Bonkers
Page 12
She cleared her throat nervously, hoping she was as good a judge of character as she liked to think. Dan was a large, extremely powerful man. If he lost his temper and hurt her, Lisa knew she wouldn’t stand a chance. ‘I know I look like Linda, Dan, but believe me, I’m not her.’ She looked at him steadily. ‘You know that.’
The tension vibrating in the air made her lift her hands to display the appalling state of the acrylic nails on her fingers. She wiggled them at him. ‘Come on now. Would Linda have let her nails get in this state?’ she joked weakly.
He gazed at her in confusion before lifting his own hands in a sudden, violent gesture that made Lisa jump and cringe against the back of the sofa. She was relieved when he ploughed his hands through his hair in frustration, looking deeply offended by her show of fear. ‘I may be angry, Lisa. But I’m not going to hit you.’
There was a long silence, during which he replaced the photo on the side table before returning to sit on the edge of the thick glass-topped table in front of the sofa. Resting his elbows on his spread knees, he ran a weary hand through his hair. He’d removed his jacket and tie at the beginning of the game and undone the top two buttons of his pale-blue dress shirt, revealing the strong brown column of his throat.
Lisa tried not to stare at it. ‘I’m sorry, Dan,’ she said quietly. ‘For both of us.’
Lacing his fingers together between his knees, he sighed and shook his head. Gazing at the carpet with a bleak expression, he murmured, ‘None of this makes any sense. You’ve had a bad head injury. You’ve lost your memory.’
‘But I haven’t,’ she replied softly. ‘I haven’t lost it at all. I remember my entire life. It just isn’t your wife’s life.’ She sighed. ‘Oh, I wish I could make you understand…’
He lifted his head, fixing her with cool, grey eyes. ‘Please,’ he urged. ‘Do.’
Lisa’s heart stuttered in her chest. ‘I’m scared…to tell you.’
‘Why?’
‘Because…because I know how crazy it will sound, and if you throw me out I have nowhere to go.’
His expression softened slightly. ‘I’m not going to throw you out.’
‘You’ll just get Craig Fergusson to lock me up instead.’
He smiled faintly. ‘It’s not as easy to lock people up as you might like to think, Lin—Lisa.’
She smiled back and shivered.
‘Are you cold?’ Dan asked instantly.
‘A bit. I’m tired, I guess.’ Lisa felt drained of energy and knew she wasn’t up to this. The beer was making her sleepy. Fixing him with a level look, she said, ‘I’m truly not trying to avoid your questions, but I’m not really up to this conversation at the moment. Would you mind if we talked about this tomorrow? I really need to go to bed now.’
He nodded reluctantly. ‘Sure. I’ll show you your room.’
Lisa gasped when he opened the door to a bedroom with the largest bed she’d ever set eyes on. ‘Crikey! It’s like your trousers! Did you get the shop to put two beds together?’
He laughed quietly. ‘We had it made in the States. I’m always hanging out of the bottom of beds.’
Lisa frowned. ‘This is your bed.’
‘It’s OK,’ he said quickly. ‘I’ve been sleeping in the spare room for…a while.’
‘Show me.’
‘What?’
‘Show me where you’re sleeping,’ Lisa insisted and began to hop back along the hallway.
‘Lisa!’ Dan followed. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, it does. How big is the bed you’re sleeping in?’ She pushed open a door two along from her bedroom. ‘This is it, isn’t it?’
Dan came up behind her and looked sheepishly at the untidy mess of his bedroom. ‘Yes.’
Lisa laughed. ‘You messy pup!’
The room was cluttered with medical texts and paperbacks stacked on the bedside tables and spilling onto the floor. A cane laundry hamper stood in one corner, a pile of dirty clothes towering over it with the lid balanced precariously on top. The wardrobe doors stood open to reveal badly hung clothes and shoes piled up haphazardly on top of the shoe rack. A collection of mugs and plates were scattered across the top of a beautiful wooden chest of drawers. Amidst it all stood a queen-sized bed with a navy-blue duvet cover. Lisa imagined how small it must be for Dan’s long body.
‘OK, so it’s a bit untidy,’ he said defensively, trying to reach around Lisa to close the door.
‘Oh no!’
