Stone Castles (9 page)

Chapter Thirteen

S
unday saw summer at its picture postcard best. It was a glorious sunny day with just the slightest breeze to keep the flies at bay and not a cloud in sight. They gathered outside the church, family and friends, some more familiar to Pip than others.

But no Luke, she couldn't help but notice.

Tracey's mum squealed when she saw her. ‘Pip! Come right here and give me a hug!' Pip smiled and went easily into the other woman's arms. A single parent since she booted her womanising husband out when Tracey was barely two years old, Sally Buxton had been like a second mum to Fi after her mother had died of ovarian cancer. Then, just a few months later, she'd all but adopted Pip after her own family tragedy.

Sally had told Fi and Pip that they were the daughters she'd never had and that they could come to her for anything. The three girls' already strong bonds had grown stronger as a result, because now they shared a parent in common.

Sally squeezed her tight and then held Pip at arm's length. ‘I am so sorry to hear about Violet, but oh my goodness, just look at you!' And Pip was pleased she'd made an effort. She was wearing a fitted royal blue sundress with a modest neckline that would have done the Duchess of Cambridge's wardrobe proud. She'd brought it to wear to the funeral, but now she was here, she saw it was perfect for a christening.

‘It's so good to see you,' she told Sally as Tracey came to join them, Chloe in her arms in a gorgeous long christening gown that Tracey had worn at her own christening. Sally looked at them both and shook her head. ‘You both look so beautiful,' she said, her eyes flicking from Pip to her friend, and the woman who looked an older version of Tracey smiled, although Pip was sure she didn't imagine the shadows suddenly skating across Sally's eyes and the tiny frown that knitted her brows. But Fi joined them then before she had a chance to ask if she was okay.

‘I'm sorry,' Fi said, smiling bravely though her face was ashen. ‘I'm not feeling too special today. I may have to leave early.' There were more hugs then, but gentle hugs, before a voice behind them said, ‘G'day, everyone. G'day Pip.'

She turned to see Adam wearing dark pants and a slim fitting check shirt unbuttoned casually at the neck, a look that suited him every bit as well as his police uniform had. It wasn't hard to smile. ‘Adam, hi.'

‘This here's Jake,' he said, his hand on the head of a boy beside him.

‘Hi Jake,' she said, and the kid mumbled something back before his father sent him off to find his friends. She looked at Adam. ‘I didn't know you were coming today.'

‘Craig told me you couldn't make it,' Tracey said.

‘Change of plans,' he said, with more than a glance in Pip's direction, and Tracey raised her eyebrows and Pip smiled. She was here for another week. Nothing would happen. Nothing
could
happen. But that didn't mean it wasn't nice to feel a good-looking man's interest.

‘I was sorry to hear about your gran,' he said. ‘Mum told me the news. The nursing home staff will probably turn up in force for the funeral.'

She smiled. ‘That's nice. They were all so lovely to Gran.'

The minister emerged from the church then, to usher them inside and get the christening service under way.

‘Hang on,' said Tracey, looking around. ‘Where's Luke?'

And Craig said, ‘Typical. He's probably still out on the bloody header.'

As if on cue, Luke's ute sped around the corner and pulled up with a squeak of brakes in the shade of a tree. With an order for his dog to stay, he left the window down and slammed the door behind him, before he looked around and seemed to realise that everyone was staring at him.

Pip sure was. The first time she'd seen Luke in a suit had been at his high school formal, when she'd come up from Adelaide to be his partner. He'd worn a dark suit with a snowy white shirt and she had thought him the most handsome man in the world.

The last time had been at Fi and Richard's wedding eight years ago. But he'd been with Sharon that day and so she hadn't really looked at him then. And if she had glanced in his direction, it was only to earn herself a withering look from Sharon anyway.

But today he was by himself and everyone was staring, and there was no reason why she shouldn't get a good look too. And the more she looked, the more she saw how much he'd changed and how wrong she'd been.

Because he'd been beautiful back then, all those years ago at that high school formal, but he hadn't been a man at all.

But he was a man now.

