Authors: Bec Johnson
‘As have you Lorikeet, you’ve really changed the whole feel of the place.’ Zeb watched her as she took a sip of the glittering liquid. ‘Why do you do that?’
‘Do what?’
‘You frown every time I compliment you.’
‘I do not,’ Lori retorted.
‘You do! Like if I told you how incredibly beautiful you look today, you’d grimace and change the subject... or run away.’ He pressed the glass to his lips and smirked.
Pulling her eyebrows taught Lori smiled through her teeth, making Zeb snort into his champagne. She so wanted to ask what had been troubling him earlier but didn’t want to risk bringing him down again. It wasn’t so much the thought of having to face his ire if her questions upset him, that she could handle, it was more that she couldn’t bear the thought of causing him hurt. Oh dear god, she needed to pull back on the alcohol.
Although the temperature hadn’t quite reached forty-degrees as anticipated, the heat of the sun was enough to drive everyone back inside before their glasses were even empty. Hanging back to grab Kristy while the others filtered indoors Lori dragged her by the arm through the garden and out between the bushes.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ Kristy protested with a squeal as the last of her drink sloshed into the sandy walkway between the shop and number twenty-five.
‘I want to ask you that exact same question!’ Lori pulled a leaf out of her friend’s hair. ‘I saw you talking to Zeb, what the hell are you playing at?’
‘Nothing! We talked for all of two minutes before he excused himself and went to talk to Victor. What has gotten in to you? Because this,’ she waved her now empty glass at the tiny gap they’d just come through, ‘is not normal behaviour.’
‘I’m sorry, you’re right, I don’t know what it is. It just feels like he’s crawled under my skin and I can’t scratch him out because it hurts.’ Lori rubbed her hands ferociously on her arms. ‘Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick!’
‘Calm down woman!’ Kristy tucked her glass under her arm and clamped her hands around Lori’s face, pulling her forward to within an inch of her own. She spoke firmly, ‘You, are NOT going to be sick. Now don’t make me slap you.’
At the end of the walkway, beside the verandah Zeb cleared his throat, ‘Umm... Are you two quite alright down there?’
Jenny’s five hour braised leg of lamb filled every room in the house with its rich aroma the moment she brought it ceremoniously in from next door. The half an hour it took for every last scrap of meat to be picked clean from the bone didn’t really do the sin of sloth, any justice.
Wrath however, lived up to and beyond its reputation.
‘Please tell me we’re only partaking in one each of those.’ Victor pointed at the tray of remaining Tequila Fuegos and wheezed as though he was breathing fire.
Jenny laughed and poured him a large glass of iced water, while he made a time out ‘T’ with his hands.
Having a propensity for anything hot meant Lori was able to pass the fifth sin with ease, especially in comparison to the likes of Tyler who, despite his strong-man physique, squirmed as if the Jalepeno sauce that the shot contained was the devil’s fury itself. The remaining guest’s reactions ranged from a slight cough to a melodramatic whole body convulsion and, causing much hilarity, Simon even managed to come up with at least half a dozen new swear words as he completed the round.
The next course couldn’t come soon enough.
‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours’ dessert.’ Tyler pointed his spoon at Lori who was eyeing off what everyone else had around the table.
‘I can’t believe you made eight separate dishes Jenny, they all look amazing!’ Zeb peered at his little brother’s Raspberry Parfait.
‘You want to swap?’ Jonah suggested.
‘No way! But I want to try it.’ Zeb dug his spoon into the mound of cream and coulis. As he took his eyes off his own plate Kristy leant over the table and snatched a piece of his salted toffee crisp that had been decorating his Banoffee Pie.
‘If envy was what you were aiming for here Jenny, you certainly succeeded.’ Simon covered his dish protectively with his hands.
Outside the sun was finally beginning to dip low enough in the sky that the room began to cool and the backs of Lori’s legs stopped sweating. Licking the Passionfruit sorbet from her spoon she relaxed, watching the guests interact comfortably with each other. This was how she had always imagined Christmas Lunch with the family should be, not just a dried up Turkey roll shared between herself and her mum.
After Robin had died, she’d been invited to share her Christmases with Max and Sara and the food had been a vast improvement on her teenage years, however, she had barely ever hung around long enough for dessert as the feeling of being the third wheel between her loved up bosses was more than just a little awkward. Then, when she and Pete had reached their first Christmas together, not long after they first met, they had spent the entire day in bed consuming nothing more than each other.
Lori sighed into her gelato.
‘You ok?’ Zeb’s asked kindly.
Nodding slowly she put the spoon back on her tongue and licked it again.
