by Trish Morey
And then she was distracted by her boys, who were getting bored. She sent them outside to run around, because at least that released some much needed seating, and then turned to see Pru at the door, carrying a box. Della was holding her hand, a fluffy toy jammed under her arm, two fingers deep in her mouth.
‘Hi,’ she said. It had always been a bit awkward with Pru since she’d fallen out with Jules, but it was a small community and she had nothing against the older woman, and certainly nothing against the child. ‘Can I interest you in some raffle tickets?’ She went through her spiel, and Pru promised she’d come back after she’d delivered her pies. The woman made a move towards the kitchen, then seemed to halt, her gaze lingering at the crowded bar.
‘It’s crazy busy tonight,’ Floss said. ‘They could probably do with another couple of people behind the bar.’
‘Doesn’t matter to me,’ Pru said, her back suddenly straighter. ‘I’m not staying.’
She returned a minute later and began putting her name on some raffle tickets.
‘Is Jules coming tonight?’ Floss asked. ‘It’s just that Sarah’s here, and …’
‘Oh?’ Pru looked up and around, found Sarah among the crowd and gave a nod, her lips tight. ‘It’s all right, Jules is in Sydney.’
‘She went on the pwane,’ said Della.
‘Oh?’
Pru leaned closer. ‘She’s gone back for four weeks while she has radiotherapy. She had a lump—or something—they had to remove first.’
‘Oh.’ Floss’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know.’
‘That’s understandable. She didn’t want everyone to know, not until she was sure what was happening.’ She looked around at the crowd, and added, ‘Though I expect it’ll be all over the island by morning.’
‘I won’t tell anyone.’
‘Oh,’ Pru said, ‘I didn’t mean you. It’s just word has a way of getting around.’ She pulled the tickets from the stubs and she and Della drifted off, leaving Floss to think about Jules. It made sense of the news that she’d had to go to Sydney for tests. But breast cancer? God, what a nightmare she must be going through.
For the first time in a long while, Floss felt bad for her former friend. Then she remembered Andy wiping the dishes and saying that if you fuck around with somebody you shouldn’t, then you deserve a bit of grief. And suddenly she felt bad for herself.
It wasn’t the same thing. Matt Caruso wasn’t her best friend’s husband; he’d been a visitor to the island. It wasn’t in the same league. It was different.
Although she doubted that Andy would see it that way.
The evening was going well. Everyone had eaten their fill and the clean-up had begun. Floss circulated through the crowd and mopped up any loose change anyone cared to fling her way before she counted her takings and found a silver bowl in the kitchen that would do for the prize draw.
That’s when she saw Sarah sitting by herself on a stool on the edge of the room. Floss wandered over, wondering why she was still there. Sam and Dot had left twenty minutes before, with firm instructions to call if Dot won the raffle.
‘Had a good night?’
‘Food was great,’ she said. ‘I haven’t had banana cream pie since forever.’
Floss grinned. ‘Classic Lord Howe.’
There was a silence, then Sarah said, ‘Thank you for what you said back there with Dot. That was nice of you.’
Floss brushed it aside. What Dot had said was plain cruel, and she’d had enough experience over the years to suspect it wasn’t unintentional. ‘It was nothing. Dot doesn’t seem overly appreciative that you’re here.’
Sarah skated her glass to and fro on the bench. ‘She’s waiting for an apology that’s not going to happen. That’s why she’s in such a snit with me. She has no concept that she’s the one who’s in the wrong.’
‘What did she do?’
‘Made a comment about Richard not needing to stray if I’d been able to give him a child.’
‘Oh my god! And what did you do?’
‘I called her a bitch.’
Floss’s hands flew to her mouth. ‘You didn’t? You always said you would one day.’
‘And I finally did. I’m thirty-seven years old, and if I can’t call out my mother for bad behaviour at my age, when will I ever be able to?’
‘Good thinking, and good timing—if you’d waited much longer, you’d get accused of elder abuse.’
