Kiss It Better (5 page)

‘Life changes.’ He shrugged, but it wasn’t casual. His wide shoulders carried a burden. The difference from her was that he’d accepted it.

Still, all the self-directed anger inside her found a new target. To walk away from his training and qualifications was wrong, wasteful, wicked. She protested out of the suffering and despair she’d seen in Africa. ‘A doctor? But that’s years and years of your life. How can you walk away from it? People need doctors.’

‘His dad had a heart attack,’ Mick said.

‘My dad was CEO,’ Theo said. ‘He’s recovered now, but someone had to step in.’

Which put her totally in the wrong. You had to respect a man who put aside his own plans to help his family, but something in her fought apologising.

‘I’m glad he’s better.’ She took a deep breath and pushed through her awkward sympathy. ‘However, if he’s returning to the business, will he approve of the purchase of JayBay?’

Theo’s eyes narrowed.

‘It’s a big decision. Have you consulted your dad?’ She tore at her slice of bread, crumbling it rather than eating it. ‘It would be awful if we sold and your dad sold us on.’

‘Nothing in business is guaranteed,’ Theo said. ‘Mick, we’ll write a contract guaranteeing employment for everyone at JayBay for a year, two, whatever you need to be content.’

‘I have your word,’ Mick said.

Cassie dropped the bread she was crumbling as reality overwhelmed her. If her dad had accepted Theo’s word and given his own, then the deal was done. Details wouldn’t matter. They would be ironed out during Theo’s visit. No wonder Mick had been so determined that Theo stay with them.

Leighton was the least of JayBay’s problems.

No matter what she said, JayBay was going out of the family. Everything would change.

***

Theo talked with Mick about the JayBay sale, but both were all too aware of Cassie sitting unhappily at the table with them.

She’d abandoned any pretence of eating and simply leaned back in her chair, sipping coffee.

Mick broke off a discussion of stockists for JayBay’s products. ‘Cassie, I should have talked about this with you. I didn’t want to face the truth that Leighton was stealing from us, and in not facing that I let you down. Whatever happens, I’m not selling this house. It’ll stay ours. Yours to come home to any time.’

‘Dad, I don’t understand. Why do you have to sell JayBay? Theo’s not going to run the business. He’ll get a manager in. You could do that. And you could get a loan against JayBay for whatever you need for the Kimberley project. Better yet, you could use JayBay’s factory to process — ’

Mick held up his hand. ‘First, what Leighton did wouldn’t have happened if I’d been concentrating on the business, as Theo will, manager or no manager. I know who I am. You’re like me. We have single-minded focus. Yours is nursing.’

She winced.

‘Cassie, love. Being tired isn’t the same as falling out of obsession with something.’

‘Right.’ Sceptical. ‘Dad, ignore me. Explain why you want to get rid of JayBay.’

‘It’s not a case of getting rid of it. It’s a case of JayBay standing independently and me separating myself. If I kept the factory and used it to process the herbs from the Kimberley — ignoring the transport costs when it would make more sense to process up north and keep the employment opportunities there — processing in JayBay would give too much ownership to me. Bringing new products to market is my passion, but the project has to remain with a majority Indigenous ownership.’

The underlying message was clear. Mick was moving on in life and JayBay was part of his past, a past he was happy to shed to pursue future challenges. Mick Freedom was a true entrepreneur.

Theo watched as Cassie grappled with her dad’s bluntness. Finally, he couldn’t stand the suspended animation any longer and opted for more immediately useful help. He cut two slices of the chewy bread, slapped ham between them and put the sandwich on Cassie’s plate. ‘Eat. Shock lowers your blood glucose.’

Her blank stare gradually focussed on him and altered to a frown. ‘Yes, Doctor.’

He could live with the snippiness. It meant she was back with them and not lost in some private contemplation of disaster, or whatever she thought it was his ownership of JayBay would cause. The apocalypse? He waited till she’d picked up the sandwich. ‘It’s a shock to have the business go out of your family, but we’re offering a good price and a commitment to JayBay’s support of culture and the environment. Actually, that brand integrity is a fair part of JayBay’s value. We’ll respect it.’

‘That’s because you share my values: family, community, caring for people…I raised Cassie the same — maybe I succeeded too well.’ Mick got up and moved restlessly to fill the kettle. He halted with it in his hand, his head turning to the back door.