What was she going to do when she went back to the UK? Obviously she still had her job, despite her hasty resignation, but was that going to be enough for her now? Work had always been such a big part of who she was, but in just these last four weeks she’d seen a whole new way of living that seemed technicolour to the drudgery of working nine to five, or in her case seven to seven, in a high rise grey box with only a view over other high rise grey boxes.
The thought of no longer being absolutely sure of what she wanted terrified her.
Once everyone had tasted all eight desserts and every last plate, glass and bowl had been scraped or licked clean, it was agreed that the last course should be enjoyed outside.
‘I’m sorry everyone, but Pride simply stumped me,’ Jenny apologised as she walked out into the garden with a tray of little silver Mint Julep cups. ‘The closest I could get was something you could see your own face in.’
‘Oh my word! Don’t apologise, you’ve truly outdone yourself this year Jenny.’ Victor stood up out of simple old fashioned courtesy as she approached. Taking the proffered drink he sat back down again in one of the pair of seats that had been set up for him and the host in the shade.
Kristy and Simon, and Tyler and Jonah had had the same idea and were busy making themselves picnic style day beds out of the fabrics and cushions taken from the chairs inside.
‘Hey.’ Zeb appeared behind Lori as she stood at the bottom of the garden breathing in the refreshing scent of the salty sea air.
‘Hey yourself.’ She turned to him and smiled as he handed her the seventh and final sin.
‘Shall we go sit down.’ Zeb gestured towards the rocks below.
Bare footed, as she had been all day, Lori gingerly stepped across the little patches of barnacles and passed her drink to Zeb to hold while she sat herself down as gracefully as she could manage on the edge of the platform. Settling beside her he handed it back and they drank together in silence for several minutes.
‘You’re doing it again,’ he growled as he watched her run the tip of her tongue around the edge of the cup, catching any stray drips of minty Bourbon.
‘Doing what?’ Lori licked the condensation from her lips.
‘That.’ Zeb nodded letting his eyes fall on her mouth.
‘Oh! Sorry.’
Her apology wasn’t strictly genuine.
The warm wind whipping around her bare skin and the close proximity to Zeb, with the way he looked and the way he smelt, was exhilarating. The distance between them felt charged with heightened expectation.
Running his fingers over the short fuzz of his dark hair he shook his head and laughed, giving Lori a flash of white teeth and pink tongue that made her tremble.
With the sun behind them now his skin looked soft and warm and it took all of Lori’s self-control not to reach out and touch him. As she watched him take a swig of his drink her eyes were drawn to his Adam’s apple and the muscles running down the sides of his neck into his shoulders.
When she looked up again Zeb took the little silver cup from her fingers and put it down with his beside him on the rock. Lifting his hand he swept back the long wisps of hair that were blowing across her face and tucked them behind her ear, his thumb brushing her jaw tenderly.
Even if she wanted to, she physically couldn’t drag her gaze away from his. She was lost in him.
Leaning further forward Zeb pushed his fingers into her hair and brought his face to within millimetres of hers. Everything around them faded to nothing.
Feeling her heart thumping in her chest Lori’s breathing grew deeper, matching the slow steady rhythm of Zeb’s. She shivered with anticipation.
Looking from her eyes to her mouth and back again Zeb paused, as though silently questioning her. Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?
Lori closed her eyes, answering him silently too. She wanted this more than anything.
He studied her face for a split second longer before pressing his lips firmly against hers, parting her mouth gently with his tongue until they were breathing together, as one. His grip tightened in her hair and Lori brought her hands up to his neck, the sensation of his skin under her fingers so intense, so powerful it made her heart ache.
‘I can't believe it's taken you six days to come and tell me he kissed you!’ Kristy smacked Lori on the arm as they sat down together in the corner of the Bakery directly under the air conditioner.
‘I'm sorry, I really am, it's just we've been so busy at the shop, and it's not like you've had the time either.’ Lori tore off a piece of buttered Sow Seedy bread and stuffed it in her mouth. The cafe had been full this morning and so she'd completely missed breakfast. Forcing herself to take a break after the lunchtime crowds had left, leaving Tyler and Jenny in charge, she had walked over to Green Bay in the sweltering heat. The sweaty exercise had been therapeutic but had also increased her hunger no end.
‘Well, what happened? Last I saw of Zeb was when you two went down to the rocks to make out. Then when I woke up from my nap he was gone and you didn't mention a thing.’ Kristy cut another slice of the loaf and buttered it for her obviously starving friend.
‘We didn't go to 'make out' as you so charmingly put it, we went to talk, and then he kissed me. There's nothing more to it than that.’
