Her heart and stomach did a somersault of joy. For a moment she thought she saw Dan’s eyes light up, but decided she had imagined it when he glowered at her.
Starr and Anton took one look at Lisa’s expression and the huge man scowling at her and decided he had to be the cause of Lisa’s misery.
They immediately headed across the café to run interference.
‘Can I help you?’ Starr asked crisply, her head tipped all the way back on her neck so that she could look up at the giant, her gorgeous lavender eyes flashing warningly.
Wrenching his gaze from Lisa, Dan looked down at the tiny waitress with her fairy eyes and silver nose stud and wondered what it was about him that made little women so prickly. He guessed she was another one of Lisa’s champions, and damned if there wasn’t another one right behind her, a guy in his thirties wearing an apron over his jeans and carrying a very young baby over one shoulder.
‘I’m here to see Lisa,’ Dan explained, glancing across at her.
Lisa looked like she wanted to burst into tears or make a run for it, which was confusing considering the beautiful smile she had given him when she first saw him.
‘She’s busy,’ the fairy said curtly.
‘Fine,’ Dan replied. ‘I’d like a coffee.’
That threw the Lavender Fairy. She glanced at the guy with the baby, who looked as if he was considering trying to throw Dan out but didn’t really rate his chances when he was at least six inches shorter. Dan felt like telling him he’d been successfully manhandled out the front door by a woman only a couple of nights ago. One thing was for sure; Lisa’s friends were incredibly loyal to her.
The rest of the customers were watching the show with interest.
Lisa seemed to come to life. She hurried across to rest a placating hand on the man’s tense bicep. Dan clenched his jaw at the jealousy her action ignited in him.
‘It’s OK, Anton. Really, it’s OK,’ she said.
He regarded Dan suspiciously. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes…really…I’ll be fine,’ Lisa insisted, and turning to the fairy said earnestly, ‘Honestly, Starr.’
How apt, Dan thought, the fairy’s called Starr.
The cavalry reluctantly returned to their posts.
Lisa looked up at Dan, twisting a corner of her apron around her index finger. ‘Come outside.’
She showed him to one of the wooden tables shaded by umbrellas in the outdoor area of the garden centre. When Dan had taken a seat, Lisa remained standing by the table and took out her notepad and pen. ‘Was it just a flat white?’ she asked.
Dan looked at her in disbelief. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, her earlier elation washed away by nerves at seeing him again and continuing anxiety about her father. ‘I work for Anton and he’s running a business.’
Dan was momentarily speechless. This was not how he had imagined their reunion. Apart from that heavenly smile it was nothing like he had imagined it.
‘Fine. I’ll take a flat white and…and…’ He floundered. Paying attention to the menu chalked on the big blackboard inside had not been high on his list of priorities when he’d walked in the door.
Lisa scribbled on her notepad. ‘And two chocolate muffins.’
Dan watched in amazement. ‘You’re writing down orders?’
She looked up and smiled briefly. ‘Yes. Anton’s dyslexic too, so we have a system.’
She left to place his order. When she returned, she was carrying Dan’s muffins and coffee and a small green bottle of Sprite with a straw, which she placed on the table before turning to head back into the café again.
Dan reached out and caught her wrist to stop her. He was delighted at the way she gasped as the familiar spark of awareness leapt between them. ‘Lisa, we need to talk.’
She stared down at the bracelet his index finger and thumb made around her wrist and nodded. ‘Yes, I know. Anton said I can take my break. I’ve just got to get something.’
Dan reluctantly released her.
When she returned she was carrying the baby over her shoulder and pushing a bright-green baby buggy covered in canary-yellow chickens.
After his initial surprise, Dan leapt to his feet to take the buggy from her and hold out a chair for her to sit down. He watched as Lisa transferred the baby to the crook of her arm and picking up her lemonade bottle sucked on the straw. He couldn’t decide what was more distracting: the sight of her holding the baby or sucking on the straw.
Lisa put the bottle back on the table and turned the baby towards Dan. ‘This is Joey. He’s Anton and Susie’s baby; they’re the owners of the café. He’s six weeks old today.’ She lifted the baby into the air so that she could look into his tiny, pink face. ‘Aren’t you, Joey? And you know how to smile!’
