Three Words: A Novella Collection (2 page)

Surreptitiously, she studied the rest of him. Wide straight
shoulders topping the type of chest and torso a girl would die to
run her fingers over like keys on a piano. Long, lean legs. How
could it be that he could be allowed out alone without being
mobbed? Surely, he needed a security detail or something? She
watched as he sipped his wine, those full lips kissing the glass,
trying not to imagine what it would be like if those lips were on
hers. It was an odd thought to have, given that she’d never exactly
been one for looking at men in a sexual way.

“
So Henry,” she began as she took the phone that he’d handed
her and put it aside on the bench, “What brings you out into the
middle of nowhere on a night like this?”

“
Well, I travel a lot and when I go to a new place I like to
take a day and see the sights. I like to take photos. That’s what I
was doing today. But it got dark and I think I took a wrong
turn.”

“
So, you’re a tourist?” That would explain his getting lost on
a country road.

“
No, I’m here for work, but today’s my day off, I
guess.”

“
Where’re you working?”

A look of
something she couldn’t define crossed Henry’s face. Was it
confusion? Guardedness? Or was he trying to suppress a smirk? She
was so out of touch with the world lately, she had no idea. Being
so wrapped up in her own misery she’d forgotten how to read the
expressions of others. Maybe he just didn’t like questions.

“
Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude,” Daisy said.

“
No. It’s not rude at all. I… I’m just … it doesn’t matter.
I’m working over at the Sandalford Estate in Margaret
River.”

Daisy picked
up the bottle and topped up his glass. “It’s lovely there. Great
wine.”

“
Yeah. Good concert venue, too.”

A drip of
water from the brim of Henry’s cap splashed onto the bench and
suddenly Daisy noticed that he was shivering. His hands looked pale
and cold and his lips had turned a funny shade of purplish blue.
She’d been so confused by the fact that this vision had landed on
her doorstep that she’d completely forgotten about the spare
clothes she was meant to be finding for him. How embarrassing.

“
How long will it be before your lift arrives?” she asked,
getting up. “Because I’m thinking if you’d like to have a hot
shower to get the smell off and warm up a bit, I could toss your
clothes into the washer and get you those spare ones to wear while
they dry. You’ll catch a death sitting there like that. Plus, you
do reek a little.”

Henry’s eyes
crinkled at the corners. He seemed to consider the idea. “Well, I
guess.”

“
No pressure. I just thought you’d be more
comfortable.”

“
I don’t want to put you to any trouble.”

“
No trouble at all. I’ve got a whole wardrobe full of clothes
that’ll fit you and a spare bathroom right through there.” She
pointed along the hall that lead to the bedrooms.

Henry got up
from the stool, setting his glass down on the bench. “In that case,
thanks. That’d be great.”

He peeled off
his hat placing it on the bench. He ran a hand through his sandy
blonde hair making it stand on end.

Oh. My.
God.

Colour burst
across Daisy’s cheeks. Her eyes bulged like ping pong balls. How
could she be such a dipstick? There she was sitting around in her
pyjamas casually sipping wine like she had a wine tree growing in
her backyard and the man opposite her was…

No. It
couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. No wonder he’d looked at her like
she was a stalker when she mentioned the shower. Oh. My. God.

“
Um, oh,” she spluttered, a splash of wine tipping down her
chin. “Oh. You’re …..”

“
Yes. I am.”

“
Shiiiiiit
.”

Daisy stared
at him, her mouth all but falling to the floor. This must be a
dream. Yes, that was what it was. She’d had one too many wines and
she was having one of
those
dreams. In a minute they’d be
having wild sex on the counter or something and peacocks would be
dancing to Lady Gaga in the background. She blinked a few times;
convinced he’d be naked the next time she opened her eyes. But no.
He was still there, fully clothed and smiling. This was very
real.

“
Shit,” she repeated. “I mean not like, ‘shit’, shit because
that would be bad. But like a ‘wow’ type of ‘shit’.”

Henry’s mouth
bent into an amused smile at her rambling.

“
I mean, it’s good. You’re good. I mean, I love you so much!
Oh shit, I don’t know what I mean.”

