His eyes flashed open and he glared at her. ‘Hell, yeah. We were great mates.’
‘And you’re missing her?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ He sighed heavily. ‘The thing is, eighteen months in the clink kind of wrecks your confidence. I feel as if I don’t have any rights any more—certainly not to mess with my daughter’s life.’
Lily couldn’t bear to see the pain in his face. She watched a line of tiny ants making their way towards her picnic basket. ‘For what it’s worth, I think Jess is probably missing you desperately, Daniel.’ Smiling bravely, she leaned towards him. ‘Just look at you.’
He eyed her with puzzled dismay.
‘Maybe the fact that you’re a drop-dead gorgeous guy impresses me more than it does Jess, but even if you weren’t hot-looking you’d still be a truly wonderful man. And I reckon you’re about as perfect a father as any little girl could be lucky enough to have.’
A derisive, croaking laugh broke from him. ‘Get real, Lily.’
‘It’s the truth,’ she said, smiling as she poked at his broad, bare shoulder with her finger. ‘And I’m willing to bet that, no matter where you’ve been, or what bad things you’ve experienced, Jess still believes in you.’
He stared at her, listening hard, and then, very deliberately, switched his attention to something in an overhead tree branch. Lily’s heart picked up pace. She felt suddenly terribly nervous, but she also felt an urgent need to get through to him.
‘You’re the only father Jess has, Daniel. And I’m almost certain that a day doesn’t pass when she doesn’t miss you, when she doesn’t long to hear from you. She’s been separated from you for too long. She needs to be home, here at Ironbark, with you, Daniel—sleeping in her little bedroom at the end of the hall, getting to know Smiley. Most of all, she needs to hear you tell her that you love her.’
He looked up at her, his eyes bleak, his mouth twisted with the effort of keeping his emotions in check. ‘I’m—I’m very much afraid you’re right.’ He blinked hard, and a tiny muscle in his jaw went into spasm.
Lily’s heart broke for him, and her eyes refilled with tears. Leaning over him, she dropped a gentle kiss on his pulsing jaw, and then another on his lips.
Then she tried to draw away, but his hands prevented her. He cradled the back of her neck, holding her in position above him so that her lips couldn’t leave his, and he returned her kisses with a hunger that tore at her heart and left her aching. Breathless for more.
‘Lily,’ he whispered hoarsely, and he wrapped his strong arms about her, drawing her down against his broad, bare chest. ‘Oh, God, Lily, I need you.’
She had no power to resist him.
With the sun on her back, and Daniel’s warm, glorious body beneath her, his open lips were heaven and she was a willing prisoner in his arms.
‘What’s going to happen to us?’
As soon as Daniel asked that question, he felt a cold chill, like a premonition. He and Lily were in the living room after dinner, relaxing on the sofa with coffee and ginger chocolates. Lily had her feet up, and it was all very comfortable, all very cosy.
‘What would you like to happen to us?’ she asked.
He let his head drop back against the back of the sofa and pretended to give this some thought. ‘I guess I’d like a replay of this afternoon…on a daily basis.’
Lily smiled. And he smiled, too. And their smiles were laced with intimate memories of this afternoon, when they’d made love on the shady riverbank. And afterwards…when they’d discovered they were ravenous and they devoured Lily’s curried-egg sandwiches and cake and washed it down with tea from the Thermos flask.
And then Lily had suddenly declared that she wanted to swim.
‘You’ll get cramp,’ Daniel had insisted.
‘Pooh. That’s an old wives’ tale. I grew up at the beach, remember? I’ve proved it wrong a thousand times.’
And so they’d swum. But Lily had rejected Daniel’s habit of ploughing back and forth from bank to bank. She would have none of that. She’d wanted fun—the kind of fun she believed the river was meant for, and that Daniel had almost forgotten. She’d wanted to dive and frolic like a playful dolphin. She’d wanted laughter. And to make love in the shallows.
And then, near sunset, they’d driven home together, showered together, cooked dinner together and eaten it together.
