course there’d been times, during their teenage years, when their games had taken a certain risqué turn and while they’d never indulged, they’d diced pretty close.
Holding her like this reminded him just how close.
‘Okay, okay, you two,’ Diana teased, pushing a glass of red wine into Rick’s hand. ‘No maudlin tonight. That’s the rule. Eat, drink and be merry tonight.’
Rick forced himself to step away, grateful that Diana was here to ground them in the present. He’d thought a lot about Stella since Nathan had died, more than usual.
And not all of those thoughts had been pure.
He accepted the wine. ‘Good plan,’ he said, clinking glasses with them both.
Stella indicated the lounge chairs huddled around the fireplace and watched as Rick shrugged out of his navy duffle coat to reveal well-worn jeans that clung in all the right places and a thick turtle-neck, cable-knit sweater.
Even off the boat the man looked as if he belonged at sea.
Diana lounged back against the cushions, inspecting him dispassionately, her wine goggles making the job a little difficult. She pointed at him over the rim of her glass.
‘There’s something familiar about you,’ she slurred.
Stella didn’t like the look of speculation on her friend’s face. She’d seen that dogged look before and didn’t want to give Diana too much latitude.
‘Yes, you met him at the funeral,’ she said, hopefully redirecting her friend’s thoughts that tended to fancy after several glasses of red.
Diana narrowed her eyes. ‘Nope,’ she said as she shook her head. ‘I have this feeling I know you beyond that.’ Even at the funeral all suited and polished he’d looked vaguely familiar to her but now, looking all lone-wolf-of-the-sea, there was definitely something she recognised about him.
Was it his eyes? Or maybe his hair?
Rick chuckled. ‘Maybe I look like your great uncle Cyril?’
Diana burst out laughing as she sipped on her drink and Stella even envied her that. She had a jingly laugh that sounded like Tinkerbell waving her magic wand. Stella had no doubt that red wine would be pouring out of her nose had she tried that same manoeuvre.
Diana wagged her finger. ‘Good try but you don’t look like anyone’s great uncle Cyril.’ She narrowed her eyes again and nudged the side of her nose three times with her index finger. ‘Don’t you worry. I will remember. I may just need—’ she looked at her almost empty wine glass ‘—a while.’
Rick saluted. ‘I look forward to the final outcome.’
Diana nodded. ‘As well you should.’
Rick looked over at Stella sitting quietly watching the byplay. The firelight spun the escaping tendrils of her long blonde hair into golden streams and he was once again reminded of their childhood games when she’d been the mermaid singing his ship onto the rocks. How many times had he snorkelled over reefs with her, her long blonde hair flowing behind her just like the mermaids from ancient mythology?
‘So,’ he said when the silence had stretched enough. ‘Did you get it?’
Stella frowned at him. ‘Get what?’
‘Your half.’
‘My half of what?’
Rick grinned. ‘The map?’
Stella shook her head. ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ she asked.
Rick’s eyebrows drew together in a frown to match hers as he placed his half-empty glass on the coffee table. ‘You should have received it early last week. I posted it ages ago.’
Diana rolled her eyes. ‘She probably has. She’s just not been responding to any correspondence.’
Stella blushed at her friend’s astuteness as Diana made her way to the hall stand. Unopened mail oozed all over the edges of the sturdy eighteenth-century oak and Stella felt her cheeks grow warmer. She’d been avoiding any attempt at communication with the outside world—particularly from her editor. She didn’t open her mail unless it had a window. She screened all her calls. She didn’t go to her inbox.
Diana quickly riffled through the mound of mail, letters and other miscellaneous items that had made it through Stella’s front door, some of it spilling haphazardly to the floor. She pulled out a large flat yellow envelope with enough stamps to start a collection.
‘This it?’ she asked holding it up.
Rick nodded. ‘Arrr,’ he said in his best pirate accent. ‘That be it.’
It was Stella’s turn to roll her eyes. Rick had perfected the pirate vernacular as a child, lending an authenticity to their imaginary games.
Diana laughed as she rejoined them, thrusting the envelope at Stella. ‘Ooh, you speak pirate?’
Rick grinned. ‘Aye, my lovely.’
‘Forget it,’ Stella murmured absently as she turned the envelope over and over in her hands. There was a variety of colourful postal stamps and airmail stickers adorning the front. ‘Diana’s a Jack Sparrow fan. You’re wasting your time.’
Rick look affronted. ‘Are you saying I’m not Captain Jack material?’
It was on the tip of Stella’s tongue to say that he was a thousand times sexier than the iconic film character. He was broader and taller with better oral hygiene and more scruples.
‘Hmm, I don’t know,’ Diana mused. ‘I’m sure a little more scruffed up...’
But Stella wasn’t listening. Her father’s distinctive handwriting had drawn her gaze and she touched the letters with great reverence as if they could somehow bring him back.
Rick glanced at Diana as Stella’s continuing silence fell loudly around them. She shrugged at him hopelessly and he could tell that Stella’s grief touched her too.
‘Where did you get this?’ Stella asked.
‘I finally got around to cleaning out Nathan’s desk. It was in a drawer. There was one for me as well.’
Stella nodded absently at his response. It was strange receiving something from her father six months after his death. Like a hand extending from the grave.
‘Aren’t you going to open it?’ he asked quietly.
Stella looked up at him through the blonde stripes of her half-up-half-down fringe. ‘Do I want to?’
He grinned and nodded. ‘If it’s what I think it is you do. You really do.’
Stella doubted it but she turned the envelope over and neatly sliced open the back. A sheath of loose papers lay within and she pulled them out after another encouraging nod from Rick. A brief note from her father was paper-clipped to the front.
Stel,
