Outback Secrets, page 16
‘This is fun,’ she said as they manoeuvred the rocking chair off the ute. ‘I feel like a reverse burglar.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Reverse burglar?’
‘Yeah. Totally. We should have worn balaclavas.’
It was hard not to laugh as an image of Henri wearing a black mask and ski suit landed in his head. She’d make the sexiest damn burglar he’d ever seen.
Neither of them said a word as they lurked up the street, doing their best to be quiet as they carried the rocking chair between them. They were almost at their destination when the clock struck midnight and, just like that, the street went perfectly black. Well, it would have been perfect if Henri didn’t choose that moment to get a serious case of the giggles.
‘Shh,’ he hissed, more amused than infuriated. She didn’t come across as the kind of girl who giggled, but the more time he spent with her the more she surprised him. ‘You’re supposed to be helping, not getting us caught.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She didn’t sound it, but she managed to curtail her laughter as they tiptoed up onto the porch, put his rocking chair alongside Dolce’s old one and retreated quickly.
‘I bet everything about Christmas is pretty different in America,’ Henri said as they made their way back to the ute, passing by a house that had three white reindeer grazing on the front lawn.
Damn Christmas, couldn’t she think of anything else to talk about?
‘Yeah.’ He forced himself to reply like a normal person. ‘Summer will never feel like … like Christmas to me, neither will prawns on the barbie or cricket in the backyard.’ And that was a good thing. ‘Is that what you guys do out on the farm?’
‘Not so much anymore—my brothers don’t like it when I score more runs than them. When Dad was alive, he used to tell them to grow up and stop being sore losers. Mum keeps things fairly traditional foodwise. Despite the heat, she still usually goes the whole shebang with ham and turkey, roast veg, Yorkshire puddings, gravy and a steamed Christmas pudding. Once we’re all stuffed silly, we flop about in the pool or head to the beach.’ She looked up at him. ‘What about you? What was Christmas like when you were growing up?’
His throat threatened to close over at the question, but he didn’t want to keep being weird or for her to think him a grump so, somehow, he managed to tell her something.
‘Well, my family wasn’t huge, so Mom would invite around anyone she knew who was going to be alone for the holiday and she’d put on this enormous meal. Sometimes we’d have up to twenty strays. It was never boring.’
‘Sounds fun. I guess you ate turkey?’
‘Of course.’ Another forced smile. ‘And also the traditional casseroles—green beans, marshmallow and yams—and more pies than anyone could ever eat. Pumpkin, pecan …’
He trailed off when he realised Henri had stopped and was staring at him like he was an alien. ‘What?’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought yams were sweet potatoes?’ When he nodded, she screwed up her nose. ‘Please tell me you don’t eat them mixed together with marshmallows?’
The tightness in his chest eased a little at her horror. His smile became real. ‘Don’t mock it until you’ve tried it.’
She opened her mouth, but her words were lost as a gunshot pierced the otherwise silent night.
Fuck. His stomach dropped. How could this be happening? Again?
But there was no time to question fate. Instinct kicked in and Liam dived in front of Henri, pushing her onto the ground and covering her body with his. Moments later what looked like Brad’s V8 Falcon hooned past, smoke pouring out of its exhaust.
At the realisation it was just the engine backfiring, breath gushed from his lungs and his heart rate tried to catch up with his head.
‘Sorry. Are you okay?’ he panted, gazing down at Henri, her face mere centimetres from his.
‘That scar on your shoulder isn’t because you fell from a tree, is it?’
‘No.’ He sucked in a breath. ‘It’s not.’
Silence stretched between them. In the distance he could hear waves lapping against the shore, and maybe an owl.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asked eventually.
Did he want to talk about it? That was the last thing he ever wanted to do, but something about Henri had him wavering. He’d almost come clean to her last night. And after what had just happened, perhaps he did owe her some kind of explanation.
Rolling off her, Liam sat up, ran a hand through his hair and took a few ragged breaths.
