The Chocolatier's Secret (Magnolia Creek, Book 2) (23 page)

‘Make the most of the time you have with her,’ she said.

‘I intend to.’ He went to kiss her, but she pulled away. ‘What?’

‘Talking of making the most of the time you have …’ She raised her eyebrows.

‘Oh don’t, don’t start on about Dad again.’ He went into the office to turn off the computer and Gemma followed him.

‘If I don’t say it, nobody else will, least of all him!’ Her voice was strong, determined, angry even.

‘Leave it, Gemma.’

‘No! I can’t leave it!’ She eased off and sighed deeply, leaning against the doorjamb. ‘I didn’t come here for a row. God knows we’ve been strangers in our own house for the last few days ever since Molly turned up. I’m not suggesting you forget all about what Louis did, but he’s sorry for what he’s done.’

Andrew conceded. ‘I know he is, but I can’t get past it. I can’t.’

Gemma moved towards him, stood on tiptoes, rested her forehead against his. ‘Try. For his sake.’ But Andrew pulled away.

‘I don’t want to talk about it any more.’

‘Well, hard luck!’ Her voice grew louder as she tried to get through to him. ‘You have to talk about it! Did you know he’s getting worse?’

Her words stopped him as he pushed his phone into his bag and picked up his coat.

‘Today he got out of breath coming from the annexe to the house. He fell into a chair the second he got there.’

‘Molly says she saw him out walking today, you know, when you ignored her? When you felt the need to cross the street?’ It was a low blow, but he was angry, couldn’t help it.

‘I’ll ignore that remark because, right now, it’s not about me or my feelings. For your information, Louis had been holding my arm right up until I saw Molly and told him I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t act like I was happy she was here, in our lives all of a sudden. I couldn’t look at her and not hate her for being the child I can’t give us.’

‘You hate her?’

Gemma hesitated. ‘I’m not sure I can have her in our lives.’

‘This is about you! You’re not even trying to see it from my point of view, or from Molly’s.’

‘We’ve got enough going on in this family right now.’ Gemma couldn’t look at him.

‘And Molly is a part of this family. Like it or not.’ He dug his heels in. Someone had to. He’d lost Molly once, or thought he had when the families had pushed him and Julia apart, and he didn’t want to lose her again.

‘You’re too stubborn for your own good, Andrew. Your dad will die if you have your way.’

‘I don’t want him to die!” He bellowed back at her.

‘You’re refusing to give him your kidney when you’re the perfect match. You may as well sign his death certificate and be done with it.’

Gemma turned on her heel to leave and bumped straight into Molly.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Molly, looking from Gemma to Andrew. ‘The door was open.’ She hooked her thumb behind her towards the front door. ‘I left my swim bag.’ She stepped forwards and picked up the orange bag. ‘We didn’t swim, too cold. I thought I’d come and get it,’ she stammered.

‘Molly, I—’ Gemma began.

‘No need to explain.’ And with that she was gone, and all Andrew could do was look at Gemma. Anger and resentment coursed through his veins.

It was an impossible choice. If the two most important women in his life couldn’t make peace, he’d lose both or either of them. And if he let the past dictate the future, he’d lose his father too.

His family was about to snap like a brittle chocolate square, wafer thin, but with an inside he didn’t like the look of much at all.

Chapter Thirty-One

Molly

Molly ran straight to the Harrisons’ house. She’d spent so long talking with Andrew that afternoon that the autumn temperature had crept up on them, and they’d already decided not to swim, but she’d run back to the chocolaterie, before it closed, to get her bag in case they wanted to swim tomorrow.

Ben was still sitting out in the cabana at the foot of the garden, past the pool, when she arrived.

‘I couldn’t bear the thought of being in the cottage on my own,’ she told him after she’d explained what had happened.

Ben grabbed two beers from the outside fridge. ‘So Louis could die, and his son could be the reason?’

