by Tania Joyce
If only.
“Mmm … you have to taste this.” Troy cut a bite-sized piece from his portion of beef and held it toward her. She was caught off guard by the offer but wasn’t about to refuse. She leaned toward him, opened her mouth and let him slide the fork into her mouth.
The food was delicious.
“Was that your way of getting me to offer you some of mine?” She pointed to the quail dish in front of her.
“Absolutely. Fair’s fair.” He edged closer to her. How could she refuse?
She speared a piece on to her fork, smothered it in the jus and offered it to his eagerly awaiting mouth.
“That’s pretty good,” he said as he licked his lips, but then leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Not as good as having you in the wine cellar.”
Kelleigh dropped her knife and it clattered loudly on her plate. Her eyes darted up to find Jessica and Nate, Nick and Maria staring at her and Troy. Surely they hadn’t heard his comment. No, it had to be about the food. Was that a sparkle in Jessica’s eye as she smiled in Troy’s direction? Nate looked mortified by their bad table manners. What was she thinking of sharing her food like that with Troy? It was rude at such an event, but hey, he’d started it. Oh, she wanted to crawl under the table and hide in shame.
The emcee drew their attention, bringing some relief to Kelleigh, and commenced the announcement of the awards. Champagne bottles popped loudly when Gumtrees walked away with Semillon Wine of the Year for the second year running, and celebrations continued into the night.
Placing her hand on her hot cheek, Kelleigh felt flushed from too much champagne.
“Shall we dance?” Troy offered out his hand.
“I’m not much of a dancer, I have two left feet,” Kelleigh hated to admit she was unable to keep time to a beat.
“Well, I have two right feet, so maybe together we’ll make a perfect match.”
Not taking no for an answer, he stood up and led her on to the dance floor. Jostling in among the crowd, he weaved one hand around her waist while the other took hers and held it against his chest. Music streamed around them, making her heart thud in time with the rock beat. Twirling around together, Troy’s eyes stayed locked on to hers, undeterred by the shuffling crowd surrounding them.
“Congratulations once again on your win.” Kelleigh swayed side to side from the buzz of the champagne and concentrated on balancing on her high heels. “What does it do for your business?”
“We get a special gold sticker to put on our wine bottles.” He chuckled. “But on a serious note, it does wonders in publicity. We’ll get some great write-ups and hopefully pick up a few new supply contracts with more restaurants and wholesalers.”
“More grand plans.” she said, unable to hide the sharp tone in her voice and accidently stepped on his right toe. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just that my ex was always in to some scheme.”
Unaffected by her misstep, he held her tight to ensure she maintained her balance. “Don’t be silly. You’re fine. This is everyday business for us. To have a market demanding our wines is good. It benefits all areas of our operation. Accommodation occupancy rates go up, the restaurant becomes more popular, and more suppliers take on our wine. Nick and I have been in the wine industry for a long time and we like to think we know what we’re doing. We don’t have any grand plans to take on the world. We want to stay small and boutique. We’re sensible about what we do … most of the time anyway.”
She rested her chin on Troy’s shoulder; the cotton of his shirt brushing softly against her skin. Sensible was not how her heart was reacting or why her body was aching for more of his touch.
She turned and looked into his sapphire eyes. “I wish you every success with Gumtrees. You have a great bunch of people to work with.”
“It’s a lot of hard work and these people are my family; I’d do anything for them.”
He rubbed his hand up and down her back, molding his body next to hers as they continued around the dance floor. She closed her eyes, savoring every moment. He felt so strong. So safe. So heavenly.
“You have so much to look forward to, I think I am envious. All I have is my sister’s baby due soon and my job.” Providing the development for the resort was approved and she remained employed.
“Sounds like you have a lot going for you, if you ask me.”
Life could be worse. Not much worse, but worse. She couldn’t stay living in this bubble out in the Hunter Valley forever, but going home scared her. Having to face her reality again and the thought of never experiencing these feelings or seeing Troy again was not something she looked forward to.
