Lovestruck

by Bronwyn Sell

  She wriggled up far enough to cradle his face, and then she kissed him, and he tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her back, deep and desperate and grateful, and she didn’t give a rat’s arse about the hooting and wolf-whistling from her cousins, because now she had everything and he had everything, and just like her family, he was in her life to stay.

  Trip Review: Curlew Bay

  Rating:

  Review: More like Wetsundays. Too rainy to go bushwalking or swimming or to sit on the beach. Spent a whole weekend stuck on the day bed on the veranda reading a book and getting room service. The staff said the weather was beyond their control.

  42

  Harry

  Harry stepped away from the dance floor, rubbing his shoulder, as Josh and Amy clambered to their feet, grinning sheepishly. So the guy had redeemed himself, after all. Harry would give him a chance but only because Amy deserved to be as happy as she looked right now. Maybe if one of them could break the family curse, more could follow, like opening a portal.

  ‘Harry,’ his mother called from behind the bar, ‘your phone’s just lit up.’

  He wandered over, still smiling. She slid the phone across. A little thrill hit when he saw Sophia’s name, like it always did. Speaking of the curse …

  About time she bloody replied. He’d messaged her that morning to check she’d got his present—a coffee-table book of stories and photos of old Queenslanders, which was partly an excuse to start the day’s flirty to and fro, which had kept him going since his very memorable trip to Sydney. But it was the note he’d sent with it that he was jumpy about. I’m all yours if you want me to be.

  Ever since that weekend, he’d been checking his phone far too often for a grown man, and had been tragically deflated each time she’d got busy and hadn’t replied for hours. Yep, he was still on that downhill ride, and picking up speed. He should be bracing for the crash, but he was enjoying it too much, like the cursed fool he was. And where was his Christmas present? He’d spent weeks agonising about what to get her.

  Her message was a simple, ‘Merry Christmas!’ with a photo that had only just started to download. He’d waited all day for that?

  ‘Is that from your girlfriend?’ Jaz said.

  ‘Not my girlfriend, sorry.’ Working on it. ‘Where’s the captain?’ he added, to deflect attention.

  ‘Should be on his way. He was just finishing up something.’

  ‘Nice work, Mum.’

  She slid up onto the bar, on her stomach—surfed up, really—grabbed both sides of his head and planted a kiss on his forehead. ‘I love you, baby.’

  ‘Thanks,’ he said warily. Was she drunk? ‘Love you too, Mum.’

  His phone vibrated.

  SOPHIA: Harry?

  The photo had uploaded. A boat—a sexy little powercat. Her answer to a Christmas card? She’d been paying attention.

  HARRY: Nice boat.

  SOPHIA: You like it?

  HARRY: It’s a beauty. A dreamboat.

  SOPHIA: Where are you?

  HARRY: At the resort. The pavilion. Josh practically just proposed to Amy.

  SOPHIA: Really???

  HARRY: Yep.

  SOPHIA: Best news ever! Can you do me a favour?

  HARRY: Sure.

  SOPHIA: Go outside and take a photo of the jetty.

  HARRY: You know it’s dark out there?

  SOPHIA: I do know that. Humour me.

  Like he’d ever say no to her. He crossed the dance floor, sidestepping Cody dipping an Italian backpacker. Cody had a look on his face that Harry would not so long ago have interpreted as predatory. Now he knew better. Yes, Cody was in it for a good time and not a long time, but since their conversations about Sophia, Harry had noted his brother homed in on only the women who were confident that they wanted no more than a holiday fling—it was like a sixth sense with him. Respect them, don’t protect them, bro. Cody Tova, relationship guru. Who’d have thought? Maybe he and Cody did understand each other. Idiotic, really, that they’d lived almost their entire lives stuck on an island and they’d waited until this year to start talking to each other.