Only then did Theo hear the sound of a car arriving.

‘Gabby’s here.’ Mick filled the kettle and switched it on.

Cassie jumped up, abandoning half the sandwich and ran out. The kitchen door banged shut behind her.

Through the window, Theo saw her hug her aunt. The woman said something and Cassie jerked back in distress, her whole body a question mark.

‘Damn Leighton,’ Mick said. ‘Maybe I should have waited to sell. People will link the two: his theft, my selling out.’

‘I came to you with the offer,’ Theo reminded him.

Mike sighed and leaned against the bench, watching his daughter and sister as they walked slowly to the house. ‘Gabby can’t forgive herself.’

‘For what?’

‘Take your pick.’ Mike spread his hands. ‘That she believed me instantly, believed that her son would steal from family. That he stole. That she got involved with his father; that she kicked him out. That she didn’t send him away to school, that she paid for him to go to uni and become an accountant. That she didn’t teach him better.’ He lowered his voice as the women stepped onto the veranda. ‘Gabby helped raise Cassie after Leanne left. They’re close.’

‘I’ll clear out,’ Theo said. ‘Let you have some privacy.’

‘I think you’d better stay,’ Cassie said from the doorway.

‘What? Why?’

‘Because Leighton is telling stories.’

‘Trish phoned me.’ Gabby sunk heavily onto a chair.

‘Trish is a local reporter,’ Cassie explained.

‘She tried to phone you, Mick,’ Gabby said. ‘But your phone was off, as always. Leighton…’ Her breath shuddered.

Cassie said tightly, ‘Leighton didn’t go home from the factory. He went into town. He added two and two together and guessed that you want to buy JayBay. Dad, he’s told the people in town that you’re selling out and that when he protested, trying to protect JayBay, jobs and the town, you sacked him.’

‘No one will believe that,’ Mick said.

They would. Theo understood the politics of envy. There had to be plenty of locals who resented Mick’s success. ‘The longer Leighton’s story stands unchallenged, the more traction it’ll gain.’ It was a loser’s tactic, taking a lying sob story to the trash media — that didn’t mean it couldn’t cause all the trouble Leighton hoped it would.

‘I’ll deny it,’ Gabby said. ‘I did deny it. I told Trish…I told Trish that Leighton lied. But I couldn’t, I couldn’t tell her that he’d stolen from JayBay. I’m sorry, Mick. You’ll have to. I couldn’t.’

No one would expect her to denounce her own son.

‘But JayBay’s a national success story,’ Theo said. ‘In Australia, that makes it a tall poppy, something to be knocked down. And with Brigid Care involved, it’s two-for-one. A clever journalist can pick up the story and cause real trouble. We can’t just ignore Leighton.’

‘I’ll speak to Trish.’ Mick filled four mugs and brought them to the table. He also dug out a packet of chocolate biscuits and put them in front of his sister.

Theo observed the ravaged family around him and reminded himself that caring for them was not his responsibility. His responsibility was to Brigid Care. Leighton had to be silenced. ‘Speak to the police, Mick.’

‘Please, no.’ Gabby gripped the edge of the table.

Cassie glared at him. Theo kept going. ‘Putting Leighton’s fraud on record kills the story.’

‘I said I wouldn’t press charges,’ Mick said slowly.

But that was before Leighton had spread poison. A second treachery.

Mick looked at Cassie and Gabby. His shoulders slumped. ‘I won’t.’

‘All right.’ Theo rolled his shoulders, aware of tension gathering. Emotional decisions tended to interfere with good business sense, but he understood the pressures on Mick. ‘We’ll have to tackle this a different way.’

‘If you delayed the sale,’ Cassie began.

‘No.’ Too much rode on it. More than she knew or Mick suspected. Theo accepted what couldn’t be changed and went into damage control the only way he knew: by attacking. ‘Talking to your local reporter is a start. Get the real story out there. But it’s not enough. People will be watching so what we do has to match what we say.’

The other three at the table stared at him.

He was in Jardin Bay committed to the purchase of JayBay, and no thieving bastard was going to screw up his plans. Mess up the deal with JayBay and it would make everything else he had to achieve all the harder.

So they wouldn’t mess up.

It would benefit everyone, even if Cassie couldn’t see that now. Selling JayBay would free Mick and free capital for him to pursue a project that would be far bigger than JayBay. Far more important. Theo had seen the potential the first time Mick spoke of the healing qualities of the native plants being commercialised.

