Our Kind of Love

by Victoria Purman

  Anna Morelli was incredible. As she walked towards him, he noticed there were no follow-me-home-and-fuck-me shoes today, instead she was wearing flat sandals with a big red decoration on the top of each foot. They caught the sun and sparkled.

  God he loved her. Maybe he had all along. But just now, seeing her, reminded him how much he’d missed her. Wanted her. And now, he didn’t want to keep it a secret any longer. No more protecting his sources. Hell, he’d put it on the front page of the paper if it got her attention.

  He hooked the tongs on the barbeque and undid his apron. He had to get to her.

  Their eyes met. She could see him coming. He got closer. Anna lifted her chin and her lips parted with words about to be said.

  And then Harri arrived. ‘Anna, how lovely to see you.’

  Anna smiled, gave Harri two kisses. ‘You look great, Harri. No more trouble from that hip?’

  ‘It’s just like a bought one, doll. Oh, hello Joe.’

  ‘Harri. Perfect timing as always,’ Joe said.

  Anna met his eyes and smiled. ‘Joe.’

  ‘Dr Morelli.’

  ‘Listen, doll, you couldn’t get me a champagne, could you?’ Harri asked. ‘There’s one over at the bar with my name on it.’

  ‘Ah, sure,’ Joe said. ‘What about you, Anna? Would you like one too?’

  ‘No champagne for me, but I’d love a soda water.’

  ‘I’ll be right back.’

  As soon as Joe was out of earshot, Harri took Anna’s hand. ‘What’s going on, Anna? Why haven’t we seen you around Middle Point the past few months?’

  Anna forced a smile. ‘I’ve been busy. Life, you know, family.’ Keeping secrets.

  Harri narrowed her eyes. ‘You know I have an expert bullshit-meter, doll. What’s really going on?’

  Anna stared back at the old woman. She should really introduce her to Nonna.

  ‘I’m—’

  Then Ry appeared. ‘Where’s Joe? He’s abandoned his post at the barbie and there’s a queue for snags.’

  ‘He’s at the bar,’ Harri said.

  Anna watched as Ry found him and shepherded Joe back to the hotplate.

  ‘Harri, will you excuse me?’

  While making her way through the crowd to Joe, she was blindsided by Lizzie.

  ‘Oh Anna, we’re so glad you came down. It’s so great to see you. Really, it’s great. I thought you might pike.’ Lizzie pulled Anna in for a close hug. ‘But you’re hear now and that’s what’s important.’

  ‘Thanks, Lizzie. Look, can I catch up with you later? I need to talk to Joe.’

  ‘He’s cooking the snags,’ Lizzie said, a hitch in her voice. ‘Go.’ Lizzie gently turned her friend in the Joe’s direction and Anna slowly put one foot in front of the other. This was happening. You are strong. You can do this. No one gets to decide who I am, she told herself. They were Joe’s words. He was right. She was free to be who she was.

  Anna made her way through the crowd, gripping her soda water for strength. When she looked over to the sizzling sausages, his eyes were on her.

  The beautiful eyes she hoped her child would inherit.

  As blue as the Middle Point ocean on a summer’s day.

  She swallowed, found her strength. ‘So you can cook, too? Very impressive.’

  ‘Not as well as you, but my sausage sizzles are sensational. And, after my stint as a bartender, I can make a mean mojito.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘I’ve turned over a new leaf, in a whole range of ways, Anna.’

  ‘You have?’

  ‘I’m clearly good with animals.’ Joe flipped another snag on to the ground and the dog wolfed that one down too. When Anna laughed, Joe wondered how many more sausages he could sacrifice. Because he wanted to hear her laugh for the rest of his life.

  ‘And I’m great with kids. I’ve got Mary wrapped around my little finger.’

  Anna’s laughter stopped and the absence of it pierced him. Her face was pale and her hand flew to St Christopher.

  ‘Oh shit, Anna.’ Joe reached behind his waist, untied the barbecue apron, and tossed it on the bench behind him. He rounded the grill and reached for her hand. ‘Want to go for a walk?’

  Joe didn’t let go of her. They made their way through the crowd, down the pub’s side laneway and across the road lined with cars to the top of the steps, which would take them down to Middle Point’s wide beach.

