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‘What if Philip brings me?’
‘Sure. Bring Abby.’
‘You know Abby’s mad at you—and she’s not talking to Philip, either.’
But neither Ben nor Raff were interested. They were only interested in getting their car going.
And it worked. Up on the mountain, he remembered Ben driving, yahooing, both of them high as kites. Months of work paying off.
He remembered getting out. Swapping drivers. Thinking it was too dark to be on this track, and it was starting to rain. Plus Ben had to get back to have dinner with his parents.
But Ben saying, ‘We have lights. If I can cope with Mum being fed up, you can cope with a bit of rain. Just do one turn to see for yourself how well she handles.’
Then … nothing. He’d woken in hospital. Concussion. Multiple lacerations. Broken wrist and broken ankle.
All he knew of the accident was what was written in the official reports.
Philip had driven Sarah onto the track to find them. He’d turned off the main road onto the firebreak, and ventured just far enough down the break to reach the crest …
Philip had been the only one uninjured. His recall was perfect, stark and bleak.
Raff had burst over the crest on the wrong side of the road, driving so fast he was almost airborne. Philip had nowhere to go. Both drivers swerved, but not fast enough.
Both cars had ended up in the trees. The rain and the mess from the emergency vehicles had washed the tracks away before the authorities could corroborate Philip’s story. Raff couldn’t be prosecuted—but he had punishment enough. He’d killed his best mate and he’d destroyed his sister. He missed Ben like he’d miss a twin—an aching, gut-destroying loss. He’d lost a part of Sarah that could never be restored.
His grandmother had died six months later.
And Abby?
Facing Abby had been the hardest thing he’d had to do in his life. The first time he’d seen her … she’d looked at him and it was as if he was some sort of black hole where her heart used to be.
‘I’m sorry,’ he’d said and she’d simply turned away. She’d stayed away for ten years.
Her brother was dead and sometimes Raff wished it could have been him.
Which was dumb. Who’d take care of Sarah, then?
Let it go.
Go greet Abby. And Philip?
Abby and Philip. Banksia Bay’s perfect couple.
CHAPTER FOUR
RAFF was waiting on the veranda and Abby felt her breath catch in her throat. She came close to heading straight back down the mountain.
What was it with this man? She was well over her childhood crush. She’d decided today that it was the uniform making him sexy, but he wasn’t wearing a uniform now.
He was in faded jeans and an old T-shirt, stretched a bit tight.
He looked good enough to …
To get away from fast.
He was leaning idly against the veranda post, big, loose-limbed, absurdly good-looking. He was standing with crossed arms, watching her walk towards him. Simply watching.
His eyes said caution.
She didn’t need the message. Caution? She had it in spades.
‘Where’s Kleppy?’ she asked, and she knew she sounded snappy but there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
‘Phil’s still on his wild night out?’
‘Cut it out, Raff.’
‘Sorry,’ he said. Then he hesitated and his eyes narrowed. ‘Nope. Come to think of it, I’m not sorry. Why are you marrying that stuffed shirt?’
‘Don’t be insulting.’
‘He’s wealthy,’ Raff conceded. ‘Parents own half Banksia Bay. He’s making a nice little income himself. Or a big income. He’s already bought the dream home. He’s starting to look almost as wealthy as Baxter. You guys will be set for life.’
‘Stop it,’ she snapped. ‘Just because he’s a responsible citizen …’
‘I’m responsible now. Maybe even more responsible than you. What have you got on Baxter that I don’t know about?’
‘You think Philip and I would ever do anything illegal?’
‘Maybe not you. Philip, though …’
‘I don’t believe this. Of all the … I could sue. Give me my dog.’
‘Sarah has your dog,’ he said and stood aside, giving her no choice but to enter a house she’d vowed never to set foot in again.
He was standing on the top step of the veranda. He didn’t move.
She would not let him make her feel like this. Like she’d felt as a kid.
But her arm brushed his as she passed him, so slightly that with anyone else she wouldn’t have noticed.
She noticed. Her arm jerked as if she’d been burned. She glowered and stomped past and still he didn’t move.
She pushed the screen door wide and let it bang behind her. She always had. It banged like it always banged and she got the same effect … From the depths of the house came the sound of hysterical barking. She braced.
When she’d been a kid and she’d come here, the Finns’ dog pack would knock her over. She’d loved it. She’d be lying in the hall being licked all over, squirming and wriggling, a tadpole in a dog pond, giggling and giggling until Raff hauled the dogs off.
When she didn’t end up knocked over she’d felt almost disappointed.
She was bigger now, she conceded. Not so likely to be knocked over by a pack of dogs.
But there weren’t as many dogs, anyway. There was an ancient black Labrador, almost grey with age. There was a pug, and there was Kleppy bringing up the rear. Wagging his tail. Greeting her?
She knelt and hugged Kleppy. He licked her face. So did the old Labrador. The pug was young but this one … she even remembered the feel of his tongue. ‘Boris!’
