by Eva Scott
‘You are amazing,’ he said. ‘Some of these are works of art. You have something here, Annalisa.’
‘Don’t sound so surprised.’ She instantly regretted her tone and her ability to control herself and wished the drop sheet didn’t weigh a ton. ‘I need a hand with this.’
‘I got it.’ Ed appeared next to her, reaching to help. ‘You know, if you ever need any business or marketing advice you can ask me. I’ve got a little experience and I know some people. I’d be happy to help.’
‘Got it covered, thank you.’ She grunted with the effort of holding up her end of the big canvas sheet, letting it drop to the floor the minute she could.
‘The offer stands if you change your mind.’ He surveyed the workshop. ‘We might be able to clear some space and make room for the old guys’ card table.’
‘What?’ The change of subject threw her off balance.
‘The old guys. They loved hanging out in the shop so why not give them a new place to go?’
Annalisa considered his suggestion. ‘The thought had crossed my mind but with so much going on I haven’t gone any further with it.’
‘We could move a few things around and create an area where Joe and his cronies could play cards and gossip like nothing has changed.’
‘Maybe later.’ She didn’t want him getting too cosy.
‘Okay, then.’ He heaved the drop sheet up on to his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. She visualised his muscles working beneath the overalls, those biceps flexing like crazy, her body happy to respond to her imagination. ‘I’ll get a start on painting while you get back to work. Can’t have you wasting your time on redecorating while you could be making money.’
His all-business attitude annoyed her. Didn’t he physically yearn for her? Didn’t she set off his alarm bells every time she was near? If she did, he didn’t give any indication. Sure, he teased her a bit, but otherwise he seemed determined to take their new friend status seriously. And shouldn’t she be happy about that?
‘Damn you, Ed Carpenter,’ she muttered at his retreating back before moving to her workbench. The gift he gave her of being free to create had enormous value even if a part of her longed to go see what he was doing. That was the problem with Ed: she wanted him near and, at the same time, she wanted him as far away as possible.
Annalisa lay the template pieces out on a plywood sheet. She carefully traced around them with her pencil, trying to lose herself in her work, trying to forget about Ed being twenty feet away.
Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her overalls.
GardenerGuy94 WED @ 11:55 AM
How’s it going? The devil not giving you too hard a time I hope.
GoldfieldsGirl WED @ 11:55 AM
I can manage him. He did offer to give me some business advice but I told him no thanks. I’ve got you.
GardenerGuy94 WED @ 11:56 AM
I am flattered you think of me so highly but it might not be a bad idea to get his opinion. He is part of a very successful enterprise after all, much more successful than anything I’ve ever done. Why not take what you can get?
GoldfieldsGirl WED @ 11:57 AM
You think so? I’m not so sure.
GardenerGuy94 WED @ 11:57 AM
Think about it like this, once he’s finished feeling guilty about you, he’ll leave and be out of your hair. Take advantage while you can.
Annalisa stared at GardenerGuy94’s message, pondering the wisdom of what he said, surprised he thought being mentored by Ed would be a good thing. Then again, he’d never met Ed. He didn’t know what he was like, how magnetic and charming he could be. How he could confuse a girl into thinking she wanted to sleep with him. No, GardenerGuy94 had no clue.
She turned back to the task at hand. If she could get the wood for the next three orders cut and joined by the end of the day she’d be well ahead of her game. Shoving the phone back in her pocket and banishing thoughts of both men from her mind, she put her safety glasses on and got to work.
Ed worked quickly, the paint flowing smoothly onto the walls for the first coat. He missed physical work, the way his body felt pleasantly tired at the end of a long day. These days he needed a trip to the gym to try and keep fit. This was not the way he wanted to live anymore.
He gave himself over to the rhythm of rolling paint, a comfort in the motion not unlike shovelling dirt to build a new garden. As he worked, he let his mind drift to Annalisa. If only he could be sure his tactic was the right one and that it wouldn’t blow up in his face later.
