The problem was, they would always have a past.
The morning’s turn of events called for a strong coffee. Ava trudged to the kitchen and switched on her coffee machine. She found solace in the everyday: grinding the beans, pouring in the water, warming the milk. This was her life. This was where she belonged. She was kidding herself if she thought one kiss meant anything. It had to mean nothing. It was nothing more than a pit stop on the road to heartache. Ava reminded herself once again who Callum was and what he’d done. He’d broken the heart of someone she loved, which meant he could do the same to her.
She needed to forget all about Callum. Finally. Maybe the kiss would help put a stop to her absurd fantasy. Yes, that would work. It had been alright. Moderately okay. Nothing out of the ordinary.
She found her phone and called Andy.
‘Boss,’ he answered in a sleepy voice after eight long rings.
‘Minion. How are you doing?’
Andy yawned dramatically down the line.
‘Big night?’ Ava asked with a smile.
‘Uh huh. That’s what we single people do, Ava. We go out and have fun. And then we spend Saturday recovering from it. And, mysteriously, the recovery is now taking way longer than it used to when I was in my twenties. So what’s up? Did someone have a gardening emergency while I was asleep?’
If only. Gardening emergencies would be a piece of cake compared with getting over Callum Malone.
‘Andy, I’ve made an important life decision.’
He yawned. ‘You giving up coffee again?’
‘God, no. This has to do with my sex life.’
‘What sex life?’ Andy asked with a chuckle down the line.
‘That’s exactly my point. I need to go out there and get one.’
‘Well,’ Andy said, ‘good for you. And who is the lucky man?’
‘Here’s the thing.’ Ava closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Sometimes secrets made you hyperventilate and you had to be prepared. ‘The man I really, really want to have sex with, and who I think wants to have sex with me, is in a major no-go area.’
‘Callum, right?’
Ava spluttered. ‘How on earth did you know that?’
‘Please. You’ve been talking about the guy for years. You’ve mentioned more than once or twice how much you hate him and what he did to Lulu. I’m not even exactly sure what he did to her but I know you’ve told me a million times how much you despise him. Which means you don’t. In fact, I’m pretty sure it means the exact opposite.’
‘Oh, God,’ Ava moaned. This was Andy, her best friend, and it was safe to talk to him, but she still got that familiar humiliating shrinking inside at the thought that for so long she had loved someone who would never love her back.
‘You poor thing,’ Andy said. ‘I was hoping desperately for you to meet someone else so you could fall madly in lust and forget all about him.’
‘So was I.’ She’d tried. Oh, how she’d tried. She had to accept, finally, that it would forever be the wrong time for her and Callum.
‘Do you want to come round tonight? I have the latest season of Game of Thrones. All that violence might help.’
‘I’ve got a better idea. I need to have sex.’
‘Honey, you’re talking to the wrong man.’
Ava managed a laugh. ‘Remember you tried to set me up with the guy who lives next door to you? The hot one who you secretly think is gay but so isn’t?’
‘Perhaps there’s a little wishful thinking on my part there, but yes, I remember.’
‘Is he still available?’
‘What are you saying, Ava? Are you up for a blind date?’
Oh God. What was she saying? She took a deep breath and told herself what she should have been telling herself all along.
You should move on.
You have to forget him.
‘Yes,’ she said out loud and proud and felt a surge of strength through her. ‘I’m totally up for a blind date. I need to get Callum out of my system. I haven’t had sex in a long time and I need to have sex so I stop thinking about having sex with him. I know I said no the last three times you wanted to give him my number, but I’m totally on board now. Give him my number. Please. Right this second.’
‘Does this mean that …?’
‘Yes,’ she replied and pinched the bridge of her nose until it hurt. ‘I’m moving on. It’s time. You are talking to a woman who wants to get on with her life, Andy. And your neighbour, the hot and definitely not gay Paul, sounds like the perfect new start.’
‘You go, girl. I’ll accidently bump into him when I knock on his door this evening. Perhaps I’ll be looking for a cup of sugar.’
