So Far Into You (27 page)

So it wasn't a profession of undying love; but as Remy went, Seth counted it positive, and hell: if she wanted to show him how much she loved him a thousand times a day rather than tell him, he was good with that.

Who couldn't be good with that?

Chapter 25

Remy's mother called Monday morning while Seth and Remy were at the bank. Remy had to cut Lexie off with a promise to call back.

They ate a quick lunch at the cottage before he left to collect the rest of his things from the Oakbank Pub and settle his room bill. From there, he'd go to Montgomery Wines for more meetings and then, to the airport.

‘I gotta go, Rem, or I'll never get on the plane,' he said, holding her tight, pressing his body to hers. ‘But I'll be thinking the entire time of the day I get back.'

She wanted to tell him she missed him already. She wanted to tell him she loved him. Instead she kissed him until both of them were reeling.

‘I'll call you when I get to Perth. It's a three-hour drive south. I'll need you to keep me company at least some of the way.'

‘Drive safe,' she said, catching his bottom lip and sucking it between hers.

‘Oh, bugger the plane. How 'bout we sit you up here like this for a minute,' and he lifted her onto the kitchen bench.

***

When Remy rang her mother, Lexie answered the phone super-fast. That wasn't like her. She was a bit of a bumble when it came to new technology and she was still getting the hang of her first mobile phone.

‘Hi, love,' her mother said. She sounded like she'd been running.

‘Hi to you, too. What's happening? Where are you?'

‘We're in Cairns. We've been up to Port Douglas today. It's so beautiful up here.'

‘I'm glad you're taking your time. It's a big country, there's no need to rush around it.'

‘We've been in Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays for a while and we hadn't been catching much news, but then in Cairns this morning we had a lazy coffee and Bernie saw this article in the weekend paper about you and Seth Lasrey. I almost had a heart attack. What's that all about?'

‘Don't stress out, Mum. Seth and I are seeing each other.'

‘What do you mean: seeing each other?'

‘Well, you remember that I told you Max and Sue sold Montgomery Wines?'

‘Yes. That was ages ago.'

‘Well, the company that bought Montgomery was Lasrey Estate.'

‘Yowza,' Lexie breathed.

‘That's kind of what I said. So, long story short, Seth has been in South Australia for the last month, and we've kind of got friendly all over again.'

‘Are you sure, love? Everything went so bad so fast last time. I don't ever want to see you in that kind of pain again. His mother's not in Adelaide too, is she? Please tell me she's not.'

‘I haven't seen Ailsa. She's still in the West.'

She felt Lexie's sigh of relief all the way from Cairns.

‘What about that Rina woman?'

Remy groaned. ‘No such luck.'

‘What makes you think this time around is going to be any different? He's still a Lasrey. You're still a Roberts. The two of you really don't meet in the middle.'

‘You said when I was little that I could be anything I wanted to be when I grew up. You said I was as good as anyone.'

‘What about that French woman last time? The wine heiress? You were a wreck when you thought the two of them were engaged.'

‘Yes, but that was a false alarm and I'm older and wiser now. I can look after myself, Mum.'

‘I know you can, love. Sometimes I wish I'd been able to do more for you when you were young. I should have left your father a long time ago. Bernie's shown me that. I didn't have to put up with your dad all those years and struggle on like we did.'

‘You did the best that you could. You took your marriage vows seriously. You meant it when you said the bit about as long as you both shall live.' It surprised Remy to find she was getting teary. She and Lexie didn't open up about their emotions much. ‘Oh, look, Mum. Enough of the soppy stuff. Tell me, has Bernie bought you the ring?'

‘He said he wants to get it in Darwin. Don't ask me why.'

Remy had been about to ask
why Darwin
, so she changed tack. ‘Mum, Seth was looking through some of your old photo albums yesterday. He showed me a photo of you at Trickle Beach with a group. He said his dad was in the photo. Joe.'

‘That picture's ancient, Rem. That was before Joe and Ailsa got married.'

‘You two looked pretty friendly,' Remy pressed.

