Nikki and the Lone Wolf (16 page)

The down-draught flattened the sea close to the cliff.

The boats hadn't gone so far in. It was too close to the cliffs, too shallow, dangerous.

The chopper was hovering over a reef—Satan's Lookout. A shard of granite reached from the sea, further out than the bulk of the reef. A trap for unwary shipping.

The radio crackled to life. Harry from the chopper, yelling into his headset. ‘He's down there. We can see him. He's clinging to the lee side of the reef. If it was a person we'd drop a harness but there's no way we can pick up a dog of that size. I'm not sure even you guys can get him off there.'

 

The good news? Horse was alive.

But Horse didn't do things in halves, Gabe thought. Swimming with sharks. Satan's Lookout. How many lives did one dog have?

Nikki was beside him, clinging. She must have seen his face change as he listened to Harry. ‘What's happening?' she asked and if her face lost any more colour she'd disappear entirely. She was probably seasick, Gabe thought, and she hugged her stomach and he knew he was right.

What to do? Rough seas and shallow water. There was no way they could take the big boats close. They'd have to take a lifeboat.

But to steer close to the rock and lift Horse… They'd need two people to pull it off, Gabe thought, feeling sick himself. Usually he had Frank and Hattie as crew, both experienced. Tonight he had Nikki.

Nikki would never be competent enough to cope in the life-raft. Could he leave her at the wheel? Could he do it on his own?

No.

But to ask it of others…

The radio crackled into life again. ‘Boss?' It was Bert, skipper of the
Mariette
. ‘We're all lowering lifeboats. Mick and Mike'll go in ours. Sara and Paula are doing the same from
Bertha
, and Tom and Angie are coming off
Mary Lou
. That's three boats to look after each other.
Mary Lou
's lifeboat's the most solid, so Angie and Tom'll try and get him off. There's backup to pick up the pieces if needed, and we'll use harnesses and link to each other. This dog doesn't bite, does he?'

‘No, but…' His crew had obviously talked on another frequency. This was being taken out of his hands. What he couldn't ask was being offered.

‘So he's a pussycat?' Bert demanded.

‘A great hulking, sodden pussycat.' But his mind was racing.
For others to risk their lives to save his dog… Nikki's dog… ‘But I can't ask…'

‘You're not asking, we're telling,' Bert said and there was even a note of humour in his voice. ‘Takes a bit of getting used to, don't it? Accepting help. You just keep your nose into the wind and keep our Nikki from jumping over the side. We'll get her dog back to her in a trice. Or maybe in more than a trice but we'll get him back. Right, guys.' He was linked to the communal radio—obviously they'd changed frequency to hatch their plan but they were back on common frequency now. ‘Let's go fish ourselves a dog.'

 

So Gabe was forced to wait, to stay idle, to depend on others, while men and women put themselves in danger over a dog he'd been stupid enough to let go.

He should have crew with him so he could do this himself. He should at least help. But there was no way he could ask Nikki, a seasick landlubber, to take over the
Lady Nell
. She had no skills.

But she did have skills, he conceded as he watched the lifeboats be launched. Different skills.

Changing direction and following her dream? Turning her back on her past?

Giving her heart?

She'd gone back to the rail. She was sick and cold and frightened.

He wanted to hold her.

He had to stay at the wheel. This sea was rough and getting rougher. It took experience and skill to keep the
Lady Nell
steady.

He had to depend on others.

He needed others.

He needed Nikki.

His armour was gone. He was no longer bothering to cling
to remnants, no longer thinking about what he still needed to protect.

There was nothing to protect. What he needed was outside the armour.

Nikki. Horse. And these people—his crew, his town.

He felt terrified. Totally exposed. If one of those boats capsized…

They didn't.

There were three small boats with three magnificent seamen in charge. The chopper stayed overhead, flattening the water, lighting the scene like day. They all wore lifelines. If someone fell in, Harry would have someone down with a harness in seconds.

The biggest fear was right at the rock.

Horse was clinging to the lee side—sensible dog. But still, for a boat to get in there…

Angie was in the bow of the biggest lifeboat. Like him, Angie was born of a fisher-family. She was older and more experienced than he was, but she had three teenagers at home. What was she thinking?

She was going whether he permitted it or not. He was no longer in charge.

The focus of the community was saving a dog.