  Anna stopped, tugged on Joe’s hand. She looked over the cliff and hesitated. ‘Where are we going, Joe? Can’t we look at the beach from up here?’

  ‘Bear with me,’ he said gently and slowed his urgent steps to help her keep up, her pace no match for his long-legged strides. They took the fifty steps down to the beach and he kept walking, not letting go of her hand even when they’d reached the spot. Joe took a deep breath and turned to Anna, reaching for her other hand. The mild breeze danced deliciously with Anna’s floaty dress and teased her hair. He lifted his eyes to the clouds, hoping the blue southern sky would help him find the words he needed.

  It was here. He needed to do it here. And he needed to get it right. He needed to summon every skill he had as a wordsmith to convince her. ‘There’s something I need to say to you.’

  Anna’s eyes widened and she bit her bottom lip. ‘Joe—’

  ‘Please, let me finish. I’ve come a long way to be standing right here with you.’

  ‘So have I,’ Anna said and there was a nervous catch in her voice and in her joke. ‘Eighty kilometres from my house to here.’

  He wanted to laugh but this was too big for him. He didn’t want to lighten the moment with a gag. ‘I’m not the man I was when I left Sydney a year ago, Anna. I’ve had lots of time lately to think about my life.’

  ‘You have?’

  ‘And I know one thing, Anna Morelli. The life that I want from this day on? I want you in it.’

  Anna tried to free her hands. He wouldn’t let go and pulled her closer.

  ‘Joe.’

  ‘Every good thing I feel about this place is about you. Do you remember this is where you learnt to surf? Just out there?’ He nodded to the waves, breaking in long white ribbons on the sand.

  She glanced out to the water. ‘How can I forget? I was scared to death.’

  Joe pulled her closer until she was so near he could see himself reflected in her caramel eyes. ‘I want a million more days like that, Anna.’

  She pulled herself from his embrace. ‘Stop it, Joe.’

  CHAPTER

  49

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  Anna took two steps backwards, away from the confusing embrace and his eyes. ‘There’s something I need to tell you, something important.’

  Joe rubbed a palm over his chin. ‘Hang on, Anna, I was in the middle of a pretty important speech just then. You cut me off before I got to the best bit.’

  ‘Believe me,’ Anna said with a shake of her head, ‘Whatever you were going to say, my news is bigger.’

  ‘I’ll be the judge of that. I am a newspaper editor, you know.’

  ‘Sometimes, you don’t need words, Joe, to tell someone the truth.’ Anna grabbed Joe’s hand and held it to her stomach, covering his so he wouldn’t pull away, so he would feel for himself what she had been hiding for months. It took Joe about half a second to register that the bump there wasn’t from too much lunch.

  When his eyes slowly lifted from her belly to her face, he was entirely speechless. Slowly, his other hand found a place on her swollen belly and he held her so gently that Anna wanted to close her eyes for just a moment and think about what it would be like if he was happy rather than freaked out. What it would be like if he was going to be a part of the baby’s life. A part of hers. She tried to pull herself together. She needed to tell him what had happened and, if she kept it clinical and matter-of-fact, maybe she wouldn’t cry. She’d done enough of that during the long first trimester, when she was too scared to hope in case she lost this baby too. But miracle of mi
racles, this little one was growing and thriving inside her. Had made her sick for weeks and was beginning to kick.

  ‘You’re pregnant,’ Joe whispered. ‘Oh my God.’ Joe’s hands on her belly were gentle and protective. ‘It’s a baby.’

  That just made Anna want to cry.

  ‘Yes. I’m pregnant. It happened the day you came up to Adelaide. The day I googled you and saw that awful article.’

  ‘The day we …’ Joe murmured. He hadn’t moved his hands or shifted his gaze.

  ‘We didn’t use a condom.’

  ‘It’s a baby.’

  ‘It’s definitely a baby.’ Anna held her breath. ‘And it’s a baby I never thought I’d be able to have, given my history.’

  It still felt like a miracle to Anna. And now being able to say it out loud? It was beyond belief.

