Secret (Peters Junction Series Book 1)

by Nicola Sinclair

  Chapter Fourteen

  April spent the entire morning in her garden determined not to pay any attention to her phone. Lachlan hadn’t sent any more messages since last night and the disappointment was eating her.

  Less than a week. He’d been calling her every day, leaving three or four messages a day and then suddenly, after less than a week of trying, he’d given up. Obviously when he’d said he loved her, he’d mistaken his feelings.

  “Stop it!” she hissed quietly to herself. She couldn’t blame him for giving up, she was the one who wasn’t answering his calls. How long did she expect him to chase her before he gave up? Maybe he’d just come to the same conclusion she had when she’d heard his first message—talking would just be too damn hard. She was trying to stop the cracks in her heart from shattering altogether and she wouldn’t be able to do it if she spoke to him.

  Viciously, she tugged on a vine that had grown over Fire Mountain and threw the weed onto the pile of vegetation in her wheelbarrow that was headed for the compost. The middle of winter was not the best time to be cleaning up a garden, but she welcomed the physical exertion and she had always been able to relax in Shaewal.

  Shaewal was the fantasy world she had created for the Green Man to live in and she had laid out her garden to mimic its natural features. It had been her mother Katherine’s idea, and April had continued the practice after her mother’s death. In Shaewal she felt close to her mother, as if Katherine was still with her, still looking after her.

  When April was fourteen, she’d come home one day and declared she wanted to be an author and that she was going to write a fantasy fiction novel about a green man. It was Katherine’s encouragement that motivated her to follow through with her dream and her mother’s continuous support had been instrumental in seeing the first novel complete.

  “It’s no use,” April had cried to her mother one day. “I just can’t do it! I can’t describe Shaewal! Everything I write comes out all wrong.”

  “Maybe, you can’t write about it because you can’t see it? Maybe you need to go there and describe it from within.”

  At first April hadn’t understood but Katherine had simply taken her outside into the backyard and gestured to the large expanse of lawn before them. “Here is Shaewal,” she’d said. “Make it everything you want it to be.”

  They’d spent almost a year landscaping the backyard. Every day after school she would come home and rearrange her world. When she was finally happy with how it felt, she would sit for hours, imagining her characters moving through the landscape.

  Every word, every sentence and every page she wrote she gave to Katherine to read and edit and make suggestions. Until finally, just before her sixteenth birthday, she presented her mother with the complete manuscript. April hadn’t been able to sit idle though and immediately she began the second book, returning to her garden, to Shaewal.

  After her parent’s deaths, when she and Marie moved to Peters Junction, the first thing she did was rebuild Shaewal. Building the garden had nursed her through her grief and had given her the strength she needed whilst trying to be both mum and sister to Marie. Whenever she was stuck with her writing, or if life just got a little bit difficult, all April had to do was head out into Shaewal and her thoughts would clear.

  Until now. No matter how many weeds she pulled out, or how many leaves she raked up, she couldn’t lift her miserable mood.

  Glancing across to her phone sitting on her little outdoor table, April gritted her teeth and fought off the urge to call Lachlan. She turned her attention back to Fire Mountain, a large rock in her garden that not only represented the volcano of her imaginations, but which also lay in tribute to Katherine. Gently, her fingers found the words she had carved into the base of the stone all those years ago. RIP Katherine Pope. She felt tears forming in her eyes and didn’t even try to hold them back.

  “I miss you Mum,” she whispered to the rock. “I wish I could talk to you.”

  “April?” Marie called from the door and she snapped her head around. “I made you some coffee.”

  “Thanks,” she smiled. “I’ll be right in.” April sat in silence for a moment more, then got up and shook the dirt off her clothes. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and walked into the house. Since returning from camp Marie had been wonderful, giving April the time and space she needed and not asking her too many questions about what had happened with Lachlan in Sydney.

  “I thought I’d go over to Kim’s house for a bit,” Marie said when April sat down to drink her coffee. “The slow cooker’s on and the rice is done so you don’t have to worry about dinner and I’ll be back well before then anyway.”

  “Sounds great. Thanks.” Marie kissed April’s cheek before leaving through the front door and April thought she couldn’t have asked for a better sister.

  The afternoon wore on slowly and no matter how many times she checked her phone, it refused to ring. She returned to Shaewal to do some more weeding, but after days of trying to lose herself in her fantasy world, there wasn’t much left to do. Finally, late in the afternoon, she threw down her tools in the shed and went inside to put the kettle on. While it boiled, she splashed her face with water, the cool liquid soothing her wind burnt cheeks. She was startled by a knock at the door and hurried to answer it.

  “April,” Lachlan breathed her name and she felt her legs buckle beneath her. She gripped hard on the door handle to steady herself and then, unable to stop herself, she reached out and touched his arm. She had to make sure this wasn’t a dream, or some sort of torturous hallucination conjured within the dark recesses of her mind where she kept her sick sense of humour. The shock of electricity through her fingers was enough to dispel that illusion and she quickly dropped her hand.

