by Emma Lea
20
The boys had a win, beating the girls by a couple of runs in the limited overs cricket match. Blake didn’t think backyard cricket was normally played with such steely determination, but he enjoyed the friendly competition and rivalry—complete with hecklers from the sidelines. The grandparents and a pregnant Chantel kept score with Frank and Jimmy providing the running commentary.
The men celebrated with a beer after being awarded the Unofficial Ashes Trophy while the women headed inside to finish the lunch preparations. The day was a scorcher and still, with no breeze to cool things down.
“We’ll get a storm this afternoon,” Frank said from his seat at the table.
“Yep,” Jimmy concurred. “We need the rain.”
Blake looked at the sky but there was nothing but acres of blue as far as he could see.
“You sure about that rain?” he asked, turning back to the older men.
Both of them nodded before sipping from their beers.
“Alright you lot,” Julia said coming into the pavilion. “Come and help us with all this food.”
Blake helped to cart plates and dishes and platters of food from the house to the pavilion and laid it out on the big counter under the direction of the aunts. Zoë’s dad organised drinks for everyone and then they all sat down around the table.
“Pull my cracker?” Zoë said with a wink.
Blake grinned and reached for the end of the Christmas cracker. His sour mood from earlier was gone and he’d made a decision. He would tell Zoë tonight the truth about who he was and somehow try to turn this ‘pretend’ relationship into something real. He believed in Zoë and getting to know her over these last few days had shown him he could trust her. She’d probably be upset that he had lied to her, but he was convinced that it wouldn’t change what had begun to develop between them.
The cracker burst open with a loud bang and Zoë sorted through the bounty to unroll the paper hat inside and put it on her head.
“My turn,” Jenny said, from the other side of him.
He picked up his cracker and cracked it open with her. He didn’t bother with the hat or the jokes and toy inside.
“No lunch unless you’re wearing your hat,” Zoë said.
“What?”
“It’s the rule,” she replied.
Blake looked around to see that everyone was wearing their paper hats.
“Put it on or you go hungry,” Zoë said with a grin.
Blake slipped the blue paper hat on his head and posed for her. “I make this look good,” he said and she laughed, leaning against him as if it was something they did all the time. How was it that being with her came so naturally?
Lunch was a buffet affair and Blake filled his plate with far too much food, but each dish looked better than the last. Julia made a glazed ham—a specialty of hers according to Zoë—that was cooked on the barbecue with a mango glaze and served with mango relish. There was a Turducken—a large, boneless rolled roast that was essentially a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey—which Blake had never even heard of before let alone eaten, and a huge platter of fresh seafood. The large buffet table was overflowing with fresh salads, coleslaw, potato salad and even roast vegetables with gravy. A strange marshmallow salad that he swore should have been part of dessert was the only thing he didn’t put on his plate. It was like a scene from Harry Potter with the table overflowing with food and never seeming to diminish even as they filled their plates over and over again.
There were stark differences between this and the Christmases he’d spent with his own family. Christmas lunch when he was growing up consisted of a turkey and vegetables prepared by their cook and served in the formal dining room. There were no Christmas crackers or bad jokes—it seemed in Zoë’s family the worse the joke was, the more points you got for it. There was no loud Christmas music or backyard cricket and no laughter. That was the most definitive thing that set an Austin family Christmas apart from a Farraday family Christmas. Austin family Christmases were to be endured as quickly, quietly and with the least amount of mess and fuss as possible. Not so with the Farradays. The family lingered over lunch, interested in each other’s lives. They all lived reasonably close together—apart from Zoë—and saw each other regularly, and yet they still had things to talk about.
And not once did he feel left out or on the sidelines.
They gathered him into their fold in such a way that he didn’t even realise it was happening. He was just part of them, another cell in the organism of their family, accepted and valued just for being there. He didn’t have to prove anything or live up to some ideal because of who he was or what family he’d been born into. The people around him genuinely wanted to get to know him, without artifice. Even if they weren’t under the impression that he and Zoë were in some sort of relationship, he was sure their interest in him would be just as genuine.
He helped the men clear the food, taking it back to the house and stowing it in the huge refrigerators, while the women brought out dessert. He didn’t know how he could even fit another thing in but seeing the spread of trifle, frozen Christmas pudding, cheesecake, pavlova, and fruit salad had him gathering a plate and filling it again.
He pushed his empty bowl away and slung his arm around Zoë’s shoulder, pulling her close as Jimmy and Frank tried to outdo each other with stories from their childhoods. Zoë leaned her head against his shoulder and something clicked into place in his heart. This was what he wanted. This was the type of family he wanted to build…with Zoë.
Christmas lunch was followed by a nap. They were both too full of food to do much more than collapse on the bed in their cabin together. The air conditioner hummed and Zoë relaxed completely as she lay beside Blake, her eyes growing heavy. There were only a couple more days and she would be back to her normal life and Blake would be…she didn’t really know. She wanted to see Blake again. She wanted to know if it was possible for them to have something beyond this sojourn away from real life and real responsibilities.