How could she
know? Her brain had left the building and taken her tongue muscles
with it. Hawk Moon was sitting at her breakfast bar.
The
Hawk Moon.
The
most popular male music star on the entire
planet. He’d hinted at who he was when he said where he was here
working but she hadn’t twigged. Here she was, someone who professed
to be his biggest fan and she hadn’t even recognised him when he
told her his real name. And then she’d blurted that she loved him
like a teenager or something. Talk about an idiot.

“
You okay, Daisy?” Henry asked. His gaze was intent and
slightly worried looking. She wished he’d stop staring. It was
making her feel more ridiculous than she did already.

“
Yes. I’m fine. Just a little shocked, that’s all. I mean… I
don’t even know what to call you.”

“
You can call me Henry.” Henry held up a hand. “And it’s okay.
I get it.”

Daisy felt the
relief flow through her body. He really did get it and for some
reason she knew that he didn’t care at all. This wasn’t a weird
groupie thing. She was in shock. Not to mention hideously
embarrassed. On a scale of one to ten, this rated right up there
with the time she’d walked into that mirrored pole in Target and
said ‘sorry’ to it in front of three sales assistants.

“
Now that we’ve established that you’re not going to faint on
me, can you show me to the shower?”

Daisy walked,
mute, around the bench. In a daze, she led Henry to the bathroom
where she showed him where to find the toiletries she kept for
guests and then handed him two fresh towels from the linen cupboard
knowing that she’d never be able to wash them again. In fact, she’d
have to have them framed. As Henry took them, the tips of his
fingers touched hers and a surge of electricity bolted around her
body. She stopped. She glanced up at him wondering if he’d felt it
too. His face gave nothing away.

“
I guess I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Or I could
come in and wash your back, she thought. Then I could frame the
washcloth too.

“
Cheers.”

Henry shut the
door between them, leaving Daisy standing with her nose almost
touching it. Her feet left the floor in a little happy dance as she
let out a silent, ecstatic whoop and punched the air. This couldn’t
be true. Hawk Moon,
the
Hawk Moon who had multiple Number
One hits and more Top Ten albums in the last five years than anyone
known to man, was here. In her shower. She was his all time, for
all eternity, biggest, hugest fan.

Wait till
Avery heard about this.

~ 4 ~

As soon as she
heard the water running, Daisy sprang into action like a woman
possessed. Running this way and that in the small country kitchen,
she shoved dirty dishes into the dishwasher and sprayed a few drops
of essential oil spray to freshen the air. This was just like that
movie,
Notting Hill
, except she was the bumbling Hugh Grant
character and Henry was Julia Roberts. By her reckoning she had
five or six minutes to find Hawk or Henry or whoever he was some
clean clothes from Jack’s wardrobe and spruce herself up a bit
before he reappeared. She couldn’t sit in the lounge with a rock
star wearing her PJ’s, now could she? That would be dreadfully bad
manners.

Swiping the
phone from the bench on the way, she dashed into the bedroom and
speed-dialled Avery. She set the phone to speaker and began to
rummage through her drawers looking for a suitable t-shirt, jumper,
anything really as long as it wasn’t fluffy and covered in blue and
pink stars and looked like something you’d wear to bed. There was
no way she was showing herself to him like that again. He was rock
star. It was bad enough that he’d seen that daggy cardigan of
Jack’s.

Daisy pulled a
black long sleeved peasant top out and held it up before her. That
would do. Deciding against dragging the brush through her hair
because of lack of time, she settled on pulling a few wisps free
and smearing some clear gloss over her lips. She slipped on her
jeans, zipped them and pulled the top over her head, swapping her
Ugg boots for striped bed socks so she wouldn’t appear too dressy.
She didn’t want to embarrass the man. Not that he’d be embarrassed.
He was Hawk Moon, for Pete’s sake. He didn’t look like the type to
be embarrassed.

“
Hello? Mum? What’s wrong?”

From the
dresser where Daisy had placed the phone, Avery’s worried voice
filled the room.