Daniel had never known a woman so at ease with herself, at ease with him and at ease with his lifestyle. Lily held the shadows at bay. She made the world OK again, and made life worth living.
But now he needed to talk about the future.
‘You’ll be heading off soon.’
‘Yes, on Friday.’ She chewed at her lower lip. ‘Once I leave here I don’t expect I’ll be able to see you again for quite some time.’
He nodded, and tried not to look too disappointed. ‘So, let me get this straight. You’re going to visit your father’s second wife. What’s her name again?’
‘Audrey. Audrey Halliday.’
‘And you’re hoping she will help to finance your mother’s surgery. Is that right?’
‘Yes. I don’t really know what my chances of convincing her are. But even if I’m successful, and the surgery can be scheduled soon, it’ll be some time before Fern’s fit enough for me to leave her. And if I can’t get the money…’ Her eyes took on an unexpected vulnerability. ‘If I can’t get the money I’ll have to get a job and take care of Fern for as long as she needs me.’
Reaching out, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. ‘You’re a very persuasive young woman. I’d say your chances of getting the money are very high.’
‘I hope you’re right.’ Sitting straighter, she curled her feet beneath her. ‘What about you, Daniel? Are you going to Sydney to beard that lioness of a grandmother in her den?’
‘Yes. Of course I’ll go to battle with Susan if I have to. I really want Jess back here.’
He watched for her reaction to this, and was rewarded by a radiant smile.
‘I hope she’ll want to come with me.’
‘She will, Daniel. I’m sure of it.’
He drained his coffee, and they sat for a while in contemplative silence until he said, ‘While I’m in demon-facing mode, there’s something else I want to do.’
Lily lifted a curious eyebrow.
‘I’m going to pay a visit to Mick Briggs,’ he said.
She gasped. ‘The father? The jerk who hid the tyre lever?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why would you want to visit him? I’d have thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with him. It was his fault you went to jail. He committed perjury.’
Jail. Perjury. The words brought feelings of panic. Darkness loomed towards Daniel. His throat constricted.
‘I need closure,’ he said loudly. Loudly enough to send the gloom scattering.
Lily considered this with a thoughtful frown, and then nodded slowly. ‘He might not welcome you.’
‘I’m damn sure he won’t. But I can’t let that put me off. The idea came to me this afternoon, in the middle of our conversation about fathers and Jess and how I feel about her. I suddenly understood the grief and pain that made Briggs react the way he did. I thought about losing Jess, about how I would feel if another person took her life—even accidentally—even if she had done something very wrong. And I—’ He hesitated, unwilling to put the feeling into words.
‘It’s a thought beyond bearing,’ Lily said gently.
‘Yes,’ Daniel agreed, immensely grateful that she understood. ‘When I was in court, I expressed regret for my actions, but I’ve never said it to Briggs—man to man. As one father to another, I’ve never asked for his forgiveness.’
‘That would be an incredibly noble gesture, Daniel.’
His shoulders lifted in a faint shrug. ‘I have to do it. Otherwise this dark feeling will stay in me for ever.’
Uncurling her legs with the lissom ease of a cat, Lily knelt on the sofa, leaned forward and k
issed him lightly on the lips. ‘You’re a very special man.’
Then she settled companionably beside him, and he put an arm around her shoulders and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. It seemed incredible that he’d only known her a few short days. In many ways, the best ways, it felt like a lifetime.
‘Perhaps,’ he said, thinking aloud, ‘I should go to Sydney this week—maybe tomorrow? Then you would still be here, and you could meet Jess when I bring her home.’
Lily’s brow furrowed in a pensive frown. And he realised he shouldn’t have voiced that thought. He’d presumed too much. Asking Lily to meet Jess suggested a longer-term relationship—something they hadn’t discussed.
Casually, in an effort to generate a different slant on the subject, he said, ‘I know Jess would really like you.’
Lily pulled a wry face. ‘She might not, you know.’
His eyes flashed incredulity. ‘Of course she would.’