Joey obligingly displayed a set of pink, toothless gums.
Lisa kissed him and returned him to the crook of her arm, taking care to keep his face in the shade of the umbrella. Dan burned to ask her if she was pregnant, but wasn’t quite sure how to bring the subject up. Did he just blurt it out?
‘Joey’s my chaperone.’
‘Pardon me?’
‘Anton would only let me come and talk to you if I brought the baby with me.’
Dan’s brows shot up. ‘Why?’
‘He thinks everybody behaves well around a baby, poor deluded man—but Starr said you were OK, she’s training to be a midwife and apparently you came to see the newborn baby of one of her clients. She said anybody who was as gentle as you were with that mother and her baby wouldn’t lose his temper around Joey.’ She stroked Joey’s cheek with her finger and watched Dan.
‘Hell,’ he muttered, raking a hand through his hair, which badly needed a cut. ‘What do they think I’m going to do? Beat you to death with a chocolate muffin and bury you in the pansy display?’
She smiled properly for the first time, which made the hollows beneath her cheekbones and the shadows under her eyes more prominent. Dan had already noticed how thin she was.
‘If you’d seen your face when you first came in you’d understand why Anton and Starr were concerned. You’re hardly little, Dan, and when you’re glowering like a chook with haemorrhoids you can be a bit intimidating.’
Dan blinked. ‘A chook with haemorrhoids?’
‘You know what I mean.’
He looked annoyed. ‘It’s hardly surprising I was looking pissed, Lisa.’
‘Dan!’ She glared at him, indicating the baby. ‘Mind your language!’
‘Sorry, Joe.’ He fixed her with a determined look. ‘But I think most people would agree I’ve had good reason to look annoyed, Lisa. I’m annoyed at the way you ran out without so much as a word as to where you’d gone.’
‘I didn’t run out, I left.’
‘Whatever,’ Dan replied impatiently. ‘You still could have told me where you were going.’
‘No, I couldn’t,’ she insisted. ‘You think I’m Linda, which means you think I’m a liar—’
‘I don’t!’ he protested. ‘You’re not a liar…just…’
‘What? Deluded? A spinner of tales? Bonkers?’ Lisa demanded.
Joey began to wave his arms anxiously.
‘Sorry…sorry, sweetheart,’ she soothed.
Dan observed the easy way she handled and comforted the baby, and wondered how he’d let the conversation get away from him and how he was going to ask if she were pregnant and why she’d been to see a doctor.
‘Esme said you’ve been sick,’ he began tentatively.
‘Don’t change the subject, Dan,’ Lisa said resentfully. ‘You and Craig and your damned facts and research. I don’t care how many medical degrees and years of experience you have between you, neither one of you has ever died, Dan. I’m the expert about that…’
She trailed off as Brian Jackson suddenly came out of the garden shop on the opposite side of the wide concrete area. He was carrying a tray of plants. Lisa’s face lit up. ‘Dad…’ she murmured.
>
Gritting his teeth, Dan looked across at Brian.
Brian’s steps slowed and he smiled back when Lisa waved at him. He looked at Dan, and the two men nodded imperceptibly at each other.
Dan held his breath, watching Lisa from the corner of his eye.
She looked accusingly at him. ‘You two know each other?’
‘We’ve met,’ he hedged. ‘Once.’
‘Where?’ she demanded, storm clouds gathering on her face. ‘Where did you meet my father?’
‘At your sister’s.’
‘At Sherry’s? What were you doing at Sherry’s?’
‘Trying to find you.’
Lisa looked shocked. ‘I can’t believe Sherry told you where I was! Is that how you found out?’
Dan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Do you mean Sherry knew where you were?’
‘Of course she did.’
In deference to Joey, Dan swore soundlessly. ‘Your damned sister should take up poker.’
Lisa smiled smugly. ‘She didn’t tell you?’
‘No! Your parents arrived and she threw me out of the house!’
‘My parents? You mean you’ve met my father and my mother?’
