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‘Kiss me first while I think about it.’ Bella had loved Damon’s kisses, hadn’t been able to get enough of them. Already she’d unbuckled her seat belt and was edging closer, and his lips were soft and sexy and warm.
He was the most amazing kisser. The instant their lips met, the world had become theirs. Their kiss … their mouths touching, their lips pressing, exploring, parting …
The kiss grew hotter and hotter and it took the honking of a horn from a passing truck to drag them apart.
Bella was smiling and more than a little breathless. ‘Okay, you’re on. Let’s hit the road.’
Taking risks had been so easy. Back then.
The memory caused a bittersweet pang to tighten like a lasso around her heart. Without warning, she was swamped by a dark wave of depression.
She told herself it was aftershock, a reaction to the snowballing weirdness of her morning. For the past few weeks she’d been focused on her wedding, on gowns and flowers and reception menus, and she’d known exactly what was happening with the rest of her life. She was going to marry her oldest friend and neighbour, Kent Rigby. She would be a farmer’s wife, living on Willara Downs next door to her father’s farm.
Bella had been so certain of this—okay, yes, so resigned to this—that she’d abandoned her career in Brisbane.
This morning, after the decision to call the wedding off, she’d felt instant relief. Now, however, the relief was fading and she was facing the blankness of her future. No job, no plans. Just a gaping black hole. She felt as if she’d been sleepwalking and had woken to find herself directionless and alone, in the middle of a vast, empty desert.
Seeing Damon again made everything worse, stirring all kinds of dangerous memories. He reminded her of all the exciting things she’d once planned for her life, none of which had eventuated.
She’d played it safe. And where had that left her?
Jobless, partnerless, with no plans and nothing to do.
Even the task of calling off the wedding had been taken on by Kent. He’d insisted on ringing their guests, and he was asking Zoe, her bridesmaid, to help with the caterers and the hire people.
Now, her grandfather was off having some crazy, reckless adventure with Violet, and Damon was chasing after him.
And Bella would be left at home feeling flat and empty, overcome by a sense of anticlimax. Or she would be dealing with endless questions and sympathetic and curious glances from every busybody in the district.
The news of the wedding cancellation would spread like a bushfire. Country towns were notorious gossip machines.
Damon turned off the main road onto the dirt track that led to her father’s dilapidated farmhouse, and Bella sat up straighter, suddenly struck by a dazzlingly brilliant idea. ‘I think I should go, too,’ she said.
Damon frowned. ‘What do you mean? Go where?’
‘I should go to look for Paddy and Violet, as well as you. You can’t stop in every town. I can check out the places you miss. I can get another hire car.’ She pointed towards the sky. ‘With a roof.’
It was the ideal diversion, exactly what she needed. Apart from her genuine concern for their grandparents, the trip offered a perfect excuse to get out of Willara for the next few days.
There was, however, a longish pause before Damon responded. ‘Brilliant idea,’ he said at last. ‘I’m sure your fiancé won’t mind in the least if you go dashing up the highway.’ He sent her a strange, mirthless smile. ‘As long as you’re back in time to marry him on Saturday.’
Bella gulped, remembering the downside to her brilliant idea. She could no longer wriggle out of confessing the truth about the wedding to Damon. ‘You’re right,’ she said nervously. ‘Kent won’t mind.’
‘Bella, don’t be an idiot. Of course he’ll mind. He’ll be frantic. You don’t have time to chase all over Queensland. You’re a bride about to be married.’
‘Actually …’ Deep breath. ‘I’m not.’
To her dismay, Damon slammed on the brakes. They weren’t at the homestead yet, but clearly this news took priority. He turned to her, trapping her in an angry silver glare. ‘I’m sorry.’ Now he spoke very quietly. ‘You’re not making sense.’
Oh, help. It shouldn’t be so hard to tell Damon. He was nothing to her now. He’d been gone for ten years and in that time they’d both changed. So much. Bella couldn’t begin to imagine all the things he must have seen and done since he’d left Australia. They were light-years from the high-school kids who’d fooled around together.
So why did talking to him feel so very different from talking to any of her other old schoolfriends?
‘The wedding,’ she began, and then to her horror a small sound like a hiccup erupted from her throat. ‘It—it’s not happening.’
