‘I think so,’ Ava’s voice trembled. ‘I think he might.’
Lulu smiled through fresh tears. ‘He’s a wonderful man, Ava. He just wasn’t the man for me. You deserve to be happy and so does he.’
‘Thanks, Lulu.’
Ava pushed her chair back and stood. She had somewhere to be. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth.’
‘I’m glad you know.’ Lulu threw her arms around her sister. ‘I love you, Ava.’
‘And I love you, Lulu.’ They held each other tight. ‘Any chance you might have a dress I could borrow?’
*
Ava called Callum the second she got back in her car.
‘Ava.’ Would she ever tire of him saying her name?
‘I’m leaving Lulu’s now. Can you meet me somewhere? There’s something I need to tell you.’
‘Let’s meet halfway,’ he replied in a rush. And when he told her where, she thought it was perfect.
Chapter Eighteen
‡
Callum drove up the long gravel driveway to the house at The Meadows and pulled up in the circular driveway in front of the long verandah. He’d called ahead to make sure Ava could get past security and he wondered if she’d already arrived. When he turned the key, his car’s engine purred to silence. He stepped out of the car to take one more good, long, look at the house. Soon, memories would be all he and his brothers would have. The Malones would soon end their association with this grand estate. He hadn’t had time to progress the sale, given the long and complicated process of sorting out his father’s assets, but it wouldn’t be long before the property would be on the market, privately and discreetly of course. He was certain that someone with deep pockets would snap up the place in a hot second. It was huge and famous and held a stature in Australian architecture and botany that was unrivalled. It was a valuable property in so many ways.
Would his father have wanted a sale? Callum honestly didn’t know. They’d never had the discussion, surprisingly enough, perhaps because his father was beginning to sense, too, that the end of an era was approaching. His father was born into the house at a time when grand families had staff to cater to their every whim, but that team of people had been whittled down to Daphne, and William Malone had exhibited a rare sense of kind-heartedness and kept her on, even though he hadn’t been there very much, until the end.
Callum shook his head. Maybe the old man had had a heart after all. Not that his sons had seen much evidence of it when he was alive.
His footsteps crunched across the gravel until he hit the lawn, soft and spongy underfoot. The place would be sold. He had no interest in coming home at the end of a twelve- or fourteen-hour day, or after weeks overseas on business trips, to this old-fashioned, fusty house. He loved his beach house now and he loved even more the idea that Ava might be there more often. He smiled at the idea. Maybe she’d swim in his pool some more. Naked.
When he lifted his gaze from the grass, there she was, waiting for him in the very spot he’d mentioned on the phone, and in that moment he knew for sure how he felt about this woman. Now there was only one thing he wanted to do at the end of each and every day. He wanted to sweep Ava into his arms and kiss her off her feet. That was the life he wanted. He had the job. He had the house. He had respect and a position in business that he’d worked hard for. He had all the trappings of success.
But he wanted Ava more than any of that. He wanted the warmth and humour and life she brought with her every time she was in his arms. Her noise, her laughter, her teasing and her anger. He wanted it all.
She was it. He was done looking. He was done fighting it.
The woman he loved was lit up by the warm afternoon sun, her hair long and flowing and shining in the sunlight. She was wearing a dress with a blaze of colourful flowers in blues and greens and oranges and reds, and it cinched in at her waist before it flared out in a skirt. Her arms were bare and so were her legs, and she was barefoot.
His beautiful gardener. His barefoot princess.
He went to her. Knowing. Hoping.
*
Ava’s heart skipped a beat when she spotted Callum walking towards her, his jeans and T-shirt worn and soft, his smile flashing at her from a distance. She held her breath to calm the pounding of her heart and clenched her fingers in a knot as she watched him lope towards her. He was so handsome her heart ached. There was so much she needed to say. There was so much she wanted that she thought her heart might just burst at the thought of getting it.
And then he was there, an arm’s length away.
Only five years and an arm’s length away.
She had planned on saying something romantic and lovely but the words came out in a nervous explosion. She had no time to wait and no time to waste. She wanted this man right this very second.