April's Glow (2 page)

‘Careful, you might scare the customers.'

‘Or they might think it's a really good book and buy a copy.'

‘True.' Olivia's expression turned all motherly; a tilt of the head, concerned creases around the eyes. ‘Seriously though, don't give up. You deserve someone great after all you've been through. You never know, this time next year you might get your own happy ending.' Olivia patted April's cheeks and went off to help a customer.

Happy ending? Right now she'd settle for a happy beginning.

‘Enjoy the rest of your day, sweetheart.' Clarissa Vedora kissed her daughter's forehead and handed her the bag of presents. ‘Don't eat them all at once.' She winked.

April peered into the gift bag containing a variety of body products, a scarf, and chocolates.

‘As nice as the body lotions and shower gels smell, I'll try to resist eating them.' April patted her mother's arm and she laughed. ‘Thanks for lunch, Mum. And thanks for coming too, Susie.' She leaned over and kissed her aunt's cheek, then glanced briefly at the empty chair where her father should have been.

‘My pleasure. You have a good time tonight,' Susie said.

‘Tonight?' April's mind went blank for a moment. ‘Oh yeah, my dinner party. After the wild shenanigans with you lot I almost forgot.'

‘You might need a rest when you get home before your friends arrive,' Susie advised. Her cure for everything—a cold, a bad day, a good day, a negative horoscope—was a rest.
Take a nap,
she'd say,
grab forty winks, have some shut-eye!

April faked a yawn. ‘Good idea.' Though she'd probably stop by her store to see how her employee, Belinda, was doing, then she'd make sure the house was relatively tidy, then she'd scroll through her Facebook birthday messages.

They walked out of Café Lagoon and Jonah waved them goodbye from behind the counter. If he was a little older she would have been happy to go on a date with him, he was such a cutie. But he sometimes talked about this girl he knew who moved away and travelled a lot for her career, and by the look in his eyes whenever he spoke about her, he still had a thing for her. Poor guy. Stuck in a small town looking after his parents' business when he probably wanted to see the world. Or maybe he was happy here and wanted the small-town life. He had a permanent smile plastered on his face.

April turned to the left and her mother and aunt turned in the other direction, then her mum turned back and leaned in close. ‘Don't worry about your father, he would have made it if he could have.'

She waved her hand in dismissal, despite the deep-seated hurt that twinged in her chest. ‘Doesn't matter. More fun with you two anyway.'

April checked her phone. No message or call from her dad to wish her happy birthday either.

‘You're probably right.' Clarissa gave April's hand a squeeze. ‘He cares, you know that, but …'

‘He also cares about the booze.' She exchanged a knowing glance with her mother. ‘Anyway, better go. Thanks again, chicky babes.' April blew a kiss to them.

‘Oh, April, you make me feel like your friend, not your mother.' She smiled.

‘That's coz you are.' She winked, waved, then turned. She didn't know what she would have done without her mother after the most traumatic day of her life two and a half years ago, when her life took a one hundred and eighty degree turn.

April approached the pedestrian crossing, then as always, checked the road carefully before crossing to make sure there were no hoons ignoring road rules. Sundays in Tarrin's Bay were always busy, tourists visiting the Tarrin rock formation, the beaches, boutiques, and hopefully—her store. Lucky it wasn't market day or she may not have been able to take her birthday off work, as market days always brought in more customers since her store was so close to the park and harbour.

She turned the corner and walked past the first few historic terrace shops, their intricate framework, decorative signs, and old-fashioned charm comforting her. She'd been lucky to score one of them to lease, and if it hadn't been for the high competition urging her to make a quick decision, she may have missed out. But life was short, she knew that, and opportunities needed to be seized.

A customer walked out of April's Glow as she arrived. April tried to peer discreetly into her shopping bag to see if she could tell which candles she'd bought, but Belinda had wrapped them all neatly in the store's trademark rose-pink tissue paper. However, the unmistakable scent of her bestselling vanilla frosting candle wafted around the air. It was the closest thing to eating a fluffy vanilla cake with mouth-watering frosting without actually eating it. She really should tout it as a weight loss aid. Calorie free, simply smell and enjoy.

