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He persisted. ‘I’m not cool with it. I want to make amends.’
She wished he would drop it. ‘If it makes you feel any better, my experiences at Northside made me stronger—determined to change. No way was I going to be that miserable at my new school. I decided to do whatever it took to fit in.’
‘Your piercings? Which, by the way, I used to think were kinda cute.’
‘Gone. I wore the uniform straight up—exactly as prescribed. Put the “anything goes” lifestyle I’d enjoyed with my parents behind me. Played the private school game by their rules. I watched, learned and conformed.’
And it had worked. At the new academically elite school she hadn’t climbed up the pecking order to roost with the ‘popular’ girls, but neither had she been one of the shunned.
‘Was it the right move?’
Again she was conscious of his intent focus on her. As if he were really interested in her reply.
‘Yes. I was happy there—did well, made some good friends.’
One in particular had taken the new girl under her wing and helped transform the caterpillar. Not into a gaudy butterfly, more an elegantly patterned moth who fitted perfectly into her surroundings.
‘I’m glad to hear that. But I want you to know I feel bad about what happened. I want to right the wrong.’
Zoe shrugged, pretended indifference, but secretly she was chuffed. Mitch Bailey apologising? Mitch Bailey maybe even grovelling a tad? It was good. It was healing. It was—she couldn’t deny it—satisfying.
‘Consider it righted,’ she said firmly. ‘Apology accepted. You were young and disappointed and you took it out on the first person who crossed your path.’
‘I tried to find you,’ he said.
‘You did?’ she said, startled. That he’d remembered the incident at all in such detail was mind-boggling.
‘After the soccer training camp I went away on vacation with my family. When I got back to school you weren’t there. I went around to your house. Your grandmother told me you didn’t live there any more. I thought she was going to slam the door in my face.’
‘Sounds like my grandmother.’
‘Remember how she always made you leave the door open and patrolled outside it? I felt like a criminal. Did she think I was going to steal the silver?’
‘She was terrified you’d get me pregnant.’
Mitch nearly choked on his beer. He stared at her for a long, astounded moment. ‘What?’
Zoe waited for him to stop spluttering, resisting the temptation to pat him on that broad, muscular back. She probably shouldn’t have shared that particular detail of her dysfunctional relationship with her grandmother.
She felt her cheeks flush pink as she explained. ‘I told her we were just friends. I told her you had a girlfriend. That the only thing going on in that room was studying.’
Not to mention that Mitch Bailey wouldn’t have looked at her as girlfriend material in a million years.
‘Why the hell did she think—?’
‘She wasn’t going to let me—’ Zoe made quote marks in the air with her fingers ‘—“get pregnant and ruin the future of some fine young man” the way my mother had ruined my father’s. You counted as one of those fine young men. She knew of your family.’
How many times had her grandmother harangued her about that, over and over again, until she’d had to put her fingers in her ears to block out the hateful words?
Mitch frowned. ‘What? I don’t get it.’
Thank heaven back then her grandmother hadn’t said anything to Mitch about the pregnancy thing. She would have been mortified beyond redemption.
‘It sounds warped, doesn’t it? I didn’t get it either when I was seventeen. I thought she was insane. I’d adored my parents. They’d adored each other. But Mum was only nineteen when I was born. Because my father dropped out of his law degree my grandmother blamed my mother for seducing him, getting pregnant on purpose and ruining his life.’
‘Whoa. You said your life story was mundane.’ He paused, narrowed his eyes. ‘And she transferred the blame to you, right?’
‘Yep. If I hadn’t come along her son would have got to be a lawyer.’
‘And he wouldn’t have died?’
‘Correct.’
‘That’s irrational.’
‘You could say that.’
‘Yet she gave you a home?’
‘Reluctantly. She couldn’t even bear to look at me. I look like my dad, you see. A constant reminder of what she had lost. But she felt she had to do the right thing by her granddaughter.’ In spite of herself a note of bitterness crept into her voice. ‘After all, what would her golfing friends have thought?’
‘Did you have any other family you could have gone to?’
‘My mother’s brother, whom I love to pieces. But as he has a propensity to dress in frocks sometimes the courts didn’t approve of him as guardian to a minor.’
Mitch laughed. ‘The lawyers must have had fun with that one.’ He sobered. ‘No wonder you were so miserable back then.’
The rejection by her grandmother had hurt. There had been no shared grief. No comfort. Just blame and bitterness. ‘I did something about it, though,’ she said.
‘What could a kid of seventeen have done?’
‘My new best friend at school—who incidentally is still my best friend—had a mother who was a top lawyer. She helped me get legal emancipation from my grandmother. There was compensation and insurance money from the accident that got signed over to me. I was able to support myself.’
He whistled. ‘That was a tough thing to do. Brave too.’
She shrugged. ‘My new life started then.’
‘You had worse things going on than a teenage me ranting at you...’
She met his gaze. ‘What happened with you hurt me. I won’t deny it. I...I valued our friendship. It was a beacon in the darkness of those days.’
Mitch swore low and fluently.
She waited for him to finish. ‘It’s history now. I appreciate your apology. And I don’t want to hear one more word about it.’
‘Just a few more words,’ he said, with that engaging grin.
‘I can’t imagine what more there is to be said,’ she said, her lips twitching into a smile in response. ‘But okay. Your final words. Fire away.’
‘I was sent to the principal to be punished for my plagiarism. She was new that year and didn’t know me. When I explained she listened. Turns out I had a mild form of dyslexia that had never been diagnosed. I got help. My grades picked up. Not just in English, but all my subjects. I could have gone to university on my Higher School Certificate results if I hadn’t chosen to play soccer instead.’
