by Annie Seaton
‘Do you still want me to do the reading?’
‘Yes, please.’
‘Once she finishes hugging and kissing him, Sol might take the kids for a short walk.’ Rosie said with an indulgent smile. ‘It warms my heart to see Sally so happy.’
‘It’s been a long time coming,’ Sonia said.
‘It has,’ Rosie replied. ‘And what about you?’
‘Me?’ Sonia laughed loudly and her eyes widened as she saw the man walking along next to Sol. She bit back the groan that was forming in her chest. The fun had just left the day.
Oh no! What’s he doing here?
‘I’ve already found my happy place. You know that,’ she said looking back into her sister’s teacup.
Rosie raised her eyebrows. ‘Do I?’ Her look was way too shrewd for Sonia’s liking.
But now Sonia stared at the man who stepped to the side of the path and waited as Sally threw her arms around Sol.
Bloody Dave Walker. She didn’t think she’d ever see him again.
She looked at the cups on the table and then back to him before tapping her finger against her lips.
Payback time, she thought, smiling widely as she stood up and spread her arms in welcome.
Chapter 3
Dave Walker was in a difficult place. So difficult, he was thinking about pulling the pin on his whole career, his fashion business, and starting over again.
A totally new career, in another direction.
Problem was he didn’t know how to do anything else. And he didn’t want to do anything else. About the only thing he could do was resurrect the orange orchard at Peat’s Ridge that he’d inherited, but the thought of being outdoors and working with dirt and tractors and trees sent a shudder down his spine. There was no comparison to the feel of a silky piece of fabric flowing through his fingers as he thought of a garment to create. Or the moment when the visual came into his head and he sketched it and it became real.
The call from the police on Christmas Eve had rocked his world. His finances were now nonexistent, the upcoming show in Japan had been cancelled and it looked like he was stuck on the farm for a while.
As he walked toward the table in the outdoor café at Bondi Beach with his best mate, Sol Brown, loud raucous laughter from that clairvoyant sister with the dreadful dress sense filled the air. For a moment he was sorry he’d agreed to come to breakfast with Sol before he went to town.
He would have been happier wallowing in his own misery.
And the problem was, Sol didn’t see a change of career as a problem, because he’d changed direction so many times himself since he and Dave had left high school. Although it did appear he was now about to settle in his own veterinary practice, up at Peat’s Ridge, near Dave’s farm. Dave had offered Sol the farm to rent—hell, he’d house-sat for him so many times as Dave travelled the world with his business, Sol had probably spent more time there over the past few years than Dave had.
And if Sol and Sally moved in there, Otis could stay; Sol was happy to look after him, despite the fact that the dog had totalled Sally’s car last month. The thought of giving Otis away had been one of the “plus” reasons to go back to the farm. If he stayed home Otis didn’t have to go.
But due to things out of his control, Dave had to find a job. He was embarrassingly, stony broke.
Five minutes ago Sol had even suggested they buy the fish and chip shop that was for sale near the beach house on the hill above Bondi Beach. ‘I can be the silent partner, you can run the business, and I’ll throw in the funds.’
Dave shuddered.
‘No thanks, mate. Cooking in a confined space the size of that café would be worse than being on the tractor at the farm. I’d go stir crazy. And I don’t want another business loan. I’ve only just paid the other one off.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to come up with something. And fast,’ Sol said.
‘I know. You don’t have to keep reminding me.’
The deal Dave had been about to sign in Japan supplying his label to a range of high level boutiques in Tokyo had gone to shit. By the time he’d received the call that his assistant, Mitzi, had been doing the dirty on him, it had been too late. The contract dates hadn’t been fulfilled, his trusted assistant had disappeared with the significant deposit that had been made at the beginning of contract negotiations, and his name was mud in the fashion world for not delivering the goods. Not only that, she’d helped herself to his working account when she’d left and cleaned that out too. And foolishly, because Dave had been so flat out, all of his funds had been in that one account.
