Wild Flower (8 page)

Dianella’s pink mouth formed a circle. ‘You want to buy me a new computer?’

His brain zipped faster. ‘With the latest technology, I’ll load a whole lot of new software for you.’ Even in Albany he’d probably source some decent hardware to take some video compression files.

‘Software.’ That crease between her eyebrows. Behind her sunglasses she frowned. People often hated new computers. They got attached to their old ones. She and Borrie probably loved their antique.

He chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll do all the tech for you. It will be easy. With the right software, it will be as if we’re in the same room, or the same country, at least.’

The circle of her mouth became a line. ‘Let me get this straight. You’re going home to the US and you want to buy me a laptop.’

This was worse than trying to upgrade their plane tickets. She had a prickly streak, like a cactus flower. ‘It won’t be too expensive. You don’t need to worry about that.’

Dianella pulled off her sunglasses. Her dark eyes were blazing, the way they had when he’d first met her by the side of the road. ‘You think this is about money?’

Wade stepped back, resisting the urge to put his hands up.

‘You’re setting us up for a long distance relationship, aren’t you?’ she demanded, in the gun-toting Wild West heroine style he hadn’t witnessed since they first met, when she’d bailed him up by the side of the road. ‘Is that right?’

‘I guess …’

‘You’ll email me, call me on the phone, check in every once in a while? Visit for a holiday? Or send me a plane ticket?’

He nodded. ‘Sure. We can figure it out.’

‘Sure,’ she mimicked his drawl. ‘We can figure it out, with a computer. We can have an online relationship. I’ll be someone on the other end of a camera, a computer image on a screen.’

‘Dianella …’

‘A hologram? Is that it? Do you think it’s going to be any better because it’s 3D?’

Wade reached out and grabbed her arm.

She shook him off and rammed her sunglasses back on her nose. ‘Have a good trip back to California. Thanks for coming to Singapore with me. It was fun to meet you.’

‘Fun?’ He never got angry fast. He was too easy going for that. Only now he sensed the slow burn in his gut. ‘You think this was only for fun?’

She shrugged. ‘I’m not into long distance relationships.’

Wade gritted his teeth. ‘But you’re into short, weekend ones?’

‘Goodbye, Wade. Don’t go picking any wild flowers.’

Wild flowers. The rams in his head held the data but didn’t compute. She was giving him a warning about wild flowers as she told him goodbye. ‘We can’t even talk this through?’

‘What’s to talk about? You’re leaving. And so am I!’

Turning away she ran down the street, as lightly as when he’d first met her, in the scrub and dust by the side of the road.

As if she wore wings. As lightly as a fairy who could fly away.

Then she spun back. ‘And Wade? Make your next stop Antarctica.’

Chapter 7

Orchids meet a craving of the cultured soul which began to be felt at the moment when kindly powers provided means to satisfy it.
About Orchids: A Chat—Frederick Boyle, 1893

‘I’ve been wondering what happened to you.’

Dianella closed the door of Go Native Wildflower Nursery. The bell tinkled above her head.

Gardening gloves clamped on her hips, Borrie stared at her as if she were fifteen years old and late home from school. ‘Where have you been?’

Dianella bit her lip. She hadn’t wanted to tell Borrie about going to Singapore, not wanting to get her hopes up about saving Go Native Wildflower Nursery. She’d used staying with a school friend as a cover story.

‘Well?’ Borrie pulled off her gloves, clutched them in one hand. ‘What’s been going on? I know you’ve been away, because I’ve been told by three different people in town that you’d been seen at the airport with that American. It’s not like you to keep secrets. Did you go away for the weekend with the new young man of yours?’

Dianella winced. ‘There’s no new young man, Borrie. Not anymore.’

Borrie frowned. ‘What’s happened? What are you hiding, Dianella? You’ve never done anything like this before.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Dianella realised Borrie appeared more anxious than usual. There were shadows under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept well, even though Borrie usually only needed a few hours of sleep a night. She was always up at the crack of dawn, pottering in the garden, sometimes still in her nightie. The threat of losing Go Native had hit her hard. ‘I didn’t mean to make you worry. I went to Singapore.’

‘To Singapore! You flew all the way there and back?’

‘Yes. I went to see my Chinese family to ask for help to save Go Native. I wanted to do it face to face,’ she added.

Borrie gripped her hands together. ‘And can they? Help, I mean?’