‘Oh come on, what do you take me for?’ Kristy was incredulous.
‘I promise.’ Lori crossed her heart with her fingers. ‘The story is exactly that. Zeb kissed me, then he said he needed to take Jonah home so they could sleep because they were on some weird roster, and then he left. And I didn't tell you straight away because I was still trying to take it in.’
‘Ok, ok, I believe you,’ she chuckled. ‘So, haven't you seen him since?’
‘Nope, his working hours have been all over the shot. Apparently it's to do with the privilege of taking Christmas Day and New Years Eve off.’
‘New Years Eve? But that's today! How come you're not round his place now?’
‘Because,’ Lori sighed, ‘I'm seeing him tonight.’
‘Oh my god!’ Kristy squealed then stopped abruptly. ‘What the hell is the long face for then?’
Lori shook the ice in the bottom of her glass. She needed to tell someone, to say the words to make it real, but couldn't bring herself to talk to Jenny about it. Sara hadn't answered any of her chat messages in the last week and so that left Bob. He'd made a perfect confidante, until now. Now she'd stewed on it for a few days she needed to get it out, test how the words felt when she said them out loud, and Kristy could at least be trusted to keep it a secret.
‘I've got a buyer for the shop,’ the words grated Lori's throat, stinging as she said them.
‘No. Shitting. Way,’ Kristy's voice was intense and she gripped the table as though it were about to fall over.
All Lori could do was nod. Tears pricked the back of her eyelids and her nose started to water. This feeling was all wrong, she'd expected, quite reasonably, that one point nine million dollars would bring her tears of happiness but no, all she felt now she'd finally admitted it to Kristy, and in a way to herself, was totally and utterly crap and she didn't know why.
Mr and Mrs Peters had, as they had promised to, contacted her a couple of days after Christmas to make their offer. Elated that she'd found a buyer in such a short space of time, and completely of her own doing, she'd accepted without even thinking about it. They'd told her that a formal offer, showing their full intentions with regards to the shop would be couriered to her. It had arrived this morning, barely fifteen minutes after Simon had dropped off her Bakery order. Only once she'd opened the envelope and read the offer in black and white had she picked up on a small sensation of panic. She had told herself silently over and over all morning that it was absolutely what she wanted, what she had come here for. To be able to put away all trace of her father from her life, she had to see this through.
‘Oh shit,’ Kristy let go of the table and reached for Lori's hands, ‘you're having second thoughts aren't you?’
‘Hell no! Yes, no maybe, oh god I don't know. This is what's frightening me Kristy, I just don't know.’ Lori fought back the tears.
‘Oh hun, I don't have the answer for you, and even if I did I suspect you'd kick back against it anyway. You've had your mind made up since before you even got on the plane that brought you here. You're the only one that knows deep down what's right for you.’ Kristy wiped a salty tear from her own cheek and stood up to go and find a box of tissues.
‘I think I just need to forget about it for a while. The meeting of investors isn't until the seventh of January, so I have a week. Once I get their approval, if I get it, that's when I'll need to go and see Jack's solicitor to sign the paperwork and by then, I'm sure I'll feel back on track.’ Lori blew her nose with the soft white tissues Kristy had put in the middle of the table.
‘Ok. Whatever your decision, you know I'm on your side. I don't want you to leave, you know that, but lets not bring any more emotions into it.’
Lori nodded her agreement.
‘And I promise, I won't speak about it to anyone. Not even Simon.’
‘What about me? Oh hey Lori,’ Simon walked into the shop. Covered head to toe in flour he waved at her, sprinkling a fine powder across the floor.
‘Nothing! Just girl's stuff darling. Did you and Dylan manage to fix the paddles?’ Kristy deftly changed the subject.
‘Sort of, we just need a third pair of hands.’ He smiled apologetically.
‘Fine, fine, I'm coming. Go back in there and I'll be with you in a second.’ Kristy waved him away and turned back to Lori. ‘Sorry, if we don't get this damn mixer sorted we'll be up the creek with a bloody broken paddle and then we'll be completely screwed until we can get another part delivered.’
‘It's no problem at all. I need to get back anyway, Zeb will be picking me up soon. I have no idea where we're going but I'm sure it'll take my mind off the whole decision dilemma,’ Lori giggled. If she was going to go through with selling the shop then a quick fling with Zeb couldn't do any harm, after all it was only frustrated lust they would be acting on and their paths need never cross again.
Rubbing the pain of indigestion out of her chest she kissed goodbye to Kristy and promised to call tomorrow with all the gossip.