Beside him, she slowly rose into a sitting position but didn’t say a word.
‘It was almost thirteen years ago,’ he said after a long moment’s silence. ‘My family—my parents—owned a couple of supermarkets. Gourmet grocery stores really. We sold a lot of organic stuff, local produce, baked goods from small businesses. Dad always wanted to make it feel like you’d stepped back in time when you entered one of the stores. We were all about old-fashioned service—you got your bags packed at the checkout and then someone would carry them out to your car for you.’
In the light of the moon, Liam saw a faint smile cross Henri’s face, but she still didn’t speak.
‘Anyway, one day … I got a call from Lacey, my little sister. I was at one of our stores and she was with my parents at the other. She was crying so hard I could barely make out what she was saying. Turns out there was a crazy person storming around the store.’
He took another deep breath and Henri gave him an encouraging nod.
‘I could hear shouting and screaming. I thought she said someone was threatening to shoot Mom and Dad. Even though I couldn’t believe it, I got in my car and drove over there as fast as I could. On a good day it’s a fifteen-minute drive. I made it in nine and a half. Lacey stayed on the line, and I heard gunshots. She screamed. She was hysterical.’ He’d never forget that piercing sound—it was almost worse than the sound of gunfire. ‘She didn’t have to tell me. I just knew.’
‘He killed your parents?’
Liam nodded. ‘I tried to go inside. The sheriff was there. But Silver Ridge … it’s a small town. He ordered me to wait for back-up, but I … I had to get to Lacey. I couldn’t leave her in there alone.’
That’s when he lost the battle with tears. He didn’t know if he could go on.
Henri reached out and squeezed his hand. Liam looked down at her hand wrapped around his and then back into her face. Her eyes were glistening too.
‘It was a war zone,’ he said. ‘Customers. Staff. Everyone was hiding under checkouts. Hiding wherever they could. There were kids squeezed into the tiny space under the shelves where their parents had shoved them, stock scattered all over the floor. Blood. Everywhere. So much blood … I saw Mom first, then Dad. Then Lacey.’
‘No,’ Henri gasped, and he nodded.
‘The bastard turned his gun on me. I honestly couldn’t have cared less if he killed me. But there were two more shots before he could.’
Although the night was still warm, Liam shivered, then tugged aside the collar of his shirt to reveal his scar. The reminder of what he’d lost, which he saw every day when he looked in the mirror.
Tears were now pouring down Henri’s cheeks as she gazed at it.
‘He shot me at the exact time the cops shot him. He was killed instantly. His aim wasn’t so great with me. It didn’t matter, he’d already taken almost everything I cared about.’
Not quite everything.
But Liam didn’t tell Henri about Kate. He couldn’t. It was hard to believe he’d managed to tell her what he had, but there was only so much his heart could take in one night.
‘Who was he?’ she asked.
‘Who was who?’
‘The killer?’
He sighed. ‘Some guy whose girlfriend had dumped him for a man who worked for us. Stupid thing was he got the wrong store. Nate worked with me at Monument. That bastard took five lives that day—two other employees as well as my family. And he got off lightly in the end. His punishment should have been so much more than death. He should be living out his years in some hellish prison, worrying someone might slice his throat while he sleeps.’
‘I can’t even, Liam … I don’t know what to say.’
‘There’s nothing you can say.’
They sat in silence a few minutes before Henri said, ‘What did you do … after?’
‘After all the mess was cleaned up and I’d buried my whole family?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You didn’t have anyone else? No aunts, uncles, grandparents?’
‘My dad was an only child. Mom was estranged from her family—I’ve never met any of them—and Dad’s mother died when he was nineteen. Bowel cancer. When … when the shooting happened, his father was in residential care with dementia. He went a few months later. I’m not sure how much he understood about the shooting. Maybe grief was what finished him off.’
‘Oh God,’ Henri breathed.
