'A complete stranger?' Julia asked with raised eyebrows.
'Well, a distant acquaintance. I barely know the bloke.'
'We've tried everything else, Lizzie,' Julia said softly.
'Well, thanks,' Lizzie replied. 'You're saying I'm your only hope?'
'Yeah,' Ry grinned. 'You're like our Obi-Wan Kenobi.'
'I think that makes me Princess Leia,' Julia grinned. They laughed. They needed to. The three of them sat in silence, each wondering how to help a friend who didn't seem to want any help.
'So, what did you do with the food?' Julia asked.
'I left it on the front door mat. I was under strict instructions from my boss.' Lizzie winked at Julia. 'He's such a tyrant.'
Ry gave her the smallest hint of a smile. 'Lizzie, you know why we sent you.'
'What, my charming bedside manner?' Behind the flippancy, there was a strange tightening in her chest. She tried to keep her face a blank. She didn't want to understand what Ry was talking about, didn't want to remember flirting with Dan, just twenty steps from where she was now sitting, on the night of his accident. Whatever had been flickering in the air between them had been extinguished in the car wreck. She hadn't seen him since that night.
Julia reached for the bottle and refilled their glasses. 'You know why. When he regained consciousness, his first words were "pub" and "Elizabeth". You're the one he asked after. Not me or Ry.'
'Well.' Lizzie blew out a sigh. 'Take note of the order. "Pub" came first because I was the last person he talked to that night. Right over there.' Lizzie pointed to the wooden bar. 'It's a trick of memory, Jools, that's all. You're making something out of nothing.'
Lizzie would never tell them that she remembered every word of the last conversation she'd had with Dan before he drove off that terrible night and was almost killed. It had been her last week pulling beers before Ry had promoted her to manager and Dan McSwaine had walked in, all sexy swagger and confident charm. They'd met before that, as the best friends of lovers invariably do, but something about him had been different that particular night. Yes, they'd shared a moment, a flirting, promising moment. And then, for the thousandth time since, she asked herself the same relentless questions. Why hadn't she made him stay for one more minute? Why hadn't she cracked one more joke, teased him one more time, so that he left one minute later, so he would have been driving up Flagstaff Hill Road one minute too late for the truck that careened out of control and smashed into him?
She turned to face her friends, and a cold shiver moved across her shoulders. 'Dan would rather slam the door in my face than open it and invite me in. I'm sure I'm the last thing on his mind. And frankly,' she added, straightening her back, 'he's the last thing on mine.' Lizzie hoped that if she said it enough times, it might turn out to be true.
'What can we do to help him?' Ry asked, looking from Julia to Lizzie and back.
Lizzie patted Ry's shoulder. 'He's your best friend. Don't give up on him, no matter how much of a pain in the arse he is.'
'Of course I'm not bloody well giving up on him.' Dan said, his blue eyes flaming.
'Pushing him won't help, you know that,' Lizzie said.
'You think I've been pushing him?' Ry's eyebrows shot up. 'I've just been trying to get him to man up and snap out of it.'
The two women turned to him in disbelief.
'You told him to man up?' Julia's voice was a shocked whisper.
'Not in those exact words.'
'You can't force him to do anything he doesn't want to do,' Lizzie added. 'Like take free food, for instance. He clearly wants to be alone. So leave him in his man cave.'
And then Ry and Julia did that thing where they looked at each other and had a conversation without saying anything out loud. Lizzie bit the inside of her lip.
'We need you, Obi-Wan,' Julia said.
Lizzie replied with an adamant shake of her head and crossed her arms. There were plenty of reasons to stay out of Dan's life. Millions. Trillions. 'I don't have time. It's nearly summer holidays. It's crazy busy here until February.'
'What else can we do?' Ry said. 'We can't just let him hole up in that crappy old house.'
'Hey, watch your mouth. That was my mother's house!' Julia smacked Ry's arm playfully.
'Yeah and it's still a crappy old house, JJ. But Dan seems to love it.'
'You're crazy if you think I'm going to go over there and have the door slammed in my face again. No freakin' way, Jose. And,' Lizzie added, pointing her finger in the air to add dramatic effect, 'he keeps calling me Elizabeth, which I hate.'