‘A trip down where?’ Lori questioned as she climbed into the passenger seat and threw her shoes and bag into the back. She hadn't realised Zeb actually had his own car, the Police patrol vehicle was all she'd ever seen him in, although when he'd pulled up on the driveway to collect her just after seven p.m. she hadn't been at all surprised that it was a sleek black muscle car.
‘Down memory lane.’ Zeb beamed. Leaning over to kiss her cheek at the same time as he yanked the car into reverse he growled into her ear, ‘Fucking hell you look amazing.’
Under the little white cotton tent dress Lori felt her nipples harden as his lips grazed her cheek. She'd picked the dress for it's air circulating abilities, the fact that the floaty embroidered fabric brushing against her skin turned her on was a very welcome bonus.
‘And memory lane is...?’ She swept her fingers along the inside of his wrist as he changed gears expertly. He looked incredible in his pale blue chambray shirt with the sleeves rolled up loosely to his elbows. The shirt was tucked into a pair of navy knee length shorts that were slung low on his hips and secured with a brown leather belt. Lori visualised her hands undoing the buckle before the car revved throatily and she snapped back to the present.
‘You trust me right?’ Zeb glanced at her sideways for a moment then turned his eyes back to the winding road leading away from the village.
Lori twisted as much as the seat would allow and lifted her knees up to the side facing him, her feet tucked underneath her bottom. Pressing her temple against the head rest she studied his face for a moment. In the month she'd known him he'd been intense, moody, churlish, and even on occasion frightening but somehow she did trust him, she would trust him with her life. And she had, the night he'd rescued her from Casper.
Concern flitted across his face and he took his hand off the gear stick to grip her leg. Rubbing his fingers over the fabric of the dress he repeated his question, ‘You trust me right?’
Lori sighed slowly and deeply then chuckled, ‘Against my better judgement... I do.’
Zeb tightened his hold on her, tickling the sensitive dimples in the sides of her kneecap making her squeal loudly and kick her legs out involuntarily.
‘So I don't get to know where we're going?’ Lori asked when she had resettled herself comfortably in the seat.
‘You do,’ Zeb laughed, ‘when we get there. First though we have to make a stop because I need to show you something. I think I owe it to you.’
Intrigued Lori fiddled with the buttons on the car's complicated and colourfully lit sound system. When she found the CD changer she chose a number at random. The music that filled the space around them was powerful and emotive and now on the freeway heading south Zeb lowered the car windows and turned the song up loud enough for the lyrics to thump in Lori's chest. The hot air rushing in swirled her ponytail around her shoulders and she closed her eyes letting the music take her away.
Zeb's hand tapped her gently on the thigh fifteen minutes later and brought her out of her daydream. He had pulled the car into a truck rest and had switched the engine off. Not saying a word he took the keys from the ignition, opened the door and stepped out, closing it gently behind him.
The evening sun had turned the sky a deep shade of reddish orange as though it were on fire, apt considering the air around them felt like a furnace. Lori grabbed her shoes and slipped them on, jumping out of the car she followed Zeb over to where the asphalt met the gum trees, just beyond where the trucks would exit and rejoin the freeway. As she caught him up her eyes were drawn to something bright against the near-black bark of one of the eucalypts just ahead. The pit of her stomach lurched. Tied around the broad trunk with a white ribbon was a bunch of roses. The weather had been unkind to them and only a few petals remained on the wilted stems. Stapled to the ribbon was a card inscribed with a single word. ‘Mum’.
With his back to her Zeb stood, shoulders hunched. Inside her chest Lori's heart knocked on her ribcage and she stepped cautiously into the long grass positioning herself beside him. This was what he felt he owed her. Here was the reason he'd arrived at the shop late on Christmas day, the reason his eyes had been red raw from tears.
‘They were driving home,’ his voice whispered. ‘It was the day before Christmas, two years ago.’
‘Oh god, I'm sorry Zeb,’ Lori chastised herself for the voyeuristic 'need to know' that she'd felt when she saw him in the kitchen with Jenny.
‘The truck pulled out without its lights on. Dad didn't stand a chance.’
Lori looked to the word on the card. ‘Your father was there?’
‘He was driving but the truck hit the passenger side.’
‘He wasn't...’ Lori couldn't bring herself to say it.
‘Killed? No, by some miracle he survived with barely a broken bone. Mum took the full force. She was gone by the time I got here.’
A wave of nausea rolled over Lori as she realised what he meant. She gasped, ‘You were on duty?’
Taking a deep breath Zeb nodded. ‘I was first on the scene.’