She moved backwards into the middle of the bed and he was on top of her, kissing her mouth, her cheeks, her nose, and saying her name in a whisper and a moan and then he was inside her again, and she moved in a rhythm with him, as instinctive as it was unspoken, and they came together on a cry that filled the room.
Dylan brought a glass of water to her bedside.
“Thanks,” she said as she gulped it down. “Hot sex and a cool drink. The whole package.”
Dylan laughed. “It’ll take more than water to cool you down, Reynolds.” He kissed her again and pressed her deeper into the pillow.
“What can I say? You lit a fire in me, Knight.” She laughed. “And I seriously now can’t think of any more fire clichés.”
“Listen.” He sat by her on the bed, stroked the hair from her cheek. “I’m on call and I need to be home with all my gear.”
“I understand,” Hannie said.
He searched her face, distracted. “You have beautiful hair, you know.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s like running water through my fingers.” He twisted a curl around a finger. “You want to do something tomorrow? If my pager doesn’t go off, I mean?”
“Sure. That would be great.”
“Why don’t I come by at ten and pick you up. Wear your bathers and bring a towel.”
A swim sounded amazing after all the hot weather. “Sure.”
She lifted her head up and kissed him and he kissed her back with every bit of the longing she’d put into it.
“See you tomorrow,” he said.
“Yeah.”
Hannie watched Dylan pull on his jeans and his shoes, wrangle his T-shirt over his head. His smile didn’t dim the whole time.
The last thing she remembered before her eyes fluttered shut in satisfied exhaustion was him pulling the sheet up to cover her, and one more warm kiss on her lips.
Dylan was true to his word.
At ten, he pulled up in Hannie’s driveway.
She was waiting for him at the back door, wearing a sundress with her bathers underneath, sandals, and a sun hat. She had a beach bag slung over her shoulder filled with a bottle of water, a plastic bowl for Ted, and a big tube of sunscreen.
“Hey,” he said. He walked to her, slowly, grinning like an idiot.
“Yep.” She grinned right back at him.
He slipped an arm around her and pulled her in close, kissing her as he smiled against her lips.
When Ted whimpered at her side, Dylan reached down and gave him a scratch behind the ear. The dog plopped himself down on his butt and his tongue lolled to the side.
“You want to bring Ted to the beach?”
“Would that be okay? It’s just that with his knee surgery, he hasn’t had the chance to run around, and I figured he’d love having a splash in the waves.”
Dylan reached for the beach bag slung over her shoulder. He hooked a couple of fingers under the strap and lifted it off. “Absolutely no problem. He’ll have to sit in between us in the middle. He doesn’t get car sick or anything, does he?”
“No. He’ll just dribble on us.”
Dylan shrugged. “I’ve been dribbled on before, mostly by people who’ve had too much to drink.”
They walked towards the car, Ted straining on the leash with excitement. Hannie kind of knew how he felt. She was going to spend the whole day with Dylan.
“So which beach are we going to? Glenelg? Grange?” Hannie asked. He opened the passenger side door and lifted Ted into the seat.
“Port Elliot. I thought we could have a swim at Horseshoe Bay. Sound good?”
Hannie sighed. “That sounds like heaven.”
Chapter Eleven
Hannie wasn’t sure who loved the beach more—her or Ted. It was no secret that Labradors loved the water, but his usual swim in the muddy creek at the bottom of the valley was nothing compared with the Southern Ocean and the protected harbour of Horseshoe Bay on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula.
It had taken them an hour to get to the idyllic place, south from Reynolds Ridge along the South Eastern Freeway to Strathalbyn and then on to the pretty coastal spot. It was a summer haven for holidaymakers from the city and the hills and, today, the calm beach of Horseshoe Bay was the perfect spot for everyone who’d sweltered through the past week of blasting summer temperatures. There were children dragging body boards into the water, toddlers paddling in the shallows wearing life vests for safety, and striped beach canvases fluttering in the wind, straining their pegs which had been pushed into the sand.