‘Looks like it.’ Molly slumped at the bench beneath the cabana, which housed everything needed for a good party: the barbecue, the fridge, the stunning pool with a backdrop of the bush or the back of the house, depending on which way you were facing. ‘When we talked this afternoon, he told me he wasn’t a match.’

Ben whistled in surprise and took a swig of beer. ‘Lying to you isn’t exactly a good way to start a relationship.’

‘You think?’ Molly knocked back half her drink as they listened to the water glugging from the solar system, the gentle chugging of the pool cleaner as it skimmed dirt from the blue tiles below the water.

‘Andrew Bennett is as bad as his father if he thinks lying is the way to deal with things,’ said Molly. ‘That’s exactly the reason he’s as angry as he is. Why didn’t he tell me the truth?’ She was angry at being lied to. Here was yet another twisted story from the Bennett family.

‘Perhaps he thought you’d think badly of him,’ said Ben.

‘I think badly of someone who can’t tell the truth.’

When he noticed she’d necked most of her beer already, he didn’t even ask before he went to the fridge and brought back another. He cracked open the top and handed it to her.

‘Thank you.’ The first beer had already calmed her down. She ran her fingers down the second bottle, watching as the brown glass darkened when her skin warmed the vessel.

‘Look at it from his point of view,’ Ben suggested diplomatically. ‘If he’d told you the truth, you would’ve thought he was heartless for saying no to his dying father, am I right?’ She didn’t answer, confirming his assumption. ‘It probably went under the banner of things-to-tell-my-long-lost-daughter-eventually.’

‘I suppose you’re right.’

Ben nudged her. ‘Go and see him tomorrow, talk to him. My family kept secrets over the years and if you ask me, it makes matters worse. Owen found out my parents had hidden something from him his entire life and it very nearly blew up in their faces.’

‘Are they okay now?’

‘Everything is great now, better than before. But I realise how easily it could’ve gone the other way.’

‘Yes, Doctor Ben.’

‘Hey, don’t mock. I’m a good doctor. But this isn’t medical advice. It’s common sense.’

‘Gemma hates me, you know.’

‘The wife?’

She nodded and filled him in on everything else she’d overheard.

‘It sounds like the Bennetts have a lot going on.’

‘I don’t want to come between them,’ said Molly. ‘I don’t know. Maybe in her position I’d feel the same.’ She rested her arms on the table, the beer bottle pressed between outstretched hands. ‘This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder whether I’m mad to get involved. I mean, I’m happy in England. There I am with a great mum and dad, a pretty awesome brother – don’t tell him I said that – so why, oh, why did I want to screw it all up?’

‘Because you’re human, Molly. You wanted to know where you came from and you decided to give this man a chance to know about you. You gave him the benefit of the doubt.’

Their eyes met for a moment until Ben’s gaze focused on her bag. ‘We could use the spa.’

‘What? It’s cold out.’ Already she’d pulled on the cardigan she’d brought from her place.

‘It’s heated.’

She shook her head. ‘I dunno. Feels weird, sitting in a bath … with you.’ She tried to make a joke, nervous at the intimacy of the proposed situation.

‘It’s not a bath.’ He laughed, and looking at his profile Molly saw the Ben who was a little mischievous when he wasn’t being sensible. He had tiny creases at the corners of his eyes when he laughed, creases that were there face on but looked different from this angle, and she tried to ignore the way his lips made contact with his bottle of beer, the stubble on his chin and neck as he swallowed the liquid.

‘Look, my parents aren’t around,’ he said. ‘We have the place to ourselves and barring my brother making an unexpected trip to the back garden, which I highly doubt now he’s all loved up with Rosie, we’re safe. You can get changed inside in the bathroom. Come on, what do you say? It’s a great way to unwind after a stressful day.’ He hooked an eyebrow and she knew she couldn’t resist.

