But, Anna wasn’t just one of the local girls, or at least she wanted to believe she wasn’t as foolish as so many of them seemed to be when it came to this particular young man. She’d met a Tom on virtually every stop of her three year travels, and she knew better now than to let herself be walked over by a pretty face and a smooth tongue – even if she wanted to be.
‘Tom, I have work to do. I look at you and speak to you exactly the same way I speak to anyone else in the bar. I don’t see old Gracie out here trying to cop a feel of my arse now, do you?’
‘Cop a feel,’ Tom chuckled ‘I love that, I’m going to remember that one. Okay, you got me. A boy can dream, can’t he? Maybe one day you’ll let me ‘cop a feel’ and maybe you’ll even like it.’ He winked as he leant back on his crutches and moved away from her, admitting defeat, but Anna knew it was only for now. He would keep trying. He wasn’t used to hearing no from anyone.
‘Dream on, never going to happen,’ she quipped back, glad the situation had been defused without either of them losing face. ‘Now, I’ve got to get this crate inside, so get out of my way and let me do your job, you lazy good for nothing.’
‘Sure thing, I’m off home now, might stop by and see if anyone’s at the beach,’ Tom said raising an eyebrow, a knowing glint in his eye - meaning he’d see Adelina. Anna felt no jealousy towards the pretty Aboriginal girl, but Tom seemed to think that if he tried to make her jealous she would change her mind and agree to go out with him.
‘See you tomorrow then,’ she replied, without batting so much as an eyelash, feeling sorry for poor Adelina if he did find her. She hated knowing that Tom was playing on the naïve girl’s misguided feelings. Not because she wanted his attention – far from it – but because she could relate to being Adelina. She had been taken for a fool too many times on her travels by the smooth-talking handsome fellas who didn’t care who they were kissing at all, or about those girls’ feelings when they inevitably moved on to the next new face to entice them.
********
As he turned along the side of the bar, Jim clattered into a poor bloke on crutches, almost knocking him down.
‘Hey mate, slow down a bit, won’t you?’ the guy said, sounding a bit pissed off, though it didn’t feel like his frustration was truly directed at Jim. He just about managed to keep his feet, and Jim picked up the crutch he had caused him to drop.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going properly. I was trying to find someone who works here. I need some petrol, a loo, and I am gasping for a drink,’ Jim said, smiling amicably at the man, who had clearly not been seriously hurt or offended by the accidental bump, though something was clearly bothering him.
‘I’d normally be the man you want, and I’d love to help you out mate. Tom’s the name by the way.’ He held out his right hand through the crutch and Jim extended his own to shake hands. It was a vigorous shake, and Jim couldn’t help thinking that the guy was sizing him up to see if he was competition in some way. Though it seemed odd to him to be that way with a stranger who was just passing through, Jim let it slide as Tom carried on speaking, in a friendly enough way. ‘This is my mum’s place. But as you can see I’m out of action at the moment,’ he said, indicating to the crutches and large cast on his leg. ‘I’ll get the girl who’s in charge for you. You’ll get on, she’s a Pom too! Hey Anna,’ Tom yelled behind him ‘Some Pom here needs gas and a drink – oh, and the dunny.’
‘Coming in a sec,’ a chirpy, English voice yelled back. Jim wasn’t so foolish as to see and hear Anna in every girl he came across, but that voice was oddly, heart-wrenchingly familiar. But if it was his Anna, how on earth had she ended up in this tiny, back-of-beyond little town? He felt his heart beat quicken, and was amazed at how quickly a writhing mass of snakes seemed to have taken over his belly.
‘Thanks,’ Jim said to the grinning Tom, who began to head off towards the beach.
‘No worries mate. Anna’ll look after you.’
Jim began nervously pulling the petrol cans out of the back of the Ute, glad to have something to do to distract himself from his thoughts as he waited. He tried to talk himself down from the flare of hope in his heart. To believe it could possibly be so easy to find Anna was clearly lunacy at worst, and being overly optimistic at best. The possibility that this was his Anna had to be a million to one.
