After work Grace and Lucy walked to an often-frequented wine bar a couple of blocks from the office. They served tapas and a variety of wines and boutique beers. The bar was already packed and buzzing.
Grace broke her own rules and went for a second glass of wine, promising herself she’d abstain the following day. Tapas hardly passed the test as a healthy meal, either. But … you had to break out every now and then and being out with Lucy was fun.
‘Are you working tomorrow?’ Lucy said a couple of hours later as they walked the short distance to a taxi rank.
‘Yep, but not Sunday. I’ve decided that Sunday is my day. You?’
‘I’m taking the whole weekend off. Going down to Kent to visit the folks. They nag if I don’t come down every couple of months. But they spoil me rotten so I shouldn’t complain.’
‘Sounds nice. Have a good one,’ Grace said. She waved Lucy off in the first black cab, before climbing into the next one waiting. It’d take longer to get home on a Friday night. There were more people about and more traffic on the road, even at nine pm.
Grace gazed out pensively at the London nightlife as the cab stopped and started. Tonight, going home to an empty apartment held little appeal. But then going to another bar, on her own, held even less appeal.
Thirty-five minutes later the cab was dropping her off outside the apartment building.
‘Thanks, mate,’ she said to the cab driver after paying with her credit card.
Grace had one foot out the door when she noticed a shadowy figure loitering a distance from the brightly lit front entrance of her building. It was dark, the trees bordering the footpaths adding to the gloom. She paused with her hand on the doorhandle, meeting the driver’s eyes in the rear-view mirror.
‘Everything all right, miss?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Grace said and peered into the darkness. Whoever it was remained in shadow, and they weren’t moving on.
She gripped her keycard firmly in one hand, her bags in the other.
‘Would you mind waiting please, until I get in the door? I’m sure it’s nothing, but I thought I was being followed a while back, and I’ve been doubly careful since.’
‘Okay,’ the cabbie said cautiously.
‘Thanks.’ She firmed her grip on her possessions and got out of the cab.
She didn’t run because that would have been ridiculous, but she did walk quickly across the pavement towards the door. About to insert the keycard, Grace almost let it slip through her fingers when a familiar voice called out.
‘About bloody time! We thought you were never coming home. Been out partying, I suppose?’
A figure separated itself from the shadows and Grace gave an involuntary screech when she saw her brother, Tim.
‘Are you all right, miss?’ came a loud voice, and Grace remembered the cab driver.
‘Yes, and thank you so much, I know him,’ she called, waving to the driver who was now standing beside the open door of his vehicle. He returned her wave and moments later pulled away from the kerb.
Grace turned back to Tim. ‘Not partying. Working late and then having a drink and something to eat with a colleague. A female colleague,’ she said, and he grinned and pulled her into a brotherly hug.
It was when he released her that she noticed another person standing several paces away. Her eyes widened and her heart went thump in her chest.
‘Aaron?’
‘One and the same,’ he said, with the same slow smile she was used to seeing beaming at her from the screen of her laptop.
He eased Tim out of the way saying, ‘My turn now,’ and gathered Grace into an embrace that couldn’t have been interpreted as brotherly.
All Grace could think was how real and solid Aaron felt. And how overjoyed she felt.
‘I’ll save the rest for when your brother’s not in cooee,’ he whispered against her ear, and her whole body vibrated in anticipation.
She gazed up at him. ‘I feel as if I stepped out of the taxi and into an alternate universe. So this is why you haven’t answered my last two calls.’
‘This is why,’ he said. ‘And why I wasn’t very keen to hear you were planning a holiday in Miners Ridge.’
Tim came up beside them with a huge rucksack slung over his shoulder and an equally bulky duffel bag in his hand.
‘Do you want us to answer all your questions standing out here on the street?’ Tim said. ‘I for one am totally buggered, and need food and a shower and then somewhere flat to sleep.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry! Come on in.’ Grace stepped reluctantly away from Aaron to unlock the door and let them into the foyer. ‘My place is tiny,’ she said, leading the way to the lift.