‘Okay,’ Ava breathed. ‘Good.’
‘See you Monday.’
‘Bye, Andy. And thanks.’
Ava flopped back on the sofa and closed her eyes. This felt good. She needed to do this. She needed to untangle herself from the knot she’d twisted herself into. She had to find someone else. She simply had to.
Chapter Twelve
‡
Cooper swung open the front door to Chris and Ellie’s house just as Callum raised his clenched fist to knock for the fourth time.
‘What the fuck?’ Callum demanded. ‘For someone who’s so keen on getting back to LA you sure took your time. Do you want a ride to the airport or what?’
‘Get your ass in here,’ Cooper growled as he stepped back, waving Callum in. ‘You’ve arrived just in time. It’s all happening.’
‘What’s all happening?’ Callum checked his watch as he followed Cooper down the corridor, their long-legged strides echoing each other on the aged wooden floorboards. They were going to be late and that pissed Callum off. He was pissed off and cranky enough at the world as it was.
‘Coop, if I miss that plane, I’ll be cranky as hell.’
They made it to the kitchen just in time to hear an earthy, guttural groan from Ellie. Chris stood next to his wife, looking white as a sheet, holding an overnight bag in one hand and Ellie’s hand in the other.
Cooper ran a hand through his long, sun-drenched hair. ‘We’ve been trying to get her in the car for half an hour.’
Callum hadn’t seen it firsthand but he was pretty sure this was a woman in labour. If the cries weren’t a dead giveaway, the way she was clutching her stomach and swearing when she wasn’t groaning was. And what was her husband doing? Standing by, taking orders, like any good husband should.
But Callum wasn’t her husband and he decided that someone had to take charge or his niece would be born on the kitchen floor.
Chris looked pleadingly at Callum. ‘She keeps telling us that her labour’s not established yet.’
Callum looked down at her, panting, sweating, doubled over in pain, crouching with her hands on her knees.
Cooper piped up. ‘I’m no doctor, bro, but that kind of looks like labour.’
‘Don’t. Talk. About. Me. Like. I’m. Not. Here,’ Ellie scolded. ‘AAAAAGGGGHHHH.’ She doubled over in agony.
Callum pulled his car keys from his pocket. ‘My car’s out front. Get her in the back seat as soon as this contraction’s finished.’
Chris and Cooper waited and when Ellie gave them a weary nod, they swung into action, each hooking an arm under one of Ellie’s knees and lifting her. Callum reached for the overnight bag Chris had dropped on the floor and followed them out the front door, down the small front path and to the car.
‘No, no,’ Ellie cried out.
‘What is it, sweetheart?’ Chris murmured, a mixture of adoration and panic in his voice. Callum thought it slightly hilarious that a man who had spent a career working in war zones and dodging bullets should be brought to his knees by the arrival of a baby.
‘Not the car. The leather seats. What if my waters break?’
Callum shook his head. ‘What is it about women and my leather seats? Ellie, I don’t give a fuck about the seats. You two, put her in the goddamn car.’
*
<
br /> The tall, broad, handsome-as-hell twin Malone brothers were a special drawcard with almost all the female doctors and midwives at the hospital. Heads turned in admiration and confusion as they strode the maternity ward corridors on the hunt for good coffee and some food, preparing for a long wait until their niece was born. Callum had driven as fast as was legally safe while Cooper made calls to rearrange their schedules. Flights to Singapore and LAX had been rescheduled; Evelyn was on standby for more news; and two brothers who hadn’t spent much time together in a decade were sitting on uncomfortable plastic chairs in a public waiting area, sipping their coffee and waiting impatiently.
A rugby league game later, there were heavy footsteps at the doorway to the hospital waiting room. Callum and Cooper turned in unison.
Their brother looked exhausted.
‘So?’ Callum asked.
‘What’s going on, bro?’ Cooper asked in his own inimitable style.