He bent down and unscrewed one of the caps. The door of the bar jangled and Jim looked up to see a diminutive blonde heading towards the pump.
‘Sorry, had to take a crate of beer in, and turn the pump on. Didn’t mean to keep you waiting,’ she said, a little distractedly but politely, as she headed towards the Ute.
Jim stood up and turned around, a beam spreading across his face. The voice and the curls definitely belonged to the girl he’d spent the last month worrying about, rushing to the other side of the world, and then driving along the endless roads searching for.
Anna stopped dead in her tracks, her beautiful mouth dropping wide open as she took in his face, and a high pitched squeal hit his ears almost as quickly as the tiny body threw itself into his arms.
Jim felt tinglingly alive for the first time in three years as he held her warm body, smelling her slightly coconut scented, sun-kissed skin and relishing the feeling of her legs wrapped around his waist and her slender arms around his neck.
‘My God Jim, what on earth are you doing here? God! It’s so good to see you. How’s everyone back home? How on earth did you get here? God, is everyone okay? How’s your mum? How’s my mum, and dad, obviously?’
Jim laughed as she excitedly bombarded him with questions, but she gave him no time to answer any of them. He didn’t care; there was time enough for them to talk about everything, and anything. Jim was just so pleased to see her, and hold her - and boy, was it good to know that she hadn’t changed even the tiniest bit.
Chapter Six
Jim lay at full stretch on the sand, basking in the sun. He couldn’t believe his luck at having found Anna. He knew he had a bit of convincing to do yet, and that dickhead Tom to get her away from, before he could get her home, but he was a patient man and there were worse places in the world to have to wait for the woman he loved.
He watched as a young mum with her daughter, in matching polka-dot swimsuits, skipped past, and smiled as he saw a small boy trailing along behind them sporting a pair of Spiderman swim trunks and a stripy bobble-hat. The boy was staring intently at something that looked like it was a piece of string. It reminded him oddly of Anna. She had often insisted on wearing her bobble-hat, as a little girl, even when the weather was glorious, because it hid her ringlets, and meant she got less adults telling her just how cute she was. Jim wondered why the boy chose to wear his.
An enticing scent of coconut and lemon told him Anna wasn’t far away, and he sat up to see her kneeling beside him. He looked at her beautiful face, but stayed silent as she sat down and pushed her little hand into his. They watched, comfortably silent, as the little family began to build an enormous sandcastle right in front of them.
Jim knew better than to try and talk Anna into going home, but knew he would barter his soul to get her to agree to come home with him. It seemed only moments had passed, but the silence was broken by a series of loud squeaks from the little boy in the bobble-hat, as his mum snatched it from his head and tried, unsuccessfully, to get a small hairbrush through his salt encrusted, windswept mane of hair. Anna pulled her hand away.
‘I’d better get up to the bar, can’t leave old Gracie up there without company as she enjoys her constitutional half bottle of vodka before dinner,’ she joked awkwardly. Jim sighed deeply as she walked away, content that he was making progress, leant back and relaxed for the first time since he had received Anna’s letter.
********
Anna sat behind the bar. She’d finished cleaning everything down and there was no-one that needed serving, so she just let her thoughts wander. With Jim here, in the flesh, it was so easy to realise why she had always
had so many doubts about Tom. She hadn’t been able to pinpoint it before. He seemed charming enough and was certainly very good looking, but there had always been something about him she found hard to trust.
Jim was so open. His honest and straightforward manner was so easy to be around, like popping on your favourite pyjamas, grabbing a fleecy blanket, and tucking your feet into fluffy slippers, then snuggling up for the night. Tom was most definitely not safe. He was rough around the edges, and more than a little bit dangerous. He oozed sex appeal, but there was very little behind the mask. She couldn’t deny how attracted to him she was, but she also couldn’t deny that he repelled her at the same time.
