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‘What, with Trader? Even if you find somewhere that’ll take him, he’ll get bored and tear the place apart.’
He had a point. ‘Perhaps you wouldn’t mind taking him. Just for a while, until I get something sorted.’
Reece rolled his eyes. ‘Right. So I get to do a full day at the surgery then come home and take him out for a couple of hours to work off his excess energy. Anyway, what kind of person takes a mate’s dog in and sends his sister to a hotel?’
Sara’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to …’
‘Impose? You already said that. And you’re not. You’ll have to fend for yourself while I’m at work, but treat this place as your own.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s half past ten now … an hour’s drive to the hospital … We can catch our breath, have something to eat and be with Simon by lunchtime. What do you say?’
‘That sounds wonderful. Thank you.’ If she was going to stay here, she may as well do it gracefully. Her mother had told her that. Whatever you do, do it gracefully. Sara had been berated too many times for almost never following that advice.
‘Good. Shall I call Simon, let him know that we’re here, or would you like to?’ He nodded at the phone extension next to the bed.
‘I’d like to if that’s okay.’
‘Of course.’ In one fluid movement he caught her hand, and Sara felt her cheeks redden. He produced a pen, pulling the cap off with his teeth in a gesture that was oddly almost piratical, and wrote on her palm. ‘Here’s the number. It’s the main switchboard, but if you ask for Simon, they’ll put you through to his room. Tell him that you and Trader are staying here.’
‘Yes. I will. Thank you, Reece.’ There was something else that she needed. The thought that Gran might have somehow heard about the fires was thudding at the back of her skull, like a headache about to happen. ‘Would it be okay if I used your phone to call England?’
‘Of course. Call whoever you want, you don’t need to ask.’
‘Thanks. I’ll just be quick …’
He dismissed the notion with a weary gesture. ‘Take as long as you like.’ Turning swiftly, he strode out of the room and closed the door behind him. Sara heard the sounds of his footsteps along the hallway and another door opened. A thud as his heavy boots were dragged off and hit the floor. Then silence.
CHAPTER THREE
SARA had made her calls and taken a shower. She sat on the bed, wrapped in a towel, and forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths. Gran was okay, Simon was okay. It was going to be all right.
Kath had left T-shirts, sweatpants and a skirt with a drawstring at the top, which would pretty much fit any size, along with a pair of open sandals. There was also a cotton nightdress and a note, saying that she should call her and let her know if there was anything else she needed. Sara smiled. The resemblance in tone to Reece’s, kind but brooking no argument, was striking.
She dressed in her own jeans and one of Kath’s T-shirts, and padded barefoot along the hallway and into the open-plan living area. Reece’s car was still parked out front, but the house was silent and there was no sign of him outside on the veranda either. She took a deep breath. She knew exactly where he was, and it was the last place that she wanted to have to go and find him.
The door was slightly ajar, and she tapped on it nervously. Not a sound. Frowning, Sara cautiously craned her neck around the door to see inside.
He was lying on the bed, fast asleep. His boots, jeans and heavy shirt had been slung in the corner in the approximate direction of the laundry basket. It was as if he’d stripped down to his boxer shorts and then lain down, thinking just to close his eyes for a few moments, until it was time to move again.
His skin was smooth, golden. One arm thrown out to the side and the other rested across his chest. Sara caught her breath and for the first time allowed herself to stare at Reece. He looked so peaceful. The temptation to join him there on the bed, feel the steady, reassuring swell of his chest against her cheek, was almost irresistible.
Stop this! Peaceful he might be, but that wasn’t what was freezing her to the spot. He was so beautiful. The snapshots that she’d already dared to glimpse—his chin, his brow—were nothing in comparison to being able to look for as long as she liked at the whole thing.
Just a moment more. One minute, to fantasise that she wasn’t who she was, and he didn’t live ten thousand miles away from where she had to be in another couple of weeks. It didn’t work, and a minute wasn’t enough. Sara drew back, and headed for the kitchen.
She’d made coffee for herself and sat in one of the wicker chairs on the patio with a book from the stack on the breakfast bar. She’d reckoned that she ought to wake him, and then chickened out and read another couple of chapters. Finally she decided that food would probably do the trick.
The amount of chopping, clattering and general commotion that it took before she heard his footsteps in the hallway attested to how tired he’d been. As did the fact that he was still half-asleep and had clearly forgotten that having company generally meant you didn’t walk around the house half-naked. Sara concentrated on not slicing her finger along with the vegetables on the chopping board. She’d already seen what Reece had to offer, and there was no point in staring at what she couldn’t have.
‘Ready for something to eat?’ She flung the words over her shoulder and then gave in to the inevitable and looked in his approximate direction.
‘Uh? How long have I been asleep?’ He ran his fingers backwards through his hair in a lame effort to tame it a little.
‘It’s two o’clock.’
‘What?’ He straightened, suddenly seeming to come to. ‘We should be at the hospital by now. Sara, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you wake me?’
‘Because you were asleep. How do you like your steak?’
