It was high summer in Middle Point, which also meant one other thing. Lizzie had fallen into bed every night, exhausted. She'd barely had time to wave to Julia and Ry when they turned up at the pub for lunch. She'd seriously neglected Harri, and Joe seemed content to wave her hello and goodbye as she came and went each day, mumbling an appropriate greeting in return. The good news was that Ry had been crunching the numbers and it looked like the pub might rack up a record turnover for the holiday season. The bad news was, she hadn't seen Dan since the morning he'd cooked her breakfast and driven her home.
In the snatches of time when she'd allowed herself to think about him, Lizzie felt as tangled up as a clump of dead sea grass on the beach. So he wasn't involved with Anna. He'd made that clear. He'd also described her as 'hot'. She'd only revisited that comment, oh, maybe a thousand times. She heard it in her head the minute she woke up and it bobbed and lolled about all day. And every night, as she lay in bed, bone-tired but unable to sleep, she realised the same thing: he wasn't going to do anything about it.
At five minutes to midnight on New Year's Eve, Lizzie tumbled out of the pub and onto the roadway on the cliff top with every other patron in the place. The fireworks in the nearby coastal town of Victor Harbor would soon be visible along the coastline in the eastern sky and would signal the turnover of the New Year. There was a buzz of anticipation in the crowd, fuelled by good food, great wine and friends. It was a still night, and the sounds of celebration and laughter floated high up into the dark sky.
Despite the sense of excitement building all around her, Lizzie felt flat. She'd never liked the last day of the year. She'd worked every one for the past fifteen years as a way of soaking up everyone else's excitement, but she'd never felt any for herself. It was just another day and, for all but a couple of years, she'd never had anyone to kiss at the stroke of twelve. She'd stuck to her New Year's Day ritual of drinking champagne on her own, to mark that she'd survived another year, day after regular day.
'One minute to go,' someone called from the crowd and people surged forward to the cliff top. All around her, they moved towards their loved ones, wanting to be close when the year ticked over. Lizzie watched them all with a heavy heart. She crossed her arms, hugged herself, wondered what a cruel irony it was that this year, when her nearest and dearest were back in Middle Point, she should still feel so alone.
'Ten. Nine. Eight.' The call started. Faces around her were lit up with the excitement of it. Lizzie shivered.
'Seven. Six. Five.' Seconds to go.
'Four. Three. Two. One. Happy New Year!' A cheer erupted around her and in the distance, the first fireworks exploded in the sky, patterns of iridescent green and purple and blue.
Someone was calling her name, she was sure of it. Someone whose voice she knew. There was a hand on her shoulder. She turned.
'Elizabeth.'
Dan was right there, creating an altogether different explosion in her heart. His chest was rising and falling with deep breaths. Nine kinds of handsome, his shoulders set in a shrug, his eyes bright even in the darkness.
Was it the fireworks or seeing Dan that had her quivering? And then she knew. She knew she was going to see the New Year in with a kiss this year, that was for damn sure.
She wasn't going to waste this man.
Lizzie reached up to hold his face in her hands. There was a sudden flare in his eyes and he got there before she did. His lips crashed down on hers so fiercely that he bent her backwards, the only things holding her up were his arms low on her waist. All her strength was in that kiss. Her lips parted in thrilling desire and his tongue tangled with hers, taking her, sharing her longing, reflecting back how much she wanted him. Lizzie didn't hear another sound from the crowd. The whoosh in her ears drowned out everything else. She pulled him closer, clinging to him, wanting to feel the strength of him hard against her as they kissed.
When they stopped, reluctantly, a cheer went up around them. Dan's eyes caught hers.
'Happy New Year.' His voice was deep and rough and it set off a fire between her thighs. She never wanted to let him go.
'Right back at you,' she said, finding the back pockets of his jeans and slipping her fingers into them, squeezing his butt. Every nerve ending in Lizzie's body crackled like sherbet on her tongue. She sighed and relaxed against him, softened in his embrace, used his strong body to prop up her exhausted limbs. With her head against his chest, she could hear the boom of his own heartbeat. One sure hand cradled her head.
