Nobody but Him (23 page)

He raised his glass. ‘To Lizzie Blake!’

‘To Lizzie Blake!’ they all shouted in return.

Julia forced her wobbly legs to move and found her chair. She couldn’t ever remember seeing Lizzie so excited. So why had a sense of gloom washed over her? She knew. It was the realisation that she would soon be back in Melbourne and wouldn’t be able to share any of this success with her best friend. Her eyes welled in response to that emotional conclusion. She’d missed her so much and in a couple of weeks there would be a physical distance between them once again.

‘The second surprise is even better,’ Dan called out and then stopped himself. ‘Sorry Lizzie, not to take anything away for your promotion, of course.’ He winked at her and smiled generously.

Ry filled his glass and lifted it high.

‘You are now looking at the creators of Windswept, a new five-hundred-home development right here at Middle Point.’

Barbra gasped. ‘You got approval from the bank?’

‘Yep, and the local authority and we’ve got tenders ready to go out,’ Ry replied with relish.

Three of the five diners erupted in cheers and clinked their wine glasses together in celebration as Barbra leaped to her feet to hug the two men. It was a minute before Ry registered that Julia and Lizzie were sitting silently, exchanging glances.

‘What’s up with you two?’ he asked. When he noticed the solemn looks on their faces, his happiness faded in inverse proportion to the rise of his stubbornness.

Lizzie twisted her napkin in her fingers. Julia stared into her wine.

Finally Lizzie spoke. ‘Did you say
five hundred
homes?’ She’d turned to Ry, her lips drawn in a tight line, her brow crumpled.

‘That’s right. We’ve bought the Rumbelow estate on the other side of the Victor Harbor Road. It’s right between the beach and the hills, with unbelievable views both ways.’

‘And you got permission to turn it into a
housing
development?’ Julia asked quietly.

‘Yes, we did.’ He tried to control the flare of anger he felt.

‘That seems a lot of homes for a small-town like this,’ Lizzie noted.

Across the table, Dan sat taller in his chair and his eyes narrowed. He stared at Lizzie.

‘Don’t tell me. You think all development is evil, right?’

She sucked in a big breath. ‘And let me guess, you think anyone opposed to development is a naïve hippie.’ Lizzie put her drink down on the table with a clatter against the side plate and leaned across the table to face off with Dan.

‘Windswept will bring money and jobs into this town,’ he said tightly.

‘It’ll bring money and jobs, for sure. Money into
your
pockets and jobs that will disappear as soon as those homes are built.’ She turned to her boss. ‘I’m sorry, Ry, but I’ve seen this before. Big developers with big plans for homes that end up being nothing more than tiny dog boxes for people, with no more space than they have in the city. That’s not what people here need.’

Ry tried to quell his anger and keep his voice restrained. ‘Lizzie, it won’t be like that.’

‘It will. Look around … out of all of us here at this table, I’m the only one who actually lives in this town and I’ve been there, done that. We like it exactly the way it is. This development you’re planning will ruin it.’

Ry looked to Julia. She was fiddling with the stem of her wine glass. She hadn’t made eye contact with anyone.

Ry squared his shoulders. ‘Julia? What do you think?’

She waited a moment before speaking. ‘I don’t think you know what local people want.’ She looked up and met his gaze.

Ry turned away from her and took a gulp of wine. It felt bitter in his mouth.

‘I think I have a pretty good idea. I’ve been coming down to Middle Point since I was a kid. Spent quality time here when I was younger, as a matter of fact.’

Judging by the look on Julia’s face, she got the reference.

‘The very things people come to Middle Point for, the peace, the beautiful uncrowded beaches, the fresh air, will all be trashed if you build that many houses. There’s so little left of the original Middle Point as it is.’

Ry felt a tightening in his chest and a flare of resentment in his throat. ‘No, Julia. People will move into those homes
because
of the beautiful uncrowded beaches and the fresh air. Middle Point will be a haven for them. They’ll come her as an escape, not treat it as a place to escape from.’

Julia’s face was pale and her mouth fixed. ‘So there are nice views and a beach. Big deal. People want more than that these days.’

‘I think,’ Ry began, then drew in a huge breath to control his temper, ‘that when people see what Windswept will be like, they’ll never want to leave.’

