Someone Like You(22)

'And stop calling me Elizabeth!'

The volume and force of the door slam was nothing like the one he'd  delivered to her that first day she turned up on his doorstep. Maybe it  was time to check the hinges.





CHAPTER


11


Dan had made a decision. He needed to go back to work. Real work. His  old work. He needed to … what was it that Lizzie had said? Get up every  day and brush his teeth. Aim for a regular day. That's what he wanted  more than anything. A regular day.

Damn it. There she was again, front and centre in his head. He'd spent  way too much time thinking about her in the past two days and it was  beginning to drive him nuts.

He still didn't understand why the hell she'd stormed off after their  night together. Hadn't he just been sticking up for her? Letting her  boss know she had a legitimate reason for being late? And shit, it  wasn't as if he'd stood up on the front bar of the Middle Point pub and  told the whole world that he'd just fucked the town's sweetheart. It was  only Ry, and he'd only told him to help her out. She clearly hadn't  seen it that way.

In the forty-eight hours since her door slam, he hadn't texted her and  she hadn't messaged him. He'd talked to the paving guys and knew they  were starting work that day. He didn't need to give her a blow-by-blow  account of two young blokes flattening dirt and laying bricks.         

     



 

He wasn't going to let the fact that she had the shits get to him. He  hadn't felt this good in months. He didn't want to let it go. He had to  strike while the iron was hot.

That's why he went to see Ry.

Julia answered the door and damned if her smile didn't disappear down her throat when she saw who it was.

'Oh. Hi Dan.'

'Hey Julia.' He waited for an invitation to come inside. It didn't come.

'Ry home?' he ventured, peering over her shoulder.

'He's on the phone.' Reluctantly, she stepped back, opened the door wide.

Dan stomped his shoes on the front door mat and stepped in. He didn't  give a crap about sand in his own place but Ry and Julia's house still  looked like a show home. He followed Julia to the kitchen. When she  offered him a coffee, he accepted with a simple nod.

He knew women. And he knew damn well when one was shitty at him. Was he  going to cop it from the best friend as well? He should have figured  Lizzie had called Julia and told her what happened. They'd probably  trash talked him for hours. That thought hurt in a place that had been  dead for a while. He rubbed his chest absent-mindedly.

'Look Julia, if I've done something to piss you off-'

And oh boy, that was all the ammunition she needed to launch into him.

'How could you, Dan? To Lizzie. She's my best friend. She works for your  best friend. She's your best friend's fiancée's best friend.' Julia  began making very loud noises with the plates. Dan was hoping she'd at  least stay away from the knives.

'Yeah, Julia, I get the complicated community dynamic here that doesn't  go further than three houses within spitting distance of each other.  What the hell are you talking about?'

'I'm talking about you. The kiss-and-tell thing. The blabbing about the  other night.' Julia almost tossed his coffee at him, planting the silver  cup and saucer on the bench with a clatter, its contents dangerously  close to spilling over the rim. Anger flared in her eyes, her mouth was a  grim line. He could guess what she was thinking about him right about  now.

'How the hell do you know about that?'

'That's not the point, Dan, and you know it.'

'Ry told you, didn't he?'

'I … oh-' Julia fumed. 'Get down here, Ry Blackburn!"

Dan crossed his arms over his chest. 'Well. Who's the one blabbing now?'

At the sound of Ry's footsteps on the stairs, Dan and Julia both stopped  and turned to glare up at him with accusing eyes. Sensing the tension,  he stopped and took a few steps in retreat.

'Oh no you don't, soon-to-be-husband of mine.' Julia called. She aimed a pointed finger at him and curled it repeatedly.

'I second that, mate,' Dan added, with ironic emphasis on the last word  of that sentence. 'What the hell, Ry? Whatever happened to "what goes on  tour stays on tour"?'

Ry joined them in the kitchen but ignored their questions. He opened a  cupboard door, grabbed an espresso-sized cup and made himself a coffee,  buying himself some important time to come up with a defence that  wouldn't get him in trouble with either the love of his life or his best  mate. Tricky.

'C'mon Julia, don't have a go at Dan. You're the one who wheedled it out of me.'

'I can't help it if I have superior powers of persuasion,' Julia said.

Ry raised his eyebrows. 'Especially when you're naked.'

'You are way too easy. And I was curious. But Dan shouldn't have told you in the first place.'

