by Bec Johnson
‘You ok?’ Jenny's voice brought her round to the present.
‘I think so.’ Lori shrugged her shoulders defying her words.
‘Good, now stop worrying, when the time comes, you'll know exactly what to do.’ She patted her on the hand and grinned.
‘I hope so. Talking of 'when the time comes' do you think I should put out tea and cake for everyone?’ She was actually a little surprised Jenny hadn't already made plans for the catering of the meeting. It wasn't like her not to have this under control, and so Lori just presumed it was due to the drama of the last twenty-four hours.
Jenny turned her back and busied herself at the sink. ‘Oh yes, whatever you think is best will be perfect I'm sure.’
‘O... k... thanks.’ Lori didn't quite know what to make of her withdrawal, but decided it best not to push matters. Regardless of how Jenny had assured her she didn't care about the shop Lori knew this wasn't strictly true. It had obviously been a big part of her life for a long time and the uncertainty of what someone new could do to the place, and how it was quite possible they wouldn't need nor want her help, was bound to make her emotions run high.
‘Hello hello?’ Jonah's voice called from the back room.
Lori froze. Jonah had always, and quite rightly, vehemently protected his brother whenever she had made even the slightest off-hand remarks about him, and for certain Zeb would have shared everything that had happened yesterday. She fully expected him to give it to her with both barrels. Taking a deep breath she spun slowly round and looked at him.
‘Hey Jonah,’ Lori spoke softly. He looked terrible. His face was pale, and suggesting that he'd not slept in days his eyes were ringed black and heavy.
‘Hi, Jenny.’ He waved into the kitchen first then looked straight at Lori. ‘Can we talk?’
Shit. Although she'd anticipated it, it was still a conversation she didn't really relish having to have. However, Lori supposed, with her new found determination to get things over and done with, it was better now than later. Or even never, as she had been known to quite often opt for.
‘Of course, shall we go outside?’
‘Sure.’ Jonah nodded and led the way out towards the garden. Passing Tyler on his way back in to the kitchen the two of them smiled knowingly at each other. Lori felt a little wave of excitement for them, at least someone was happy around here.
‘Jonah, I know what you're going to say and I just want to get in first and tell you that I know, and I'm sorry.’ Lori hung her head low and swiped her hands at the vegetation beside where they stood at the bottom of the garden.
‘You know what I'm going to say do you?’ Jonah frowned.
‘I do, I'm an idiot. There, see.’
The corners of his eyes crinkled and a small laugh rumbled up from deep within his chest. ‘You are an idiot as you put it, yes, but maybe not for the reasons you believe.’
‘What's that supposed to mean?’
‘Look, Lori, do you remember the first day I met you?’ He chuckled at the memory.
‘Of course I do, I made an idiot of myself then too.’ She laughed with him.
‘Well, you made an assumption that day, and perhaps you haven't learnt from it yet.’ Jonah lifted his hands to her shoulders and fiddled unconsciously with her dress straps making her skin goose bump under his touch.
Argh! What was it with these boys?
‘Stop talking in riddles Jonah.’ Lori lifted his hands off her shoulders and held on to them so that she could concentrate. ‘What assumption have I made now?’
Glancing briefly to the deck Jonah paused and then backtracked, ‘You're right Lori, I'm talking nonsense, it'll be the lack of sleep.’
Lori followed his gaze but couldn't see anything that would have caught his attention. Facing him again she narrowed her eyes. ‘Yes, well you do look like crap.’
Jonah laughed. ‘Thanks for that. It's what happens when you've been awake for forty hours straight. Not something I'd recommend, but then you're probably sharing the exact same pain.’
She tried to smile but the guilt of knowing he'd most likely been up with Zeb made her chest ache. ‘Again, I'm sorry.’
‘It's not me you need to apologise to Lori, you know that.’ He bent his head and looked her deep in the eyes.
‘I know.’ Lori nodded.
