Catch of The Day: Destiny Romance (15 page)

‘Hello?’ Alex said groggily into his phone, not bothering to check the caller ID. He’d already seen it was midnight on his alarm clock radio; he figured the boss was cancelling the morning’s fishing trip. It had turned blustery overnight, though he’d thought it would calm down in a few hours. Right on cue, the windows rattled.

A small, breathy voice came down the line instead. ‘It’s Winnie. Sorry to disturb you so late.’

Alex sat up so quickly he almost banged his head on the picture above his bed – an old painting of his grandpa’s, one of the few things from home he’d brought with him to the other side of the earth. His heart pumped in his chest. ‘What’s wrong? Are you okay?’ Even he was surprised by the strength of his reaction. Still, it was the type of concern he might show for his younger sister, too, if she were in dire straits. Nothing more.

‘Um, yeah, kind of. It’s not an emergency or anything, just . . .’ A tiny cough echoed in his ear. ‘It’s going to sound stupid, but I went and saw Mrs Mannix today, and we got talking about her husband who died and her past, and it – it got me kind of nervy. Plus, it’s the silence, in between the wind whistling through the windows – that’s the worst. It’s just so eerie.’ Her voice grew even harder to hear, more faraway. ‘I’m not really used to living alone.’

Alex heaved in a sigh. This is what she’d woken him from his much-needed sleep for – for a
second
time? ‘You know I start work in roughly five hours?’ he said tiredly, rubbing his temple.

‘I know, I know, and I’m sorry.’ Her tone had turned louder, more pleading. ‘I just couldn’t think of who else to call. I feel a bit, I don’t know, cast adrift out here.’

Alex frowned. He could think of a number of people she could have called. Olive, Cyndi, Eden . . . Why disturb him?

Winnie pressed on. ‘Would you mind coming and sleeping here for a bit? Before you go to work. I just —’ Her voice broke. ‘I don’t want to be alone right now. I know it sounds crazy . . .’

‘I thought you had the cat for company.’

‘Try thinking of it this way,’ she persevered, adopting a bargaining tone. ‘I won’t be in town in less than two months’ time, all going to plan. So you won’t have to put up with me much longer, I swear. But just for now, if you could help out, as work associates, I’d really appreciate it. It’d be your good deed for the week . . .’

Closing his eyes, Alex gritted his teeth. He’d already performed plenty of good deeds where she was concerned. But she’d woken him up now and he’d only lie in bed feeling guilty if he didn’t go. The damage had been done.

‘See you in twenty-five. So long as we’re clear this sort of thing can’t become a habit?’

‘We’re clear.’

He terminated the call with a jab of his thumb. The last thing he needed was Winnie constantly relying on him. The boundaries of their working relationship had already begun to blur, from his picking her up from the beauty salon when she was half naked to her sleeping in his bed after the fishing trip. He needed to start laying down the law – beyond tonight.

Almost half an hour later, he knocked quietly on Winnie’s front door, still a little bleary-eyed. Light spilled beneath the door’s curtain. The glass slid open and she greeted him shyly. ‘Hey, thanks again for coming.’

He cleared his throat. ‘No problems.’

In case he hadn’t been certain, it really
wasn’t
a booty call. Instead of her usual high-maintenance, city-slicker look, she had her skin scrubbed free of make-up and wore trackies and fuzzy bed socks.

Seeing his surprise, she looked down at her outfit and pulled a face. ‘Sorry, this is my de-glamourised, at-home look. Bit embarrassing. But, hey, I’ve seen
you
in your smelly fishing overalls, so I thought it would be okay.’ She chanced a grin.

‘I hadn’t even noticed what you were wearing,’ Alex lied, loping indoors as she moved aside. Winnie locked the door behind him, holding the cream curtain back to peer out into the dark, before letting it fall back into place. She really was kind of skittish.

Whirling around, she put her palms up, a wobbly smile on her face. ‘So can I get you a tea or something to help you unwind again? I’m all out of coffee unfortunately.’

He would have really liked to hit the hay seeing as fishing was still very much on in a few hours, but he doubted he’d be able to nod off straightaway anyway. Not knowing where he was – and knowing who was sleeping none too far away. It was all a bit strange.

‘Sure, I’ll go a tea.’

