he said, stupidly maybe, but, hell, he couldn’t leave it like this. ‘Georgie, I’m no expert but it seems to me the courts usually give custody to the mother. That’s the way it is in the States at least, and I can’t see why it’s different here. If they granted Ron custody … well, maybe you were wild in the past. But there’s enough people here who’d vouch for you now. You’ve got a great job in a terrific little community. If Ron goes to jail you could apply again …’
There was a deathly silence. He’d messed it up, he thought. He shouldn’t have said it.
‘You think I might have been a bad mother in the past,’ she whispered.
‘Hell, I don’t know …’
‘Just because I wear leathers.’
‘They’re great leathers.’
‘But they put me in the right socio-economic class to be a bad mum.’
‘Georg …’
‘I’d slap you,’ she said wearily, ‘but I’m all slapped out. You stand there with your righteous answer-to-all solution. Prove to the courts that I’m respectable and … Hell, you think I should wear a twinset?’
She was close to hysteria, he thought.
‘I think it’d be a damned shame if you wore a twinset.’
She stared—and then she choked, half with laughter, half with tears. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she whispered.
‘I do know you look fantastic.’
‘In leathers. Every man’s fantasy.’
‘Actually, I was thinking you look fantastic in nightie, scuffs and bandages.’
‘Cut it out.’
‘Right.’
‘You propositioned me last time you were here,’ she whispered. ‘Behind … What’s her name? Eloise or something’s back. Slime-ball.’
‘You’re talking about my fiancée?’
‘Yeah, isn’t that presumptuous of me? Low-life talking of her betters.’
‘Where the hell did you get that chip on your shoulder?’
‘If you give crazy compliments when you’re engaged to another woman …’
‘I’m not engaged.’
She blinked. ‘Not …’
‘There were … repercussions after the last time we met,’ he told her.
‘She found out? Someone told her? We didn’t get past the hall door,’ she said. ‘Was that enough to make her call it off?’
‘I called it off,’ he said gently. Maybe it wasn’t the time or the place to be saying this, but it suddenly seemed important that Georgie know. ‘Eloise and I are solid professional colleagues who enjoy working together. We work long hours and it seemed an extension of that that we ate together and spent spare time together and finally moved in together. We just sort of drifted toward marriage. Only then … I came out here.’
‘And you fell head over heels for me?’ she mocked in incredulous disbelief. He shook his head.
‘I hardly fell in love with you.’
‘Well, you wouldn’t.’
‘Let me finish,’ he said. ‘Georgie, I was attracted to you. It was a crazy aberration and we have Gina to thank that it went no further, especially now I know what state you were in. But it did make me see that what I had with Eloise wasn’t enough.’
‘So I caused you to break off your engagement,’ she whispered. ‘Well, well. But you didn’t say …’
‘It was hardly appropriate to get off a plane shouting that I’d broken off my engagement. I didn’t want to burden you with it.’
She blinked at that. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Yeah, that’s presumptuous, too,’ he agreed. Hell, he wasn’t getting it right here. ‘Look, I just want to tell you that I wasn’t as big a slime-ball as you thought. Or maybe I was, but it was a big deal and what happened made me think through where I was going.’
She stared at him for a long moment. She raked her curls with her fingers and shuddered. The shudder made him move instinctively toward her, but she held up a hand as if to ward him off.
‘No.’
‘I’m not—’
‘I know you’re not,’ she whispered. ‘And I’m not either. But I am really, really tired.’
‘I’ll help you to bed.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Thank you. I’ll go on my own.’
‘Is there anything I can do?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘If you think of any place you want searched,’ he offered, ‘I have a week before Gina’s wedding. I was going to do some sightseeing but if you’d like me to help search for your son …’
‘My son.’
‘Max.’
She bit her lip. Then she whispered. ‘No. Thank you. I don’t know where to start looking and if Ron doesn’t want to be found then he won’t be. Even if I found them … I couldn’t turn Ron in. I just … couldn’t.’
‘You still have feelings …’
‘I don’t have any feelings at all,’ she whispered. ‘Not for Ron. You’re thinking he’s my ex-husband. Well, that fits. Leathers, stilettos, bike, an ex-husband who’s a criminal. Sorry to disappoint you but no.’
‘Then …’
‘Ron’s my stepfather,’ she whispered. ‘He’s the man who taught me to ride a punch. He’s the reason I left home at fourteen and have never been back. And he’s Max’s father. My lovely Max. My kid brother. He calls me Mum because I’m the only mother figure he’s known. He’s the only male I’ve ever loved and ever will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to bed.’
Out to sea, Hurricane Willie paused. For no good reason. The massive front of bad weather had been inching eastward. It had been expected to blow out to sea but now it seemed indecisive. It stilled, building strength. Building fury.
Even now the force from its epicentre was being felt by the mainland, from Brisbane to Cooktown. The mainlanders checked their weather charts and listened to the forecasts.
No one knew …