‘My only advice to you, and I implore you to take it,’ he brushed her hair away from her face, ‘is that before you do anything, you make absolutely sure it's what you really truly want. I get that your father caused you immense sadness, and being here must bring all that to the surface, just don't, whatever you do, let the heartbreak of your past stop you finding true happiness for your future.’
Unable to speak, Lori opted just to fall forwards into his arms and hold him tight.
‘Fucking hell Lorikeet, if we weren't both already taken you'd be almost enough to turn me.’ Jonah's hands wrapped around her back and he breathed in her hair.
‘It's the coconuts,’ she giggled into his shirt.
Citing the peculiar need to go and change her shoes Jenny left Lori and went back to number twenty-one. Jonah had made himself scarce as soon as their discussion in the garden had come to a close, and as he'd taken Tyler with him, she now had the place to herself once again. Silent but for the clicking of the fridges working hard against the building heat of the day Lori sat on top of the counter beside the till, her feet dangling down the back as she faced the wall and the phone that hung on it. Bob had joined her and was curled up in the corner.
Leaning forwards she picked up the receiver and punched out the numbers on the little scrap of paper in her hand. The other end picked up almost straight away.
‘Mrs Peters? It's Lorikeet James here, from Murfey's Beach.’
‘Lorikeet darling you must have a sixth sense I was just about to call you, I know the meeting is any day now and...’
‘Mrs Peters, I can't sell,’ Lori blurted it out and burst into tears as she did so.
The other end of the line went silent.
‘I'm so sorry,’ Lori sniffled into the handset. ‘Mrs Peters?’
Barely audible she could just make out the sound of crying. At first she thought it was the echo of her own wretched tears until she realised that it wasn't her at all.
‘You don't know how relieved I am to hear that Lorikeet,’ she stammered between breaths.
‘Pardon?’ Now she really was hearing things.
‘Oh darling, it's John, he's not well, we've been in the hospital for the last couple of days awaiting the results, and well, what we thought was just old age was apparently not,’ she paused as she wept a little more and then forced herself to carry on, ‘he's been given a year, eighteen months at the most.’
Rocked back in her seat Lori gasped, ‘Oh my god!’
The conversation with Mrs Peters hadn't really gone any further than apologies back and forth to one another and when she'd rung off Lori sat on the counter in shock for a few minutes. She couldn't even begin to imagine what awful heartbreak they were going to have to live with for the next however many months, knowing that soon their time together would come to the most horrible end. One half of a whole would be left behind.
Lori glanced at the clock. Ten-thirty precisely.
Outside in the cool shade of the verandah she made herself comfortable in one of the two armchairs and watched as the hot breeze shook the leaves on the trees. It was just typical that everyone would be late when she was now ready to gather them all together to give them what she'd hoped they would see as good news. It was all turning out to be a bit of an anti-climax.
In fact, the more she thought about it the stranger it became. Surely it didn't take this long to change one pair of shoes? Jenny at least should have been back by now. And Mrs Westerly need only walk across the road. In fact every one of the investors lived no more than a ten minute walk from the shop.
Where the hell was everybody?
By quarter to eleven Lori had had enough of waiting an
d hopped down off the verandah. Crossing the drive and stepping out into the street she shielded her eyes from the glare of the sun and looked along the road towards where Victor should have been coming from. There was no sign of him.
About to march off down the footpath of number twenty-one in search of Jenny Lori heard the creaky door of Mrs Westerly's old weatherboard house open.
‘About time!’ Lori called out to the haughty old women as she appeared through the door. She wouldn't have been at all surprised if she'd staged the whole delay just to make sure Lori knew exactly who held the seven upper hands.
‘What are you talking about you silly child.’ She dropped a bag of rubbish, double wrapped of course, in her wheelie bin beside the garden path.
As sternly as she could manage on the hot asphalt Lori marched over to the other side of the road and stood at the front fence. Mrs Westerly walked towards her, giving Lori's attempt at conventional dress a derisive once over.
