Since We Last Met, page 5
Carmen’s face went cold. ‘They know my name?’
‘Just your reputation at this point, but I can’t imagine it’ll take them long to figure out who’s who. All our profiles are on the website—not that it mentions Mika or that you have a child.’ She double-blinked. ‘Shall I take the profiles down?’ she said to herself. ‘I’ll take them down. Still, you may want to prepare yourself. I’m telling everyone to email me with their interview requests and things but every time I deal with one email, another five pop in. Same with this,’ she said, holding up her phone. ‘As soon as I check the messages, it beeps to tell me another five have landed.’ It beeped. ‘You’re having me on,’ she said to it.
‘No way am I talking to anyone,’ Carmen said.
Tam slid her glasses back on, which made Carmen feel much more comfortable. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll all protect you and Mika. Won’t we?’ she added as a pointed afterthought, looking from Cody to Lena.
‘That family photo of us is everywhere,’ Lena said, oblivious, scrolling on her phone. ‘The Daily Tele has cut out all our faces and is taking votes on Curlew Bay’s most eligible singleton.’
‘I’m winning,’ Cody said, looking over her shoulder. ‘Lena’s losing. You’re doing surprisingly well, Carmen, but that’s because they haven’t got to know you yet.’
‘Shut up, Cody,’ Lena said.
Carmen closed her eyes for a second, thanking the stars that Mika had flat-out refused to be in the family photo that day, despite Jaz having painstakingly coaxed her hair into ringlets and Carmen’s best attempts at bribery and blackmail. No doubt Carmen would have ended up holding her, a neon signpost to the single mother. A failed parenting moment had worked out for the best.
‘And that’s the other thing,’ Tam said, holding up a pointer finger. ‘The photo of the family that was on the TV … I talked to the photographer and she swears it’s never gone anywhere but my email address. But guess who I forwarded it to?’
‘Nan,’ Carmen said.
‘I told her I’d taken care of the photos for the show. I showed her the selection I’d sent them so she’d know what she’d be discussing. We had the talking points all settled.’
‘So why would Nan give them that photo?’ Carmen said. ‘Unless …?’ The skin on her cheeks prickled. ‘No. She wouldn’t have done this on purpose. Would she?’
‘I’d like to ask her that myself, but she’s not answering her phone. Rosa managed a brief conversation earlier but Mum claimed she couldn’t talk long and hung up. She just texted me to say a crew from a different network has arrived for her “press conference at the hotel”. Press conference! Also, look at this … I didn’t click straightaway, with the shock.’
Tam leaned over Carmen and opened yet another tab on her laptop. She found the video from the breakfast show segment that had been on prior to Nan’s and skipped to the last few frames. As it played, she pointed to a ticker along the bottom. ‘“Stay tuned for a chance to win one of two trips to Curiosity Island,”’ she read aloud. ‘One of two trips? It was supposed to read “A trip for two”. And that was well before Mum turned the whole thing into Love Island Australia. Also, before Mum’s segment even finished, they had all the details of how to send in a video entry loaded onto the website. This was planned in advance. They must have touched up the photo.’
‘Except mine,’ Cody said.
‘Nan set us up?’ Carmen said huskily.
‘And now she’s gone dark on me. I’ve got Harry racing around Sydney trying to find her but she keeps giving him the slip.’
‘I can be in the air in five,’ Cody said. ‘Does her hotel have a helipad? Joking, not joking.’
‘Too late to claim she escaped from a secure dementia facility?’ Lena said.
‘Um, people?’ Rosa said, walking onto the deck from the pavilion, hand in hand with Mika, who was, for once, treading slowly and carefully, so as not to upend the calamari ring she was wearing as a crown. ‘Turns out our bookings site wasn’t glitching. It was overloaded. We’ve had bookings pouring in ever since Nan went on the air, for the resort, the backpackers, the moorings … We’re nearly full up for two months and counting. I have Jaz and even Reg from maintenance out there taking reservations over the phone but they’re struggling to lock in dates before they’re gone, with so many online and agent bookings coming through. We’ll have to find extra staff, just as we finished letting them go.’
