But looking at him now, with a sleeping baby nestled against his chest, and a poignant smile on his face as he remembered the joy of surfing, made Ellie more sure than ever that he was taking his life in the wrong direction. She knew how much the property meant to him—that it was the only real home he’d known in his life—but he was prepared to let it go so that he could be free.
How could he not see that that freedom would deprive him of the best things that life could offer?
The things that she was sharing with him inside this bubble?
‘I’ll bring Jamie back,’ she said, finally, making an effort to keep her tone light. ‘When he’s old enough to build a sandcastle and go paddling. I’ll tell him about what it was like when we were kids and we came here to swim and have picnics and build driftwood tee pees.’
‘Don’t forget to take him to the General Store.’ Luke grinned. ‘Mr Jenkins might have been a grumpy old man, but he made the best ice creams.’
‘Oh, yes...in a cone. And you could get them chocolate-dipped.’
‘And the ice cream would start melting underneath the chocolate and then drip down your arm.’
Ellie laughed. ‘That’s right...I’d forgotten about that, too. Messy...’
By tacit consent, they headed home. Mike had probably finished showing the potential buyers around the property some time ago.
‘I’m not sure that Mr Jenkins still does chocolate dip ice creams,’ Luke said sadly. ‘I didn’t notice them when I went in for milk that time.’
‘What about the pick and mix lollies?’
‘Yep. They were still there. But they didn’t look the same. They all seemed to be things like sour worms and gummy bears. Couldn’t see my favourites.’
‘Which were?’
Luke gave the question due consideration. ‘Milk bottles,’ he decided. ‘Or maybe jet planes.’
‘I was a pineapple lump girl,’ Ellie confessed. ‘Good grief...I haven’t eaten them for so many years.’
‘And I’ve almost forgotten what a jet plane tastes like. Hey...’ Luke stopped so suddenly Ellie bumped into him. ‘Let’s go and get some.’
The glint of mischief in his eyes that accompanied the cheeky grin took Ellie straight back to the time when Luke Gilmore had been the bad boy of Kauri Valley High School. When Ellie had been invisible...
But she wasn’t any more. The warmth in Luke’s gaze was purely for her. She was so much more than a ‘bus buddy’ now.
She was his friend.
No. She was much more than that, too. Whether Luke realised it or not, that was a look that could only be shared between lovers.
It was almost too much to bear.
Ellie shook her head as she smiled. ‘You wouldn’t...’
Luke laughed. ‘I didn’t mean steal them. I’m talking about a legitimate purchase, here.’ He shrugged. ‘It will probably be the last time I ever see Mr Jenkins so it would be...I don’t know...a fitting farewell?’
There was something in Luke’s gaze that made it feel as if he was offering an apology.
To Mr Jenkins?
Or to her?
Ellie could actually feel the crack appearing in her heart and it hurt. She had to force herself to pull in a breath. To keep smiling.
‘Sure,’ she managed. ‘Why not?’
* * *
The house and garden were deserted by the time they got back but Ellie could feel that others had been there.
That something had changed.
It was a relief to buckle Jamie into his car seat for the short drive to the village. To see if things hadn’t changed there, as Luke had told her that night when he’d been driving her back to her first visit to Kauri Valley in such a long time.
To outward appearances, it did look just the same, with the war memorial in front of the hall and the old pub and the peeling paint on the sign above Mr Jenkins’s shop. ‘General Store’ was an apt description for the random collection of things sold here that ranged from a selection of fresh fruit and vegetables to garden tools, kitchen equipment and haberdashery.
At first glance, the row of plastic containers in front of the main desk where Mr Jenkins ruled over the cash desk looked exactly the same—full of the bright colours of pure sugar confectionery. The pile of tiny, white paper bags was still there, too, waiting for customers to fill by using the miniature shovels in their own container.
Ellie chose pineapple lumps, of course. Luke looked delighted to find the chewy, white lollies in the shape of tiny milk bottles. It was slightly awkward to fill her little bag as she reached around the obstacle Jamie presented in the front pack but she wasn’t in the way of anyone wanting to pay for anything. They were alone at the front counter, in fact, because Mr Jenkins was busy with a woman who seemed to need information about a cleaning product. They both had their backs to Ellie and Luke, who both knew that Mr Jenkins was watching them like a hawk.
Expecting them to steal the lollies?
Ellie’s lips twitched as her gaze met Luke’s and the smile they shared was their own secret.
A moment when the connection between them had never been quite this powerful.
They put their bags on the counter to wait for the opportunity to pay for them, which wouldn’t be long because the woman had made her choice. She turned to follow Mr Jenkins to the counter.
And then she stopped in her tracks.
‘Oh, my goodness,’ she said. ‘Ellie...’
It wasn’t the tone of someone delighted to see her. Mrs Collins looked horrified, in fact.
Frightened, almost?
Ellie could feel herself stiffen. She could feel Luke edge closer, as if he could sense her need for protection?
‘Luke, this is Mrs Collins... Ava’s mother...’
Jill Collins was staring at Luke now. ‘Luke Gilmore?’ She blinked hard. ‘I did hear that you were back.’