‘Mitch, that’s wonderful news!’
Her instinct was to reach out and hug him. With every fibre of her being she resisted it. She could not trust herself to touch him.
But while she thought touching was not on the agenda, Mitch obviously thought otherwise. He reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. ‘I have a lot to thank you for, Zoe,’ he said.
His hand was warm and firm on her bare skin and she had to force herself not to tremble with the pleasure of it.
She had to clear her throat before she could reply. ‘Not me. The principal. Yourself. That’s who you should thank.’
He let his hand drop from her shoulder and she felt immediately bereft of his touch. That attraction she’d felt for him at seventeen was still there, simmering below the surface.
‘I’m determined to thank you, whether you acknowledge your role in the outcome or not,’ he said. ‘The least I can do is buy you dinner.’ He looked at his watch. ‘An early dinner?’
That threw her. She’d assumed once they’d sorted out the problems of the past he’d be on his way. ‘Here? Now?’
‘I don’t think it would be a good idea to go into Seminyak so soon after the quake. Too dangerous.’
‘I...I was going to order room service,’ she blurted out.
‘I was going to suggest the hotel restaurant. But I might get recognised. And I don’t want anyone else intruding on our reunion celebration. Room service is a great idea. Your villa or mine?’
‘Uh... H-Here would be good,’ she stammered. Reunion celebration?
Had the earthquake knocked her off that massage table and she’d hit her head? Was she hallucinating? Or in some some kind of coma?
Her and Mitch Bailey, having dinner tête-à-tête in the seclusion of a luxurious private villa in Bali? Maybe she’d wake up and find herself back in the spa, sprawled amid the debris with a big fat headache.
But if it was a dream, or a long-ago fantasy come true, she was going to enjoy every second of being with Mitch. Who knew what tomorrow might bring?
She swung her legs off the side of the lounger. ‘I’ll go get the room service menu.’
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_aae675ac-1d4c-5ca4-8653-a94878f725ed)
MITCH RECLINED ON HIS lounger and watched Zoe as she walked into the living area. He couldn’t keep his eyes off the way her hips swayed enticingly under the body-hugging dress. Somehow he doubted that seductive sway was intentional. He’d seen enough of the type of woman who turned on the sex appeal with seduction in mind to know the difference.
No. Zoe had a natural, unconscious sensuality. The fact that she seemed unaware of it made her only more appealing. Zoe Summers. Who would have thought it?
He couldn’t get over the difference in her. It wasn’t that he’d found her unattractive as a teenager. There’d been something quirky and rebellious about her that he’d liked. But now...now she was sexy as hell. Sparky and feisty too. He was finding it fascinating to discover the woman she’d become. Was grateful to the twist of destiny that had flung them together.
She headed back towards the pool, waving a cardboard folder. ‘I had to hunt for it, but I’ve got the room service menu.’
Mitch swung his legs from the lounger so he sat on the edge. ‘Let’s take a look.’
‘It’s the same food as the restaurant. I’ve eaten there a few times. It’s good.’
Menu in hand, she hesitated near his lounger. He patted the seat next to him. Cautiously she sat down, being so careful to keep a distance between them that it made him smile. Again she tugged down her dress to cover her thighs. But that only meant the neckline of her dress slid down, revealing more than a tantalising glimpse of the swell of her breasts.
Surely he would have noticed if she’d had a body like that back at school?
‘What’s for dinner?’ he asked, shuffling a little closer to her until her scent filled his senses. ‘Any recommendations?’
‘I don’t know what you like,’ she said.
Of course she wouldn’t. Despite that briefly opened window on a shared past, he and Zoe were strangers.
‘What are you going to order?’ he asked.
‘Something not too spicy,’ she said. ‘The curries don’t agree with me.’
‘Bali belly, huh?’ he said. ‘Happens to the best of us. But you survived?’
Zoe pulled a face. ‘I’ll spare you the details,’ she said. ‘I seem to be over it now, but don’t want to risk a relapse.’ She handed over the menu. ‘I’m going to stick with the ayam bakar—I’ve had it before with no...uh...ill effects.’
Mitch read out the description of her chosen dish. ‘Organic chicken pieces marinated in a special blend of Indonesian spices, grilled, and served with a lemongrass salsa. Sounds good.’
‘It’s absolutely delicious. I want to learn how to make it when I get home.’
‘You like cooking?’
She nodded. ‘I wanted to have cooking lessons while I was in Bali but I’ve run out of days.’
‘Next time,’ he said.
She bit her lip and paled at his words, paused for a long moment. ‘Yes,’ she said finally. ‘Next time.’
Mitch cursed himself for his insensitivity; he’d already suspected she was only masking her fear.
Would there be a next time? Or another earthquake? Maybe a tsunami?
Despite the manager’s reassuring words Mitch knew there was a risk the entire resort would be wiped out by breakfast. But he tended towards optimism in his view of life. Not so Zoe, he suspected.
She’d lost her whole family when disaster had hit from nowhere. No wonder she was frightened. He wanted to take her in his arms and reassure her that there was a low statistical risk of any more serious danger. But he sensed she wouldn’t welcome it. He sensed a ‘hands off’ shield around her.
‘Y’know, I’m not really that hungry,’ she said in a diminished voice.
She twisted her hands together. To stop them trembling, he guessed.
‘You do realise it’s highly unlikely anything else is going to happen?’ he said gently.
Her chin rose. ‘I know that.’
‘There’s no need to be frightened.’
‘Who said I was frightened?’
‘I thought that was why you’d lost your appetite?’