She cared for GardenerGuy94 and he reckoned she could care for Ed Carpenter too if he could get her to let down her prickly defences. The only way he knew how to do that was to take Joe’s advice and be kind. Be a friend. Offer help.
For a moment there, he’d thought she might reject his offer and tell him to go. He could see the fight going on inside her, he could feel her attraction to him as if it were a solid thing he could touch. He had to prove to her that he was one of the good guys, that he deserved her affection. To do so, he had to earn her trust and he intended on using GardenerGuy94 to help him.
Now that Carpenter’s Warehouse was up and running he’d soon run out of reasons to stay, unless he quit Carpenter’s for good.
Severing ties with the family business would be seen as resigning from the family as far as Rosie and Oliver were concerned. While they weren’t the greatest of siblings, they were the only family he had.
Contemplating the size of the gamble stole his breath and, for a second, he wobbled, unsure if he had the emotional fortitude to weather such monumental loss again after losing his dad, his friend, teammates and his business. But the alternative of continuing on tangled up like this could not be borne. He had to take action. Choose a path and jump.
He chose Annalisa.
Ed’s stomach grumbled and he checked his watch, surprised at the passage of time. All that heavy thinking and painting had burned up the hours. He’d put money on Annalisa being as hungry as he was. A thought hit him. Why miss a perfect opportunity to show her what she meant to him?
Grinning at his own cleverness, Ed wrapped the roller up in an old plastic bag so it wouldn’t dry out. Then he slipped out on his secret mission, hoping he wasn’t too late.
Fifteen minutes later, he rounded the back of the house with a bag full of pastries from the bakery and a picnic blanket the baker’s wife had lent him. Once she found out what he was up to, she insisted on helping him make things as perfect as possible. Well, as perfect as can be when you’re dressed in paint-smattered overalls and the girl of your dreams is a little hostile.
The baker’s wife even gave him a deal on his pastries and threw in a bottle of sparkling water for free. He got the sense everyone in town wanted to see Annalisa happy as much as he did.
‘Hey!’ he called out over the sound of the saw. Annalisa had her head down, protective safety kit on, cutting out what looked like the walls of a doll house. Her hair, bundled on top of her head, had tiny flecks of sawdust throughout. He watched her for a moment, drinking her in. He’d had no idea a woman could look so damned sexy dressed in a pair of oversized overalls and covered in sawdust.
‘Hey there!’ he shouted. She heard him this time.
Annalisa turned off the saw and removed her earmuffs. Ed held the bag of food aloft and her eyes lit up behind the safety glasses.
‘Give me a minute to get this lot off,’ she said. ‘What’s the time?’
‘Half past one.’
‘I had no idea how late it’d got. I’m starving.’ She put her equipment away and dusted herself down.
‘I thought we could go out to the wildflower field and have a picnic.’ He held his breath. Would she go for it or reject him outright?
Her surprised expression was hard to read. Ed crossed his fingers under the blanket he was carrying. Please say yes.
‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘I’ve never done that before.’
‘Good,’ he said. ‘Neither have I. Lead the way.’<
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He followed her, giving himself a silent pep talk as they went. Keep it light. Keep it chatty. Let her take the lead on subject matter. Show your interest, but not too much in case she gets scared off. And whatever you do, DO NOT KISS HER.
The last item would be the hardest of all.
Ed couldn’t keep his mind off the way she felt under his hands, the softness of her mouth and the fire in her as her passion met his. This was not the time to be distracted by how good they were together, and how great they could be. He needed his head in the game. Too much was at stake.
‘How about here?’ She stopped and pointed to the wildflowers nearby. ‘We can get a good view from here and there don’t seem to be any ants.’
He checked the ground. ‘Perfect. Can I give you the food while I put out the blanket?’
Annalisa rummaged through the bag while he got the picnic blanket just right. ‘I love these spinach and feta triangles,’ she said.
‘I thought you might.’ He threw himself down and patted the space beside him. ‘Take a seat.’
‘Oh, you got those little chicken and leek ones too. You’re a genius.’