Noticing the silence, he glanced around the table and caught his mother’s eye. He didn’t need words to know what she was thinking. Her death stare said it all. Ry looked to the others, hoping to at least have some back up from Dan. But everyone looked pissed off. Barbra because he’d ruined the night by fighting with Julia. Dan because Lizzie had accused him of being a white-shoe-brigade property developer. Lizzie because Dan had accused her of being a tree-hugger. Julia because … hell, he couldn’t figure that one out.

Ry took another gulp of wine, hoping it would suppress the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. What should have been the happiest night of his life had turned, on a dime, into a nightmare.

Julia stood up, unsteady. ‘I’m not feeling that well, a sudden headache. I think I’d better go.’

Lizzie stood too. ‘I’ll make sure you get home, Jools. Sorry, Ry, but I just don’t get it. No hard feelings on my part if you want to un-promote me.’

‘You’d better watch him,’ Julia smirked. ‘He gets a kick out of sacking people.’

That was it. Ry’s chair scraped along the wooden floor as he

stood up.

‘Lizzie, please sit down.’ He pushed a hand through his hair. ‘Of course I still want you to manage the pub.’ Then he turned to Julia and took her forcefully by her elbow.

‘We need to talk.’

A bitter wind gusted up from the ocean and howled across the street, searing through Ry like a knife as he stood out front of the pub. The crashing sounds of the waves whipped up the rocky cliffs of the Point, roaring in his ears and in his chest. Julia was standing as far away from him as possible, huddled in the protection of the doorway of the old stone building, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Her dark eyes were narrowed and fierce, her wild curls blowing uncontrollably about her face. She wouldn’t look at him.

The streetlights dangled precariously above them, swaying, and eerie shadows shifted on the ground as if a drunk with a flashlight was passing by. But they were alone. Every sane person in Middle Point was somewhere else on a night like this.

Ry paced, trying desperately to think about what he needed to say. Julia’s reaction to his news about Windswept had confused the hell out of him. A gnawing and dangerously familiar feeling in the pit of his gut was tormenting him.
Was this his last chance?
This wasn’t the first time in his life he’d been standing before her, too infuriated to speak.

Her car driving away. His feet frozen to the spot. The words ‘Fuck you’ and ‘I love you’ warring in his head. Not even turning around to take one last look. Gone.

Finally he spoke, summoning a calm he didn’t feel. ‘JJ——’

‘Don’t call me that.’ Her voice was angry.

‘Okay then.
Julia
, there’s something I need to tell you.’

‘Well, get on with it. I’m freezing my arse off out here.’

He took a step closer to her, staring directly at her furious eyes.

‘I want to make something perfectly clear. I don’t get a kick out of sacking people. I’ve always …
always
done the best I could for the people who work for me. I over-reacted when I saw you working here and I’m sorry for it.’

He could see her shiver and knew when she resolutely drew her lips tightly together that she was not going to back down. ‘Jesus, Ry. You think I care about
that
?’

‘Well, you threw it back in my face tonight so, yes, I think you do.’

‘Get over yourself, Ry. You really want to know what I care about?’

He glared at her in silence.

‘You think that all you have to do is throw your money around and people will fall at your feet. You and your money, the schools, the homes and cars. None of it impresses me, Ry. It never has.’

Is that what she thought? That he’d thrown all that in her face to win her? ‘I never wanted to impress you that way.’

‘You just can’t stand that your money won’t win you this one.’

Ry shook his head in frustration. ‘This makes no fucking sense. I don’t understand why you’re pissed off. Can’t you see that this town will die on the vine unless there’s investment here? It needs more people to keep it going, to keep jobs here. When there aren’t enough regulars to eat at this pub, I won’t be able to keep the restaurant going. When there aren’t enough people to buy beers, Lizzie won’t have a job. It’s that simple. It’s basic economics.’

She took a deep breath before letting rip.

‘And it’s all about the economics to you, isn’t it?’

‘When I’m the one putting up the money? Yes, it’s pretty fucking important. Last time I looked I wasn’t running a charity.’

