by C. J. Duggan
“And what’s that exactly?”
Tess grinned from ear to ear. “For one, you’re going to have to tell Adam how you really feel.”
“Oh, and how do you suggest I do that?”
“Well, let’s just say I think we’re going to need some reinforcements.”
***
Sean was concentrating intensely as he stalked around the pool table, chalking his pool cue.
“How long for?”
“A couple of hours, tops,” Tess said.
He bent over, lining up the white ball, running his cue back and forth, sizing it up. “On a Saturday night?”
“Yeah.” I cringed, knowing that it was by far their busiest night at the Onslow.
“Blue ball, right hand corner pocket.” Sean hit the white, smashing it into the blue and pocketing it, just the way he had described.
Sean straightened, leaning on his cue, finally giving us his full attention. “So, just to get this straight, you want me to close down the beer garden to the public on a Saturday night.”
It in no way sounded like a smart business proposition, ever since refurbishing the back beer garden had been a popular drawcard on a summer’s evening.
Sean’s gaze flicked from me, to Tess and back, before casually shrugging.
“Okay.”
My eyes widened, my head snapping around to see Tess had an identical expression.
“Really?”
Tess and I squealed, in unison, rushing toward Sean, embracing him in a giant, tandem hug.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sean.”
He laughed. “No worries, it’s for a good cause.”
Our jubilation was short lived as we turned to see a less-than-thrilled Chris leaning in the doorway. “You can’t be serious.”
I grimaced, slowly stepping toward him, wringing my hands together. “I won’t do it if I don’t have your blessing.”
“Ellie, are you proposing marriage to my brother?”
“What? No, God, we can’t even agree on a tape to listen to in the car.”
Chris smirked, looking over my shoulder at Sean. “What’s next, children’s birthday parties?” he said, pushing off the wall and heading back to the bar. It was as close to a yes as we were ever going to get from the likes of Chris, so I was going to run with it.
***
I stood in the office of Remington’s Caravan Park, waiting for Stan to make his way across from the tennis courts. He had agreed to meet me here by 11 a.m. sharp, but in all my impatience I had arrived ten minutes early.
I didn’t know if what I was doing was ridiculous, over the top or damn right scary. Maybe my grand romantic gesture would have most boys heading for the hills. With every minute that ticked by I managed to dig myself deeper and deeper into a state of uncertainty, all but ready to walk out of the office and leg it down the driveway of the caravan park and never look back. My intentions went completely awry when the bell sounded at the office door. Stan smiled, closing the door behind him and making his way around behind the back of the desk.
“You sure you don’t mind doing this?” I said lowly.
“Why are we whispering?”
I actually had no idea.
Stan sat behind the desk, rubbing his hands along his tan workpants. “So, you got the goods?”
I nodded, handing over the camel-coloured backpack.
“Strict instructions, Stanley.” I pointed at him.
“So, apart from the obvious, why am I being roped into this?” he asked, lifting up the flap of the backpack and peering inside.
“Because, believe it or not, Stanley Remington, you are one of the very few people I trust on this planet.”
Stan smiled that warm and boyish smile I used to be in love with. “Wow, high praise indeed.”
“So, all good? You’ll stop by tonight?”
“I’ll be there.”
***
With every meticulously laid plan comes perhaps the most important piece in the puzzle: the decoy.
Ringer cast his fishing line out into the murky waters of Lake Onslow, slowly reeling in the slack. “What’s in it for me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? What is with you Onslow Boys? I told you what it’s about; I just need you to distract Adam for a few hours.”
“It sounds to me like he is already pretty distracted.” Ringer winked at me.
Really, was nothing sacred in this town? With every immediate member of our group who I roped in to helping out, none seemed surprised; if anything, the reaction was that of boredom and can you two just get a room already.
“So, tell me something,” I asked, taking the liberty of sitting in Ringer’s fishing chair. “How long have you known?”
Ringer shrugged. “Christ, I don’t know, since Point Shank.”
Point Shank?
Had Tammy let it slip? Unbelievable.
“I remember Adam telling me he liked you, the night on the roof top.”
“W-what?”
What did he just say?
Ringer grinned, looking back at me with interest. “You didn’t know?”
I shook my head, my mouth agape as Ringer’s words rolled over in my head.
“Wow, love really is blind.” He laughed. “I’ll be your decoy, Ellie Parker, under one condition.”
I blinked, trying to focus. “Sure, anything.”
“Get him to lighten up a bit, one Chris Henderson is more than enough.”
I burst out laughing. “Leave it with me.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Onslow Beer Garden was more than your run-of-the-mill courtyard for cricket club discos and drunken, screaming netball break-ups. No, this was much more than that. I shouldn’t have been so surprised; after all, I had helped bring the overgrown, leaf-and-rubbish-littered back section of the hotel to life. But since the boys had taken over the hotel, things had really gone to the next level. The ivy that once engulfed the surrounding fence lines was now trimmed, giving it that evergreen, lush, oasis feel. The courtyard had been transformed from dust bowl to newly bricked with pathways straying off to meet up with picnic tables dotted throughout. Tables lit with tea candles matched the glow of the fairy lights that snaked around the garden. It looked like a wonderland, like a dream. Making my way through the entry of the side gate, I paused, my eyes landing on something that was most definitely not there last time I had been here. A beautiful ornate, timber gazebo had been built in the far corner of the beer garden. It was big enough for the most epic dance floor or to house a brass band if need be; it was beautiful. At a guess it was the handy work of Sean Murphy, builder extraordinaire. Getting him to put up shelves in my room was like pulling teeth, yet he could whack up a gazebo at the pub in no time at all.
