Ana dropped her feet off the table. “Nobody said anything about love, insta or otherwise. I just find him…interesting.”
“Interesting?” Nadia rolled her eyes. “Oh puh-lease.”
“Well, okay. He’s a nice guy. A good guy.”
“So is old Mr. Green down the road but you don’t want to burn up the sheets with him.”
“Nads,” she hissed.
“It’s true. Ten minutes in the same room with you two and I saw the way you stare at each other when you think the other isn’t looking.”
Ana kept her voice patient, or at least tried to. “Look, I’ll admit we’re attracted to each other, but that’s all it is. We’ve only known each other for a few days.”
“My mum and dad had only—”
“I know,” Ana interrupted. “Daniel told me about how your parents met and got married soon after. But we’re not them—and I emphatically do not believe in love at first sight.”
Nadia stilled, cocking her head to one side. “No one ever does until it happens to them.”
Heavy footfalls clomping along the deck cut off Ana’s next comment. A tousled blond head poked through the gap in the tarpaulin that covered one of the broken glass slider doors.
“Grub’s up.”
“Thanks, Adam. We’ll be right out.” Ana smiled over her shoulder and he flicked her a quick salute before disappearing.
She turned back to Nadia and said, “He’s your brother and I know you love him a lot—”
“Yeah, I love him.” Nadia stood up. “And maybe I’m a little biased because he is my brother, but if you’re worried he’s a cheating douche like Theo’s sperm donor, don’t be. Danny wouldn’t screw around on a woman. I’d stake my life on his integrity.”
It took two attempts before Ana’s wobbly legs would hold her up. “I’ll get the tomato sauce and napkins,” she said.
“Now that’s the sound of a woman floundering in the river De-Nile,” Nadia said with a raised eyebrow. She walked around the coffee table and gave Ana a quick, squeezy hug. “I’m glad you’re both home safe.”
She slipped out onto the deck and called out to Daniel. Ana stroked a hand over the fuzzy pink blanket, and Alyssa smacked her lips wetly, her chubby fingers pulling the teddy bear tighter against her face.
The sound of Daniel’s laughter rolled into the room, bright sunshine blasting away the shadows.
No one ever does until it happens to them.
Chapter 28
Tuesday, July 27. 1:13 a.m. Southgate, Wellington, New Zealand.
* * *
Pleading exhaustion, Ana had taken Alyssa into her bedroom for the night. It had taken months of sleep-deprived nights to get Alyssa used to sleeping in her big girl’s bed in her own room, but tonight Ana couldn’t bear her baby being out of sight.
“Sleep wif you, Mummy?” Alyssa had said as she snuggled into her arms in the center of her bed.
“Yes, baby. You sleep with Mummy tonight.”
She had listened to the soft voices of Daniel and Nadia moving around in the house. The scrape of the linen cupboard opening and closing and the squeak of the couch unfolding into a double bed in the family room across from her bedroom.
She rolled over, restless.
Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow I have to make it clear to both of them that…that what? Daniel’s clear blue eyes and dimpled smile swam into her mind.
That there’s nothing going on here.
She fell asleep repeating the same phrase, but not believing it.
An aftershock ripped her from dreams and sent her jolting awake, the mattress swaying under her.
“It’s all right. Mummy’s here.” Her hand instinctively reached out but found only rumpled bed sheets and cool air.
“Alyssa?” she whispered, not wanting to frighten her with the adrenaline spiking through her bloodstream.
She flicked on the small flashlight she’d placed under her pillow. A quick check showed an empty bed and a slightly ajar bedroom door. Ana slid out of bed and hurried into the hallway.
The soft rumble of Daniel’s voice and a higher-pitched giggle came from the family room. She approached on tiptoe, noticing the door was also open, spilling pale battery-powered light in an arc toward her feet. Peeping around the corner, and feeling a little like a spy in her own home, she spotted them. Alyssa had clambered up on Daniel’s makeshift bed and was comfortably perched beside him.
“Lyssa sleep wif Danny,” her daughter demanded, one imperious pudgy finger poking Daniel’s ribs.