She slept hard and when she felt the nudge to wake up, it was almost impossible to open her eyes.
“Five more minutes,” she groaned.
“Let’s go for a walk,” Blake said, nibbling on her shoulder. “And maybe a swim.”
“Mmm,” she rolled over and snuggled into him. “A swim sounds good.”
“Are there dinner plans we have to think about?” he asked.
“How can you even think about food?” she asked opening one eye to him.
He shrugged and grinned. “I just didn’t want to miss any of the family stuff.”
‘“Dinner is a ‘choose your own adventure’ deal tonight,” she said, sitting up and stretching. “We can help ourselves to the leftovers from lunch whenever we want to.”
“Perfect,” he said, tugging on her hand and pulling her off the bed to her feet.
They dressed quickly and grabbed towels before heading out into the late afternoon. It was sweltering but the horizon was dark with clouds.
“Your grandfathers were right about that storm,” Blake said.
“They usually are,” she said with a yawn, still struggling to come fully awake as they wandered down the track toward the spring.
“I had a really good day,” Blake said, pulling her to his side and dropping a kiss on top of her head.
“Yeah?” she asked smiling up at him. “My family aren’t too crazy for you?”
He shook his head. “I really like your family,” he said, his voice rough.
“They really like you too,” she said as they reached the spring.
They were alone and she was glad. Hopefully no one would come and ruin their privacy. With a look over her shoulder to make sure no one followed them, Zoë stripped off her clothes and jumped into the water naked.
“Are you coming?” she called to Blake who was standing on the bank watching her with hot eyes.
“Not yet,” he said with a wink and then stripped off and followed her into the water
.
He swam out to her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her close. He slid his lips across hers and she wrapped her legs around his waist, clinging to him with nothing but the cool water between them.
He groaned into her mouth as his tongue explored and she felt him harden between her thighs. She slung her arms around his neck and pressed closer to him, his hard length sliding through her folds and pulling a moan from both of them.
His lips burned a trail down her neck and she leaned back, arching her neck and lifting her aching breasts to him in a silent plea. His tongue swirled around the hard tip of one before he sucked it into his mouth. She rocked her pelvis against him, feeling his erection throb against her.
“Zoë,” he whispered, his voice thick. “I don’t have a condom with me.”
“We don’t need one,” she said.
He lifted his head to look at her, his eyes dark, the pupils blown wide. “Are you sure?”
“I’m on the birth control injection,” she said, “and I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone but you since my last physical.”
He searched her eyes. “I haven’t been with anyone but you in twelve months,” he said, surprising her.
She lowered her mouth to his and captured his lips in a hard, desperate kiss. He gripped her hips and pulled her down on him. He filled her completely and the slide of skin against skin had her eyes rolling back in her head as she abandoned herself to the way he felt.
His mouth found her nipple once more as he thrust into her. The water rippled around them, caressing her naked body in a way that hands couldn’t. Blake dragged his tongue across her skin to find her other breast and then scraped his teeth gently over the hard nub. She squeezed her thighs around him, pulling him deeper as she shuddered around him.
“Fuck Zoë,” he breathed against her wet skin. “How is it possible that it gets so much better every time?”
He moved them through the water to the far side of the spring and pushed her against the mossy rocks. His hips bucked into her as her nails scored his back. Lips and tongue and teeth nipped at her neck and her shoulder and she cried out as her climax crashed into her. She arched against Blake, riding the storm of her orgasm as he thrust into her. Stars burst behind her eyes and then he stilled, his body tightening before he let go and came, his hard length throbbing inside her as she clung to him.
After what seemed like an eternity and yet not long enough, Blake moved them back across the pond to the shore. They lay next to each other, naked under the gathering storm clouds, their fingers entwined.
“Zoë—”
“Blake—”
They both spoke at the same time and then stopped before chuckling.
“You go first,” Blake said.
Zoë took a deep breath. “My last boyfriend used me to steal a promotion that should have been mine,” she said, quietly. “It’s why I left my last job and why I needed someone to come home with me for Christmas. I didn’t want to have to explain to everyone and I didn’t want them trying to set me up with every eligible man that came within a mile of Hope Springs. I decided I was going to give up men and I thought that bringing you here with me would keep everyone off my back so I could just get through Christmas and then get back to my career.”
“Zoë—”
“No. Let me finish.” She turned her head to gaze at him. “I didn’t expect to fall for you, Blake Spencer.”
Blake opened his mouth to speak when a loud crack thundered across the sky and a deluge fell from the heavens. They scrambled to their feet and dragged on clothes as quick as they could before bolting back down the track to the cabin, laughing the whole way.
21
Boxing Day had everyone going in different directions. Zoë’s sisters and cousins headed off to visit their in-laws—if they had them—and the unmarried ones scattered to various friends’ places. The elder members of the family hung around Windaroa, each doing their own thing, which left Blake and Zoë the day to themselves.