She walked into the store, and a symphony of sweet, spicy, and refreshing aromas enveloped her. The dark wood panelling on the walls framed shelves piled high with colour-coordinated candles of varying sizes, along with candle holders, lanterns, oil burners, and the odd decorative item. ‘Ahh, home sweet home.'

‘I think you've walked into the wrong building, boss.' Belinda stepped out from behind the counter and rearranged the vanilla frosting candles where the customer had been on a candle-buying rampage.

‘Okay,
second
home sweet home.'

‘I'd be happy to live here, better than sharing with my noisy housemates.' Belinda tucked a strand of black hair behind her multiple-pierced ear, her purple nail polish glossy in the light of a nearby lantern on the shelf. ‘Anyway, what are you doing here on your birthday?' She waved her hand at April. ‘Shoo! Get lost, enjoy your day.'

April smiled. ‘You know, I could fire you for being all rude and stuff.'

‘But you won't, you
need
me.' Belinda grasped April's arms and squeezed them with excessive enthusiasm, her eyes bulging.

This was why she came by the store, not only to check how the day's sales had gone so far, but because she needed a touch of fun from her quirky, eccentric, young employee, and a hint of the aromas and colours that covered her heart in a warm, soft, fluffy blanket and took away disappointment. She really shouldn't be disappointed, she knew her dad may not show up and had learned to brush his absences under the carpet. And her mother and aunt had given her a beautiful birthday lunch. At thirty-three, she had a lot to be thankful for in life.

‘Okay, but first, how are the sales?'

‘Good, and that's all I'm saying. I forbid you to think about business stuff till tomorrow.' Belinda ushered April towards the door. ‘Go get drunk.'

Ain't gonna happen.
April never had more than one or two drinks at a time, and only a few times a month, if that. She kept silent. She hadn't discussed her father's alcoholism with her employee; there was no reason to. They'd become like friends since she hired her four months ago, as they weren't exactly shy, making it easy to get to know each other. But some things were best kept private.

April stepped out onto the sun-speckled sidewalk, the aromas whooshing away like they'd been sucked into a vacuum. She walked up the road, around a few corners, and into her street. As she neared her house, she noticed a white ute parked outside the house next door, and several boxes piled up on the front porch.

So the new neighbour is finally here.

She slowed down, seeing if she could get a glimpse of the person. But the door was shut and the curtains drawn. She hesitated before walking towards her front steps, wondering if she should knock on the door and welcome them to the street.

Why not?

Impulsivity was her strong point. She blamed it on being an Aries. Not that she really believed in all that horoscope stuff.

Oh, hang on. I should bring a gift or something.
She should have brought a candle from her store. Maybe she could go grab one from her house. April lifted the bag she was carrying.
Or …

She withdrew the fruit-and-nut chocolate her aunt had given her, and always gave her, for some reason. Bless her little mistaken soul. April didn't have the heart to let her know the truth after all these years. Somehow she thought that April liked it. But really, if one was going to have chocolate why would one spoil it with such healthy things as fruit and nuts? Yep, she could give it to the neighbour. Maybe they liked healthy chocolate.

April wandered up the pebbled pathway and onto the porch, vaguely aware of the scent of paint; the weatherboard panels had recently been painted an eggshell colour by the previous owners before selling the property. Her sense of smell had heightened since starting up the candle business; assessing various aromas was now part of her job.

She knocked on the door and waited, the chocolate in her hand. Hopefully they didn't think she was going to give them the gift bag with her own presents. She really liked the Belgian chocolates and swirly patterned scarf her mother had given her. And hopefully they wouldn't be able to tell that the fruit-and-nut chocolate was a reject gift.

