Deception (13 page)

Chapter 12

As I was coming out of the lift, I happened to glance ahead through the entrance doorway and saw a sedan pulling out from one of the parking bays and slide past the entrance. I recognised Megan at the wheel and, sitting behind her in the passenger seat was my father.

I sprinted. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the male clerk behind the reception desk staring wide-eyed at my undignified dash past him.

But by the time I’d gotten outside it was too late. The car was already speeding away down the slope.

Fuming, I turned back to go inside hotel.

I’d deliberately set my alarm to wake me early enough to catch my father. But that wasn’t the point. Hadn’t I specifically asked Gwen to let Megan know I wanted to see my father before his appointment?

I saw Gwen coming out of the office. I caught up with her as she was crossing the lobby.

Without even a polite good morning, or anything courteous like that, I just said: “I just saw Megan leaving with my dad.”

She glanced towards the desk clerk on duty this morning; a young man with flapping ears and saucer eyes, and gently but firmly she pulled me to one side.

She said, “I told you last night, Bailey, he’ll see you later.”

“But…”

She said, looking harassed, “He couldn’t be late for his appointment. Surely even
you
can understand that.”

“Yes, of course even I can understand that, but…”

“…Really! I do think you’re being somewhat difficult. And you can’t even begin to imagine what sort of stress and pressure some of us are having to go through right now.”

“Well, no, I can’t if no one will tell me anything, or include me…”

“…But since you are here, can’t you just leave things as they are for the time being and find something to distract yourself for the rest of your stay? Something to take your mind off your own personal pursuits?”

I had to bite my lip to stop myself from answering her back. I thought she was being quite unnecessarily unkind and stroppy, but I reminded myself she was my father’s wife, and entitled to be treated with respect. Even if I didn’t think she deserved it right then.

She let out an exasperated sigh, as if to emphasise the point that she’d reached the end of her patience with me. Then, apparently to show me that she was still drawing on the last of her forbearance, she said rather patronisingly, “I said Colin will see you later, and I’m sure he will if he wishes to. Now I can’t say fairer than that, can I?”

I didn’t reply. She didn’t notice, or even seem to care that she’d upset me. Whatever good manners she had seemed to have disappeared in the flurry of the morning’s events. And if she wanted me to feel that I was being in the way at all, she was doing fair job of it.

She said, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, some of us have work to do.”

For a moment then it seemed to me that she completely forgot I was standing right there in front of her, for she turned and looked about her, her blue eyes searching and probing.

Then she swore under her breath. “Damn that boy!”

I asked, “What boy?”

Her head swivelled back to me as she realised she’d spoken aloud.

“Max, of course,” she snapped, as if I were an idiot not to have understood. “He’s never around when he’s supposed to be, although I specifically asked him to make himself available this morning, and there are a number of guests arriving later. And on top of that I need to ensure all is in readiness for tonight’s little get together.”

There seemed nothing more to be said, and I half turned away, but she suddenly caught my arm and pressed her face close to mine.

“So if you do happen to see that idle son of mine, tell him I could do with his help, will you?”

It sounded more like an order than a request. I didn’t reply. After giving me a searching look, she hurried off in the direction of the stairs.

Shrugging aside my step mother’s odd behaviour, I made my way through to the dining room. I couldn’t see Max anywhere, and I wasn’t going to start hunting for him anyway, since it was he who’d stood me up, so I just helped myself to coffee and breakfast from the buffet.

Presently I decided that if I did see Max I wasn’t going to pass on Gwen’s message. He was his own man, and surely not at the beck and call of his overbearing mother? Besides, they could communicate with each other, couldn’t they? He had a phone, didn’t he?

And, anyway, I was beginning to think she’d never passed on my message to Megan. Or failing that, even told my father herself that I wanted to see him.

For crying out loud, didn’t they even share the same bedroom? Didn’t they meet up at any time to discuss the previous day’s events?

Even if he was sick, he wasn’t incapable of holding a conversation, was he?

And what did she think? That I was just there for a jolly holiday, to enjoy myself? I thought my step mother had understood that I had come to this part of the world to re-build my life. Was that such a difficult conception to accept?

I hoped I wasn’t being paranoid, but I was beginning to feel as if there was a conspiracy to deliberately keep me away from seeing my dad.

Then I told myself to stop being fanciful because I simply wasn’t the fanciful type.

It was a gloriously sunny day beyond the windows of the dining room. In fact it was much too beautiful a day for anyone to be gloomy and think dark thoughts. So I took my coffee out onto the terrace and sat where I could feel the sun glowing fiercely upon my face and watch the waves at the bottom of the cliff slap onto the golden sand.

I opened my kindle and began to read. I was soon immersed in my novel again. I loved reading, I always had. For me it was sheer escapism. So it wasn’t difficult to forget about time, and more than a couple of hours passed by, and no one bothered me and I didn’t bother anyone either. Meanwhile I was tanning nicely.

It was late morning when I decided I needed some exercise and that I should take myself off for a nice long walk, preferably along the beach, since it still looked almost deserted. Schools hadn’t yet broken up for the holidays.

I went back up to my room to fetch my sunglasses and some sun cream. I also remembered to grab a towel and my bikini, just in case.

I’d gone about a mile along the shore when I saw a recognisable figure waving at me from across the sand. I waited until he came up close, and gave him a wry smile.

“Hi,
Maxie. So what happened to our breakfast date about which you seemed so enthusiastic only last night?”

“Sorry. Something else came up.”

I shrugged. “Must’ve been important.”

