The Maxwell Sisters (34 page)

‘What does that mean?' Eve asked.

‘The cancer is treatable but only to prolong his life rather than save it.'

‘Prolong it? What do you mean?' Tash sounded angry. ‘How long can they prolong it?'

‘A couple of years, maybe a little more.'

‘No!' Tash put her hands up against her words, blocking them out. ‘This is not happening.'

Eve began to cry quietly, and Phoebe immediately moved forward to take her into her arms.

What have I done? I've broken my promise. This is exactly what he didn't want. I'm completely useless. I've ruined everything.

‘Why didn't you tell us?' Tash whispered harshly. ‘Why have you kept this to yourself? Did you think we wouldn't notice when he started getting sicker?'

‘He made me promise.' Phoebe pulled back from Eve slightly, trying to get the words out quickly before they failed her. ‘I found some of his medication a few months ago and so he had to tell me. He's been taking capecitabine. It's like chemotherapy in tablet form with very few side-effects.'

‘Is that aggressive enough?' Tash asked.

‘Not really,' Phoebe sighed. ‘But he didn't want to go on the intravenous stuff till after the wedding.'

‘Why?' Tash demanded.

‘He wanted the family together one last time before he told you all,' Phoebe tried to explain. ‘He wanted you guys to stop fighting. He wanted us to be happy and settled before he started the treatment. Intravenous chemotherapy leaves the body so weak and fragile. He just wanted a window of time with you guys while he was at his best before his health worsens.' She sucked in a breath as she moved to tell them the worst of it. ‘Once he starts deteriorating,' she swallowed, ‘well, let's just say, I've heard it's not much fun for anyone. He wanted this time for Mum and us, unfettered by his illness.'

‘Mum isn't going to care about that,' Eve whispered.

Phoebe nodded. ‘But the silly old codger is ashamed about having to put her through the pain of caring for him. He's always been the man of the house and he's really feeling this horrible sense of hopelessness.'

One of her father's biggest fears was destroying their mother's life as well as his own. When he'd asked her to keep his secret, it was the first thing he'd mentioned. ‘I am going to become a burden to her. Do you think that's what I want?'

No amount of reassurance on her part had been able to take away his guilt.

Tash wiped a weary hand across her eyes. ‘And here I thought he was having a midlife crisis. Really he's just been trying to cram all the stuff he wanted to do his whole life into a few weeks.'

Phoebe nodded. ‘And all his doctors' appointments and blood tests too. He's been very good at keeping it all a secret.'

‘And Bronwyn?' Tash prompted. ‘How does she fit into all this?'

‘She's a lawyer,' Phoebe told them. ‘She's been helping Dad update his will.'

Eve put her head in her hands, massaging her temple. ‘I can't believe how stupid we've been. How blind, and willing to jump to the worst conclusions.'

‘We all make mistakes,' Phoebe relented. ‘I've made the biggest of all.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I've told you guys and I promised Dad I wouldn't.'

‘No,' Eve hastily shook her head, ‘that's not a mistake. Don't you see, Phee, that's the best thing you've done today. You shouldn't have taken this upon yourself. What are sisters for, if not to support each other?'

‘Yes,' Tash reinforced her point. ‘Weren't you upset when you thought we were keeping secrets from you?'

Phoebe nodded slowly.

‘None of us need protection,' Tash continued. ‘What we need is support and each other.'

‘And so does Dad,' Eve put in. ‘Though he won't admit it.'

It felt like a great burden was lifting off her shoulders. She suddenly realised how silly she'd been to keep her father's secret, and hypocritical too. Of course her sisters would want to know. They
needed
to know.

‘What are we going to do?' she whispered.

They put their arms around each other, holding on tight, touching foreheads as though sharing their energy.

‘The wedding is this weekend,' Tash whispered. ‘Let's make it the biggest and best celebration the Maxwells have ever had.'

Phoebe smiled through her tears. ‘Haven't I been saying that all along?'

