by Bronwyn Sell
‘Oh, The Pull,’ she said, wincing.
‘Yeah, that. I realised as you walked away that I felt that and I’d been feeling it for a while. Maybe ever since we met, though I was in some serious denial back then. A few months ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible to feel the things I’m feeling. And right now,’ he said, dropping to a whisper and nuzzling her ear, ‘thinking of that underwear I know you’re wearing is giving me even more of a kick than when you were wearing nothing under that dress.’
‘Don’t remind me about the underwear.’
‘No, it was perfect. It was, what did you call it? Perfectly imperfect? Perfectly us.’
‘Messing up, you mean?’
‘Yep, fully arsing up. But no more, hey? From now on we do everything by the book. No sneaking around, no pretence.’
‘So Sanjay is okay with this? And your mum?
‘Who do you think I talked to about it, after you came to the station and metaphorically slapped me around the face? They were just happy I’d stopped being a dick about everything and was finally ready to grow up. Not quite in those words. Sanjay said all he wanted was to see me being honest with myself because he knew what it was like to bury a side of yourself that terrified you because you were worried it’d make you vulnerable. That slayed me. And of course, he knew what it was like to break someone’s heart. And then Pippa said she was worried I would end up lonely like she was, and she didn’t want that for me and felt that she was responsible for making me this way. The way I used to be.’ He grinned. ‘Like, way back yesterday. So yeah, that was intense. I pretty much …’ He looked at a corner of the ceiling, thinking. ‘It’s weird. I always thought that my parents splitting up didn’t really affect me because it’s not like I knew any other life, and I didn’t want to be that guy who blamed everything on bollocks that happened two decades ago, but I think maybe it did, in ways I don’t even know. Does that all sound a bit first-year psych?’
‘Nah, I get it.’
He studied her, rubbing his lips together. ‘See, that’s the thing. You’ve always got me, right from the start, even when I was being dicktacularly stupid. You saw right through my bullshit. I had this idea in my head of what a family should and shouldn’t be but, like you said, it doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s better if it’s not, and like Pippa said, we’re not exactly a regular family anyway. And then I couldn’t believe that everyone up here was so happy to pitch in at short notice when I came up with this idea. Would you believe that Carmen made a spreadsheet and sent copies to everyone, with their tasks and timings and everything?’
Amy laughed, getting a thrill as her belly touched his hips. ‘I actually would believe that. I hope that makes you realise just how much you are a part of this, of us.’ She teared up a little on the us. He kissed the outer edges of each of her eyelids.
‘It really does. It made me see that this is the right thing for us, for everyone. I don’t want to be alone on my little path anymore.’ He looked around again, obviously having a moment of his own. ‘Oh,’ he said, and she felt his spine straighten, ‘I didn’t know Sophia was here.’
Sure enough, Harry was leading Sophia to the bar, her hand in his, both of them looking flushed and happy. Carmen swept out to meet them, a flute of bubbly in each hand, and Nan popped up from somewhere and yanked Sophia down into a hug. Amy did a little sprint on the spot. ‘Yasss! That’s so exciting. Turns out you weren’t the only one hatching secret plans. No wonder Carmen needed a spreadsheet. She had two of them going, though I only knew about the Sophia one. She is a legend. Those two should open a logistics company.’
‘Curlew Bay,’ shouted Lena, climbing onto the bar, ‘where happy surprises await!’
Everyone cheered. Christmas sure had done a three-point turn since an hour ago.
‘I’m amazed my family managed to keep not just one but two big secrets,’ Amy said, smiling so hard up at Josh that her cheeks hurt. ‘Our family,’ she corrected.
‘But you know, if we end up having kids, they’re gonna be so confused about their family relationships. They’ll be siblings and cousins.’
‘Shut up,’ she said, playfully slapping him across his shoulder, though, wow, the fact he’d gone from denying anything was happening between them to talking about hypothetical children …
‘Their dad will also be their …’ He screwed up his face, pretending to calculate. ‘Their uncle. Their mother will be their au—’
She silenced him by tiptoeing and kissing that mouth she knew so well, but which felt so different now that he was all hers. Two magnets, snapped together.
‘I love you, girlfriend,’ he said when they came up for air.
‘Me too, boyfriend … with benefits.’
‘All the benefits.’
Outside, as they resumed dancing, a coconut thudded to the ground.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have a quote by writer Neil Gaiman framed on my study wall: ‘This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done. It’s that easy, and that hard.’