  He let himself out a side door to the deck. They’d made the rare call to close up the pavilion and turn on the air-con. Outside, Harry was blasted by hot air and the roar of cicadas. As his eyes adjusted, stars emerged, jostling for space in the dome of black sky. He jogged across the deck and down onto the sand, pulling out his phone and setting it to night-photo mode. It could make a nice pic, with the dim lights along the sides of the jetty and the low moon illuminating a watery path to the horizon, not that a photo would capture all that. A boat was tied alongside the pontoon, a white glow in the moonlight. Muffled music floated over from the pavilion, mixing with tinny beats from the handful of vessels on the resort’s moorings. Somewhere, ‘Silent Night’ was playing.

  When he’d got close enough, he lined up a shot and took a few frames, experimenting with angles and lighting and filters.

  HARRY: Done. It’ll take forever to upload. The reception is dodgy AF today, and I’m right on the edge of the wi-fi reach.

  SOPHIA: Where did you take the photo from?

  HARRY: The beach, looking toward the jetty, the pavilion behind me.

  SOPHIA: Good. Now can you go to the end of the jetty and take a pic looking back to the resort?

  HARRY: ???

  SOPHIA: Please?

  HARRY: Whatever you want. Did my present arrive?

  HARRY: Sophia?

  SOPHIA: Haven’t been home for a few days. Been with the folks. When did you send it?

  He wrinkled his nose. All day he’d been imagining her opening it. But at least he knew her silence wasn’t because she’d freaked out at his note. He strolled along the sand, the air still fragrant from the rain that had fallen in late afternoon. As he stepped onto the jetty, he glanced back at the resort. The buildings and gardens were gently up-lit and the pool glowed blue, though all that light would make it hard to capture the stars. But hey, what the lady wanted …

  The boat tied up alongside wasn’t one he recognised. Probably daytrippers working off their Christmas dinners on the walking tracks. A lone figure stood at the end of the pontoon, ghostly and serene in a floaty pale dress. The height, the blonde hair, she reminded him of …

  No.

  ‘Sophia?’ he whispered, in case it was a foolish thing to say, and she turned, her smile gleaming in the lights from the boat. Sophia.

  He broke into a run, shoving his phone into his pocket. As he leaped from the jetty onto the pontoon, she stepped closer, raising her arms, and he lifted and spun her, inhaling her perfume. It really was her, in all her glorious freshness.

  ‘Merry Christmas,’ she said. He lowered her to her feet, keeping his hands on her hips. That smile was the widest he’d seen on her—not a trace of the hurt of six months ago. She looked years younger.

  ‘You’re here,’ he said, though that was fairly obvious.

  ‘So,’ she said expectantly, slipping her hands around his neck, ‘aren’t you going to unwrap your present?’

  He looked her down and up, slowly, imprinting every part of her onto his brain. It had turned into a memorable Christmas after all. ‘Best present ever.’

  She laughed. ‘I’m not the present! Well, maybe a stocking-filler.’ She stepped back and swept her arm toward the boat like a game-show host. A massive turquoise bow was stuck to the windows. He came over all tingly. Was that the boat in the photo?

  She’d bought him a boat?

  No, no, no. Suddenly those cocktails weren’t going down so well.

  ‘Uh, Sophia, that’s much too …’

  She touched his forearm. ‘Don’t freak out, it’s not from me personally. I submitted your proposal—with some tweaks—to a few trusts and funds and people I have connections with, including a woman I met at your conference dinner, actually. And ta-da!’

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘You don’t mind, do you? It’s been so hard keeping it all sec
ret.’

  ‘Are you fucking serious?’

  ‘A hundred percent. I got Carmen to break into your laptop and send me that proposal I helped you with, and got her to make sure it was still the boat you wanted, and we’ve worked together on it ever since.’

  He linked his hands behind his neck. ‘She has been very interested in the boat recently, to the point it was getting annoying. I may owe her an apology. How did you get it here?’

  ‘I had it delivered to Shute Harbour, and a lovely guy from the military base—a captain, I think he said he was—met me there this afternoon. He brought me here just now. He’s gone inside.’ She nodded to the pavilion. ‘Your mother organised that part.’

  Harry moved his hands to the sides of his head, gaping at the boat, and then at Sophia. He didn’t know which surprise was messing with his head more. ‘You’ve been planning this awhile.’