Cody groaned, shoving his hands into his hair. ‘Guys. We’re a pack of idiots. We’ve spent the whole day trying to fight this because it’s so bloody embarrassing but maybe we need to run with it.’
‘Run with Carmen being Australia’s favourite harlot since Tilly Devine?’ Lena said.
‘The whole point of putting Nan on TV was to generate bookings, right?’ Cody continued, pacing now. ‘She may have blindsided us with this desperate-and-dateless bollocks but this’ll bring in way more business than we were expecting, even in our best-case scenario. Short-term pain, team …’
Rosa grimaced. ‘Well, yes, it’s certainly not a bad thing that bookings are ticking up so quickly …’ She sucked in a breath through clenched teeth, leaving the sentence noticeably hanging.
‘I’m sensing a “but”?’ Carmen said, as Mika leaned against her. The calamari crown slid onto Carmen’s keyboard and Mika grabbed it and shoved the entire thing in her mouth.
‘Buuut almost all of these bookings are for people travelling alone or in twin share or in groups of adults. Or what looks like single-parent families. And Jaz and Reg are getting weird questions about which staff members take which activities and who gives the massages.’
‘Oh, sh—oot,’ Lena said.
‘These guests …’ Rosa gestured in the direction of reception, as if the hordes were lining up in person. ‘They could well be single people looking for love. Thousands of them.’
Even Cody had the sense to look frightened.
6
Cody
At the airport at Proserpine, Luka came in from the tarmac wearing a sombrero and carrying a massive hammerhead soft toy.
‘You wore that hat on the plane, didn’t you?’ Cody said as his brother approached.
‘Nah, but it took up a whole luggage bin. I did clip Sharky here into the empty seat beside me.’
‘See, it’s kinda charming when it’s on a plane. Less so when you bring a woman home and he’s tucked in your bed.’
‘Dude, I’ve been summoned back to the monastery. My days of bringing women home are at an end. Anyway, it’s for Mika, you drongo.’ Luka fired the toy at Cody’s head, forcing Cody to juggle his phone to catch it.
‘Nah, she’s off sharks. She’s back on turtles.’
‘Ah, shit. I did look at the turtle …’
‘You’re never gonna be her favourite uncle-figure anyway,’ Cody said, holding up the shark and looking it in one of its eyes. ‘I have that locked down.’
‘How do you always find a way to make everything into a competition?’
‘Must be tough to live in my shadow. We’ll send Sharky and your bags on the shuttle and ferry. The sombrero too. We’re picking up a couple of actual paying passengers at Coral Sea Marina. And get changed,’ he added, tossing his brother a resort polo and shorts, ‘so it doesn’t look like a shared Uber.’
‘Gotta readily identify the inmates in case of an escape,’ Luka said, shoving the sombrero on Cody’s head. ‘Take care of Sharky while I get changed.’ He started towards the bathrooms.
‘Hey!’ Cody said. He spread his arms for a hug, nearly taking out a random guy with the shark’s tail. ‘You forgot something, little bro.’
‘Good to be back, middle bro,’ Luka said, backtracking and relenting. ‘I think.’
‘The novelty will wear off soon. Meet you at the baggage carousel. You still using that tragic purple backpack? Anything else?’
‘Easy to spot! And, nah, I had my boxes shipped straight to purgatory.’
Luka returned in uniform, adjusting his dark hair, which was almost as high-maintenance as their mother’s elaborate configurations, with its number-two sides and floppy top combed and gelled like a 1950s soldier.
‘I’ve got your luggage sorted,’ Cody said. ‘Let’s get out to the chopper before I get a parking ticket.’
‘Saw your ex-fiancée in Brissie,’ Luka said as they started walking.
‘I don’t have an ex-fiancée.’
‘You asked her to marry you and she agreed, so …’
‘Before she disagreed. How is she?’ Did he even want to know?
‘Sickeningly happy. She’s getting married.’
He grunted. To the ‘dependable’ guy, presumably. ‘Good for her.’
‘She’s pregnant, too.’
Cody stared unseeingly at the trickle of people wheeling luggage out to the carpark.