'Yes,' Ry said, 'and clearly, I shouldn't have told you. So I think we're all in strife.'

Julia pulled out a stool and sat down, dropping her chin in her hands. 'Lizzie hasn't called me in two days.'

She glared once again at Dan. 'I think she's upset.' Ry moved next to her, rubbed her back with a caring hand.

Dan felt his teeth clench, an ache in his jaw coming out of nowhere. He  got up, pushed the stool in, and started to walk to the door.

'Where are you going?' Julia asked, concern in her voice.

'I'm running away from group therapy, doctor. That all right with you?'  Dan's smile undercut the abruptness of his words. His footsteps echoed  across the enormous living room, about as big as his whole house, he  figured, and when he reached out to open the door, Julia called out.

'Hey, Dan.'

He looked back at her and decided she'd picked up her smug grin from her fiancé.

'Tell Lizzie I said hi.'

He swore under his breath. He didn't yet know Julia well enough to do it  out loud. But the way she was going, that would be pretty damn soon.  'What makes you think I'm going to see Elizabeth?'         

     



 

Julia snorted. 'Pul-ease.

Ry raised his eyebrows into a smirk, winked at Dan. 'Nicely done, by the way. You and Lizzie.'

'Ryan Blackburn!' Julia covered her eyes with her hands. 'I can't believe you just said that.'

'C'mon, JJ. Don't pretend this hasn't been your plan all along. You've  won. It happened. You'll be hanging up a new shingle soon: Julia Jones,  Middle of Nowhere Matchmaker.'

'Shut up, Ry! It wasn't my plan for Dan to use her like a pair of disposable undies.'

Dan turned back. The ache in his jaw now tremored right across his shoulders and down his spine.

'What did you just say?' He managed to keep his voice steady and calm. Which was the total opposite of how he felt.

Julia hopped off the stool, her fists clenched, defiant. He did a double  take when he realised she looked like she wanted to punch him in the  face. Ry stood at her side, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

'Congratulations. It looks like the old Dan is back, the man-whore Dan.  Which may or may not be good for you, don't get me wrong, but it is not  what Lizzie needs.'

Dan thought back to his night with Lizzie. The way she'd trembled in his  arms and fallen asleep next to him, her face like an angel on his  pillow. Julia didn't have a fucking clue what Lizzie needed. Didn't have  one either about what he needed.

It took every ounce of control he had not to bite back. And that control  was about one thing and one thing only. Lizzie. He wasn't going to get  stuck into Julia when all she was doing was going she-wolf and defending  her best friend. He got that. It's what best friends did for each  other. But as he saw Julia's anger in every feature of her face, he  thought back over what she'd said. Lizzie hadn't called her for two  days. Julia said she'd found out from Ry. So Lizzie hadn't called Julia  to launch into a character assassination over a cappuccino. He was  feeling more and more confused. He couldn't figure Lizzie out  –  at all.

Dan brought the conversation back to a place that made sense.

'Look, Ry, I came here to have a word with you. I want to go back to work.'

Ry looked at him, his eyebrows raised. 'You mean work work?'

'Yeah, in the job I have in your company. You know, the one where I do all the work and you take all the credit.'

'Yeah, sure. Of course.' Ry walked over to him, slapped him on the back a  couple of times, football-player style. For a minute Dan thought Ry was  going to hug him. Shit a brick. Had Ry ever hugged him? Maybe once,  when they'd both been pissed and Port Power had won the AFL Grand Final.

'Okay,' Dan said. It was done. And just doing it meant a weight lifted from Dan's shoulders. 'I can get stuck in right away.'

'Work, yeah.' Ry looked over to Julia, and Dan could tell they were  having a conversation with their eyes. Julia's anger had disappeared and  she'd wrapped her arms around herself, her eyes glistening.

'Look, why don't you concentrate on getting the pub done so we can get  that open for Christmas, and I'll catch up with you in a couple days,  bring you up to speed with Windswept.'

'The pub's looking good.'

'It is,' Ry said.

Dan looked back at them as he walked out the door, just to check. He'd  been right. Damn it if there weren't tears in Julia's eyes.

It was mid-afternoon and the lunch trade had thinned out; only a few  locals were seated at the bar when Dan walked in. He marched down the  corridor leading to the rear of the building and turned left when he  noticed a glassed office door with the word 'Manager' inscribed in gold  lettering.