Just not today.
But Declan was adamant. ‘No, Lila, it can’t.’
Tossing her hot chocolate into a bin, she followed him the few steps to the courtyard, her courtyard, where she watched the sunrise, listened to the traffic. It would now for ever remind her of the day she’d lost the two people she cared most about.
‘I took Yvonne out last night,’ Declan started. His words were uneasy, his voice hesitant. ‘We had a long talk over dinner and I told her—’
‘I know you went out last night.’ Lila took a deep breath. ‘Look, Declan, this really isn’t a good time for me right now. If you’re happy with Yvonne then I’m happy for you, but I really don’t need the details—’
‘What are you going on about?’ He seemed genuinely bemused. ‘I told her about us.’
‘Us?’ Lila almost laughed. ‘What us?’
‘This us.’ Placing the bouquet on the bench behind her, Declan took her face in his hands and kissed her gently, slowly, tenderly. Pulling back just an inch, his words were soft. ‘The us that never would go away no matter how we fought it.
‘I told Yvonne last night that she had to move out—not tomorrow or anything so dramatic but at least before your mother’s discharged. I want you both to come and live with me.’
Lila shook her head, desperate to put him straight, positive that she must have somehow misheard. ‘You don’t understand…’
‘I know I don’t, Lila,’ he rasped. His haste to reach her, to put things right once and for all made him impatient to continue. ‘But I know that I love you, love everything about you. I’ve tried to get over you. I’ve tried for eight years and I can’t. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that the reason I can’t is quite simply because I’m not supposed to. We were meant for each other, Lila. And the more the years go by the more I see it. I’m sorry, so sorry if I caused you pain all that time ago. In my defence all I can say is that I didn’t mean to.’
‘I’ve hurt you, too,’ Lila admitted, while scared to point out her faults as if somehow it might force Declan to retract the delicious words he was uttering. ‘All the things you said about me not growing up, not supporting you…’
‘Couples row, people say things when they’re hurt. And I was hurt, Lila, so hurt. You wouldn’t let me near you, wouldn’t let me in. The only way you’d even consider accepting my help was if it was purely as a friend. The stuff about asking Yvonne out was just a guise, a guise to make you think I was over you. Then maybe you’d let me help you.’
‘You’re not sleeping with her?’
He laughed; he actually laughed at the very suggestion. ‘No way. I don’t want to come downstairs in the morning and find my rabbit cooking on the stove! Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘You did.’ She was bemused, confused, but utterly giddy with love. ‘When I woke up and you were gone, I heard you in her room. You told me—’
‘What was I supposed to say, Lila? All that spiel I gave you about being friends didn’t actually translate to sharing a bed with you. Yvonne’s witch’s den seemed a safer bet. Still, I moved like a scalded cat the second she came home. Hell, if I’d stayed there a moment longer I could have had a lawsuit against me.
‘You still don’t get it, do you? I love you, Lila. I love the passionate way you care for your family. And loving someone means helping them to fulfil their dreams. If you want to look after your mum at home then you will. We will,’ he corrected himself. ‘But properly and with help. We’ll face it all together.’
She had waited so long to hear those words. Waited so long for a knight in shining armour to come along and lift her up, carry her clear from the endless load she bore. And though it was too late for Elizabeth, it wasn’t too late for Lila. The imaginary test, the hurdles she had put up—he had passed them all.
Surpassed them even.
And when finally he let her speak, when she finally told him the terrible news that had brought her out there, he held her in his arms and cried with her. Cried for Elizabeth and the sad, premature end to her life, cried for his Lila and the pain she was feeling and cried for all those wasted years.
‘There is something we can do for your mum,’ he said finally, holding her even closer.
Trust Declan to come up with a solution.
Trust Declan to make the blackest day of her life also the happiest.
Taking a seat by the bed a little later he held Lila’s hand as he spoke to Elizabeth. Told her that she didn’t have to worry, that Lila was going to all right, more than all right. That he would be there for her, take care of her, and always, always love her.
‘I promise, Elizabeth, I’ll make her happy.’ Looking up, he smiled with love at the brave face of Lila.
‘I let your beautiful daughter get away once and I swear to you I’m never going to make the same mistake again.’
EPILOGUE
DECLAN took Lila to the Grampians. It seemed a strange choice for two such well-travelled people who had loved the glitz and glamour of sumptuous hotel rooms, marble bathrooms and five-star dinners.
But in Victoria’s west, with rolling mountains and native fauna abounding, they were able to relax and let the beauty of nature at its finest soothe away the hurts of the past, invigorate them for the future.
Not that they roughed it. The Royal Mail Hotel was arguably one of the Grampians’ finest, and they dined night after night in the luxury restaurant, returning to their chalet under the gentle gaze of the mountains, back to their tiny slice of heaven.
On their last day they packed a picnic and returned to their favourite walk, climbing the small Piccaninny mountain, and once at the top they gazed down hand in hand, proud of their achievement, not just the walk but of making it together.
‘I love you, Lila, I always have.’
Tears filled her eyes as she drank in the view, and as magnificent as it was she pulled her gaze away to a better one. To Declan. To the eyes that would now greet her each morning, the eyes that would gently bid her goodnight.
‘I love you, too.’ They were only words, easily said but heartfelt. And they still managed to take Lila by surprise when she uttered them.
She had always loved him, always, but now there was no shame, no embarrassment in admitting it.
‘I don’t want to go back to work,’ she admitted. ‘I really wanted the job but now that I’ve got it, it doesn’t seem so important any more.’
‘It will,’ Declan said. ‘Once you’re back you’ll fall in love with it all over again. It’s just hard at the moment with all that you’ve been through. You couldn’t not do it. For one thing you’d miss all the gossip too much if you left. Hey, how about Mr Hinkley and Yvonne finally getting together? I still can’t get over that!’
Lila laughed. ‘He did seem a bit keen at the staff party. Of course, Yvonne only had eyes for you then, but I’m sure the ground was laid then. She’s not so bad really.’
Declan groaned. ‘I guess. Actually, that party’s got a lot to answer for: Yvonne and Mr Hinkley, Jez and Sue.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘Well, good luck to them, I hope they’re as happy as we are.’
Lila nodded. Slipping into his arms, she laid her head on his chest as she breathed in the fresh, still air.
‘I’m a bit worried about the Horse, though,’ Lila said thoughtfully. ‘How she’s going to take the news.’
A possum was climbing a tree just a few metres from them. The eternal townie, Declan was surprised how fascinating watching this tiny creature could be and he only half listened as Lila chatted away.
‘What news?’
‘You were right. The staff party does have a lot to answer for. Not only has the Horse blown fifty dollars from the budget by changing my name tags from Bailey to Haversham, now the new associate charge nurse is going to be taking maternity leave after only five minutes in the job.’
Declan stiffened in her arms, his breath suddenly still. Even the possum seemed to understand the magnitude of what was taking place and f
roze on the tree, his brown eyes staring widely at Lila.
‘Say something,’ Lila grumbled. Her cheeks were burning as she awaited his response.
‘I know it’s a bit soon, but say something,’ she pleaded. ‘Anything.’
Pulling her down on the soft grass beside him, Declan ran a lazy hand through her long blonde hair. ‘What are you talking about—‘‘it’s a bit too soon’’?’ He kissed the hollows of her throat, wrapped his arms protectively around her. Pulling away, he gazed at her with love and adoration, the look in his eyes making Lila more dizzy than any multi-trauma ever could.
‘What I was going to say, Mrs Haversham, if you’ll ever let me get a word in edgeways, is, why on earth did we wait so long…?’
ISBN-13: 9781460376560
ACCIDENTAL REUNION
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