Burnt (7 page)

‘I was just out for a drive,' he said aloud to distract his wayward mind, folding his arms across his chest just to make sure he didn't follow through on his train of thought.

‘It's a teachers' strike day, so the kids and I are making the most of it.'

‘This is all new,' he commented, indicating the beach behind her.

She turned her head, and he saw her zero in on her kids as she nodded. ‘Yeah, last Christmas they brought in a whole heap of sand and made the beach area. As big as the river is, there's very few places you can actually swim. Not up this far anyway. It's pretty popular. Mum and Dad's place is just across the road, so we use it a fair bit – luckily we only moved across the bridge so it's still nice and close.'

He turned his head and followed her gaze. ‘Nice spot.'

‘We were just about ready to go home – will you come back and have lunch with us?' she said, after the conversation stilled and their attention switched back to watching the girls swim.

‘I probably should get back –' He tried for a firm line, but it came out sounding weak and pathetic.

‘It's nothing fancy, just bread rolls and salad.' Calling the kids from the water, she bundled them in towels.

He headed back across the bridge to his car, armed with her address and tried to rationalise his excitement. It was lunch. Nothing more. They were just two old friends catching up – that was it. With that lecture delivered to himself, he parked his four-wheel drive out the front of her house and climbed out.

She pulled into the driveway only a few minutes after him. ‘Girls, this is Mr Taylor,' she introduced him to the two wide-eyed children, who tipped their heads back to look up into his face.

‘Geez, Bec. Mr Taylor? Makes me feel ancient. Hi, kids, I'm Seb.'

Twin smiles broke out on the little faces and he noticed a few baby teeth missing, leaving gaps in the smiles. ‘I'm Sarah, and I'm eight,' the blonde-haired version of Bec volunteered, ‘and this is my sister. Her name's Natalie, she's ten.'

He watched the dark-haired girl bob her head shyly and inch closer to her mother, who led them inside to the kitchen.

Over lunch he found himself observing them curiously. Sarah, although the younger of the two, had no problem dominating the bulk of the conversation, informing him that she was an expert on unicorns and mermaids. She was a cute kid and he found himself enjoying her animated chatter more than he'd expected. Bec made a few attempts to draw Natalie into the conversation but she seemed content to allow her younger sibling to hold centre court. During the meal he felt her wary gaze resting on him; she seemed less eager than her sister to accept him.

Bec stood to clear away the dishes and he got to his feet to help.

‘You don't have to do this, you're our guest,' Bec scolded him quietly.

‘You made lunch; the least I can do is help clean up.'

As they stacked plates, Seb's fingers brushed against Bec's and he saw her startled gaze shoot to his before she snapped it away again and took the dirty dishes into the kitchen. With a sinking sensation deep inside his chest, he realised the chemistry they'd had eighteen years ago was still simmering just below the surface. The last thing he needed right now was a complication in his life, even if it
was
in the once-irresistible form of Rebecca Whiteman.

‘Thanks for lunch, Bec. It was good to catch up again,' he said, placing the glasses he'd retrieved from the table down on the counter as she packed the dishwasher.

He saw her glance sideways at him briefly before a smile crossed her lips. ‘Well, you know there
was
an ulterior motive to the lunch invitation,' she said, and he bit back a groan. He really didn't want to hurt Bec again, and he
really
didn't want to be put in the position of having to let her down –

‘I have a frog in the laundry and I can't get in there until Dad gets home from work to get it out.'

‘A frog?'
A frog?
Not exactly what he'd been expecting, but the thought cheered him. At least he wasn't going to have to be a bastard just yet. ‘Still hate those things, huh?' He smiled at the shudder that raked her body.

‘Can't stand them. I went in there this morning to put on some washing and there it was, on the wall, just
waiting
to jump on me. Please get rid of it for me? You wouldn't want to be responsible for my kids having no clean clothes to wear, would you? Because there's no way I'm going back in there until it's gone.'