‘What do you think it was like growing up in this town surrounded by summer blow-ins like you and your mates? All that money and privilege, taking over the place, treating it like it was yours. That’s why I had to get out of here. How could little Julia Jones compete with all that … with people who drive down here in their expensive cars and buy the ugliest house in Middle Point?’

Her defiant words were shards of ice right into his chest, more savage than the freezing wind. They pierced him, twisted and lodged in his heart. This woman, whom he’d once loved with everything he had, was slipping through his fingers again.

And it seemed she wasn’t finished. ‘Everything you’ve done … and are about to do … will ruin what we have.’

Ry knew her insults were not aimed at any bricks and mortar. He knew who the real target was.

‘This has nothing to do with a housing development, does it?’ He stood apart from her, in silence, his jaw tight and aching, trying to keep calm as he watched her beautiful face slip away from him.

Julia fought with her hair, twisting her curls in her fingers to keep them under control. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘This is about you and me. You think I’m down here just to screw people over, don’t you?’

‘Well, aren’t you?’

‘You of all people should know how important Middle Point has always been to me.’

She paused a second before delivering another blow. ‘Why, because land is cheap?’

Ry’s head hammered. His fists clenched at his sides and he wanted to smash something. He’d wanted to show her that he’d changed in the past fifteen years. He desperately wanted to prove to her that he knew the old Ry Blackburn, the one who demanded she stay in Middle Point because that’s what he wanted, had been an arrogant shit. How could he show her that the older and wiser man he was today knew better? Those thoughts warred in his head and the arrogance, the hurt and finally the ego, the old Ry, won.

He took two steps back, crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her with fury and a cynical mouth. ‘For someone who drove away fifteen years ago without even looking back, you seem to care a hell of a lot for this place.’

Her eyes flashed wide and her cheeks flushed in the cold. ‘This is where I grew up. Of course I care about it.’

‘I think that’s bullshit. You haven’t cared about anyone — or this place — for fifteen years. You ran away years ago and you’re running away again, right back to Melbourne.’

Julia looked stricken. He’d hit close to the bone. ‘I am not running away! I’m going home and the sooner the better.’

‘Exactly. So why do you give a shit about Middle Point?’

‘Because I——’. Julia stopped, frozen to the spot.

‘I’ve got a question for you, Julia.’ He couldn’t stop now. The knot in his throat uncoiled and the words came out in an angry stream. ‘Who the hell do you think is going to buy your mother’s place? It’ll be someone with money who’ll drive down from the city in their fancy car, pay land value for the dump, knock it over and build another ugly house just like mine.’

Her look was so fierce it pierced him. ‘You’re selling out the place you claim to love so much, Ry.’

‘And you, Julia, are running away again from the place you claim to love.’

Julia sniffed in the cold night air, shrinking back from him. She looked small in the doorway.

‘When are you going back to Melbourne?’ he asked.

‘Not soon enough.’ The defiant tone in her voice told him everything he needed to know. Everything he didn’t want to face.

He turned to walk away. Four steps and he glanced back over his shoulder for one last look.

More than you did when you left, Julia.

‘Have a nice life.’

Inside the pub, Dan checked his watch for about the tenth time. Ry and Julia had been gone for half an hour. They’d either killed each other or were having knock ’em down, make-up sex. You could never tell with Ry.

‘Well,’ Barbra stood to go. ‘I don’t believe they’re going to come back, so I’m driving back to Adelaide.’ She stood, reaching for her coat and handbag.

Dan scraped his chair back and stood to his full height.

‘C’mon Barbra, you can’t leave now. Stay and have something to eat with me.’ Dan glanced back at Lizzie. ‘Us, I mean.’

Barbra craned her neck to look up at his pleading face and patted his arm. ‘No, I won’t, my darling. I think Ry and Julia need to work some things out and I don’t believe they’ll be back for dinner. You two go on and order.’

Lizzie paled and bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry if I upset Ry, Barbra. He’s a great boss and I’m really excited about the promotion. But I feel what I feel and I’m not going to hide that from anyone.’

Barbra’s eyes sparkled as she regarded Lizzie. ‘Lizzie, my darling, that’s exactly what I like about you. Don’t you dare stop speaking your mind. You and Ry will make your peace, I know.’