He knew what she was thinking. That he’d lost his immediate family and then his only living relative in a matter of months.
‘It was always the plan that I’d take over the running of the stores when Mom and Dad retired. I’d already started working on plans to expand across the state. But I could barely step foot in those two stores anymore, and after Pa’s funeral, well, there didn’t seem any point to anything.’
‘So, you sold the supermarkets and came here?’
‘Yeah … A local businessman bought our Monument store, and I sold the Silver Ridge one to a supermarket chain that planned to knock it down and build their own. The town wasn’t very happy with me—they didn’t want big business ruining their small-town charm, but I didn’t care. I had to get the hell out of America. I had citizenship here because of Mom, and the best damn thing about it …’
‘Our strict gun laws?’ she finished when his voice trailed off.
He nodded.
She squeezed his hand again. ‘I don’t blame you.’
He started trembling—the shock of having spoken about this properly for the first time in a long time taking hold. ‘Please don’t tell anyone.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Because … because in Silver Ridge I became that tragic guy from the grocery stores who lost all his loved ones in a shooting. It changed how people behaved around me. And I don’t need other people’s pity as a constant reminder of everything I’ve lost. As if I’ll ever forget. But here, here in Bunyip Bay, I’m just Liam the publican—I can live with that guy.’
Left unsaid was the fact he couldn’t live with the other guy.
‘It’s okay.’ Henri pressed her finger against his lip, just to the right of the split. It tingled beneath her touch. ‘Your secret’s safe with me. I promise.’
He felt the tension rush out of his lungs. Because he believed her.
‘You wanna go home now?’ she asked.
‘Yeah.’
They stood, and as they walked in silence, Henri slipped her hand into his. She held it firmly until they got back to the ute.
‘You know,’ she said when they were back upstairs in his apartment and kicking off their shoes. ‘Your couch is nowhere near as comfortable as it looks. But … there’s really plenty of room in your bed … We could always share it?’
‘Thanks,’ he managed after serious hesitation, ‘but I’ll be fine on the couch. You take the bed. I’ll see you in the morning.’
As much as he craved the feeling of lying alongside Henri, he needed to be alone a while. Besides, if there was any night his terrors were going to return, this would be it.
He only hoped Henri was a deep sleeper.
Chapter Seventeen
It was still dark when Henri woke to the smell of coffee on Wednesday morning. She rubbed her eyes and stretched to pluck her mobile off Liam’s bedside table. 5.30 am. Even earlier than they usually went surfing.
After two nights at home, she’d been excited to stay over again last night, but to her dismay Liam hadn’t been in a very chatty mood. Downstairs in the pub, he’d been friendly enough but even though she’d hung in the bar until closing time, hoping maybe they’d watch another movie or something, he’d made it clear when they got upstairs that he was tired and wanted an early night.
Well, as early as nights ever were for publicans. Liam kept complete opposite hours to farmers and also to her.
Henri had been tired too after two long days working with her brothers and the shearing team, but she couldn’t help sensing that there was more than fatigue going on. She felt like something had shifted between her and Liam since he’d confided in her about the shooting on Sunday night. She’d come into town for surfing lessons every morning since, but even they felt different. From their very first lesson she’d started to feel like they could be good friends, but the last couple of mornings, she’d once again felt like she was teaching a stranger.
Did he regret telling her?
Or maybe she was the problem?
Remembering what he’d said about not wanting to see pity in other people’s eyes, she’d tried not to change the way she acted around him and resisted the urge to try and get him to talk more about his family—he would if and when he wanted to—but she ached for him whenever she recalled their conversation. Even four years on she still struggled daily with the loss of her dad and the knowledge she’d never get to talk or laugh with him again. How much worse must it be if you knew you could never do that with any of your family?
As much as her mum and Tilley sometimes infuriated her, the thought of them and her brothers all being taken away from her … How did anyone ever recover from that?
A knock sounded on the door that was already partially open so that Sheila could go back and forth between them. Liam’s voice followed.
