Last Chance Proposal (13 page)

Had she run straight after him, or had she been so shocked by what happened she’d waited a second too long?

“Cy, I’m sorry, I don’t—”

“There’s no time for sorry, Ellie,” he said, his voice sharp and cold. “We just need to find my boy.”

Chapter Ten

Cy left Ellie standing outside the hall and sprinted up the driveway to the road.

Tears, hot and sharp, began to sting at the back of Ellie’s nose, but she swallowed them away and swiped her hand across her eyes. That wasn’t going to do Jonty any good and Cy’s reaction was understandable. If she’d warned Jonty what to expect, explained what the chanting and the slapping of chests meant, then he wouldn’t have taken such fright.

“Aunt Ellie!” Louis came running up to her, tattoos still covering his face, the long flax beads on his
piupiu
chattering as he ran. “Someone said Jonty’s gone, that he was scared of our
haka
and the
moko
.”

Louis’s eyes were bright with concern and Ellie reached out a hand and lay it on his shoulder. “Do you have any idea where he’ll be, Lou? It’s really important that we find him quickly.”

Louis twisted and looked back toward the beach. “There’s a driftwood pile near Starfish that we found last night. You can crawl in the middle of it like a hut. He could be there.”

“Show me,” she said.

Minutes later they drew up near a pile of driftwood. Louis ran the last few steps, knelt down and looked in, gave her the thumbs-up. As a wave of relief crashed over her, Ellie thought her heart would stop beating. Steadying herself on her feet, she swallowed past the lump in her throat and let out a small sob.

“Hey, J,” Louis was saying. “It’s me, look. We have to wear these for the
haka
and we do all that chanting to send the bad things away and tell everyone how tough we are. This is just makeup like Ellie wears sometimes.” He dragged his hand across his cheek so that the elaborate design was smudged.

There was no sound from the driftwood pile but Louis continued. “You can’t be scared of this, J, because we’ll be doing it onstage with you tomorrow night. If your dad thinks you’re too scared to be with all of us, then he’s not going to let you come tomorrow and you won’t be able to give him your surprise. The finale won’t be the same if you’re not in it with your pukeko, J. Won’t you come back to the hall?”

Louis’s head dropped and he stood up and brushed the sand from his skirt. Ellie’s heart squeezed for her beautiful nephew and all he’d done for Jonty. Turning back to Ellie, he shrugged, the look of defeat on his face heartbreaking.

He began to walk back toward her when a piece of driftwood was pushed aside and Jonty’s face peered out.

Don’t run to him.
Cy’s voice from the very first time she’d met Jonty played in her head.
It’ll just make it worse
. “Hey, Jonty,” she said quietly. “We’re so happy to have found you.”

He crawled out from the wood and gave a watery smile.

“You’ll explain it all to Cy, won’t you Ellie?” Louis said in a rush. “J was just a bit scared, that’s all, but we have to make sure Cy lets him come tomorrow, and that it’s still a surprise, or everything will be ruined.”

A heavy weight in Ellie’s chest suggested there could be a lot more ruined than just Jonty’s dream of surprising his father onstage. The way Cy had looked at her, the way he’d blamed her for not paying enough attention to his son only the start of it.

“I’ll do what I can,” she said. “What we need to do right now is get Jonty back to his dad.”

When they reached the beach, Cy looked up from where he was speaking to a group of men. Seeing the way his body slackened in relief at the sight of his son brought tears to her eyes all over again.

Jonty’s hand dropped from hers and he raced forward, Cy opening his arms before Jonty hit his father’s embrace like a bullet. Cy kneeled and buried his face in his son’s hair

Louis spoke in the background. “He’s okay, Cy, he just got a bit scared by our costumes for the
haka
but now he’s seen us he wants to come back in and watch, don’t you Jonty?”

The boy looked up at his father and then over at his friend and nodded.

Cy shook his head and squeezed his son tightly. “I think that’s enough excitement for one day. I’m sure Ellie will come back in and watch you, Lou.”

“Cy, could I have a quick word?”

“Maybe later. I’d like to take Jonty somewhere quiet.” He stood and lifted Jonty onto his hip.

