by Sonia Parin
“Still single?”
“Hello, Mrs. Larson. And yes, I am. And... I’m loving it.” Now was as good a time as any to start getting used to it. The more practice she got, the better she’d become at pretending.
“My grandson is visiting next week. I’ll expect you for afternoon tea at three o’clock sharp.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Larson. I’ll be here.”
“And wear a dress.”
With a wave goodbye, Eddie pushed herself into a trot. It would be nice to catch up with Jimmy Larson. After their afternoon tea, he would take her to dinner as a thank you for bailing him out yet again. Something to look forward to, she thought.
On her last stop, Mrs. Kenny was waiting for her on her front porch. “Did Betty Larson invite you over for afternoon tea? Her grandson is coming for a visit.”
“She sure did.”
Eddie laughed under her breath. Everyone, including sweet Mrs. Larson, knew Jimmy was gay. Yet every time her grandson came to visit she would extend the invitation, and not out of malice. Mrs. Larson simply thought Eddie needed practice wearing a pretty dress and having someone paying attention to her. And so every three months when Jimmy drove up from Melbourne to visit his grandmother, Eddie dove into the back of her wardrobe and pulled out one of her two dresses.
At least she got a good dinner out of it too.
Moments later, she was back in the car and driving home. Maybe she’d do some online shopping and get something new for Jimmy’s visit or borrow something from Sophie, she thought swearing under her breath as a car pulled on to the road ahead of her, gravel spitting behind it.
Without looking, she knew the house belonged to Claire Muldoon. And since no one in Eden drove a red convertible, the car could only belong to one person.
“I’m developing an intense dislike for Murphy and his Law,” she said. Slowing down, she tried to put some distance between herself and the object of her increasing anxiety.
That morning’s breakfast was a bit hazy but she still managed to recall her reaction to hearing Theo say he didn’t kiss and tell. She’d laughed but, in reality, she’d wanted to cry. The thought of him kissing Claire...
She clutched her stomach but the stabbing sensation didn’t stop.
Even as she tried to switch off her curiosity, she couldn’t. Had they met on one of Claire’s trips to Melbourne? Maybe they’d hooked up online.
“Should I try online dating?” she asked. “And is talking to myself a sign I should try and do something to change my circumstances before it’s too late and I find myself sitting on my front porch waiting for meals on wheels to deliver my dinner?”
She looked up ahead and saw Theo had pulled up by the side of the road. He had driven out of Claire’s driveway with more than a hint of urgency. Had they had a falling out? What if he needed comforting? “Yeah, right.” Men didn’t cry over break-ups. They simply shrugged and shuffled off to the next woman waiting in line.
Eddie pushed her attention back onto the road and told herself to keep driving, but curiosity played havoc with her willpower until it got the better of her. Slowing down, she pulled up behind Theo’s car, taking her time to get out of her car, giving him a chance to either pull himself together or drive off. Before she reached him, the driver’s door opened and Theo emerged.
He didn’t have anything she hadn’t seen before, day in, day out. Broad shoulders. Sinewy muscles on his forearms. And because he made a point of running bare-chested, she knew he had a washboard stomach giving him the sort of body...
Eddie forced herself to stop. He really didn’t have anything she hadn’t seen on any one of the guys who came into The Gloriana on a Friday night for a game of pool. So why did her heart feel like a pebble skipping across a pond?
“Feeling better?” he asked.
“I have some residual champagne bubbles floating around in my head, and it still hurts to blink. Otherwise, I’m fine.”
He leaned against his car, and threw his head back as if looking for answers from the sky above.
“How about you, are you okay?”
He shook his head. “I’ve driven up and down this road several times now and I’ve yet to see a kangaroo.”
“They usually come out at night, and like the deer you have in your neck of the woods, they’re mesmerized by car headlights.”
“I’ve never seen a deer either but I’ve seen plenty of road signs alerting me to their presence. I feel cheated.”
“I know the feeling.” She hitched her fingers in her pockets and stubbed the toe of her boot against the ground throwing up a small puff of dust. “Um—”
He lifted a halting hand. “As much as I enjoy being tormented by you, can we not do this now?”
“It was only a harmless um.”
“The type that usually precedes a barrage of questions and assumptions.”
“I guess that means you want to be alone.”
“No, if I wanted solitude, I would have kept driving.”
“Okay. I’ll steer clear of sticky subjects. Although, I’m not sure which ones qualify as taboo.” She rocked on her heels. “The reason for your trip to Eden is one. That’s all I can come up with, and to be fair to me, I haven’t been that inquisitive.”
“It’s actually been fun sidestepping your prompts for more information.” He smiled. “And you’ve been a perfect hostess.”
“Not that perfect. I’m sure the experience of setting foot inside The Gloriana will be forever imprinted in your memory.”
“Whatever that man did to you, he deserves a whipping.”
“Ouch. You’ve prodded my taboo subject.” It had been several days since she’d thought about Adam. Somehow, the experience had settled into the furthest corner of her mind. Putting it all into perspective, she knew the next time they saw each other they’d probably have a laugh and move on as if nothing had happened.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to remind you,” he said.