‘Only briefly,’ Dan shook his head. ‘I still don’t know how she did it. I mean she’s tall for a woman and she’s strong, but I still can’t figure out how she managed to get me out the door.’
Lisa shrugged and returned her attention to her father. ‘She’s used to it,’ she replied absently. ‘There’s wasps flying around those plants. Dad’s allergic.’
‘Lisa, why did you visit a doctor?’ Dan demanded.
She looked at him sharply. ‘How did you know I’d been to see a doctor?’
‘Your mother told me.’
‘My mother told you?!’
One of the glass doors leading to the café opened behind Lisa and Dan, and right on cue Jill Jackson stepped through and closed the door behind her. Dan dropped his forehead into his palm and sighed.
Lisa stared at her mother, her eyes and mouth wide with shock.
‘I want to speak to you,’ Jill said in an ominous tone.
‘Aw, hell…’ Dan muttered, grabbing the baby from Lisa’s suddenly limp hands.
Nobody noticed Kaylene walk by with another tray of plants. But they all heard her scream. She came running from behind the potting tables where Brian had been stacking the plants. ‘He’s been stung! A wasp’s stung Brian!’ she shrieked.
When they reached Brian, he was gasping for breath on the ground behind one of the potting tables, his face already beginning to swell.
Dan shoved the baby into Jill’s arms and, dropping to his knees, prised Brian’s hands from his throat so he could loosen his clothing. He turned to ask Jill if they had an anaphylaxis kit, but before he could speak Lisa took off at a run towards the garden shop with Jill following close behind. Lisa quickly returned holding a small adrenaline kit in her hands. Dan watched in amazement as she opened it, grabbed the syringe, yanked the arm of Brian’s sleeve up and expertly injected him in his upper arm.
‘It’s alright, Dad, you’ll be alright in a couple of minutes,’ she said tensely, sinking back onto her heels and massaging the injection site while Jill hovered behind her with Joey over her shoulder.
Brian’s breathing began to ease. Dan squatted behind him with his fingers pressed to his wrist. ‘Call an ambulance,’ he told Kaylene, who looked pale and shaken. He smiled reassuringly. ‘Do you think you can do that?’
She nodded jerkily. ‘Yes…yes. I’ll do that.’
‘How did you know where to find it?’ Jill whispered to Lisa when Kaylene had gone.
As Dan watched Lisa, the awful prickling in his scalp began again, making him feel like he was the one who’d been attacked by wasps.
Lisa stroked her father’s knee through his trousers. ‘It’s in his old brown leather bag, the one that’s like a doctor’s bag,’ she replied. ‘And he’s got a kit in the car in the glove compartment. I’ve always been better at giving the injections than anybody else, even though you work at the medical centre. The sight of blood makes Ben feel faint and Sherry would rather have an injection than give one.’
Kaylene returned along with Anton, who took the baby from Jill.
‘Anton, I’m sorry but can you…’ Lisa began.
‘It’s OK. You go do…whatever it is you have to do,’ Anton said, glancing around the circle of frozen faces. ‘Kaylene told me what happened and Susie can cover for you.’
Lisa tried to smile. ‘Thanks.’
‘Oh, I forgot to tell you,’ Anton continued apologetically, ‘Susie asked me to pass on a message that Mrs Moody got from your sister yesterday. She said to tell you that your mother is on the warpath.’
Jill made a strangled noise.
Anton’s expression indicated he realized he’d just put his size-ten shoe in his mouth. With a helpless look in Lisa’s direction, he took the safest course of action and ran for it.
‘I need to talk to you,’ Jill repeated in a very different tone to the one she’d used when she stepped out of the café.
Brian grabbed Lisa’s hand and squeezed it.
‘I want to talk to you, too,’ she said to Jill. ‘But can you give me a moment with Dan first?’
She led Dan to where the trays of annuals were kept beneath wide green awnings.
‘Thanks for helping my father.’
‘I didn’t do much. You were great.’
Lisa pressed some soil more firmly around a pansy. ‘I just realized why you came to see me.’
‘What do you mean?’ Dan asked warily.
‘You wanted to know if I was pregnant, didn’t you?’ she asked quietly.