He gave a nod. ‘I guess I can't leave you to face a ferocious frog alone, can I? Do you have a container with a lid?' He turned to the girls. ‘You want to come out and help find this big scary frog that has your mum all worked up?'

‘A container? Can't you just flick it outside?'

‘I could, but it'd just come back and try to get in again.' He shrugged. ‘I'll get rid of it and bring the container back later.'

‘Where will you take it?' Natalie's eyes were wide in her face.

‘To my dad's farm. Frogs are good to have around the place.'

‘Your daddy has a farm? Does he have horses? I love horses, I've asked Santa for a horse every Christmas … but he hasn't brought me one yet,' Sarah said.

Seb caught Bec's eye and saw her wince, and they shared a grin.

‘He bought you a Barbie horse,' Natalie pointed out.

‘Well, I can't ride a Barbie horse, can I?'

‘There's no horses any more, he only has dogs,' Seb said regretfully.

‘No cows or pigs or chooks? But it's a farm – you gotta have animals on a farm,' Natalie informed him seriously. ‘How come he doesn't have any?'

‘I don't really know. He's getting too old to take care of them, I guess.'

‘Will this do?' Bec asked, holding out a large plastic takeaway container.

He nodded. ‘That'll work.'

‘Keep it; there's no way I want something back that had a frog in it.' She gave another shudder and he looked back at the girls and rolled his eyes, sharing a smile with them.

Rebecca had been biting back a smile as she'd watched Seb sitting with her girls. He'd looked uncomfortable to start with, so big and out of place in this all-female setting, but within minutes Sarah had sidled up to him and broken through that standoffish front and had him eating out of the palm of her tiny hand. Natalie, on the other hand, would take a bit longer to win over. She'd always been a daddy's girl and had taken the divorce the hardest of the two.

Turning to see Seb watching them on the beach earlier had been more than a surprise – she'd thought she'd been hallucinating. After the visit to his dad's place, she'd half expected him to leave town, or at the very least avoid her like the plague. Yet there he was, large as life, sitting under a lemon gum, watching her splash in the water with the kids.

There was so much about this new, grown-up Seb that she didn't understand. So much she didn't know about and yet beneath it all, she could still see the eighteen-year-old – the boy she'd fallen so helplessly in love with as only a naive kid on the verge of adulthood could. She'd fallen in love totally, completely – without thought or reason.

She opened the fridge and put the cold meat away. Over lunch, he'd told them about some of the places he'd been to and how lucky they were to have a safe place to live and enough food to eat. He hadn't been preaching, just stating an obvious fact, and the girls had hung on every word. She saw Natalie, in particular, soaking it all up, and she knew that later they'd be googling some of these countries to look them up and find out more. She was like that, Natalie, so eager to learn about new things. Since the divorce, she'd withdrawn into a shell – she'd never been as outgoing as her sister, but she'd become even quieter than usual recently and Rebecca worried about her constantly. Today she'd caught a small gleam of interest and was excited that maybe Natalie was beginning to find her feet once again.

The city had been the only life the girls had known, but Rebecca had always regretted not living in a place where kids could still be kids, where they didn't have to travel on trains and buses, accepting the loud city streets as a normal backdrop to their lives. Now she had the chance to give them the kind of childhood she'd had: fresh air, small communities, a sense of family history – the things that made her feel as though she belonged somewhere.

She heard excited squeals and a deep chuckle and her tired heart lifted a little. It might only be one lunch, but Sebastian Taylor had given them all a brief respite – a chance to let go of their worries and just enjoy life for a while.

Frog safely in its container – with air holes in the lid for its comfort – Seb and Rebecca took their coffees and a packet of Tim Tams out the back to watch the girls playing in the cardboard cubby house she'd helped the kids make after unpacking their brand-new fridge. They'd had a ball decorating the large box and she decided she might as well just go down to the local whitegoods store and get a heap of empty boxes for Christmas presents.