‘Codes?’
‘Good for her.’ He sensed Luka looking across at him. ‘What do you want—tears?’
‘Nah, it’s just like watching a psych experiment.’ Luka waved at a woman behind a car rental counter. She smiled wryly, slowly shaking her head. ‘Your reputation precedes me,’ he said in an undertone.
Cody shrugged. ‘So I had a close call. Hope it works out for Hannah this time. And don’t let on to the family—about any of it. They still don’t know and I want it to stay that way.’
‘I’ve kept it quiet for like a year, man. Not about to spill now. How much trouble would I be in for keeping a secret for so long? Nan would excommunicate me.’ Luka frowned. ‘And would that be such a disaster? But you do have to keep being my personal chauffeur for the next fifty years.’
Cody scoffed.
‘You know it physically hurts me to keep quiet, right?’
‘Luka …’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone, as long as you keep up your end of the bargain, James.’
‘James?’
‘As in, home, James?’
‘Explaining is losing.’
‘You asked me to explain.’ Luka huffed. ‘It’s all so ironic.’
‘What?’
‘You’re the first person in the family to give someone grief but you’re too scared to take it.’
‘I get plenty of shit about plenty of things.’
‘About shit that doesn’t mean anything to you, that you don’t care about. Like people thinking you’re a man-whore.’
‘Stop slut-shaming.’
Luka laughed. They stepped aside to let a family pass, trolleys loaded up with kids and bags. ‘You get a kick out of people thinking you’re a ladies’ man.’
‘I am a ladies’ man. Women love me. Except for the ones who hate me. Which is mostly the ones who used to love me. I don’t get why that is.’
‘You know why you want to keep this one secret?’
‘You’re going to tell me why I want to keep secret the fact that a woman I was seeing got pregnant and then lost the baby and dumped me. Have you even met our family?’
Luka remained silent as they approached the secure exit to the tarmac.
‘Oh, go on, bro,’ Cody said, ‘tell me your theory.’
‘You want to keep it secret because getting shit about this would actually hurt.’
‘Nope.’
‘Coz it meant something to you. You actually gave a damn.’
‘Nup.’ Cody said nothing more, and after a few minutes Luka got the hint and changed the subject to the one the entire family was discussing—Nan’s matchmaking attempt to end all matchmaking attempts. Updating Luka on those developments took until they came in to land on the helipad along the rocky breakwater at the newer Airlie marina. On the pontoon beyond the security gates, two women watched their descent, all tanned limbs, long hair, short shorts, cowboy hats and big sunglasses.
‘Jesus, bro,’ Luka said through the comms. ‘Do we have to take them straight to the resort? Can we throw in a sightseeing trip first? Somewhere isolated where we can get conveniently stranded for the night. One last meal for the condemned man.’
‘I don’t need to give away free tours to impress women—or kidnap them. I know it’s harder for a sea snake like yourself.’
‘Plenty of women are impressed by a guy in a wetsuit.’
‘Only because once you’re underwater you can’t talk.’
Cody had no sooner landed and shut down than Luka was out opening the gate and jogging down the steps onto the pontoon, smoothing down his hair. ‘Hey there,’ he said, holding out a hand for the nearer passenger to shake, a curvy woman with super long light brown hair. ‘I’m Luka Tova, sports and activities manager at Curlew Bay. You’re joining us for a while, I hope?’
He chatted away in his rabid puppy way without stopping to ask the women a single question—not even their names—and leaving Cody to check their booking details and grab their bags, like he was the porter. Cody should teach the little guy a thing or two about being cool. He knew Luka’s drivel was fuelled by nerves but it landed somewhere between desperate and slimy. At least it gave Cody a few minutes to digest the news about Hannah.