Louis’s voice was hollow and small beside him. “Jonty’ll miss the practice if he goes home now.”

Cy turned to Ellie’s nephew. “I’m sorry, Lou. J’s had a big fright. I’ll take him home for a rest and we might see you later.”

He turned toward home, but Ellie put a hand on his shoulder. “Cy, wait. It wasn’t as bad as you think.”

His voice was tight and controlled. “Thanks for finding Jonty.”

She had to make him understand. “Please, can we talk?” She headed up the beach and motioned for him to join her.

He placed Jonty back on the sand and followed.

“Please don’t make this into a bigger deal than it is.” Her hair blew across her lips and she swiped it away with a finger. “It was just a fright; that’s all.”

He ripped the sunglasses from his face and glared at her. “Just a fright? God, Ellie, he could have been hit by a car or swept away by a wave. I told you I didn’t want him pushed. I explained what the consequences could be but you didn’t listen.”

“He was just taken by surprise. It could’ve happened to anyone who hadn’t seen a
haka
before. I was busy helping with costumes and—”

“Couldn’t you have held his hand? Explained what was going on?” The tone of his voice made the words feel like bullets pounding against her skin. “Taken him out when it started so he wasn’t frightened and alone?” She watched his chest rise and fall, and then he spoke more quietly. He took a step toward her and a soft, sympathetic look crossed his face. “I don’t know, Ellie, maybe you’ve been right all along and I’ve just refused to accept it. Maybe being around children just isn’t for you. And if that really is the case, then there’s no point you and I even pretending anymore. I thought I needed you. I was wrong.”

Ellie’s heart stuttered and her blood froze in her veins. The ground rushed toward her as Cy turned and began walking up the beach.

…

“Don’t you dare walk away from me.”

A band squeezed around Cy’s throat as he turned to see Ellie kneeling on the sand. “Ellie, each time Jonty has had a panic attack in the last two weeks it’s because I’ve let myself become distracted. I don’t know what I was thinking, asking you to marry me and come back with us. Jonty and I will be packing and leaving for the States tomorrow.”

She rose unsteadily to her feet. “You’re leaving? You selfish bastard.” She sucked in a breath, then met his gaze again, daggers flashing in her eyes. “And there he is again, the Cy I’d
so
hoped was gone forever. The one who can’t stand strong when times get tough, the one who runs away so he doesn’t have to face the people who care about him. Admit it, this isn’t about Jonty at all. It’s about
you
and what makes you frightened.”

His chest squeezed tight, trapping air in his lungs.

She stepped forward and set her hands low on her hips. “I know he had a setback today, but whenever that happens, he always comes back fighting and takes two steps forward the next day. You asked me to help fight for Jonty and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Starting right now. You want to run away again, fine, but don’t you
dare
use that little boy as an excuse to justify your behavior.”

His body vibrated with tension. He wanted to tell her the whole truth. She was doing this because she cared, even though it was costing her and he owed it to her to let it all out. He lowered his voice as his gaze swung to where the boys were playing in the distance and back again. “You’re right, Ellie, I am frightened. I left you all those years ago to protect you, and I need to do it again. Don’t you see? I have to walk away because I know you’re going to end up hurt again. I thought I could keep your heart safe, but I don’t know how to be with you without hurting you.”

“Give me one more day,” she whispered. “One more day to prove to you we can make this work.”

God, if it were only that simple. He scrubbed his hands over his face. Things had gone too far, too many hearts were on the line here, his attraction to her too strong.
And yet
, a little voice in his head whispered,
what if?

What if Ellie were right? What if he
was
running when he didn’t need to? Cy looked over to where his son stood with Louis, then back to Ellie.
What if?
He studied the hopeful expression in her eyes and his resistance crumbled.

“Okay.” He nodded. “One more day.”

A rainbow of T-shirts and shorts, sarongs, and tank tops, drifted through the sticky dusk air and into the Rata Cove Memorial hall for the New Year’s Eve pageant the following evening. Groups of teenagers stood around a stack of driftwood set on the beach for the bonfire celebrations at midnight.