For the first time since Sean and Chris took over the Onslow Hotel, the new and improved beer garden was to be shut off from the public. The side gate was closed with ‘Private Function’ displayed.
Everything throughout the day had been such an adrenalin rush to get ready; now it was all coming together I was worried, deeply worried.
Pacing around the beer garden, barely aware of the chatter around me as Tammy swept debris from the concrete path, Tess and Amy stood in the gazebo, Tess with a sticky tape holder and Amy with a stapler as they discussed which tool would be most effective.
“Am I being ridiculous?” I asked, standing still yet panicked beyond belief.
Tess turned, her inquisitive eyes settling on me. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know, it’s just this isn’t a John Hughes movie set; things like this don’t happen in real life.”
“Well, it’s going to happen,” said Amy, jumping from the gazebo platform. “You know, you could have just done this at the lake house.”
I had thought about it, it would have been much easier, but then it wouldn’t have felt right. There was something poetic about the Onslow, it was as much a part of Adam as it was me; we had history here.
Te
ss grabbed me by my shoulders, forcing me to look at her. “It’s not ridiculous, remember what you said to me this morning?”
I sighed. “Go big or go home.”
I had said it in the height of optimism; having just discovered that Ringer had roped Adam into leaving the Onslow for the afternoon gave me room to work around the hotel freely, undetected. It was one of the bigger parts of the plan, and despite the amount of people involved I knew that above anything, people were very much capable of keeping a secret. It was actually impressive; thanks to a joint effort, Adam had no clue I was even in town.
“Where’s Stan?” I said, glancing at my watch. “He should be here by now.”
“Relax, Ellie, he’ll be here, it’s Stan,” said Tammy.
“Seriously, Ellie, you need to calm down and go get ready, we’ve got this,” added Amy.
“But what about the …”
“Ellie!” Tess’s tone was non-negotiable, her patience paper thin; there was a certain feistiness I had discovered in Tess this past summer and I had to say, I kind of liked this kick-ass side to her.
“Right, I think I’m going to go and get ready,” I said with a little smirk as I side-stepped to the back stairs.
Yep, some things you really didn’t need to be told twice.
***
He was here. Adam was here.
I knew it because every light in the beer garden had been turned off, plunging me into complete darkness as I stood in the center of the gazebo. My chest was rising and falling heavily, my heart was drumming painfully fast. It was too much, too over the top, too ridiculous. I should have just barged through the doors of the Onslow last night and told him there and then how I felt about him. Instead, here I was, standing in the dark, waiting, waiting for the longest time.
He’s not coming.
He’s not coming.
I could feel a slight tremor run through my body, panic, doubt settling in, overtaking all logical thought.
This was a mistake, and now everyone was in on it. If I backed out now I would look like a complete fool, but worse than that, I was about to look like one in front of Adam.
Before I could think about the best means to exit, I heard the side glass door slide across; a dark figure stepped out into the back garden.
Oh God, he was here, he was really here.
There was no going back now. I swallowed, bending slightly to my left the way I had rehearsed it a hundred times with my eyes closed. My hand slid along the CD player, pressing the play button. The drums in the beginning of the song was the cue for the lights to go up in the beer garden; I stood just in time as the entire gazebo was flooded with light, exposing me to him. Standing there, looking down at Adam who stood across the courtyard, shielding his eyes from the sudden blast of light, he blinked, confused, disorientated, until slowly I could see his eyes register with what was before him.
Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Going to Stop Us Now’ belted out from the dodgy portable CD player to add to the air of poetic mood building. It was incredibly cheesy, and yet classically Adam and Ellie, because it was a song I had tortured him with on many a car trip.
Adam recognised it for exactly what it was, and despite his best efforts I could see the smile break out across his face, but more than that his eyes moved from me, trailing around me. His brows narrowed, curiosity getting the better of him as he edged forward, slowly making his way up the beer garden path, never once saying a word as he stepped up one, two, three steps to where I stood on the stage. I could see his face now, fully aglow from the lights that glittered above us. Adam didn’t come to me though; instead, he walked around me, taking in the surrounds, his serious eyes cast on the hundreds of sheets of paper that had been painstakingly stuck onto every interior surface of the gazebo, but they weren’t just any kinds of paper, as Adam was quickly realising. It was just like he had done all those years ago with Sarah Norman’s diary, except this time they were the photocopied entries of my diaries. All the laughter, all the tears, the hurt, the pain, disappointment, all the adventures, all the disasters. It was all there and it was all about Adam.