“It was, to me.”

“Couldn’t you have left me a message at the desk? Or called? You’ve got my mobile number.”

“Didn’t think.”

I shrugged again. “Evidently.”

I made to walk on around him, but he barred my way.

He said, lifting my chin with his finger, “You’re mad at me, I can tell.”

I jerked my head aside. “No, I’m not mad at you, Max. In fact, I hardly know you. Let’s just say I’m disappointed. Especially after making all that fuss about wanting to keep our breakfast date this morning. But there again, you’re not the first member of the family to disappoint me this morning. Why should I be surprised? Sometimes I feel as if my whole life has been one big disappointment. You’d think I’d have got used to it by now and managed to acquire a thicker skin. But there you go. Still fragile, and still thin-skinned.”

He halted and grabbed my shoulders.

“Maybe I can make it up to you,” he said, and roughly pulled me against him.

He was wearing shorts and leather sandals, and no top. His chest was bare. His torso glowed in the sun, and he smelt of sea and sand and aftershave. His hands went around my back and pressed against my skin. I was wearing a halter sundress and flip flops.

I have to admit, his strong warm body felt good against mine, and initially I wanted to melt into him. But I didn’t. Something stopped me from giving in. It was all too easy, too fast. Too much of a cliché. And I’d had my fill of those for a while.

So I arched the top half of me away from him and kept the frown on my face as if it were a chastity belt. Much good it did me. Obviously a frown can actually also be considered a provocation.

Because his voice went husky.

“You’re much too pretty to scowl, Blondie.”

Max bent his head so suddenly that I was totally unprepared for the kiss. It took me completely by surprise. His lips were soft but insistent, and I gasped as his tongue thrust firmly into my mouth and his hands splayed down across my naked back and clasped my buttocks so that I could feel his desire burning against my belly.

I wobbled, but once again managed to come to my senses in time. I wrenched myself free, and stepped back a pace on the sand.

“No, Max! This is not what I came looking for when I came here.”

His arms dropped to his sides, and he looked bewildered.

“I thought that’s what you wanted. A bit of fun.”

I rolled my eyes. “Your IQ never did quite match your vanity, Max.”

He pouted, turned away, and kicked at the sand. He looked so like some little kid that’d been given a telling off, that I had to giggle.

At the sound, he looked relieved.

“Still friends?”

I smiled back at him. I felt years older suddenly. “Only if you behave yourself and realise I’m not here to have sex with the first man who thinks I’m up for a good time.”

He raised his hands. Keeping the peace between us. He said, “OK, I got it. Understood. Lesson learned.”

I didn’t say anything.

He said, “Want to walk some more?”

In answer I stared out towards the sea. It looked so blue and calm and inviting under the cloudless sky. A dip would be just the thing to cool us both off.

I said decisively, “I fancy a swim,” and pulled out the towel and bikini from the bag I was carrying.

He looked at the skimpy looking suit with interest and approval.

He said, “There’s nowhere to change round here.”

“There’s no one around for miles to be even slightly interested in how I look. Apart from you, of course.” I flapped my hand at him imperiously. “Turn around, Maxie.”

“I won’t look.”

I laughed. “’Course you won’t. And of course I trust you completely. Now turn your lovely body around and be a good gentleman for once in your life.”

He grinned, but obliged, and quickly I pulled down my pants, stuffed them into the bad, and tugged on the bikini bottoms. Since I wasn’t wearing a bra, all I had to do was haul my dress up over my head and fix on the bikini top.

I said, “OK. You can relax now.”

He turned around and, without any awkwardness I struck a pose, for once feeling confident and assured about myself because there was no one else but him to see me, and also because, oddly enough, I actually felt that despite his somewhat clumsy attempt to have sex with me, I could actually trust him and handle the guy. He didn’t feel threatening.

Max gave me an admiring look. “Nice.”

I twirled around. “Me or the bikini?”

Now it was his turn to scowl. He folded his arms and tried to look and sound severe. “Are you deliberately flaunting yourself at me, woman?”

I waggled a reproachful finger at him. “Just practising flirting, sweetie. It’s been a while.”

Then out of the blue the image of Ari Ferrari came into my mind and oddly I felt a sudden pang, of longing, and of guilt.

Noticing my change of mood, Max said, “Anything wrong?”

I declined to answer, but with a considered glance at his nether region, I asked curiously, “So, are you actually able to swim in those fancy and expensive shorts?”

“Shall I take them off?” He put his hands on his waist, thrust his hips forward suggestively and leered at me. It was such over the top machismo behaviour that I couldn’t help laughing at him.

“Stop it, Max,” I pleaded.

He grimaced. “Spoil sport.”

“Honestly,” I sighed. “You’re like a child who sulks when he doesn’t get his own way. You’re just a big, beautiful, spoilt child.”

He grinned. “So race you to the sea!”

And he was off.

So I chased after him.

*

For the rest of the time Max’s behaviour was exemplary. And it was a fine, sunny day and we had a most enjoyable time together. It was as if the years had rolled back and we became kids again. We explored caves, and then when we became hungry, we went to a supermarket and bought sandwiches, crisps, apples and lemonade which we ate on the jetty, and then it was back on the beach to soak up more sun.

After taking tea at a beach side café, we took a short trip on a pleasure boat, and then strolled back along the shore towards ‘Pegasus’. We weren’t far from the cliffs above which the hotel was situation, when Max suddenly pointed out a figure some distance away on the sand, still just a bit too far away for me to see clearly.