Our Kind of Love (17 page)

He pushed through the crowd in the front bar and down the narrow corridor to Lizzie’s office. He didn’t bother knocking before walking right in and pulling up a chair.

Lizzie was squinting at the computer screen with a frown. ‘Hey Stinkface. Don’t know anything about MYOB, do you?’

Joe propped his shoes on her desk and crossed his arms. ‘Don’t look at me. You need an accountant.’

Lizzie sat back and clasped her hands on top of her head. ‘No, what I need is a new staff member and a holiday. Not necessarily in that order.’

‘What’s up?’

Lizzie rubbed her eyes. ‘Kimberley, my fabulous waitress, is leaving. She’s packing up her bat and ball and moving to Adelaide to go to uni.’

‘Good for her. You can’t tell me you’re surprised. She’s young. Why wouldn’t she want to escape sleepy old Middle Point for the bright lights and big city?’

‘Remind me not to recommend you as tourism ambassador,’ Lizzie huffed.

‘C’mon, you know what I mean.’

‘I know, I know. She’ll be back next summer for the tourist season, thankfully. But that doesn’t help me now.’ Lizzie slumped in her chair and plonked her chin in her palm.

‘I know someone.’

Lizzie barely moved. ‘Someone good?’ she muttered.

‘Someone excellent.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Someone who’s spent more time in pubs than he should.’

‘Any experience?’

Joe shook his head. ‘Absolutely none whatsoever but he has plenty of time on his hands, is willing to learn and will even work for beer.’

Lizzie slowly sat up. ‘Oh no.’

CHAPTER
20

Lizzie’s eyes flew wide open and she began to wiggle her head from side to side. ‘You don’t mean—’

‘Yes, Mosquito. I mean me.’

She gripped the edge of her desk and laughed out loud. ‘C’mon Stinkface. You’re kidding, right? Work for me? Here?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Don’t get me wrong. It would be a lot of fun telling you what to do on a daily basis, but I don’t think you’d cope with your little sister bossing you around.’

‘Could so.’

‘Could not.’

Joe smiled at his sister. He fought the sudden urge to lean over her desk and muss her hair.

‘Look, Lizzie. I need to do something.’ He thought back over the conversation he’d just had with Jasmine. He was back in the saddle. And getting back to work was the next step.

Lizzie laughed again, louder this time. ‘No kidding. I’ve been wondering just how many months it would take you to get bored and, I have to admit, it’s a few more than I thought.’

‘Listen …’ Joe paused. ‘I’ve talked to Jasmine.’

Lizzie harrumphed. ‘How is the North Shore whore?’ The look on Joe’s face had her quickly apologising. ‘Oh. Shit. You’re not getting back together again, are you?’

‘No. We’ve decided to call off the legal eagles and just settle this. We’re selling the house as soon as we can and we’re both moving on. So, soon, I’ll be officially homeless. Until I find a real job I’m stuck here in—’

Lizzie snarled playfully at her brother.

‘—this delightfully sun-drenched jewel on South Australia’s glorious south coast.’

‘That’s better, Stinkface.’ Lizzie looked sheepish. ‘Is she all right? Jasmine?’

‘She’s having a baby.’

It took so long for Lizzie to respond that Joe feared tumbleweeds might blow through her office.

‘Oh. A baby.’

‘Yes.’

‘With your best friend.’

‘Ex-best friend and thanks again for reminding me.’

‘Well, shit a brick, Joe. How do you feel about that?’

He rubbed his chin and pondered the question.
Back in the saddle, Blake
. ‘I don’t feel anything, actually. Which is exactly how I want to feel about it.’

‘I see. You’re going for the pity angle to score a job?’

‘Depends.’ He found a smile for his sister. ‘Will it work?’

‘Maybe.’ Lizzie tapped her index finger against her chin. ‘How many shifts a week can you do?’

‘As many as you want.’

‘How long are you going to be around? Can I count on you to work right through the winter and spring until Kimberley comes back?’

Joe nodded and the effect on Lizzie was like an electric shock. She sat bolt upright. ‘What are you saying? That you’re staying in Middle Point?’

‘Settle down. I don’t know, but in the absence of a better one, staying here is the only plan I’ve got.’

Lizzie leapt from her chair and rounded the table to hug him. Before he could think, his arms were around her. It felt kind of nice, this family thing, being the big brother. He hugged his little sister right back.