I could see Adam struggling, overwhelmed maybe; was he saddened, freaked out? As much as I prided myself on being able to read him better than anyone else, I couldn’t place the emotion as he turned to face me.
Say something. Anything.
“Despite all the evidence, I don’t think you really know me at all,” he said.
I could feel my heart plunge, everything fading around me; this is what it felt like when hope died.
Adam stepped closer to me. It was important that, despite the blow he was going to deal me with his words, I looked at him, straight in the eyes, unflinching, unwavering.
“Because there is one thing you don’t know about me.”
I didn’t move, didn’t dare breathe. “And what’s that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice even.
Adam broke into a slow, gorgeous smile. “I secretly love Starship.”
I burst out laughing. “You’re such a liar.” I couldn’t help it, Adam’s confession was so ludicrous, so utterly him, I shook my head smiling, smiling because he reached out to me, before pausing, his eyes narrowing to what I was holding as if seeing it for the first time.
“What’s this?” he asked, genuinely confused.
I turned the book I was holding around, exposing the gold embossed numbers of 1999 on the brown leather cover.
“All this, all these memories surrounding us, every single moment has led to this.” I held the diary out to him, urging him to take it. “This is the one page that isn’t up there.” The very one that confessed my true feelings for him.
Adam took the diary, his gaze flicking intently from the leather-bound book to me. He turned it around in his hands, feeling the weight of it, rubbing the silken ribbon divider between his fingers.
Adam glanced up, watching me intently. “Do you love me, Ellie Parker?”
I stilled, taken aback by the unexpectedness of his question, but my answer was easy. “Can four hundred and twenty-six photocopied diary entries be wrong?”
Adam laughed. “I guess not,” he said, throwing the diary on top of the CD player, the weight accidentally hitting the pause button and plunging us into silence. He wasn’t going to read it, he didn’t have to read it, I knew he knew I loved him, I could see it in his eyes.
Adam reached out to me, sliding his hand around the side of my waist, drawing me closer to him, his mouth hovering so close to me I could feel his breath ghost across my lips for a long moment before leaning in and kissing me so passionately fire burned under my skin, my hands bunching the fabric of his shirt as I drew him into me.
Just as we thought the world and everything around us might melt away in all its insignificance, our moment was interrupted by a distant echo of cheers and wolf whistles. We broke apart, turning to see we had gained a rather impressive audience peering through the sliding glass door of the hotel. The entire Onslow gang, clapping and cheering us on. Amy banging on the glass in excitement, Ringer singing out, “About bloody time.”
The sound became louder when Chris slid the door open, disguising as best he could the smile that danced under the surface as he leant in the doorway, shaking his head.
“Now, can I have my beer garden back?” It earned him a rather impressive whack to his upper arm by Tammy.
“What?” he cried. “It’s Saturday night, people are asking …” Chris’s words were cut off by Tammy shutting the door, and drawing the blind, not before a rather daggy and elated Tess gave us a huge ‘thumbs up’.
“I swear he’s adopted,” Adam said, shaking his head and encircling his arms around me, bringing his lips back to mine just like I hoped he would.
We didn’t give up the beer garden that night; instead, we sat on the steps of the gazebo, watching the stars and reading the photocopied diary entries one by one, laughing and talking long into the night. He promised to keep my mortifying secrets if I promised no more Starship songs.
My heart was full knowing that Adam finally had no doubt about how I felt about him, and as much as that made me happy, there was a lingering, unanswered question that rolled over in my mind, something that didn’t feel right, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. And in that very moment, as if reading my mind, Adam broke his gaze away from the stars and looked at me, really looked at me, lost in deep thought as his eyes ticked over my face for what seemed forever.
“I love you, Ellie Parker.”
I took in the depth of his eyes, the very ones that had lured me into a thousand different kinds of trouble, the ones that would have me following him anywhere.
I broke into a winning smile, leaning my head against the warmth of his shoulder, hiding the tears that threatened to well in my eyes.
Adam Henderson loved me.
“Sounds like I’m going to need a new diary.”
Sliding his arm around my shoulder and kissing the top of my head.
“Don’t worry, Parker, we’ll fill up those pages in no time.”
I laughed out into the darkness, lacing Adam’s fingers with mine. “Of that, Adam Henderson, I have no doubt.”
Absolutely none!
Acknowledgements
Much love to my amazing husband, Mick, for being the beautiful part of my reality and supporting me in all I do; I know it’s not easy, but I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone else.
To all the bloggers, reviewers and readers who have enjoyed and shared the Summer Series. For taking something away from the story, for loving and embracing the characters. In a world that is often dark enough, it has been an absolute pleasure injecting it with a bit of sunshine.
I am blessed with such a talented, hardworking team; these ladies always go above and beyond for me. A special thanks to: Anita Saunders, Fiona Wilson and Keary Taylor.
Many thanks to my formatter, Karen Phillips.
Always grateful for the love and support of my friends and family.
My fellow authors for their inspiration, support and friendship: Frankie Rose, Jessica Roscoe, Lilliana Anderson, Keary Taylor. I adore you ladies and would be truly lost without our daily chats.