Someone Like You(61)

Who was she kidding? There was plenty to think about. Dan, in  particular. His note had said 'soon'. It certainly hadn't been a 'pop  down the shops' soon, or even 'a couple of hours' soon. She hadn't heard  from him all day, not since the note.

Lizzie shook her head, trying not to over-think it. Maybe it was a root  canal appointment that he simply couldn't miss. She couldn't think too  much about his absence or its mystery.

Had he meant it the night before when he'd said he was ready to fill his  life with things that made him happy? Did she really believe his words  when he said he wanted to fill his life with her?

Lizzie refluffed her cushions and settled back down into a more  comfortable position. What would that look like? Being happy with Dan?  Was it marriage, babies, the white picket fence? Or was it something  else, something tentative and slow? Something that didn't need to be  rushed. Julia had seemed ready for the whole marriage kit and caboodle  and look at her. Was that what Lizzie wanted too?

Images of the Notting Hill markets flickered before her on the TV  screen, filled with flowers and vintage T-shirts and then umbrellas and  snow. How crazy was it that she'd never been there when she lived in  London? Once she'd got a job and met Billy, she'd never strayed far from  her neighbourhood south of the Thames. Had she really been that  adventurous, after all? There were lots of things she'd never got to see  or do in London before she'd come home. Most of her knowledge of that  city had come from movies. Looking back, she realised how much she'd  missed.

The sound of a car engine motoring to a stop had Lizzie pricking up her  ears. Looking through the big glass windows at the front of the house,  she could just make out a big four-wheel drive.

It wasn't Dan.

Joe ambled inside, a bulging shopping bag in one hand, a six-pack of  beer in the other. 'Hey Mosquito. Thought I'd throw some stuff on the  barbie tonight. You up for a snag or two?' He plonked the load onto the  kitchen bench and began pulling out meat, fresh vegies and a loaf of  crusty bread.

Lizzie paused her movie and propped herself up to watch the spectacle.  Since he'd been back in Middle Point, she'd barely seen Joe eat anything  other than tins of tuna and two-minute noodles. He'd resumed the eating  habits of his teenage self. Seeing actual food in his hands puzzled  her.

'Sure, a barbie sounds great. Just the two of us?' Lizzie eyed him suspiciously.

He nodded. 'I figure I owe you. I've crashed here, invaded your space,  been a total misery guts. And although I've been forced to sit through  more romantic comedies than I've seen in my entire life, it's actually  been better than I thought, being back here.'

Lizzie almost swallowed her tongue.

'Hold the phone. You mean the North Shore whore didn't watch rom-coms?'         

     



 

'Nah.'

'How can you not like rom-coms? What movies did she watch?'

'Wolf Creek. Saw. That kind of thing.' Joe grinned at her.

'That explains a lot.' Lizzie hopped up from the sofa and joined Joe in the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass of juice.

'What time's dinner?' Lizzie's stomach rumbled just looking at the ripe  tomatoes, the freshly picked spinach leaves and local fetta cheese.  'Want me to do anything?'

Joe grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her around to face him. 'No,  nothing. Go. Get out of here. Whipping up this culinary sensation will  take me about half an hour. Why don't you take a walk? Dinner will be  ready by six-thirty.'

'You sure?'

'Get out of my hair, Mosquito. Twenty years later and you're still buzzing around me.'

She chuckled. 'Don't flatter yourself, Stinkface. It's not you, it's the food.'

Dan didn't bother to knock; simply pushed open the door he knew would be  unlocked and barged right into Lizzie's house. He found himself in the  middle of the living room with the snooty accent of Hugh Grant filling  the room.

'Lizzie? You here?'

'Hey Dan … Oh shit.' Joe raced over from the kitchen and scrabbled around  on the sofa for the remote control. The room became silent. 'Lizzie left  the movie on. I wasn't watching it, you got that?'

'No, of course not.' Dan smirked.

'And if you tell anyone, I'll have your guts for garters.' Joe returned to the kitchen.

'Funny, I would have picked you as more of a James Bond fan.'

'Yeah, shut the fuck up okay?' Joe laughed and picked up the large blade  he'd been using and waved it around like a miniature samurai sword. 'I  have a weapon and I'm not afraid to use it. You looking for Lizzie?'