He was happy for her. Of course he was. He guessed the pregnancy wasn’t an accident this time, and if she was announcing it, she was out of the miscarriage danger zone. Like she’d said at the time, ‘the circumstances’ hadn’t been right with her and Cody. ‘You’re off the hook,’ she’d said brightly over the phone, though her voice had wavered. ‘Not meant to be!’ For her sake, he’d pretended to be relieved by the outcome, though later he’d wondered if that had been a mistake. Maybe if he’d let on about how he really felt … He’d asked where she was, told her he would fly straight there—he was already walking towards the helipad—but she’d told him no. ‘I think we need to recognise that it was never going to work between us, even before this. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.’ She hadn’t meant it—that much was obvious. She was simply searching for a light in the darkness. ‘I mean, you’re not exactly the nurturing type, are you?’ she’d added with a laugh.
Luka offered to take the obligatory photo of the women beside the helicopter. They insisted on Cody being in the pic. ‘Sure, sure,’ Luka said, waving Cody in, but Cody could hear his reluctance. As if Cody would move in on a woman his brother was interested in. Though to be fair, Luka was interested in every woman he met, so it kinda cut down the options. The women ushered Cody into the middle and he gave a cheesy double thumbs-up at the camera rather than slinging his arms around them.
Once the women were fitted with lifejackets (selflessly assisted by Luka), Luka offered the front passenger seat to the brunette. A seemingly magnanimous gesture, but Cody could tell it was because he was interested in the other woman, a redhead who sounded Canadian. The woman who climbed up beside Cody was Spanish, Cody had gathered from her accent and name in the brief windows of opportunity Luka had given them to talk.
As Cody ran through the safety procedures, he caught an eye-roll from Luka in the back seat. Yep, his brother thought he was following civil aviation rules purely for the sake of point-scoring with women.
As soon as they lifted off, Luka resumed speaking. Once he learned the Canadian was a dive virgin, his monologue evolved into a sales pitch for his diving course. Cody adjusted the comms system so he didn’t have to listen in. He switched off the link between Luka and the front-seat passenger too, raising his eyebrows at her to check that it was okay. Her eyes widened in gratitude.
‘You picked a good day for it,’ Cody said to her through their now private comms, nodding at the ocean receding underneath them, today a luminous pale jade mottled with dark-blue ink stains of cloud shadow.
‘It’s beautiful.’
She remained mostly silent during the flight, filming on her mobile. He named the islands for her, pointed out the usual stuff—Shute Harbour, the ferry motoring across the channel to Hamilton Island, and, when it came into view, the beach at Curlew Bay curving around like a grin—but he was on autopilot.
It was good that Hannah was happy. She deserved to be happy.
After landing at Curlew Bay, Cody went to retrieve the women’s bags, leaving Luka to usher them out and direct them to reception.
What was it Luka had said? ‘You actually gave a damn.’
No shit he had.
‘Excuse me.’
He turned at the voice, just registering the Canadian accent before a pair of hands linked around the back of his neck and a pair of lips attached themselves to his. He grunted and pulled back, breaking the kiss, looking down at what was without doubt a beautiful face, all glossy red hair and glossy skin and glossy lips drawn into a cheeky smile. Fuck it, why not? He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back.
It didn’t work. All he could think about was Hannah.
‘Seriously?’ Luka said glumly, after the women had walked away towards reception, laughing about the ambush. ‘I do all the ground work and then … What did you say to her?’
‘Nothing. Seriously, I shut up for two minutes. Try it sometime.’ He slapped Luka’s slumped shoulder. ‘I mean it—try it sometime,’ he said, more kindly.
‘Two twins-a-twinning!’ Lena called, rushing down the path from the staff quarters to stand beside Luka, gesturing at their identical clothing.
‘Womb buddy!’ Luka said, slinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in. ‘Come on, Codes, group hug. Gotta be done.’
Cody rolled his eyes but joined his siblings. Luka never held a grudge for long, fortunately. As usual, the hug got competitive, with backslapping morphing into jostling. Cody caught Luka in a headlock and gave his scalp a knuckle rub before shoving him away.
‘Welcome back to the world’s most scenic prison,’ Lena declared, holding her arms wide. ‘And why is it that when I fly in, I have to get the shuttle and the boat while Lukey here gets the five-star treatment?’
‘Coz Cody plays favourites,’ Luka said, resetting his hair in a complex series of lightning-quick manoeuvres. ‘And everyone loves me.’