Dianella shook her head. ‘They don’t need to.’

‘What?’

Dianella explained the whole story.

‘Go Native belongs to you.’ Borrie gripped the gardening gloves so tight her knuckles whitened. ‘It’s been yours all along.’

‘It’s mine and yours, Borrie.’

Borrie leaned against the counter. ‘Go Native is safe.’

‘No one can ever take it away from you now,’ Dianella promised. ‘Not the gardens or the shop, or your home.’

‘To keep that information from you, that your father had left you provided for in his will. To keep it from me! It’s outrageous. And to march in here as if she owned the place! I can’t believe Diana is going that far.’

‘Mum isn’t making trouble anymore,’ Dianella pointed out. ‘She’s given me the deeds. The nursery is ours.’

Borrie sniffed. Holding back tears of relief, Dianella guessed. ‘I’ll be giving her a piece of my mind.’

‘She’s flying to the Gold Coast today. To try to sort things out with Gary.’

‘Scuttled away again, has she? That mother of yours.’ Borrie shook her head. ‘Sometimes I can’t believe she’s my daughter.’

‘She came through in the end.’ Standing up to her mother had been empowering. She understood her differently now. And Dianella had changed too, found courage inside.

‘Well, she’s made her bed, I suppose. She’ll have to lie in it. We all have our own faults. Mine is that I always put my hoe in when I shouldn’t.’ Borrie sighed. ‘Oh dear. I’m about to do it again.’

She gripped Dianella by the shoulders. Stared her in the eye. ‘Your American young man. Wade Hamilton. He’s a good one. I knew it the minute I saw him, like my Harry. And he’s crazy about you. What’s gone wrong?’

Dianella slipped out of Borrie’s grasp. ‘He’s going back to California.’

‘For how long?’

‘I don’t know.’ She’d given Wade no chance to clarify his travel details, or to share more of his news about the takeover, she realised with a guilty pang. ‘He kept talking about getting me a new computer so we can keep in touch long distance.’

‘And what did you say to him?’

‘I told him goodbye.’ The heavy word thudded in her stomach. ‘I’m not interested in long distance relationships.’

She’d never break her rules again.

‘What! You mean you’re going to let an opportunity like this pass you by, with a nice young man like that? He’s a good looker too. It will all turn out as long as you don’t let your abandonment issues get in the way.’ Borrie snorted. ‘Abandonment issues. I’ve been watching too much Dr Phil.’

Dianella stiffened. ‘I don’t have abandonment issues, Borrie.’

‘You’ve had your share of long distance relationships that haven’t worked out.’

‘You mean with Mum. That’s okay now.’ Her mother giving her the deeds to Go Native without making any fuss had healed something in her heart. It didn’t hurt so much anymore.

Borrie shook her head. ‘Not your mum. There’s good in your mum, under all that make-up. I’m talking about your dad.’

‘But he died after I came to Albany.’ She could hardly bear to remember it.

‘That’s right. Your dad stayed in Singapore, and you were here in Australia. You had a long distance relationship with your dad, and you never got to say goodbye.’

Dianella slumped down onto a stool by the counter and put her head in her hands.

Borrie threw down the garden gloves and hugged her. Dianella smelt her Boronia oil perfume.

‘You were a seedling when you came here.’ Borrie stroked her hair. ‘You used to curl up into such a little ball under the bedcovers I could hardly find you. You were so brave too. Missing your mother. Missing your Chinese family in Singapore. And then losing your dad. It all seemed too much. So unfair.’

‘I had you, Borrie,’ Dianella whispered.

‘And I had you. After my Harry died I became lonely. A crazy lady, talking to her plants.’

‘It helps them grow better,’ Dianella said loyally.

‘Love makes a garden grow.’ Borrie patted her hand. ‘Don’t let the past damage your future, Dianella. Plant some new seeds. Let them bloom and grow in their own time. Trust your gardening instincts.’

‘What does gardening have to do with it?’

‘Gardening advice is best relationship advice of all. Now listen to your granny. Go and find that young man and consider what he has to say, but don’t rely on your ears. Use your nose.’ Borrie tipped the bridge of her own. ‘You’ll know if it smells right.’

Dianella giggled through her tears. Then she sobered. ‘I have to tell Wade I’m sorry.’

‘You might get the opportunity sooner than you expect.’ Borrie roared with laughter. ‘It seems he can’t help but follow your scent.’