She braced her arms on the doorframe and bent forward slightly, sticking her bottom right in his groin. ‘No, you don’t! I haven’t seen it all yet!’
‘Yes, you have,’ Dan growled, closing his eyes briefly at the delicious feel of her beautiful ass snuggled against his zipper. Whoever the hell she thought she was, she still had his wife’s beautiful body. Hooking an arm around her waist, he lifted her, swinging her around as if she weighed nothing at all and closing the bedroom door with his opposite hand.
Lisa let out a squeal of surprise. ‘Hey! That’s cheating!’
‘So sue me.’ He set her down on the carpet.
She sobered when she saw his grim expression. ‘I was only joking. Sorry.’
He began to shepherd her back towards the first bedroom where he showed her the en suite bathroom. ‘You share it with me but you can lock the door to my room so we don’t barge in on each other.’
Lisa nodded silently, all the humour gone from her face.
‘Can you manage OK with…?’ He gestured at her blue skirt and top.
‘Definitely,’ she replied.
‘Good,’ he said tersely, just so she knew he hadn’t been trying to come on to her. He paused in the doorway. ‘Goodnight, then.’
Lisa turned her back and hopped towards the dressing table opposite the bed. ‘Yeah. Night.’
Stubborn little witch, Dan thought to himself as he stalked back down the hallway to his bedroom with its doll-sized bed.
Prick, Lisa thought. Miserable prick.
She looked at the monster-sized bed and moaned. She would get lost in it. The bloody thing was the size of a rugby field. Her bedroom at home was smaller than the damned bed.
Oh God, she thought wretchedly, please, please don’t let me sleepwalk.
11
Lisa did sleepwalk.
She’d done it ever since she was a child. Whenever she was upset or frightened, she went walkabout in her sleep. All of her family were experts at turning Lisa around and putting her back to bed without waking her. Generally she only did it once a night; once back in bed, she could usually be relied upon to stay there until morning.
Lisa was relieved she hadn’t done it while she was in hospital. She’d come to the conclusion the alien nighttime environment of the ward with its dimmed lights and hushed voices had prevented her sleeping deeply enough to sleepwalk. She’d never slept the entire night through despite having her own room.
When Lisa woke up the next morning, she was safely tucked up in the cavernous bed and starving. Her main concern was breakfast. She was blissfully unaware Dan had been woken around two in the morning by the soft thud thud of somebody moving along the hallway outside his bedroom in the direction of the lounge.
Checking the clock, he lay still and listened intently.
Thud! Pause. Thud! Pause.
Like somebody hopping on carpet.
Why the hell would Lisa be up in the middle of the night?
Perhaps she’d forgotten where the bathroom was or maybe she wanted a drink of water. Dan climbed out of his cramped bed and let himself out into the hallway. It was empty. Picking up his pace, he walked along the corridor and nearly had a heart attack when he saw a pale figure hovering just above the steps leading down to the lounge.
‘Lisa?’ he exclaimed, hurrying towards her, his bare feet slapping on the polished wood. ‘Lisa! Why don’t you put the lights on? You’ll fall—’
He reached her just as she lifted her broken leg to step out into nothing. Wrapping his arm
s around her, he caught her against his chest, his heart racing with fear. ‘Lisa!’
Her head lolled on his shoulder and she let out a gentle snore.
Dan blinked in disbelief. She’s sleepwalking!
As she continued to snuffle against him, blissfully at peace, he couldn’t help but shake with silent laughter. What the hell would this woman do next?
He carried her back to her bed by hooking his arms beneath hers and tucking her back against his chest. With a start he realized that he’d jumped out of bed stark-naked, and the gentle sway of her buttocks covered only by one of his T-shirts rubbing against his groin was giving him an erection he could have cut diamonds with.
Holding Lisa as far away from his pelvis as he could, Dan ferried her back to bed, acutely relieved that he hadn’t bothered to put on any lights, because if she woke up she was going to be in for one hell of a shock. It amused him that even in her sleep she still tried to hop on her good foot. As soon as he’d tucked her back into bed, she sighed and curled up like a little kid, looking lost in the big bed.
Dan gazed at her and the bed regretfully.
Lisa made a sound, turning back towards him.