Daisy ran to
turn the volume down, scrambling to tuck herself in at the same
time. She did a twirl in the mirror. “Nothing’s wrong, Honey, I
just wanted to share something very exciting with you.”

“
It’s nine-thirty Mum. Aren’t you usually in bed by
now?”

“
Well yes, but I have a sort of visitor. Hawk Moon is here.”
She didn’t know how else to put it so she didn’t sound like a
lunatic.

On the other
end of the line her daughter went silent. Daisy could practically
hear her young mind ticking over. This time her mother had lost the
plot. “Have you been drinking, Mum?”

“
No, I have not been drinking, you minx. There was a storm and
Marsha got onto the road and Hawk Moon was driving past and almost
ran her over. He’s doing a concert at Margaret River tomorrow night
but Marsha pee’d on him, so I offered him a shower and some of your
father’s old clothes while he waits for his lift. His car went in
the ditch.”

Phew. It was
amazing how she got that out in one go.

“
You’re for real, aren’t you?” Avery began to sound like the
excitable thirteen year old that she was.

“
Yep. He’s in the shower right now. He’s very
handsome.”

“
Oh duh. He’s, like, the hottest guy on the planet. Wow, how
awesome that he’s, like, in our house. Do you think you can get me
a photo on your phone and an autograph? Hannah and Charlotte will
die.”

“
I’m not taking a photo of him in the shower,
Avery.”

“
Of course not. I meant, like, when he gets out of the
shower.”

“
I’ll ask. But I can’t promise. I don’t want to annoy him.
People probably annoy him for autographs all the time.”

Avery was
indignant. “But you have to get proof that he’s there. Nobody will
ever believe you otherwise. Can you imagine the look on Mrs.
Hanson’s face if you showed a photo like that around town and she
didn’t know about it? She’d totally spew.”

Daisy smiled
at the idea. “It would be funny. Look, I have to go. He’ll be out
of the shower any minute and I need to find him some clothes to
wear.”

“
Text me when he’s gone. Let me know if he tries to pash
you.”

“
I will not text you when he’s gone!” Daisy replied
emphatically. “You have ballet at nine tomorrow, young lady. You
need your sleep.”

“
Like I’ll be able to sleep now.”

*****

Back in the
kitchen, Daisy tried to calm herself while she waited for
Henry-slash- Hawk to appear from the bathroom. She sat at the bench
in the tidied room and sipped her wine. She crossed her legs on one
side and then the other. Then she tried plain sitting with her
knees together while looking as nonchalant as she could but she
knew it wasn’t working. Her leg was jiggling like jelly on a plate
and a stupid smile had plastered itself across her face with no
hope of leaving. She was like a nervous seventeen year old again,
like the night she and Jack had taken each other’s virginity in the
barn out the back of her parents’ house. And that had been nerve
racking to the extreme. They’d had no idea what they were doing.
The result had been Avery and though it had been hard to adjust to
the fact that she was swapping University for motherhood and nights
out with friends for nappies, Daisy had been confident she and Jack
were making the right decision when they told their parents they
were in love and wanted to get married.

They’d been so
in love, so much so that it hurt.

Then one day,
after Avery’s thirteenth birthday, Jack had announced that he no
longer found her attractive. That her wider hips made him cringe
and that he was leaving to live in Broome with Anna from the bakery
~ who was nineteen if she was a day. He would still be there for
Avery, of course, but he could no longer be her husband. So much
for true love.

Daisy had been
devastated. She’d stopped eating and lost so much weight the whole
town had begun to speculate that she had cancer or something. She
couldn’t tell them the embarrassing truth ~ that Jack had left her
because she was too fat. Instead she wept in the shower for weeks
on end and tried to do all the things he did around the house at
night so people wouldn’t catch on that he wasn’t there.

It had been a
disaster.

All she’d
accomplished was to make herself sick, which caused even more
conjecture. Mrs Hanson had been the worst. She’d been at the front
door at all hours of the day and night on the pretext of delivering
home-cooked meals. She’d made so many pies and casseroles it was a
wonder Daisy and Avery weren’t the size of the log trucks that
thundered through town. In a way, it was lucky that Daisy hadn’t
been able to stomach anything.