‘I am. Not for long, though.’ He smiled at her. ‘I didn’t realise the news had spread.’
The flicker in the older woman’s face told them both that Luke Gilmore would always be remembered around here and Ellie’s heart sank. No wonder he didn’t want to stay, when so much of the past could be resurrected by nothing more than the twitch of someone’s mouth.
Strangely, her head turned sharply, then, as if she expected someone else to be with them but, finally, Jill Collins’s gaze dropped to the baby that Ellie had instinctively wrapped into her arms even though he was perfectly safe cocooned in the padded front pack.
‘This is Jamie,’ Ellie told her. ‘I named him after my dad.’
There was a hint of a smile on Jill’s face as she nodded once. People around here would approve of that choice. Ellie’s father had been a well-liked resident of Kauri Valley. Even Mr Jenkins gave a grunt that sounded satisfied.
‘’Bout time we saw a new generation around here,’ he muttered. ‘Place feels like it’s dying out.’
But the sense of approval—and Mrs Collins’s smile—faded as quickly as it had appeared.
Of course she would have known all about the surrogacy agreement her daughter had arranged. She had probably been thrilled at the prospect of becoming a grandmother. Ellie felt a wash of sympathy and, in its wake, a renewed urge to see her closest friend. To get past the barrier that broken dreams had created.
If anybody knew where Ava was right now, surely it was—as Sue had suggested it would be—her mother.
‘Mrs Collins?’ Ellie stepped closer. Mr Jenkins had gone behind the counter and Luke was pulling some cash out of his pocket to pay for their sweets. She lowered her voice, anyway. ‘I really need to get hold of Ava,’ she said. ‘Do you know where she is at the moment?’
Jill Collins shook her head sharply. ‘I have no idea,’ she muttered.
But her gaze slid
away from Ellie.
She knew. She just didn’t want Ellie to know.
Because she thought she might end up being responsible for a baby who was in no way related to herself?
Or was it because Ava had told her she wanted nothing more to do with Ellie?
Either way, it seemed that there was little Ellie could do. Except wait until fleeting eye contact was restored.
‘If you talk to her,’ Ellie said quietly, blinking back sudden moisture in her eyes, ‘please tell her how much I’d like to hear from her. How much I’m missing my best friend.’
Luke had finished paying for their purchase but Ellie didn’t feel remotely like tasting one of the chewy, chocolate covered little rectangles in her bag. Being brushed off by a woman who’d been like a second mother to her in her childhood hurt far more than she could have anticipated. It felt as if she wasn’t wanted here.
To make matters worse, they arrived back at the house to find Mike the real estate agent pacing the veranda.
‘Thank goodness,’ he said, as soon as he saw them. ‘I’ve got an offer written up here that’s so hot it’s burning my hands. You’re not going to believe this...’
Ellie’s heart sank to a new, low level.
Was this it?
The beginning of the end?
But Luke didn’t follow Mike into the house, having opened the front door. He had turned to stare down the garden path towards the road.
‘Who’s that? Anyone you know, Ellie?’
She turned to see the male figure approaching and, this time, her heart dropped so hard and fast, she could feel it breaking.
‘It’s...it’s Marco,’ she whispered through dry lips that barely moved.
‘Hey, Ellie.’ Marco glanced at Luke but then ignored him as he moved closer. His smile was horribly reminiscent of the last one she’d seen on his face—just before his shocking attempt to kiss her—as if nothing could dent his confidence that he was about to get exactly what he wanted.
‘It’s about time I collected my son, don’t you think?’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LUKE STILL HAD one hand holding open the front door that was inclined to swing shut on its own. He still had his head turned, having heard the crunch of heavy footsteps on the shell path, so his body was twisted into a slightly awkward position but, for the life of him, he couldn’t move.
It had been enough of a shock to find Mike on the veranda a minute ago and to realise he was about to face the final decision about walking away from the house and garden that were his last links to the people who’d made him the man he was today. He hadn’t expected an outcome like this from the viewing. The house wasn’t even officially on the market yet.
And this aftershock had been even less expected. Ellie had been confident that the man who’d fathered Jamie would not be returning. After she’d told him that Marco hadn’t even wanted a baby in the first place, Luke had never given him another thought.
The shock was visceral. He didn’t need to see the way the blood had drained from Ellie’s face to know that life had just blindsided her yet again and her world felt as if it were crumbling around her.
Did he actually think he could swan in here and take Jamie?
His reaction was instant. And icy. Over my dead body...
‘How did you...?’ Ellie’s voice was barely more than a whisper. Then she gave her head a tiny, disbelieving shake. ‘Why are you here, Marco?’
‘I told you. I’ve come for my son.’
‘You didn’t even want a baby. Ava told me.’
Marco’s shrug was dismissive. ‘A lot of things get said in the heat of a disagreement. I didn’t mean it.’
But he hadn’t even looked properly at Jamie, Luke noted. He was staring at Ellie, his gaze travelling up and down her body in a way that gave him a very unpleasant frisson.
Jealousy?