“Think nothing of it, I’m used to it.”
“I still think he deserves some sort of comeuppance.” He took a step toward her. “You should know—”
Eddie chuckled. “I sense a platitude coming my way so I’m going to exercise my right to impose my own restrictions on what can and cannot be discussed.” She tilted her head. “Did I just sound like you?”
“Eddie Faydon, you are one unique woman and despite everything, I’ll never regret coming to Eden and meeting you.” He threw his head back and again looked up at the sky.
Her heart gave a startled thump. “This sounds like goodbye.”
After a brief silence, he sighed. “I’ll be leaving at the end of the week.”
A couple of days and then everything would return to normal. Would she miss him? Probably. In fact, she could imagine looking at her watch and thinking he was boarding his plane. And the next day she’d think about him arriving at his destination and how he was getting on with his life. She’d wonder if he was thinking about her and the people he’d met back in Eden. Meanwhile, he was spending a couple more days here…
“So you haven’t lost all hope,” she said.
“Hope?”
“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say you came looking for Claire Muldoon and it hasn’t worked out the way you wanted it to.”
“How did you arrive at that conclusion?”
By thinking too much about him. “You haven’t been seen talking to any of the major stakeholders in town... my brothers don’t count, and I doubt you’ve been having clandestine meetings while out jogging, so I’m guessing you didn’t come here on business.” Sure, he spent a lot of time on the phone, which could be his way of doing business, but she didn’t mention it because it would throw her theory out of whack. “All your meal times are accounted for,” she continued, “As well as your evenings, which you’ve spent at the pub. But there’s one exception. Last night you were seen going into Groomingdale’s after closing hours. The hair salon b
elongs to Claire Muldoon. Also, I just saw you drive away from her house. All fingers might point to inconclusive evidence, but it’s all I have to work with.”
“That’s deductive thinking at its finest. You’re a regular Miss Marple.”
Yes, but was any of it true? She waited for his denial, but it didn’t come. Eddie shrugged. “I owe it to a misspent youth reading Agatha Christie.”
“You should never apologize for your choice of reading material. You never know what you’ll learn.”
“Yeah? How do you feel about graphic novels... you know, comic books?”
“Superheroes?”
She looked down at her boots and smiled. “Zombie apocalypse.”
He chuckled. “The Walking Dead?”
She nodded.
“It should be included in school reading lists. You never know when those survival skills will come in handy.”
His tone sounded lighter but his jaw muscles hadn’t stopped twitching. She suspected his neck and shoulders had hardened to steel. “If it makes you feel better, you never really stood a chance with Claire. Her entire life revolves around her son, Ben.”
He pushed off the car and slipped his hands inside his pockets. “Is he a handful?”
“No, he’s just her entire world. Being a single mom—”
He snatched his sunglasses off. “She’s not married?”
“Did you think she was?”
“She’s not married?” he asked again.
“Are you into married women? Like a fetish—”
“What? No… I’m…” He turned away from her.
Eddie thought she heard him swear under his breath. “She told you she was married?” Why would Claire lie? To put him off? If he’d been pestering her, or worse, stalking her…
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“I would, if I had more details. Actually, if you’d opened up to us the way we encouraged you to do, then maybe you would have found out sooner.” She laughed. “I think that’s called irony.”
“It’s not funny, Eddie.”
“Yes, it is. You must be suffering from irony deficiency.”
He groaned and this time she thought she heard him say think, damnit, think.
“If you had a kid and someone offered you an all expenses paid overseas trip, what would you do?”
He wanted to take Claire on an overseas trip? Probably somewhere glamorous and exotic like a tropical island... “You want me to say I’d ditch the kid, and I almost wish I could be that type of person and embrace the spirit of adventure, but children are a lifetime’s responsibility. You don’t walk away from that without good reason.”
He turned and hitched his hands on his hips. “What if someone offered to look after your son?”
“It would have to be someone I trust. Also, there would have to be a fallback plan,” she said ticking off each pointer on her fingers. “What if the person looking after my son got sick? In fact, I’d want to have a failsafe contingency plan.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to take him with you?”
“I was getting to that,” she said wiggling her little finger. “Point number four.”
“Bottom line, you wouldn’t turn down the offer.”
“Not a chance. I’d find a way to say yes.”
“Even if it meant getting someone to babysit?”
She gave him a small nod.
“How about someone like me?”
That didn’t make sense. He’d offered Claire an overseas trip but he wanted to stay? “Hypothetically? Maybe-possibly-yeah-sure.”
“I’m talking about an all expenses paid trip, Eddie.”
“All right. Stop pressuring me. Give me a minute to think... hypothetically.” She saw the hint of a smile appear. “I wouldn’t want to go through life regretting the missed opportunity. So I’d find a way to say yes, thank you.”
He looked down at the ground and brushed his hand across his chin.
“Theo, you can’t really do the whole Carpe Diem thing when there’s a child involved. Also…”
“What?”
