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‘Marriage is not for me,’ he said, again quite curtly. But then he smiled, and the old Nick was back once more. His black eyes gleamed and his mouth was lightly mocking. ‘I could ask the same of you, Dave. Why haven’t you a wife and family?’
‘I did have a wife. Once.’
Nick just stared at him. He looked quite shocked. ‘What happened?’
Dave shrugged. ‘Nothing drastic. Just divorce. But it turned me off marriage for life. As for kids... The truth is I can’t have any.’
‘Oh, God. That’s rotten luck, Dave. You’d have been a great father.’
‘Well, that’s a matter of opinion.’
Actually, Dave was not one of those men who related easily to children. Or babies. He’d made it perfectly clear to Linda from the word go that she wasn’t to expect him to babysit except in cases of extreme emergency. He’d told her quite firmly that if she was silly enough to become a single mother on purpose, then the responsibility was hers and hers alone.
Linda had scoffed at ever needing her brother’s non-existent babysitting abilities. The dear girl had gone into unmarried motherhood with rose-coloured glasses, only to discover it wasn’t nearly as easy as she’d thought it would be.
Postnatal depression and an inability to breastfeed had been dismaying starters, gradually followed by the grim acceptance that good parenting was not something that miraculously happened on the birth of one’s baby, however wanted and loved that baby might be. There were some women who, while they loved their offspring to death, just weren’t cut out to be with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
This realisation had depressed Linda all the more.
But, Linda being Linda, she hadn’t wallowed in her own weaknesses for too long. She’d hired her widowed neighbour to be Rory’s minder during the day and had gone back to work. She wasn’t totally happy with the situation, but she was at least sane.
Linda’s experience confirmed to Dave that the Sawyer siblings were not natural parents, and that being childless was not the end of the world.
To be perfectly frank,’ he told Nick now, ‘I’m not unhappy with the status quo. I’ve always been married to my job. And children have never been a priority with me, even before I knew I was sterile. My wife was right to divorce me. She now has a new husband and three incredibly noisy boys.’
‘So how is the job down at the paper?’ Nick asked.
‘Flat out as usual. I came here straight from the office. Worked all night and all morning getting Sunday’s edition ready. I’m just about to go home to bed and I don’t intend resurfacing for the next twenty hours. But first I think I’d better visit the Gents. That beer’s gone straight through me. Mind my mobile, will you? When you’re a journo they never leave you alone for too long. If it rings, answer it and tell whoever it is that I’m in a coma.’
CHAPTER TWO
NICK watched his friend make his way tiredly across the floor. Poor Dave. He felt sorry for him. He had nothing in life but that pathetic newspaper he worked on. Still, he could well understand that Dave might not want to marry again after his first marriage had ended in divorce. One bitten, twice shy was something Nick could relate to.
He frowned darkly for a moment, then shuddered. Don’t start thinking about that, man, he ordered himself.
His mind swung to the news Dave had given him about his failure to father a child for that unhappy, unfulfilled woman. He wasn’t sure if he was disappointed or relieved.
Initially, the thought that he’d given some unknown woman the baby she so desperately wanted had made him feel good. But then his feelings on the matter had changed. The idea of being a father had begun to both disturb and absorb him.
Within a week of handing his specimen over, Nick had felt the urge to find out who this woman was, and what she looked like, whether she would make a good mother and whether he’d done the right thing in giving her the wherewithal to have his child.
His child. Not her husband’s.
That was why he’d fled Sydney eighteen months before. Because he’d known if he stayed, he might put such a search into reality. Yet he’d known that to do so would be very wrong.
So he’d taken off around Australia again, seeking distraction from his disturbingly compulsive feelings. But nothing had totally emptied his mind of thoughts of his unknown offspring, and in the end he’d been forced to return and confront what was eating away at him—only to find out that the mystery child which had haunted his head did not exist! Had never, ever existed!
Again he felt a fierce jab of disappointment.
Male ego, Nick supposed ruefully. That perverse part of the male psyche which drove one to do stupid things and feel stupid things. He should be grateful that he’d failed to impregnate that woman. He didn’t want to bring a child into this world, even an unknown one. What was the matter with him? He’d given up being a masochist ten years ago, and he didn’t aim to start again now!
He was scowling down into his beer when the beep of Dave’s mobile phone made him jump. A quick glance across the room showed no sign of Dave’s return, so he picked up the phone and pressed the answer button.
