The Three Miss Allens, page 27
She’d stayed in Remarkable Bay too long already. She would have to leave before Roma asked her to go.
She would have one more night with Blake Stapleton, a farewell fuck. A last hurrah.
The day after her argument with Roma, Addy walked out the front door at ten minutes past seven. She’d managed to keep her distance from Roma the whole day and had been thinking about her perfect distraction. There wasn’t much conversation with Blake. It was just sex. No justifications, no explanations. And if he wanted to cook her dinner first? She would think of it as foreplay.
She knocked on the shop door and a minute later Blake answered. His T-shirt said ‘Remarkable Bay Surf Shop’ in retro lettering and below it there was a 1970s style bikini-clad girl with long hair holding a surfboard on her head.
‘Blake.’ Addy shifted her weight on to her left hip, dipped her head to the side. This was who she was. Addy McNamara could cock a hip and get men wanting her. A look down their bodies and they wanted to fuck her. And a lick of her lips and they were right there, doing exactly what she needed them to do.
This was who she was.
‘Addy.’
He stepped back and she went in, following him through the shop, past the counter to the rear door she knew led to his house. She hadn’t noticed any of this detail last night, having been too busy fucking, but the room was light and blue with high white ceilings and comfortable-looking dark leather sofas. A tall bookcase on one wall was crammed with novels, and there was a large TV on a cupboard in front of the fireplace. It was neat. Tidy. A high pile of surf magazines teetered on the low coffee table and Addy could smell something good. Something delicious.
‘Your weren’t kidding about cooking.’ She sauntered over and put her handbag down on the kitchen table. She could smell peanuts and chilli and freshly cooked rice.
Blake went to the stove and turned off one of the burners. ‘Indonesian spinach and pumpkin curry.’
‘Oh wow,’ Addy murmured.
Blake opened the fridge. ‘Wine?’
Addy shook her head. On second thoughts, she didn’t want this kind of foreplay. This was already feeling too much like a date, during which there might be actual talking.
She lifted the front of her dress, inching it up in her fingers. Blake’s eyes drifted to her thighs. She watched the look on his face, the serious, hot, distracted look, the flare in his nostrils when he realised what she was doing, the dark flash in his eyes when she raised her dress far enough that he could see she was naked under it.
He slammed the fridge shut, crossed the kitchen in long strides and slammed her with a kiss.
Later, they were in his bed. Blake had reheated the curry and brought their bowls into bed. With pillows propped behind them, and one of her coltish legs draped over Blake’s, they feasted on the delicious food.
‘You should be a chef,’ she murmured as she scooped a forkful of rice into her mouth.
He looked sceptical. ‘Because of this? It’s just a curry. It takes half an hour.’
‘It’s incredible.’
He looked sideways at her. ‘You don’t cook, do you?’
Addy shook her head.
‘Pathetic,’ he said with a low growl. He dug into his curry hungrily.
‘It’s not a life skill I value. I can get food anywhere at any time of the day or night. Well, at least I can when I’m up in Adelaide. And you know, even when I’m not, if I play my cards right, I can always get someone to cook for me.’ She jiggled her leg against Blake’s and he laughed.
‘I bet you can.’ He turned his attention from devouring his curry to devouring her with his eyes instead. ‘Someone like you would never go hungry.’
Addy tried not to flinch. Someone like her. Why should she be surprised that he’d guessed that about her? Wasn’t that who she’d shown him she was? She liked sex and she liked men and she’d revealed to him just how much an hour before. After he’d kissed her, crossed the room with that long-legged stride and enveloped her in his arms and with his body, he’d carried her … yes, carried her … to his bed. She’d fallen back on it and he’d pulled off her dress, his eyes never leaving hers, and then stripped naked himself and had loved her with his strong body and his hands and his tongue and she’d given back as much as she’d got. Long strokes, him in her mouth, loving how he groaned when he came, and then how he kissed her right after and slid into her, so fast and slick that she let go of needing to control, to control the sex, and let herself feel how good it was instead of pretending that it was hot. More than once in her past she’d had to resort to imitating Meg Ryan’s famous scene in When Harry Met Sally to make men feel good and get herself out quick, but there had been no need to pretend with Blake.
