Someone Like You(41)

     



 

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.