Wildfire Island Docs. Alison Roberts
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he remembered the look on her face as they’d come back from the mine and his wanting to find out what she was up to.
‘The laundry cupboards and other stuff are closer to the kitchen and even if you don’t want a coffee, I do.’
She followed him obediently, said hello to the cook when he introduced them, then politely but adamantly refused to answer any questions.
‘To tell you the truth, Keanu, I have no idea what I can do to sort out all that’s happened at the mine, but I know I have to do something. The hospital needs a functioning mine, and the islands need the hospital, so we can’t just let it all fizzle out. Besides, it was a Lockhart who caused all the problems, so it’s up to me to at least try to do something to sort it out.’
But what?
The question bugged him, to the extent that he found himself, much later, when all was well in the hospital and Sam and Hettie both on call, walking up the hill, skirting the lagoon, to the house where he’d grown up.
They’d grown up.
He climbed the steps but once again hesitated on the veranda, reluctant to go in.
‘Caro?’
His call was tentative—pathetic, really.
‘If you want to see me you’ll have to come in,’ she yelled from somewhere inside, and he guessed from the direction of her voice that she’d be sitting at the big table in the dining room, pen and paper at hand, trawling through the information on the laptop.
Of course he could go in. It had been his home as much as hers, and although as a Lockhart she probably had more rights, his mother had run the place for years.
Until …
Then Caro was there, so much sympathy in her eyes he thought his heart might crack.
She put both arms around him and drew him close.
‘I know it must be dreadful, having to walk through here again, but I’m in the dining room, and you have to do it some time. Standing out here isn’t going to banish the memory, now, is it?’
Her hair touched his shoulder, soft as silk, and the woman smell of her filled his head with fantasy.
So much so, his arms returned her hug until it became more than a hug and they were kissing—gentle, exploratory kisses that nonetheless sent fire throughout his body and a throbbing need deep inside it.
Eventually—fortunately—she eased away.
‘Well, that was weird,’ she said lightly, before leading him firmly into the house.
But it was more than weird, it was dangerous. The attraction he was feeling was obviously mutual, but there were so many ifs and buts about it …
She’d led him into the dining room, and Keanu looked at the bits of paper scattered across the shining surface.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ he demanded.
‘I’m trying to work out exactly how much the workers are owed, and once I know that I’d like to know how much it costs to run the mine on a weekly or monthly basis.’
‘And then you’ll know how much you need to win on Lotto to fix everything up,’ Keanu finished for her.
She glared at him.
‘You may mock, but while it might be hard to find money for projects like this, it would be impossible if we don’t know what we need. If I can work out a kind of ballpark figure, we can take it from there—get some investors, speak to banks, big businesses, whatever. It might be beyond us whatever we do, but at least we’d know we tried.’
Keanu understood what she was saying and a tiny spark of light flickered in his brain. The seed of an idea he couldn’t yet grasp.
Kind of hard to grasp at glimmers of ideas in his head when most of it was occupied with telling his body that a sympathy kiss from Caroline meant nothing, and the fact that his body was attracted to hers was probably nothing more than their closeness in their childhood, and he was still married …
Probably.
Was she feeling the awkwardness too, that she suddenly bundled up all her bits of paper into a very rough pile and said, ‘The moon’s up, let’s go for a walk. I haven’t been down to the lagoon since I got back—there always seems to be something else to do.’
She made it sound like a peaceful stroll down to one of their favourite childhood places, but his body screamed at him to resist at all costs. The moon was not just up, it was full. The lagoon would be bathed in its soft glow, as would the woman with whom he was strolling.
But when had he ever been able to say no to Caro?
Once outside, in the light of the said moon, Caroline realised what a stupid idea it had been. Bad enough that she’d already been kissing Keanu, kissing him and wanting to keep kissing him. It was more than weird, it was scary.
But wonderful.
That thought filled her with a kind of awe …
And how was she going to cope with Keanu and moonlight, twin attractions, twin magic?
But she could hardly back off now, so she strode down the slightly overgrown path they’d used as children towards the end of the lagoon just above the small waterfall, where a large, flat rock only inches above the level of the water gave a wonderful view, not only of the entire lake but of the village beneath the plateau.
Keanu caught up with her as she reached the thicker rainforest that protected the waterhole, reaching out a hand to steady her as the track was rough. Roots and vines conspired to catch at their feet and they brushed against each other often.
Definitely not one of her better ideas.
The touch of his hand had been enough, but skin on skin contact, no matter how accidental, had made goose-bumps rise on her arms and neck as her nerve endings battled with the notion that this was Keanu—just a friend!
They reached the lagoon, and trod carefully around its rocky edge towards the small opening through which the water tumbled its way down a rocky path to the flat land below.
And there was their rock. Caroline hurried on, anxious to be there as if sitting in such a familiar place would protect her from all the unfamiliar reactions she was getting from being around her old friend.
But once he’d joined her she realised the rock had shrunk.
Ridiculous, they had grown, so now they sat, close together, feet flat, knees raised, hands looped around their legs.
Very close together!
And in spite of the moonlight, the lagoon looked dark and mysterious, the surface silvered, but with a sense of hidden depths lurking beneath that shining skin.
Hidden depths …
The man beside her would have those too, not deliberately hidden but ideas, emotions, even ethics and beliefs that developed with maturity so for all she thought she knew him, she really didn’t.
‘I have got one idea to get the money,’ she said tentatively, as the side of her body closest to Keanu heated towards fever level. ‘Do you remember Dad explaining to us—well, to me, I suppose, but I’m sure you were there—that my mother’s parents had left their house in Sydney jointly to Christopher and me? They’d also left most of their money, which was apparently considerable, in trust for Christopher and the interest on that pays for his full-time carers and the housekeeper and upkeep on the house.’
She leant forward so a curtain of hair saved her from looking at Keanu’s face. Studying it in the moonlight that picked out the strong bones of his cheeks and jaw, the straight line of his nose was just too distracting.
‘I vaguely remember, but is this story going somewhere?’ Keanu replied, moving slightly and tucking her protective curtain back behind her ears, presumably so he could see her