Someone Like You (21 page)

‘That’s so true. Wait until you see Ry and Julia’s house. It’s massive. It’s right next to Julia’s mum’s old place, the green one that Dan bought.’

‘Who?’ Joe wasn’t a journalist for nothing and Lizzie cursed herself for mentioning his name.

‘Dan McSwaine.’ Lizzie looked up to the carriage clock, the front door, the crowded tables. Anything to avoid Joe’s stare. ‘He works for Ry. He’s working on a project with me here at the pub.’

‘Why are you blushing?’ Joe grinned at his sister, leaned over and ruffled her hair, a modified version of the ponytail yanking he did when they were little. That made her laugh out loud and that’s the sound Dan heard when he pushed his way through the pub doors from the street.

There she was, laughing, happy, her face all-smiling. And trained on some tall blond guy perched on a bar stool.

His fists clenched involuntarily. He knew he had no right to feel pissed off. But that didn’t stop the hackles rising or his anger flaring.

Dan strode over to the bar.

Lizzie’s smile and laughing eyes disappeared the minute she realised it was him. The happy face she’d been sharing with whoever the hell she was flirting with became a blank when he marched over to the bar, placed his splayed hands on it and checked her out with an intense glare.

For a moment, they did a Mexican standoff, neither saying a word.

Lizzie finally broke the silence. ‘Hello Dan.’ Her mouth was set in a determined pout and she lifted her chin with a sharp inhale of breath.

‘Elizabeth,’ he managed with a growl.

The guy who’d been talking to her put down his beer and cocked his head in Dan’s direction. Dan could see his grin from the corner of his eye. Lizzie was biting her lip and tapping a finger on the wooden bar.

She looked from Joe to Dan and back.

‘Joe, this is Dan McSwaine. He’s…he works for Ry and he’s helping me with the car park renovation.’

Joe turned, nodded, held out a big hand. ‘G’day.’

Lizzie cleared her throat. ‘Dan, this is Joe. My brother.’

Her brother
.

The one who’d run off when his sister was barely a kid, leaving her to cope all alone as their mother was dying? Dan held out a hand, wrapped his fingers around Joe’s in a fierce grip. He bit back the overwhelming urge to punch the guy in the mouth.

‘Dan.’ Joe quickly lost the grin, pushed off the bar stool and stood, which was when Dan realised he didn’t have a height advantage over the guy. And he looked fit, so he probably didn’t have an advantage there, either. He eased off on the handshake and let go.

‘Joe. Blake. Are you telling me your name is Joe Blake?’

Lizzie watched as Joe rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah.’ He sat back down, sipped his beer.

‘Joe Blake,’ Dan repeated.

‘Yeah, bring it on,’ Joe said. ‘You think I haven’t heard that joke before?’

Dan smirked. Slammed a hand on the bar. This was simply too good. ‘Joe Blake. The Sydney snake.’

Anyone who ran out on their sister the way Joe had done was a snake in Dan’s eyes. A snake in the grass. It didn’t take Dan ten seconds to decide that he didn’t like the guy.

‘Elizabeth.’

At the sound of her name, Lizzie reluctantly met his gaze. Shadows smudged her eyes and her face had lost its blush. She looked tired.

‘I don’t mean to interrupt but I’m here to do some work on the car park.’

She grabbed a messy pile of menus and began stacking them neatly with little taps against the bar. Her small silver earrings jiggled a rhythm with every movement and Dan’s fingers itched to reach over and caress the soft skin by the nape of her neck. Why did he get the feeling it would be totally unwelcome?

‘The electrician should be here this afternoon,’ Dan told her.

‘Great,’ she replied. She acknowledged him for about one-tenth of a second. It wasn’t enough for him.

‘How many stallholders have registered for the first market?’

‘Ten, so far. There’s lots of interest.’ Her answer was directed at Joe, as if he were the one asking the questions.

And apparently he was. ‘Do you surf, Dan?’

‘Sorry…what?’ Dan was thrown by the randomness of the question and the tone of his voice barely disguised his annoyance.

Joe had propped an elbow on the bar, his chin in his hand. ‘I’m looking for someone to go surfing with. Thought you looked like a surfer.’