'No, I raced back from Adelaide to see your ugly mug. What do you reckon?'

'I kicked her out for a walk while I get the barbie going.' Joe regarded  him and Dan knew he was doing the big brother checking him out thing.  'You want to stay and eat with us?'

Dan gripped the white envelope in his hand. 'No. Yeah. Look, I'm not sure. You said Lizzie's gone for a walk? The beach?'

'Where else?'





CHAPTER


35


The early evening sun shone upwards into the puffs of streaky white  clouds, which were hanging low and full along the coastline in the west.  The brilliance of the blue, blue sky made Lizzie stop, dig her toes  into the cool sand, and stare upwards. How was it possible, she wondered  as she held up a hand to shield her eyes from the glare, that she could  still be stunned into silence by that sky? Hadn't she looked at it  every day for almost her entire existence? How was it that it could come  to life in a different way every time?

It was clear and in the distance Lizzie could make out the jagged  coastline all the way past Basham's Beach, in curved outcrops to The  Bluff at Victor Harbor. She glanced up and down the beach and realised  she was alone. Above her, a black-shouldered kite hovered, still, its  red eyes on a prize down below in the dunes, maybe a mouse or an insect.  A flap of its wings held its spot, and then it turned, flew off.

As she walked, with the tide pulling waves higher up the beach to splash  her ankles, she mulled over the fact that another summer was coming to a  close. She'd seen so many come and go and, looking back, had barely  been able to distinguish one from the other over the past decade. This  one felt different and Lizzie wrestled with the sense that more things  were ending than the season. This summer hadn't been like any other. She  didn't feel like the same person she had been at its warm beginnings  last December. When she'd reluctantly been conscripted into Operation  Dan and knocked on his door with a food parcel, tried to coax him out of  hiding but stay out of his life. Hadn't that plan been a failure. A  happy failure, she realised now with warmth in her heart and a smile on  her lips.

What hadn't been a failure was Operation Dan itself. Whoever was  responsible, whatever it was that had worked, he was now definitely out  of his man cave. And she hadn't realised it until she'd told Dan her  truth, but she finally felt released from her hiding too. There were  some things to say to Dan McSwaine, she realised.

An unexpected wave caught her higher on her legs, splashing her knees  and she gasped at the chill of it, then giggled, danced in the wave and  skipped up the sand to escape the next one.

'Elizabeth.'

The simple word sent a tremble from her heart to her chilled toes. Had  she imagined him, summoned him from her head right into her real life?  When a gentle hand touched her shoulder, she knew she hadn't dreamed  him. With a deep breath, she turned slowly to see the setting sun light  up his face, crinkling his emerald eyes into a warm smile. His simple  white T-shirt and worn jeans looked like the sexiest uniform she'd ever  seen. She sighed and bit her lip, deciding at that moment to give up  counting how many kinds of handsome he was.         

     



 

There simply wasn't a number big enough.

'Hey,' she said, suddenly nervous. For a moment, he looked at her, an  awareness in his eyes that she could feel in the space between them.

She glanced over her shoulder to the sunset. 'I was just looking at the sky. Isn't the view spectacular?'

'Yeah, it is,' he replied, not lifting his eyes from her face. 'It's beautiful as ever.'

'So.'

'So.'

'I got your note,' she said, taking in the face she could stare at  forever. There was growth on his jaw and a deep tan, too. The mark of a  Middle Point summer.

'Good. I had something to do up in Adelaide.' Dan took a step closer,  threaded a strong arm around her waist, pulled her close. As their  bodies touched, pressed against each other, she wondered if he could  feel the heat that flamed in her heart and reddened her cheeks.

'Here.' Dan had a white envelope in his hands, something that looked  like a business letter, with a clear window where the address could show  through from inside. He held it up between them. 'Take it. It's for  you.' His voice was unsure, ragged.

Lizzie reached for the envelope, turned it over and saw her name and address revealed in the window.

She let out a sigh. 'This looks like a bill or, brilliant, a speeding  ticket. The ones with windows always are. Oh well.' She bent it in half  and moved to shove it into the pocket of her shorts. Dan started and  quickly let go of her.