‘You're more than fifteen minutes late for our meeting, that's most unlike you.’ Lori arched her eyebrow. The best form of defence against a woman like Tyler's grandmother was attack.
‘I'm not late for anything, ever, I'll have you know.’
Unnerved by the confidence in her voice, Lori faltered, ‘But I called a meeting.’
‘You certainly did Miss James, and what happened?’
‘What on earth do you mean what happened? You never turned up, that's what bloody well happened. No one turned up! And as you've made what you think of me perfectly clear before now, I wouldn't put it past you to have been trying to sabotage the sale of the shop.’ Lori could feel her pulse thump in her veins she was so furious.
‘Don't you raise your voice to me young lady.’ She pointed her bony finger like a frighteningly ruthless school teacher but then withdrew it quickly, her face softening in question, ‘Wait, are you saying that you've sold the shop?’
‘If you'd come to the meeting you would have heard the answer to that question. But as I can see I'm going to have to do this the hard way then no, I'm advising you that I have not, and I am not selling the shop. I changed my mind if you must know,’ Lori exhaled. If she had to go around to all six other investors' houses to advise them, presuming they're even there, then it would take her all day.
‘Well, that is interesting.’ Mrs Westerly turned and began to walk back up the path towards her front door.
‘Wait!’ Lori called out, ‘aren't you going to tell me why you didn't come to the meeting? What if I had decided to go ahead and sell the shop, and no one had turned up? I'm pretty sure that by not attending the meeting you would be aware that you would have been giving up any right to vote.’
She stopped in her tracks and turned, smiling for possibly the first time ever. ‘Miss James, I didn't come to your meeting because I gave up my right to a vote when I sold my share, along with everyone else, to someone who has a much more vested interest in keeping you in that shop and in Murfey's Beach than I do.’
‘Jenny!’ Lori banged on the front door of number twenty-one. ‘JENNY!’
‘Alright! Keep your knickers on!’ Jenny pulled open the door with a grin.
Lori, looked down at her feet. ‘Didn't get the time to change your shoes then?’
‘Ah,’ she'd been caught out, ‘so you know?’
‘Yes, I had the pleasure of Mrs Westerly telling me. Although we had a delightful little chat the two of us, I would have loved it even more if you had told me yourself.’
‘Well it wasn't my place to!’
‘I beg to differ, I think it's very much your place to tell me. You do hold a seventy thousand dollar share in the shop now after all.’ Lori tried to be angry but was finding it very difficult, little bubbles of excitement popped inside her chest and she grabbed Jenny's hands.’I rejected the offer.’
‘That is absolutely wonderful darling! I'm so relieved. But, on your other point, I hate to break it to you however, that you are barking up completely the wrong tree. I sold my share just like the rest of the investors did. The buyer was extremely persuasive.’
‘You what? Who the hell has bought the bloody shares then, if it's not one of the inv... Oh shit!’
‘Indeed.’ Jenny grinned from ear to ear.
‘Where is he?’ Lori felt as though her heart was about to burst.
‘I don't know darling, I promise.’ She squeezed Lori's fingers in hers. ‘But you should probably go find him and put him out of his misery don't you think?
Cursing the boys for living in the steepest street in the village Lori ran without stopping the whole way there. Taking the steps to the house two at a time she flew round the wooden deck and burst in to the large open plan living space.
‘Oh my god! I'm so sorry!’ She shielded her eyes and squealed with embarrassment. ‘Where's your bloody brother?’
Jonah jumped back from the massage table where Tyler lay stark naked, face down thankfully, and covered in something very oily and very sensual smelling.
Tyler burst out laughing. ‘Put your hands down you silly prude!’
‘No! Just tell me where he is.’ Lori got the giggles, setting Jonah off too.
‘I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say he wouldn't have gone very far, he took his board.’ Jonah shook with mirth.
‘Ok, thank you!’ She turned on her heels and disappeared back the way she'd come.