He stared at her as if she had just landed in his kitchen from outer space. ‘What?’
‘Kath left some steak in the fridge. I hope you weren’t planning on saving it for anything else?’
‘No … no, of course not. What about Simon?’
‘I called him and told him we’d be with him later on this afternoon.’
He grinned. It was the kind of easy, open grin that melted your heart, set it sizzling like butter in a pan. ‘How is he?’
‘He says he’s fine. I’d like to see for myself, though.’
‘Yes, we’ll go as soon as we’ve eaten.’ He tried to see what she had on the cooker. ‘What’s that you’ve got there? Smells great.’
Sara stepped in front of it. ‘Wait and see. Are you hungry?’ She was getting a crick in her neck. Fixing her gaze on his face, not allowing it to wander down to his chest, to the tiny line of sun-bleached hairs that disappeared into the waistband of his shorts, was making her jaw throb.
He grinned. ‘I could eat a horse.’
‘Bad luck, then. That’s not on the menu. You’ve got ten minutes to have a shower if you want to.’ Sara hoped that was enough of a hint to get out of her hair and stop distracting her. Maybe put some clothes on.
‘Oh. Yeah, thanks.’ One hand wandered to his chest and stayed there, as if he had only just realised that he had no shirt on. He turned quickly, and Sara allowed herself just enough of a glance in his direction to confirm that the view from the back was as good as that from the front. ‘Pink.’
‘What?’
‘The steak. Pink but not too bloody, thanks.’ He threw the words over his shoulder and disappeared.
He was back in five minutes, thankfully wearing a clean pair of cargo pants and a shirt, his short hair already half-dry. Banished once more from his own kitchen, he busied himself with laying the table in a shaded part of the veranda.
Sara laid his plate down in front of him and he grinned appreciatively.
‘Looks good! If I’d been awake, I would have thrown myself in between you and the cooker.’
‘In case my cooking’s like Simon’s?’
‘Yeah.’ He waited for her to sit down, and cut into his steak. ‘This is just perfect.’
Steak with a black pepper sauce, potato gratin and green beans. Nothing fancy, but all done from scratch. ‘Good. Thanks.’
‘I could get used to this.’ He tried the potatoes and nodded with approval. ‘Obviously Simon missed out on the family cooking lessons.’
‘Yes. Missed out on a lot.’ Sara stopped herself. She didn’t want to say anything to Reece that Simon wouldn’t want him to hear. ‘How long have you known him?’
‘Ten years. He was working on the architect’s plans for an extension to the hospital where I was working. Kath was there to meet me, and he tried to chat her up in the canteen.’ Reece was grinning.
‘So you found my brother trying to hit on your sister …’ Sara laughed. ‘How did that go?’
‘Oh, pretty much as expected. I thumped my chest and growled a bit, and Kath kicked me under the table. Simon had told her that he was only just off the plane, and before I knew what had hit me, she’d roped us both in for a trip up to Sydney with her friends.’
‘And did Simon and Kath ever …?’ Sara waved her hand to indicate whatever it was that might have happened between the two of them.
‘Nah. Kath’s interest was purely humanitarian. We’ve both been in that situation enough times—new place, no friends—and she was just trying to make him feel at home.’ He grinned. ‘Kath does that.’
Reece did too. He’d taken her in without a second thought. ‘Thank you. For looking after him.’
Reece gave her the smallest of nods in acknowledgement. ‘So what about you?’
‘Me?’
‘Who looks after you?’
The question floored her for a moment and she stared at Reece, not sure quite how to answer. ‘No one.’
‘Surely there must be someone.’ Reece was gazing at her intently and Sara felt her cheeks flush. ‘Or haven’t you told Simon about him yet?’
Suddenly, and quite unaccountably, she felt the need to defend herself. As if being single made it okay for her to have looked at Reece and wanted him, even if it was impossible, and she’d rather be dangled over a tank of hungry sharks than admit it.
‘There’s nothing to tell.’ There was no time for a man in her life. When she wasn’t working, Gran took up all of her spare time. A man couldn’t be expected to stay with a woman who could only give him about five minutes of her undivided attention per day. ‘There’s been no one since before my mother died. And Simon’s my only close family.’
Apart from Gran. Simon seldom asked about her, probably assuming that she still lived independently, and Sara didn’t dare tell him any different until she could be more sure of his reaction. She could just about understand him staying away when their mother had been ill, but if he acted the same way with Gran, Sara would never be able to forgive him. And if Simon wasn’t to know just yet, then telling Reece would be foolish.
They ate in silence for a while. ‘Simon talked a lot about going home when your mother was ill.’ Reece had clearly been giving some consideration to which bombshell to drop next.
‘Did he?’ Sara couldn’t conceal her surprise. Simon had pretty much covered everything he’d had to say to her in one line of an email. He wasn’t coming back. It would be hypocrisy to do so when his mother hadn’t spoken to him for more than ten years.
‘Perhaps he’s been saving it. Until he sees you.’