‘How long have you had the shop?’ Addy asked.
‘Ten years.’
‘You like it? The retail thing?’
‘Yep.’
‘Ever thought of doing anything else?’ Keep asking him questions so he won’t ask you any.
‘Nope,’ Blake answered between mouthfuls.
‘Did you ever want to leave Remarkable Bay?’
He waited. ‘What makes you think I never left?’
‘You said that …’ Addy fumbled. She studied the chunks of creamy golden pumpkin in the bowl she was holding. Why was she asking him so many questions? This was just sex, right? She didn’t need to know his backstory, his history, his shoe size or anything else about him.
‘I was up in Adelaide, first in school, then university, then working in a firm. I hated it.’
‘You hated the city?’
‘It’s too far from the surf.’
‘And you hated the firm? Are you an accountant or something?’
He shook his head ruefully. ‘I was a lawyer.’
‘Like Connor,’ Addy noted.
‘We’re cousins. We went through uni at the same time. Even worked in the same firm. We still have fights about which one of us hated it the most. We used to meet at the pub after work and cry into our beers.’
Addy doubted that very much. ‘So you both came back to the Bay.’
‘I was first. My folks decided to sell up the shop so I bought it.’
‘They still alive, your parents?’
‘Nope.’ He hesitated, looked into her eyes. ‘Yours?’
‘Yeah. I don’t see them much.’
And then she saw it in his eyes. The don’t-get-involved-with-a-woman-who-comes-from-a-screwed-up-family expression. Which was exactly the look she wanted to see. Drive him away now, she started to tell herself, before things flip and you don’t want him to go.
‘How does that go for a girl not to see her mother?’
Addy settled back into her pillow and drew her knees up. ‘If you knew my mother you’d understand why I don’t see her much.’
Blake finished his bowl and set it on the floor by the side of his bed. He turned back to her.
‘Why are you here in Remarkable Bay?’
Lying came so naturally that it scared her sometimes. ‘For Roma. She’s been through a lot.’
‘So I hear.’
‘Did Connor tell you?’
‘We need to talk about something when we’re hanging off our boards for hours waiting for a wave.’
‘I guess.’
Blake leaned across and ran a slow finger down Addy’s cheek, her neck, over the curve of her breast and her nipple and then down to her belly button. She held her breath and let the sparks fly all over her body.
‘How long you down in the Bay for?’ he asked quietly.
‘Not long,’ she managed. ‘I’m going back to Adelaide this week.’ She was leaving Roma, leaving the only happy place she’d had for more years than she could count, for what?
‘What do you do?’ he asked.
‘I work in the film industry.’
His raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘You like the bright lights, huh?’
‘I’m good at it. Organising people and things. Wrangling crews and equipment and schedules and budgets. It’s a skill.’
‘I get that. So when does the next film start?’
‘I’m not sure.’
Blake took her bowl from her hands and she heard the clatter as he reached over and put it on top of his on the floor. Then, he turned back to her, reached an arm around her and pulled her close. She felt enveloped by him, not just by his strength. This seemed easy, Addy thought, to be with him. He must have been hiding something because she was acutely aware of the lack of drama, of tension, of anxiety. She hadn’t known men like Blake. Either all they wanted to do was talk, be propped up emotionally, psychologically stroked, or they didn’t want to talk, just fuck.
This thing with Blake seemed like it fell somewhere in between.
‘If you play your cards right, I’ll cook for you some more before you go,’ he said, cupping her small breast with his big hand.
Addy felt the shimmer, reached out to grab it. ‘A girl’s gotta eat.’