In a grey suit and white shirt unbuttoned at the collar, he looked urbane and rugged at the same time. There were lines she didn't remember on his face and around his eyes, and his short-cropped dark blond hair was spiked like stubble after the harvest. She got the impression he'd towelled it dry after his shower and it had stayed that way.

And then his blue eyes found hers among the gathering and her heart lurched and the air stuck in her throat.

Damn.

‘Are you waiting for me?' he said, and for one panicked moment, Pip thought he was asking her and her alone. ‘I just wanted to finish off the paddock.'

‘Nice of you to join us,' said Craig, shaking his head as he gave his mate a slap on the back. ‘Come on, let's get this show on the road.'

Pip let Adam guide her into the church, happy for the warm hand under her arm to direct her towards her seat near the front. Because if truth be told, she felt a little blindsided. Luke had looked good the other day when she'd run into him in that cafe. Really handsome in jeans and Blundstones. But today, freshly showered and all wrapped up in a suit that made the most of his broad shoulders and flat stomach – well, the guy looked hotter than any ex had a right to.

That was all.

Adam sat alongside her, rock solid and real, squeezing her hand when it was time to go up and take her place at the christening bowl.

And it helped that the service was short and sweet and less formal than Pip had anticipated, and that all she had to do was utter a word or two, and that she didn't have to look at Luke.

It helped a lot.

Luke had a once-cold beer getting warmer by the minute in one hand and a squeezy bottle of tomato sauce in the other. Beside him, Craig manned the barbie, wearing his ‘Where there's smoke, there's Dad' apron the boys had given him last Father's Day, and turning sausages and onions and lamb chops with the skill of a man who'd cooked up a thousand Boy Scout sausage sizzles. Turbo was crouched low on the ground between them, waiting to clean up anything that might inadvertently drop over the side. Willing anything to drop over the side.

Luke was supposedly giving Craig a hand, but the real reason he'd volunteered to help was that the spot behind the barbie had the best view of everything going on in the church courtyard.

He could see what everyone at the christening party was doing and who they were talking to.

He could see what Pip was doing in that dynamite blue dress, and who
she
was talking to.

And he didn't like it one bit.

He and Adam had been in a few of the same classes at school, and they'd played footy together for Kadina after that, but then they'd both got busy with whatever they were doing. The last time they had run into each other, Luke had been on the receiving end of a speeding ticket and a lecture. It was hardly the stuff of fond memories.

And now, not only had Adam marched Pip into church like she was his prisoner, but now she was standing with her back to the church wall while he was standing at right angles to her, leaning his shoulder against the old limestone wall. When Pip wasn't taking a photo of someone at the party, it seemed that every time Adam opened his mouth, she laughed. What the hell was that about? Adam Rogers had never cracked a joke in his life.

‘She's flirting with him.'

‘What?' said Craig, forking a snag onto a slice of bread for one of the kids. ‘Hey, do the sauce thing, will you?'

Luke squeezed the bottle without taking his eyes off Pip and that blue dress and whatever Adam thought he was up to.

Someone squawked. The kid. And Craig said, ‘Bloody hell, mate. How about you try pointing the sauce at the actual snag this time?'

‘Huh?' Luke looked down and saw a jagged red line of sauce across the kid's T-shirt, the boy looking up at him like he was crazy.

Maybe he was.

‘Sorry, er, kid,' he said, because though he looked familiar, he couldn't for the life of him place him. And he handed him a serviette to wipe his shirt as he squeezed a perfectly straight line of sauce along his sausage, watching closely what he was doing this time. ‘Sauce bottle's got an itchy trigger finger.'

‘You've got an itchy trigger finger,' said Craig as the kid ran off. ‘What the hell is your problem?'

But Luke had already tuned out. Because she was laughing again, smiling up at Adam like he was the centre of her existence. What was with that? She had her hair up today, tied up in some clip or other thing women stuck in their hair to twist their hair back, and when she laughed up at Adam that way, it showed off the long line of her throat and the smooth angle of her jaw.

‘Earth calling Luke.'

He didn't bother looking around. ‘What?'