  ‘I needed to come down here and tell you that I’m keeping the baby, Joe. This could be my only chance to be a mother and I’ve wanted this so much. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before now. I tried to that day at Victor Harbor. But it was too early and I was still too scared I might lose it.’

  Joe seemed to be in a daze, his hands moving in slow circles over her bump and then sliding around her waist to pull her close. When he looked at her, his eyes were soft, glazed. It would be too easy to get lost in that look, she realised, but that was pretend and she was stuck firmly in reality. Anna planted her hands on Joe’s chest and pushed him away, ever so gently.

  ‘Joe, I need you to know that I didn’t plan this. I’m not trying to trap you or expect you to play any part in the baby’s life. Months and months ago, you were honest with me about the fact that you don’t want kids and I accept that. What we have here is a lucky mistake. For me anyway.’

  Joe’s eyes were suddenly as bright as the blue sky above them and those little crinkles in the corner of his eyes that she’d always adored seemed deeper. Wiser.

  ‘What I also wanted to say is that I don’t want any money from you. I’m perfectly capable of looking after the baby myself and, as you know, I have a family who will help. When they find out, they’re going to go nuts with happiness.’

  Joe reached a hand up and wrapped a strand of her hair around his fingers. ‘Anything else you need to tell me?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, yes. I thought it was only fair that I told you first. Since you’re the …’ she gulped. ‘Father. My family don’t even know but telling them will be a piece of cake after everything else I’ve put them through in the past twelve months.’

  The look on Joe’s face made Anna’s heart hammer in her chest. She was too scared to put a word to it, to the tears in his eyes and the loving smile on his face.

  ‘So … breaking news.’ She attempted a laugh.

  ‘Well, that’s a story all right.’

  ‘Yep. Sure is.’

  ‘Front page material actually. But there’s one problem with it.’

  Anna snorted. ‘Only one?’

  ‘Call it the journalist in me, but I need to know what happens at the end.’ Joe took her face in his hands and looked into her eyes with an expression that Anna might mistake for love, if she wasn’t doped up on so many pregnancy hormones. And when he kissed her, pressed himself against her, baby bump and all, she let herself imagine an answer to that question.

  ‘What does happen in the end?’ she murmured.

  ‘You know when you interrupted me before?’

  ‘Yes,’ Anna said.

  ‘I was trying to tell you something.’

  ‘I know you were. That’s why I had to stop you. I didn’t want you to feel obligated to me or the baby when you found out. I was planning to tell you – and soon – but you forced my hand. I realised I had to tell you about the baby before you said anything you might regret tomorrow.’

  ‘Regret? I don’t have any. Not about you. Not about the baby. I want a life with you, Anna, whatever that brings us. And damn it all, it looks like life’s about to bring it on.’

  Anna tried to concentrate on his words but everything was blurred. ‘Listen, you should take some time to think about this. I’ve had a few months to come to grips with it. This is big news to swallow. And I understand all your reasons for being scared. I don’t want you if you are only doing this out of some misguided pride about the baby. If you’re offering me something, you have to know that I want all of you Joe, not just the guilt. If you’re saying all this because I’ve blindsided you with the baby, that’s not right for either of us and I’ll walk away. No strings attached.’

  Joe held up a hand. ‘Has anyone ever said that you could talk for Australia?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact.’

  ‘Listen up, Doc. It’s not about the baby. It’s about you. I love you, Dr Anna Morelli. I have loved you since we danced together the night of Ry and Julia’s wedding.’

  ‘You have?’

  ‘Yes. Dancing Queen, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Twice,’ Anna said.

  ‘I get that this is complicated and I know it won’t be easy.’

  ‘You’re telling me.’

  ‘For a start we’ll have to decide where to live,’ Joe said.

  ‘You want to live together?’ Anna heard the shock in her own voice.

  ‘How else are we gonna raise our baby?’

  ‘Vafanculo. I’m not even divorced.’ Anna crossed herself. ‘I’m going straight to hell.’

  ‘Don’t believe in it myself. And my marriage is officially over so maybe that’ll make you less of a sinner.’