Eve's alarm clock rang loudly in the room, jerking her awake, bleary-eyed and tired. The last few days had been difficult, constantly pretending that nothing was amiss – that nothing had changed. Trying to get to sleep at night was the worst. That's the time when she was finally alone and no one was watching. Thoughts of her father kept her up to the wee hours, tossing and turning and crying. How Phoebe had been able to deal with this for weeks all on her own she had no idea.

Today, however, was her sister's wedding day. The big event had finally arrived. She had to rouse herself, get the blood flowing, though it would be so easy to just lay there for another ten minutes. As long as she didn't move, time didn't tick forward and her father would not have to suffer. Life seemed so unfair. Her thoughts of the future seemed so lost without him.

Poor Tash was pregnant. The news must have been an even bigger blow to her, realising her child may never know their grandfather. She pulled herself to a sitting position, rubbing her eyes and fluffing her hair. Her elder sister was propping herself up with an iron will. They all were.

The Maxwell sisters had made a pact. No cancer today. Just love.

And that's exactly what they were going to do. It was six am and the wedding was at two. She swung her legs onto the floor. They would need every hour beforehand to get ready. She had better get a move on.

Spider had gone to his home in Dunsborough the night before, along with his parents and his brother, who had arrived that morning. So they would all be getting ready there. That left the Maxwell family and Heath at Tawny Brooks.

Her mother and father had to get ready earlier, as her mother's cousins were arriving from out of town. They would be having some pre-wedding drinks prior to the wedding.

Eve hoped her mother would be able to deal with the earlier start. She got out of bed, slipped on a dressing gown and headed for the kitchen. Anita had made coffee for everyone, including those people who were absent, and when she'd scrambled some eggs for their father she'd included some for Graeme as well. It was clear Eve's concern about her stress levels wasn't unfounded.

‘I'm sorry, girls.' She glanced over at her grinning daughters. ‘I don't know whether I'm on my head or my feet. It's not every day one of my beauties walks down the aisle.'

Eve looked at her father and caught his smile, tinged with a vague sadness. A lump lodged in her throat.

Keep it together, girl.

Heath reached out and took Tash's hand, who squeezed his hand back. She didn't look at her husband but Eve saw the relief mixed with tenderness in his eyes.

Phoebe ran her hands into her messy bedroom hair. ‘Why am I so nervous? It's only what I've wanted like forever.'

‘Because,' Eve threw her arm around her shoulder and squeezed, ‘it's the happiest day of your life.' She threw a look at her father. ‘Isn't it, Dad?'

John Maxwell glanced over at his wife. ‘The day I married your mother was the day everything in my life came together. Your mother is my trellis and my wire. Without her, I can't stand up.'

‘Okay, stop it,' Phoebe began rapidly fanning her face, ‘I'm going to cry.'

‘Well, if you're going to,' Tash said practically, ‘do it now while you've got no make-up on.'

‘Oh shoot, I really wanted to help you girls get ready.' Anita was frantically glancing at the clock. ‘But my cousins are going to be here in a couple of hours. John, did you pick up your suit yesterday from the drycleaners?'

‘Yes, dear.'

‘And what about the camera? Is it fully charged?'

John blinked. ‘Do we have a camera?'

Anita moaned. There was a knock on the window and they all turned to see a rather harassed looking man wearing a cap with ‘Juliet's Florist' emblazoned across the top, pointing frantically towards the front door.

‘Oh dear! How long has he been knocking?' Anita asked.

‘I'll get it.' John rose from his seat.

‘Listen, Mum,' Tash grabbed her hand, ‘you just worry about yourself, Dad and your cousins. We girls can take care of Phee.'

‘Are you sure?' Anita said, as John walked back in with a box full of corsages and bouquets tied with satin ribbon. Instantly, the room was filled with the fragrance of spring.

‘Wow! They're gorgeous.' Phoebe jumped up from her seat and passed her nose over the box. ‘Listen, you girls take the bathroom first. I'm just going to do a quick dash down the drive to unlock the restaurant so the kitchen staff can get in. I'll be back in five.'

‘Is there anything I can do?' Heath asked.