  ‘Since I left here. It’s taken that whole time to take shape. I didn’t want to be one of those people who leaves the island making big promises and never comes through. I just wanted to come through.’

  ‘I literally don’t know what to say.’

  She smoothed her hands down his T-shirt. ‘You don’t need to say anything. I’m being completely selfish.’

  ‘How so?’ he said, closing his hands around her waist.

  ‘This way you won’t get stranded on a desert island with anyone but me.’ She touched her lips to his, then pulled back, just as he was getting comfortable there. ‘So which present are you going to open first? I’m only here for a week, so you may want to keep that in mind.’

  ‘Maybe I’ll play with both my presents at the same time,’ he said, sweeping her up into his arms. She squealed, which was so not a Sophia sound.

  He adjusted his balance and stepped heavily onto the boat, compensating as it swung. He lowered her to her feet and skimmed his hands down her sides. She briefly closed her eyes. Crazy that they’d spent only a handful of days together, in person. After the messaging and texting and video chats, it felt like she was a fixture in his life—but only to his mind. His body was well aware of the novelty of the situation.

  ‘It’s been far too long,’ he whispered. Growled, really.

  ‘It really has.’

  He stepped into the dark cockpit and offered his hand. She slipped her fingers into his and elegantly followed. He backed up to give her room, and a hard edge jabbed his thigh. ‘Ow! What is that?’

  ‘Oh, a couple of Adirondack chairs.’

  ‘Adiron-what?’ He peered into the shadows and could just detect an outline.

  ‘You know, the quintessential wooden outdoor chair. That present is from me.’

  ‘For the boat?’

  ‘No. For your veranda.’

  ‘Oh, cool.’ They’d be a squeeze outside his apartment, but he could live with that.

  ‘I painted them myself. Not that you can see the colour at the moment. I got the woman in the paint shop to match it to the sea in that photo you took of me on your old boat.’

  ‘I love them. You know where they’d be perfect? Up at the homestead, though they’d make the rest of the house look even more decrepit.’

  ‘Yes, they would go nicely there. Oh, and speaking of the house, I do have one more present, but it wasn’t as easy to wrap.’

  He frowned.

  ‘A roof.’

  ‘Sorry, what?’

  ‘For the homestead. I also applied to a bunch of heritage funds and managed to argue that the house is historically significant enough to warrant funding for a new roof, again with Carmen’s help.’

  He felt a sting in his sinuses. Holy shit, was he going to cry? Luckily it came out as a strange laugh-slash-cough.

  ‘Useful, aren’t I?’ she said with a grin.

  ‘Useful doesn’t begin to describe you.’ He pulled her closer. If he hadn’t been in love with her before, he bloody was now.

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘Do you know there’s a bright pink lipstick mark in the middle of your forehead? Should I be concerned?’

  He touched the spot. ‘That was Mum. She was having a moment—and now I get why. She must have been keeping an eye on my phone, waiting for your message.’

  ‘I believe that was the plan, yes.’ Sophia squeezed his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. He hadn’t even properly kissed her yet. Priorities, man. ‘I’ve been picturing your face in this moment for so many months it’s been driving me crazy, but the reality is so much better.’

  ‘I know what you mean.’ He’d been picturing her expression as she opened a plain old book. She’d got him a life-sized boat. And she’d painted chairs for him. And the roof! He cupped her face, and she slid her hands around his back, eliciting an unmanly shudder that made her snort. He grinned. Another non-Sophia noise. ‘Honestly,’ he said, ‘this whole boat thing is pretty overwhelming and might take me a while to figure out. Mostly I’m happy because you’re here. The boat and roof are just the stocking fillers.’

  She bit her lip, almost shyly—another side of her he hadn’t seen before. ‘I’m starting to think that being ditched at the altar, more or less, was the best thing to happen to me, which is so not where I thought I’d be by now. It’s like you said. One day I’d look back and think, I’m so relieved I didn’t marry that loser, or words to that effect. I didn’t really believe you then but now? This is that moment.’ She looked down. ‘Hell’s bells, my body is flushing head to toe with pheromones or something. I’m lighting up everywhere.’