Who would answer the door? Probably a lonely old man, a widower, and maybe he would hook up with Nancy Dillinger on the other side of April's house and have a love affair. It would give Nancy something to do apart from peering through her curtains. Or perhaps the neighbour was another medical professional like Sylvia Greene who lived two houses up, and they would walk to work together and discuss difficult cases. But it was probably an old man, the ute looked like it had seen its fair share of use, and more and more elderly people were moving to the town these days.

She thought she heard footsteps, but then only silence.

Should she knock again? Maybe the old man was hard of hearing.

Nah.
She left the chocolates on the doorstep and scribbled a note on a scrap of paper from her bag—
Welcome to the neighbourhood. From Number 3.
She added a smiley face.

When she went inside her house, she patted Romeo, her grey tabby cat, refilled his food bowl in the laundry, then peered out the kitchen window. The neighbour's kitchen window was directly opposite, but the venetian blinds were closed. On the back deck was a reclining timber chair that hadn't been there before. One chair, not two. Most likely a single occupant, as she'd thought. Wind chimes hung from the deck ceiling, thin, cylindrical metal rods surrounding a yin-yang symbol made from wood.

What person moves into a new house and hangs up wind chimes before unpacking the important things?

Then again, if April moved house again, she'd probably unpack the candles right away and base her furniture arrangements on where she wanted each particular candle.

She gave up her surveillance and flopped on the couch to check her birthday messages on her phone.

Hope all your wishes come true!
many of the messages said.

Wishes. What would she wish for if wishes came true?

She stared at the ceiling for a moment, as though tiny stars would magically appear and one would shine bright, urging her to wish upon it.

Apart from the obvious wishes people would choose—peace, more money, perfect health—she couldn't make up her mind about what she wanted. After last week's non-existent date, she knew what she didn't want, and that was a start. Yes, she would make
anti-wishes
instead.

Anti-wish #1: No more money worries.

Anti-wish #2: No more accepting free samples from the bakery near April's Glow—in other words; no more unnecessary weight gain and sugar comas.

Anti-wish #3: No more unreliable men. Actually, no more men. At least for the rest of the year.

There.

‘May my anti-wishes come true …' she whispered to herself. Romeo sashayed over and pounced onto her lap, meowing and looking at her with his big glossy eyes.

‘Okay, Romeo, I'll make an exception just for you. You're my number one man.'

He curled into a ball and purred in satisfaction, then flinched as a door slammed shut next door.

* * *

‘Damn. Where's my doorstopper?' Zac Masterson asked himself, as the loud sound put his reflexes on high alert. He rummaged through boxes and sighed, then kicked off his boots, reopened the front door, and propped them against it. Cool afternoon air rushed into the dim house. His new home. Now that the nosy neighbour had gone inside he could get back to setting things up in peace. No interruptions, no distractions. He wasn't ready for being sociable, not yet.

He stepped out on the porch and almost trod on something. Glancing down, his eyebrows rose at the sight of a block of chocolate with a note attached. He picked it up and read it, a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

He glanced next door to Number Three; a red brick house most likely built in the sixties, with a weathered timber fence separating the property from his. He'd hid in the bedroom when he'd heard the knock. Hopefully the person thought he was out, picking up supplies, or maybe in the bathroom. Or maybe they even thought he was deaf. He'd been tempted to peer out the bedroom window to catch a glimpse of his new neighbour, but resisted. No doubt he'd see the mystery person soon. Maybe it was a woman with a husband and kids, though he hadn't noticed any play equipment in the backyard. Or maybe an elderly person like the woman he'd seen in the next house up, looking out her front window. Although he hadn't seen her close up, her grey hair had contrasted with the bright yellow curtains she held aside.

Anyway, it didn't matter. He was here to keep to himself, get through what he had to get through, and figure out his next steps. People would only complicate things.

He opened the fruit-and-nut chocolate and popped a couple of squares in his mouth.
Not bad.
He hadn't had chocolate for ages.

Effortlessly carrying the boxes inside, Zac mentally planned where things needed to go. The house was bigger than he was used to. He could live in a tent and have all he needed, but he had more space now, more luxuries, and he planned to make the most of it.