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered hoarsely.

  Lachlan cleared his throat, and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat again.

  “He came to see if you were all right.” A man April hadn’t even noticed emerged from behind Lachlan.

  “Uh… this is my brother Ben,” Lachlan said, finding his voice.

  April recognised Ben instantly from watching Clayton Downs, but she’d never seen the two brothers together before and even she had to admit they made a striking pair. They could have been twins with the same height, the same build, the same gorgeously tanned facial features. Only dark blond hair and deep ocean blue eyes set Ben apart from Lachlan’s chocolate brown waves and intense sapphire gaze.

  Dumbfounded by their presence at her home, she remained standing at the door, staring at the two men in awkward silence, until finally, Lachlan cleared his throat and spoke again.

  “I came to warn you.”

  “Warn me?” She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to say, but that wasn’t it. “Warn me about what?”

  “Samantha.”

  “Samantha?” Why the hell would Lachlan have to warn her about Samantha?

  “Lachlan it’s probably easier to just show her.” Ben lifted a tablet above his head and waved it around a bit. “And you’re probably going to want to have the rest of this conversation inside.”

  At his words April’s head jerked up. If any of her neighbours recognised either of them and saw them standing on her doorstep, the whole town would know within an hour. No doubt she’d have busy bodies knocking on her door any minute. She stepped back and gestured them inside.

  “Come in, come in.” As she shut the door behind them, she quickly glanced about but couldn’t see anyone. Hopefully that was a good sign.

  “How did you know where I lived?” she asked as she ushered them down the hallway and into the kitchen.

  “According to the online phonebook, you’re the only Pope in Peters Junction,” Ben answered and April exhaled her relief. The last thing she needed was for them to have stopped in town to ask after her. In fact, the quicker she got them out of Peters Junction, the better.

  Lachlan had a small
frown on his face as he took in her meagre home and possessions. “Is something wrong?” she asked defensively and for the first time since entering her home, he turned to look at her.

  “Sorry,” he said awkwardly. “It’s just not what I was expecting.” He gestured around her kitchen but she assumed he meant her whole house.

  “Oh?” She arched an eyebrow. “What were you expecting?”

  “I don’t know. More.”

  “More?” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

  “April, you’re a bestselling author. Your books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Surely you could afford more than this.” Again he gestured around him again.

  “You’re an author?” Ben’s voice reminded her he was in the room.

  “Oh shit!” Lachlan swore. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” Lachlan reached out to take her arm, forcing her to look at him. Her body reacted instantly to his touch.

  “Holy Shit!” Ben said. “April Pope. A.D. Pope. You’re the guy my brother’s been raving on about for the past few years.” His eyes were wide, his mouth gaping until it kicked up at the corners. “Only you’re not a guy. But I don’t get it, Lachlan’s been a fan for years and you’re not old at all. You must have been in primary school when your first book was published.”

  April laughed, she couldn’t help it. It pleased her greatly to know Lachlan had kept his word and hadn’t told anyone her double identity, not even his brother. And for some reason, his slip of the tongue now wasn’t causing her any concern. Not when he was standing so close with his hand on her arm. She doubted he realised it but his thumb was carving small circles into her flesh, driving the rest of her to distraction.

  “I was sixteen.”

  “Wow. I’m impressed.” The respect in Ben’s voice was genuine and April smiled.

  “Ben you can’t tell anyone April is A.D. Pope.” Lachlan seemed desperate to correct his mistake.

  Ben frowned. “Okay. Why?”

  “Because I said so!” Lachlan growled.

  “Because,” April interrupted with a sigh, she really didn’t feel like explaining her reasons right now, “that’s the way I want things. And,” she added as an afterthought, “it’s in his contract that he can’t say anything.”

  Ben opened his mouth to say something further, but Lachlan shook his head sharply and he closed it again.

  “So what’s this all about anyway?” April asked when the silence lengthened.

  Rather than answer, Ben handed Lachlan the tablet. Somehow he still managed to keep a firm grip on her arm and a heavy feeling developed at the pit of her stomach. What could possibly have caused him to drive halfway across the country to see her? And how was Samantha involved?

  “Maybe you should sit down,” Lachlan said quietly, gesturing to one of the dining chairs with the tablet. The three of them arranged themselves around the small, four seater table. Lachlan sat beside April and Ben across the other side. After tapping on the screen a couple of times, he slid the tablet over to her.

  April was mesmerised by the footage. If she hadn’t been there, having the conversation, she would never have believed the girl in the video was her. David’s girls had done an excellent job with her makeup, she barely recognised herself. She was beautiful and confident and so sure of herself—nothing like April perceived herself to be.