‘Dave’s phone,’ he said.
‘I must speak to Dave,’ a female voice said impatiently. ‘Is he there? This is Linda. His sister.’
Nick blinked his surprise. He’d had no idea Dave even had a sister. There again, neither of them had spoken to each other on any personal level before today. Their previous Saturday afternoon drinking discussions had always been typically male—competitive, argumentative, analytical. And totally impersonal and objective.
‘He can’t come to the phone at the moment,’ Nick told Dave’s sister. ‘Can I take a message?’
‘Who the hell are you?’ she demanded to know. She sounded irritable.
‘My name’s Nick. I’m a friend of Dave’s.’
‘Where is Dave, damn him? He’s always complaining that he has to keep that phone glued to his side, but the one time I need to talk to him he’s not there!’
‘He’s in the Gents. We’re at the pub. Can I help?’
‘At the pub,’ she said tartly. ‘Would we all be that lucky! At least he won’t be able to tell me he can’t help me out this afternoon if all he’s got to do is drink himself silly.’
‘Help you out with what?’ Nick asked.
‘My front lawn, that’s what.’
‘What about your front lawn?’
‘My mower-man didn’t come today. I just rang him and he’s come down with some bug or other, but I simply have to have that lawn mowed today. I’m having people over tonight, and after all the rain we’ve had this past fortnight the grass is up to my knees. So where is that brother of mine? Surely he’s out of the Gents by now.
‘Yes, Sue, I won’t be much longer!’ she yelled to someone in the background.
‘I hate to tell you this, Linda, but I don’t think Dave’s in a fit state to mow lawns today. He’s absolutely exhausted after working all day and night at the paper.’
‘Oh, for pity’s sake, you don’t think I’ll fall for that rubbish, do you? Put Dave on, please,’ she insisted snippily.
‘I told you, he’s in the Gents. And then he’s going home. To bed. Look, give me your address and I’ll pop over. and mow the lawn for you.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me.’
‘And why, pray tell, would you do that? You don’t even know me!’
Yep. She was definitely irritable.
‘I’m Dave’s best mate.’ A little exaggeration never hurt, Nick thought. Besides, he was rather enjoying sounding noble in the face of the prickly Linda’s lack of compassion. ‘Mates help each other out in times of need.’
‘Oh.’ She sounded mollified. Or perhaps ashamed of herself for her stroppy attitude. ‘All right, then. I won’t look a gift-horse in the mouth. Thanks,’ she added grudgingly, and gave him an address in Balmain, which was blessedly no more than twenty minutes away from the inner-city hotel he was sitting in at that moment. ‘The equipment’s in the garage,’ he was informed brusquely. ‘Just knock and Madge will show you where. I’ll call her and tell her you’re coming.’
‘You’re not at home?’
‘No, I’m at work, worse luck.’
Nick wondered who Madge was. Friend? Flatmate? Another sister?
‘Okay. Don’t you worry, Linda. Your lawn will be done this afternoon. You have my word.’
‘That’s very sweet of you. Nick, is it?’
‘Yep. That’s my name.’
She sighed, and the sound immediately made Nick think of sex. He’d always been partial to women who sighed a lot when he made love to them. Especially afterwards.
‘Look, I’m sorry if I was rude just now,’ she apologised, another sigh doing nothing to lesson the image he suddenly had of her lying back naked in his bed. ‘Life has been damned difficult lately, what with one thing and another. Yes, Sue, I said I was nearly finished! Sorry. An anxious female panting on a call from the boyfriend. Still, I must go. Deadlines.’ And she hung up.
Deadlines? Nick raised his eyebrows. Another journalist in the family, no doubt. He wondered what Dave’s sister looked like, and if she was single. She’d sounded younger than Dave, and not particularly married. A married woman would have had a husband to do her lawns. Unless she was divorced, of course. Women who worked on weekends often found themselves divorced. Being a dedicated career woman was not conducive to harmony in the marital home.
Nick was partial to dedicated career women. They liked their sex without the complications of love and commitment, which was the only way Nick would have it these days.
‘Who was that on the phone?’ Dave asked wearily as he settled back in his chair. ‘Not the paper, I hope?’
‘Nope. Your sister. I didn’t know you had a sister, Dave. You never mentioned her.’
Dave seemed struck speechless for a moment. But then he laughed. ‘You don’t honestly think I’d tell you about any sister of mine, do you?’