Dan averted his eyes. ‘Nope. I didn’t grow up down here like you guys did. Now, I don’t…’ He stopped, stepped back from the bar, swallowing the words that were right there on the tip of his tongue.
I don’t think I can
. He searched Lizzie’s face one more time for a connection, waited for her to look at him. Nothing. He checked the time on the clock over the bar. ‘I’ll ring the sparky. See when he’s due on site. I’ll let you know, Elizabeth.’

There was another flicker in his direction, this one slightly longer, her blue eyes washed out and pale.

‘Thanks,’ she said quietly.

With a nod in Joe’s direction, which he figured was more than the bloke deserved, Dan turned and stalked down the corridor, uttering a satisfying curse with every step until he was out through the back door and standing in the bright sunshine.

Lizzie dumped the menus on the bar.

‘
Elizabeth
?’ Joe exaggerated her name with a smirk. ‘No one’s called you that since Nanna.’

‘Yes, well. That’s Dan for you. Always looking for new and interesting ways to piss me off. And he’s very successful at it, if you must know.’

‘How long have you had a thing going with him?’ Joe asked casually, sipping his beer.

Lizzie felt the heat rise in her cheeks. ‘A
thing
? No thing. Never was a thing. Never will be a thing.’ Lizzie grabbed a cloth and began wiping the top of the bar furiously.

Joe chuckled. ‘Give it a rest, Lizzie. He nearly cut off the circulation in my fingers when we shook hands. And he seemed to enjoy calling me “the Sydney snake” a little too much. Interesting guy, your Dan.’

She ground her teeth together with a satisfying clench. ‘First of all, he is not “my” Dan. He is someone else’s Dan, if you must know. And second of all, don’t you dare turn all nosey, inquisitive, put-words-in-my-mouth journalist on me. That stuff may work for you in Sydney, but I’m not playing.’

Joe lifted his beer, swirled the froth around inside the glass. Thinking time. ‘What I find interesting is that first he looked pissed off because he didn’t know I was your brother. And then when he found out I was your brother, he looked even madder.’

Lizzie let out an exasperated sigh. She’d never been able to keep any secrets from Stinkface. Neither had half of Sydney, apparently.

‘It’s a long story, Joe.’

He waved a hand dismissively. ‘No one’s got time for long stories these days. Can you tell me in 140 characters? Hit me with the Twitter version, Mosquito.’

Lizzie threw the damp cloth on the bar in frustration, planted her hands on her hips, looked Joe dead in the eyes. Her bottom lip began to quiver. ‘I think I’m in love with him. Hashtag worst idea ever.’

‘Ah hah,’ Joe replied, his eyes narrowed in bemusement. ‘That’s good news, isn’t it? It’s been a long time between drinks for you, am I right?’

She took a few deep breaths and wished away the tears. ‘No, it’s a disaster.’

Once she’d convinced Joe to go home, on the ruse that he should go have a cup of tea and discuss politics with Harri, Lizzie returned to her desk and continued planning for the Christmas market. She had some stallholders booked and was waiting on responses from four others. She sifted through her emails, responded halfheartedly to a dozen of them, filed some hard copy invoices and sorted out the glitches in the January roster.

Anything to distract herself from the knowledge that there was only a two-foot thick stone wall separating her from Dan McSwaine. She didn’t have a miraculous sixth sense when it came to the man. After an hour of solid procrastinating, she’d crossed the corridor and snuck into the kitchen, pushed the chef aside, stood on tiptoe to peek out the back windows to see what he was doing.

It was hot out there.

He had his back to her, his hands at his hips, talking to an older man, who Lizzie had figured was probably the electrician. Dan’s navy T-shirt was damp between his broad shoulder blades and she could see sweat glistening on his forearms. The short sleeves were tight on his biceps and his chest, and his work jeans hugged his thighs in every place that counted. He’d had a baseball cap pulled over his thick, black hair, and as he’d turned slightly in her direction, she noticed a pair of aviator-style sunglasses covered his eyes.

Six kinds of handsome had turned into a definite seven. With a bullet.

When she noticed the tan-coloured leather tool belt, heavy with equipment, slung low on one hip, her pulse went soaring up into the stratosphere. There was something so unbelievably sexy about a man who could do the kinds of stuff that required the wearing of a tool belt.

Back at her desk, the phone rang. She reached out to grab it and knocked over her glass of water, soaking a pile of papers.

‘Lizzie Blake,’ she announced with false cheer as she pressed the receiver to her ear.

