Bilgarra Springs (17 page)

Rick’s and Cal’s father, Trevor, also came and stood alongside the table, bringing Arthur with him. The four of them had only been together for a matter of minutes before Cal headed off in the direction of the drinks. Aurora snuck some covert glances at Trevor. He had very much kept to himself for the time that Aurora had been at Bilgarra Springs and she didn’t think that she had said more than two words to him. He and Rick had an easiness between them though that made her realise what she had missed out on losing her parents as she had.

She glanced over Trevor’s shoulder and saw Callan and Theresa on the dance floor. The pace had changed again and this was another slower number. They also had a relaxed way when they were together that made the problems that she had glossed over in her own marriage all the more obvious. She did envy them. She envied what they had together. She was also, she hated to admit, a little jealous of Theresa and the life that she would build with Cal.

She averted her eyes with difficulty. There was nothing to be gained by hoping for what couldn’t be. She decided to focus on the company at the table. It may have been Aurora’s imagination, or maybe her guilty conscience, but it certainly appeared to her that Trudy had a look on her face that said that she could see right through Aurora. When the music changed again, it was Rick who was asking her to dance and she gladly accepted. It was a convenient means of escape from any questions that Trudy may have been going to fire at her.

The next couple of hours were a blur of food and dancing for Aurora. She had barely had time to catch her breath when Arthur took her out to dance. She had sat down for the fifteen minute break for the band and had a good feed. Then it was Trevor asking her to dance, which initially made her feel a little uncomfortable, but he turned out to be incredibly funny in his own quiet way. Dessert had come next, followed by another dance with Cal, a turn around the floor with Mike, followed by three consecutive songs with Gerry, then another slow round with Callan.

Being close to him again wasn’t helping any with the budding feelings. She did wonder at the relationship that he and Theresa had as she was now sitting on the lap of the stranger who had kissed her so soundly this morning. She at least appreciated now how easy it was to develop feelings for someone that weren’t strictly appropriate and how easy it would be to slip into the role of ‘other woman’ even if she hadn’t set out to organise it.

There had been more dancing and things had been going along really nicely until Keith asked her to dance. It was a slow number and she couldn’t very well say no as she had danced with every other male from Bilgarra at one point or another, with the exception of Matt who hadn’t danced at all. She had accepted, but it hadn’t taken very long at all until the hand that should have been on her back slipped lower and lower, until it was resting on one of her buttocks. Not very elegantly or subtly Aurora grabbed and it put it back where it belonged. Less than thirty seconds later both hands had gravitated downwards and Keith had a firm grip on her, pulling her against him.

As far as she was concerned it was bad enough having his hands on her without being pressed against him as well. She semi-gently pushed against his chest to try and make it known that he needed to giver her space but he wouldn’t let go. She pushed harder still with no luck. She was just about to give him a really hard shove when she and Keith were pulled unceremoniously off the side of the dance floor into the darkness under the trees. Aurora stumbled a bit but was set right by a hand behind her. Next thing she knew she was abruptly removed from Keith’s hold and placed to one side and as neat as you like Callan turned Keith by the arm and punched him squarely in the mouth.

The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion but in reality probably only took a few seconds. When Aurora got over the initial shock of it all, she noticed that Keith had moved even further into the darkness and was holding his jaw and moving it slowly. Theresa had materialised from nowhere, the stranger two steps behind her. Theresa grabbed Callan by the arm.

‘Cal, don’t. It’s not worth it.’

Aurora could see the restrained fury coursing through Callan. She took a couple of steps backwards herself. She had learnt the hard way what that did to a man and she had no intention of hanging around. Just as she turned to make her escape into the crowd, Trudy grabbed her elbow.

‘Let’s go and grab a drink. Put a bit of space between you and Keith. Hmm?’

Aurora could only nod.

Bizarrely enough, nobody else seemed to be paying any attention to the ruckus beside the dance floor. Maybe that was because the dance floor itself blocked the view from where the tables were and the guests dancing were too busy doing their own thing to care. Aurora was relieved. She would hate to be part of something that spoiled somebody’s wedding.

