by Karly Lane
Dan seated himself at the bench without complaint, watching her with lazy amusement. ‘You provide first aid to your patrons often?’ he asked.
‘I have been known to on occasion,’ she said, tipping a splash of disinfectant into a small plastic container and adding some water from the kitchen tap. ‘Although not many people are silly enough to fight when Sid’s around. He’s an old bare-fist fighter from Liverpool.’
‘So what was he doing leaving a female employee alone with a room full of blokes then?’
‘Most people are presumed to be civilised,’ she said acerbically.
‘I wouldn’t lump us all in with the likes of Jacko.’
Rilee glanced up briefly. ‘So where is it that you come from?’ she asked, taking his hand to clean the small gash.
‘Pallaburra.’
‘Where’s that?’
‘About eight hours west from here. Have you ever been out that way?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘I lived overseas for a while, so I haven’t really done much travelling around Australia.’
‘Where did you live?’
‘The UK.’ She patted his hand dry before reaching for the butterfly strips. ‘Any deeper and this would have needed stitches,’ she told him.
‘You’re pretty good at this.’
Rilee shrugged. ‘I studied natural medicine.’
‘You’re a doctor?’
‘Naturopath.’
‘So what are you doing working in a pub?’
‘It’s a good second income.’
He made a small grunt of surprise and continued to watch her work.
‘What do you do for a living?’ she asked to break the silence and the heavy weight of his gaze, which was making her a little self-conscious.
‘I’m a farmer.’
‘What do you grow?’
His eyes crinkled around the edges a little as he grinned. ‘We raise cattle mostly, but we have some crops as well.’
‘Is it a big place?’
‘Fairly big.’
‘There you go,’ Rilee said as she finished attending to his cut and began to clear away her mess.
‘Thanks.’
‘Least I could do since you were hurt coming to my rescue,’ she said dryly.
‘If I knew you were going to patch me up I would have made a better job of getting hurt,’ he grinned.
‘Try to stay out of trouble for the rest of your visit,’ she said after putting the first-aid box back where it belonged and leading him out to the bar.
‘I’ll do my best.’
‘Well, nice meeting you,’ Rilee said when they found themselves standing in the foyer.
‘Yeah. You too, Rilee. I guess I’ll see you around.’
She smiled as he walked out the door, and then released a long breath. What on earth was that? She didn’t let men affect her. She didn’t do distractions in her life nowadays. She did focus and determination. Dan Kincaid just needed to disappear back to Pallaburra so she could get back to concentrating on her plan.
Two
The next week was busy with back-to-back patient appointments and Rilee was surprised when the weekend came around again so soon. She arrived home Friday afternoon, dumping her armload of files and textbooks on the coffee table, which was exactly four steps from the front door of her tiny flat above a Chinese restaurant. It wasn’t much, in fact it was pretty awful, but it was reasonably cheap for Paddington and it was close to work. Anyway, it wasn’t as though she’d had the luxury of spending much time at home over the last four years for her less than appealing accommodation to be an issue; she’d spent most of her time at uni or working in the pub before graduating and working full-time at the clinic, so she was barely ever home.
Her mobile sounded from the depths of her handbag and Rilee rummaged through the contents to answer it. She saw the name of the pub flash across the screen and gave a small groan. It had been a long week and she wasn’t rostered on for work at the pub this weekend. She almost didn’t answer. But she knew she’d feel bad for the rest of the night if she didn’t, so she pressed the answer button and forced a cheerfulness to her tone she was far from feeling.
To her surprise and relief, it wasn’t a call to come in to work. ‘Do you remember that bucks night you worked last week?’ Sid started.
Remember? How could she forget those blue eyes and that sexy grin? ‘Yes. Why?’
‘There’s a guy here looking for you. Wanted to know if you were working tonight.’
‘What’s he look like?’ Rilee asked, suddenly realising she was gripping the phone rather tightly. Please don’t be Jacko.
‘Big guy. Short hair.’
From the background she heard Janice add in, ‘Cute butt.’
‘What does he want?’ Rilee asked nervously.
‘He didn’t say. You want me to give him your number or not?’ Sid said in his heavy cockney accent.
Did she? She wasn’t sure. Why would he come back to see her? What if he was a weirdo and she couldn’t get rid of him? Maybe she could just go down and see him at the pub, but then she’d have to talk to him…Did she want to talk to him?
‘I ain’t got all night, sunshine,’ Sid said on the other end of the line.
‘Oh. Right. Sorry. Umm, yeah, sure, give him my number.’ Oh God.
‘Right you are,’ Sid said. ‘Don’t meet this guy at home. You can’t be too careful these days,’ he added gruffly and Rilee was touched by his concern.
‘I won’t, thanks, Sid. Sorry about this.’
‘Yeah, well maybe you need to start getting out there a bit more instead of working and studying all the time. Might do you some good.’
‘And who’d come and help you out then?’ she teased.
‘Life’s not all about working.’ An image of her bald, somewhat stout boss, with his slightly crooked nose from years of fighting, flashed before her eyes. Sid could look intimidating, like a man who could handle a bit of trouble, but really he was a teddy bear. ‘Besides,’ he said, clearing his throat quickly, ‘you’re not getting any younger, you know.’