She moved into the kitchen zone and he glanced around the surrounds – his first proper look indoors. The décor was sparser than his own – if she hadn’t said as much already, it would have been clear she wasn’t planning on hanging around for long. There were touches of her about the place, though, from the bunch of wild flowers in a vase on the kitchen bench to a pretty, vintage-looking lamp switched on in the lounge. The cat was also curled up in a basket in the corner. He peered up at Alex distrustfully with one eye.

‘How do you take your tea?’ Winnie called over her shoulder, busying herself with the kettle. ‘I hope Lady Grey’s all right.’

‘That’s fine. Black, no sugar would be great.’ At least she didn’t say ‘earl’. It would only have reminded him of a dodgy acquaintance from his past. ‘So where’ll I be sleeping?’

‘Oh, gosh.’ Winnie smacked a palm to her forehead. ‘I hadn’t actually thought about that. Too caught up in my own edginess. I’m an idiot. You take my bed – though it’s only a camp bed, I’m afraid – and I’ll go the beanbag in the lounge. Sorry I can’t offer you anything more. My place isn’t exactly fully furnished.’

Alex ripped off his sports jacket and threw it on the beanbag. ‘I’ll be fine in here.’

‘No, no, you can’t do that, not after I dragged you here in the wee hours and all —’

‘I can handle it,’ Alex insisted.

‘Are you
sure
? At least let me lend you my doona or something.’

‘It’s not necessary.’

‘Well, okay,’ she said, sounding uncertain. The kettle whistled and Winnie turned to pour boiling water into two sunny yellow mugs.

Alex stepped onto the kitchen tiles to grab his and something squelched underfoot. He stopped short. Lifting his sneaker, he discovered a brown, mucky mess splattered across his sole.

Winnie’s eyes widened. ‘
Ew
. What on earth is that?’

Realisation slowly dawned. ‘I think your cat might have coughed up a hairball.’ Maybe it was karma for teasing her about landing in cow dung at the beef field day.

Winnie’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh yuck. I’ve never seen him do anything like that before.’ Behind her fingers, he could see she was now biting back a smile. Despite being the one standing in cat vomit, just hours before he was due on the boat, he could kind of see the funny side, too. She reached for a roll of paper towels and extended it towards him. ‘Here, these might help.’

He grabbed a bunch and began mopping up the mess. ‘Where’s your bin?’

Winnie opened a cupboard, which had a bucket on the bottom shelf. He chucked the soiled towels in. Pausing as she closed the door, Winnie’s gaze lingered inside.

‘You know, it’s so strange. These black rice-like pellets keep turning up everywhere, like some kind of dead insects. And they can’t be explained away by Casper. I find them in the laundry mostly. Any idea what they could be? See?
There
.’

Alex leant closer, catching a whiff of her sweetly fragrant skin at the same time. ‘Uh, they’re not dead insects, Winnie, they’re mouse droppings.’

The magazine editor jumped, banging the cupboard door shut again. ‘
What?
You’re kidding me? How can there be a
mouse
? I’m fastidious.’

Alex shrugged. ‘It’s just a curse of living in the country, surrounded by paddocks and all.’

She’d turned as white as a ghost, her head slowly shaking from side to side. ‘Great, now I really won’t be able to sleep.’

It was his turn to grin. ‘And I thought you liked animals.’

‘I do, I do. Even wildlife hazards like Casper. And mice
are
cute, just —’ she shuddered, ‘not near my kitchen cupboards.’ On tippy toes, she grabbed the mugs from the bench, keeping a safe distance from the bin area, handing one to Alex.

He accepted it with a shrug. ‘You’ll just have to get some mouse bait in the morning. Or a trap.’

She reached a hand up to her throat. ‘Oh, no, I couldn’t do that. Uh-uh. I’ll have to find some
other
way to move it on.’

Alex shot her a slow smile, heading back in the direction of the lounge. ‘Good luck with that.’ Pushing aside his jacket, he sank onto the beanbag, the beans crackling under his weight. Winnie followed him, dropping cross-legged onto the carpet with her mug. Strangely, the hairball incident – and the mouse droppings – seemed to have lightened the mood. He couldn’t help teasing her. ‘They do say you can’t take the city out of the girl.’

She laughed, plucking a carpet fibre with her free hand. ‘True! I’m actually going back to the city this weekend for a visit. Well,
Adelaide
anyway, which some think of as a big country town. Thought I should do the right thing and drop in on my mum.’ Her face contorted for a millisecond. ‘It’s been a while.’