  She couldn’t help smiling at the exchange with Samantha. At the time she’d been angry and humiliated and afterwards she wasn’t quite sure what she’d said, but now, watching it back, she was more than a little pleased with how she’d handled the situation.

  The footage ended with Lachlan sucking on a piece of strawberry, a huge grin on his face. She turned to him now, still smiling, and he rewarded her with the same grin. “Now you’ve seen what I saw that night.” The pride that shone in his eyes warmed April’s heart, only for it to sink to the pit of her stomach a moment later.

  “Where did you get this?” she demanded, knowing the answer before she even finished the question.

  Lachlan’s grin disappeared as he confirmed her worst fear. “It’s all over the internet. One of Samantha’s friends filmed it and posted it online.”

  “Oh God,” April moaned and Lachlan gripped her hand firmly.

  “There’s a campaign now to find you. Samantha’s fans are out for blood, but most of the interest is from people who want to congratulate you.”

  “I don’t want to be congratulated!” she yelled at him. “I just want to be left alone!”

  “Anthony is handling the reporters and he’s refusing to reveal your identity. My PR reps have also released a statement on my behalf asking for privacy but I wanted to warn you anyway, in case someone gets this far. April I’m really sorry about all of this. I never meant for any of it to happen, I swear.” He slumped in his chair, and dragged his hand over his face. He looked so despondent April just wanted to reach out and hug him, but she resigned herself to gripping his hand ever so gently in reassurance.

  “It’s not your fault,” she sighed. “I knew I shouldn’t have gone to the ball.”

  “But I made you go,” he insisted.

  “Lachlan, I’m a grown woman. If I didn’t want to go with you, I wouldn’t have gone.”

  “That’s what I said.” April started at the sound of Ben’s voice. Again she’d forgotten he was in the room.

  “But…” Lachlan began and then stopped, frown lines cutting deeply into his forehead. “Then why are you so angry with me? Why won’t you return my calls?”

  April felt tears stinging the corner of her eyes. She couldn’t answer that question, he wouldn’t understand.

  Ben cleared his throat and stood up, scraping his chair on the tiled floor. “Uh, can I use your bathroom?”

  “First door on the left.” April pointed down the hallway, her eyes not leaving Lachlan’s.

  The moment Ben left the room Lachlan’s hand reached out and cupped her cheek. “Please April,” he whispered, she could see the desperation in his eyes.

  “April?” She jerked away from Lachlan at the sound of Marie’s voice calling from the front door. “Who owns that big-arse SUV out front?” Relief flooded through her as she silently applauded her sisters timing. April quickly stood up and walked over to the kettle, flicking the switch just as Marie came into the kitchen. As soon as she saw Lachlan, she halted abruptly.

  “Lachlan Kennedy? It was him?” Marie asked in disbelief and April cursed her sister’s perceptiveness. “He’s the arsehole from Sydney? You’ve got some nerve coming here, mate.” Marie glared daggers in his direction.

  “Arsehole?” Lachlan swung his gaze from Marie to April, confusion and hurt erupting all over his gorgeous features.

  “Marie, I never said Lachlan was an arsehole!” Damnit, she should have known her sister would get the wrong idea. Maybe if she’d had the courage to sit down and explain everything to her, Marie wouldn’t have jumped to her own conclusions.

  “Well what would you call someone who leads you on for a week and then walks away?” If looks could kill, Lachlan would have been carved up into barbecue steaks by now.

  “Leads you on? April, what the hell?” He was breathing hard. The pain she could read in his eyes made her chest tighten and she couldn’t breathe.

  “Marie, you misunderstood,” April squeaked rapidly. “I’m the one that ended things!”

  “What?” Marie turned to stare at her. “Then why’ve you been nursing a broken heart all week?”

  “Broken heart?” Confusion marred Lachlan’s features but his voice held a small note of hope as he repeated Marie’s words, which only caused her chest to constrict even more. She flopped into a chair, her legs buckling beneath her.

  “It’s complicated, Marie. And before you say anything else, no, I don’t want to talk about it.” She buried her head in her hands, unable to look at either one of them. For a while, no one spoke.

  “Uh,” Marie began awkwardly. “I guess I owe you an apology.” April jerked her head up b
ut Marie hadn’t been talking to her.

  “No worries.” A small smile curved up Lachlan’s lips and his eyes flashed to April. “I guess I should apologise for turning up unannounced. Must be a bit of a surprise.”

  “Nah, it’s okay,” Marie waved away his concerns. “I’d be more embarrassed if it was your brother sitting there. I’ve got his pictures plastered all over my wall.”

  Ben stopped abruptly in the doorway to the kitchen, right behind Marie.

  “What?” Marie asked as April and Lachlan both stared wide-eyed at her. Ben gave an embarrassed cough and Marie spun around on the spot. “Oh jeez April, you could have warned me!” She brushed past Ben with her head down and a few moments later, her bedroom door slammed.