‘If you're so worried about her, why don't you go talk to her.'

‘Worried about who?'

Craig sighed. ‘Lord, give me strength. Pip of course. You haven't taken your eyes off her since you got out here.'

‘That's nuts.'

‘Sure is. I thought you didn't even like her.

‘I don't. I just don't know what's so goddamned funny about Adam all of a sudden. Have you ever heard him crack a joke?'

‘Well, not recently.

‘Exactly. So what's so funny?'

Craig flipped a row of sausages. ‘Good to know you're not worried about her or anything.'

His mate's words grated. Luke didn't want anyone to think he was worried about her. He put down his warm beer and the squeezy sauce bottle. ‘I better be getting back. You can handle the barbie by yourself?' And Craig just looked at him like was he was from another planet.

‘I reckon I might just make a go of it by myself, yeah. You sure you want to leave already though? Party's just warming up.'

‘No. I've got some blades to replace on the harvester.' It was a ten minute job, and Craig knew it, and he knew he sounded lame but he wasn't going to stand there and make up more reasons and take himself from lame to completely pathetic. ‘C'mon, Turbo.'

Turbo's head swung around and he whimpered, his body still crouched under the barbie on high alert, his expression incredulous, almost as if he was saying, leave now? His human had to be kidding.

‘C'mon boy.'

Craig took pity on the waiting dog and flipped a snag over the side. Turbo juggled it in his teeth to cool it off a bit before wolfing it down. ‘Just make sure you say goodbye to Tracey before you go,' he said, tongs poised threateningly in his hand.

‘Sure', Luke replied, frowning as he saw Adam with his arm around Pip's shoulders. He watched as they brought their heads together and posed for a selfie, thinking he'd rather just get the hell out of there, but he supposed it wouldn't kill him to do the right thing. Tracey was talking to the minister, the baby bundled in her arms, unfussed by all the excitement.

Piece of cake, he thought, as he headed towards the small group. This wouldn't take a second and then they wouldn't see him for dust. And then someone snagged the minister's attention and Tracey peeled away and headed straight for Pip.

Damn.

She wasn't flirting. Not exactly. It was just that Fi had gone home feeling ill and she had to talk to someone. Besides, Adam wasn't hard to look at and some of his work stories were pretty funny. Busting Kadina's Santa for driving his sleigh down the middle of the main street under the influence of alcohol was way funnier than anything that happened in an investment bank back in New York City, anyway. And after the week she'd had, Pip was up for all the laughs she could get. What she really wanted, though, was for Adam to tell her something so side-splittingly funny that she would forget all about the pair of eyes watching her every move, the pair of eyes that were all but scorching her with their intensity.

But if they were going to watch her, she might as well give them something to see. And so she laughed at his anecdotes and smiled and encouraged him as she took a few shots of Tracey and Chloe and the boys, and willed herself to ignore those intense blue eyes.

What was Luke's problem anyway?

How many years ago was it that they'd split up?

Talk about holding a grudge.

‘Hey,' she said, suddenly remembering Carmen's request for a photo of Adam. ‘My flatmate in New York asked for a photo of you. Would you mind?'

He grinned. ‘You've been talking to your flatmate in New York about me?'

‘Kind of,' she said.
God, that was awkward
. ‘I told her I got pulled over and, you know, she asked, just in case I ran into you again.'

His smile widened. ‘Well, we don't want to disappoint her.'

She lifted her phone to snap his photo and he said, ‘Nah, better idea,' and held her hand with the phone higher while he put his other arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. ‘Smile for the birdie,' he said.

He'd caught her unawares but she smiled and breathed in his aftershave and felt the heat of his body and the arm around her. An arm that lingered as she brought the phone down and checked the photo. ‘lt's good,' she said, and put her phone away.

‘Aren't you going to send it?'

She screwed up her nose and blew what she knew about the difference between here and Eastern Standard Time in the US to the wind. ‘She'll probably be asleep right now. I'll wait.' Because the last thing she wanted was her phone beeping every ten seconds with Carmen gushing about the man while he was standing right next to her.