‘She might see me as competition for your attention.’ Lily frowned again as she considered this. ‘Actually, when I think about it, I’m sure it would be best if I was out of the way when Jess comes home. She’s going to have enough to deal with, just settling back here. Going back to school here, and everything. She doesn’t want some strange woman hanging around, making sheep’s eyes at her father.’
‘Or sleeping in his bed.’
She sent him a sparkling, sexy glance. ‘Exactly.’
They kissed again, and Lily tasted of ginger and chocolate—sweet and spicy and everything sexy. A soft, happy, hungry groan escaped Daniel.
Their kiss was luxuriously unhurried—as languorous and lazy as a summer afternoon—and somehow, in the middle of it, Lily managed to end up curled in his lap with her arms entwined about his neck.
He still couldn’t quite believe the miracle that this lovely, loving woman wanted him.
After a while, when they broke the kiss, Lily made herself comfortable, lying with her head in his lap.
Daniel ran his fingers through her silky hair and tried to tell himself that all would be well after she left. He’d bring Jess back to Ironbark. Jess would fill his life for now—Jess and Smiley. He’d get Jess’s pony, Grasshopper, back from the friends who were caring for it. And with Jess home he would be forced to get involved in the local community once more. He would be busy. Normal.
But…
He traced the line of Lily’s cheek. But Lily would be gone. His heart began a fretful sort of beating.
She smiled up at him. ‘Don’t look so sad.’
‘I hate the thought of losing you when I’ve only just found you.’
‘You’re not going to lose me. I’ll be back. In case you haven’t noticed, Mr Renton, I’m quite, quite taken with you.’
His lips slanted into a shaky grin.
‘Actually,’ Lily said, ‘I think the correct word is “smitten”.’
‘Smitten?’ He touched her hair, looped a tendril around his little finger. ‘Yep. I’d say that describes me, too. I’m definitely smitten.’
‘I might even be in love,’ Lily suggested shyly.
Love. The word seemed to hit Daniel smack in the solar plexus. He felt exhilarated. On top of the world. And scared.
He’d tried love and failed abysmally.
Lily was looking up at him, watching him carefully, and suddenly she looked embarrassed, as if she would happily drop through a crack in the universe. She swung quickly out of his lap and into a sedate, upright position. ‘Forget I said that.’
‘Why?’
‘I shouldn’t have mentioned it—love. It’s a four-letter word.’
‘But it’s a four-letter word that’s quite acceptable in polite company.’
She smiled uncertainly.
‘Just the same,’ he said. ‘I must admit—after my attempt at marriage—my faith in the happy-ever-after kind of love has taken a nosedive.’
‘Yeah. I had a boyfriend and a father who made me wonder, too. You find yourself asking if the real thing, the whole till-death-us-do-part scenario, isn’t just some big contrick.’
But, in spite of her cynical comment, Lily’s eyes were luminous. She gave a little shake. ‘Anyway,’ she said, as if she was determined to stay upbeat, ‘isn’t absence supposed to make the heart grow fonder?’
‘So they say.’
‘So you and I have something to look forward to.’
He smiled.
‘And in the meantime…’ Lily reached down to the coffee table and helped herself to another piece of chocolate. ‘In the meantime, there’s chocolate.’ She popped the smooth dark cube into her mouth, and ate it with obvious sensuous delight.
‘In the meantime,’ corrected Daniel, snaring her hand and bringing her chocolate-smeared fingers to his lips, ‘we have the rest of this week.’
‘Yes.’ Her reply was a husky whisper, and she shivered with delicious delight as he nibbled and licked chocolate from her fingertips.
Trailing her tongue along her lower lip, she said, ‘Daniel, I think there’s a little more chocolate here.’ Her eyes were lustrous with a sense of fun, and something far deeper and more intimate.
‘We can’t have that,’ he said, drawing her into his arms. ‘Let me take care of it.’
* * *
It was raining on Friday morning, when it was time for Lily to leave, so they said their farewells on the veranda, almost needing to shout over the downpour drumming on the iron roof.
‘Drive carefully,’ Daniel warned. ‘There are creeks all around here, and they can fill very quickly.’