Roma was waiting for Addy in the kitchen, sitting at the table nursing a lukewarm coffee. It was late, almost midnight. She’d restlessly tried to watch some TV but had switched it off, unable to concentrate on the plot. She needed to talk to Addy and figured this was the only time to do it. Addy had made herself scarce during the day, and had avoided Roma tonight by going to Blake’s. Roma wondered if it was, in part, some kind of fuck you to Roma about what she’d said. About Addy and men. About Addy and sex. About how easy it was for her to get it, as if she was judging her.
She needed to tell Addy she had to pack up her things and go back to Adelaide.
The front door opened and then closed quietly with a clicking of the lock, and then there were footsteps down the hallway. Roma breathed deep and gripped her coffee cup with both hands, willing the final bit of warmth to seep through to her fingers.
When the light flicked on, she heard Addy gasp. ‘Fuck. You scared the crap out of me.’
Addy was carrying her shoes in one hand. Her long, flowing dress was swamped by the navy hoodie she was wearing which almost reached her knees. The sleeves were so long they covered her hands and she looked tiny and fragile.
‘Sorry,’ Roma said. ‘I didn’t mean to scare you.’
‘What are you doing sitting here in the dark?’ Addy’s voice was cautious.
Roma summoned her strength. That was something having Addy around had taught her. She wasn’t going to bullshit any more. ‘I’ve been waiting here to talk to you. To say sorry about what I said to you and that …’ Roma tried to get the words right in her head, to articulate why she was doing this, why she was kicking Addy out. ‘I appreciate that you came down here to see how I’m going, Addy, but—’
‘I’m leaving.’
Addy had interjected so fast Roma barely heard what she’d said. ‘Pardon?’
Addy flicked her hair over one shoulder and crossed the room to the fridge. She took out the jug of water, took a glass from the high cupboard and filled it to the brim. She drank the whole thing down with barely a gulp.
‘I said I’m leaving. I’m going back to Adelaide tomorrow. Thanks for letting me stay.’ She put her glass in the sink then turned to look at Roma with an expression that was unreadable.
‘You’re welcome.’
‘I’ll be sure to call Leo when I get back and tell him you’re doing great.’
There was silence in the room. In the quiet dark outside, not a sound. Inside, the faint ticking of the clock on the kitchen wall steadied Roma’s heartbeat.
‘What about Blake?’
‘What about him?’ Addy asked, the harshness of her tone scraping against Roma.
‘Are you coming back down here to see him again?’
‘Why would I do that?’
The two women, feeling more distant from each other than they ever had in their lives, stared at each other from opposite sides of the kitchen.
‘Have you ever been in love, Addy?’
‘What?’
‘I asked you if you’ve ever been in love.’
‘I’ve slept with lots of men, Roma.’
‘Have you loved any of them?
‘I don’t have to love them to fuck them. This isn’t the fifties, you know.’
‘No, it’s not.’
Addy walked across the room, past Roma, to the door. She hesitated and turned back. ‘I don’t need love, Roma.’ Her voice broke on the words. ‘It fucks you up in a million different ways.’
Addy had walked halfway up the stairs before Roma could tell Addy she agreed with her.
CHAPTER
26
1935
The north wind was blasting Remarkable Bay on the day of the annual croquet tournament between the guests of the Bayview and Sunnybrae guesthouses. It swept down from the open farmland behind the town and curled its tentacles around everyone and everything on the dry croquet lawn on Ocean Street. Ruby could have sworn the grass was greener yesterday; this morning it appeared to be browning before her eyes, crunching underfoot as she walked across to the starting stake at one end of the rectangular playing field.
That morning when Ruby had come down to breakfast, she had hoped to hear an announcement that the game might be at least postponed or cancelled altogether. One glance outside revealed how fierce the winds still were, the same that had lashed the town all night, making sleep impossible. Ruby had hardly slept, tangling herself in the sheets, her mind racing with a million thoughts of things she couldn’t change but couldn’t forget.
When Ruby had asked if the game might be off, Mrs Nightingale looked at her as if she’d lost her senses.
‘Why on earth would we cancel the Cup?’