Sarah looked at her, an expression of wonder on her face. ‘That’s so true,’ she said. ‘Imagine if I’d missed this opportunity? I’d be kicking myself.’ And both women laughed. It was like a moment from the past, reclaimed. Until they seemed to realise that they shouldn’t be enjoying each other’s company, and awkwardly they stopped.
Floss noticed another committee member giving her signals across the room. She looked at her watch. ‘Oh, damn, it’s time to draw the raffle. I have to go.’ She went to stand up, but then sat again. ‘Look, Sarah, this is really left field, but we’re having a birthday party for Mikey this Sunday. It would be really nice if you could come.’
Sarah’s eyes opened wide and Floss saw panic flash across them.
‘Very low key,’ Floss said. ‘Mostly big kids and party games and party tea. Just a bit of fun, but it would be great if you could make it. I’d so love it if you could come. Can you?’
Sarah remained mute, her eyes almost afraid, and Floss pressed on. ‘It starts at two. Party tea at four. It’ll be all over by five. You’re welcome to come whenever you can make it. No pressure. I’d just love to see you again. Okay?’
Sarah’s head got stuck somewhere between a nod and a shake, and then Floss had to go. It was up to Sarah now.
32
Sarah was still marvelling at Floss’s unexpected invitation, glad she was sitting by herself. For a while she’d been drawn into a group of her parents’ friends and been plied with questions about what it was like being home and if she intended to stay and, when the group was satisfied, they’d moved on. Nobody had protested when she’d drifted away when Sam had taken Dot home.
Meanwhile, she had other things to think about. It was impossible not to notice Noah in the crowd. Impossible not to notice those broad shoulders of his moving around the room, looking strong and sexy, impossible not to follow him with her eyes. She’d never been one to have a thing about men in uniform before, but she was sure starting to develop a king-sized fan-girl crush on them. Or on one of them, at least.
She’d seen him watching her too. And every now and then he’d shoot her a smile or a wink across the room and her cheeks would heat up. God, she was like a school kid all over again. And yet she barely knew him. Sure, she’d subjected him to her life story in all its gory detail, but he’d been more of a therapist that night, rather than a love interest. At least until he’d covered her hand with his and asked if she was coming tonight. Which was kind of like asking her on a date—wasn’t it?
When she realised he was finally making his way across the room towards her, Sarah felt a bloom of delicious anticipation that whooshed down all the way to her toes.
‘How’s it going?’ Noah said, lifting a leg over a stool to sit next to her. His knee brushed hers, and she got the distinct impression it wasn’t accidental. She didn’t move away.
‘Good.’ A million times better, now that he was here. ‘So how goes the peacekeeping business? They’re a pretty rowdy lot tonight. Any arrests so far?’
He smiled at her and sent a billion nerve endings tingling. It had been nice to see Floss and she’d been heartened by her support, but this man was the real reason she’d come tonight. This man, and the way he made her feel.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘there was an altercation at the buffet over the last piece of Pru Callahan’s banana cream pie that almost ended in fisticuffs.’
‘And they say there’s no crime on the island,’ she said, with a grin. ‘What did you do to keep the peace, cut it in half?’
He shook
his head. ‘I took justice into my own hands and ate it myself.’
She laughed.
‘So,’ he said, ‘what are your plans for tonight?’ On the surface, they were just having a friendly chat. But below, he was stirring all sorts of long forgotten thoughts in Sarah.
‘Dad took Mum home. I told them I’d walk.’ She smiled. ‘My dance card is free.’
His smile widened, the glint in his dark eyes turning from a spark to a flame. ‘Well, if that’s not a crime against something, I don’t know what is.’
‘Are you going to arrest me?’
One eyebrow raised. ‘I might have to take you into custody.’
‘I like the way you think.’