‘Abby!’ Sarah burst out of the kitchen, her beam wide enough to split her face. She dived down onto the floor and hugged her friend with total lack of self-consciousness. ‘Abby, you’re here. I’ve made you honey jumbles.’
‘I … great.’ Maybe she should get up. Lawyer on floor hugging dog …
Boris was licking her chin.
‘Boris?’ she said tentatively and she included him in the hug she was giving Kleppy.
‘He is Boris,’ Raff said and she twisted and found Raff was watching them all from the doorway. ‘How old was he when you were last here, Abby?’
‘I … Three?’
‘He’s fourteen now. Old for a Labrador. You’ve missed out on his whole life.’
‘That’s not all I’ve missed out on,’ she whispered. ‘How could I ever come back?’ She shook her head and hauled herself to her feet. Raff made an instinctive move to help, but then pulled away. Shook his head. Closed down.
‘But you will stay for a bit,’ Sarah said, grabbing Abby’s hand to pull herself up. Movement was still awkward for Sarah; it always would be. ‘I’ve told the dogs they can have a honey jumble each,’ she told Abby. ‘But they need to wait until they’ve cooled down. You can’t take Kleppy home before he’s had his.’
‘I could take it with me.’
‘Abby,’ Sarah said in a term of such reproach that Abby knew she was stuck.
How long did honey jumbles take to cool?
Apparently a while because, ‘I’ve just put them in the oven,’ Sarah said happily. ‘I made a lot after tea but Raff forgot to tell me to take them out. They went black. Even the dogs didn’t want them. Raff never forgets,’ she said, heading back to the kitchen. ‘But he’s funny tonight. Do you think it’s because you’re here?’
‘I expect that’s it,’ Abby said, trying desperately to find something to say. Babbling because of it? ‘Maybe it’s because I’m a lawyer. Sometimes police don’t like lawyers ‘cos they ask too many questions.’
‘And sometimes they don’t ask enough,’ Raff growled.
‘Meaning …’
‘Baxter …’
Oh, for heaven’s sake … ‘Leave it, Raff,’ she said. ‘Just butt out of my life.’
‘I did that years ago.’
‘Well, don’t stop now.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Sarah, love, I’m in a rush.’
‘I know you are,’ Sarah said and pushed her into a kitchen chair. ‘You sit down. Raff will make you a nice cup of tea and we’ll talk until the honey jumbles are ready. But don’t yell at Raff,’ she said disapprovingly. ‘Raff’s nice.’
Raff was nice? Okay, maybe a part of him was nice. She might want to hate Raff Finn—and a part of her couldn’t help but hate him—but she had to concede he was caring for Sarah beautifully.
The twelve months after the crash had been appalling. Even her grief for Ben hadn’t stopped Abby seeing the tragedy that was Sarah.
She’d lain unconscious for three weeks and everyone had mourned her as dead. At one time rumour had it that Raff and Gran were asked to stop life support.
At three weeks she’d woken, but it was a different Sarah.
She’d had to relearn everything. Her memory of childhood was patchy. Her recent memory was lost completely.
She’d learned to walk again, to talk. She coped now but her speech was slow, as was her movement. Gran and Raff had brought her home and worked with her, loved her, massaged, exercised, pleaded, cajoled, bullied …
When Gran died Raff had taken it on himself to keep on going. For over a year he hadn’t been able to work. They’d lived on the smell of an oily rag, because, ‘She’s not going into care.’
With anyone else the community would have rallied, but not with the Finns. Not when Raff was seen as being the cause of so much tragedy.
How he’d managed …
If the accident happened now the community would help, she thought. Somehow, in the last years, Raff had redeemed himself. He was a fine cop. He’d cared for Sarah with such love and compassion that the worst of the nay-sayers had been silenced. She’d even thought … it was time she moved on. Time she learned to forgive.
But over and over … He’d killed Ben.
How could she ever be friends with him again?
She didn’t need to be. She simply chose to be distant. So she sat in Raff’s kitchen while Sarah chatted happily, showing her the guinea pigs, explaining they’d had too many babies and that Raff had told her they had to sell some but how could she choose?
Smelling honey jumbles in a kitchen she loved.
Knowing Raff was watching her.
She found her fingers were clenched on her knees. They were hidden by the table. She could clench them as much as she wanted.
It didn’t help. This place was almost claustrophobic, the memories it evoked.
But Raff was watching her and how Raff was making her feel wasn’t a memory. This was no childhood crush. It was like a wave of testosterone blasting across the table, assaulting her from every angle.
Sarah was laughing.
Raff wasn’t laughing. He was simply watchful.
Judgemental? Because she was marrying Philip?
Why shouldn’t she marry Philip? He was kind, thoughtful, clever.
Her fallback?
Um … no. He was her careful choice.
She’d gone out with Philip before Ben had died, just for a bit, when the boys had left home, Raff to the Police Training College, Ben to university.
Philip had left for university, too, but he’d caught glandular fever and come home for a term.