Anna unwrapped the blood pressure cuff from Julia’s arm and the sound of ripping velcro echoed in the cavernous space that was Julia and Ry’s Middle Point living room. The afternoon sun shone bright and warm through the two-storey high windows and Anna turned her face to feel it on her cheeks. The sun as well as the view filled her with an equanimity she hadn’t felt in so long. Past the windows and the roadway, the shrubbed dunes and the white sand, there was the beautiful blue ocean, a sparkling blue sky and silence.

When Anna turned her gaze back to her patient, Julia nodded her head in the direction of the window.

‘You should get out there, go for a walk, feel the sand between your toes and the sun on your face.’ Julia had obviously noticed Anna’s distracted stare.

Anna shook it off. ‘My patients come first, you know that.’

Julia rested against the sofa with a lazy sigh. ‘And I think we’re done. So, tell me Dr Morelli, do I pass the pregnant woman test? Am I sufficiently glowing?’

Anna gave her a reassuring smile. ‘Glowing and gorgeous. Your BP is fine. You look fantastic. Keep up your exercise and get lots of rest.’ Anna slipped the cuff into her medical bag and clipped it closed. ‘It’s not complicated, is it?’

Julia scratched her arm where the cuff had been tight and then unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn.

‘Sorry Anna, you’re not boring me, I promise. I’m feeling so tired. Like I could go to bed and not get up for a week. I never have afternoon nanna naps, but now? It’s all I want to do. That and pee.’

‘That’s completely natural,’ Anna told her. ‘Wait until the third trimester when the baby’s doing aerobics on your bladder.’

Julia closed her eyes and groaned dramatically. ‘Great. Not seeing too many upsides to this whole pregnancy thing at the moment. Sure, there’ll be a baby at the end, but it feels a long way off from where I’m sitting.’

‘This will all blur into a distant memory when the baby is born, believe me. It’s nature’s way of making you want another one.’

Anna regarded her patient, envied her glow as she relaxed back on to the sofa, linking her fingers under the small curve of her belly. Anna still marvelled at how pregnant women, even early on when they were still wearing their pre-pregnancy jeans, seemed to have a sixth sense about protecting and nurturing their bumps, as if they were hugging their babies from the outside in.

‘I know I will.’ Julia smiled warmly and then Anna could see a question in her eyes. ‘What about you Anna? Do you want kids one day?’

Anna felt a tug inside and hesitated. It was a simple enough question, especially from one woman to another, but she felt uncomfortable. If she answered it the conversation would head into personal territory that was still too raw. While part of her was desperate to talk about what had happened, the other part – the one that was interested in her self-preservation – wanted to leave it shut off, hidden away. Answering that question meant giving away so much more and Anna wasn’t ready for it.

‘Now? That would take an immaculate conception.’ Anna rolled her eyes to hint that it wasn’t painful to talk about. She sat back on the sofa, feeling enveloped by the warmth of the sun and the softness of the leather. ‘We were pretty obsessed with our careers. Alex and me. I don’t know it if would ever have happened for us.’ That was all that needed to be said.

‘Look at me.’ Julia smiled. ‘It was never part of my plan, either. Absolutely definitely didn’t want any. Until I came home and was reunited with Ry and surrounded by home and all this … and then I did. The change was so sudden, almost overnight. It was as if a light bulb went off in my head and flicked those hormones into raging overdrive. Now look at me.’

‘Now look at you.’
Happy
, Anna thought.
Julia simply looks happy
. It was such a simple thing to wish for yourself. Anna wondered what happy would feel like in this new life she was navigating. And when would she feel it? Would she be aware of the very moment she finally felt happy again or would she only know it in retrospect?

‘Do you like coming from a big family, Anna?’

This was much safer ground and Anna could relax just a bit. ‘It’s wonderful.

‘And your parents. Are they still both around?’

Anna nodded. ‘Both are still fit and healthy, retired and loving it. Which gives them lots of energy to nag me. And we still have my Nonna, mum’s mum.’

Julia was wide-eyed. ‘All that family, I can’t imagine. I’m an only child. And an orphan.’ Julia sighed, her voice hitching as she said it. ‘Tell me about it? What was it like growing up with a family that big?’

Anna shifted, made herself more comfortable. She toed off her shoes and tucked one leg under her butt. ‘Where I grew up, you can’t throw a stone without hitting someone from southern Italy. I went to the local Catholic school with four of my cousins and I’ve spent the rest of my life surrounded by aunties and uncles and godparents and my Nonno and Nonna. Until my Nonno on my mum’s side died two years ago. It’s impossible to get into any trouble with boys when so many cousins are watching every move you make.’