But for all that writing is a solo endeavour, and there’s (usually) a single author name on the front of the book, it also requires a hell of a lot of support from others, on both a professional and private level. This book would not exist without the help of a community of fellow writers, beta readers, editors, publishing professionals, research sources, friends and family.
My beta readers, fact-checkers and supporters—Rosalind Martin, Jo Roby, Rebecca Cameron-Turner, Claire Harvey, Robyn Grace, Nicole Azzopardi, Carrie Nichols, Tina Brower Medlock, Jeanne Oates Estridge, Susan J Bickford, MA Grant, Taryn Leigh Taylor, Brad McEvoy, George Keenan, Emma Sartori, Jennifer Reynolds, Kari Lemor—thank you for your invaluable feedback and help.
The team at HarperCollins Australia—including Jo Mackay, Annabel Blay, Libby Turner, Sarah JH Fletcher and Natika Palka—thank you for believing in this book and going the extra mile to bring it to life. A special thanks to Jo for seeing the potential from the very first line she read and the very first chat we had.
The many generous people who helped me research the details about the Whitsundays and life at a resort: Liza Muller and the rest of the team at Tourism Whitsundays; Charlton, Josh and the team at Elysian Retreat; Skipper Dave and the crew at ISail Whitsundays; Jodi and the team at Freedom Shores and Northerlies Bar & Grill; the team at Mantra Club Croc; Tania from Just Tuk’n Around; Cameron and the team from Heart of Reef Shuttles; and all the other various locals and hotel staff I interrogated on everything from bio-cycling to laundry to prevailing winds.
My writing groups, who understand me in a way no one else does—the Fab Five, the Nifties, the Dragonflies, Romance Writers of New Zealand—I am incredibly grateful and honoured to share this journey with such talented and smart writers.
My agent Nalini Akolekar—always good to know you have my back—and the other publishing professionals who’ve generously encouraged and nurtured me throughout my fiction career, most especially Allison Carroll.
My go-to girl for all things writerly and otherwise, Christine Sheehy, who is there for my confidence crises at all hours of the day and night and whose advice is always witty, profound and golden.
My husband and kids for their invaluable practical and emotional support. Love you guys.
And my very special thanks goes to you, dear reader. Without you, there would be no books—and how gloomy would the world be then?
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.Is Amy’s tendency to fall into friends-with-benefits relationships her own doing or the hand she’s been dealt?
2.Not everyone at Curlew Bay gets their happy-ever-after. Some are happy-for-now, while others are disappointed. Do you prefer novels to end with all loose ends tied, or is it okay to have threads left hanging?
3.What do you think happens next for Sophia and Harry? Should logistical compatibility dictate whether a relationship is worth the effort?
4.Am
y and Sophia struggle with the idea of romantic relationships that lie outside of conventional definitions. How well-defined does a relationship need to be to be ‘real’?
5.Josh is wary of relationships because he’s concerned he’ll repeat his parents’ mistakes and potentially hurt future children the way he was hurt. Is this selfishness or selflessness? How hard is it for us to throw off bad experiences in our own and our families’ pasts?
6.Would you describe this book as ‘romantic comedy’, ‘chick lit’, ‘women’s fiction’ or something else? Do you resent the way books by and (primarily) for women are often put into gender-defined boxes, or do these labels simply help you find what you most like to read?
7.Amy struggles with her body image. Do you like novels to acknowledge this common struggle or is it more empowering and inspiring, especially for female readers, to present characters who are confident with their bodies at any size and shape?
8.Sophia discovers that it’s all very well to have a break from life, but you can’t have a break from your own brain. Did she make the right choice by going on honeymoon alone? What would you have done?
9.Sophia and Harry’s bond deepens through their social media contact. Do you have relationships/friendships that exist largely in social media, email, texts, etc? Does it deepen or cheapen the relationship?
10.Living and working with your entire family on a tropical island: paradise or hell?
ISBN: 9781489284150
TITLE: LOVESTRUCK
First Australian Publication 2020
Copyright © 2020 Bronwyn Sell
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher:
HQ Fiction
An imprint of Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Pty Limited (ABN 47 001 180 918), a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Limited (ABN 36 009 913 517)
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth St
SYDNEY NSW 2000
AUSTRALIA
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its corporate affiliates and used by others under licence. Trademarks marked with an ® are registered in Australia and in other countries. Contact [email protected] for details.
www.harlequinbooks.com.au