Last Chance Proposal (6 page)

“Oh, there you are.” Fleur joined them, waving a pair of tongs in her hand. Ellie had told him that her sister knew about the marriage, and although he hadn’t spoken to Fleur about it himself, he had the impression that she didn’t think it was such a great idea.

“Won’t your parents be proud of your sister, Fleur?” Betty said as she took one of the sandwiches Ellie offered her. “What with losing your brother and then you with Louis’s no-good father running off, a wedding full of love will be just what they need. I bet your mum’s shopping for an outfit on that overseas trip.”

Fleur touched Cy on the back and threw him a teasing smile. “Oh, they’ll be proud, all right. How could they not be happy with someone like Cy having Ellie’s best interests at heart.”

Cy considered the elder Jacobs sister and raised an eyebrow at her challenge. “I’m the one who’ll be proud,” he said, meaning every single word. “Having Ellie as my wife is a privilege I take very seriously.”

Fleur chewed the inside of her cheek and smiled back at him.

“Let’s check on the barbecue,” Ellie suddenly said as she took Cy’s hand. “You take a break, Fleur. I think Betty wants to ask you for a cupcake recipe.”

Before her sister had a chance to reply, Ellie had him by the hand and was leading him to the secluded barbecue area. “Sorry about that,” she whispered. “Fleur’s a little overprotective.”

“As she should be,” he said, lowering his voice. “You’re lucky to have such a strong family, Ellie. People to look out for you.” He picked up a pair of tongs and started turning some kebabs. “How are you doing with all this?”

She sat on a swing hung in the tree and pushed her hair off her face. “To be honest, I’m not loving it. All the pretending. I can feel myself blush every time I have to lie.”

He threw her a smile. “I wouldn’t worry. People like Betty will think it’s just your way of showing how in love with me you are.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “I reckon we’ve got Betty fooled, and if she thinks we’re in love, then half the province will know by tomorrow. Those drama classes Mum so reluctantly paid for one summer obviously paid off. I thought I must have been giving the game away for sure.”

He sat his beer bottle on the side of the barbecue and waited until she looked at him. “No one can mistake the fact that we’re still good friends. We’ll just have to be ready next time someone expects us to act like a couple in love.”

A wave of pink traveled up her neck. “I’m worried I’ll forget and ruin everything.”

“We’ll be fine. We’re comfortable enough around each other to pull it off.”

She looked around to make sure no one was listening and her voice became more serious. “We’ll need to discuss a few things like that. About boundaries.”

He shrugged. “The best thing about being here for the next two weeks is that we can work on all that stuff. And the easiest way to get to know each other again is to spend time together, have some fun. It won’t take us long to figure it out.”

“Hey, speaking of having fun, Louis was asking if we could take Jonty to see the glowworms down by the river. There’s supposed to be a cold wind coming up tomorrow so tonight would be good. I know it would mean a lot to Lou.”

He turned sausages on the grill. “Louis’s a great kid. It was nice of him to ask, but Jonty’s scared of the dark. He still sleeps with a light on. I think it’d be too much.”

“Even if we have torches and all go together? There’s a good track down there now.”

She didn’t understand what it was like sometimes with Jonty. He could have a panic attack at any minute, either going still and refusing to move, or thrashing about so much that he could hurt himself. “I don’t want to rush things with him, Ellie. With you coming back to the States now and the changes he’ll have to go through living with us, he’s going to have a lot to deal with. I’d prefer to play it safe.”

“Sure,” she said. “What do I know about kids anyway? When Louis was three I thought it would be a great idea to take him to see the fireworks at the neighbor’s and he was scared witless.”

“I’m sure you’re great with kids,” he said before taking another sip of beer. He saw the way she spoke to Louis, with love and devotion, and he only hoped he could help her build some sort of relationship with Jonty—and eventually him.

She nibbled her lip then jumped off the swing and came to stand beside him. “It’s great to have you back, Cy, really great, and I have a feeling that everything’s going to turn out fine.”

She turned away to pick up a bowl of corncobs and he watched the way the dusky light cast soft shadows on her face. It did feel good to be back here, way more than he’d imagined, but it wasn’t the relaxed lifestyle or the beautiful scenery that was getting under his skin. It was the beautiful Ellie Jacobs. He hoped that the connection to her he could feel growing every minute wouldn’t cause everything to be blown apart.