‘Rise and shine, sleeping beauty.’ He stepped into the bedroom.
‘Isn’t that usually my line?’ she said, trying to ignore the way her stomach turned over at the sight of him. In khaki cargo shorts and a plain black T-shirt, he looked damn delicious.
With a chuckle, he put a mug of coffee down on the bedside table and then sat on the edge of the bed. Every nerve ending in her body stood to attention and, although she was wearing perfectly demure summer PJs, she suddenly felt naked.
Wishful thinking.
Henri shook that thought from her head, sat up and reached for the coffee. ‘What’s going on? You’re not usually a morning person. Have I turned you into a surfing junkie?’
‘Not quite. And we’re not going surfing today.’
‘We’re not?’ Henri frowned. ‘Then why are we up so early?’
‘We’re going on a road trip—and before you ask, I checked with Andrew and Callum that they could do without you in the sheds and they agree, you deserve a proper day off. I thought it was high time you showed me what geocaching is all about.’
‘We don’t need to go on a road trip for that,’ Henri said, unsure how she felt about him going behind her back to arrange things with her brothers—she liked to make her own decisions. ‘I’m happy to induct you into the geocaching family, but wouldn’t it be better if we did so around here? You know … we’re more likely to be seen that way.’
‘Maybe.’ He stood. ‘But we’re not actually looking for a geocache today. We’re planting one, as you put it. And I have the perfect location in mind. Now drink that, and then get dressed. We’ll have breakfast en route.’
‘Where exactly are we going?’
‘That’s a surprise, but bring your swimsuit,’ Liam said and left the room before she could ask any further questions.
Henri’s gut churned—she didn’t like surprises; in her experience they weren’t usually good. But as Liam had gone out of his way to help her, the least she could do was go along with whatever he had planned. And she couldn’t help feeling heartened that he was choosing to spend time with her. Maybe she’d imagined the awkwardness of the last few days after all.
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way. Weirdly, the confined space of Liam’s Hilux felt even smaller without Sheila between them, but when she asked if the dog was coming, he told her she wasn’t fond of road trips.
Henri spent the first five minutes of the journey trying to get Liam to give her a clue as to where they were going. They were heading north, and he’d told her to pack her bathers, so she guessed they were staying coastal, but surely he wouldn’t take her further than Kalbarri on a day trip. Then again, there were also some gorgeous waterholes a little bit further inland if you knew where to look.
Yet, no matter how hard she tried, he refused to give her any hint and after a while she gave up and they spent the next five minutes arguing over what music to listen to. Liam wanted classic rock and Henri country. Considering he wouldn’t tell her where they were headed, she thought the least he could do was let her pick, but they were both as stubborn as each other. Finally, they decided to compromise and listen to Logan Knight doing the breakfast show from Geraldton instead. He was undeniably good at his job, speaking with warmth and empathy about the day’s news stories and listening intently to every person who called in.
‘Have you and Frankie been friends since you were kids, then?’ Liam asked, when Logan mentioned his fiancée on air.
‘Yeah. Our mums are friends. They love to tell stories of sitting on the breastfeeding couch at playgroup while our older siblings ran amuck outside.’
She told him how, as they grew up, they became more and more inseparable and how heartbroken she’d felt when she had to go to boarding school and Frankie had got to take the bus to high school in Geraldton instead. ‘I was so jealous of her because I would much rather have stayed on the farm. Anyway, we both made new friends after that and haven’t lived in the same place since, but it’s always like we’ve never been apart whenever we catch up. What about you? Any special childhood friends you still keep in touch with?’
‘Yeah, Simon. He lived next door as long as I can remember. Like yours and Frankie’s, our parents were friends as well. We went to school together and rode our skateboards in the afternoons. We spent almost every waking hour together, but we were also hugely competitive. The biggest contest of all was who could get a girlfriend first. Simon won, of course. He was captain of the football team and had cheerleaders fighting over him.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Reverse burglar?’
