like this. Oh, I know there’s a lot of money around, but what do you do when you’re not working?’
Nick grinned at her.
‘I’ll be doing pretty much what I did when I wasn’t working in Sydney.’
Amy drifted away but Bill wasn’t going to let him get away with that tantalising reply.
‘Which was?’ she asked.
‘What which was?’
‘The “pretty much what you did in Sydney” bit of that conversation.’
‘Ah, but I told you years ago,’ he reminded her. ‘I had a good time and I intend to do just that up here. You don’t need nightclubs and friends with yachts on the harbour to have a good time.’
‘We’ve got a nightclub and a two of my brothers have yachts, or big motor launches,’ Bill said defensively, and Nick laughed.
‘Exactly, although I think the nightclub crowd are a bit young for me, but you can have a good time wherever you are. In fact, I’m off for three days next week and think I might pop across to one of the island resorts—do a bit of diving and fishing and …’
‘Meeting beautiful women,’ Bill finished for him.
Again Nick smiled, although this time it was a little forced because in the back of his mind he’d had another reason for returning to Willowby, one that was becoming important to him.
‘That too, of course,’ he answered glibly. ‘Want to come?’
CHAPTER THREE
SHE DIDN’T REPLY, studying him intently for a moment instead, and he knew that look. Undoubtedly she’d picked up something from his tone.
‘Did it hurt you?’ she asked.
Yep, he’d been right about the look and although he knew full well what she meant by the question, he wasn’t going to cede ground to her by admitting it.
‘Did what hurt me?’
‘You know full well what I mean,’ she said crossly. ‘Serena saying no to your proposal.’
His turn to study her. The problem with friendship—a strong and enduring friendship like the one they shared—was that you couldn’t lie to the other party. Oh, you could fudge around a bit and dodge answering, but you couldn’t right out lie.
He turned his gaze from Bill’s too-perceptive eyes and looked out over the beach and island-strewn sea.
The truth!
‘More than I could have imagined,’ he admitted, and turned back so, now it was out, he could meet the gold-brown eyes fastened so steadfastly on his face. ‘I don’t think it was Serena’s rejection so much. I liked her well enough. For all her self-focus she was fun to be with and happy that we more or less lived separate lives—both of us working long hours at different times—so I can’t see why it wouldn’t have worked.’
Bill’s small, rather shocked ‘Oh’ broke into his thoughts but now he’d started he wanted to finish what he’d been saying.
‘You know how I feel about the “l” word, Bill, so I can’t say I loved her, but what had … not excited but certainly intrigued me was the idea of having a family—a wife and child—people who belonged, not to me but with me, if you know what I mean.’
The disbelief on Bill’s face was so easy to read he had to laugh.
‘Yes, yes, I know I said it would never happen, but finding out Serena was pregnant, well, it kind of changed something inside me, as if a wire that had been shorted out was suddenly reconnected and family stopped being in front of going down mines, abduction by aliens and the bogeyman in my fears.’
He paused, marshalling his thoughts.
‘In part, it’s why I came home—came back to the only family I’ve ever known: Gran and you de Grootes.’
‘Looking for a family of your own?’ Bill asked.
Again he paused, but honesty won out.
‘Yes, I think so—I think it’s what I need, Bill. What I really want.’
‘Oh, Nick,’ Bill said softly, and she covered his hand with hers as she had so often in the past. Though he’d reciprocated often enough, when some fool of a youth had hurt her in some way or when her pet hamster had died.
The strange thing was that this time it felt different. Nice, but different.
‘I also need to sleep,’ he said, regaining control over some erratic emotions and reclaiming his hand at the same time. ‘Then this afternoon I must go over and see Gran. You want to come?’
Fool! Wasn’t he going for distance here until he’d sorted out his reactions to his old friend?
‘No, I saw her yesterday—well, the day before now—although,’ Bill said firmly, ‘that brings me to another issue. I had an email from you only last week—you answered the one I sent to say she was looking a whole lot better—and there wasn’t a word about coming here to work. And if you were talking to Bob and pinching the best apartment in his building then you must have been fairly certain then.’
Nick laughed again—the disjointed sentence was sheer Bill, words tumbling over each other to get said, especially when she was angry with him.
‘One,’ he said, holding up his hand and pointing to his first finger, ‘I wanted to surprise Gran and if I told you …’
He let the sentence hang but had the satisfaction of seeing a faint blush colour her cheeks. As honest as the day was long, Bill would be the first to admit she found it almost impossible to keep a secret.
‘And two …’ he pointed to his next finger ‘… I wasn’t sure you were even here. In that email you’d said you had time off and were going to Townsville to talk to someone about some course.’
She nodded.
‘The mine rescue people, about a new course. It was to be this week and next, but was cancelled. Pity really because it was going to be on flooded underground rescues and I haven’t done that yet.’
‘Mine rescue—flooded underground mines?’ He could hear his voice rising but couldn’t stop it. ‘What do you mean, you haven’t done that yet? What on earth are you doing, getting involved with mine rescue, and what are your brothers doing, letting you do it?’
Her laugh made the sun seem brighter.
‘Oh, Nick, you sound just like Bob, but Danny and Pete are already in the elite mine rescue squad and they’ve encouraged me to get involved. I’m not up to their standard yet—not flying off to foreign parts to help out—but I can hold my own as part of the local team when the experts are away, especially with my nursing and paramedic experience.’
Nick didn’t know why he was surprised, but just the thought of mine rescue made him shudder. Danny, the second of