…

The night was still and black when they’d finished dinner and everyone else had gone home. The cool breeze had dropped and the earth had come alive, heating from within as mosquitoes hummed and a morepork owl hooted in the distance.

Ellie watched Cy lean his forearms on the picnic table as he spoke. “That was great ice cream, Louis.”

Louis looked down at the table and shrugged.

Cy scooped up the last bit of creamy residue with his finger before sliding it into his mouth. “Wish I could make ice cream. I can make a mean chocolate cake, but wouldn’t know where to start with ice cream.”

Louis’s eyes flicked up, then down. “It’s easy, but you’ve gotta use big eggs.”

Cy nodded. “We’ve been doing eggs for breakfast since we got here, haven’t we Jonty? We like them with lots of ketchup.”

Ellie made a gagging sound. “Ugh, you’re kidding! That sounds nasty.”

“No, it’s not,” Louis said. “It’s what boys like, isn’t it, Cy?”

“Sure is. Almost as good as chocolate sauce on pancakes for breakfast.”

“I can do pancakes!” Louis’s chin shot up. “I can do them with peanut butter, too, and my best ones have chocolate chunks.”

Ellie and Fleur both poked their tongues out.

Cy winked across the table. “Maybe we’ll have a boys’ breakfast sometime. What do you say, Louis? Eggs and ketchup, chocolate chunk pancakes and a few sausages on the side. You can come to our place.”

“Have you still got that pukeko chick?” Fleur asked.

Cy nodded. “Ellie called the bird sanctuary and they said not to release it until its foot was better. They can take it after the Christmas break to get it ready to go back into the wild. Jonty’s been looking after it really well, haven’t you, bud?”

Jonty dragged the spoon through his lips and nodded to his father. He played with the scarf that was always tied around his neck or wrist.

Louis pushed his chair back. “Can we see the glowworms?”

Ellie shot a look at Cy. “I forgot to tell him.”

“I think Jonty’s a bit tired tonight, aren’t you, J?” Cy said

Jonty’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously.

Cy swiveled toward his son. “There are no lights where the glowworms are. You can only see them when it’s really dark at night. In the forest.”

Sensing a moment of tension Ellie said, “You’ll be here for lots of nights, Jonty. We can see the glowworms another time. Has Daddy told you about them?” Cy’s little boy just looked at her and she rushed on, cursing herself for asking a question he couldn’t answer. “They’re a bit like lightening bugs but they’re worms that live on the banks of the stream. You can only see them at night. When you’re really, really quiet and everything’s really dark they shine brightly like the fairy lights you helped Fleur put in the trees.”

Jonty put his spoon in the plate and as he looked at her, blinking, Ellie’s heart did a swan dive. Connecting with him was going to be so hard. And reconnecting with his dad was going to be even harder.

Jonty turned to Louis.

“Pleeeease,” Louis said to Cy. “Tell him, Ellie. It’ll be great. Jonty’s never seen them before and I want to show him. Please!”

Fleur stood and lifted a jacket from the back of a chair. “If we’re going, it needs to be soon. I don’t want you too tired for Christmas prep tomorrow, Louis.” Cy stayed seated at the table and Ellie could see how torn he was. It must be tough to balance trying to protect his son with the fact Jonty seemed so keen to go. Perhaps if Cy could relax a little then Jonty would relax too.

…

Cy felt the weight of their stares and sighed. “All right, but you’ll need to hold my hand all the way, bud.” He stood and put Jonty’s jacket on while Louis whooped around looking for torches.

While he bundled his boy up, Cy wondered what had made him agree to take Jonty to the glowworms. It could’ve been the desperation in Louis’s voice, might also have been the brightness in Jonty’s eyes, but if he were honest with himself, the real reason was that he didn’t want this day with Ellie to end.

So much of the afternoon at the party had been about pretending and playacting, but when the visitors had gone and they could get back to being themselves, everything felt so different. They’d laughed together again and talked about the things Ellie would find different in the States. When they’d sat down to dinner together under the lights in the old rata tree, Cy had realized that he hadn’t felt this connected to anyone in years, and he didn’t want it to stop.