He didn’t reveal that he’d had help. The baker’s wife knew exactly what Annalisa liked.
She was so engrossed in the pastry selection, she failed to notice how close she’d sat to him until she looked up. ‘Oh!’
‘Hello,’ he said. ‘How has your morning been?’ Keep it light.
‘Um … well … I mean good.’ She fumbled her words as she discreetly shuffled backwards, putting another few inches between them. ‘How about you?’
‘First coat is on and the colour is looking good. Still got the shelves to do. I figured you’d have to be as hungry as I am.’ He reached for the bag and placed the contents on the blanket. ‘A feast fit for a queen.’
He was rewarded by a rush of colour along the contour of her cheeks. She was far from immune to him. ‘Eat up,’ he said. ‘Before it gets cold.’
Annalisa let her guard soften by the second pastry, something resembling a baby Cornish pastie filled with perfectly cooked and spiced vegetables.
Sitting so close to Ed unnerved her more than she’d ever admit. He seemed relaxed and at ease in the sunshine, chatting about inconsequential things and asking questions about the wildflowers. She almost forgot he was a marauding Carpenter and a generally infuriating man.
‘It must have been nice growing up here.’ Ed lay back, propped up on one elbow, surveying the expanse of golden paddocks that gently dipped and rolled out to the horizon.
‘It was,’ she said. ‘Although, I don’t think I appreciated it until I came back home. Where did you grow up?’ Curiosity got the better of her. Sitting here in the warm sunshine, as they ate in a companionable silence, she relaxed enough to be close to him without wanting to jump his bones. A first.
‘In a mansion in a bayside suburb of Melbourne.’
‘I’m sorry I asked,’ she joked, provoking a rumble of laughter from Ed.
‘Wasn’t all cupcakes and unicorns, believe me. You haven’t met my brother and sister. Different mother, something they never let me forget.’
‘Sounds like fun.’
‘If you call intermittent torture fun, then yes. A barrel of laughs.’ He smiled as if to reassure her he’d made it out in one piece. ‘They always resented me. Actually, I think they resented my mother, Virginia, and took it out on me. I look like her and they look like my dad. It was never going to be happy families.’
‘I can’t imagine how hard that was for you. I was an only child,’ she offered by way of trade. ‘We lived as an extended family with my nonna before Mum and Dad died. After they passed, the store was always full of people coming and going. I don’t remember being lonely. Living in a small town means there’s always kids about.’
Ed shifted position slightly, turning to face her. All she had to do was lean in a little and she could kiss him. She drew her knees up and hugged them tight to fend off any sudden urges.
‘You didn’t stay though?’
She shook her head. ‘I took off to find work in Melbourne. There wasn’t much work around here and I wanted some adventure.’
‘I know that feeling. I took off to London to study and travel. Stayed longer than I had planned. I don’t think I’d have come back if my dad hadn’t died.’
‘As you know, I lost my partner in an accident and afterwards I needed to be home, somewhere familiar and safe. I’m sure Nonna and Joe filled you in the other night.’ She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, looking for his reaction.
‘Yep,’ he said. ‘Joe told me your story and I’m sorry you had to go through that.’
One thing Annalisa had learned in recent years was that grief lurked, buried deep inside her, ready to make an appearance at the most inopportune time. Like now.
Ed’s gentle concern nearly undid her. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat, pressing her tongue up against the roof of her mouth to try and stop the tears from coming.
‘Anyway,’ she took a wobbly breath, ‘Nonna had run the store since my mum and dad died in a car accident and she felt she was getting too old to run the place alone so I came home.’ She shrugged as if there had been no alternative, and in a way, there hadn’t been.
‘That’s a lot of loss for someone so young,’ he said. ‘I came home too. Losing my dad felt like someone had cut a piece out of me. I needed to be with people who understood what that was like. Even if they turned out to be Rosie and Oliver.’
‘So we share that in common,’ she said.
He looked up and smiled. ‘Yeah, we do.’ Her stomach did a flip-flop and her eyes met his.