Julia leaned over the table. 'Will you just promise me one thing, Lizzie? We have to head up to Adelaide for a few days. Ry has a board meeting and I'm lunching with a potential client for my new business. Will you take Dan something to eat?'
That was a low blow. How could Lizzie say no to her best friend?
'Oh, for God's sake.'
'Just food,' Ry added.
Lizzie set her lips in a tight line. 'Food. That's it. No therapy. No hugs. No pushing.'
'Great.' Julia squeezed her hand. Ry shot her a satisfied smile. Lizzie hoped they weren't expecting miracles. Because in her experience miracles didn't happen. They were like mirages on a hot bitumen road. Illusory and fleeting. When you reached out for them, they vanished.
The next evening, a cool breeze came in off the Southern Ocean and danced with the trees of Middle Point as Lizzie headed towards Dan's house. The sun was almost gone for the day, but there were still crowds on the beach. The sand was dotted with sun shelters, retro green-and-white striped canvas awnings mixed in with new blue igloos. Families were gathered around eskies and the zinc-creamed noses of toddlers peeked out from under sun-safe hats. At least someone was still having fun today, Lizzie thought. She'd worked a full and exhausting day at the pub and had aching feet and tired eyes to prove it. Here she was on her way to Dan's. Again.
The arrangement was simple and clear-cut. All she had to do was drop off the food. Knock on the door, hand over the booty and skedaddle as fast as possible. And if he slammed the door in her face again? That was about him, not her. If it made him feel better, good for him. She had a busy life and she wanted to get back to it.
Lizzie rapped three times on the door. Firm. Efficient. Businesslike. And waited.
Dan heard the knocking and rose slowly from his chair at the kitchen table. A quick glance through the curtain and all he could see was a vague shape through the opaque windows. It was already twilight; the sun had dipped below the cliffs of Middle Point and the curtain was closing on the day.
He scratched his beard. He hadn't been expecting anyone and more importantly, didn't want to see anyone. He found a scowl, an expression that was very useful at fending off whoever it was who had good-neighbourliness or conversation in mind.
As he opened the door, he wasn't sure what hit him first: the cooling sea breeze that whistled in and teased the hair out of his eyes or the smell of clean hair and flowers.
Elizabeth. With a smile so dazzling it made him blink.
'Hi Dan.' Lizzie propped her sunglasses up on top of her head. The smile wasn't just on her lips. It was in her eyes too. They were big and as blue as the ocean over her shoulder, bigger eyes than any he'd ever seen on any other woman. Her friendliness threw out his game plan. There was no sign on her face that she was pissed at him for his behaviour the day before, which he was relieved about, because she had every right to be.
'Hi,' he said gruffly, clearing his throat.
'Thought you might like some salt and pepper squid.' Lizzie held out the day's delivery.
Dan looked at the bag in her hand. 'More food?'
'More food. Any problems with that and you'll need to talk to the boss.'
'I'm not hungry.'
Lizzie shrugged her shoulders. 'You might be later.' And damn her, she didn't budge. The Dan he used to be would have come up with an easy flirt, a tease and a cocked eyebrow when he had a beautiful woman on his doorstep. And he wouldn't have left her standing there for more than ten seconds.
The man he was now found himself flat-out speechless. And as they did the Mexican standoff on the front step, he realised the only way he was going to get her to leave was to take the damn food.
With a silent curse, Dan stepped out of his house and onto the front door mat. He reached down and slipped his fingers through the handles of the bag. As he did, the back of his hand brushed against hers, cool and soft, and he was so close to her that he could see individual strands of her golden hair falling in a fringe across her tanned forehead. And there it was again. Flowers. Her scent. Her hair. Her baby blues and that dazzling smile. Something shifted in him, only a degree, but there was a shift.
When she looked up at him, her smile was gone.
Before he could even manage a reluctant thank you, Lizzie had spun around and was walking with great purpose along the verandah and down the driveway towards the street. As she disappeared into the sunset, he felt a pang of something in his gut, something so weird that he held his hand there to quell it.