eyes as Claus rolled the door back on its quiet sliders.
“Tai did this by himself,” Claus said, chattering away as though Leilah represented the usual concerned backer of a massive home renovation. “I’m trainin’ him. We’ll use the cash from this job to set ourselves up in the town. Lots of folks come out here and see our work. We’ve got more jobs lined up when we finish this place.”
Leilah nodded and opened her eyes. The modest lounge had gone, opened up into the rest of the house through the demolishing of a wall. New rimu floorboards marked the area where Leilah bled out, the wall containing the through and through bullet no longer there. Hector’s prized stove sat in the corner on its original hearth, the cast iron newly greased and the glass clear. “It looks nice,” Leilah managed, the words catching in her throat. Nice.
“Your neighbour helped us with that,” Claus said. “He fitted a new flu and shined it up. We tried it when the plasterer came. Thought it would dry out the walls nice and slow but it turned the place into a hot house.” He chuckled. “That’ll keep you toasty on the cold winter nights.”
“You moved the
doors,” Leilah commented, staring at the place where Dante had lain, staring at her from his blank blue eyes. Shifting the location of the doors made it harder for her to pinpoint the exact spot and she frowned, wondering if she could feel it through the soles of her feet just by standing there.
“Yeah.” Claus looked at her with confusion. “The architect said you signed it off, missus. He thought the evening sun would be lovely pouring through that side of the house, so he made the whole wall into ranch sliders.” He gulped and repeated his words. “Architect said you signed it off.”
Leilah nodded. “I did. It’s fine.”
A shout from outside disturbed them, making Claus frown and Leilah jump. “Hey! Dude! Come and help me! Bloody band saw blade’s stuck in the effin, bloody wood for the kitchen cupboard. I can’t let go. Give us a hand.”
Claus rolled his eyes and smirked. “He’s learnin’ but he’s still a tit!” He turned towards the open ranch slider. “You have a wander around and I’ll help Tai,” he said, shooting Leilah a nervous look. On the threshold he stopped and turned, his cheeks flushing pink over the new look moustache. “Miss, I never thanked you proper for your kindness. You’re a good lady, missus. Everything we’ve done in this house, the boy and I, we put love into our trade, love and hope. I wish you could feel it.” He left, closing the door behind him and Leilah remembered to breathe, overwhelmed by something she couldn’t describe. She expected to be flooded with memories, good and bad, but instead nothing greeted her. The old house was long gone, stripped to remove borer beetle and dry rot and replaced with an empty newness in which someone could start over making their own history. Someone else.
Leilah felt the presence of Seline’s father without turning around, their connection renewed by the night he visited and made love to her, leaving before dawn because she wouldn’t promise to stay forever. She stiffened her spine and swallowed, not wanting her voice to be grainy and pathetic. “What do you want?” she asked.
“Same as always,” he replied. “You.”
“Funny way of showing it,” she said, without turning around, feeling the game blossoming in her chest. Their game. His rules.
“What did you expect?” he asked, his voice heavy like a timbrel’s harsh percussion. “You wanted me to ride into Hamilton and drag you home by your hair?”
Leilah shrugged, the motion wooden but no longer painful. “Maybe.” She turned and watched him break into a lazy smile, his full lips stretching over perfect teeth. He leaned against the doorframe, hands wedged into his pockets and his feet crossed at the ankles. The wind rustled the trees outside and Leilah gave him a narrowed expression of rebuke. “Shut the door. Were you born in a barn?”
He nodded. “Reckon I was. Born in a barn with rocks in my head, not able to see what was in front of my stupid eyes.”
Leilah swallowed. “What was that then?”
“You know what.”
“How did you get here?” She changed tack, not wanting to revisit dangerous ground.
“Rode here. Same as I did that other day.”
Leilah felt his eyes on her as she cringed visibly and he crossed the floor space in four long strides. “I can’t come back,” she whispered, remembering, her voice giving in to the pressure of repressed tears.
“Then don’t,” he replied, as though offering an obvious solution to a mammoth problem. “Stop running. Come home.”
Leilah swallowed and stared into the eyes of the only man she’d ever truly loved; Seline’s blood coursing through both their veins. Every molecule in Leilah’s body screamed for contact with him, begging her to reach out and grasp what he offered. She opened her lips to protest and he placed a calloused finger over her mouth, preventing her denial. He leaned forward and placed his lips against the shell of her ear, his breath sending shivers along her spine. “You might as well,” he whispered. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have accepted the deeds to the house back from Horse’s brother. I don’t wanna be there by myself anymore, Leilah. It’s yours too and I need you home.” Vaughan brushed a stray curl away from her mouth and sealed his statement with a kiss. “I tidied up,” he said with a smile, pleased with himself as though he’d clinched the deal.