‘What?’ Hastily Dianella wiped her cheeks and smoothed her hair.

‘He’s right outside in the car park. Parking that fancy SUV.’ She winked at Dianella. ‘I’m sure I can find some watering to do.’

‘Thanks, Borrie. Thanks for everything.’

‘The thanks go to you, my pet. You’ve kept Go Native Nursery.’

Borrie went out the back door as the bell tinkled on the front.

Wade came inside. Huge. Handsome. Her stomach rippled.

‘I hoped I’d find you here.’

Dianella took a deep breath. ‘I’m glad you’re here. I was going to try to find you. I owe you an apology. I’m sorry I behaved like that.’

‘It’s okay.’ Wade raised his sunglasses to reveal his ocean-coloured eyes. ‘You’ve had a tough morning. And you’re right. A long distance relationship isn’t going to work.’

***

Before Wade’s eyes Dianella drooped like a flower on a stem. ‘Oh! I understand.’

‘Do you?’ he demanded. ‘Phone calls. Emails. Computer images. Even a 3D hologram. They’re not enough, not for me, anyway.’

Her bottom lip quivered. ‘I get it.’

‘I’m not sure you do.’

After Dianella ran away down the street, Wade had brooded in the driver’s seat of his SUV and stared out at the rainbow coast. At first he’d slammed his first against the steering wheel and fumed about the immature way she’d behaved. Then, while he sipped the vanilla flavoured latte he’d picked up, he considered it from her point of view. All her life she’d been torn between different families, different cultures, different countries. What had he been doing, talking about getting her a new computer?

Before meeting her he’d always been casual about relationships, so he’d been slow to make the switch. It was worse than learning new computer code. Time to re-program. He’d gulped down the last drop of vanilla foam and driven straight to the nursery. Spotted her inside with her grandmother, and known what he had to say. He’d get it right, this time.

Now, among all the pot plants, he yanked her into his arms, like all the best Wild West heroes did with their heroines. ‘You and I are the priority. Everything else is logistics.’

He breathed in her silky hair and inhaled the scent that had lured him on.
Vanilla.
He’d never get tired of it.

‘Come to California,’ he murmured. ‘I’m sure we can find a laser show. I don’t want a long distance relationship with you. I want a real, flesh and blood relationship. Until I can come up with some scratch and sniff software, it’s the only way. If you aren’t with me, I’ll be driven to consuming countless cupcakes. I’m serious, Dianella.’

She yanked out of his arms. ‘I’m sorry, Wade. I don’t want to be transplanted.’

***

Dianella’s heart raced. She had to be brave.

Wade stared at her with a clenched jaw. ‘So you won’t give our relationship a chance.’

She heaved a huge breath. ‘Neither of us can move our entire lives. We’re from different countries; we have different passions.’

‘We share the same passion. Can’t you see that? Not for the same things, but we’re both specialists. We both focus on small, specific, and know more about it than anything else. We’re prepared to look close and see. We can make it work.’

Dianella gripped onto the edge of the shop counter behind her. ‘There’s only one way to make it work. I’ve got to make some changes in myself and not bottle up my feelings until they explode. I’ve got to realise that out of sight isn’t out of mind. That’s what I thought when my mum left me with Borrie. I thought she forgot all about me, the minute she’d gone.’

‘I’d never forget about you.’ Wade’s voice turned husky. ‘There’s another saying: absence makes the heart grow fonder.’

She gulped. She’d misjudged him, and nearly ruined it between them. ‘I hope so, because I want us to have the kind of connection that can handle being apart sometimes.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ he demanded. ‘You
do
want a long distance relationship.’

‘I want
our
relationship,’ she whispered. ‘Our unique relationship. Together, apart, near, far, online, offline. Let’s create something new.’

‘A hybrid?’

‘A hybrid,’ she agreed.

Wade moved closer. ‘I’m getting some ideas. We can set up a live stream. I think I’d like to see you twenty-four/seven on my mobile phone.’

Another step. They almost touched.

‘Two-way?’ she queried, running a finger down his chest.

He closed the gap between them. ‘Let me figure it out.’

In a single swoop he grabbed her, backed her against the counter and hoisted her onto it.

‘Tiny is easy to miss,’ she managed to gasp as he slid his hand between her thighs.

‘You know I appreciate tiny,’ he murmured in her ear, his teeth on the lobe, making her shudder.