On their way over to the drinks, Aurora was a little reassured that no lasting damage had been done when she saw the bride and groom together and laughing with a crowd of people that she didn’t know. She hoped that the whole incident permanently escaped their attention. She flicked her eyes over the crowd on the dance floor and saw Callan and Theresa a few steps away from the action. Theresa had a fierce look on her face and from the jerky hand movements and the stubborn look on Cal’s face, Aurora figured that Theresa’s words were not pleasant. She had a very bad feeling that Callan hitting Keith was only the beginning of the trouble.

twelve

U
nder the
S
tars

Even though she knew that she shouldn’t be staring at them, Aurora’s attention was riveted to what was taking place between Theresa and Callan in the shadows beside the dance floor. She was too far away to hear what was going on but the body language said everything. Cal had dropped his head and was staring at either the ground or his feet and Theresa’s body was slightly bent forward, fairly close to his and whatever she had to say she hadn’t paused to take a breath.

Aurora was ashamed of her role in their altercation. It can’t be nice to watch your fiancé draped over somebody else, nor to have him act in a way that claims ownership of another woman. The fact that Theresa herself wasn’t behaving correctly was really by the wayside. Reality was though, Aurora didn’t like her role in things. She eventually turned her attention back to Trudy, who, once again, had a very knowing look on her face. Aurora had always had a face that gave whatever she was thinking away unless she particularly tried hard to keep it blank, and she figured that her thoughts were written all over her face for all to see. Trudy couldn’t help laughing.

‘Theresa goes off like a rocket.’

Trudy paused for a second to take a sip of the scotch and coke in her hand before continuing.

‘She calms down equally as quickly but crap does she let fly when she’s wild, which she looks like she is at the moment.’

Aurora looked at the can of soft drink in her own hand, avoiding Trudy’s eyes when she replied.

‘She certainly does.’

Trudy turned around, surveying the dance floor, a smile lifting the corners of her mouth when she spotted Rick dancing with Fiona. Her words were distracted.

‘Cal will deal with her. She hasn’t beaten him yet.’

Aurora turned as well, not wanting Cal and Theresa to think that she was watching them, now that Trudy had moved her attention. She and Trudy made their way without speaking back to the table. Aurora had just put her drink down when the band launched into a lively number and Gerry was at her elbow asking her to dance. She accepted, glad of the distraction. When the song ended, the new song that the band launched into didn’t suit either her or Gerry and she was sitting down when Theresa came over and sat in the chair beside her.

Aurora braced herself for the dressing down that she assumed she was about to receive. If she were completely honest with herself she did deserve it, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she wanted to face it. She was very surprised when it never came and instead Theresa smiled.

‘Cal sometimes doesn’t think before he acts. You will have to forgive him for dragging you into that.’

Aurora was gobsmacked. A plea for forgiveness was the last thing that she had expected from the conversation. She still hadn’t quite worked out what to say when the stranger that Theresa had been spending a lot of time with, pulled the chair up beside Theresa, grabbed her hand and kissed the knuckles. Theresa turned her dazzling smile on him. She spoke again when she returned her attention to Aurora.

‘I don’t think that I have had a chance to introduce you yet, but this is my fiancé, Brett Turner.’

With that, Theresa turned to Brett, which was good because Aurora was sure that her jaw had dropped open.

‘Brett, this is Aurora. She will be staying out at Bilgarra for a month or so.’

The attention of both was now squarely on Aurora again, although that couple of seconds had allowed her to get her reaction to the news under control. Brett had a fairly dazzling smile of his own which he flashed at Aurora, who couldn’t help returning it when he spoke.

‘Nice to meet you. How are you enjoying it so far?’

Despite the designer clothes, he actually seemed down to earth and genuine. Aurora wanted to laugh at her misconception, but she didn’t, guessing that explaining that she had thought him a stuck up, city boy wouldn’t be the best way to start off.

‘I’m loving it. It’s so far outside my normal routine that I am enjoying it immensely.’

A look of disbelief crossed his face. Aurora decided that he was handsome, in a pretty boy kind of way.

‘Better you than me. I love Theresa but I don’t love the life out here. We are going to buy an acreage on the outskirts of Townsville so that I can still keep working in the city and Theresa can still keep her horses and some cattle if she wants to.’

Theresa laughed heartily at that, raising her eyebrows at him and gently elbowing him.

‘If I want to... I can’t believe you said that. You know as well as I do that there is no choice.’

Brett lifted his hands, briefly letting go of Theresa’s and shot Aurora a look of complete surrender.

‘This not an argument that I am ever going to win. I surrendered long ago.’

Theresa leaned in for a quick kiss. Before anybody had a chance to say anything further, the band struck up
When a man loves a Woman
, and Brett pulled Theresa up to dance. Now that Aurora knew how it all fitted together, it made sense. She was relieved that Callan wasn’t the sort of guy that would let his woman flirt and tart about. Brett and Theresa actually made a lovely couple. She was pleased for them.