‘At least I’ll have plenty of petrol,’ Lily said, managing a smile, but not a very happy one.
He nodded, and shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans, wishing he had a photographic memory. He wanted to remember her just as she was now, dressed in jeans and a pink-and-blue-striped shirt, with her thick, wavy hair caught back in a loose braid, her eyes bravely bright and determined.
‘Good luck in Sydney, Daniel. You’ve got my address and phone number. You will let me know how things go with Jess, won’t you?’
‘Sure.’ Daniel tried to say more, but an embarrassing croak emerged. He cleared his throat and tried again. ‘Good luck to you, too. I really hope everything works out for your mother.’
‘Thanks.’
He kept his hands stuffed in his pockets, too afraid that if he touched her he would want to haul her close and never let her go.
He looked out at the thick curtain of rain pouring down. ‘Maybe you should wait until the storm’s passed.’
‘No, I’ve already waited too long. I’ve got to get this over with. Audrey’s expecting me.’ Bending, she extracted a small tartan drawstring bag from a pocket in her backpack and held it out to him.
‘What’s this?’
‘Hold your hand out,’ she said, as she loosened the drawstrings.
Frowning, he dragged his right hand from his pocket and held it palm upwards.
Three stones fell from the bag. One rolled, and he quickly caught it with his left hand.
‘Well saved,’ she said, and then she bit her lip.
‘Are these your stone people?’
‘Yeah.’
Three little round faces looked up at him—faces full of character. A wide-eyed man, a gentle-faced woman, and a gleeful little girl with thick fair hair.
‘I thought I’d leave them here for Jess,’ she said.
He shot her a sharp glance. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Absolutely. But don’t worry if she doesn’t like them, or if she feels too old for them. It doesn’t matter. You can throw them away if she doesn’t want them.’
‘I promise you I won’t do that.’ He turned them over, recognising in the simply painted, almost comical faces the artistic genius of Marcus Halliday. The stones were probably worth a small fortune. ‘Do—do they have names?’
She blushed. ‘I used to call them Marcus and Fern and Lily. But Jess is welcome to call them whatever she likes. Or not. As I
said, I don’t mind if she’s not interested.’ Her chin lifted a fraction higher. ‘I don’t need them any more.’
He knew this decision could not have been made lightly. He was almost certain there was a deeper symbolism behind Lily’s gesture, as if she were casting off things from the past that had weighed her down. Just as he had to do.
A sudden sparkle of tears in her eyes confirmed his suspicions, and he felt a rock-like obstruction in his throat.
She stepped back quickly. ‘I’ll be off, then.’ Her voice was tight and matter-of-fact. She stooped and grabbed her backpack by the shoulder straps.
‘Let me carry that for you.’
‘No, thanks. I’ve got it. I’ll be fine.’
This wasn’t a moment for kisses or tender farewells. Neither of them could handle that.
‘See you when I see you,’ she said.
He nodded. ‘Best of luck, Lily.’
‘You too. I’ll ring you when I have some good news.’
With a brief wave of her hand, and a curt, slanted smile, she lifted the backpack high and held it over her head instead of an umbrella, then turned and hurried down the steps and into the rain. And when she reached her car she didn’t look back.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘DANIEL! GOOD HEAVENS. How unexpected.’ Susan Mainwaring stood in the doorway of her immaculate North Shore home, her agitated fingers plucking at the double string of pearls at her throat. ‘What brings you to Sydney?’
‘Three guesses, Susan.’
Her painted mouth pulled into a sour twist, as if she’d swallowed something extremely unpleasant. ‘You should have telephoned to let me know you were coming.’
‘I was afraid you would find a reason to stop me.’
She pretended to be affronted, and then glared at him with open hostility. ‘I suppose you’re hoping to see Jessica?’
‘Of course.’
‘I’m afraid she’s not here. She’s still at school.’
Daniel adjusted the cuff of his long-sleeved city shirt and checked his watch. ‘It’s after four. She’ll be home soon, won’t she?’
‘Not today.’ It was announced with undisguised triumph. ‘Jessica has hockey practice on Tuesdays.’
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