Dan made a swift exit in case she opened her eyes and discovered him standing stark-naked beside her bed with a hard-on pointing to midnight, but as a precaution he left both bedroom doors open for the remainder of the night.
So when Lisa hopped into the kitchen on her crutches the following morning and Dan asked her if she’d slept well, he wasn’t too surprised when she nodded.
‘Yes, fine. Why? Did you have an uncomfortable night in your kiddy bed?’
‘You could say that,’ he replied cryptically, spooning cereal into his mouth.
Lisa felt vaguely discomforted by the sight of Dan fresh out of bed. In the past, she had always seen him at the end of the day, dressed casually and once or twice in a suit. She was taken aback at how attractive he looked first thing in the morning, wearing a pale-blue towelling robe and, from the look of his bare feet and legs, not much else. His jaw was shadowed with stubble, his hair was mussed and sticking up on one side, and his eyes still looked sleepy.
Lisa feared she was becoming another Mary.
He was sitting at the breakfast bar in the large, sunny kitchen with the morning paper spread out in front of him and a cup of coffee steaming gently by his elbow.
Lisa sniffed at the coffee hopefully.
Taking the hint, Dan went to get a mug from a collection hanging in the nook above a brick fireplace in the middle of the room. It separated the kitchen from a large, airy dining room with a long formal table flanked by chairs covered in a rich, raspberry fabric.
Lisa noticed Dan hesitate as he poured the coffee. ‘How d’you like it?’
She appreciated the significance of the question—obviously he knew how Linda had liked her coffee. ‘Just milk, please.’ She managed to climb up onto one of the high wooden chairs at the breakfast bar. ‘I’m starving.’
Dan rewarded her with a faint smile, one corner of his mouth curling. ‘Cereal OK?’
‘Yes, please.’
Lisa munched on her cereal after filching the sports section of the paper from him.
‘I was going to read that,’ he protested.
‘Nobody’s stopping you.’ She nodded at the section that he had laid out in front of him. ‘I might have wanted to read that, but do you hear me complaining?’
‘You want to read the business section?’
‘No.’
He snorted.
They managed to pretend to ignore each other until the toaster popped and Dan ferried it back over to the breakfast bar.
Lisa had finished her cereal and began to butter some toast. Dan was eating his with butter and jam.
‘Have you only got jam?’ she asked.
He swallowed. ‘Jam?’
She nodded at the pot on the counter. ‘Jam.’
‘That’s jelly.’
‘No, that’s jam. Jelly is wobbly stuff kids have at parties.’
‘No, that’s Jello.’
They squared off across the butter and toast. Dan looked distinctly hostile at the continued reminders that this woman just wasn’t acting the way she should.
‘Do you have any Vegemite?’ Lisa persisted, refusing to back down.
‘What the fuck is Vegemite?’ he snapped.
Lisa looked offended. ‘I wish that woman from last night could hear you now, Doctor! I was told off for swearing. She wouldn’t think you were so wonderful if she could hear what you’d just said about Vegemite!’
They glared at each other.
Then Dan began to smile.
Lisa frowned and tried hard to hang onto her temper, but it was a lost cause.
‘Is Vegemite that black stuff Kiwis like to smear all over their sandwiches?’ he asked.
‘There’s nothing wrong with Vegemite,’ Lisa said petulantly.
He shrugged and went back to his paper. ‘Just don’t expect me to join you.’
‘You have some?’
‘No. We’ll go to the supermarket today and stock up on a few things.’
It wasn’t until they’d finished eating and Lisa had helped him stack the dishwasher that he told her she’d been sleepwalking.
‘Oh no!’ she wailed. ‘I was worried I might!’
He frowned. ‘Nobody told me you’d started sleepwalking.’
She shook her head distractedly. ‘I didn’t in the hospital; it’s only if I get into a deep sleep and that was impossible there.’ She covered her face with her hands and moaned. ‘I’ve done it ever since I was little. If I’m worried or overexcited I do it, but it’s only ever once a night. As soon as I go back to bed, I stay put.’
Dan braced his hands on the kitchen counter, struggling to contain his irritation. Linda had never walked in her sleep. Not once.
‘You were just about to step off the top of the living-room steps when I found you last night,’ he said. ‘You can’t take risks like that with your leg.’