He hesitated. ‘Yes, but that wasn’t the only rea—’
‘I’m not. I got my period a couple of days ago,’ Lisa interrupted, looking up at him. ‘So that’s one less thing for you to have to worry about.’
‘Yeah,’ Dan agreed hollowly. ‘One less thing to worry about.’ When the ambulance arrived, Lisa went outside with her mother and father.
It wasn’t until she’d gone that Dan realized that the whole time he’d been speaking to Lisa he’d referred to Sherry, Brian and Jill as her sister, father and mother.
29
Lisa stepped inside her old home for the first time in more than three months.
Sherry was with her. Their mother had called her and asked if she’d take Lisa back to their house while she accompanied Brian to the hospital. ‘He should be discharged later today, once they’re happy the swelling has gone down and his breathing is alright,’ Jill said before the ambulance left the garden centre.
‘I know,’ Lisa answered.
Her response clearly perplexed Jill.
‘Would you mind waiting for us?’ she asked politely.
‘No, I don’t mind,’ Lisa replied woodenly, hating the way her mother was treating her like a stranger.
‘Thanks,’ Jill hesitated. ‘I’ll call Sherry if they plan to keep Brian in.’
Brian, Lisa noted, not your father but Brian.
Hugging her arms about her waist she nodded.
The paramedics loaded Brian into the back of the ambulance. He looked pale but smiled at Lisa from behind his oxygen mask and wiggled his fingers at her. She smiled back and mouthed Behave yourself. He nodded and mouthed back See you later.
Back at the house, Sherry watched as Lisa wandered from room to room, touching familiar objects.
‘Everything looks the same,’ Lisa said.
Sherry nodded, swallowing a huge lump in her throat as she watched the expressions on Lisa’s face. Joy, relief, delight, sadness.
‘What about my room?’
‘Oh yeah,’ Sherry’s voice cracked with emotion. ‘That’s definitely the same. In fact it’s like a shrine. Mum only washed the sheets a few weeks ago—not that she’d let anybody sleep in there anyway.’
The Jackson house had been added onto by Brian a bit at a time without any great thought to planni
ng. Lisa’s bedroom was at the very end of the hallway, but the quickest way to it was through the lounge and dining room and she unerringly took the shorter route. When she reached the bedroom, she walked slowly about, touching things, opening the drawers in the dressing table beneath the window, and looking in the wardrobe before eventually going to sit on the bed. She smoothed her palm across the pale-turquoise bedcover she had bought last summer when Brian and Ben redecorated the room for her, and looked about frowning. ‘Where’s Fish?’
Fish was a stuffed toy that had been Lisa’s companion through countless trips to the hospital as a child, and later when she lay in bed clutching a hot-water bottle to her abdomen to ward off the pain of her endometriosis. Fish was orange with hideous yellow lips and an eye missing, and Jill and Brian couldn’t recall who had given him to Lisa when she was little.
Sherry was leaning against the bedroom door. She shifted uncomfortably. ‘We…er…we…’
Lisa looked alarmed. ‘You what?’
‘We buried him with you.’ Sherry muttered.
‘You what?’
Sherry squirmed. ‘Mum wanted to, it made her feel better.’
‘What about me? It doesn’t make me feel any better at all!’
‘Oh yeah! Why didn’t we think to ask you? How dumb of us,’ Sherry snorted.
Lisa cringed. ‘Poor Fish! That’s disgusting!’
Sherry shrugged. ‘You asked.’
Lisa glowered at her.
Sherry felt a bubble of laughter working its way into her throat, but managed to turn it into a cough instead.
‘It’s not funny!’ Lisa yelled.
Sherry snorted and doubled over with laughter.
‘You heartless cow!’
Sherry laughed harder while Lisa fumed. At least the outburst had lessened some of the awful tension.
‘You’re supposed to be nice to me,’ Lisa complained. ‘I’m back from the dead.’
‘I’ve been an absolute bloody angel to you, you thankless tart,’ Sherry retorted. ‘Not only have I been pleading your case with Mum, Dad and Ben, I’ve also been running interference between you and Dan Brogan.’
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