The soft brush of his fingertips against her cheek caused her to glance up.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Captivated by his enchanting blue eyes, she fell further under his hypnotic spell.
“It’s getting late. I’m tired and my feet are killing me in these shoes. I’m struggling to find the strength to say goodbye to you yet again.”
“Then don’t.”
“What did you say?” she whispered.
“My tie is strangling me. I have a blister on my heel from wearing these dress shoes but I don’t want to stop dancing with you because I don’t want to let you go. Let me take you home. Let me make love to you. Let me share your bed again before we have to part ways.”
Her heart lurched, knowing her feelings for him were forging deeper and deeper into her heart.
She closed her eyes. She’d be foolish not to walk away and leave now; even more foolish to say yes.
Then she opened her eyes and saw the look. The one she’d longed for. The one of such intensity it reached deep inside her and touched her very soul. How was her heart ever going to survive this?
He nuzzled into her neck, breathed in her perfume, kissed her beneath her lobe. “One more night. Say you want me to stay with you.”
Her lips parted, goose bumps shot down her arm. She couldn’t think straight and, more importantly, she didn’t want to.
Kelleigh entwined her fingers with his and nodded. Following her temptation out through the crowd, they gathered their belongings from the table and headed out the door.
Chapter 19
The days disappeared too quickly. Kelleigh worked long hours with her team in the scorching summer sun. A long cool shower at the end of each day to rid herself of all the sweat and dirt was her form of heaven.
She had to keep herself busy to keep her mind occupied. Otherwise all she did was think about Troy. She hadn’t seen him since he left her room on Sunday morning. Four days had passed with only a few little text messages and the odd wave from him as she drove down to Larry’s and he happened to be working in the section of the vineyard near the road. Considering she was leaving in a week’s time, keeping contact to a minimum probably was for the best.
Her team had kept with her grueling schedule and taken all the extra samples as requested. And as the rain set in again on Thursday afternoon, the last batch of extractions was sent off for testing. One lot to Jerry, the other to Melbourne.
All she had left to do was to finalize the surveying, attend the council rezoning meeting on Wednesday and then she would be able to head home at the end of next week.
Standing in the middle of the paddock with her crew, the rain’s intensity grew, hindering their visibility and making it impossible to work on the surveying. Looking up at the darkened sky, it didn’t look like it was going to clear any time soon. With everyone soaked through, she called it a day and sent her team home early. All she wanted was a bit of sunshine so she could finish this job and head home. She missed Franny and looked forward to catching up with her.
But Mother Nature had her own ideas. More and more rain fell on Friday and across the entire weekend. Inches of rain drenched the earth. The creeks were swollen and the paddocks a muddy bog when Kelleigh managed to get back out to Larry’s on Monday morning. Traipsing through waist-high green grass and two inches of mud in the sticky humidity was h
ot and uncomfortable work. The tripods kept sinking or moving in the mud, making it difficult to gather accurate survey readings. But she and her team persevered and made slow but steady progress. The hard work kept her from thinking about Friday. Four days until she’d be heading home and no chance of ever seeing Troy again.
***
Kelleigh’s eyes shot open the next morning. Crap, it was nearly eight o’clock. Somehow the alarm clock had failed to go off and she’d slept in.
Pulling on her hi-vis gear and doing up her steel-caps in record time, she quickly sat down in front of her laptop to check her email before heading out for the day.
She skimmed through all of her messages until she found one she’d been waiting for. It was the environmental audit, soil and water results. But this one was Jerry’s, not the one from Melbourne. Bugger! She opened the attached Excel spreadsheet and scanned through the data.
Her brow furrowed as she read the mineral analysis in the report. Damn it. There was nothing irregular in the document. And that concerned her. There were no traces of anything, which was highly unusual for agricultural farmland used for growing produce. Larry’s place was full of rich, beautiful soil, but this report indicated that it was of poor quality and useless for growing anything. How could that be?