‘Is that when you started working for your family?’ She hugged her knees tighter and ploughed on.
‘No. I started my own business when I got home. I lost it during the pandemic.’ He paused and plucked a grass stalk, retreating in the shadow of a dark memory.
‘I’m sorry.’ Once she’d thought a man like Ed wouldn’t know struggle, buffered as he was by wealth and privilege, and she’d been proved wrong. Her apology was as much about her poor assumption as for the pain Ed had suffered.
‘It’s okay, thank you.’ That sad smile again. ‘You and me, we both survived and here we are.’
It was her turn to offer him a smile. ‘Starting over, again. This time I hope to get it right. My best friend, Mel, says I’ve been hiding and she might be right.’
‘Nothing wrong with taking some time to heal,’ he said. ‘We can’t get stuck there though.’
‘Are you stuck?’ She’d sensed his unhappiness despite the polished facade he presented to the world. He had depths she wanted to explore.
He laughed without humour. ‘Completely. But I’m going to change the situation. Meeting you has made me see how I was wasting away in a job I hated.’
‘Me? How did I do that?’ She sat up.
‘You embraced the change and you’re willing to take a chance on your dream. I’ve been watching you negotiate all this and thinking what am I doing? Why don’t I take a chance too?’ He sat up and suddenly the picnic blanket shrank to the size of a handkerchief.
‘I’m not sure I had a choice,’ she said. ‘And receiving the payout helped. Without the money I couldn’t set up all this.’ She waved a hand towards the workshop as it dozed in the afternoon sun like an ancient grizzled cat, its boards sunbaked silver over the years.
‘Thank you for encouraging me to take the payout. I haven’t had a chance to say that.’
‘Despite what you think of me, Annalisa, I do care for you and I want you to be happy.’
The way he looked at her … her breath caught in her chest and desire began swirling in the pit of her stomach. She swallowed hard. He was close, so close. Oh, to give in and taste those lips, to feel the fire that flamed to life whenever they touched. For one long moment, time suspended and the world around them seemed to stop to watch, holding its breath with her.
Annalisa waite
d, and she realised he intended to keep his word. He would not kiss her. She’d have to kiss him first. The magnetic pull towards him defeated her, and she leaned in.
‘I guess we better get back to work.’ Ed, there one minute and gone the next, had risen to his feet and got busy packing away the remains of their lunch.
Startled, Annalisa blinked and shook her head. What just happened?
‘Need a hand up?’ He offered his hand and she nearly took it. Almost.
‘No thanks,’ she said, scrambling ungainly to her feet. ‘I’m good.’
‘Okay, then.’ He rolled up the blanket as if nothing had happened. Maybe for him nothing had. There was a sobering thought. She’d come so close to making a fool out of herself. ‘Shall we go?’
She nodded and they walked back to the workshop in silence. How could she have read the signs so wrong? She’d been sure he wanted to kiss her. Absolutely certain, and yet.
‘I’ll take care of these things.’ Ed indicated the blanket and bag of rubbish from lunch. ‘Then I’ll put another coat on the walls before calling it a day. If I don’t see you again, same time tomorrow?’
That was it? He was going to go paint and then go home to his hotel or wherever he stayed. She stared at him incredulously. Clearly, they were tuned in on two different frequencies.
‘Sure,’ she said in the end. What more was there to say?
Ed turned to go and got halfway down the driveway when he stopped.
‘And for the record,’ he said over his shoulder, ‘if I wasn’t such a gentleman and good friend, I totally would have kissed you.’
GoldfieldsGirl WED @ 6:35 PM
If I send you the link to my website could you take a look at it for me? I’ve been working on it for so long that nothing looks right anymore.
GardenerGuy94 WED @ 6:37 PM
Well, hello to you too. Sounds like you’ve had a busy day. How did the walls turn out? And yes, absolutely.
GoldfieldsGirl WED @ 6:39 PM
The pink looks lovely and soft. The room needs another coat and then there are the shelves to do but it’s coming along nicely.