In the downstairs bathroom inside the Harrisons’ house, Molly pulled on her midnight blue tankini, adjusting the bottoms correctly, ensuring the top was covering everything it should. When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, she looked up at the Harrisons’ home. It was a beautiful house with a garden she couldn’t imagine having in her wildest dreams. The pool and the spa were something else, the tended rose beds all inspiring and the view of the bush looked as though it could make you forget anything else existed outside the walls of the home. It was certainly a huge contrast to her flat back in England and the house she grew up in, a modest semi-detached in a quiet town with neat, boxed front lawns and uniform driveways. But it seemed nobody had the perfect life, not even the Harrisons, judging by what Ben had told her.

Molly clutched her towel to her body and made her way back down to the pool. The blackness of the night had wrapped around Magnolia Creek quickly, but even in the dark she could appreciate the contours of a man’s body. Ben had taken off his shirt, and she watched him as he unhooked the fasteners of the spa cover. He was defined but not in an over-the-top way, and the rose tattoo looked in place, as though it was part of him rather than something that had been painted on.

When he looked at her, she could tell he was making an effort to keep his gaze at her eye-level and she hadn’t even dropped her towel. She scooped her dark hair into a high ponytail, using the band on her wrist, and climbed in to the spa.

‘Sit on the far side.’ Ben dragged the spa cover away and stowed it at the edge of the pool. ‘It’s the best position to look at the stars, although the moon must be hiding.’

Molly lowered herself into the water on the far side, facing away from the house, and Ben pushed a button, sending the bubbles into life. The gentle hum of the spa was paradise itself, and the water lulled Molly into an unexpected sense of calm.

Ben put one leg over the side of the spa, but before the other leg followed he tutted. ‘I can’t believe I almost forgot. Can I get you another drink?’

Molly settled on a glass of wine this time, too blissed out to even think about Andrew, Gemma or Louis Bennett. Right now she could’ve been anywhere in the world, on holiday, enjoying the company of a man who understood her more than anyone else for miles around.

He clinked his beer bottle gently against her glass of white. ‘To new friends.’

She met his gaze briefly and took a sip.

‘See, sharing a bath with me isn’t so bad, is it?’ he said.

‘No, I don’t suppose it is.’

‘And you’re starting to relax, I can tell.’

She rested her glass on the side of the spa, careful to place it so it wasn’t in any danger of falling off. She shut her eyes. ‘I’m not even going to mention the “B” word for the rest of the evening.’

‘You mean the Benn–’

She opened one eye and shut it again when he nodded his understanding.

‘This place is gorgeous, Ben.’ She kept her eyes shut. ‘You’re spoilt living here.’

‘It’s only temporary.’ His voice came from the seat on the other side of the spa, facing the pool. ‘Now I’ve done my travelling stint I’ll be moving into a cottage up past the fire station.’

Molly opened her eyes. ‘You’ve bought somewhere.’

‘I have, but it was a hole when I bought it. Owen renovates properties for a living, so he helped me see past the ugly exterior and the interior, which looked more like a squat.’

‘Had someone been living there?’

‘Not recently, which is why it’d been so neglected. But it worked out well as I couldn’t afford to buy anything renovated. Aussie prices are sky-high, even out here, but the cottage is a decent twenty-minute walk to Main Street, and it needed work doing and was a deceased estate, so I got a good deal. Owen did the work much cheaper than anyone else would’ve and what’s more, he’s done it properly. He’s very particular.’ He laughed after another sip of beer. ‘He’s so … what’s the word? Pernickety?’

‘Great word.’

‘More polite than saying he’s anal.’ He grinned. ‘Growing up he was no different. One Christmas, all three of us boys got a magic set. When our parents cleared out the loft a couple of years ago, we found Owen’s. I don’t even know what’d happened to mine or to Tom’s, but I expect they were trashed after a few years and then thrown away. Owen’s, however, was still in its original box, completely intact, not a single piece missing. I mean, who does that?’