‘Ah, she’s a looker, is she? I imagined as much. You’re a fine-looking fellow, and good genes usually run in the family. How old is she, by the way?’
‘None of your damned business. So what did she want?’
Nick could see Dave wasn’t too pleased about his having any personal contact with his sister—and who could blame him? So he decided that a little lie of omission was called for.
‘She was going to ask you to mow her lawn this afternoon. Her usual mower-man is sick.’
‘And?’
‘I told her you were much too tired from working all night at the paper, that you were about to go home to bed and she was to get someone else. She said she would, and hung up.’
Dave seemed amazed. ‘Really? Just like that? Linda hung up just like that?’
Clearly this was not usual Linda behaviour. Nick decided, in the interests of credibility, to elaborate somewhat.
‘Well, she wasn’t too thrilled at first, but I was very forceful in convincing her of your exhausted state. In the end, she quite happily agreed to follow my suggestion.’
‘You’re a true friend, Nick.’
‘You’d better believe it. Now, off home to the kip for you, I think. I’ll see you here next Saturday, if not before.’
‘You’re a good bloke, Nick. I didn’t mean to offend you about Linda. It’s just that...well...’
‘She’s your little sister and you want the very best for her,’ Nick finished wryly.
‘Something like that.’
‘So how old is this sweet young thing you’re so keen to protect?’ he asked, even more curious now.
Nick found Dave’s hesitation to answer really quite odd. Linda hadn’t sounded at all like the sort of woman who needed an older brother for a keeper.
‘Thirty-one,’ he said at last.
‘Hardly a child, Dave,’ Nick reminded him. ‘Besides, she sounded like she could handle herself very well.’
Dave chuckled. ‘She can be a tough little cookie when she’s riled. I’ll give her that.’
‘So stop worrying about her,’ Nick advised. ‘She won’t thank you for it, if I know women.’
‘You don’t know Linda,’ Dave said drily.
‘Wild, is she?’
‘No, not wild. Just bloody-minded at times.’
Nick could believe that. Beautiful women were often strong-willed. And Linda Sawyer was bound to be beautiful. Her brother would not worry so much about her if she wasn’t.
It was a pity, Nick decided, that she was at work today. He would have liked to see this Linda in the flesh.
His own flesh suddenly stirred, surprising him—till he recalled it had been some time since he’d been to bed with a woman.
He wasn’t quite the indiscriminate womaniser Dave believed him to be. Sex was, however, very important to him. He did not like to go too long without the pleasure—and tranquillising effects—of a woman’s body. Regular lovemaking soothed the demons which dozed—not deep enough—within his soul.
‘Go home, Dave,’ he advised, his voice a little sharp. Frustration did not sit well on Nick. It made him edgy.
Dave didn’t seem to notice anything. He nodded, slipped his mobile into his pocket, then left.
Nick’s dark gaze swept the room, noting a woman sitting alone over in a corner, sipping a drink and dragging on a cigarette. When his eyes met hers she stared back boldly, invitingly. She was good-looking enough from a distance. But cheap. Nick was never attracted to cheap. Which was a pity. Cheap was far easier to meet and pick up than classy.
Irritated, he stood up abruptly, stalked over to snatch up his leather gloves from the piano then whirled to stride towards the door.
The sun outside was even warmer than when he’d arrived. Summer was still three weeks away, but the heat and the humidity were oppressive.
Mowing a lawn in this heat would do him good, Nick decided as he straddled his Harley-Davidson and pulled on his gloves. Hard physical labour invariably made him forget about sex. That was why he often worked at physical jobs. Still, he hoped it was a large lawn. A very large lawn!
CHAPTER THREE
IT WAS minute. Two small rectangles of ankle-length grass on either side of a central path. There weren’t any garden beds or bushes, and most of the narrow front yard was taken up with the even wider cement driveway which dipped down to the double garages jammed hard against the left boundary of the block.
The house itself, however, was not at all minute. It was two-storeyed, its flat cement-rendered façade covering the rest of the block from the garages to the right boundary. Brown and white striped awnings broke the expanse of stark white walls, and shaded the west-facing windows. Terracotta tiles covered the pitched roof.
One only had to glance at all the other dark brick nineteen-twenties federation-style houses which lined the street to know that this particular residence was a recent and very modern renovation and addition.