If he could think of a way to redeem his good name, he was willing to start again. If there was one thing, Dave was a hard worker, and he didn’t care what it took to get his business up and running again. The problem was, it was so hard to escape the gossip and innuendo that was currently doing the rounds of the international fashion world, and, as far as he could see, no one was interested in looking at his new line.
‘Sally!’ Sol’s face broke into a wide smile and Dave stood at the side of the path as Sol’s fiancé flung her arms around Sol’s neck and kissed him. Dave refrained from shaking his head, but he knew his expression was probably a bit cynical. Honesty, Sol had only left Sally a short time ago, before he’d met Dave at the car park.
Dave had driven down from the farm, agreeing to meet Sol for a quick breakfast, but if he’d known Sol was out with the crowd from the house on the hill, he probably would have gone straight to the city to his business meetings.
Especially that brassy, Amazonian sister he’d met at Christmas lunch.
The meetings were to come up with suggestions to dig him out of the hole that he’d found himself him—through no fault of his own. The financial hole, and the career future hole, the two immediate problems that were currently staring back at him. He wasn’t in the mood for socialising. Meeting with his financial adviser was filling his thoughts.
‘Earth to David. Helloooo....’
Dave jumped and turned to face the woman who was standing in front of him, waggling her fingers in his face. Jesus, it wasn’t his problems that were staring him in the face, it was a statuesque woman in a . . . in a . . .
My God, what is she wearing?
Again he regretted agreeing to meet Sol.
A walk along Bondi Beach had appealed, but if he’d known that the Carmen Miranda of the house on the hill was going to be at the cafe, he would have declined the invite. The woman had no sense of humour. Since he’d quipped about the bowl of fruit on Sonia’s head on Christmas Day, she’d totally ignored him the couple of times he’d called in to see Sol. It hadn’t been his fault that he’d thought she was in some sort of fancy dress for the kids’ amusement. Any normal person would have thought the same.
And when he tried to talk to her about business over lunch, she’d treated him like a fool.
And now here she was greeting him like a long lost friend. He narrowed his eyes as suspicion kicked in.
What did she want?
‘Oh,’ he said smoothly keeping his expression bland. ‘Good morning, Sonia. How are you?’ He looked past her to the table, but Rosie was busy with the children. It looked like there’d been some sort of spillage with a milkshake and Rosie was busy mopping up the table with a handful of paper napkins.
‘Would you like to join us for a cup of tea?’ Sonia’s eyes were wide and innocent but he sensed there was something behind the invitation. Trying to think of a reason to decline was unsuccessful, so Dave tried to inject some interest into his voice. He wasn’t going to let on he was here for breakfast, even though the plate of pancakes on the table was enticing. If there was one thing Dave appreciated as much as fashion, it was his food.
‘Sure. But I’ll go for coffee instead of tea.’
She nodded and gestured to the chair beside her. ‘Coffee’s fine. I can do that too.’
‘You can do it?’ he asked with a frown as he sat down.
‘Yeah. Tea, coff
ee, as long as there are leaves or grounds in the bottom of the cup.’ Sonia called the waiter over. ‘Mitch, a coffee please. How do you take it?’ she asked turning to Dave.
This was weird. After they’d left the dinner table on Christmas Day Sonia had barely exchanged more than one word with him, and from memory that word had been “goodbye”, and nothing more. Now she was chatting to him as though they were best friends.
Chapter 4
Sol and Sally were standing talking over on the path, Rosie was still busy with the kids, the waiter was blatantly checking him out, and Sonia was sitting there with a huge smile on her face. Dave felt like he’d entered some parallel universe.
‘Just a short black, thanks,’ he managed to say.
‘Make sure there’s some sludge, Mitch,’ Sonia said.
Sludge?
Dave looked up at the waiter. ‘Um, go easy on the sludge.’
The waiter shrugged at Sonia, shot a broad smile Dave’s way, and then flicking the white linen napkin over his arm he headed to the kitchen.
‘Hi, Dave.’ Rosie’s head appeared from beneath the level of the table on the other side, accompanied by an ‘ouch, Mummy.’