‘Yeah. Totally. We should have worn balaclavas.’
It was hard not to laugh as an image of Henri wearing a black mask and ski suit landed in his head. She’d make the sexiest damn burglar he’d ever seen.
Neither of them said a word as they lurked up the street, doing their best to be quiet as they carried the rocking chair between them. They were almost at their destination when the clock struck midnight and, just like that, the street went perfectly black. Well, it would have been perfect if Henri didn’t choose that moment to get a serious case of the giggles.
‘Shh,’ he hissed, more amused than infuriated. She didn’t come across as the kind of girl who giggled, but the more time he spent with her the more she surprised him. ‘You’re supposed to be helping, not getting us caught.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She didn’t sound it, but she managed to curtail her laughter as they tiptoed up onto the porch, put his rocking chair alongside Dolce’s old one and retreated quickly.
‘I bet everything about Christmas is pretty different in America,’ Henri said as they made their way back to the ute, passing by a house that had three white reindeer grazing on the front lawn.
Damn Christmas, couldn’t she think of anything else to talk about?
‘Yeah.’ He forced himself to reply like a normal person. ‘Summer will never feel like … like Christmas to me, neither will prawns on the barbie or cricket in the backyard.’ And that was a good thing. ‘Is that what you guys do out on the farm?’
‘Not so much anymore—my brothers don’t like it when I score more runs than them. When Dad was alive, he used to tell them to grow up and stop being sore losers. Mum keeps things fairly traditional foodwise. Despite the heat, she still usually goes the whole shebang with ham and turkey, roast veg, Yorkshire puddings, gravy and a steamed Christmas pudding. Once we’re all stuffed silly, we flop about in the pool or head to the beach.’ She looked up at him. ‘What about you? What was Christmas like when you were growing up?’
His throat threatened to close over at the question, but he didn’t want to keep being weird or for her to think him a grump so, somehow, he managed to tell her something.
‘Well, my family wasn’t huge, so Mom would invite around anyone she knew who was going to be alone for the holiday and she’d put on this enormous meal. Sometimes we’d have up to twenty strays. It was never boring.’
‘Sounds fun. I guess you ate turkey?’
‘Of course.’ Another forced smile. ‘And also the traditional casseroles—green beans, marshmallow and yams—and more pies than anyone could ever eat. Pumpkin, pecan …’
He trailed off when he realised Henri had stopped and was staring at him like he was an alien. ‘What?’
‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought yams were sweet potatoes?’ When he nodded, she screwed up her nose. ‘Please tell me you don’t eat them mixed together with marshmallows?’
The tightness in his chest eased a little at her horror. His smile became real. ‘Don’t mock it until you’ve tried it.’
She opened her mouth, but her words were lost as a gunshot pierced the otherwise silent night.
Fuck. His stomach dropped. How could this be happening? Again?
But there was no time to question fate. Instinct kicked in and Liam dived in front of Henri, pushing her onto the ground and covering her body with his. Moments later what looked like Brad’s V8 Falcon hooned past, smoke pouring out of its exhaust.
At the realisation it was just the engine backfiring, breath gushed from his lungs and his heart rate tried to catch up with his head.
‘Sorry. Are you okay?’ he panted, gazing down at Henri, her face mere centimetres from his.
‘That scar on your shoulder isn’t because you fell from a tree, is it?’
‘No.’ He sucked in a breath. ‘It’s not.’
Silence stretched between them. In the distance he could hear waves lapping against the shore, and maybe an owl.
‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asked eventually.
Did he want to talk about it? That was the last thing he ever wanted to do, but something about Henri had him wavering. He’d almost come clean to her last night. And after what had just happened, perhaps he did owe her some kind of explanation.
Rolling off her, Liam sat up, ran a hand through his hair and took a few ragged breaths.
Beside him, she slowly rose into a sitting position but didn’t say a word.