Anna couldn’t help but feel confused, though, as her thoughts roamed madly back and forth. Despite knowing that a man like Jim was infinitely more reliable than one like Tom, she wasn’t sure if she was ready for such solid stability, and to settle down, though she knew that no woman needed someone like Tom in her life.
Yet she did find herself utterly drawn to him, despite all common sense telling her to steer clear.
She wished she knew what it was, that made her want what she knew was bad for her. She only knew she was like metal drawn by a magnet to his rakish charms. She didn’t even like him.
‘How messed up am I?’ she asked herself hoping this time her brain would come up with an answer that made sense to her. Sadly nothing, only the bell ringing to announce someone’s entrance to the bar, and Tom’s aquiline features staring down at her with a glint of amusement in them at finding her so distracted.
‘Thinking about me?’ he asked with an arrogant smile.
‘I have better things to be doing,’ she retorted.
Anna had hoped that after 3 months of her rebuffing him, that Tom would have given up the chase – but each one seemed to make him more determined to win her over, and he just upped the charm, and the twinkling smiles. She couldn’t deny that there was chemistry there.
It wasn’t that warm, coming home sensation she had being with Jim, though. It was frightening, and electric. She had no idea which of her instincts she should follow. One part of her wanted to run to him, to revel in the passion, to embrace the danger he represented. But the other part of her wanted to run from him as far, and as fast, as she possibly could. Tom was not a man to settle down with – but she wasn’t married, and wasn’t looking for forever. However, she held back for fear of getting burnt.
Now Jim was here too, and the differences between the two men couldn’t be more obvious. Tom wasn’t a man; in comparison, he was a little boy playing at being a man.
But Jim wasn’t laying claim to her. He seemed to have come at her parent’s urging, not because he had a burning need or desire for Anna - and that thought almost broke her heart. She knew she had left him, and had no right to expect him to pine away for her for all this time, but it galled her that he had made no moves on her, made no demands that she return home with him right now.
Maybe she had left it too long and he no longer wanted her. But then why would he come to the other side of the world to find her? According to him, nothing bad had happened at home, so why was he here?
Anna had always been popular. She had never had to worry about having her heart broken. Anna had usually been the one who did the breaking up with boyfriends over the years, as she wouldn’t stay in a situation where she didn’t truly love someone, or wasn’t genuinely loved in return. She had always been good at recognising the ones who just wanted her as a conquest, and those, like Jim, who had truly cared for her. But his lack of any kind of interest in her since his arrival had her utterly bewildered.
Anna had been homesick for so long that having such an important part of her life back home with her made her feel so much more confident. But if Jim had finally gotten over her, and had reverted back to being her big brother, maybe she needed to think again.
Maybe, her memories of home were just that- memories?
Maybe everyone would have changed when she got back, and her carefully constructed world may never be the same again?
Maybe, it would be better to never return there than to have her memories shattered?
Maybe she should see what would happen with Tom?
The three months were nearly up, he would be off his crutches in just a week, and she would be free to head off again if it all went wrong. She didn’t have to go home with Jim. He certainly didn’t seem to be here to drag her back there to be with him.
Maybe he was just there to do her parents a favour and make sure she was ok before he headed back to his life without her?
She still hadn’t dared ask him if there was someone else, though she felt that if he was hers, there would be no way she would have let him head off to Australia chasing down an ex-girlfriend, so it seemed unlikely. She couldn’t bear the thought of him being with someone else, so this hope gave her some comfort.
Oh, she was so confused. What on earth was she supposed to do?
Chapter Seven
Anna worked in the bar, while Daphne and Tom headed back from the hospital. When they returned, Anna would find out exactly when Tom hoped to be able to return to work. She wasn’t sure if she hoped it would be sooner, or later. It was quiet. Jim had gone for a day out with Adelina and Melanie. They had taken him to Shark Bay to go scuba diving. Anna hadn’t known that Jim dived, but wasn’t entirely sure she was happy with the amount of attention Tom’s two most persistent admirers were now paying to Jim instead.