Please… It was a muddle of a prayer.

He should be where Angie was.

He had to stay at the wheel. He had to depend on others.

They were at the rock, Angie and Tom. Angie was wearing a headset. Harry was watching the sea from above, giving her instructions. Watching the sea from on high.

Nikki was clinging to the rail, watching every move as if she could guide them by sight.

He wanted to hold Nikki.

His job was to hold the wheel and wait. And to depend on others.

And feel his foundations shift under him. He'd never felt such fear.

Depending on others.

They were twenty feet out from where Horse clung now. They were watching, waiting, waiting.

A lull.
Go.

Did he yell it? His ears rang, maybe every skipper had yelled it in unison over the radio.

They were already there, surging into the rock. Angie stood to reach…

Horse had to let go.

‘Let go of the bloody rock.' It was Angie, yelling into the radio headset like she boomed to the other boats over the water. It was a voice to wake the dead, to shock the unshockable, to make Horse release his grip.

And Angie had Horse around the midriff, dragging him back.

They were in the boat but they were still in danger. The next wave…

Tom had the tiller, the boat swung, hit the wave head on, rode through it—and they were safe.

 

The lifeboat headed for the
Lady Nell
rather than back to the
Mary Lou
. They figured Horse needed Nikki.

Still Gabe couldn't help. It nearly killed him, but he had to hold the
Lady Nell
steady so there was a modicum of shelter on the side they were boarding.

They made two runs before they got a patch of clear water. Angie heaved the big dog up as Nikki reached down.

Then Horse, almost flaccid until now, looked up and saw Nikki. His great paws found purchase on the side and Angie no longer had to heave. Horse launched himself at Nikki as if it were she who'd been drowning. Nikki and Horse subsided onto the deck, one sodden tangle of woman and dog. Together.

Tom and Angie hauled themselves up onto the
Lady Nell
as
well. Tom tied the lifeboat behind. They'd try and tow it back to harbour but even if they had to let it go it was safer than risking the run back to the
Mary Lou
; another boarding.

The chopper was still overhead. The rest of the boats surrounded them.

The chopper's floodlights lit the scene—woman and dog reunited.

A happy ending.

No, Gabe thought, looking out at the sea of people surrounding him. The sea of people who cared. It was a happy beginning.

These were his people. He belonged.

He and Nikki and Horse…they'd come home.

‘Tom,' he called, because he was the head of this fleet and a man had to take a stand some time.

‘Yeah?' Tom was watching Nikki hugging Horse, grinning and grinning.

‘Come and take this wheel,' Gabe growled. ‘There's a woman and a dog I need to hug.'

‘I didn't think you did hugging,' Tom said, grinning even more, and Gabe managed a grin back.

‘I do now.'

T
HE
problem with depending on others was sharing. Every single person wanted a piece of happiness.

The boats streamed into the harbour and it seemed half the town was there to greet them—the half who hadn't been out on boats.

Women were fussing over Nikki, hugging her, saying,
Oh, it's a sign that the dog's been saved—you're meant to stay here, dear.

Henrietta and her troop of dog-lovers were fussing over Horse. Drying him, warming him, giving him warmed feed to settle his stomach. Maybe Nikki needed some of that.

Aggie was there, beaming and beaming.

And the men were fussing over Gabe. Okay, not exactly fussing—Banksia Bay's fishermen didn't do that. They gripped his hand, one after the other, grinning, exultant at their shared triumph. ‘Pleasure, mate,' they said almost universally as he tried to thank them, and he knew it was.

This
was
a shared triumph. Sharing. It was a concept he needed to embrace.

But… How soon could he get Nikki alone?

‘You want us to whisk you back to Whale Cove?' Harry asked. He'd set the chopper down in the unloading dock and come to share the happy ending. He and his crew were delighted. Without the chopper, they'd never have succeeded.

Without any of these people…

‘I hear there's a great honeymoon suite in the Sun Spa resort at Whale Cove,' Harry said reflectively. ‘We could whisk you there right now. I'm not sure if they take dogs, though.'

Maybe he'd been looking at Nikki a bit too long, Gabe thought. Maybe what he needed was plain for all to see, for Harry gripped his shoulder and grinned. ‘Another one bites the dust. I thought you were a confirmed bachelor, like me. Oh, well, can't win them all. Good luck, mate, welcome to the other side.'