Chris held on to the doorjambs for support and his tired face turned into a beaming grin. ‘Fifteen minutes ago a daughter was born to my wife, who was screaming like a banshee and threatening to cut off my balls if I fed her one more ice chip.’
The brothers shared a look, of familiarity, of happiness, of family.
‘Nine pounds five ounces in the old money,’ Chris announced. ‘I’m in awe of my wife.’
Callum and Cooper crossed the floor and threw their strong arms around their equally strong brother. A passer-by would have seen a combined ball of long legs, muscle and men. There were back slaps all around until they sprang apart like opposing magnets.
‘What’s her name, Chris?’ Cooper asked.
‘Charlotte Elizabeth. After our mother.’ Chris wiped his eyes. ‘Thanks for staying. Thanks for being here, guys.’
And the brothers Malone hugged once again.
Chris didn’t have to say anything more. His brothers knew. One Malone life had ended and another had just begun, all in the space of a couple of weeks. The baton was being passed on to them, one at a time, to continue the family name. To keep alive the memories of their much-loved mother and their difficult father, despite all his faults.
It was up to them now.
‘Is Ellie up for visitors?’
Chris laughed, ruffling his hair. ‘She can’t wait to show off our daughter. Follow me.’
The brothers strode down a linoleum corridor until they reached a side room.
‘Come in, Uncle Cal and Uncle Coop,’ Ellie cried out. The brothers surrounded her bed, peering down at the tiny baby in her arms, swathed so tightly all Callum could see was a little pink face.
‘She is very cool, Ellie.’ Cooper ran a finger down Charlotte’s tiny nose.
‘She’s beautiful,’ Callum said and he had to stop and step back. Damn it, was he choking up? He was looking at his big brother’s baby. He’d just got used to his big brother being a husband.
‘Thanks, boys,’ Ellie said, sounding exhausted and exhilarated. ‘Just think. You were all this tiny once. And now, look at you.’
The brothers exchanged glances. Smiled at each other. And in that look, shared and understood between all of them, Callum saw brothers who wouldn’t let the ties that bind loosen. He saw brothers who could create their own family dynamic now that their father was gone.
Chris and Cooper were building their futures.
Callum had a long flight to Singapore to make a decision about his.
*
The first thing Callum did from the comfortable leather seats of first class was send a text to Ava.
Delayed departure to Singapore because I’m an uncle.
Her reply came a few seconds later: How exciting! Congrats. Pls send hugs and kisses to C + E.
I will.
Name?
Charlotte.
Beautiful. Have a good trip. Will be slaving away in your garden while you’re gone.
He stared at the message for a moment. The idea of her slaving away in his garden made him think hot and sweaty and he couldn’t think like that right before he was disappearing for a week.
Will do. About to take off. Catch up when I’m back.
He waited five minutes for a reply but it didn’t come. There was so much more he wanted to say, but not this way. Callum switched his phone to flight mode, fastened his seatbelt and started planning.
Chapter Thirteen
‡
‘That’s looking great, Andy.’ Ava swiped the beads of sweat from her forehead and lifted her sunglasses.
It was Wednesday of the week after Callum’s departure for Singapore and Ava and Andy had made serious inroads into the transformation of his gardens. They’d been held up one day with soaking rain, but today the sun was out and there was a familiar warmth in the air that energised Ava. She loved Sydney weather, the balmy climate that meant it never really got cold and never really got stinking hot. The sun on her arms warmed her as she worked and the salty sea breeze fluttered on her face. She adjusted the chin strap on her wide-brimmed hat and looked over the lowest tier of Callum’s split-level property.
‘Do you think we need any more topsoil?’
‘This should do it.’ Andy stopped shovelling dirt and dug his spade into the mound of dark, rich earth and propped a hand on his hip. ‘And Ava?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Next time you get us a job like this, which involves carting two tonnes of dirt in a wheelbarrow, load by load, because there’s no access for my truck? I’m quitting.’ Andy reached his arms up high and stretched out from side to side, groaning as he moved. She’d worked with Andy ever since she’d hung up her own shingle and couldn’t think of a better person to work with. He had a great work ethic, was smart, organised and possessed a body honed by carting two tonnes of soil load by barrow load. On top of everything else, he was damn nice eye candy.