‘Thanks for that. I’ll keep it in mind,’ Rilee said dryly.
He hung up and Rilee sat the phone down on the coffee table, eyeing it nervously. ‘Get a grip,’ she told herself firmly. ‘You’re a mature adult, you can handle a phone call, for goodness sake!’ But her hands felt clammy and her stomach was a jumble of nerves.
He probably wouldn’t even call, she thought dismissively. Maybe he’d just been walking past and it was a spur of the minute thought to drop in and say hi.
The phone beeped and Rilee jumped, her fingers digging into the edge of the lounge chair as she stared at the unfamiliar number flashing across the screen. Pick it up, pick it up! a frantic little voice screamed inside her head.
‘Hello?’ she was trying for cool, calm and collected, but the slight squeak at the end may have given away how nervous she was.
‘Ah, yeah. Hi. It’s Dan Kincaid. From the bucks party last Friday night,’ he added.
It was the same deep voice she remembered and it was just as lethal over the phone as it had been in person. ‘Hi. How’s your hand?’
He gave a low chuckle and Rilee tried her best to ignore the small shiver of awareness it triggered. ‘Actually, I was hoping you might take a look at it.’
Rilee sat up straight. ‘Why? What’s wrong with it?’
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I’m back in town for the weekend. I was wondering if you’d like to catch up while I’m here?’
‘Catch up?’ she repeated dumbly, her mind still reeling from the fact she was suddenly speaking to the man she’d been thinking about all week.
‘It’s okay if you’re busy tonight, I just thought maybe if you were free over the weekend sometime.’
‘I’m not busy tonight,’ she found herself blurting.
‘Great. Do you want me to come and pick you up?’
‘No, that’s okay, I can meet you. Where and when?’
T
hey settled on a restaurant not too far away from the pub and only a few minutes’ walk from her flat.
She dithered over what to wear for far too long before finally settling on a pair of good jeans, low heels and a glittery black halter top she’d bought on impulse months ago and had yet to wear. Twisting her hair up into a messy bun at the back of her head, she secured it with bobby pins and quickly touched up her makeup. She kept it at a bare minimum for work, with just a touch of eye shadow and some lip gloss; after all, her patients were more interested in her ability to heal them than her looks.
She spotted Dan as she neared the restaurant and nerves began a renewed assault. He was dressed a little more casually tonight in jeans and a shirt and gleaming boots. She’d almost hoped that seeing him tonight would be a disappointment. Unfortunately, he was just as good-looking as she remembered. Damn it.
‘Where did you park?’ he asked looking up the street behind her.
‘I walked.’
‘Alone?’ he asked, lifting an eyebrow.
‘Yes. Why?’
‘This is the city. You shouldn’t be walking around at night alone.’
Rilee bit back a laugh, then realised he was serious. ‘It’s okay, I don’t live very far from here.’ She’d also lived alone in London for years and managed to survive. She was pretty sure she could handle downtown Paddington.
‘Still,’ he said, glancing around as though expecting a gang of thugs to be lurking in a dark alleyway. ‘You can’t be too careful.’
Apparently you could. Example, exhibit A: tall, good-looking country boy.
‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again,’ she said after they were seated at a table, waiting for their drinks.
‘I wasn’t sure how to find you. I remember you said the pub was your second job, so I took a gamble that you might be there.’
‘Do you have another bucks night to attend?’ she asked, only half joking. Why else would he be back in the city so soon?
‘Nope.’
When he didn’t elaborate, Rilee searched for something else to talk about. ‘I bet you’re sick of driving by now.’
‘I flew.’
‘Oh. Well, that makes more sense, I guess. Where do you fly from?’ She may or may not have googled Pallaburra purely out of curiosity. It hadn’t looked big enough to have an airport.
‘I fly my own plane.’
‘Really?’
‘You sound surprised.’
‘I guess I am. I just thought you were a…’
‘Farmer,’ he supplied dryly.
‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ she hurried to apologise. ‘How long have you been flying for?’
‘Since I was sixteen. It’s a way of life for a lot of landholders. Makes life easier if you can cut through distance and isolation.’
‘I can imagine. So you come to the city often then?’
‘When I have to. I prefer not to if I can.’
‘Ah, I see.’
‘What do you see?’ he asked, his eyes smiling a little as he looked across the table at her.
‘You’re a country snob.’
‘I wouldn’t say that. I like the city just fine…it has its good points,’ he shrugged, ‘but I don’t think I could ever live here. What about you? Have you always lived in the city?’
‘No, not always.’
‘Where did you grow up?’
Rilee no longer hated this question as much as she used to. Once she would have hidden the truth behind a flippant remark or changed the subject, but as she grew older she realised she wasn’t as ashamed of her upbringing as she had been as a self-centred teenager. ‘I had a bit of an alternative lifestyle as a kid.’
‘Alternative?’
‘I lived with my parents in a commune until I was eighteen and ran away to the city,’ she said, smiling dryly.
‘Yeah?’