  Ben walked over to his brother, his cheeks flushed. “Uh, sorry.”

  A wry chuckle escaped April and she stood up. How had she managed to stuff so many things up in such a short time? “I better go talk to her.”

  Lachlan launched himself out of his chair and stepped towards her. “April wait…” She got the feeling he didn’t want her out of his sight in case she did a runner. Not even for a moment.

  “Lachlan, this is my home. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “How about we go check out the visitor’s centre,” Ben put in, breaking the stand-off. “You know, find someplace to spend the night.”

  “No!” The word flew out of her mouth before she could stop it. “It’s Sunday, it’ll be closed already. I have a pull-out couch. I mean, you did come all this way to warn me about the video. It’s the least I can do.” No way could she let them out in this town. The April in the video shared only a passing resemblance to her, thanks to David and his team’s magic hands, but if word got round that the brothers were here and someone local saw that video, it wouldn’t take long for them to put two and two together. People would start asking questions that she didn’t want to answer.

  “Thanks,” Ben answered. “But I’m sure there’s a motel or—” Lachlan’s hand shot out and slapped Ben in the chest, gripping his shirt in his clenched fist.

  “We’d love to stay,” he growled, his eyes never leaving April’s face. There was an unspoken question in his gaze.

  Ben scowled at Lachlan, but didn’t say anything else.

  Leaving the men in her kitchen, April made her way to Marie’s room and knocked on the door. Without waiting for an answer she walked in. There had never been any locked doors between them.

  “Marie? I’m sorry.” Marie was lying facedown on her bed, her head buried in her arms, but she sat up when April entered.

  “That was soooo embarrassing!” she whined.

  “I know. I should have said something. I’m sorry.”

  “Are they still here?”

  “Actually,” April paused, unsure how her sister was going to react. “I kind of invited them to stay the night.”

  “Really?” Marie bounced up and down excitedly. “Are you and Lachlan going to work things out.” April marvelled at Marie’s teenage enthusiasm. Obviously her sister didn’t have any problems with April seeing Lachlan Kennedy.

  April stared down at her hands clasped in her lap. The only way things could work out with Lachlan would be if she could keep their relationship a secret and so far that hadn’t worked out well at all. Slowly she shook her head. “No. I don’t think that’s possible.”

  Marie frowned her disappointment. “Then why is he here?”

  April stood up and pointed towards Marie’s laptop beside her bed. “Search Samantha and April. If Lachlan’s correct, you’ll find it pretty quickly.” Then she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. Leaning against the wall, April took a moment to steady her breathing. Lachlan would still be waiting to talk to her. What could she possibly say to him? Despite her anxiety at the thought of being with him, despite the tension whenever they were in the same room, April found herself eager to return to the kitchen.

  Lachlan was sitting at the table again, his head in his hands. Alone.

  “Lachlan?” April called quietly and his eyes shot to hers.

  “Ben went out to get our bags.” Looking at him made her chest ache again and before she could even think about what she was doing, she found herself kneeling beside him, taking his hands in her own.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered, her voice shaking with the emotion she was trying to keep in check. “I just don’t fit in your world.”

  “I’m not asking you to fit into my world,” he said gravelly. “I’m asking you to let me into yours.”

  “It’s the same thing.” Exasperated, April pulled her hands away and stood up. “It doesn’t matter what words you use, the end result is the same. People are still going to want to know all about us, about me, about Marie.”

  “So we’re back to Marie again,” Lachlan spat. “You can’t keep using her as a crutch April, she’s not a little kid anymore.”

  “What?” Marie stood in the doorway clutching her laptop, and April felt her world shift. She gripped the table to keep herself from collapsing. “Is it true April? Did you break things off with him because of me?”

  “It’s complicated.” Even to April’s ears, that explanation was pathetic.

  “Complicated? April, if this is what you want, I won’t stop you. Hell I’ll be the first one at the sidelines cheering you on.”

  “You see April,” Lachlan said quietly. “Marie’s okay with it. What are you afraid of?”

  “I don’t want to live my life in the spotlight! I don’t want people digging into our private lives, airing out our business.” The heavy feeling in her chest gave way to anger and she stormed across the room, flicking the switch on the kettle for the third time. All she wanted was a damn cup of coffee.

  Ignoring the two stunned people behind her, April went about setting up the plunger. Despite her anger, she heaped in enough coffee for all four of them and then when the kettle finally boiled she poured the hot water over the ground beans, savouring the aroma that greeted her. The deep coffee-scented breaths helped calm her temper until she just felt tired.

  When Marie’s arms circled her waist, she leaned back into the embrace. “I’m sorry,” Marie said. The sisters had never been able to fight for long. “Here, let me make the coffee, you go sit down.”