Damon’s eyes pierced her. ‘What’s going on, Bella?’
She gulped to swallow the huge lump in her throat. ‘Kent and I decided this morning. We’re not getting married.’
Several geological eras seemed to pass before Damon finally reacted. Then he rubbed at his temple as if he had a headache. ‘Did you—ah—say this was a mutual decision?’
‘Yes.’ Bella’s voice was choked. ‘But if you want explanations, I’m not really in the mood to give them right now.’ There was no way she could explain to this man about her and Kent’s lack of sparks.
‘No, of course you don’t have to explain,’ he said. ‘I’m not asking you to.’
That was a relief. She’d been dreading his probing questions—he’d had so much practice as an investigative journalist.
Damon frowned. ‘The last thing you need is this extra worry about your grandfather.’ He was apparently over his shock and back to normal. ‘It’s lousy timing.’
‘You’re not wrong.’ Bella forced a laugh to lighten the tension inside her. ‘You’d think our elders could be more considerate.’
At this, Damon actually smiled, and Bella decided to capitalise on his good humour.
‘So you can see why I’d welcome a project like trying to find Paddy.’
Almost immediately, he was shaking his head.
‘I’m as personally involved as you are, Damon. I’m worried about Paddy, and … to be honest, I’d like a few days’ escape from Willara. You know what the gossip in this town is like.’
‘But it’s such an overkill. Two cars, two lots of petrol and accommodation …’ Damon’s voice trailed off and he drew a sharp breath, as if he’d realised the implications of his words.
Bella had realised it, too.
It might have been unintentional, but he’d more or less suggested that it made sense for them to travel together.
Despite the warm summer’s morning, she shivered. She’d had no intention of joining Damon on a road trip. For all kinds of reasons.
‘It actually makes a crazy kind of sense, doesn’t it?’ he said quietly.
‘What does?’ she asked, playing dumb.
‘That we should travel together.’
Her heart leapt like a wild creature unexpectedly caught in a trap. ‘In this?’
‘You’ve seen for yourself, it’s a perfectly comfortable car.’
‘But I can’t come with you.’
‘Why not?’
His voice was cool and dispassionate, as if he didn’t care one way or the other about her answer. Bella had been about to make another flustered protest, but his coolness made her feel foolish.
Why shouldn’t they travel together?
From a purely practical viewpoint, it made good sense to share the costs and to take turns with the driving. On a personal level, they weren’t about to start anything foolish like a fling. She’d just escaped from making a serious mistake, and she had absolutely no intention of hooking up with a new man, especially this man who’d hurt her once before.
Besides, Damon had changed a great deal from the seductive charmer of his youth. These days, he was the perennial nomad. He’d made an art form out of being a loner. And there was something very closed and shut off about him now.
He was looking at her with a thoughtful frown. ‘I know I can handle Violet when I find her, but, to be honest, I’m not so sure about Paddy.’
It was another valid point. They still didn’t know why Paddy and Violet had taken off in such a rush, and two heads might be better than one when it came to dealing with the outcome when they eventually found their grandparents.
‘I guess it does make sense to go together.’ Bella sent him a nervous smile. ‘But you have to admit it’s a very weird situation.’
‘Mad,’ he agreed. ‘Off the planet.’
Even so, it seemed the decision was made.
‘I’ll have to explain to my father. He doesn’t even know the wedding’s off yet.’
‘Will he be okay without you? I heard he’s not well.’
‘He’s been very ill, actually, but he’s on the mend. And there are people to keep an eye on him. I—I think he’ll be fine.’
Damon started the car up again and they continued on down the track, around the final bend that led to the dilapidated Blue Gums homestead with its rusted roof and peeling paint and unkempt garden.
‘As you can see our place has gone downhill since Mum got sick,’ she said rather unnecessarily.
‘I was very sorry to hear that she died.’
Bella nodded. ‘You sent me a lovely card from Dubrovnik.’ His message had been heartfelt and touching and she’d cried buckets. Now, just thinking about how kind he’d been, she blinked away the sudden threat of tears. ‘I’m sorry. I’d like to invite you in, but although Dad’s a lot better, he’s not quite up to playing host.’