“If you met online, then there’s the whole ‘do I really know him’ question.”
He laughed. “Online? What are you talking about?”
Eddie lifted her shoulders. “Okay, shoot me. I’m fishing for more information. How did you two meet?”
Shaking his head, his lips stretched into a grin. And then he took a step toward her. Eddie managed to blink, but then her mind went blank.
He took her hand, and drew her to him. “You’re a genius,” he said and kissed her.
Or rather, his lips met hers, and then he drew back.
She expected him to offer an instant apology or explain or something… Please say something, she silently begged, or make a noise, any noise, anything to fill the deafening silence. Then as if in answer to her prayer, she heard her heart thumping against her chest. And then she became aware of another pulsing beat lower down…
“Speaking of regrets,” he said in a thick voice, his eyes sweeping around her face.
“We were?”
His hand slid to her waist and drawing her against him, he tilted her chin. Eddie felt a gurgle of laughter rising up to her throat. She couldn’t hold it back. And when she tried harder, her chest shook.
“I wondered about that.”
“About what?”
“I wondered if you’d laugh.”
“I know I’m laughing but I’m not sure why. And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“This.” He leaned in, and brushed his lips against hers, this time he turned it into a caress. Gentle. Teasing. And deliciously enticing.
Eddie heard more soft laughter and realized it came from her but then the sound changed to humming. It took her a few moments to catch up with what was happening. Theo Kendrick had pressed her against him, molding her body to his and he was kissing her.
Instinct kicked in with an order to step away, but her legs had turned to noodles. And instead of engaging her brain and reasoning her way out of what could turn into an awkward moment, she responded by kissing him right back, moving against him, letting his warmth wrap around her. But a part of her could still reason. Any minute now, she expected him to draw away and make up some sort of excuse for doing something entirely unexpected. She wondered if she had time to put her hands on his shoulders, to maybe rake her fingers through his hair and mess it up at bit.
Yes, yes. Do it.
Her hands settled on his shoulders, feeling their way up to his neck, taking little tactile snapshots of the way he felt under her fingertips, adding it all to the layers of sensations swimming around her head. Sensations she recognized because they reminded her of how much fun it was to be cocooned in a pair of strong arms. But then the kiss deepened, triggering a wave of new sensations that felt as if they’d been waiting a long time to come alive. Eddie focused on those. They rushed at her, firing up sparks inside her body, spreading a burning sexual need that rose from the tips of her toes—
Her breath hitched and a part of her hesitated. The part that felt overwhelmed by the swell of wanting and needing rising inside her. Then she heard a voice in her head, hollering from a distant place and telling her this was wrong. But before she could claw her way back to reason, she took one of those little leaps of faith and threw herself right into kissing Theo Kendrick, settling into a rhythm that stirred a deep wanting inside her—
Much too soon, he drew away, his lips pressing against the edge of her mouth, then moving to the hollow of her throat and finally coming to a rest stop against her neck. Eddie thought she heard a low rumble coming from him, the sound a mixture of relief and frustration.
As he held her, she opened her eyes, only then realizing she’d closed them.
“I got a bit carried away. That was... a lot more than I expected. Give me a minute.”
He needed time to think... or to recover?
He looked at her then, his eyes missing the usual spark of amusement.
Had he just come to his senses? She couldn’t tell. Then again, she was looking through a haze of sexual awareness so she wasn’t sure if she could trust her own eyes.
He sighed heavily and drew her against him again.
“Theo?”
“Hang on, I’m trying to engage my sluggish male brain.”
She’d done that to him? “Do you want to stand on your head for a bit?”
He chuckled. Then his hands eased away from the small of her back and reached for her hands. “You feel so good.”
Eddie thought now would be a good time to think about what came next. They’d managed to get a bit of a bonfire happening—
He drew away again.
His eyes were now in sharp focus. His expression serious enough for her to realize he wasn’t about to deliver happy news.
Eddie sighed. What had she been thinking? Kissing Theo?
Theo frowned.
“Eddie, how old is Ben?”
“W-what?”
“Ben... Claire’s son. How old is he?”
Chapter Seven
“And then what happened?” Joyce asked.
After Theo had given her a taste of heaven, he’d asked her how old Ben was...
Eddie pressed her lips together. Mentioning that part would mean stripping off the last layer of her pride. While her world had tilted and shifted, Theo’s had gone on as usual.
“Then he left. He squeezed my shoulder, got in his car, and took off.” Driving at breakneck speed and heading back to Claire Muldoon’s house. But not before he’d ruined her life. With one kiss? What did that say about her? That she’d never had a man take her into his arms and wrap her up in a thorough kiss. Even thinking about it made her legs quiver.
“I haven’t seen him since.” His bed hadn’t been slept in and she knew that because Dani had gone to Melbourne for a gig so Eddie was back on cleaning duties. “Also, he settled his account paying for one more night.” At some point, he’d returned to the pub, but she’d been out and her brother Matthew hadn’t asked any questions. Here today, gone tomorrow.