Hannie and Dylan had feasted on some fish and chips for lunch, then washed the meal down with a chocolate malt milkshake, and had finally given in to Ted’s desire to get in to the water. He still wasn’t supposed to run, so Hannie made sure he was firmly attached to his lead.
“Here,” Dylan said, adjusting his straw hat, “I’ll take him. Why don’t you go have a dip?”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Hannie but her lip. “We could maybe try to tether him to something so he doesn’t run off.”
Both looked down at Ted who was standing to attention, his tail horizontal, staring straight ahead at the waves crashing on to the sand.
“I don’t think that’s going to work.” Dylan said. “I get the idea that if he had the chance he’d head into that water and swim all the way to Kangaroo Island.”
Hannie laughed. “Yeah. You’re right. I won’t be long.”
Dylan dropped to the sand and stretched his legs out in front of him. He looked mighty relaxed in his board shorts and loose T-shirt, which was nice to see. She’d become used to seeing him in his regulation yellow fire fighting outfit, steel-capped boots and helmet and everything. He needed this too, perhaps more than she did.
Hannie lifted her sun dress over her head and dropped it on the sand. She flicked her sandals on top of it so it didn’t blow away.
Yeah, he looked. He dropped his head and did a long, slow journey up her body, along the curve of her calves to her thighs, past her rounded hips, her breasts barely constrained in her one piece that plunged down at the front.
She turned and sauntered to the water. When she waves began splashing her hips, she dived in.
Damn Ted.
The hound hadn’t actually done anything wrong except be his big, loveable slobbery self.
Dylan was stuck on the sand, minding the dog, when what he really wanted to do was be out there in the water with Hannie, with his mouth on hers and his hands all over her body.
He was gone. One night and he was done. Tasting her, fucking her, being in her bed, that was what home felt like, he’d realised as he’d driven from her place to his the night before.
So many wasted years, so much water under the bridge. All because of Alice’s drama queen games and bullshit. She had driven him away from Hannie once before, but there was no way in hell that was going to happen again.
“Whoa, big fella.” Ted had startled and when Dylan looked up Hannie was walking back up the beach, slicking her hair back from her forehead, looking like a freaking sun tan lotion commercial. Man, she was beautiful.
Her smile, her sass, her ass. Yeah, he liked her ass. He liked everything about her. Even with his dog-minding duties, this was turning out to be a pretty great day.
As he watched her walk up the sand from the waves, his thoughts drifted back to the toast his cousin Logan had recently made at their grandfather’s wake. “To getting laid and fighting fires.”
Dylan thought he should change that toast. “To finding the right woman and fighting fires.”
That was something he would toast to any day of the damn week.
“The water is amazing,” Hannie announced when she was at his feet.
She looked relaxed, her legs slightly apart, and drops of water were drizzling over every part of her body. Shimmering little droplets, sand particles shining on her legs, the curve of her hip, and in the deep V of her swimsuit where the curve
of each breast swelled.
Dylan went to speak but his tongue was thick and he felt drunk all of a sudden.
Hannie in her bathing suit, with her smile, with that warm energy, had rendered him speechless.
“Here, let me take Ted. You go swim.”
He stood up, handed her the leash, ripped off his T-shirt and sprinted to the water.
Hannie slipped on her sun dress to protect herself from the warm afternoon sun, shoved Dylan’s T-shirt in her beach bag, and led Ted on a gentle walk along the lapping shoreline.
Horseshoe Bay was a big curve, with a surf lifesaving club, restaurant, cafe and children’s playground at one end, and a rocky outcrop at the other. She walked in the opposite direction of the crowds of people, the swimmers and the families and the body boarders, and walked along the edge of the water.
It had been a great day. From Dylan’s ready acceptance of Ted’s presence, slobbering in the seat between them all the way down to the beach, to lunch, to the laughs, to his dazzling smile, to the sight of him in his board shorts running into the water.