Aaron took the duffel bag from Tim and draped his other arm around Grace’s shoulders. She didn’t mind at all.
When they were ensconced in her apartment, Grace made them tea and toasted ham-and-cheese sandwiches, and demanded to know what they were doing there—and why they hadn’t told her they were coming.
‘We wanted to surprise you,’ Tim said, as if it were a no-brainer.
‘Well, you certainly did that.’ She studied Tim and then shifted her gaze to Aaron, still not quite believing they were actually there. Then she looked at her brother again. ‘I didn’t know you even had a passport, Tim.’
‘I went to Bali a years ago, remember? I only had to renew it.’
‘Oh, yeah, I remember. You brought me back those tacky souvenirs.’
‘Yeah,’ he said, and Grace thought how happy he looked. Tired, but happy. ‘So, are you going to tell me why you’re here and not watching the grain grow on the farm? And who’s looking after your business, Aaron? Surely you haven’t got Mum out weeding people’s gardens as well as doing the bookwork.’
‘Nah,’ Aaron said. ‘Like I mentioned, this time of the year is usually pretty quiet, and especially so this year because of how dry it is. I could afford to take a few weeks’ holiday.’
‘A few weeks?’
‘Yep, three whole weeks. I fly home on October twenty.’
Excitement bubbled up inside Grace. Twenty-two days multiplied by twenty-four hours in each day …
‘Five hundred and twenty-eight hours,’ she said. ‘Awesome.’ But then her excitement fizzled because for a huge chunk of those hours she’d be at work. ‘I won’t be able to take any leave. Not at such short notice.’
‘There are the weekends, and the nights,’ Aaron said, his voice dropping.
‘Bloody hell,’ Tim said, and stood up. ‘Point me in the direction of the bathroom, please.’
Grace pointed to the door that led to the bathroom and bedroom. ‘Do you need a towel?’ Tim shook his head, yawning widely.
‘You’ll need to move the sofa so I can spread out my mat and sleeping bag,’ he said. He glanced at Aaron. ‘Not enough space for both of us here. You’ll have to sleep in the bedroom. I guess Grace decides if that’s on the floor, or not.’
They both stared at his back as he disappeared through the door into the bathroom.
Aaron stacked up the empty sandwich plates and tea mugs from the coffee table.
‘He’s right, Grace. It’s totally your choice. No pressure at all. I get how unconventional this is, us getting to know each other over the phone and the internet. And then me showing up on your doorstep without any warning.’ He carried the dishes to the kitchenette and stacked them in the dishwasher like it was something he did every day. ‘But everything happened pretty quick.’
Grace didn’t know what to say so she let him do the talking. Aaron came back and sat down on the sofa beside her.
‘I was gobsmacked when Tim said he was coming to visit you. He has an open plane ticket, by the way. He’s going to backpack around Europe for however long his money lasts, as far as I know. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it.’
Grace looked at him and blinked. ‘I’m having trouble believing you’re here at all. That it’s a dream and I’ll wake up any moment.’
Aaron leaned in and kissed he
r on the lips, making light her consternation. Grace let herself sink into the kiss. It was as good, maybe better, than she’d fantasised.
‘It’s not a dream,’ he whispered against her lips.
Grace drew back enough to look into his face. ‘Sometimes after we’d talk, and then when we’d video chat, I’d wonder what on earth we were doing. It’s not as if we knew each other at all when I left. I’d only seen you a couple of times, and that first time was far from memorable … Me puking in the hotel toilets after drinking too much red wine. Real classy. And then you came to Nanna’s funeral.’
‘I came to see you. I’d never met your Nanna.’
‘You said you were keeping Tim company, and you had supplies to pick up in Adelaide, and family to see.’
‘All of those things, but nothing was as important as seeing you again, to make sure I hadn’t imagined you.’
Grace felt dazed. She needed time to catch up.
‘I have to work tomorrow,’ she said. ‘But I have Sunday off.’
‘I knew you’d be working and I’d have to fit in around you. And that’s cool. There’s plenty of London for me to look at. It’s been years since I was here. But there is one thing I’m going to make sure you do while I’m here.’