‘Yes!' Tash nodded. ‘Could you go out and buy Mum a digital camera? She'll go nuts without one.'

‘Done!'

Anita clapped her hands together. ‘Oh, Heath, you're an angel.'

‘Well,' his grin was lopsided, ‘now that I've got competition for the top spot as favourite son-in-law, I've got to put my game face on.'

‘Oh, I do like him,' Anita patted his cheek but spoke to Tash. ‘I don't know why you children don't have some babies already.'

As Anita bustled out of the room, Eve got up quickly, grabbing Tash's arm and pulling her towards the bedrooms again. ‘Okay, let's do this,' she said firmly. As Phoebe took off for the restaurant, Eve and Tash went to their bedrooms to lay out their dresses. Then, after taking it in turns to shower, they both sat down to trim and file their nails. Tash pored over their mother's nail polish collection, from Candy Floss to Bronze Beach, and pulled a face.

‘Do you think we should have had this done professionally?'

‘And take Patricia's side again?' Eve scoffed. ‘We had to give Mum another win, particularly with Dad keeping score so fervently.'

Tash rolled her eyes as the hairdresser walked in – a young woman in jeans and a t-shirt. ‘Hello, ladies? Who wants to go first?'

Tash slipped the nail clipper into the pocket of her dressing gown and sat down on the chair in front of Eve's mirror.

‘I'll go get Phoebe,' Eve told them. ‘She must be back by now and in the shower.'

Phoebe, however, was not in her bedroom or in the shower. Eve searched the rest of the house but her sister was nowhere to be found. When she walked in on her mother stepping out of the shower, Anita seemed surprised to see her.

‘Everything okay, darling?'

‘Perfect,' Eve nodded quickly, backing into the hall and nearly bowling Heath over. ‘Have you seen Phoebe?' she whispered.

‘Isn't she with you guys?' He was jingling keys, clearly about to head out to get the camera.

Eve bit her lip. ‘She must be in her bedroom.'

There was no point in alarming anyone. Her mother was already like a coiled spring. So she returned to her bedroom, where the hairdresser had just finished putting curlers in Tash's hair.

‘While we're waiting for those to set,' she informed Eve, ‘I'll do yours.'

‘Okay,' Eve agreed. But as Tash got up to vacate the seat, she whispered urgently, ‘See if you can find Phee, will you? She seems to have disappeared.'

‘Disappeared?'

‘Is everything okay?' the hairdresser asked.

‘Oh fine!' Eve quickly assured her. ‘Nothing to worry about at all.'

Just another day in the mad Maxwell household.

Eve sat down in front of the mirror. Her hands fidgeted restlessly in her lap. Luckily, the hairdresser was not the chatty type and just seemed keen to get to work. It was insane for Phoebe to disappear just at this moment. She hoped there hadn't been another accident at the restaurant. God forbid that all their hard work should be overturned in the final hours before the wedding.

For some reason this near-miss made her think of Adam and her failed attempts to convince him that she'd changed her mind. When he came round for dinner, she went to kiss his cheek first. She took his hand and led him to the dining room. When he made his initial attempt to leave, she asked him to stay longer … which he did. But nothing ever came of it, especially with her sisters and her parents hanging around.

The fact was, she was just being too subtle.

Like Spider all over again.
She swallowed hard.
You've gotta step this up, Eve. You've gotta bite the bullet and just tell him.

Telling a man she liked him wasn't exactly her strong point. Look at the note she'd written to Spider. Wow, what a colossal disaster, and in more ways than one.

No, she was going to have to get Adonis alone and do this face to face. She chewed nervously on her lower lip. She had to make it absolutely clear that she wanted a real relationship, not a fake relationship or a rebound relationship. But a real frickin' relationship.

Because I LOVE him.

And then once she'd put that word out there, she had to ask him if he was still interested.

Just at that moment Tash reappeared, skidding into the room like she had a lion at her heels. The hairdresser was placing the last roller into Eve's hair so Tash quickly straightened and walked with more dignity to Eve's side.