He left, still chuckling.

Others were going, too. Reluctantly. It was after two in the morning.

‘You want me to take Horse back to my place and take care of him for the night?' Henrietta asked, and Nikki, a whole six inches from Horse, tugged him closer.

‘No. Thank you but…no.'

‘Just thought,' Hen said airily. ‘Just saying. If you guys need space…'

‘We don't need space,' Gabe said and Nikki glanced up at him and he thought…uh-oh.

A man needed to tread warily. He was, after all, the guy who'd refused to fix her pipes—the guy who'd lost her dog.

‘I'm hoping we don't need space,' he said.

‘You still want to stay the night at my place?' Aggie asked Nikki, and Nikki looked at him—really looked at him. And something changed in her eyes. Something…

‘Thank you,' she said. ‘But no. Thank you all. You've been absolutely wonderful, but Horse and I need to go home.'

 

He took her home.

Her side of the house was still sodden. Water was running down her walls. It had been running since they'd left.

There'd be one nightmare of a mess to clear up later, but now…they turned off the water to Nikki's side of the house and let it be.

Who needed two sides to a house anyway?

Nikki was shivering. She hadn't stopped shivering. He whisked her into the bathroom. His bathroom. Ran the bath, good and hot, propelled her in.

‘H…Horse…' she muttered.

‘I'll take care of Horse,' he said, and it nearly killed him to leave her but he needed to warm the house.

He stoked up the fire. Made it blaze. Dried Horse with warm towels and more warm towels.

Horse looked devotedly up at him from the fireside. Like:
I'm sorry I caused you trouble but I needed Nikki.

He and Horse both.

They sat by the fire. Waited.

Nikki came out, wrapped in a towel.

He stood and she walked straight into his arms. He held her close and he knew… This was his woman, his heart, his life.

‘I need you,' she whispered and it was an echo of his own heart.

‘I've gone about this all the wrong way,' he said into her hair.

‘What do you mean?' Their breathing was synchronised. Their heartbeats were synchronised.

‘I should have welcomed you with pleasure, cut down the dividing fence, shared Horse, helped with the barbecue, loaned you my mother's books, been proud of you.'

‘Nah,' she said. ‘I probably would have thought you were wet.' She hesitated. ‘Come to think of it, you are wet. I'm warm and dry. You need dry clothes.' But she was still against his heart.

‘Not yet. I'm still apologising.'

‘There's time to make amends,' she said. ‘You can hug me with pleasure, cut down the dividing fence, share Horse, help with any future barbecues—and I think we should have one soon to thank everyone for tonight—lend me your mother's books, be proud of me. Do you think my apartment's underwater?'

‘What's a little water? Nikki, I love you.'

She stilled.

She didn't speak. She just…melted.

He was holding her tight, feeling the warmth of her. Accepting the reality that he was holding the woman of his dreams, right here in his arms.

‘I don't suppose you'd consider marriage,' he said and he hadn't known he intended to say it; it was just there.

It shocked them both. She almost dropped the towel. She grabbed it just in time. Made a recovery. Sort of. Took a step back.

‘Marriage,' she whispered.

‘Just a thought.' He tried to figure how to say all the things that were in his heart and couldn't. Made a bad joke instead. ‘It'd make Horse legitimate. You'd be Mum and I'd be Dad.'

She choked. ‘You'd marry me—for a dog?'

‘I'd marry you for you.'

‘You're grumpy.' She was eyeing him with caution now, as if he had the poker.

‘Only when hit on the head. I'll try not to be grumpy for anything less.'

‘I still want to learn stone walling.'

‘I love that you still want to learn stone walling.'

‘You go to sea thirteen nights out of fourteen.' She took a deep breath. ‘I've learned tonight…I do get seasick.'

‘I won't go to sea in rough weather.'

‘Promise?'

‘Not very rough.'

‘Thirteen nights out of fourteen?'

‘I'm the fleet owner. I can decide. How about only when I must? And if you were home in my bed…there'd hardly be a must.'

‘Of course there would. First hint of a barracuda and out you'd go.'

‘Not if you were in my bed.'

‘You have a bed on the boat.'

‘So I do. But…'

‘Then I guess I could take pills and come with you,' she ventured. ‘If you'll dig my trenches.'