‘And what’s that?’
‘Come to Paris with me for a weekend.’
36
There wasn’t enough room on the bedroom floor so Aaron climbed into bed beside Grace. As if it would have been any other way.
‘But we’re not doing anything other than sleeping,’ Grace whispered. ‘My brother is in the next room.’
‘Got it, and I’m totalled anyway,’ Aaron said, and slipped his arms around her and she wriggled into position until they were spooning as naturally as if they’d slept that way forever.
‘Goodnight, Gracie,’ he murmured, nuzzling her neck with a kiss. ‘You smell good.’
‘Goodnight,’ she said. The arm slung over her was heavy, but not at all uncomfortable. With a gentle snore he was asleep.
Not expecting to sleep herself, not with an unfamiliar man in her bed, Grace was surprised to wake and see bright daylight seeping in around the drapes. Aaron was sound asleep beside her, lying on his stomach, his arm flung across her middle, effectively pinning her to the bed.
He slept in boxers and a T-shirt, his face relaxed in sleep. Tipping her head to the side, Grace studied him, memorising the way his golden-brown eyelashes brushed his cheeks and the way his sun-streaked hair swept back from his forehead, accentuating the widow’s peak.
He opened his eyes as she was marvelling at how such an amazing man had ended up in her bed.
‘Morning,’ he said, returning her scrutiny with a once-over of his own.
‘Morning. Did you sleep okay?’
‘Yep. Didn’t wake up at all. Could sleep a bit longer but I don’t want to waste a moment more than I have to with my eyes shut.’
‘Did you get any rest on the plane?’
‘I did, but then I can sleep standing up. Tim didn’t. Too wound up, I reckon. Then we wandered around killing time. Sarah told us when you usually got home.’
‘How is Mum?’
‘Brilliant! Best thing ever, her doing my books. And she asked me to say, in person, not to worry about her because everything’s good. Better than expected, she said to tell you.’
‘I’m so glad,’ Grace said, and threw back the doona. ‘I’ll make tea—’ She sat on the edge of the bed, looking back over her shoulder at him. ‘Weird. I’ve shared my bed with you but don’t know how you take your tea, or if you prefer coffee.’
‘Tea, please, black, no sugar,’ he said. ‘How do you take yours?’
‘Strong, white, with one. Coffee is the same. I always start the day with tea.’
‘Roger that,’ Aaron said. ‘I don’t drink much coffee.’
‘What about all those empty iced coffee cartons in your ute?’
‘Coffee-flavoured milk is all that stuff is.’
Grace pulled on her robe and tiptoed out to the living area, careful not to trip over Tim’s rucksack. He was still snoring, stretched out in his sleeping bag between the displaced sofa and coffee table.
Two large men in residence surely made the space seem smaller than it was already.
The kettle boiled and a croaky voice sounded from the other side of the sofa. ‘I’ll have coffee if you’re making it.’
‘Okay,’ Grace said and took out another mug. ‘I tried not to wake you.’
Tim emerged from the sleeping bag wearing only his jocks. He headed for the bathroom. Grace made the drinks and put his coffee on the coffee table. She was debating whether to take the tea through to the bedroom when Aaron appeared, yawning. He’d dragged on jeans.
‘Thought things might be awkward enough without you bringing me tea in bed,’ he said. He brushed a kiss across her lips. Grace itched to grab him by the front of his T-shirt, yank him hard against her and turn the kiss into what she knew they both wanted.
But then the toilet flushed followed by the sound of running water, and Tim returned.
‘How do you bear living in such a cramped space?’ he said. ‘Every time I move I bump into something.’
Aaron’s blue eyes danced with amusement, as if he knew exactly what she’d been thinking before Tim had come back into the room.
‘Premium London real estate, Tim, and they pack in as many of us as they can to make it pay.’
He grunted, dragged on a pair of trackpants and sat down on the sofa to drink his coffee.
‘Tell me what your plans are,’ Grace said. ‘Because I need to go in to work this morning. I usually go in later on Saturday, but I’ll leave in the next hour and a half.’