Ana bit back a grin. No one but his sister, and now her copycat daughter, could get away with calling Daniel Danny.
“What about your mummy? She’ll be lonely.”
Alyssa sighed, long and loud, snuggling down to rest her head on Daniel’s shoulder. His hand faltered mid-raise then drifted up to stroke Alyssa’s hair. The cords that kept her heart tied down in her chest so she wouldn’t be tempted to give it away loosened. Something about seeing her daughter and the man she was falling in love with…
Whoa, wait a minute.
She’d already decided love was not part of this equation. Daniel plus kids plus her did not equal the happily-ever-after family the wishful thinking part of her heart craved. While she couldn’t deny Daniel was a good man—even a heroic man—so were Neil and her father in their own ways. Both of them she’d trusted. Both of them had shown her that even heroes have feet of clay.
So how could she allow herself to fall in love with him? How could she ever trust Daniel not to break her heart in the future?
Alyssa suddenly sat bolt upright, gleefully patting Daniel’s cheek. “Danny can sleep wif Mummy ’n’ me.”
Ana’s flashlight slipped from her fingers and hit the floor with a crack—spilling its battery guts. Two pairs of eyes swung in her direction. She cleared her throat, hoping the dim lighting would disguise the heat staining her cheeks.
“There you are, baby. Time to go back to our room now and let Daniel go to sleep.”
Though generally a placid little girl, Alyssa was still a normal toddler. Her lower lip trembled and her little hands balled into fists, signs of an imminent tantrum. “No. Lyssa stay wif Danny.”
“Alyssa…” Even to her own ears, she sounded like she was pleading, not threatening action.
Sensing weakness, Alyssa abruptly changed tack and smiled beguilingly. “Mummy sleep here, too?”
Daniel obligingly shuffled over toward the opposite edge of the fold-out mattress, leaving Alyssa in the center.
Her baby had the killer instincts of a Great White.
The little girl wriggled down and reached her arms out. “Please, Mummy? I sleepy now.”
Ana sighed and took a few slow steps forward. She had neither the energy nor the inclination to deal with a toddler’s nuclear meltdown tonight.
“Don’t forget to turn off the light, Counselor,” Daniel said solemnly, his eyes glittering with barely repressed humor.
Tomorrow. She switched the lantern off and slid next to Alyssa, keeping her feet tucked up and well away from Daniel’s. Tomorrow I’ll somehow sort this mess out.
Tuesday, July 27. 8:29 a.m. Southgate, Wellington, New Zealand.
* * *
Daniel had opened his eyes that morning to find both Ana and Alyssa gone. It didn’t surprise him, though he wondered if Ana was under the illusion that Nadia wouldn’t find out where she’d slept last night. Alyssa, mini chatterbox as she was, would no doubt enchant everyone with her nighttime escapades at breakfast.
Though enchant was clearly the wrong word, if the irritated gleam in Ana’s eyes later that morning was any indication. He also hadn’t missed her cool shutdown of Alyssa’s plans to spend that night with ‘Danny’ again.
“Daniel will be going back to his own home very soon, and Mummy’s going to get Theo today. I think you’d rather sleep in Theo’s room tonight, wouldn’t you?”
Put him neatly in his place, hadn’t she? Trying to cut him off cold.
They left for her dad’s house after breakfast. The walk would take roughly two hours on a good day, she informed them as they hitched daypacks on their shoulders and started down the hill. After the earthquake, it was all guesswork.
He knew Ana would’ve rather gone with anyone other than him. Only the fact that Adam and Jimmy looked like the pair of them couldn’t hold down a sheet of newspaper in a strong wind had prevented Ana from putting up much of an argument about him tagging along.
Nice to know she trusted him in some ways.
What sucked was it appeared to be in a bodyguard-type capacity. Ana didn’t argue about him coming with her, but she damn well would’ve gone alone if he hadn’t volunteered. If she trusted him with her body and not just in protecting it—because he remembered how she’d clung to him when they were joined together so intimately—why couldn’t she trust him with her heart also?