Tom wasn’t impressed with the competition either – and the fact that he was now competing with a man who genuinely respected women, and didn’t treat them as objects to amuse himself with, was causing him to have to rethink his strategies. If it hadn’t been making things so precarious and made Tom even more determined to achieve his conquest of her, Anna might have found it a little funnier. It was like watching a couple of stags fight it out to see who got the girls.
Gracie was, as usual, perched like a wizened crow at the end of the bar, and as Anna handed over her vodka, she patted Anna on the hand. ‘You look troubled little one,’ the older woman stated matter-of-factly.
‘I probably do. What would you do if you were me Gracie?’ Anna asked, not really expecting the woman to keep talking. She tended to keep herself to herself. Anna started to elaborate, but Gracie was clearly in a talkative mood – and was clearly very perceptive in her alcohol-induced world.
‘Honestly love, I’d go home. Get myself married to that lovely, tall drink of water of a fella - before someone else takes him. He’s obviously head over heels in love with you. You’ve done well so far, keeping away from Tom. He’s trouble. Always has been, since his dad upped and left. Daphne did her best, but he just doesn’t trust anyone now – not even himself. So steer clear, and as soon as you can, you get off home.’ She sat nodding wisely and Anna, surprised by the old woman’s sudden eloquence, barely took in anything she had said. Then it hit her that Gracie had said that Jim was in love with her.
‘Gracie, hate to say it, but I think you have had a few too many if you think Jim is in love with me. He hasn’t so much as hinted towards his feelings for me, and he’s been here weeks. I think my heading off to the other side of the world to find myself put paid to that – he’s here to help my parents get me home. Nothing more. Nothing less. I blew it with him. I won’t get a second chance and I don’t deserve one.’
‘Oh, you young girls think you know everything these days,’ Gracie said, exasperated. ‘Open your eyes, and use your actual brains for once, child. How many men would travel across Australia, looking for you for months? And then having done so would be happy to wait for you until you are ready to go with them? He isn’t exactly rushing you to get home, is he? He’s letting you make the moves, right? If it was all just because he was doing your parents a favour, he’d want to be off home as soon as those fabulous legs could carry him,’ she said, with an uncharacteristic, and slightly concerning, lecherous wink. ‘If that isn’t love, well, I want to know what is. He was
telling me he has a pub back home too. It isn’t like it is easy for him to be taking this kind of time out of his normal life. You just don’t do that if you aren’t in love, you silly girl.’
Anna took some time to think about the old lush’s words. She may be an alcoholic, but it didn’t mean that she was stupid. Clearly, there was very little that Gracie didn’t understand about human nature. Spending all her time in a bar, watching life happen to others, must have given her a lot of insight into things over the years.
Not for the first time, Anna wondered about how Gracie had ended up propping up the little bar day in and day out, but she didn’t quite have the courage to ask her. She was clearly bright, and articulate - and very obviously kind. Anna hoped that one day the older woman would find the peace she was seeking. She was certainly helping Anna to find hers.
‘Anna, love - great news- he’s out of plaster!’ Daphne yelled as she came in through the back door. ‘They managed to fit in a physio session for him before we came back, too - so sorry we were a bit longer than expected.’
‘Not a problem. Gracie and I have had a pretty peaceful afternoon. So how long before he wants his job back?’ Anna asked. She wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted the answer to be – part of her wanted it to be a while so she could sort her head out, but the other part wanted to go home tomorrow.
‘Well, he’s gone to meet up with the others at the scuba centre, if that tells you anything.’ Anna’s heart leapt, and then sank, at the news. Sure, she had the money for her flight now, and she knew Jim would be happy to be getting home - but she still didn’t have a clue about whether Gracie was right.
The idea of being back in Castle Cluny, across the green from Jim - and him never being hers again - was just too horrid to imagine. Plus, she hated to admit it, but there was that unresolved sizzle she got whenever she was around Tom. Jim was the only guy she had ever been with in that way. Surely it might be a good idea to have some kind of comparison, just so she could be certain?
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