“So what’s the plan?” Blake asked as they lingered over their breakfast. It was the quietest Windaroa had been since he’d arrived and although it was nice, he was itching to do something.
“There’s an outdoor movie night in Hope Springs later,” she said, “if you’re interested.”
“What’re they playing?”
She shrugged as she sipped her coffee. “No idea. Probably an old Christmas movie.”
“Sounds good,” he replied, nodding, his knee bobbing with restlessness. “But what about today? What are we going to do for the rest of the day?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said, getting up to walk around. “You could show me around. We could go for a drive, have a picnic somewhere.”
She hopped up and slid her hands around his waist, pressing up on her toes to kiss him softly. “That sounds lovely.”
It didn’t take long for them to pack up some leftovers and a few drinks for their picnic. He snatched the keys out of her hand. “I’ll drive, you play navigator and DJ.”
They powered the windows down as they set off away from Windaroa and Hope Springs. It was another glorious day, the storm from the night before had cleared the humidity and settled the dust and it was nice to have fresh air blowing in the car rather than air-conditioning.
The gift Blake had bought for Zoë burned a hole in his pocket. He’d meant to give it to her last night but after the swim in the spring and then the storm, he’d, if not forgotten about it, then put it to the back of his mind. Once they’d gotten back to the cabin, they’d showered together which led to other things until they’d finally collapsed, exhausted, into bed.
He shot a look at Zoë who was sitting with her feet up on the dash and looking pensively out the window. He reached across the console to lay a hand on her leg. “Everything okay?” he asked.
She turned her head and smiled at him and he wanted to capture the moment like a polaroid in his mind. She smiled at him, her dark hair blowing in the breeze, her aviators on and the sun-swept landscape behind her.
“I’m good. Just thinking.”
“About?”
She turned back to looking out the window. “My real life. Work. I start a new job next week and I’m anxious to make a good impression. What Tanner did to me knocked my confidence around. I thought I was good at my job and I thought my bosses knew that but Tanner took my work and passed it off as his own and they believed him, even when I protested.”
He squeezed her thigh, feeling nauseated.
“He was good friends with our boss. They were drinking buddies and played golf together. They’d been friends at uni and he’d gotten Tanner the job with the company. I should have known that their relationship would trump my work ethic. It seems to be the way of the world.” She turned back to look at him. “Even now, with this new job, I’m going to have to work with the boss’s brother. No doubt if there are any promotions up for offer, he’ll get first dibs.”
Blake swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat. She was talking about him but what she didn’t know was that he had no desire to climb the corporate ladder. Even if the promotions were handed to him on a silver platter, he wouldn’t want them or accept them. The only reason he’d taken a job at Austin Industries was to get his family off his back. He only had plans to do the bare minimum. Not that Zoë would understand. Her career meant a great deal to her and she would never understand how things like building a family appealed to him more.
He was going to tell her the truth about who he was last night but when she’d told him about her ex, he just couldn’t make the words come out of his mouth. Now, after hearing how much her new job meant to her and how she was already biased against the name Austin, it was the last thing he wanted to do. In the past he’d been concerned that women were only after him for his name and his money—he’d been burned one too many times to think otherwise—but with Zoë he knew that it would have the opposite effect. If she knew who he was, she
’d run a mile. He’d been concerned she’d want to use him when in fact she’d despise him instead.
He wished there was a way he could distance himself from the Austin surname. Growing up it had been held over him as some sort of benchmark that he was supposed to live up to—one he always failed to reach according to his father and grandfather. When he was old enough, he realised that his last name meant something different to the people in his peer group. They saw him as a deep pocket and someone they could use to get where they wanted to go. He despised the Austin name and everything it stood for. He would do anything to leave it behind and yet…it was the only thing that tied him to his family. A family he desperately wanted to love and have love him. He was nearly thirty years of age and yet there was a little boy inside him who just wanted his mother and father to love him and value him for more than his bloodline. He wanted a family like the one Zoë took for granted. He wanted to somehow transform his family into the loving and supportive network that Zoë had and the only way he could think to do it was to become the person his father wanted him to be, which would make him the person Zoë would hate the most.
“Turn here,” she said, directing him through the town they’d driven into.
“Where are you taking me?”
She grinned at him. “It’s a surprise.”
He forced his dark thoughts away. He only had a few days left with Zoë and if this was all he got, then he was going to make the most of them.
The wave of salty air hit them as Zoë directed Blake onto The Great Ocean Road. It had been a long time since she’d driven the road herself and she dragged in a deep breath as she caught a glimpse of the ocean.
“Are we running away?” Blake asked with a grin at her.
“Yep,” she said, settling back in her seat as she watched the scenery flash by.
Melbourne wasn’t that far from the water. A short trip on the tram to St Kilda and she could dig her toes in the sand and breathe in the sea air, but she never seemed to have time—or make time.