‘I don't know about
friendly
, Ailsa and Joe were engaged, and her parents were all set to buy the land where they planted vines. It was a wedding present.'

‘So you and Seth's dad, never … you know.'

‘Remy, it was 1968. It might have been the swinging sixties but I was never much of a bed-hopping hippie.'

‘Not even a sneaky kiss?'

Lexie hesitated too long. ‘Maybe a few sneaky kisses, but that was it.'

‘Did you ever regret not … pursuing things with Joe Lasrey?'

‘A little. I won't lie. I let Ailsa and all her money scare me off too easily, but I thought I was doing the right thing. You can't take back the past, Rem. You can't change it. If I'd never met your father, I would never have had you. You were always the best thing about my marriage to Wayne.'

‘Thanks, Mum.'

‘Anytime, love. You know that. I did always wish I'd done a bit more than kiss Joe. He was pretty dishy back then.'

‘I hope Bernie's not listening.'

‘Even if he was listening, he'd be fine. Everybody has a past. He and I are old enough to know that.'

‘He's a keeper, is Bernie,' Remy said.

‘I hope Seth is a keeper too, Rem. I really hope so. Be careful, love.'

‘I will. Thanks, Mum. Stay safe. Whatever you do, don't follow any sign to a place called Wolf Creek.'

***

It was while she was getting dinner ready later that Remy got her first inkling of just how much she'd kissed her anonymity goodbye when she kissed Seth hello.

She was slicing chicken for a stir-fry, listening to the six o'clock news on the TV in the next room. When she heard her name in a promo for
Today Tonight,
she almost chopped her thumb into the pot along with the meat.

Tonight our own Jennie Grey brings you the story of an inspirational love that has lasted five years, travelled two states, and could have almost wrecked the relationship of two brothers … It's the story of an Adelaide Hills grapegrower and her wine tycoon boss, and an Aussie surfing superstar … and it's coming up on
Today Tonight
straight after the news …

The voiceover cut away as Remy rushed around her galley bench to see what was happening on screen. It was a picture of Blake at the beach, clutching his surfboard under his arm. He laughed and the camera zoomed in on him as he said: ‘Yeah, nah … my brother totally stole Remy from me.'

Remy slumped to the arm of the brown couch.

‘Hell and Tommy.' Why would Blake say that?

***

Seth spent most of his first five minutes in Perth adjusting to the light. No matter where he travelled in Australia, Perth was always brighter. Adelaide, for all its status as the wine capital of the country, still had a big country town feel about it. Perth and Adelaide used to be on par before the mining boom. Now, millions, no
billions
of dollars in development had flooded into the WA capital and it was a whole lot faster, bigger and noisier than Adelaide.

There were two messages on his phone. One from Blake. One from Remy. They'd both have to wait.

He caught a taxi to Blake's flat and used his key to get his car out of the garage. With a two-and-a-half hour time difference between Adelaide and Perth he hadn't lost much with the flight. In South Australia, Remy would have had dinner and she'd be in front of the television or with a book about now. Here, it was still peak hour and most of the city had only just knocked off work.

His car started like clockwork, even though it had been sitting in Blake's garage for six weeks. Seth was looking forward to blowing out the cobwebs on the drive south to Margaret River, but first he had a twenty-minute drive to Ailsa's place in Fremantle.

Her hand flicked the blinds as he parked in her driveway and she opened the door before he knocked, welcoming him in. He bent low to kiss her papery cheek.

Ailsa's home was a modern courtyard-style building, built one street back from the Esplanade in the old part of town. It smelled of tea-tree oil furniture polish and perfume. Most of the hanging space on the walls was covered with paintings: still-life fruit, portraits and landscapes. Ailsa spent most of her time in the city these days and was patron of several art galleries.

The sofas were white and overstuffed, the furniture plush, the timber polished and the whole place gleamed like over-bleached teeth. An open
Country Life
magazine lay across an ottoman that matched the chairs.

‘Come and make yourself comfortable. I'm having a brandy. Would you like something, dear?'

‘No, thanks.'

‘Suit yourself. Won't you at least sit down?'