'Lizzie!' From behind her, another set of arms was around her. It was Julia. She lifted her head a little and saw Ry, who was smiling at the size of the crowd.
'Happy New Year!'
Lizzie felt a swell in her heart. 'I'm so glad you're all here.' The crowd around them exclaimed at another starburst of fireworks.
'We wouldn't miss it for anything,' Julia laughed. 'I tried to get Joe to come as well, but … ' her voice trailed off and she shrugged. She didn't have to say any more for Lizzie to know what he would have said.
'Look at all these people,' Ry said, rubbing his hands together. 'All spending money in my pub. Excellent.'
'Mate,' Dan laughed, holding Lizzie tight in his arms. 'Stop thinking like the owner and start thinking like a local, will you? They're making memories, not making you rich.' The tease in his voice was obvious to them all.
Ry grinned. 'Yeah, that too, Dan. Stop making me sound like a miserable bastard. Happy New Year, you pain in the arse.' Ry slapped Dan on the back, his face creased with a smile that said so much more.
At another gasp from the crowd around them, all eyes turned upward to the sky. Lizzie stole a glance at Julia and Ry. Her best friend was nestled in the arms of the man she loved and she looked radiant. What a year it had been for them, she realised, reunited after so long, and life was only going to get better with their wedding in February.
She turned so her back was against Dan's chest, held on tight to the arms that were crossed possessively around her.
It was a new year. For the first time in so many, Lizzie felt slightly more hopeful that the turning over of the calendar would bring her better things, too.
Once the fireworks display had ended, the crowd on the roadway outside the pub dissipated. Some went back inside to continue celebrating, others with sleepy children ushered them home to bed. Lizzie glanced over her shoulder. Her job was to go back inside and work until closing at two a.m. That was the other hard thing about this time of year. Everyone else continued the party. She continued the hard labour.
Dan held her hand, his thumb rubbing circles there. 'You've got to go back to work, huh?'
She sighed. 'I do.'
'Damn it,' he whispered in her ear, 'I thought maybe you could come back to my place and we could make some fireworks of our own.'
Lizzie took in his sexy grin and his raised eyebrows. 'Wow. I reckon that was the cheesiest line I've ever heard.'
Dan lifted her hand and touched his lips to the back of it. 'Our fireworks might last a bit longer.' Oh my. She knew they would. And she didn't think about it before she asked. She just put it out there.
'Why don't you come over to my place tomorrow night? Tonight. New Year's Day.' She laughed through her exhaustion. 'Eight o'clock. I have this amazing bottle of French champagne. Feel like sharing it?'
Dan leaned down for one last kiss of the night, gentle, soft, full of promise and expectation. 'Yes, I do. I'll see you tomorrow,' he murmured against her lips. 'Or maybe that's today.'
Lizzie ran her hands down the firm muscles of his chest, across the flat plane of his stomach and around his hips to grip his butt again with both hands.
'See you then, Big Guy.'
CHAPTER
22
New Year's Day felt like it was forty-eight hours long. Dan hadn't fallen into bed until two in the morning but he hadn't slept for more than a couple of minutes at a time and his state of mind in the morning reflected it. His head had been full of the promise of being with Lizzie again, instead of the imperative of getting some shut-eye. Somewhere in between the tossing and the turning, the tangle of sheets around his legs, the sweat on his brow and a raging dawn horn, he'd decided he should tell her the truth.
The whole truth and nothing but.
About everything.
About who he used to be and who he was now. About how the accident had changed him in so many ways. About what he wanted for his life.
Because he finally knew. And it was all about her. The months he'd spent in Middle Point, time in which he'd allowed himself to begin the healing of his body and his soul, had been a journey towards finding his new life. Anna had played an important professional part in that recovery during the past month. He'd dug deep and found the strength and the enthusiasm to get back to work, to be a friend again and business partner once more to Ry. And last night, standing in front of the majestic stone pub that his best friend owned, with the promise of a new year and a new beginning, rockets going off in the distance, Lizzie in his arms, he knew.