People greeted her affectionately as they walked, and she stopped to hug a hunched-over old man she called Mr. Green. Gone was the disheveled, wild-eyed woman who had alternately wept in his arms and then made frantic love to him. Her messy curls were tamed into a single braid and she’d doused herself in some expensive fragrance that made him want to sneeze. The simple white shirt had been replaced with a top that looked like it cost more than he’d make in a day’s work on the farm.
She didn’t look like his Ana anymore.
He wanted to crush her in his arms and kiss her senseless. He wanted her hands on him, to feel her heart pounding in synchronization with his. He wanted to see her clothes wrinkled and her hair blowing haphazardly in the breeze. He wanted her laughter and he wanted more glimpses into the parts of herself she kept so closely guarded.
He wanted the woman he’d fallen in love with back.
Ana kept up her brutal pace, attempting to walk two steps ahead of him so she wouldn’t have to keep up the pretense of making conversation. He snorted out a quiet but heartfelt grunt of determination.
If she thought he’d roll over and play dead instead of fighting for her, the beautiful counselor had severely underestimated her opponent.
Chapter 29
Tuesday, July 27. 11:37 a.m. Seatoun, Wellington, New Zealand.
* * *
Seatoun, the suburb where Theo’s school was located and the same suburb her dad lived in, had been badly damaged by the quake and following tsunami. The cleanup had already started with crews of volunteers working to remove rubble and trash and broken tree branches from the streets, but evidence of the tsunami—the stench of the mud and probably sewage drying in the winter sunshine—was almost enough to make her gag.
Walking along a street on the hill above Theo’s school en route to her dad’s place, Ana spotted a cluster of people beside a church hall which had been commandeered as a civil defense shelter. They continued toward it and Ana spotted a boy with carroty-red hair tossing a cricket ball back and forth with another kid.
“That’s one of Theo’s friends.” She lightly touched Daniel’s arm to stop him. “I’ll have a quick word with him.”
Ana waved out and the boy jogged over to them on the sidewalk. “Hi, Ms. Grace.”
“Malcolm, what happened on Friday? You and Theo were in PE, weren’t you?”
“Yeah. Theo told us to run up the hill after the quake hit. Lucky we did. Man, that tsunami totalled everything.”
It was that close? She swallowed, heart in her throat, and took a deep breath. “He’s okay, then? You’re okay?”
“Yeah, sure. We’re all okay.” His forehead crumpled and he picked a scab that had formed over a graze on his chin. “The teachers brought us all here afterward to wait for our parents. Mine are away in Aussie with my grandma and can’t get a flight into Wellington. I was staying with my auntie, but”—his gawky adolescent Adam’s apple bobbed rapidly—“one of the teachers tracked her down in the weekend. She’s in hospital, and they told me I should stay here for now until her house can be checked out.”
Ana drew the boy in for a hug, and the stiffness in his shoulders quickly melted away. “I’ll stop on the way back from getting Theo and his granddad and see if you can come home with us, okay?”
Malcolm nodded and surreptitiously swiped a grubby fist across his eyes. “Thanks, Ms. Grace.”
“When did Theo leave the shelter?” Daniel asked.
“Saturday. I saw him talking to Mr. Burbank. Guess he must’ve been asking if he could be dismissed to go to his granddad’s. He took off a few minutes later with him.”
Tiny spiders of unease skittered down her spine.
“With who? Mr. Burbank?” she said.
“Yeah.” Malcom gave her an adults worry about everything eye roll. “It’s okay, Ms. Grace. He’s the school’s drama teacher.”
The boy who’d been tossing a cricket ball to Malcolm sidled up. “Harrison Burbank’s freaking weird, if you ask me.”
“Harrison Burbank?” she parroted and the chilled spidery sensation escalated.
Something about the teacher’s full name.
Where had she heard it before? Why did it feel like her skin was about to break out in a nasty rash?
“What’s weird about him?” asked Daniel.
Ana looked up. Daniel was frowning.