This report swayed the development application in JLR’s favor. That was a good thing, right? It meant she’d keep her job and so did her team. The golf course and hotel would go ahead as planned.
But the niggling sensation returned to her belly and grew stronger and stronger. Tapping her fingers on the desk, she prayed the report from Melbourne would come through to her before the council meeting tomorrow. She needed to compare the two. If the reports were the same, she could stop with all this worry and suspicion. If the Melbourne analysis didn’t come through in time, there’d be nothing she could do to prove that Toru was up to no good.
With all the feasibility studies completed, the JLR development application was ready for submission. Troy and the surrounding farmers would be devastated to know it looked like the project would proceed. She was glad she wouldn’t be around to see the disappointment on his face.
While on one hand she didn’t want to lose her job, on the other hand, if this report from Jerry was concocted, she wanted to take Toru down. The legal ramifications for JLR in the future could be astronomical.
Worried about time, her job and her team, her intuition was playing havoc with her mind. She wiggled her fingers above the keyboard, wondering what to do.
Troy needed to see this report. Maybe there was something in it she was missing. She hoped not. She clicked on the forward button and typed in Troy’s email address from the business card she’d received at her first meeting at Gumtrees. With a quick message she indicated the results were all clear and the project was viable before she hit the send button.
Grabbing her keys, she set off to Larry’s for another day of work. Surveying of the land was the only remaining task to be completed for the future construction.
***
Troy sat in his office checking his email messages before he had to start scheduling the labor hire for the up and coming harvest. Employing workers to handpick some of the older vines was not his favorite task. It was time consuming and would keep his mind from thinking about Kelleigh working over in Larry’s fields.
Spending the festival dinner with her had made it one of the most memorable evenings he’d had in a long time. Staying the night with her a wonderful unexpected turn of events. Keeping his distance from her was hard, knowing she was still here. He was trying to be sensible knowing she was leaving.
As he read through his inbox, his eyes widened when he saw a message from Kelleigh. He opened it and leaned in for a closer look. She’d sent him a copy of the environmental audit and sampling report. Why? Clicking on the attachment, he opened the document and skimmed through the executive summary. Every word he read felt like another weight was placed on his shoulder. Damn it! It looked like there was nothing in the report that would halt the development. Clicking through the pages, all the words started to blend together and the technical jargon made his head hurt. Then he reached the section consisting of the soil sampling result and perused over the list of mineral levels and trace elements. Nothing unusual. Bugger. He stopped scrolling and was about to close the document down when it struck him that something wasn’t right.
His eyes rescanned down the columns of figures on the screen. There it was. In plain black and white. Actually, it wasn’t there at all. To double-check, he stood up, took two long strides over to his filing cabinet, yanked it open and withdrew the folder of the water and soil tests performed on Gumtrees over the past several years. He found the results for the area closest to Larry’s farm. He skimmed over the figures in his data and compared them to the figures in Kelleigh’s report. Back and forth he went. The two documents were miles apart. How could Larry’s farm be so vastly different from Gumtrees? He knew the data would be slightly different due to different farming practices, but such extremities were not possible.
Falling back into his chair, he coursed his fingers through his hair. Wasn’t Kelleigh the one responsible for supervising the environmental audit? How had the consultant’s analysis come up with these results? She wouldn’t have sent him a copy of this report if she didn’t approve it, would she? A lump formed in his throat and he swallowed hard as a bitter taste rose in his mouth. Had … had she doctored the figures? The very notion made his fists clench and jaw strain as he stared at his screen. Hurt, disappointment and anger burned inside his chest. Was this what she was really like? She’d lied to him from the start, not telling him why she’d come to town, not giving him any indication of who she was or who she worked for. Now this. Did she lie about everything?
He slammed his fist down on the desk, making every pen, pencil and notepad jump. He’d actually liked her and thought she was a decent human being, but no, she was ruthless. Just like Jessica who would do anything for her business. Just like Nicola with all the lies and manipulation.