Ruby pushed her empty breakfast plate away. ‘Because of the heat and that nasty wind.’
‘Goodness, no. Especially not now that I’ve organised a replacement for young Jack Dougall. He was going to be our fourth team member, as you know, but he’s upstairs in bed.’
‘What happened to him?’
‘He’s so terribly sunburnt. He looks like a lobster. His mother told me he spent all day yesterday down there on the beach …’ She stopped, leaned closer. ‘All day. Topless bathing, Ruby.’ Mrs Nightingale didn’t put much effort into hiding her disgust, as if one bare chest might turn Remarkable Bay into a modern-day Sodom.
‘The poor thing,’ Ruby said.
‘His mother is this very minute applying the sunburn lotion I made up this morning. Milk, cream, lemon juice, a pinch of powdered alum and some sugar. I hope it brings the poor boy some relief.’
‘I’m sure it will.’
‘I’ll see you at ten o’clock then with your sister? Across the road on the croquet lawn?’
‘Yes, Mrs Nightingale, of course.’ Ruby tried to summon some enthusiasm for the tournament. Clearly, it was very important to the woman. ‘I hope we bring the Cup home for Bayview this year.’
‘You’re good girl, Ruby.’ She leaned forward and lowered her voice. ‘And here’s a tip from the groundsman. He tells me it’s a fast lawn today.’
‘Oh, that’s good news indeed,’ Ruby added, unclear of the difference it would make to the game.
Mrs Nightingale bustled away to refresh someone’s pot of tea and Ruby had steeled herself for the competition.
Two hours later, after she’d laid down and read a few quick pages of her book, a glance out the window revealed that the wind seemed worse. There was not a speck of relief in the dry air and it seemed to whistle about her ears as she crossed Ocean Street for the game. She looked ahead to her playing partners, who had already gathered at one end of the lawn, and Ruby desperately tried to come up with a reason to quit and retreat into the cool living rooms of Bayview for tea. She felt hot from head to toe, from her cloche hat, which was making her hair damp with perspiration, to her close-fitting cotton knee-length white skirt. Socks and flat shoes completed her outfit and made her feel even hotter.
Adeline had left before her, after primping and fussing over her outfit, and was already with James, leaning on the handle of her mallet, flirting with him. The propriety of fraternising with the opposition didn’t seem to concern her. She wore white too, from head to toe, which made her auburn hair seem burnished gold, and she somehow managed to look crisp and unbothered. Ruby wasn’t sure how her sister did it, although she had so little to be bothered about it shouldn’t have been a surprise to Ruby. Her life was about to begin, wasn’t it? She was to be James’s wife within a few months. She was not troubled by Clara’s pregnancy and banishment; of their parents’ cruel treatment; and Ruby hadn’t breathed a word to her about meeting Cain, let alone falling in love with him. Life had always been easy for Adeline Allen, and there was nothing to suggest that this charmed life wouldn’t continue.
They really were a handsome pair, her sister and her soon-to-be brother-in-law. It was as if they captured all the beauty in the world in their forms. Perhaps that’s why they seemed fated to be together, the sartorial and charming James and the glamorous and delightful Adeline. Soon, they would begin their glittering life together and give glamorous parties and take holidays to London and Paris on a P&O liner. Ruby was sure Adeline would have all of life’s advantages. The trifling matter of them being on opposite teams today—James was captaining Sunnybrae’s team for the third year running—didn’t bother her in the slightest. Ruby had the distinct feeling Adeline might throw the game so her fiancé could be the victor. James Stuart was a striking sight in his white linen suit and his panama hat. The three other young men making up his team were all handsome too, and Ruby wondered if that was the criteria for selection or if it had happened by chance.
Adeline tore her gaze away from James. ‘Where have you been, Ruby? Hurry on so we can get this over with.’
Ruby stood by her sister’s side and spoke under her breath. ‘Believe me when I say that I would rather be back at Bayview with a cool glass of water and a book. This wasn’t my idea, if you remember. It was mother and father’s.’