“I heard you’re still walking around in your undies,” Leilah said, trembling from the vibration of her blood pounding in her breast. “Tempting young women to sin.”
Vaughan slipped his hands inside her sweater, seeking the bare skin of her back like a bee after honey. “Only if you’re lucky,” he said, his dark fringe falling into his eyes and moving like a heartbeat every time he blinked.
Leilah felt the soft strains of hope bud in her chest and allowed herself a smile. Then it dropped as reality crowded in. She tried to push his arms away, failing as he gripped her tighter. “There’s stuff you don’t know,” she said, her eyes wide. “You won’t be able to forgive me.”
“Then don’t tell me,” he replied, wisdom flooding his eyes. “There’s not much I don’t know, thanks to Uncle Derek. Now I know why Horse hated him; bastard packs a spiteful left hook.” Vaughan rubbed his chin and fixed his eyes back on Leilah’s. “I almost didn’t accept it all back, Lei. At first, I felt like you abandoned me twice in one lifetime. I know about the baby, Lei. About Seline. We can work through it, can’t we?”
“I don’t know.” Leila groaned and covered her eyes.
Vaughan dragged her hands away from her face. “I’ll accept the house and land back but I’ve attached a condition of my own.”
“What condition?” Her eyes widened in dismay.
“Stay with me?” he asked, his tone sincere but his eyes confident. Not like last time when he begged and then left. “Stay with me properly like we talked about when we lay on the riverbank and loved each other. Live at the house and help make it nice, like this one. For both of us to enjoy.” His eyes curved upwards in a hopeful smile and Leila fought the desire to stroke the crinkles at the corners where sunshine met humour. “We’re still married,” he whispered, his beard grazing her cheek. “Please, Lei. I need you.” Desire and need backlit the stunning eyes as Vaughan turned the locks in her heart. She felt them give in like the combination on Hector’s old safe. He’d remembered everything from their teenage summer of passion, determined to exploit his power over her again and she drowned in the magnetism she spent weeks resisting in his house and months trying to forget since the shooting. Leila swallowed. If she’d met him on an Auckland street in her high heels and blonde hair, would they just have picked up where they left off or did fate need to soften her and take off the sharp edges first? “Stay,” he demanded, his lips soft and dry over hers.
“Maybe,” Leilah replied, her eyes closing against the swell of emotion assailing her brain. A feeling of rightness pervaded her senses and halted her desire to run.
Vaughan cocked his head and studied her face, smoothing his thumb along her cheek bone and across her bottom lip. He bent to seal the deal with a kiss, his fingers linking through hers. “Good enough for now,” he said with a smile. “And better than before.”
Don’t worry…the next book in this series will be available in 2017
Keep a look out via the author’s Facebook page or on her website.
About the Author
K T Bowes worked in education for more than a decade, both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and has been writing since she could first hold a pencil. Now she works part time as an archivist maintaining a private collection. She believes in God, which is just as well because the situations she gets herself into often require His assistance. Surprisingly happily married despite her crazy escapades, K T Bowes still hankers after another parachute jump but hasn’t convinced her husband to join in. Her four beautiful children are all now making their own way in the world and finally eating salad and vegetables. She lives in the North Island of New Zealand between the Hakarimata Ranges and the Waikato River with a mad cat and often a few crazy horses. Horse riding is her passion but unfortunately she keeps falling off and breaking
bones, so has gone back to road running instead. She can’t be seen pacing the streets of Ngaruawahia because she runs in the dark, convinced people will laugh. Often accompanied by one of her characters complaining about something, the author appears to have mental problems as she frequently answers back, which is another good reason for running under cover of darkness.
Other books by this author:
Logan Du Rose
About Hana - FREE HERE
Hana Du Rose
Du Rose Legacy
The New Du Rose Matriarch
One Heartbeat
The Du Rose Prophecy
Du Rose Sons
Du Rose Family Ties
The boxed set is available containing the first 4 novels HERE
Novels for teens/young adults:
Free from the Tracks -FREE HERE
Sophia’s Dilemma
A Trail of Lies – FREE to subscribers
Gone Phishing
UK based mystery/romances:
Artifact
Demons on Her Shoulder
From Russia, With Love series, based in UK
The Actuary - FREE HERE
The Actuary’s Wife
The Actuary in Trouble
New Zealand Soccer Referee Series
All Saints
Small Town New Zealand Romance Series
Deleilah
Take a look at all K T Bowes’ novels HERE
From the Author
I hope that you enjoyed the first of my Small Town New Zealand Romance series as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would be grateful if you would take the time to leave a review at your usual retailer. You can get to them via this LINK. My work is ranked on reviews and your comments will allow me to reach a wider audience. It doesn’t have to be an essay - I will be grateful for a few words.