He thought he’d seen the real Kelleigh and understood her. How wrong had he been? How foolish was he for falling back into her bed? He wasn’t usually one to get worked up about anything, but this report infuriated him.
He had to find out the truth. He grabbed his phone off the desk and called Kelleigh’s number. Had he been right all along and should have stayed away from her? His time with her was going to be tarnished once again. Listening to the dial tone, he swore when it went straight to message bank.
Kelleigh was not going to get away with this.
Flicking through his contacts, he dialed Maxine.
“Hey Max, I may have found something for you and Ray to look at regarding this whole debacle at Larry’s. The project leader, Kelleigh, sent me their environmental audit results and they are vastly different to our tests conducted here at Gumtrees. Something doesn’t add up.”
“Send it through. We don’t have much time before the meeting tomorrow. I’ll jump on it straightaway. I was about to meet with Ray to finalize everything before we come up tomorrow. We’re confident we’re going to win. Without the acquisition of the surrounding neighbor’s properties, there’s no viable economic and social benefit to the community. We’re also strongly opposing the rezoning due to the agricultural use of the land. Don’t stress. A report that doesn’t match up just means the council may rule for a third party to do another assessment—it’s not a strong enough case by itself, but every bit helps.
Troy wished he had Maxine’s confidence. He wouldn’t rest until JLR and Kelleigh were gone from the Hunter Valley for good.
“I’ll email it to you straight away. Looking forward to seeing you at the meeting tomorrow.”
Chapter 20
Rain fell in heavy curtains across the Valley on Wednesday morning as Troy rushed into the council’s office. Maxine, with her hair pulled back in a tight bun, designer suit and lethal-looking high heels, stood next to Ray, who donned a
conservative black suit. Both looked like stereotypical intimidating lawyers as they waited for him in the foyer.
“Good to see you, Max, it’s been a while.” Troy said over a handshake. “Ray, nice to meet you.”
“You ready to stop a golf course?” Maxine asked with a sparkle in her eye. “I fucking love this shit. You good to go?”
Troy and Ray nodded as Maxine led them into the meeting room. Troy’s nerves edged up a notch when he saw Toru and another man in a stiff-looking suit he assumed to be with JLR. A couple of men from the council sat at the head of the table, flicking through documents and papers that lay before them.
“Hey Troy, glad you made it on time.” Matthew, one of the council members greeted him with a firm handshake. Hopefully being on friendly terms with one of the men on the review panel worked in his favor.
“Hey Matt. This is Maxine Gordon and Ray Whistler, my lawyers from Sydney.”
The team for JLR reluctantly shook hands and introduced themselves before taking seats again.
“I was not made aware of others being involved in this meeting,” Toru interjected.
Matt waved his pen. “Yes you were. I’ve emailed numerous communications stating this is an open meeting regarding your application to rezone an area of the Valley. As a neutral body we have to review both sides of the equation and do our own investigations before we make our decision.”
Troy concealed a snigger as Toru wiped his brow with his handkerchief. He wanted the man to sweat and squirm.
The door burst open and Kelleigh entered with a rush, carrying an armful of documents. “Sorry I’m late, I was waiting for some files to print.”
Every muscle in Troy’s body went rigid as he watched her take her seat. Firstly, she wasn’t supposed—she clearly stated from the beginning she wouldn’t be involved in any of the legalities regarding this case. Secondly, since receiving the email from her yesterday, he’d been unable to talk to her. She didn’t return his phone calls, didn’t message him or come and see him after work, which seemed to confirm his suspicions. Her eyes darted around the room and she fidgeted with everything in sight as she settled at the table. He glared at her. He’d been foolish to think for a moment that there had been a spark between them. Foolish to believe Jessica when she said that there was hope for everyone to fall in love again. No, that moment of weakness for Kelleigh had gone and now it was down to business.