  Anna stared at the sand. This whole thing, telling Joe, was supposed to have been the hard part. She expected shock and a polite discussion about future custody arrangements maybe, but not this. Her head was spinning with disbelief and something that felt like pure joy.

  Joe was touching her belly again, touching their baby.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure?’ she asked.

  ‘We’ve covered a lot of ground. Which part are you talking about?’

  ‘About wanting this baby. About living together. About loving me.’

  ‘Anna Morelli. I’m sure you’re going to drive me completely crazy in new and interesting ways each and every day, but I love you and I’m absolutely sure.’

  Anna sighed. ‘And I love you and I’m absolutely sure too.’

  Joe took Anna’s hand and they kissed, softly and sweetly. Anna decided it was the best kiss she’d ever had.

  ‘So. We’re having a baby, huh?’

  ‘Congratulations, Dad.’

  Joe shook his head. She pulled him back and kissed him. Soft and long, a kiss that said everything that was in her heart. Everything she felt was reflected back at her. She wanted a few more minutes to enjoy their secret. Their happy, joyous secret.

  ‘You happy? he asked, his lips against hers.

  ‘More than happy, Joe Blake.’

  ‘Now that I’m officially in a relationship with a GP, do I get free medical advice?’

  ‘Unofficially, of course. What can I help you with?

  ‘I seem to have an ache right here.’ Joe pressed her hand to his chest, right near his heart.

  ‘Luckily I have just the right prescription for that.’ Anna held him close, so close that her baby bump rubbed against him. ‘It’s an old Italian recipe. And it’s called amore.’

  Joe’s arm was around her shoulder. ‘Welcome to my family.’

  They were such sweet words from a man who, for so long, didn’t believe he had one.

  ‘And welcome to mine.’ Anna leaned up to kiss him. Joe’s gentle hand was on her belly as if he was welcoming their baby, too.

  Then Anna froze. ‘Oh my God. How am I going to break this to my mother?’

  EPILOGUE

  ‘Thanks everyone for coming. And a special huge thank you to Paolo and Sonia Morelli for having us all here today.’ Joe held up a glass of Paolo’s homemade wine for a toast.

  A whooping cheer went up around the living room of Anna’s parents house. It was full of people and noise and l
ife and laughter. Just another day in the Morelli family, she thought with a melting heart. But there was something different about today. Her mother had outdone herself with the food. Every available space was covered by another delicious Italian dish and Anna watched on in amazed fascination as everyone held up a glass and toasted her parents.

  ‘To Paolo and Sonia,’ Joe called out and an echoing cheer went around the room. Joe looked over to her and winked. She smiled back at him, her heart filled with pride and love and amusement at her man.

  She wasn’t quite sure how he’d done it, but Joe Blake had won them over.

  The non-Italian, non-Catholic, divorced, former unemployed journalist and bartender was now their favourite non-son-in-law.

  Anna shifted awkwardly in her chair. She hadn’t been able to find a comfortable position for weeks now as she was so close to having the baby. She perched on the edge of the chair, hoping it would give her bladder a reprieve.

  Life was sweet. More than sweet. Next to her at the table, her father wore a proud smile and her mother was positively beaming. All around them were the people she loved most in the world: Luca and Grace, Nonna, Ry and Julia with baby Mary Elizabeth, Dan and Lizzie, Harri and Ry’s mother Barbra.

  The gathering had started out as a much delayed baby shower. Grace had insisted Anna have one before the baby was due and Anna had relented without too much of a fight. But looking around at the party, she realised it had become much more than a celebration about a new life. It had turned into the official joining together of two families.

  Anna rubbed her huge belly. She knew in her heart that this baby was going to be smothered with love and, from her experience, that could only be a good thing.

  Joe clinked a fork against his glass. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank my sister Lizzie and her husband Dan. Lizzie took me in when I had nowhere else to go and thanks to Dan for taking her off my hands.’

  Lizzie’s loud scoffs could be heard across the room.

  ‘But most of all, I want to thank Ry and Julia.’

  ‘Us?’ Julia said and she and Ry exchanged confused glances.

  ‘If they hadn’t decided to get married last year, Anna and I would never have met each other.’ Joe’s eyes found Anna’s. How had she been lucky enough to find such a man?