‘I know,’ Lisa agreed, chewing her lip.
Dan watched her in tight-lipped silence. Lisa could sense his disbelief and disapproval. He thought she was lying. ‘There’s a lock on your bedroom door,’ he said at last.
She shook her head. ‘No. I undo locks in my sleep. I even walked out into the street once.’
When? he wanted to snarl, because it sure as hell wasn’t any time in the last eight years. ‘Jeez, this just gets better and better!’
Lisa glared at him. ‘I don’t do it on purpose! I only do it when I’m worried or upset.’
‘I’ll probably be joining you,’ he replied curtly. ‘I’m worried you’re going to walk off the cliff during the night. The thought of that upsets me.’
She turned abruptly, hopping towards the kitchen doorway, anxious to get away from him and his censure.
Dan sighed. ‘Aw…Lisa! Look…I’m sorry.’ He hated seeing her vulnerability when she fled from him like that, struggling on her broken leg.
She paused with one hand on the doorframe, her back still towards him. ‘What am I going to do, Dan?’ she asked in a muffled voice.
‘I don’t know. We’ll think of something.’
Lisa nodded and looked reluctantly over her shoulder at him. ‘Do you want to use the shower first?’ She was deeply embarrassed by the degree of intimacy they were being forced into.
‘No.’ He nodded in the direction of the bathroom. ‘You go ahead.’
‘Are you sure? I’m not used to showering on my own.’ Lisa felt heat flood her cheeks. She hoped Dan didn’t think she was suggesting he help her. ‘What I mean is,’ she amended hastily, ‘I’ve always had one of the nurses to help.’
Oh shit. That sounded even worse.
‘I mean…’ she began again helplessly, looking wretched.
Dan held up a hand. ‘It’s OK. I get the picture. I’ll go first.’
She scuttled backwards so that they didn’t touch each other when he went thro
ugh the kitchen doorway. Shoulders slumped, she went to find something to wear from amongst his wife’s clothes.
Linda Brogan’s clothes filled the entire walk-in wardrobe off the master bedroom. Lisa could scarcely believe her eyes when she hopped in for a closer look. ‘Bloody hell!’ she whispered.
It was a model of organization—the total opposite to Dan’s wardrobe in the other room.
She trawled the shelves, opening drawers and stroking the luxurious fabrics. Jackets, shirts, trousers, dresses, skirts, vests and coats were hung in separate groups. Each group had then been classified by colour and length of sleeve or hem. There was a shelf for hats, and three-tiered shoe racks stretching the length of one of the walls with the most amazing, beautiful shoes Lisa had ever seen. Boots, evening sandals, stilettos, aerobics shoes—you name it, Linda Brogan owned it, usually in several colours and styles.
Lisa stared at the beautiful jewel-toned clothes and thought how much her sister would adore owning a wardrobe like this.
There was no sign of Dan’s clothes, but there wasn’t any room for them anyway.
‘Lin—Lisa!’ he called from the bedroom. ‘Bathroom’s all yours.’
Hopping to the doorway between the wardrobe and the bedroom, Lisa paused and gazed at Dan appreciatively. He was standing just inside the bedroom door wearing jeans and a white T-shirt.
Oh boy, what a body.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked warily when she continued to stare at him.
‘Mmm? Oh! Those clothes!’ She inclined her head in the direction of the wardrobe behind her. ‘Are they all hers?’
Dan’s mouth compressed. ‘No, they’re all yours, Linda or Lisa or whatever you want to call yourself,’ he retorted before adding disapprovingly, ‘And where are your crutches? You should be using them, not holding onto walls and furniture to get around.’ He stalked out of the room.
This time Lisa did stick her tongue out at his retreating back before mouthing ‘Arsehole.’
She hurried through her shower, ignoring most of the jars and bottles of perfume and lotion stacked on glass shelves in the bathroom. Linda Brogan had certainly not believed in going without. Lisa knew all about cleansing, toning and moisturizing, as did any woman whose skin was exposed to the harsh New Zealand sun. But she wondered how on earth the woman made it out the door each day if she used all of the gunk on the shelves. Most of the labels made no sense to her at all. What the hell was Scaling Solution or Post Extraction Fluid? They both sounded like something found in a taxidermist’s.