‘It was almost thirteen years ago,’ he said after a long moment’s silence. ‘My family—my parents—owned a couple of supermarkets. Gourmet grocery stores really. We sold a lot of organic stuff, local produce, baked goods from small businesses. Dad always wanted to make it feel like you’d stepped back in time when you entered one of the stores. We were all about old-fashioned service—you got your bags packed at the checkout and then someone would carry them out to your car for you.’
In the light of the moon, Liam saw a faint smile cross Henri’s face, but she still didn’t speak.
‘Anyway, one day … I got a call from Lacey, my little sister. I was at one of our stores and she was with my parents at the other. She was crying so hard I could barely make out what she was saying. Turns out there was a crazy person storming around the store.’
He took another deep breath and Henri gave him an encouraging nod.
‘I could hear shouting and screaming. I thought she said someone was threatening to shoot Mom and Dad. Even though I couldn’t believe it, I got in my car and drove over there as fast as I could. On a good day it’s a fifteen-minute drive. I made it in nine and a half. Lacey stayed on the line, and I heard gunshots. She screamed. She was hysterical.’ He’d never forget that piercing sound—it was almost worse than the sound of gunfire. ‘She didn’t have to tell me. I just knew.’
‘He killed your parents?’
Liam nodded. ‘I tried to go inside. The sheriff was there. But Silver Ridge … it’s a small town. He ordered me to wait for back-up, but I … I had to get to Lacey. I couldn’t leave her in there alone.’
That’s when he lost the battle with tears. He didn’t know if he could go on.
Henri reached out and squeezed his hand. Liam looked down at her hand wrapped around his and then back into her face. Her eyes were glistening too.
‘It was a war zone,’ he said. ‘Customers. Staff. Everyone was hiding under checkouts. Hiding wherever they could. There were kids squeezed into the tiny space under the shelves where their parents had shoved them, stock scattered all over the floor. Blood. Everywhere. So much blood … I saw Mom first, then Dad. Then Lacey.’
‘No,’ Henri gasped, and he nodded.
‘The bastard turned his gun on me. I honestly couldn’t have cared less if he killed me. But there were two more shots before he could.’
Although the night was still warm, Liam shivered, then tugged aside the collar of his shirt to reveal his scar. The reminder of what he’d lost, which he saw every day when he looked in the mirror.
Tears were now pouring down Henri’s cheeks as she gazed at it.
‘He shot me at the exact time the cops shot him. He was killed instantly. His aim wasn’t so great with me. It didn’t matter, he’d already taken almost everything I cared about.’
Not quite everything.
But Liam didn’t tell Henri about Kate. He couldn’t. It was hard to believe he’d managed to tell her what he had, but there was only so much his heart could take in one night.
‘Who was he?’ she asked.
‘Who was who?’
‘The killer?’
He sighed. ‘Some guy whose girlfriend had dumped him for a man who worked for us. Stupid thing was he got the wrong store. Nate worked with me at Monument. That bastard took five lives that day—two other employees as well as my family. And he got off lightly in the end. His punishment should have been so much more than death. He should be living out his years in some hellish prison, worrying someone might slice his throat while he sleeps.’
‘I can’t even, Liam … I don’t know what to say.’
‘There’s nothing you can say.’
They sat in silence a few minutes before Henri said, ‘What did you do … after?’
‘After all the mess was cleaned up and I’d buried my whole family?’
Her eyes widened. ‘You didn’t have anyone else? No aunts, uncles, grandparents?’
‘My dad was an only child. Mom was estranged from her family—I’ve never met any of them—and Dad’s mother died when he was nineteen. Bowel cancer. When … when the shooting happened, his father was in residential care with dementia. He went a few months later. I’m not sure how much he understood about the shooting. Maybe grief was what finished him off.’
‘Oh God,’ Henri breathed.
He knew what she was thinking. That he’d lost his immediate family and then his only living relative in a matter of months.