‘I've been sitting for the last three and a half hours on the plane. Standing's fine.'

He needed more than brandy to get comfortable in this place. It was everything Remy's cottage was not. He couldn't wait to leave. First, he had a few things to get off his chest.

Ailsa wore pale blue pants and a matching jacket, navy sandals with low heels. Her face was, as always, heavily made-up and her grey hair, nearly white now, salon-perfect. She poured a generous shot in a brandy balloon and added ice.

‘So,' she pouted theatrically. ‘Judging by the way you hung up on me last time we spoke, I don't suppose you came to tell me you dumped her?'

‘No.'

‘Just like your father,' Ailsa contemplated the ice in her drink. ‘Loyal to a fault.'

‘You say that like it's a bad thing.'

‘You spent a weekend with her five years ago and she ruined you for anyone else. When I think of poor Helene coming out here and what you put her through …' Ailsa trailed off.

Seth did feel bad about Helene. The French woman got caught in his rebound. He'd been so angry about what Remy had done—what his mother
said
she'd done—he'd had no emotional space for Helene in his life at that time. All he'd had was work. The angrier he got, the more he stayed away because it wasn't Helene he most wanted to see when he came home. He and Helene never had a chance.

Remy said he'd got hard over the years. He'd definitely been hard on Helene. She'd wanted to love him and he pushed her away.

He rubbed the short hair of his scalp. His hair felt aeroplane-itchy and he wanted a shower. ‘Helene and I parted friends in the end and she's happy now. She's married. They have a baby on the way. You should send her parents a card and congratulate them.'

‘I already did,' Ailsa said, taking a sip of her drink. ‘That should be you, you know. We could be Lasrey-Bouchard now, if it wasn't for that gold-digging tramp.'

‘Be very careful, Mother,' Seth warned. ‘I told you that before. One more slur like that I'm out of here, and I won't be back. Not once has Remy ever done anything that made me think she was after my money.'

‘Apart from blackmailing $100 000 out of us, you mean.'

‘That blackmail line is bullshit and you know it.' Remy's cheque was in Seth's wallet and he took it out. ‘Here.'

‘What's this?'

He crossed the room and gave the cheque to her. Had to stop himself throwing it at her. ‘Remy says she always thought of it as a loan.'

‘A loan.' Ailsa took a beat to examine it. Then she put her glasses on and inspected it again. Then she laughed. The sound was all raw around the edges, no warmth.

‘Well how about that,' she said, more to herself than to him. ‘How much of this is yours?'

‘None bar an advance on this season's grape cheque. She'd been saving to give it back to you.'

‘Well, that's not something you see every day.' She folded the cheque in the gutter of the
Country Life
magazine, took a sip of her drink and said nothing.

‘Tell me what really happened between you and Remy five years ago, Mother.'

‘Darling, that story's old. I've explained it to you so many times.'

‘Well, give it to me once more, for the hell of it.'

His mother's mouth closed into a stubborn red scratch. ‘What does
she
say happened?'

‘I'm asking you.'

Outside, a horn blared as a driver took issue with another at the traffic lights. Seth wished it was as easy to let off steam around his mother. Conversations with Ailsa were a bit like trying to drive the wrong way down a one-way street: something was always going to hit you.

‘I told you. She admitted to not paying enough attention to her work. She offered her resignation and I accepted it. It was only afterward that she tried the sexual harassment blackmail idea on for size.'

‘What did she tell you I did that qualified as sexual harassment?'

Ailsa looked out the window, took her time about bringing her gaze back. ‘She said you kissed her …'

‘I didn't kiss her, so she didn't say that.'

‘Well, what
did
you do?'

‘That's not your business, Mother. That's not what this is about. Remy says she never made any blackmail threat at all. She says you paid her to resign and stay away from me and from Blake.'

‘That's absurd.'

‘Or you're lying.'

‘How can you say that to me, Seth?' She clanked her glass on the coffee table. Her fingers curved around the arm of her chair like claws.

‘Why didn't you tell me Dad knew Remy's mother?'