‘Hello, Rosie.’
‘Sorry, children issues. I’ll be ready in a couple of minutes. Sonia, do yours first.’
Dave frowned. ‘Do what first?’
Sonia sat back and he blinked as the clashing purple and green stripes in the voluminous dress—if it could be called a dress— rippled.
It was more like a tent. Around her neck were three high rows of beads in lime green, yellow and red and they didn’t match the large purple earrings hanging from her ears. Her unruly blonde curls were pulled up into a sort of topknot on one side of her head, and a red ribbon matching her lipstick was tied at the base in a floppy bow. She had the absolute worst dress sense of anyone he had ever met, and you didn’t have to be in fashion to see how bad it was.
‘Darling, my tea. But we’ll wait till you’ve finished your coffee, and do you first.’ Sonia’s voice didn’t match her bizarre appearance at all. If Dave closed his eyes it had a low, sexy, husky tone that was quite appealing. Not that he was saying she wasn’t attractive; she was just . . . just different. If he opened his eyes, all he could see was the overwhelming clashing of colours. Once you got past that, you could focus on the beautiful olive skin and the unusual tipped-up at-the-corner green cat’s eyes. She had a really pretty mouth too.
Lush lips.
‘Are you right there, David?’
Dave jumped as he lifted his eyes to Sonia’s. For a brief moment, the smile left her face, and he knew he’d been caught checking her mouth out.
‘Dave,’ he said.
‘You can go first, Dave.’ She folded her arms and pointed to the cup as the waiter placed his coffee on the table. ‘Drink it.’ Now her voice wasn’t quite so warm.
He wasn’t in the mood for this. Gritting his teeth, Dave attempted to keep this voice polite. ‘I’m sorry, Sonia. You’ve lost me. What am I going first at?’
Her laugh was a tinkle, but when she spoke there was a hint of steel beneath her words.
‘I’m going to read your coffee. That’s what I do. I’m not just a clairvoyant. You should have read my business plan.’
Unfortunately just as she answered, Sol walked across to the table and he opened his big mouth.
‘Great idea, Dave. Especially with the way things are for you at the moment. You could get all your answers here in one quick read from Sonia.’
Sonia put her hand on Dave’s arm as he stared at Sol. Warmth fired in his nerve endings and the heat zinged up his arm. He looked down thinking that she’d hit him with something but only her fingers with the multi-coloured nails were on his wrist.
‘Leave a small amount of liquid in the bottom of the cup,’ she said. ‘Then using your left hand, swirl the sludge three times that way.’ She lifted her hand and gestured in a clockwise direction. ‘Then put the cup in the saucer upside down and let the liquid drain away.’
He had her now. ‘I don’t have a saucer. He lifted the mug in his hand, but she came back quickly.
‘Use this one,’ she said as she passed a bread and butter plate across to him.
Hmm. For some reason, he did as she instructed—the coffee had been only lukewarm anyway, but it had given him a good buzz as he’d downed it quickly. He lifted the cup, twirled it around but before he could put it on the plate she took it from him.
Sol and Sally sat opposite him at the table, and four heads—including his—turned to Sonia as she looked down at the sludge of coffee in the cup. The only difference was that Sol, Sally and Rosie looked serious, and Dave was fighting the urge to laugh. Sonia lifted her eyes from the sludge and held his gaze intently.
Hocus pocus, mumbo jumbo. He’d seen so much of it when he was growing up. His mother, Pearl, had been a new age hippy, and he could still remember his dad’s words before Mum had left him Dave had been about fifteen. It was a miracle she’d stayed that long.
‘A hotch-potch of beliefs and stupid trendy practices,’ Dad had yelled the night Mum had set the kitchen curtains on fire with a burning candle as she’d meditated. ‘When you get some sense into you and forget all this hocus pocus, woman, maybe you can have a go at being a proper farmer’s wife.’
They’d moved out soon after the curtains had burned.
The house had survived.