He looked closer at her, and she was glad she’d made an extra effort with her make-up and hair. Nowhere near as much effort as she made to look professional for the office, but a bit more resort casual than island workaday. She’d even piled her hair into a messy up-do.
‘I like the way you look.’
Her skin tingled. He was flirting and it wasn’t just his words, but the way his deep voice seemed to rumble right through to her bones. She wanted to tell him that she liked the way he made her feel, but would that be revealing too much too soon? They’d held hands, or rather, he’d held hers, and now they were rubbing knees and on the face of it, that was all. Although she was getting the distinct vibe that was all about to change.
‘How long before you finish up?’
He looked around at the thinning crowd, tables emptying and spilling into the dozen or so vans performing the shuttle service back to homes and guesthouses. ‘My work is done. I could buy you that drink I promised you, or …’
‘Or?’
‘We could go back to my place? Shoot the breeze? Check out my etchings?’
‘Sounds perfect,’ she said. ‘I’m a big fan of etchings.’ At this time of night on the island, there really weren’t a lot of other options. Halfway would still be open for coffee for a while but after she’d spent the evening watching this man work the crowd, she just wanted to be somewhere she could have him all to herself.
‘Then let’s go.’
With his fingers at the small of her back and her heart in her mouth, Noah led Sarah through what was left of the crowd, waving as people said goodbye. There were a couple of raised eyebrows as they left and she knew word of her leaving with Noah would filter its way back to Dot and, in due course, there would be an interrogation. Sarah kind of looked forward to it.
They stepped outside into the inky night. Behind them loomed the twin mountains, while the sky above was like a velvet blanket encrusted with diamonds. She shivered a little and Noah put his strong arm around her shoulders to nestle her against his body until they got to the car, where he let her go to open her door for her. She missed his body heat, would have been happy to forget about the car and go right on walking. But she climbed into the cab and he snicked the door shut behind her.
‘Who said the age of chivalry is dead?’ she said as he slid into the driver’s seat.
He glanced at her as he turned the key in the ignition. ‘I bet you thought my charms began and ended with my etchings.’
‘You’re funny. Anyone ever tell you that?’
He gave a brief chuckle. ‘Yeah, my Year 6 teacher. She told me off for always making light in my writing exercises. Told me I never took anything seriously and couldn’t go through life joking about everything.’
‘Are you kidding me? That is so wrong.’
‘I know. But she made me believe there must be something wrong with me, so I told my mum, and she marched into the principal’s office the next day and told her there was enough doom and gloom about and that the world needed more laughter, and to let me write stories the way I wanted to.’
‘Wow, what a heroine.’
‘Yeah, she sure is.’
Sarah sat back and wondered how it was that other people could have a mother who was so supportive. Who stood up for you instead of constantly sniping away, undercutting you at every opportunity. Floss seemed to have managed okay, and Jules had Pru.
‘I seem to have drawn the short straw in the mother stakes.’
‘You seem to have done all right in the father stakes.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think.’
He smiled. ‘That’s okay. I guess the upside is that my dad never gets the chance to give me any grief. Besides,’ his hand reached over to take hers, ‘maybe someone just figured you were tough enough to deal with it.’
‘You reckon?’
‘What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, isn’t that what they say? You’ve put up with a lot and you’re still standing. That makes you a kind of heroine in my book.’
‘You know … I like you,’ she said as the car pulled up in front of the police station and he jumped out.
‘Well, that’s a coincidence,’ he said, opening her door, ‘because I happen to like you too.’ He took her hand as she climbed down, then he took the other. And then he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers and she felt his smile on her lips as she tasted him, warm and strong and real.
She trembled then, wobbling a little on her feet. Only because she had her eyes closed, she told herself, although she knew she was kidding herself.
‘It’s funny,’ she said as he led her inside, ‘I’ve only met you a few times, but already I feel like I know you much better than that.’
‘I know. I feel the same way. It must be the space–time paradox,’ he said.
‘What’s that?’