She sounded about as thrilled as he would at the prospect of hanging out with his dad. Alex traced the rim of his mug with his finger, picking up drips. ‘Funny that. I could actually give you a lift on the way in, if you haven’t organised anything already. I’ve got a rare weekend off, with Walker away, and I’m using it to buy some camera equipment there.’

A few hours in the ute with her driving to Adelaide wasn’t the same as running to her aid, it was just one work contact lending another a hand. It would have looked bad not to offer.

Winnie cupped her hands around the warmth of her mug, her dark eyes shining. ‘Could you really? That’d be brilliant. I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than do the boring drive there alone. I’ll catch the Greyhound home.’ She nudged him in the side. ‘Ever heard of online shopping, though?’

‘Nah, it’s not for me. I like to touch and feel things before I buy them.’
Touch and feel.
Not the best choice of words given the circumstances, but Winnie didn’t flinch. Obviously she didn’t have a one-track mind.

‘I would
die
if I couldn’t indulge in some retail therapy just because I wasn’t near any shops,’ she said simply. ‘Shipping fees or no.’

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, sipping their tea. Then Alex chanced a look at her. ‘So, feeling any safer? Think you’ll be able to get a good half-a-night’s sleep at least?’

‘Yeah, think I’ll be fine now.’ She smiled hesitantly over the top of her mug. ‘I know it was a big ask for you to come here. And I’m grateful. Sometimes I just find the silence deafening, strange as it sounds. I think that’s what I liked about Sydney, the whir of activity. There was no time for dwelling on things, feeling alone . . . abandoned. A shrink would probably say it’s my inner child reminding me of the night my dad left my mum and me.’ Her features, which had grown morose, brightened again. ‘So what’s your biggest fear then? Now that I’ve laid everything bare and made myself look like a right idiot.’

Alex only had to contemplate the question for a second. ‘Becoming my father.’ If his voice were a cologne, the top note right then would be bitter.

Winnie nodded in understanding. ‘Funny, mine’s becoming my mother. What qualities don’t you like about your dad?’

Alex raised his eyebrows, blowing out a breath. ‘Where do I start? The way he does business, how he’s prepared to hurt people to get what he wants, the type of disastrous women he’s dated since my mum died, how he tries to mould people into something they’re not. Everything, really.’ He drew his mouth into a line, deciding he’d said enough. It was time to turn the spotlight back on Winnie. ‘What about you? Why do you fear becoming your mum?’

‘Gosh.’ She rested her mug on the carpet and leant back on her palms. ‘I guess I’m afraid of being as irresponsible as her. Of floating through life, leaving everything to chance. Of expecting everyone else to pick up the pieces when things don’t fall into place.’

Alex nodded. ‘Just swimming with the tide?’

‘Exactly. I mean, she has her redeeming features, but . . .’ Winnie shook her head as though lost for suitable words. ‘What can I say? She’s a head case, that’s for sure.’ Suddenly, she reached up and pinched her right earlobe. ‘Oops, think I got a bit carried away there – my earring just fell out. I mustn’t have put the back on properly.’ Immediately, she began feeling around on the carpet in the lamplight.

A diamante-like flash caught Alex’s eye. ‘I see it,’ he said, reaching for the small circular stud, just as she did.

They looked up at each other, neither moving their hands away. Alex felt some sort of spasm go through his stomach as she held his gaze. He couldn’t help noticing her face now had an attractive, pink-cheeked glow and the up-and-down movement of her chest beneath her striped windcheater had become more pronounced.

She was edging closer, the space between them narrowing. He felt blood rush to his nether regions and his mouth fell slightly open.

‘Alex, I —’

Hearing her say his name was enough to jerk him out of his reverie. He tore his hand away and pushed back into the stupid beanbag. But seeing the shock on her face knocked the wind out of his sails. He tried to keep his voice low, steady. ‘Like you said earlier, Winnie, I’m not a one-girl type of guy. It’s better you stay away from me. I’ll only hurt you.’

Winnie opened and shut her mouth, the tension in the room seeming to vibrate around them. ‘I – I . . .’ she tried, before her lips clamped shut again and her usually lively eyes dulled. Wordlessly, she scooped up the earring and clicked it back into place. Reaching for her mug, she scrambled to her feet.

‘I’m going to bed,’ she offered at last, taking off in what he gathered was the direction of her room. ‘Let me know if you need anything . . . or
don’t
.’ The door slammed, and Alex’s shoulders jumped.

He felt guilty as hell for for making her feel bad, but giving into temptation wouldn’t do. Rejecting her was the responsible thing to do.