Thinking about it, all the things that she had seen between Cal and Theresa were the marks of friendship. She had seen Theresa with her arm around him and seen him kiss her on the top of the head but the more she thought about it, the more she could see that she had never seen him kiss her on the mouth or grab her hand as a lover would do. She felt foolish for jumping to conclusions and less guilty about her own feelings and the pleasure that dancing with him had brought her. She also felt a moment of guilt about thinking that he would use her to get even with Theresa. It had been an unfair thought.

As if her thoughts had conjured him, Callan stood in front of her with his hand out. The only word that he said was ‘Please’ and it was the little boy look on his face that really sucked Aurora in. She placed her hand in his and let him lead her out onto the dance floor. This time when Callan put his arms around her she looped hers around his neck. She wanted to lean against him, tuck her head under his chin and very much enjoy the moment. Instead, she kept a small space between them and wasn’t quite sure where to look.

She was very self-conscious about what the others were probably thinking. Being very private by nature meant not usually wanting to flaunt everything in front of everyone, but in this situation there was no other choice. It wasn’t like they could duck off for dinner, or slip away to the coast for the weekend and get to know each other without feeling like they were under a microscope.

‘Aurora...’

For the first time since they started dancing, Aurora looked at Cal. The band were close enough to the dance floor that the music was heard, but far enough away talking was easily possible without the usual yelling.

‘I’m not sorry that I hit Keith. I would do that all again, but I am sorry that I literally dragged you into the middle of it all.’

Aurora didn’t quite know how to respond. If only he knew. She had copped worse at the hands of Peter, but she couldn’t tell Cal that.

‘It’s fine. I didn’t get hurt so no harm done.’

Aurora dropped her gaze to regroup before she continued.

‘It should be me thanking you. I was having trouble getting Keith’s hands off me without making too much of a fuss. So, thank you.’

A look of thunder crossed Cal’s face.

‘He made me so bloody angry. He’s lucky I only hit him the once.’

Aurora didn’t say anything, merely waited for him to say more. He huffed out a breath before he continued.

‘Theresa tore strips off me. Her biggest concern was causing a scene at somebody’s wedding, especially when I am part of the bridal party. She had a point on that one. Luckily, not many people seemed to have noticed. She also ripped into me for being stupid enough to assault an employee of the family in case the twit decides to claim workplace harassment or some garbage like that. She probably has a point with that one too, but I wasn’t thinking too straight at the time.’

Aurora gave a small smile. He had obviously forgotten what she did for a living.

‘I think I could explain that your actions didn’t amount to workplace harassment or bullying.’

Cal raked his hand through his hair, before settling his arm back around Aurora. Then he looked at her and fully grinned.

‘Crap. I forgot you’re lawyer. You probably teach all this do you?’

‘No, not that particular area, but I do know the basic ins and outs of it. I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you.’

‘In which case I’m going to forget all about it and enjoy the rest of the night.’

With those words he pulled her a little closer. The band moved from that song into a rendition of Elvis’
Love me Tender
and they kept dancing. Aurora had never been much of an Elvis fan, but if she were being completely honest with herself, she wouldn’t choose to be any place other than dancing with Cal at the moment, and she had sort of tuned out anyway until she realised that the slow song had stopped and the band had launched into an old ACDC number.

Cal loosened his arms and grabbed her by the hand, weaving his way through the people to the outside of the dance floor and over to the other side of the tree where Sophie and Jeff had been married that afternoon. Ignoring the fact that he was in good clothes, he pulled Aurora to sit beside him leaning against the large trunk of the tree. Away from the fairy lights, the moonlight lit everything with its own glow. Instinct had Aurora flinching at sitting on the ground in her dress, but logic won out - it was just a dress after all, and it certainly wasn’t her best dress, merely the best dress that she had included just in case, which in the circumstances had paid off.

She tried to lower herself down beside him in the most graceful manner possible, although she felt like an ungainly giraffe trying to fold itself onto the ground. Cal leant back against the tree and put his arm around her, pulling her head onto his shoulder. There was no talking they just rested like that through a couple of songs. While they sat Cal’s fingers were lazily drawing circles on Aurora’s shoulder. Without the distraction of people, Aurora finally noticed the stars in the distance. Gran was right, it certainly was vast and they did look like sequins on velvet. Aurora hoped she would get the chance to have a better look before she went home. The lighting in the city took a lot of the wow factor away.