He leaned forward, having learned in fraught board meetings how to cut through emotional turmoil to get his way. ‘We’ll be telling the truth. Mick and I have been talking for a while about Brigid Care acquiring JayBay. He sent me the financials to study and I found evidence of fraud. Confronted, Leighton admitted his guilt. It’s been distressing for everyone involved, but the sale of JayBay will go forward.’

Cassie bit into a chocolate biscuit. ‘You sound like a number cruncher, all technical accuracy and no soul.’ Her words were mumbled through crumbs, but the derision was clear.

‘And you’re our weakest link.’ He took advantage of her surprise at the unexpected criticism to continue. ‘Mick wants to sell JayBay. I want to buy, but part of JayBay’s value is its reputation. If you want to support your dad, Cassie, then you need to play along that we’re all in harmony and that Leighton is talking rubbish to cover up his own guilt.’ He looked apologetically at Gabby.

‘Well, that is all true,’ she said.

Mick nodded. ‘Leighton is my nephew, but you’re my kid. If you’re seen on good terms with Theo, then there’ll be nothing anyone can dig into. JayBay will be a family business being sold to another family business, and with those most closely involved satisfied that everyone will be taken care of.’

Cassie clearly struggled with her response. The whole time her right foot kicked a soft, ragged tempo against a table leg. She stared from her dad to her aunt, before glowering at Theo. Despite her obvious desire to disintegrate him with the power of her glare, the smear of chocolate on her full lower lip disarmed the ferocity of her scowl.

Theo reached for a second chocolate biscuit. He would bet that she wasn’t satisfied, as Mick was, that everyone would be taken care of. Theo didn’t take offence. She didn’t know him, and she wasn’t happy to be selling out. But he’d been right to gamble on her love for her dad and her sense of justice. JayBay was Mick’s to sell. He finished his biscuit.

‘All right,’ she said finally. ‘I’ll play nice with Theo.’

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’ll take you out to dinner tonight.’

‘We can eat in.’

‘But then the gossips won’t see us,’ he pointed out. He saw her frustration and couldn’t resist a smile. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll pay.’

The old school house at Jardin Bay had been converted six years before into a restaurant. The 1930s red brick building had worn wooden floors and bare tables set with plain white china. Eugene Guild, chef and owner, cared about the food, not the setting. He had never settled on a specialty for the restaurant, instead cooking his way around the world — so to speak. Currently, his interest was American food.

Cassie ordered a burger. This wasn’t a real date. If she wanted to order a meal that would be messy to eat, who’d care?

Apparently, the answer to that was her second cousin Paula, waitress at the School House. She widened her eyes, appalled. The body language was easy to read: Cassie, you’ve got a hunk here. Forget burgers. Eat him.

Which told Cassie that news of Leighton’s fraud and JayBay’s sale hadn’t reached Paula. She’d be a whole different sort of curious if it had.

‘And for dessert,’ Cassie said determinedly, ‘I’ll have a chocolate fudge sundae with everything.’

Paula rolled her eyes.

Theo ordered pulled pork with apple pie for dessert.

He appeared model-elegant in a white cotton shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbow, so Paula’s interest was understandable. His leather jacket hung over the back of his chair. The dynamic CEO at rest.

‘It’s warm in here.’ Cassie shrugged out of her denim jacket. She’d worn it over a peach-coloured silk shirt, making a statement that this was a casual evening out even if she was wearing her black velvet skirt and heels. She couldn’t quite shake the memory of Theo’s appalled expression on the headland when he’d mistakenly thought she might be interested in him.

They’d had a choice for dining out in Jardin Bay: the pub or the School House. The pub was more popular and Theo had vetoed it on exactly those grounds. ‘We don’t want it to seem as if we’re trying to start rumours. Subtlety is the key.’

Cassie seldom did subtle. She was confused and angry with life, and this afternoon a lot of those emotions had focussed — rightly or wrongly — on the man in front of her. It annoyed her all the more that even with her antagonism, her body remained hyper-aware of him.

He shifted his legs under the table and she flinched away from the brush of denim. She caught his sardonic look as she pretended great interest in one of the paintings on the wall. It was a primitive splash of colours: red and purple, like blood and a bruise. She grimaced, unhappy with the depressing and violent turn of her thoughts.