‘It was always the plan that I’d take over the running of the stores when Mom and Dad retired. I’d already started working on plans to expand across the state. But I could barely step foot in those two stores anymore, and after Pa’s funeral, well, there didn’t seem any point to anything.’
‘So, you sold the supermarkets and came here?’
‘Yeah … A local businessman bought our Monument store, and I sold the Silver Ridge one to a supermarket chain that planned to knock it down and build their own. The town wasn’t very happy with me—they didn’t want big business ruining their small-town charm, but I didn’t care. I had to get the hell out of America. I had citizenship here because of Mom, and the best damn thing about it …’
‘Our strict gun laws?’ she finished when his voice trailed off.
He nodded.
She squeezed his hand again. ‘I don’t blame you.’
He started trembling—the shock of having spoken about this properly for the first time in a long time taking hold. ‘Please don’t tell anyone.’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘Because … because in Silver Ridge I became that tragic guy from the grocery stores who lost all his loved ones in a shooting. It changed how people behaved around me. And I don’t need other people’s pity as a constant reminder of everything I’ve lost. As if I’ll ever forget. But here, here in Bunyip Bay, I’m just Liam the publican—I can live with that guy.’
Left unsaid was the fact he couldn’t live with the other guy.
‘It’s okay.’ Henri pressed her finger against his lip, just to the right of the split. It tingled beneath her touch. ‘Your secret’s safe with me. I promise.’
He felt the tension rush out of his lungs. Because he believed her.
‘You wanna go home now?’ she asked.
‘Yeah.’
They stood, and as they walked in silence, Henri slipped her hand into his. She held it firmly until they got back to the ute.
‘You know,’ she said when they were back upstairs in his apartment and kicking off their shoes. ‘Your couch is nowhere near as comfortable as it looks. But … there’s really plenty of room in your bed … We could always share it?’
‘Thanks,’ he managed after serious hesitation, ‘but I’ll be fine on the couch. You take the bed. I’ll see you in the morning.’
As much as he craved the feeling of lying alongside Henri, he needed to be alone a while. Besides, if there was any night his terrors were going to return, this would be it.
He only hoped Henri was a deep sleeper.
Chapter Seventeen
It was still dark when Henri woke to the smell of coffee on Wednesday morning. She rubbed her eyes and stretched to pluck her mobile off Liam’s bedside table. 5.30 am. Even earlier than they usually went surfing.
After two nights at home, she’d been excited to stay over again last night, but to her dismay Liam hadn’t been in a very chatty mood. Downstairs in the pub, he’d been friendly enough but even though she’d hung in the bar until closing time, hoping maybe they’d watch another movie or something, he’d made it clear when they got upstairs that he was tired and wanted an early night.
Well, as early as nights ever were for publicans. Liam kept complete opposite hours to farmers and also to her.
Henri had been tired too after two long days working with her brothers and the shearing team, but she couldn’t help sensing that there was more than fatigue going on. She felt like something had shifted between her and Liam since he’d confided in her about the shooting on Sunday night. She’d come into town for surfing lessons every morning since, but even they felt different. From their very first lesson she’d started to feel like they could be good friends, but the last couple of mornings, she’d once again felt like she was teaching a stranger.
Did he regret telling her?
Or maybe she was the problem?
Remembering what he’d said about not wanting to see pity in other people’s eyes, she’d tried not to change the way she acted around him and resisted the urge to try and get him to talk more about his family—he would if and when he wanted to—but she ached for him whenever she recalled their conversation. Even four years on she still struggled daily with the loss of her dad and the knowledge she’d never get to talk or laugh with him again. How much worse must it be if you knew you could never do that with any of your family?
As much as her mum and Tilley sometimes infuriated her, the thought of them and her brothers all being taken away from her … How did anyone ever recover from that?
A knock sounded on the door that was already partially open so that Sheila could go back and forth between them. Liam’s voice followed.