As she flew past the side window and down the steps Jonah returned his hands to Tyler's broad, strong shoulders and chuckled. ‘I take it she's staying then.’
Back at the shop Lori stopped momentarily on the verandah to catch her breath. Glancing to her right she looked at the pair of armchairs and felt a great weight lift off her shoulders. It no longer mattered to her what had happened in the past, because now she had her whole future to look forward to. ‘Thanks Dad.’
The grass in the garden tickled her toes as she walked purposefully through it to the top of the stairway cut into the rock. A striking bluey green sea filled her view. On the beach families were playing without a care, mother's enjoying the joyous shrieks of their children and fathers just enjoying the beautiful change of scenery from the stark grey surroundings of their well-paid jobs. The surf had picked up a little today and although still a little choppy there were at least a few good waves rolling into the shore, blown by a strong warm wind from the north.
At the bottom of the steps Lori picked her way carefully across the same path that she always took, and stood at the edge, her feet precisely where she'd been sitting the day he'd kissed her. Warmed by the morning sun she could feel the heat seeping through her soles and up her ankles. A salty breeze lifted her dress and twisted her hair in corkscrews around her face. As the waves rose and fell below where she stood Lori closed her eyes, counted to three and stepped forward, dropping perfectly into the swell at its highest point. Under the water her dress ballooned in front of her face and she kicked her arms and legs powerfully, propelling herself back up to the surface with ease. Above the water she brushed her hair back off her face and wiped her eyes, twisting around to face the rocks.
‘There you are.’
Sat on his board, his eyes even darker than normal, ringed with the same black as Jonah's and carrying the same sadness she saw in her own eyes, Zeb stared out to the horizon.
He was definitely better at rock climbing that she was, but insisting she do it all by herself, Lori scrambled untidily up in to the cave.
Settled beside him, her bare shoulder brushing his arm Lori took a deep in-breath and spoke carefully, ‘When did you start buying the shares?’
Keeping his eyes straight ahead Zeb replied quietly, ‘Before Christmas.’
‘Before we kissed?’
‘Yes.’
‘I'm so sorry Zeb,’ she twisted to face him, ‘I never should have lied, and when I tried to explain how I'd let things get ahead of me I just made it worse.’
He turned and looked into her eyes, his gaze flickered down to her mouth as she carried
on.
‘I tried to tell myself that all I wanted from you was a fling. You awoke parts of me I hadn't known existed and that was even before anything had happened. I thought that if I kept calling it something meaningless then I could keep my feelings for you in check and I wouldn't end up getting hurt.’
‘And how did that work out for you?’ He narrowed his eyes. It was the first glimpse Lori had that all was not lost.
‘Pretty crappy really,’ she laughed softly watching his lips twitch.
‘So, when do you leave?’ He looked away from her and out to where the tops of the waves turned to white spray.
‘I don't. I couldn't go through with it and so I called and told them I wasn't selling.’
Zeb nodded slowly, taking her words in.
‘Zeb?’ Lori put her hand on his arm. ‘Can I ask you why you bought the shares?’
He turned back to her and smiled. ‘That's easy, I did it because I'm in love with you.’
The grin spreading across his face was infectious, making Lori giggle. He looked so happy to see her laugh again, as though this was all he wanted. Lifting his hands to her face, pressing his fingers into her wet hair he breathed against her mouth, shivering as her hands found his thighs and she pulled herself round and on top of his lap.
‘Now tell me,’ he continued, ‘why did you pull out of the sale?’
‘That's easy too,’ she lost herself in his eyes and ran her tongue across his lips, ‘I did it because I'm in love with you.’
Epilogue
Outside the bedroom window, in the tree that stood on the fence line between the shop and Jenny’s house, a flock of noisy Rainbow Lorikeets screeched and squealed as they tussled for the flowers that had just come in to bloom amongst the leaves. The sun was just beginning to break over the horizon and shafts of very early morning light shone through the glass and onto the bed where Lori lay.