‘I don’t know. But I hope it sounded impressive. Were you impressed?’
She smiled. She was impressed all right. Even if it was simply the way that brief kiss had sent sparks shooting down to pool heat low in the pit of her belly. ‘You know I’m only here for your etchings.’
‘In that case,’ he said, opening the door for her, ‘you’d better come inside.’
Noah put on a lamp and some music before he left her to go and change out of his uniform. The song was French and sounded like something you’d hear in a dimly lit bar or a cabaret, husky and sexy, warm and evocative. Sarah liked it. She sat down on the sofa and let the music wash over her.
‘Do you speak French?’ she asked, when he returned wearing jeans and a jumper that skimmed his powerful torso.
‘What?’ he said, before he realised. ‘Oh, the music. I like it because I don’t understand the lyrics. It doesn’t get in the way of my thinking. Coffee?’
She nodded. ‘Please. So what do you think about?’
‘You quite sure you’re not a detective?’
She grinned and put on an officious tone: ‘Just answer the question, please.’
He chortled and went into the kitchen to flick on the kettle, reaching into a cupboard for a couple of mugs. ‘I think about the same things most people do,’ he said. ‘I think about life and death and taxes and the unfairness in all three of those. And I think about people, and what makes them tick.’
‘Wow.’ She had not expected that. ‘For a guy who says he always makes light of things, that’s pretty deep stuff.’
‘Call me multi-faceted,’ he said, bringing sugar and milk to the coffee table while the kettle boiled.
‘But I think you’re wrong.’
‘What? Why?’
‘I don’t think people think about those things at all. I think they worry about tomorrow, and what somebody else has got that they haven’t, and how they can get it too.’ At least, looking back, it seemed that’s what she’d spent a decent chunk of her life thinking about. Not the big issues at all, but the excruciatingly personal things that ruled your life and that you obsessed about, and suddenly she felt a bit ashamed that she’d had so blinkered a view—that she hadn’t been able to see past her own shrunken world. She looked up to see him watching her, a mug in each hand. And then, because this wasn’t all about her, she gave a weak smile and added, ‘And football scores. People fret an awful lot about football scores
too.’
‘Quite rightly, too,’ he said, putting their coffees down and sitting next to her. If he’d read anything into her confession, he let it pass. ‘How was it for you after I dropped you home that night?’
Sarah pulled a face as she thought back, remembering her mother’s pinched expression and her refusal to talk to her daughter. ‘Tense. She won’t forgive me for what I called her, even if I do apologise, which she expects but which I won’t do. She’ll never admit she was in the wrong.’
Noah shook his head. ‘She certainly comes across as much more genial in public.’ He looped an arm around her shoulders as he said it, and maybe because she’d been there before, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to let herself nestle into him.
‘That she does. And the thing is, in the past, I’ve always given in to her. It was easier, I figured, to apologise and keep the peace, even when I knew that she was in the wrong. It’s my brother who’s always been the one to upset her, but then he’s her golden child and she makes excuses for him. Mum doesn’t like it that I’m not rolling over anymore. She’s not used to it.’ She shrugged and smiled at him. ‘Maybe I should have been more rebellious as a teenager. Instead I ran away to Sydney first chance I got. Talk about a coward.’
‘I don’t think you’re a coward. If you were, you wouldn’t have come back.’
‘I had no choice—there was nobody else.’
‘You would have found an excuse if you’d wanted to.’ He smiled. ‘Believe me, you’re no coward.’
‘Thank you.’ Wow. Being with Noah was like taking a dose of self-belief pills, only one hundred times better.
‘How long before Dot’s fully fit again?’
‘Three, maybe four months. All going well, I’ll probably take off after Christmas.’
‘You’re definitely going back?’
Sarah screwed up her nose as she picked up her coffee. ‘I can’t stay here. There are bits I like, bits I’d forgotten, but there’s too much history. Too many reminders.’ She took a sip. ‘How about you?’