No. It was more the need to protect a woman from someone whose shallow intentions were all too clear.
‘As for how I found you...’ The hand gesture suggested it had been no problem. ‘Once I discovered that your apartment had been burned to the ground, it was obvious where I needed to go for information about a missing person. Two missing people... The police were remarkably helpful when I explained that one of those missing people was my own son.’
Ellie took a step backwards. ‘He’s not your son, Marco. He’s mine.’
Luke wanted to leap in and defend Ellie but he was still frozen, his brain throwing all sorts of unexpected things at him.
He’d never known his own father. Maybe that unknown man had never been aware that he’d become a father. Or had he tried to claim him and been sent away? Would his own life have been very different if his father had had some part in it?
Okay, that history was totally different because Ellie hadn’t abandoned Jamie. She adored him. He could hear her whisper in the back of his mind as clearly as if she’d just spoken again.
‘I’d die for him,’ she’d said that night. ‘If it came to that.’
The same night she’d listened to the sad story of his early life and had made him feel as though the bond between Ellie and Jamie and himself was powerful enough to last a lifetime.
When he’d promised that he would take care of Jamie if anything did happen to her.
And something was happening right now. Something that felt dangerous.
But...a biological father had rights, didn’t he?
Luke had to fight the urge to launch himself off the veranda and forcibly remove this threat from Ellie’s life.
My God...the way he was looking at her.
As if...
A truly horrible thought occurred to Luke then.
Had this baby been conceived naturally? It had been a private arrangement between friends, hadn’t it? Maybe they hadn’t even bothered using the services of a fertility clinic and an impersonal insemination.
But why did the notion seem unbearably painful?
He didn’t have any claim on Ellie—past, present or future. He’d been the one to put the rules so firmly into place and Ellie hadn’t seemed to mind that they could only ever be friends so maybe that was all she wanted as well—a few benefits because they were both consenting adults and happened to find each other more than a little attractive.
They were his rules. He’d lived with them for his entire adult life without them ever becoming such a problem.
Without them feeling so very wrong.
The pain morphed into anger. Anger at Mike, who was waiting inside the house for him to sign away one of the most precious things he’d ever had. At this stranger for turning up and making Ellie frightened. At himself for allowing something to happen that made him question the foundations of his life that had worked so well up until now.
And maybe he was even angry at Ellie, for being the common factor making all of these things suddenly become problems. For the sensation that he’d walked so far past any safe barriers that he was toppling over the edge of an unforeseen cliff.
He cleared his throat, which made both Ellie and Marco look in his direction.
‘I think you’d all better come inside,’ he snapped.
* * *
Mike looked surprised to see an extra person entering the house but he wasn’t going to let it interfere with him doing his job.
‘I don’t mind waiting,’ he assured Luke. ‘I’ll have a bit of a wander and admire the gardens again. I love what you guys have done out there in the vegetable patch. Could almost get inspired myself...’
‘I’ll have a coffee if there’s one going,’ Marco drawled. ‘Unless you’ve got a cold beer in the fridge, mate.’ He nodded in satisfaction when he stopped letting his gaze roam everywhere around the kitchen to stare through the French doors to the courtyard. ‘Looks
like the perfect spot to have a little chat out there.’
Luke looked as grim as Ellie had ever seen him. Furious, even.
Maybe he was fed up with having to rescue her from the disasters that her life seemed to be attracting? He had, after all, saved her life the day Jamie was born and then come to the rescue all over again on the night of the fire.
Or was it because he thought she’d lied to him when she’d said that Marco wasn’t a problem? That she never expected to see him again and that it wouldn’t matter if he did come back because she would never let him take Jamie away from her?
How naïve had she been?
He was her son’s biological father. Of course he had rights in the eyes of the law.
And, if he genuinely wanted to be part of his child’s life, Ellie would be perfectly happy to make that happen.
Well, perfectly happy was a stretch, but she would have been open to the prospect, but she just knew that Marco wasn’t interested in Jamie. He hadn’t even looked at him. Even now, when Jamie had woken to discover that he was hungry and wet and make his presence very obvious with his cries.
No. There was another reason that Marco had come here and Ellie felt a chill run down her spine as she realised that this vulnerable, precious baby she was holding was a means to an end as far as Marco was concerned.
Did he want to win Ava back, perhaps?
That might explain Jill Collins’s oddly nervous reaction to meeting Ellie in Mr Jenkins’ store. Had Marco also been trying to find Ava? Had she been worried about being able to protect her daughter from a man who’d already caused so much harm and would undoubtedly continue to do so if he got another chance?
Ava had been so much in love with Marco and Ellie knew there would be a danger that she could forgive him and try again—especially if there was the lure of a ready-made family. It was all too easy to allow fantasies to encroach on reality—look at the dreams she’d allowed herself to have of being the perfect family with Luke and Jamie?
Oh... God...
Would Marco fight to get full custody of Jamie? If he could persuade Ava to take him back, they’d present an option of a full family that the courts might decide was a better option than a single mother who had to work full-time and would still be struggling financially.
The Surrogate's Unexpected Miracle Page 14