Last night had been about pure, primal need. They’d fucked like two people who couldn’t be sated unless they were joined, as if they had been satisfying some long-buried, primal urge.
Today it was about something more. Now, she could barely keep her hands off him. In the car on the way down, she’d reached over Ted and stroked Dylan’s cheek, which made him grin. When they’d been sitting on the freshly-mown lawns by the cafe eating their fish and chips from a cardboard cone, she’d leaned across and kissed him, licking the salt and vinegar from his lips. Her body was giving her signals that were impossible to ignore. She wanted him in a way she hadn’t wanted anyone in forever.
As she walked, splashing in the shallows, she put together a plan for that night. They were going to make a serious dent in that box of condoms. She hadn’t been in a relationship in a while, but she was ever hopeful and it had sat in the bathroom cupboard for a year. She had a stash of local cheese in the fridge and some artisanal crackers in the cupboard and a bottle of Adelaide Hills sauvignon blanc chilling in the fridge. All for after they’d fucked each other senseless, of course.
Yeah, that sounded like a plan.
“I wondered where you’d got to.”
She turned. Dylan. Handsome as hell Dylan Knight was right there smiling down at her. She sighed at how happy she felt, how content. This beach, Ted, and this man. A perfect day.
“I thought Ted deserved to get himself wet.”
Ted barked up at them, as if he was agreeing with Hannie.
“Smart dog,” Dylan said.
She stepped closer to him, and brought her free hand to his chest. She ran it over one of his pecs and then down his wet skin, across his abs. She stopped right there. He looked down and then covered her hand with his own.
“Hey, I have an idea.”
He looked up, raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“I thought maybe you could take me home right now and fuck me.”
He groaned as he leaned down and kissed her, fast, hard, demanding. “Hell yes.”
Five minutes after they’d left Horseshoe Bay, Hannie’s phone rang. She reached into her beach bag and looked at the screen.
She pressed the screen to take the call. “Hey, Alice.” Dylan looked at her, his mouth a tight line.
“Hannie, you’ve got to come. I’m in hospital with Mum.” Alice’s voice broke.
Fear skittered up her spine. “What’s happened?” She closed her eyes, imagining the worst, imagining that Mandy’s whole world was about to be broken into a million pieces.
“She’s had another fall and the doctors think something’s wrong. Something serious. I’m waiting here in accident and emergency and they’re trying to find her a bed in the Neurology Ward.”
“Which hospital?”
“Flinders Medical Centre,” Alice managed.
“Stay calm, Alice. I’m on my way.” Hannie did the sums quickly in her head. They were an hour south of Adelaide and the hospital was in between the beach and the city. She checked the time on the clock on Dylan’s dash. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”
She ended the call with a gasp and she covered her mouth in the shock of what Alice had just told her. Alice had sounded terrified.
Dylan reached out across Ted and gripped Hannie’s bare shoulder. “Mandy?”
Hannie nodded. “She fell. She’s really hurt herself this time. I should have said something. I should have told Alice about what I’d noticed. I should have told her what you thought it might be. Parkinson’s. This is all my fault.” She dropped her head in her hands and tried to fight the tears.
“We’re on our way,” Dylan reassured her. “We’ll get there as soon as we can.”
Chapter Twelve
Dylan pulled up at the accident and emergency entrance at the hospital. There were two ambulances in the bay, one with its rear doors open and she saw two paramedics wheeling a patient towards the doors. She fumbled with her seatbelt and grabbed her beach bag.
“You’ll take Ted home?”
He reached for her hand. “Call me when know something.”
“Thanks, Knight,” she said quietly, nervously, tears welling in her eyes. She didn’t want to cry in front of him but she was too upset to care if he saw.
“See you, Reynolds.” He managed a smile, too, but there was concern in his blue eyes and his hand lingered on hers.