‘Hello, Lizzie dear. It’s Shirley from the Naughty Knitters.’

Lizzie ripped a dozen tissues from the box on her table and pressed them on the soggy invoices. ‘Delighted to hear from you, Shirley.’

‘Now, Lizzie. We’ve heard all about your Christmas market and the girls and I are very keen on setting up a table. We’re trying to raise some money for the nursing home. They could do with a new TV.’

‘Shirley.’ Lizzie let out a tired sigh. ‘That’s just wonderful. We’d love to have you. Can I take your address so I can send you some details?’

The call had been a good distraction. After that, Lizzie had applied the bum glue and got her head back into work. Within ten minutes, thoughts of Dan crashed right back in. She threw her head into her hands and sighed. Mixing work and play had been such a bad idea. She laid the blame squarely at Julia and Ry’s feet. They’d put ideas into her head about Dan and she’d simply got carried away. Was it any surprise, given how gorgeous he was and how long it had been between man drinks? Any woman in the vicinity of that seven kinds – scratch that – eight kinds of handsome for too long, would melt like an ice cream on a summer’s day. She’d been no different. Julia and Ry had wanted her to help him, set her a simple task to reach out to him, see that he was all right.

And what had she done? Had sex with him, which hadn’t seemed to be very helpful at all. He was now more distant than ever. And all it had done to her was confuse her and make her long for something she couldn’t have. Anna already had him. Her own night with Dan had clearly meant more to her than it had meant to him. He’d hadn’t pretended it was going to be anything else. She was the one who had gotten carried away and let herself think she was in love with him.

The best thing she could do was to create some distance between them and get back to work. The renovation was almost complete and Dan’s work at the pub would soon be done. Lizzie could be content in the knowledge that she had lived up to her deal with Ry and, importantly, the outdoor dining area and market would be up and running. She had Julia back in her life now and Joe was home, at least for the summer. Life was good. Lizzie had never had too many expectations about having much else beyond the ordinary.

So she’d spent some time with Dan and he’d scratched an itch. Well, she had too. Maybe her feelings for him were a trick of memory as well. She was mixing guilt over his accident with sympathy for him and conflating them into something else entirely. Something real and special between the two of them. Something he clearly felt for someone else. Someone like Anna. She’d just have to get over it. And she had plenty of distractions to keep her busy.

Starting now. Another call.

‘Hey, Jools.’

‘Lizzie, it’s me.’

‘I know.’

‘I’ve got great news.’ Julia’s voice was fizzing with excitement. ‘We’ve set a date for the wedding.’

Lizzie sighed. How typical of her life. She was heading in one direction and Julia was diving headlong the other way. And while her funk had seen her scouring the depths for all that had gone wrong with Dan, she was over the moon happy that Julia had finally got it right with Ry.

‘When did this all suddenly happen? Weren’t you waiting for…’

Dan. They’d been waiting for Dan.

‘Ry asked Dan and he said yes, so…it’s party time. We’re getting married!’

Lizzie’s heart sank. Dan was best man and she was the bridesmaid. She knew they’d been waiting to ask him, delaying it until they thought he seemed to be getting back to his old self. They’d obviously made the judgment that he was. And Lizzie had to agree that all the signs were positive. Dan had gone back to work. He was turning up at the pub, getting out and about in Middle Point. Good for him. He’d clearly found what he’d needed to get him back to his old life: someone
from
his old life. More things had been broken in the car accident than just his leg and his nose and a few other bones. If Anna was what he needed, he deserved her.

Things were falling into place for everyone. Julia was marrying the man she loved and who adored her. They deserved every piece of that happiness, having waited fifteen years for each other.

As for Lizzie, what was she worthy of? Good friends, family, a community she loved. The best beach in the world. French champagne once a year. Maybe that was enough. Maybe that would never be spectacular but sometimes ordinary was okay.

‘I’ve got a deal for you, Jools. If you help me with the market, I’ll help you with the wedding.’

‘I’ll take it,’ Julia laughed.

Dan looked around the car park, which didn’t resemble a car park anymore. The grey cobblestone pavers were laid, giving the space a rustic feel that suited the old stone pub. Around the edges, garden beds had been dug over but were still empty. That was the next job. The trees were expected any day now and the supplier had recommended a variety of smaller, salt-tolerant shrubs to fill out the beds. The whole place was on its way to being transformed and Dan felt proud of his part in it.