‘Maybe.’ Maybe not. The last two years had been tough. First her mother had been diagnosed with cancer, and then her grandmother had fallen and broken her leg. Sara had given up her job, her home and, one by one, most of her friends in order to move back to her mother’s house to take care of them both. She had never quite understood why Simon had stayed away.
‘Give it time.’
‘I thought I’d done that already.’
‘Then give it some more.’ He was holding her in his gaze. It felt almost as if he was cradling her, keeping her from any harm.
‘Yeah, I suppose so.’ She may as well say it. He’d obviously heard most of it from Simon already. ‘I don’t want you to think that it was all Simon’s fault. Mum wasn’t the easiest of people to live with. We each dealt with it differently. I gave in to her on the things that didn’t matter and held out for the things that did. But Simon couldn’t do that. They used to have the most awful rows.’
Reece nodded her on. He seemed to understand that she both wanted and needed to say this to someone. And he was all she had right now.
‘It all came to a head when Simon said that he wanted to travel for a year after he’d done his degree in architecture. Mum had been pushing him away for years and then when he did leave she was so angry with him that she never mentioned his name again, even when she was dying.’
‘Simon told me that your father leaving had a pretty big impact on her.’
‘I don’t remember that. I was just a baby.’ Gran had told her about it, though. ‘I’m told she just shut herself off from everyone, became totally focussed on showing that she was better off without him. She threw herself into work and built up a successful company from nothing. She used to say all the time that my father was unreliable and weak …’ Too much information, perhaps.
‘And that’s what she said about Simon too?’
‘Yes.’ It felt good to be able to say it, even if it was hard. Sara swallowed down the lump in her throat. ‘It’s not true, though, is it?’
‘No. That’s not the friend I know.’ The look in his eyes was almost unbearable. Liquid blue, as if she could somehow plunge into his world. Luxuriate in the safety of those cool, soothing waters. ‘And you and Simon kept in touch. That has to say something, doesn’t it?’
‘Yeah. Not sure what … but, yes, it says something.’
He seemed to realise that she’d had enough, and that she couldn’t talk about this any more. He nodded towards her plate. ‘Eat. It’s been a long day already, and it’s not over yet. And this is too good to waste.’
‘Thanks. There are some more potatoes in the kitchen if you want them. I always make too much.’ She reached for his plate, but he was already on his feet.
‘I’ll go. You want some?’
‘No, I’m fine with this, thanks.’ Sara went back to her food, smiling as she heard the sound of a pan being scraped from the kitchen. She loved cooking, and having someone with appetite enough to scrape the pan was a welcome novelty.
‘Do you like Australia?’ When he returned to the table, he seemed as intent as Sara was on lightening the mood.
‘I love what I’ve seen so far.’ She shrugged. ‘Simon and I have been keeping ourselves to ourselves since I arrived. You and Kath are the first real Australians that I’ve met.’
‘Well, I hope we’ve not let the team down.’ He grinned at her then looked at his watch. ‘We’ll get going as soon as we’ve finished lunch. Simon will be wanting to see you.’
CHAPTER FOUR
AS FAR as appearances went, they’d fallen effortlessly into an easy routine. Up early so that Reece could do the forty-kilometre round trip to drop Sara at the nearest station before he went to work. Catching the train into Melbourne to spend time with Simon, then shopping and a tram ride back to Flinders Street Station, and home to cook for Reece.
The truth was a little different. Waking early and wondering if Reece was awake yet. Imagining the lazy flutter of his eyelids followed by the first sight of those clear, almost iridescent pools of blue. Three early nights in a row to escape the magnetic pull, which seemed to grow stronger as the sun fell in the sky and the moon rose.
The smile she liked best, held tight in her imagination during the day, was the one he gave her when he arrived home each evening. Today it was broader, more expectant, as if Reece had a surprise for her. ‘We’re going for a day trip tomorrow.’
‘Really? Aren’t you working?’
‘No. It’s Saturday tomorrow, in case that had escaped your notice. I’ve swapped shifts with one of the other doctors in the practice, and I have three days off.’
Something about the tone of his voice told Sara that he’d done that for her and she flushed with pleasure. ‘That’s great. So where are we going?’ The distance to the local shops and the station was almost enough to be called a day trip at home.
‘We’re going to Simon’s place.’
‘The authorities have issued the all-clear?’ She always waited until Reece got home so that she could check the news reports with him, telling herself that he could explain the things she didn’t understand. But in truth she’d been living in a bubble, cushioned in his world, and now reality was calling. Earth to Sara. Time to wake up now, and get to grips with life.
‘Yes. There are no more fires in that area now, and it’s safe to return.’
‘And the house? Do you know what’s happened to the house, Reece?’
He shook his head. ‘The fire went through that area, but I haven’t been able to find out what happened to Simon’s house.’ His look of frustration told her that he’d tried. ‘The house is surrounded by grassland, and there aren’t too many trees on the property. The worst fires didn’t get that far so there’s a good chance that it’s not badly damaged.’
He was giving her as much encouragement as he could, but he couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear. But at least she wouldn’t have to wait too long to find out. ‘Thank you. That sounds promising.’