‘Rise and shine, sleeping beauty.’ He stepped into the bedroom.
‘Isn’t that usually my line?’ she said, trying to ignore the way her stomach turned over at the sight of him. In khaki cargo shorts and a plain black T-shirt, he looked damn delicious.
With a chuckle, he put a mug of coffee down on the bedside table and then sat on the edge of the bed. Every nerve ending in her body stood to attention and, although she was wearing perfectly demure summer PJs, she suddenly felt naked.
Wishful thinking.
Henri shook that thought from her head, sat up and reached for the coffee. ‘What’s going on? You’re not usually a morning person. Have I turned you into a surfing junkie?’
‘Not quite. And we’re not going surfing today.’
‘We’re not?’ Henri frowned. ‘Then why are we up so early?’
‘We’re going on a road trip—and before you ask, I checked with Andrew and Callum that they could do without you in the sheds and they agree, you deserve a proper day off. I thought it was high time you showed me what geocaching is all about.’
‘We don’t need to go on a road trip for that,’ Henri said, unsure how she felt about him going behind her back to arrange things with her brothers—she liked to make her own decisions. ‘I’m happy to induct you into the geocaching family, but wouldn’t it be better if we did so around here? You know … we’re more likely to be seen that way.’
‘Maybe.’ He stood. ‘But we’re not actually looking for a geocache today. We’re planting one, as you put it. And I have the perfect location in mind. Now drink that, and then get dressed. We’ll have breakfast en route.’
‘Where exactly are we going?’
‘That’s a surprise, but bring your swimsuit,’ Liam said and left the room before she could ask any further questions.
Henri’s gut churned—she didn’t like surprises; in her experience they weren’t usually good. But as Liam had gone out of his way to help her, the least she could do was go along with whatever he had planned. And she couldn’t help feeling heartened that he was choosing to spend time with her. Maybe she’d imagined the awkwardness of the last few days after all.
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way. Weirdly, the confined space of Liam’s Hilux felt even smaller without Sheila between them, but when she asked if the dog was coming, he told her she wasn’t fond of road trips.
Henri spent the first five minutes of the journey trying to get Liam to give her a clue as to where they were going. They were heading north, and he’d told her to pack her bathers, so she guessed they were staying coastal, but surely he wouldn’t take her further than Kalbarri on a day trip. Then again, there were also some gorgeous waterholes a little bit further inland if you knew where to look.
Yet, no matter how hard she tried, he refused to give her any hint and after a while she gave up and they spent the next five minutes arguing over what music to listen to. Liam wanted classic rock and Henri country. Considering he wouldn’t tell her where they were headed, she thought the least he could do was let her pick, but they were both as stubborn as each other. Finally, they decided to compromise and listen to Logan Knight doing the breakfast show from Geraldton instead. He was undeniably good at his job, speaking with warmth and empathy about the day’s news stories and listening intently to every person who called in.
‘Have you and Frankie been friends since you were kids, then?’ Liam asked, when Logan mentioned his fiancée on air.
‘Yeah. Our mums are friends. They love to tell stories of sitting on the breastfeeding couch at playgroup while our older siblings ran amuck outside.’
She told him how, as they grew up, they became more and more inseparable and how heartbroken she’d felt when she had to go to boarding school and Frankie had got to take the bus to high school in Geraldton instead. ‘I was so jealous of her because I would much rather have stayed on the farm. Anyway, we both made new friends after that and haven’t lived in the same place since, but it’s always like we’ve never been apart whenever we catch up. What about you? Any special childhood friends you still keep in touch with?’
‘Yeah, Simon. He lived next door as long as I can remember. Like yours and Frankie’s, our parents were friends as well. We went to school together and rode our skateboards in the afternoons. We spent almost every waking hour together, but we were also hugely competitive. The biggest contest of all was who could get a girlfriend first. Simon won, of course. He was captain of the football team and had cheerleaders fighting over him.’