A short while later they were walking through the bush, the scent of overripe summer flowers surrounding them. Cy held Jonty’s hand beside Ellie, with Fleur and Louis taking the lead. Fleur was telling them all an old Maori legend about the fairy people who’d visit the river as glowworms, Louis embellishing it with hoots and whoops.

Cy shared a flashlight with Ellie and stayed close to her in the darkness. His heavy footfalls on dried ferns beat time. “Remember when my old friend Jake and I followed a bunch of you girls down here one night and pretended to be ghosts?” He looked down to check for roots in their way and saw Ellie smile in the glow of the flashlight.

She laughed. “We screamed so much, all the dads came running and two of them ended up in the river.”

He chuckled. “We got in big trouble.”

“And your punishment was to help clean out the septic tanks.”

Cy let the memory of those simple times wash through him. So much had happened since.

“Hey, J,” Louis called. “There’s a possum in the tree up here, come take a look.”

Jonty started to pull away but Cy still held his hand. “Will you be okay, bud?”

Jonty turned to look at Ellie.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, won’t you, Jonty,” she said quietly.

Jonty nodded and slipped from Cy’s hold. Ellie stopped and hugged herself at his side.

“You’re cold,” he said and stopped walking.

She pulled her cardigan tighter. “I’m okay.”

He ignored her protest and shrugged out of his jacket, the light from the flashlight casting soft shadows across her face. Ahead, Jonty moved his flashlight this way and that as they looked for the possum.

Cy held the jacket behind her and Ellie put her arms through the holes till her fingers were swamped. When he’d adjusted it, he held his hands on her shoulders for a moment and his stomach looped. He turned her around, and she rolled one of the sleeves so she could hold the torch better.

“This zipper’s a bit funny, I’ll do it up for you,” he said. He drew the bottom edges of the jacket together as she watched.

When he reached her chest his mind flashed to that day on the yacht years ago, how her body responded to him. The memory caused his chest to tighten. His responses had been naive then, rapid and reflex. The way his body awakened now was from knowledge of the way he wanted to make her feel.

He held his breath as he reached her heart. For a second he fumbled, but still Ellie didn’t look up, and he was afraid that the spell he was under would be broken. Not wanting to finish his task, he rested his hands on her shoulders and Ellie’s gaze drifted up. She stood still, night shadows dancing across her face. Did she feel what he did? His heart squeezed as he reached down and took her hand in his. “Better?”

“Mm hmm,” she murmured.

Then he looked over her shoulder. “Wait up, you guys,” he called, while he ordered his heart to slow and his body to regain its equilibrium.

What had just happened? Had he imagined the thread of electricity dancing between them? Was the spark that had begun a slow-burning fire in his blood nothing more than wishful thinking?

“Shh! We’re here,” Louis called from up ahead.

Cy could make out shapes stopped on the track and gave a vote of thanks for the distraction. He pulled alongside Jonty and put a hand on his son’s shoulder and drew the boy to him.

“Okay, everyone, on the count of three,” Fleur whispered. “Turn off your flashlights and look across to the banks of the stream. Don’t make any noise or their lights will go out.”

Cy reached for his son’s hand and held it, warm in his own.

“One, two, three.”

As they were plunged into darkness, Jonty breathed in sharply and squeezed his hand before burying his face in Cy’s thigh.

Cy knelt. “It’s okay, J.” And he took in a swift breath of his own as the sight in front of them came into sharp focus. “Look, Jonty, look.” Still the little boy’s face was squashed into his leg as Cy turned and stared at the millions of tiny lights twinkling like diamonds.

“Wow, Jonty. Isn’t it cool?” Louis whispered.

Jonty’s hands moved to his face and he slapped his palms over his eyes and began to rock backward and forward. Cold, piercing fear gripped Cy as he reached for his son’s shoulders and pulled him close. “Cy, is he okay?” Ellie was beside him in a second, her voice soft and full of concern.

Cy turned to face her. “No, he’s not okay. I told you he was scared of the dark. I shouldn’t have let myself be talked into bringing him here.” He scooped up Jonty, turned the flashlight back on, and pointed it up the track. Jonty was stiff in his arms, hands still stuck to his eyes.

“Cy, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”