No, it hadn’t been pretty. But he and Mum had been happy enough as they’d lived in various bedsits with her alternate friends around the city, and there Dave had discovered his love for fabric and design. The biggest surprise had come when Dad had passed away and left the farm to him. Guilt had hit Dave hard; he hadn’t seen his father since the day they’d left. The letter from the solicitor that had come out of the blue when he was at Fashion College had been a shock, but Mum had been pleased for him.
‘It was never about you, darling,’ she’d said when the will was read, waving her hand at him. ‘It was my fault. I should never have married your poor father, but the thought of baking bread and sitting in a wooden rocking chair on a verandah watching the sun set appealed at the time. But look what we made together. A gorgeous boy!’
Maybe he’d inherited a bit of the drama queen stuff from his mother.
Dave sat back and returned Sonia’s hard stare.
Chapter 5
The look on Dave’s face was strange, and Sonia felt a bit mean that she’d been stringing him along. And then she thought of Christmas Day and the rude comment he’d made about her dress.
‘All you need is a bowl of fruit on your head, and you’d be perfect!’ he’d said.
But now when Sonia lifted her eyes from the coffee dregs and held Dave’s, an unfamiliar feeling coursed through her. She thought carefully before she spoke. It was the most interesting read she’d ever done, and the most unexpected.
She’d thought she had Dave pegged. Pompous, full of himself, judgemental, and cynical, but the leaves—or the coffee dregs in his case—had taken a different turn.
‘So?’ The voice was still definitely cynical, but there was a glimmer of something in his eyes.
Something soft.
Something curious.
Something . . . nice. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a non-believer as he was making out.
‘Yes, hurry up, Son. Sol and I have to go soon.’ Sally was obviously picking up on her vibes because she raised her eyebrows as she glanced at her.
That’d be right.
‘Interesting. Very interesting.’ She put the cup down gently and bit her lip, aware of Dave’s eyes dropping to her mouth again. An unexpected heat ran through Sonia and she knew her cheeks were pink. She didn’t like this feeling. It had been a stupid idea to get back at Dave for being rude to her on Christmas Day, and she regretted ever starting it.
‘In what way?’ he asked. His voice was soft, and it was as though they were alone at the table as she kept her gaze on his.
Oh dear! What
to say? What to say? She went to bite her lip again and then remembered he was watching her closely. Instead she ran her tongue over her lips and lifted her arm until her bangles jangled all the way to her elbow.
It broke the intense moment; Sonia sat back and straightened her shoulders. Dave watched and then he sat straight in his chair too. Rosie, Sol and Sally were watching every movement and not saying a word. The kids were playing happily over on the chess pieces.
‘Well . . .’ Sonia said.
‘Yes?’ Dave asked leaning forward, his dark brown eyes fixed on hers. It was funny, when she’d met him at Christmas, she hadn’t thought much of his looks, but today, there was something different about him. Intensity, but intensity tinged with sadness or a preoccupation about something that was not quite right in his world. He still had the weird haircut, but hey, who was she to judge. Sonia knew all about hiding behind a crazy out-there look.
‘Your anchor is obscured by an alligator.’ She narrowed her eyes when Dave chuckled.
‘Surely you mean a crocodile?’ His eyes were dancing with mirth and she bit back the slow fire of temper that burned in her stomach.
‘No, I meant an alligator.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Okay, let’s forget the symbols. I’ll just tell you what it means and then I can move on to Sally and Rosie’s readings.’
Dave shrugged and the man she’d disliked on Christmas Day was back in full force.
Good, I can deal with that.
‘Okay, in a nutshell. You’ve experienced treachery. You’ve been let down by someone you trusted. Right?’
Dave frowned and glanced at Sol, but Sol raised his hands palms up and shook his head. ‘Your private business, Dave. I’ve said nothing. Not my place, mate.’
Sonia stared down at the dregs and spoke slowly. ‘You’ve made new friends, but you still have to be careful because the treachery isn’t far away. I see one friendship coming that is very close but you’ll fight it. But you need to embrace it, because this will be your path back to what you desire most in life.’