‘Is this business we're talking?'

‘I like things to be clear.'

‘You want me to find pen and paper and we'll sign stuff before I kiss you?'

‘You want to kiss me?'

‘More than anything on earth.'

She sighed, a long, drawn-out sigh where things seemed to be let go.

‘If I kissed you back I might drop my towel,' she said, smiling and smiling.

‘You want to risk it?'

‘Horse would be shocked.'

‘I believe,' he said softly, in a low, husky growl because that seemed all he was capable of right now, ‘I believe our Horse is asleep. Dead to the world.'

‘Don't say dead.'

‘Alive,' he said, smiling down at her. Smiling and smiling. ‘Like I am. I feel more alive right here, right now, than I've ever been in my life. You want to risk the odd towel?'

‘I'd risk more than that,' she said, stepping forward, stepping into his arms. ‘I'd risk my heart. Or wait…maybe I can't. Maybe my heart's no longer mine to risk.'

 

It took a while to plan a wedding, mostly because the tiny church on the headland on the far side of Banksia Bay was surrounded by a crumbling stone wall. No one was marrying in that church, Aggie decreed, until the wall was mended, so instead of planning wedding dress, bridesmaids, flowers, Nikki sat on the headland overlooking the sea and fitted stones into a wall that would last for another hundred years.

She loved it—and there was no problem that her attention
was focused on the wall, for she had others to do the ‘tizzy bits' for her wedding. Aggie and Henrietta and Angie and Hattie and Hilda and Maudie… So many friends.

Her day would be splendid, they decreed, and so it was.

In the end the church was too small. In the end the day was perfect so Gabe stood under frangipani, with the sea as his backdrop, while all the town clustered close by to wait for his bride.

Nikki's parents were here, astounded, bemused, and in the end even confusedly proud that their daughter knew so definitely where she was going, what she was doing.

‘She can charge a lot more than she's doing,' her father decreed of his daughter. ‘With a skill like this…'

‘I can't believe he didn't go to university,' her mother said of Gabe, but they were here, they were smiling, and they'd accepted her new life.

They had no choice, for this
was
Nikki's life. This place. Banksia Bay. Gabe.

A bagpipe sounded, a blast of triumph, and Aggie squeaked in triumph herself. This was her wedding gift, her son the bagpiper, whether Nikki willed it or not.

Nikki did will it. She'd grinned when Aggie had told them. ‘Bagpipes,' Gabe had said faintly.

She'd tucked her arm into his and said, ‘I won't have it any other way.'

Nikki. His bride.

The bagpipes meant she was here.

Horse was lying beside him, groomed, gleaming, almost handsome. The big dog understood it now, that Gabe and Nikki were one—equals. He'd stay with Gabe or he'd stay with Nikki, but he was only truly content when they were together.

Which was great because that was exactly where Gabe and Nikki intended to be.

Bagpipes. Nikki.

Horse lumbered to his feet and Gabe held his collar.
Someone had put a garland of frangipani round Horse's neck. How corny was that?

He loved it.

Then Raff was elbowing him aside, taking Horse's collar firmly in his.

‘Priorities, mate,' he said. ‘Bride first, dog second.'

He didn't need to be told, for Nikki was here, and he only had eyes for Nikki.

His bride.

Her gown was gorgeous, white silk with an exquisitely beaded bodice and a deceptively simple skirt that draped and flared as if she were floating. She looked as if she was tied to her father's arm to stop her rising. Her hair was beautiful. She'd never again tried to straighten it. Angie had tucked frangipani into her curls.

But Gabe wasn't looking at her hair. He wasn't looking at her gown. He looked only at Nikki. Her smile. Her lovely, lovely smile as she met his gaze, at the shared laughter that was always there. Laughter and love.

He was truly loved.

There was momentary drama. Horse tugged away from Raff and Raff was dumb enough to let him go. But Horse didn't go far. He trod sedately down the carpet they'd laid for the bridal approach, and he greeted his mistress with quiet dignity. Then he turned and walked calmly back to Gabe, preceding the bride.

He glanced around at the congregation as if to say,
See, I know what a real dog should do.
Then he sat beside Gabe to watch.

And watch he did, as his Nikki married her Gabe.

As his mistress found her home.

As life truly began for them all.