‘I was a couple of years older than the eldest sister and Mum had three more pretty fast. So I guess I did get good with babies. I enjoyed helping with the girls and Mum was pretty busy by the time she had Maeve. I wasn’t into dolls but it was always going to be obstetrics or paediatrics.’
He looked at Tara. Tried to see into her past. ‘Were you a girly girl?’
Hadn’t had the chance. ‘What’s a girly girl?’
‘Dress-ups. A favourite doll?’
There had been a couple of shared toys she’d been allowed to play with but not her own. ‘After my parents died I never owned a doll. So I guess not.’
His brows drew together but thankfully he changed the subject. ‘What time do you finish?’
‘Three-thirty.’
‘Fancy another swim?’
Simon studied the strong features of the woman across from him. He became more intrigued the more he saw her. His four sisters had all been spoilt by everyone, including himself, and secure in their knowledge of their own attraction. Even Maeve in her current circumstances dressed and acted like the confident woman she was.
But Tara favoured the unisex look of jeans and T-shirts and now he knew that at work, despite the choices of the rest of the staff, she even favoured shapeless scrubs.
But in her plain black one-piece swimsuit she couldn’t hide the fact she was all woman. A delightfully shapely woman with determination to the little chin and a wariness of being hurt that seemed to lurk at the back of her eyes.
An orphan. And a loner perhaps? ‘Tell me about your childhood.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m interested.’
A wary glance and then she looked away. ‘Nothing to tell.’
‘Are you always this difficult when people want to get to know you?’
A clash of her eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘So did you always live in an orphanage or did you have foster-parents?’
‘Both.’
He waited and she gave in with a sigh.
‘I preferred the orphanage because at least I knew where I stood.’
He would have thought an orphanage would be way worse but he knew nothing. Hadn’t ever thought about it. Didn’t actually like to think about it when he looked at Tara. ‘How so?’
‘Being a foster-child is tricky. You know it’s not permanent, so it’s hard not to be defensive. If you let people get to you it hurts too much when you have to leave.’
He knew he should drop it, but he couldn’t. ‘Don’t some foster-parents stay with the same children?’
Her face gave nothing away. ‘I seemed to find the ones who shouldn’t be foster-parents.’
He felt a shaft of sympathy for a little lost Tara. Found himself wanting to shake those careless foster-parents. It must have shown on his face.
‘Don’t even think about feeling sorry for me, Simon.’ There was a fierceness in her eyes that made him blink.
And apologise. ‘Sorry. I think my sisters had it too much the other way with people looking after them. I’ve always been protective. If you ask Maeve, too protective, and I guess I got worse when the truth came out that I really only had half the right.’ It wasn’t something he usually burdened others with twice but maybe unintentionally he’d trodden on Tara’s past hurts and felt he should expose his own.
Of course Tara pounced on the chance to change the subject and he guessed he couldn’t blame her. Served him right.
‘So how old were you when you found out you had another father?’
The way she said it, like he had been lucky, if you looked at it from her point of view when she didn’t even have even one father and he had two. Even privately complained about it. Novel idea when he’d been a cranky little victim despite telling himself to get over it.
He brought himself back to the present. ‘After my dad’s first heart attack, that would be the man I thought was my real dad, I heard my mother question whether I should be told about Angus. Not a great way to find out. Nineteen and I hadn’t been given the choice to know my real dad for the whole of my childhood. And to be still treated like a child.’ He hadn’t taken it well and had half blamed Angus as well for not knowing of his existence.
‘So how’d you find him? Angus?’ Tara had looked past that to the interesting bit. Maybe he should have done that too a long time ago. She made him feel petty and he didn’t like it.
‘It was more than ten years ago, but at the time it all seemed to move too slowly. Took six months. He was on some discreet medical assignment overseas and the government wouldn’t let me contact him. Then he came to see me and brought me here to meet my grandfather. It must have been a family trait because he hadn’t seen his own dad for twenty years.’
‘Louisa’s husband?’
‘Yep. Apparently Angus and Grandfather Ned fought over my dad’s relationship with my mother, and when they ran away together and it didn’t work out, he never came back here.’
She didn’t offer sympathy. Just an observation as she glanced around. ‘It’s a very healing place.’
‘Well, Angus brought me here to get to know him. And this was where he met Mia.’
He wondered if that was why he hadn’t been able to commit to a relationship in the past. To fully trust people because even his own parents had betrayed him. He shook his head. Didn’t know where all that angst had come from, it certainly wasn’t something he’d talked about before, and if he’d stirred this kind of feeling in Tara by asking about her past, he could see why she didn’t want to talk about it. When he thought about her life he felt incredibly selfish and self-indulgent complaining about his own.
She’d said Lyrebird Lake was a healing place. Maybe it was. Did that mean his coming here with Maeve meant it was his turn to move on? He mused, ‘I don’t know if it’s the place or the people, but whenever I visit it seems when I leave here I’m usually less stressed.’
She laughed and he enjoyed the sound. ‘Even if you lose some of your holidays to fill in for your dad and unexpected breech deliveries.’
‘They’re the good bits.’ And he realised it was true. He smiled at her. ‘The really good bits.’
‘Like today.’ She smiled back and the way it changed her face made him think of a previous conversation. Tara’s glorious moment. She certainly looked the part.
He caught her fingers. ‘Today has had some very magical moments.’
He smoothed the towel out of her grip and let it fall and gathered up her other hand. He half expected her to pull away but she seemed bemused more than annoyed. He tugged her closer until their hips met. Liking the feel of a wet Lycra mermaid against his chest, unconsciously