The phone rang and Rebecca went inside to answer it. When she came back outside shortly after, she carried the phone, placing it on the table as she sat down. ‘They dropped out. If it was important they'll ring back.'

Within a few minutes, it rang again.

‘Hello?'

On the other end of the phone there was only silence, yet she knew someone was there – she could hear faint music in the background.

‘Hello?'

The loud disconnecting beep startled her, and she gave an irritated sigh as she placed the handset on the table. ‘I wish I knew who it was; either they've got something wrong with their line, or there's someone getting their kicks making prank phone calls.'

She felt Seb's gaze on her.

‘Does it happen a lot?'

‘Enough to be a pain.'

‘Have you reported it? The phone company should be able to look into it for you if you're worried.'

‘I'm not worried. It's not like they say anything, it's just … annoying.'

‘Have you got any old flames with an axe to grind?'

Rebecca glanced up at him with a slow grin. ‘Well, now that you mention it, there was this one guy I used to know …'

It didn't completely wipe the concern from his face, but she saw him relax slightly into his chair. ‘What about your ex?'

The smile slipped a little at his question and the light-hearted mood she'd been striving for disappeared completely. Matthew had always known how to push her buttons, and he'd know how much something like this would unsettle her. He'd made no secret about the fact that he hated her for divorcing him. His pride was at stake, first and foremost, but it was also that she'd forced him into a position he didn't want to be in. The lawyers, the added hassle to his already hectic work schedule, all served to infuriate him. He'd made more than one abusive phone call to her over the months that followed their divorce and she knew his temper was volatile.

Yes, he was capable of it, but would he really go to this much trouble? He could barely fit her in around his business when they were married – why would he suddenly find the time and care factor to start making phone calls now? It all seemed like more effort than she knew he'd be bothered to exert – unless he'd suddenly found it
satisfying
, part of the power trip he got from being able to unsettle her at his whim.

‘I don't think this is his style,' she finally said, with a slow shake of her head.

Seb shifted in his seat, reaching for a biscuit and dunking it in his coffee while keeping his eyes on her face. ‘What do you mean?'

‘He's more of a direct-approach kind of guy. He tends to raise his voice and talk over people he's got a problem with – heavy breathing on the end of a phone just doesn't sound like something he'd do.'

‘Do you two get on, now?'

Rebecca shifted her gaze to her daughters playing in their cubby house, and gave a bitter twist of her lips. ‘For their sake, we try to keep it civil. But it seems to be getting worse every time we speak.' She took a sip of her coffee.

‘How often does he see them?'

Rebecca looked at him and gave a small shrug. ‘It's been a few months since they last saw him. He spends a lot of time travelling.'

‘Must be hard on the kids.'

‘They miss him a lot.'

‘Did he mind you moving back here?'

‘He wasn't thrilled about it.'

‘Can he make trouble for you?'

Rebecca sighed and put her coffee mug on the table. ‘He could, I suppose, if he wanted to. He's just angry because it's inconvenient for him to come and see them. It didn't matter that he went for weeks at a time without making the effort to drive across town and see them when we lived in the same city,' she said dryly. ‘I'm just hoping that one day he'll realise that what's best for the kids is the important thing, and right now, having grandparents to spend time with when I have to work is preferable to having them in after-school care for a few hours or babysitters spending the night when I have late shift.'

‘Yeah, that would be hard, working late shifts around childcare.'

‘It's horrible. I didn't work when they were babies; I only went back once Sarah started school – I couldn't stand being at home all day after that. And when I started back, I realised how much I'd missed my job. I loved being back, but then after the divorce, there were times when I'd go to work feeling so guilty and depressed over having to leave them with babysitters that it just didn't seem worth it.' She paused, remembering the sickening feeling that had plagued her before she moved back to Macksville.

‘None of us was happy and I was so angry that Matthew never seemed to be in a position where he'd have to consider giving up the career he loved, and yet I was going to have to, because I could see how miserable the kids were.'