  ‘So gratifying.’

  ‘Better not be early menopause,’ she said, but the joke didn’t work, with its reminder of why this situation could never be perfect. The skin around her mouth tightened. ‘Listen,’ she said, stroking down his back, ‘I know there are big questions we can’t answer yet, and please tell me if you’re not ready for this, but I haven’t stopped thinking about you, and every time I do, it brightens me up all over, and maybe I’m ready to start something, if you are, even if I can’t see where this journey will take us. I’m sure you’re aware that’s a tough sell for me.’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘But I’m easing up on expectations and playing this by ear. That’s scary but I’ve also got this sense of letting go and floating away, and once that would have freaked me out but now it’s liberating. I want to let this journey unfold at its own pace and stop trying to control everything. And now I have butterflies.’

  He laughed. ‘Me too.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s a surprise for me as well.’ He touched her nose with his. ‘And you don’t even know what my present to you is yet.’

  ‘You got me a present?’ she said, all fake innocence. ‘What?’

  ‘Well, one of them is probably sitting in a courier van somewhere in Sydney. But the other one’s right here.’

  She tipped her head, frowning.

  ‘Me. However much of me you want.’

  Her expression fell. ‘As in?’

  ‘As in you’re not the only one who’s ready to do this.’ He shrugged. ‘Maybe all that unknown territory isn’t a reason not to start. Maybe it’s a reason not to finish. We’ll follow the current, figure it out along the way. And can we just goanna the shit out of this conversation so I can kiss you?’

  He covered her mouth with hers and heard—and felt—her deep chuckle, followed by a groan as the kiss grew intent. Maybe that love curse really was lifting.

  It wasn’t the most perfect of circumstances, and it might never be, and who knew how it would end, but she’d obviously made up her mind, and he would respect that, one hundred percent. Maybe he could take another risk, if this was how you got to feel on the way. Maybe, if they played things right, there didn’t have to be a crash at the end of the downhill rush.

  And tomorrow, he was definitely stranding them on a desert island, new boat or not.

  Trip Review: Curlew Bay

  Rating:

  Review: I found a frog in my toilet! And the guy who came and scooped
it out (yuck!) offered to buy me a drink afterwards! Not when I know where your hands have been, buddy!

  43

  Amy

  ‘Did everybody know about this?’ Amy said as she and Josh danced. Well, swayed, because it was mostly just an excuse to stand closer to each other than would otherwise be acceptable in public. Really, she wanted to back him into a wall and tear off his clothes but that would have to wait. Wait, this was why Carmen had insisted on booking Amy into the vacant Frangipani Villa? ‘Someone may as well be using it.’ Only after Amy had unpacked had she realised how depressing it was to be alone in a space that had so obviously been built for two, from the twin basins to the twin coat hooks. No wonder Sophia had resorted to champagne.

  Josh looked around the pavilion. ‘There were a few logistics involved.’ Almost her entire family—their entire family—were dancing, Geoff and Sanjay in blissful reunion, Carmen and Rosa swinging Mika around, Nan with Reg, their wedding-day feud finally forgiven, Jaz with the captain, the rest in twos or threes. Josh pressed a long kiss to Amy’s forehead. ‘I wanted to get everything exactly right after getting so much wrong. Man, when you walked away yesterday, I realised how deeply I knew you. I’ve never known a woman so well. I’ve never allowed myself to, and I really like it. I love it. And I love that I’m still finding new depths to you, like I had no idea you could be as fiery as you were yesterday, and a bad little part of me wants to piss you off like that just to see it again.’

  She grunted. ‘I was going to be totally chill. I walked in with an olive branch and pulled out a freaking chainsaw.’

  ‘I’m glad you did. I think part of the reason it all finally sank in was that I saw how much you cared, and I realised how much I cared and that you were fighting for us, when I was too … too scared, just like you said, though I didn’t believe it until yesterday. What was that thing you said once about magnets snapping together?’