The boy shrugged to indicate it was no big deal. “He’s just, ya know, a creepster. He smiles at you all the time, but we all know underneath that smile he doesn’t like kids. It’s like he’s always acting.”
“He is a drama teacher, doofus,” Malcolm said.
“He’s still creepy, dipshit.” The other boy shoulder-checked him and they began to tussle, shoving each other until Malcolm laughed and took off, sprinting back toward the shelter.
“What do you think?” Daniel said, leading her to sit on the low concrete wall that encircled the parking lot in front of the church.
“There’s something about that teacher’s name. It’s on the tip of my tongue but I can’t quite—argh.” She rubbed her forehead, trying to massage the answer to the forefront of her brain.
“Relax. Sit in the sun for a moment. It’ll come.”
They sat with seagulls swooping overhead and the growl of a dump truck changing gears as it ground up the hill away from them. She let her mind drift.
Harrison. Harrison Burbank. She didn’t know any Harrisons, apart from the actor Harrison Ford. It hit her then—
“No. It can’t be. No.” She grabbed Daniel’s forearm, her nails digging into his flesh.
“What?”
“I should have thought of it the moment that kid said his name. The woman I was telling you about yesterday—the one who accused Dad of rape? Her name was Patricia Burbank.”
“It’s not an uncommon surname.” Daniel’s voice remained steady, even though her nails must have been imprinting shallow crescents in his skin.
“No, it’s not uncommon, but I remember.” Her breath quavered out. “I remember meeting her now.” She shot him a quick glance. “Guess I’d kind of blocked it out. It isn’t a pleasant memory.”
He plucked her clenched hand off his arm and laced their fingers together.
She laughed, but the sound came out of her throat like a turkey being slowly strangled. “This has become a habit I need to kick—me dumping all the horrors of my past on you.”
Turning toward her, he cupped her chin in his free hand, forcing her gaze to meet his. “There’s not a part of your life I’m not interested in, and you sharing it with me is not dumping. So tell me, for now, the edited version.”
The spiders were back, with an army of their friends, but she gulped past the nugget of dread in her throat. “When I was fifteen, Mum and I visited some relatives in Auckland. We’d gone mall shopping when this woman accosted us. She reeked of alcohol and started swearing at us, calling
Mum the wife of a—well, I figured out pretty fast who she was.”
In her mind’s eye she saw herself as she’d been that day. Wearing the new top she’d conned her mum into buying earlier, and Lily Grace angling her body to protect her in case the abuse should turn physical. Hot shame-filled tears had dripped off Ana’s face at the woman’s taunts.
“When I dragged Mum back from the woman I saw a little boy—he must’ve only been about three or four—standing behind her. The poor kid was sucking his thumb, a blank look on his face. He seemed so resigned to his mother’s viciousness, like it was nothing out of the ordinary. She yelled his name to get his attention and I remember thinking that the kid better turn out as brave as Indiana Jones, the character Harrison Ford played, because he’d need to be with a mother like that.”
She paused, pushing back the hurt and despair the memories dredged up from that day long ago. “We never saw or heard from Patricia Burbank again.” She stood up, brushing her palms down her legs. “I know it sounds far-fetched but do you think it might’ve been him watching my dad?”
Daniel frowned. “It’s possible. We’ll ask around and see if any of the teaching staff is still here,” he said, rising to his feet.
Her heart swelled. Whether he thought her theory crazy or not, Daniel believed her.
They got lucky. Two teachers from Theo’s school remained at the church, waiting with the group of five students whose parents still hadn’t arrived. Both were unimpressed when Ana asked them about Harrison Burbank. A teacher who skipped out on his colleagues almost immediately after a major disaster didn’t warrant the usual code of loyal silence between coworkers.
They discovered Harrison was in his mid-twenties, had joined the staff at the beginning of the school year, and didn’t socialize with them outside school hours and the formal school functions he was expected to attend. The most useful information was his home address, pried without too much arm-twisting out of the elderly science teacher. He’d dropped Harrison at home once after a staff meeting and sniffed as he recalled the young man hadn’t even bothered with the common courtesy of a thank you.
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