‘If you don't mind,' she said to the hairdresser, ‘my mother needs you upstairs. Perhaps you can come down later and finish us and the bride when you're done?'

‘Sure.' The hairdresser smiled, packing up her trolley of items and rolling out.

As soon as she was gone, Tash whipped out the hand she was holding behind her back and held up a note she'd been hiding.

‘Can't find Phee anywhere,' she wailed. ‘But I did find this in her room.'

Eve snatched the note out of her hand, thinking as she did so, that notes were always such terrible things and she would never ever leave one lying around again.

‘Okay, that's bulldust!' Eve announced.

‘Tell me about it,' Tash cried. ‘She was ecstatic at breakfast.'

‘And after everything we spoke about at her hen's night.' Eve's mouth tightened. ‘There's no way she'd let Dad down. Or Spider for that matter.'

‘Look at it.' Tash pointed to the page. ‘Look at it carefully. This is not Phee's handwriting.'

Eve focused on the page. It was a close imitation but the letters were too close together and not as curly. And where was Phoebe's trademark signature? ‘Where's the smiley face?' she demanded, flipping the note from front to back. There was nothing but a dirty smudge on the back.

‘Exactly!' Tash snapped her fingers. ‘Someone else wrote it.'

‘Who?'

‘I don't know!'

‘What do we do?'

‘We don't tell Mum, that's for sure.' Tash shook her head. ‘She'll have a meltdown. Let's just try to find her ourselves while the hairdresser is otherwise occupied. There's no way we're cancelling this wedding.'

‘Absolutely,' Eve nodded. ‘Well, we haven't checked the restaurant yet and that's where she said she was going. I could go for a walk down there.'

‘I'll recheck the house and the car park,' Tash nodded. ‘I'll see if her car is missing. Take your phone, so we can call one another.'

‘Right.'

Eve slipped on a pair of thongs, grabbed her phone and the note. She knew she looked ridiculous, with her hair done up in curlers, the nails of one hand painted and the other not. She had her pyjamas back on because they buttoned up at the front and wouldn't disturb her hair when it came time to get dressed.

She walked to the back of the house to check if the key for the restaurant had been returned to the cabinet. She opened the small cupboard and ran her eyes over the names printed above the hooks. The key was indeed missing. So Phee had not been back with it. Whatever had happened to her had happened at the restaurant or on the way.

And then she stopped focusing on the word ‘Restaurant' and stared at the word ‘Office' for the hook above. On the hook above that was the label ‘Winery lab'. Her mouth dropped open.

No.

She looked down at the dirt-smudged note she had taken with her and compared the handwriting. There was no doubt about it. It was the same. Whoever had created the cabinet had created the note.

Then she remembered.

Hadn't Eric made this cabinet at his woodwork class in school a few years ago? He'd given it to their family as a gift …

Why would he want to stop Phoebe and Spider's wedding?

She pocketed the note and dashed out the back, straight for the gardens and the restaurant. Luckily, there was no one about as she half-ran, half-walked down their long driveway to the cellar-door car park.

The restaurant was unlocked. In fact, she could see a lot of movement inside. The kitchen staff had arrived and were already busy, so Phoebe must have managed to let them in.

‘Eve!'

She turned around in embarrassment to see one of her old colleagues, Martin, waving at her from the alfresco area. He was laying out napkins on the white tablecloths. The chairs had all been studiously wrapped in white linen the night before as well. Gorgeous pale blue satin sashes were tied around the high backs with a loose bow. Everything looked wonderful. Not a spoon out of place.

Pity about the bride.

‘Long time no see,' he smiled. ‘You're looking … fabulous.'

‘Yeah, right,' Eve groaned. ‘Is Phoebe in there?'

‘No.' Martin shook his head. ‘Not since she opened up for us. Don't tell me you're missing the bride?'

‘Not exactly, just a slight hiccup in communications.' Eve tried to infuse some lightness into her voice.

Damn you, Eric!

She turned around and headed straight into the Tawny Brooks gardens to find him. She hobbled over the paths, which was rather hard to do in a pair of rubber thongs.