‘That’s fine. I’ll wait in the car.’
‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’ She opened the passenger door, and it was then she discovered how shaky her knees were.
Not so surprising, she thought as she headed inside. She could hardly believe the one-eighty degree turn her life had just taken.
CHAPTER TWO
DAMON was grateful for the chance to sit alone in the car while he gathered his thoughts, while he tried, desperately, to come to terms with the craziness of what had just happened.
He still couldn’t quite believe he’d agreed to set out on a road trip with Bella Shaw, that he’d actually been the one who suggested they travel together.
He’d been so determined to stay clear of her. Hell.
He’d assumed that he’d grown wiser in the past few years. He’d seen so much—had witnessed terrible atrocities and disasters. He’d been detained at gunpoint more times than he cared to count.
And yet … here in the town where he’d spent his five years of high school … this sleepy little town set in the middle of golden wheat fields and dusty cow paddocks … he’d stumbled on an entirely new set of dangers. Unexpected traps.
Emotional traps … in the form of his sweet, elderly grandmother, Violet, the only member of his family who communicated with him regularly, and the one person in the world he loved unequivocally. And Bella Shaw …
Bella … of the pale silky hair, wide green eyes and lissom, almost waiflike body.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Damon propped his elbow on the car’s door frame and massaged his aching forehead. He willed himself to relax, to absorb the stillness of the countryside, the muffled buzzing of insects and the distant call of a magpie.
He’d spent the past decade in voluntary exile, first as a journalist in Singapore, then Hong Kong, and in more recent years, as a foreign correspondent. He’d been busy, constantly learning, dealing with danger on a daily basis, and he could have sworn that Bella Shaw no longer had a hold on him. She’d been his high-school crush, for heaven’s sake. Nothing more.
He’d liaised with many women since he left this town. Beautiful women. Wise, wicked and worldly women. And he’d found something to admire in all of them.
These days, he was a totally different person from the boy who’d lived here. In high school he’d still been impressionable, trying for the most part to fit in with the local kids, despite the wars at home.
Since then, he’d discovered his true calling as a loner, an observer always on the fringes, never staying in one place for too long. A man with no ties. A man who was no longer brought to his knees by the merest fleeting smile from one particular girl.
He had been so sure it was safe to come back.
It should have been easy. Dead easy. Bella was marrying Kent Rigby.
Those fateful words: ‘I do!’ A gold band on her finger. In one short ceremony Damon could close the door on his past, could free himself of haunting memories. Forever.
What irony.
Instead of burying his past, he’d dragged it with both hands into his present. Bella was still single, and he was going to be in constant contact with her, up close and personal, for an indefinite period.
Damn. Shoving the car door open, Damon jumped out. Hands plunged deep in his pockets, he paced along the narrow dirt track beside the Blue Gums fence line while the shock of the wedding cancellation reverberated through him like a string of explosives.
What had gone wrong with their wedding plans?
There’d been no sign of a problem at the bucks’ party last night. Thud.
The bucks’ party. He felt a slam of guilt like a fist in the guts. He’d been such a jerk, made a damn fool of himself. He’d fronted up to Kent, intending to congratulate the lucky groom, then he’d lost the plot and more or less questioned Kent’s right to marry Bella.
Remembering it now, Damon groaned so loudly he frightened a flock of finches in a nearby tree. What the hell had he been thinking?
He couldn’t blame the drink—that had come later when he’d realised how very unsmart he’d been.
Talk about uncalled for. He hadn’t seen either Kent or Bella in over a decade, and he’d severely stuffed his chances with her back then. He had no right to question Kent.
And yet he’d been unable to quash his doubts. He’d told himself the doubts were crazy. Unreasonable. Kent was a great bloke, an old mate. There could be no doubt that he and Bella were destined as Willara’s golden couple.
Just the same …
Damon couldn’t get his head around the idea. He couldn’t see how Bella would be happy as a farmer’s wife, couldn’t forget the way she used to joke about it.
‘Shoot me now,’ she used to say if anyone suggested she might live in Willara for the rest of her life.
Last night he’d spoken out of turn. This morning, it seemed his doubts had been spot on and he couldn’t deny a glimmer of smug male satisfaction that he was right.