Cy thrust his hands in his pockets and climbed the stairs, smiling at neighbors and greeting people he hadn’t seen for years. But a yawning emptiness expanded inside him. This was all about to end. Old black-and-white photos of the cove were dotted in collages around the walls, dredging up memories that made what he had to do that much more difficult.

He’d be leaving here tomorrow, and the simplicity, the beauty of life at the beach would be over. A new phase would begin. He’d focus on Jonty from now on—and while that was exciting, too, he was going to miss Rata Cove and all it had given him. Above all else, the emptiness in his chest was because he’d be leaving here without Ellie.

After agreeing to wait one more day, he’d half expected her to come by early and try to talk him out of his plan to leave, but he hadn’t seen her until late in the afternoon. She’d dropped by asking if Jonty could help Louis with something for the pageant, and Jonty had been out the door before Cy could reply. It seemed she’d come to the same realization he had. For Jonty’s sake, and for Ellie to live the life she really wanted here in New Zealand, a relationship between them was impossible.

He scanned the crowd for his son’s mop of blond curls, but he couldn’t see anyone. Not Jonty, not Fleur, not Ellie.

“Hi, Mr. Hathaway.” Katie Newport handed him a bright green program and he put a gold coin in her tin.

“Hey, Katie. The hall looks great. Did you decorate it?”

Her face flushed as she nodded. “Mum said we should celebrate Ellie bringing the cove back to life, so we found old photos to remind people of everything that’s happened here in the past.”

“You’ve done a great job.” Pride for Ellie’s efforts swelled in his chest, side by side with longing.

He chose a seat right at the back and the lights dimmed before he’d even sat down. People still chatted and moved about, the ice cream and toffee apple trolley doing a roaring trade. He kept an eye trained on the door for any sign of Jonty and Ellie, a clutch of nerves buried inside him. He pulled out his phone to text her. No reception, of course.

“Mind if I sit here?” Fleur stood beside him, flushed and disheveled. “It’s like a mosh pit back there.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder and grinned. “So much for a summer holiday!”

“Have a seat.”

“Jonty’s with Ellie. I hope that’s all right.”

He brushed a hand across his chin. “For the whole show?”

Fleur grinned as she settled into her chair. “Yeah, for most of it.”

He craned his head to try to see where they were sitting, if there was a spare seat nearby.

“Oh, they’re not in the audience,” Fleur said. “They’re out back.”

Of course. Jonty wanted to be with Louis for the pageant. It would be the last time they’d be together. It couldn’t be helped. But what would happen to Jonty and Louis’s friendship when they weren’t part of each other’s lives anymore?

He settled into his seat, relaxing as the curtain creaked open.

It was a great show, with the same songs kids in this part of the world had sung for thirty years. Maori songs and poi dances, little skits about things that went on at the beach, even a poem that some of the girls had written about Ellie being the princess who’d brought the town back to life.

The show continued on and his heart grew heavier. Louis came onstage stuttering lines several times and Fleur mouthed along with him. Once, when Louis stood frozen, head darting about for help, Fleur stood and called his line in a hoarse whisper and people giggled around them. Louis threw his mum a look of simple love.

After an hour, the red velvet curtains closed, and enthusiastic clapping was almost drowned out by the thundering of feet backstage. Then silence fell, punctuated by the odd hiss of, “
Shhhh!
” from the stage. Callum was two rows in front and had a camcorder lifted to his eyes. The finale was always a great spectacle. Betty Browning leaned over and put a hand on his arm.

“Remember when you used to be in the finale, Cy? That year you came riding in on Bill Hanson’s old Clydesdale nearly gave Mrs. Butterthwaite a heart attack.”

Cy grinned and patted her hand. A hush fell over the audience as the static from the PA indicated music was about to start for the finale. Anxious parents leaned forward in their seats and little brothers and sisters wriggled in anticipation of the supper afterward.

The squeak of the curtain put the final silence on the voices around him. Lights came up, green and brown, and Cy stared as a lone figure was revealed at the center of the stage. It was someone dressed as a tree—a short and straggly sort of tree—with a hole cut for the face.