‘Can’t you take a sickie?’ Tim said.
‘Not really. Saturday’s the only time I get to catch up. There aren’t many other staff around and there are no meetings. If I’d known you were coming I could have brought work home.’
‘We might do one of those Hop On Hop Off tours today,’ Aaron said. ‘While you’re working.’
‘Fair enough. It’s a good way to get your bearings. You can go back for a second look if you find a place interesting. I can google some tourist info for you if you’d like.’
‘It’s all right, Grace. We’re grown-ups. I’m sure we’ll find what we need.’ Tim smiled when he said it, making a defensive reply from Grace redundant.
She forced herself to focus on her tea and told herself not to let her brother push her buttons while he was here. Aaron finished his tea and drifted off to the bedroom saying something about having a shave and getting dressed.
‘Mum gave me the money,’ Tim blurted the moment the bedroom door closed. ‘She talked to Dad—she just showed up at the farm. I don’t know what she said to him, but next thing I know she emails me a plane ticket and money and orders me not to come home until I’m ready. A month, a year, however long it takes, she said.’
‘Go, Mum,’ Grace said. She walked from the kitchenette and sat down on the sofa beside him. ‘What did Dad say?’
‘What you’d expect … That if I left the farm not to think about ever coming back.’
‘But you left anyway.’
Tim cradled the empty coffee mug in his large hands. ‘It got that I hated the place and I was beginning to hate him, and everything else. Mum hadn’t been back in Miners Ridge long before she summed it all up, and things went from there.’
‘Why didn’t you tell him how unhappy you were?’
He didn’t say anything for several minutes, rolling the cup back and forwards.
‘I dunno. I’d like to think I would have had the balls to do it, eventually. Or just up and leave.’
He jiggled his knee and Grace waited. She knew there’d be more, and there was.
‘I suppose I felt sorry for him … He was all on his own. In the early days I thought I could take Luke’s place. It took me a lot of years to finally accept that he would never get past me not being Luke. I’m sure
he knew how unhappy I was but he didn’t care as long as I was there doing the work. And he didn’t have to pay me the same way as an employed labourer.’
‘I didn’t have any real idea just how unhappy you were, Tim. And how underpaid.’
‘Why would you? The same as I had no idea what you did for Mum, and Nanna.’
‘Mum told you?’
‘She did. She’s been nothing but amazing. Even after the crappy son I’ve been. Even Faith’s mellowed. She lets Mum see Liam and Amelia all the time now. Mum picks them up from school, giving Faith free time to do whatever it is she needs to do. And Mum’s been volunteering at the gallery. She loves it. They asked her to come onto the committee as treasurer, and she has.’
‘Yeah, Aaron told me, and then Mum. She said Carol Claremont roped her in.’
Tim glanced towards the bathroom. ‘So what’s going on with you and Aaron? All he ever talks about is you. When I told him I was thinking about visiting you before I went off backpacking around Europe, he couldn’t get online to buy an airfare fast enough.’
‘What, is it too out-there that someone as nice as Aaron would actually like me?’
‘Calm down,’ Tim said and nudged her with his elbow. ‘It just hadn’t occurred to me, not until Mum said something. When did all that happen?’
‘You know we met when I was at the farm that last time. Aaron gave me a lift home after you stood me up at the pub and I got drunk.’
‘Oh, yeah, and you told Dad your car wouldn’t start …’
‘We both know how he would have reacted if I’d told him the real reason,’ Grace said. ‘Anyway, Aaron texted me asking if I’d arrived safely in London, and it started from there. Then there was Nanna’s funeral. We kept texting, emailing, and then video chats … We’re in contact most days. It’s an interesting way to get to know someone, but he seemed to want to, and I liked him when I first met him.’
Tim didn’t say anything.
‘Does it bother you?’ Grace said, watching her brother carefully.
‘Why should it?’
‘He’s your friend. He’s a bit younger than me …’
Tim gave her a sly smirk and elbowed her again. ‘I’ll bet there are things he’ll get from being friends with you that he certainly won’t get from me.’
When Grace Went Away Page 23