She nodded, gave Ted a hug, and ran inside to find her aunt and her cousin.
“She’s having an MRI.” Alice looked pale and worried.
Hannie had found her sitting in the waiting room of A and E. Hannie had opened her arms to hug her cousin, and Alice had accepted the gesture. No matter what Alice had done, they were still cousins and they were both worried as hell about Mandy.
“She told me,” Alice said quietly.
“About what? Hannie gasped.
“About the Parkinson’s.” Alice’s face fell. She drew in a deep breath.
“It’s Parkinson’s?” Dylan had been right about Mandy.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
“I know you won’t believe me, but I didn’t know. I thought... I thought something was wrong, that she seemed frail, but whenever I raised it she brushed me off, told me she was just getting old.”
Alice turned on her, teary, and clutched a fist to her chest. “And you didn’t think to tell me anything about these... suspicions? She is my mother, Hannie. I have a right to know what’s going on with her.”
Hannie pinched the bridge of her nose. “You do, but she didn’t want to tell you either, clearly.”
Alice slammed a fist against the arm of the plastic chair in the waiting room. “All this time I’ve been trying to get Mum to sell that damn property, so she could move somewhere more appropriate for someone her age, and you’ve known things weren’t right.”
“Wait a minute, I—”
Alice shook her head. “I know you, Hannie. You like to keep secrets, don’t you? You like to hide things from me.”
Hannie bit the inside of her mouth. Think about Mandy. Not about Alice’s vindictive bullshit. “Your conspiracy theories aren’t going to help you with this, Alice. Mandy needs you. She’s no doubt scared and frightened.”
“And you need her too, don’t you, Hannie? You need her to stay up there at Reynolds Ridge so you can keep your free ride. You don’t want to lose your cosy little cottage in the hills, which you pay virtually nothing for. No wonder you haven’t told me about her health and what you’ve noticed. You don’t want that to end, do you?”
Hannie flinched at the searing bitterness in her cousin’s tone. But she wouldn’t bite. Not now. She wouldn’t fight Alice here in the hospital waiting room. Mandy had to be their priority. “She was obviously scared to tell you, Alice. Both of us. She didn’t want you to worry about her. You know how independent she is.”
Alice stood abruptly, pulling her handbag against herself like
a shield. “I don’t want you to see her. Get out of here, Hannie.” She laughed but it was mocking, cruel. “Go home. Home. Not for much longer if I have my way.” She turned on her heel and walked away.
Hannie felt shell-shocked. She stood slowly and stopped, trying to process what had just happened. An hour ago, her life seemed just about perfect.
Now, she realised what her cousin’s plan had been all along. Alice had always been determined to ruin every good thing in her life—Dylan. Her business. Her home.
Oh, she would pick her time and place, and she was going to fight back.
Hannie wandered outside into the late afternoon and blinked into the fading sun. She wanted to go home.
But Dylan and Ted were on their way back up to Reynolds Ridge without her. She’d anticipated that she would be at the hospital for hours and hours, waiting with Alice, consoling her while doctors checked Mandy out. When she looked at her phone, she realised she’d been in and out in five minutes. She didn’t want to call Dylan, even though he would have turned around in a blink to come back and get her. She needed to be alone with her thoughts for a while.
Dylan. Mandy. Alice. Her own business. Her future. Everything seemed up in the air. Alice would now be more determined than ever to sell the property out from under Mandy. For her aunt, it would be like losing a limb; she loved that place so much. But now that Alice knew about the diagnosis, which, even though Hannie had her suspicions, had still shocked her to her core, there seemed no other course of action.
But what did Mandy want? And how long before her wishes for her life would have to come second to getting her the best care?
Hannie walked around to the front entrance of the hospital and waited at the public bus stop. There were regular services making the journey north into the city, and she could get off near the main shopping strip of Rundle. Not that she felt like shopping.
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