‘C’mon Andy. You wouldn’t dare quit on me. Despite these challenges …’
He arched an eyebrow at her over the top of his aviator shades. ‘Challenges?’
‘Okay, hardships then. But we always get these jobs done, right? No matter how freaking annoying the access is. And if you thought this one was a pain in the butt, you won’t want to know about the job I’m quoting on next week on the river at Berowra Waters.’
Andy shook his head. ‘Don’t tell me.’
She laughed. ‘The only access is by boat.’
Andy scowled at her. ‘Seriously?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘We’re charging an aquatic allowance for that one.’
‘If we get the job,’ Ava cautioned.
‘You know we’ll get it,’ Andy said. ‘Because it’s you.’
‘Yeah,’ she smiled, ‘we will. Because we are awesome.’ They gave each other an exhausted high five before Ava dropped her metal rake prongs down into the dirt and stepped over it to the edge of the garden. Sydney had turned on a near-perfect day, which made the view from Callum’s house out across the ocean even more enviable.
Andy moved next to her and gave her a big nudge. ‘Most of Sydney would kill for this view.’
Ava sighed. ‘Enjoy it while you can. When we’re finished, we’re back to Bondi Beach with every man and his dog.’
She would miss it. It was truly spectacular and while they’d been working there during the past few days, she’d caught herself every now and then mesmerised by it. It was one thing to share a view of the ocean with a beach crammed with people in bikinis and board shorts; it was another, altogether more luxurious pleasure, to look out to the view of the cliff tops and the ocean and the bobbing yachts from this secluded eyrie. It felt as if the ocean was there just for her. Her own private slice of it. Ava hadn’t grown up near the beach but had moved close to it as soon as she could afford to, and loved living in Bondi. The Gibsons were working people from a solid working class suburb, miles away on the other side of the city. When she was young, it would take two trains and a good couple of hours to snatch a glimpse of the ocean and only then on very special occ
asions. So this, being able to glance over your shoulder at any time of the day and see the blue for as far as the eye could see? Next to a lush garden, it was heaven.
‘So Ava … exactly how rich is this guy?’ Andy asked.
‘Very,’ Ava said quietly. ‘But, you know, would you really want that life? There’s a lot of pressure on me to come up with work for us. And there’s just the two of us. Imagine what it’s like for him, being responsible for the jobs of thousands of people?’
Andy chuckled. ‘Oh, please. He has people to help him with all that. And there are perks, Ava. I mean, look at this place. Look where he grew up. Wouldn’t you want that life if you had half the chance? You could give up work and spend all day at the gym, when you’re not redecorating or looking after your two adorable pugs.’
‘That sounds so mind-numbingly boring,’ Ava said with a roll of her eyes.
‘Yeah, it actually does,’ Andy laughed. ‘As for me, I seem destined to meet poor but talented waiters.’
Ava whipped off her sunglasses. ‘You’ve met someone?’
The smile on Andy’s face was infectious. ‘Maybe. His name’s Declan and he’s a barista. A barista slash actor.’
‘Give me a man who can make a decent coffee and I’ll show you a happy woman.’
Give me Callum Malone and I’ll show you a happy woman.
‘And a happy man,’ Andy said. So, even though you seem to have a sudden flair for finding us the most mind-bogglingly complex jobs in Sydney, you’re stuck with me.’ He slipped an arm around Ava’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze.
‘Oh Andy,’ she said. ‘You’d be so perfect for me if you weren’t gay.’
He shot her a grimace before laughing. ‘What makes you think I would find you remotely attractive even if I was straight?’
Ava dug a finger into his ribs. ‘You are awful. And also my best friend, so I’ll forgive you. I think this is it for today. The plants and the turf are arriving tomorrow. And the pots. How do you think we’re going to get them upstairs?’
The CEO (The Millionaire Malones Book 2) Page 10