‘It must have been amazing to be surrounded by so much love.’

Anna considered Julia’s question. ‘Most of the time, it’s great. Really. When you’re a teenager, there’s always an engagement of a wedding or a christening to go to and each one came with a new dress. But sometimes … sometimes it’s too much.’

Sometimes it didn’t feel like love. It felt like being smothered. All that attention was cloying and overbearing and sometimes Anna needed to escape from the probing and the kissing and the questions and the scrutinising observations. She usually did that, in small doses, with loud music and singing at the top of her lungs when she was driving in her car. Sometimes that was enough. But lately it hadn’t been nearly as satisfying an escape. She’d been feeling hemmed in, controlled, as taut as a high wire and just as shaky. Her family had been hovering and it felt like being smothered. That’s why she’d jumped at the offer of a weekend with Ry and Julia at Middle Point. She’d driven down earlier that day, Easter Friday, to spend four whole days of sun and long walks and a swim if the weather was warm enough. Dinners and laughs and wine.

And Joe? She could deal with Joe if she had to. Two broken-hearted people who found each other one night and had scratched an itch. Knowing that’s all it was made being in Middle Point that much easier. So what if she’d been thinking about him just a little. He was handsome and funny and it was only natural. She met men like him every day. Well, almost every day. Okay … never. But it was what it was, and it was over. A one-time thing.

‘Thanks for letting me stay this weekend, Julia. I’ve really been looking forward to it.’

Julia lifted her feet to rest them on the coffee table. ‘Dan and Lizzie mentioned the idea a few weeks ago and I thought maybe you could kill two birds with one stone – check me over and spend Easter down here with us. The weather is going to be stunning. And, don’t take this the wrong way, but you look like you could do with some rest yourself.’

Anna relaxed next to Julia. ‘You’re right. It’s been a tough few months.’

‘Of course it has.’ Julia found her hand and gave it a squeeze.

‘It’s funny,’ Anna said. ‘I seem to have no trouble prescribing it to my patients, but when it comes to me? Not so easy.’

‘What’s the expression … physician heal thyself?’

Anna snorted. ‘If only.’

‘Anna, take it from someone who used to work as hard as you do. I understand why you do it. I was driven too. But sometimes you need to get off that roller-coaster. It’s not good for the soul to be working so hard. You need to get out there,’ Julia nodded towards the beach. ‘Breathe some fresh air. It’ll help you sleep and do wonders for your blood pressure.’

Anna narrowed her eyes. ‘Hey, who’s the doctor here?’

‘Let us look after you. Don’t worry about a thing. Four days of rest down here without a care in the world and you’ll be a whole new woman.’

A whole new woman? There was a thought. Anna so much wanted to slip in to the easy patterns of Middle Point. She needed to. She’d been hanging on by a slim thread for months, working more and more hours at the surgery to fill her days, doing anything to avoid going home to an empty house. And now here she was, in the late afternoon of the Thursday before Easter, with a whole weekend to relax and not think about work or her patients. One month before, when Grace had asked for the same days off to go to a wedding in Melbourne, Anna had made a quick decision to close up the practice. For years and years she’d seen patients on the Saturday morning of the Easter weekend, but not this year. She didn’t have any clue four weeks ago what she’d do until the invitation came from Julia and Ry. It wasn’t hard to say yes to the idea of a weekend away.

Her thoughts turned once again to Joe. She was way too tired to go over what had happened between them … and as the warmth of the afternoon sun relaxed her to the point of way beyond caring, she realised she was way too tired to think about anything, way too tired to even keep her eyes open …

‘I don’t normally do this,’ Anna breathed, pulling herself reluctantly from Joe’s arms. She wasn’t quite sure where she was, and why she’d thrown her natural suspicion and caution to the wind and let him lead the way when they’d left the wedding reception a few minutes before. She couldn’t make out anything in particular in the room because it was still dark and they hadn’t wasted time looking for a light switch. Oh, but there was a bed, that she was sure of. They’d stumbled into the room, their hands and arms and mouths fully occupied with tasting, touching and exploring. She felt a cool breeze on her back and guessed there must be an open window. Were they goose bumps from the wind or simply they from the realisation that she was about to have sex with a man she’d picked up at a wedding?