‘Pernickety people.’ Molly had shut her eyes again. ‘He seems nice, your brother.’

‘He’s a top bloke. I think Rosie helped to mellow him out. She was a surprise to all of us. Owen has never been one to get serious about a girl, and there was a mix up when my parents went overseas. They had a contract with an official house-sitter – Rosie – and then Owen turned up and refused to leave. Somehow, God knows how, they coexisted in the house and eventually they got it together.’

Molly smiled, totally blissed out until Ben spoke again.

‘It’s hard to believe you’re only here temporarily,’ he said. ‘You’ll have to come back and visit again.’

One eye open, she said, ‘Maybe.’

‘Maybe as in you don’t know if you want to see me again, or maybe as in if the Bennetts accept you?’

She frowned, not knowing what to say.

‘Sorry, I forgot we weren’t mentioning the “B” word.’

‘It’s fine, I don’t really have the luxury of blocking them, much as I’d like to, and sit in this spa all night. Those stars are amazing.’ She looked up as one winked at her and a sliver of the moon appeared from behind a cloud, the silhouette of trees masking any more of it.

When Ben moved to her side of the spa, his leg touched hers beneath the water, and she was suddenly aware of their near-naked bodies, side-by-side, gazing up at nature’s beauty. His leg touched hers again, and she wondered whether he felt it, whether the water had moved his body her way and he hadn’t resisted.

‘It’s a beautiful night.’ She sank a little lower into the warmth of the water.

‘You’re beautiful,’ said Ben.

Molly looked at those stars, kept her mind where it had to be. ‘Ben, we’ve been through this.’

‘Ah, the long-distance thing again?’

‘It’s not long-distance, it’s stupid-distance. How can anyone from the UK get involved with someone who lives in Australia?’

‘I bet it happens all the time. I bet there are backpackers, even now, tonight, looking at the same moon and stars as we are, both from opposite sides of the globe, having this same debate.’

‘Yeah, and they’re probably all wasted, and what seems like a good idea tonight won’t be in the morning.’

‘Maybe you can’t control who you fall for.’

‘Ben—’ She didn’t get a chance to say anything else because all of a sudden it wasn’t his leg touching hers that was the problem. His hand had reached around and cupped her cheek, and his face moved closer to hers until their lips finally touched. And she didn’t want it to feel this good, but it did. She’d been strong up to now, but tonight she knew they were only doing what she’d thought about ever since she’d first seen him at Heathrow waiting for her. And Molly was no longer preoccupied with her fear of flying, now she was scared of something else. She was scared of getting in too deep in an impossible, never-going-to-happen relationship, with someone on the other side of the world.

Her eyes conveyed the feeling to Ben when they pulled apart, the taste of him still on her lips.

‘Stop fighting it, Molly.’

‘But—’

He silenced her with another kiss, and this time she didn’t let it end so quickly. His hands tugged through her hair; she felt the dark tendrils escape in his eagerness. She ran her hand up his arm, the one with the tattoo, knowing exactly what it looked like, and finally getting to feel the skin of this man she’d let get so close so quickly. He trailed kisses down her neck, spluttering as he tried to kiss lower and the bubbles jumped up into his open mouth.

‘That’ll teach you!’ Molly grinned in delight.

He moved in to try again. Molly was pinned back against the spa but sat taller to lift the top of her body from the water, letting his kisses go lower this time. She ran a hand through his dark blond hair as the stubble on his chin scratched pleasantly against her chest. He moved the straps of her tankini top so they fell off, and he kissed the top of her shoulders, his tongue circling. And then he met her mouth again. She knew she should stop, and she felt vaguely out of control when, instead of telling him this was a bad idea, she climbed on top of his lap, sitting over him, kissing him all the while. His hands planted on her hips, pulling her as close to him as he could. Her hands framed his face; she looked deep into his eyes, eyes that told her this wasn’t a game.