‘Now you sound surprised,’ she said, glancing up to thank the waiter who delivered their drinks.
‘You don’t look anything like I’d imagine a…’
‘Hippie to look?’ she supplied.
‘I guess so,’ he grinned.
‘At the time I hated it. We moved from the city when I was eleven and I was filled with pre-teen angst, thinking the world was supposed to revolve around me,’ she said. ‘I look back now and realise my parents were going through their own problems. My dad had been made redundant and we couldn’t afford to live in the city any more, so my parents decided to make a clean break and create a simpler way of life. All I could see at the time was that I was being forced to live on a farm with no electricity and I had to give up my friends and the home I loved,’ she said with a twist of her lips.
‘It must have been a shock to the system,’ he said, reaching for his beer. ‘Do your parents still live there?’
‘Not on the commune. Same area though. They run their own business now.’
The topic changed and Rilee found herself enjoying their varied conversation throughout the meal and on through coffee, stretching the evening out for as long as they could until finally the staff were discreetly packing up around them.
‘I’ll walk you home,’ Dan said as they stepped out into the night.
‘You don’t have to do that. It’s not far.’
‘I wasn’t asking,’ he said abruptly. ‘You might be a big tough city girl, but where I come from you don’t let women walk home alone at night.’
‘Where you come from sounds scarier than the city,’ she pointed out. ‘Women shouldn’t walk by themselves in the dark, they shouldn’t be left to work in a room full of men alone…’
He gave a small grunt at that. ‘It’s not a crime to have been brought up to take care of women, is it?’
‘It just seems a little old-fashioned, I guess. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time; I don’t need a big strong man to step in and do it for me.’
He went quiet at that and she wondered if she’d offended him.
‘I’m not going to apologise for stepping in with Jacko the other night. That’s just who I am,’ he said. ‘However, the reason I won’t let you walk home alone tonight doesn’t have as much to do with my upbringing as it does with the fact I don’t want to say goodnight yet.’
‘Oh.’ Her reply seemed woefully inadequate, but for the life of her she couldn’t seem to make her tongue work. The truth was, she didn’t want the night to end either.
‘What made you come back from the UK?’ he asked, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
As a rule, Rilee tried not to talk much about that part of her life. The end had tainted all the happier times, but for some reason, here with Dan, it felt different. ‘I got homesick,’ she said lightly.
‘Were you over there long?’
‘About three years.’
‘What did you do over there for all that time?’
‘The usual. I backpacked for a while. I worked in pubs to save up enough money to travel around.’
‘Did you go over there with friends?’
‘No, well, I mean I made friends while I was over there, but I kind of liked being able to do my own thing.’
‘That was a long time to be on your own.’
‘I lived with someone briefly, but that didn’t work out.’
‘Ah. I knew it.’
‘Knew what?’ she asked, glancing across at him.
‘There was a guy in your past who hurt you.’
‘How could you know that?’
‘Just a feeling. You seem so…self-sufficient.’
‘So because I can take care of myself I must have been hurt by a guy in my past?’
‘Something like that. You’re different to most women I know. There’s just something about you that I can’t put my finger on. Like part of you is out-of-bounds.’
His assessment caught her off guard. ‘And you came to this conclusion after a whole five minutes of knowing me?’
He didn’t seem put off by her abrasive tone. ‘Surprised the hell out
of me too,’ he grinned. They walked on and Rilee found herself distracted by the nearness of him. ‘So what did he do? This jerk who hurt you?’
‘The novelty apparently wore off and he decided he needed a little bit more variety in his life.’
‘Then he was an idiot as well as a jerk.’
Rilee looked fixedly at a window display they were passing. ‘It was my own fault, really. I knew deep down it was too good to be true. I let myself get sucked into a world I didn’t belong in.’
When she felt him watching her, waiting for an explanation, she sighed. ‘I don’t know why I’m telling you any of this; it’s not a part of my life I’m particularly proud of.’
‘Why?’
Rilee shook her head slightly, almost as though trying to hold off the memories that were beginning to come tumbling back into her mind.
Dan stopped walking and reached out to take her arm gently, stopping her. ‘I want to know everything about you, Rilee. Good or bad, I want to know it all.’
Rilee stared up at him and found herself confused by the battle raging inside her. Why wasn’t this man scaring her when over the years anyone wanting to know any of this would have made her run a mile in the other direction? But a feeling of safety wrapped itself around her and made her want to tell him everything she’d rather forget.
Three
‘I left home wanting this big adventure,’ she said, deciding to start from the beginning. ‘I’d always wanted to be a model and I couldn’t wait to leave home. I was a horrible teen,’ she gave a sad smile. ‘I resented my parents for forcing their lifestyle upon me. I was so angry. I couldn’t understand why we’d go from living a normal life to moving to some hippie place with no TV and none of my friends. I left the minute I was able to and swore I’d never look back. God, I was so young and naive,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘So you just packed up and went overseas? How old were you?’
‘Eighteen.’ She nodded at his doubtful look. ‘I know, I think back now and wonder what the hell I was thinking.’
‘So you’re eighteen and find yourself in the UK?’ he prompted when they’d walked a little way without talking.