have been that old.
At a guess, she would say that Seth was around thirty, and his uncle was younger than Seth’s father, so he might have been only fifty or so when Rachel met him.
She tried to imagine Rachel falling for a fifty-year-old man. He’d need to have been a well-preserved and decidedly good-looking fifty-year-old man—but he was sure to be handsome if he was related to Seth.
It was possible, wasn’t it?
Her friend had always been a little unconventional in her tastes, and the more Amy thought about it, the more it started to make sense.
Rachel was less likely to burden an older man with the news that he was about to become a father. She’d confided to Amy that her school-days had been blighted by the fact that her parents were so much older than everyone else’s folks. Kids were cruel and their barbed comments had hurt.
And if Seth’s uncle had fathered Bella, the younger Seth’s apparent lack of grief for Rachel made more sense, too.
Slowly Amy sank back onto the pillow.
Wow!
Her head reeled with the thought that the Seth she knew, the Seth who’d kissed her and sent her to the moon, might not be Bella’s father after all. It was ridiculous, but she loved the possibility that he hadn’t been Rachel’s lover.
But hang on, girl. Don’t jump to too many conclusions.
This could be wishful thinking. If Seth wasn’t Bella’s father, why hadn’t he just come out and said so? Was he trying to protect his uncle? His reputation? Was that why he’d been so negative about Rachel’s book?
Or was her new theory total rubbish?
Amy groaned. She wouldn’t be able to get any of these answers until morning, but the questions were going to keep her awake all night.
Seth woke, as he always did, at dawn and he lay very still, with his eyes closed, listening to the silence of the sleeping house and to the warbling songs of the honeyeaters in the rainforest, signalling the start of a new day.
Out of habit, he reached for the wristwatch on his bedside table and squinted at its dial. Yep. Five-twenty a.m. on the dot.
Normally he would leap out of bed. In summer, he liked to get any heavy work out of the way before the day got too hot. But in deference to his houseguests, he stayed put. They were just across the hall and the slightest sound might disturb them. No point in waking them too early.
It had made sense, he’d thought, to put Amy and Bella together in the room across the hall. If the little girl was scared during the night, Amy would be there for her.
But he couldn’t help fantasising about Amy sleeping in a room on her own…
OK, lamebrain, what could you have done? Snuck into her room? Continued on where the kiss left off? Oh, yeah. Brilliant. Then you‘d really make a dog’s breakfast of this tricky situation.
If only he could stop thinking about her. Memories of their brief kiss had haunted him all night, reappearing and expanding out of all proportion in a string of X-rated dreams.
He wasn’t sure that he could survive too many nights with Amy in his house, sleeping in her flimsy white nightdress just across the hallway. He’d be a pile of cinders before the time was up.
Problem was, the wanting wasn’t only about physical desire.
He’d found himself enjoying simply being with Amy…hanging out…talking with her and listening to the warmth in her voice…watching the changing moods in her lovely brown eyes…admiring the sweet and tender way she cared for Bella.
For years, Seth had avoided this level of interest in any one woman, but Amy Ross had slipped quietly under his radar. She was so easy to be with and there was something delightfully refreshing about her. He liked her and he desired her, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Damn it…He had to stop.
He knew he and Amy had no future. Hadn’t he learned anything from Jennifer?
His gaze flickered again to the nightstand and he saw the fancy wristwatch that had been Jennifer’s last gift, the precious farewell gift she given him before she went back to New York.
She’d been so excited about finding the watch in a jewellery shop in Cairns.
‘It tells two different time zones simultaneously, so you’ll always know what time it is in New York. Isn’t that neat, Seth? You’ll know the right time to call, and you’ll be able to picture what I’m doing. I won’t be so far away.’
‘But it can’t change the facts, Jen,’ he’d warned her. ‘You’ll still be on the other side of the world.’
‘I’ll come back. Soon. I promise.’
With that promise calming his fears, they’d made love for the last time, and if Seth closed his eyes he could still see the morning sunlight rimming Jennifer’s auburn hair with fire…could still see the rainbow flashes from the diamond he’d put on her finger.
He’d let her go home.
To America.
She’d been so sure she would simply wind things up in New York and come hurrying back to marry him.
‘I love you, Seth. I promise, darling. I don’t need the city, when I’m with you.’
I promise…
She’d been sincere at the time—he’d give her that. Jennifer had never dreamed she would find the pull of her hometown impossible to resist. In all innocence, he’d let her go back and, inevitably, she’d been seduced by the exciting bustle and buzz of the Big Apple. She’d found herself clinging once more to the security of familiar faces, to the reassurance of well-loved sights and sounds, to the comfort of crowds.
It had only taken six weeks before she’d come to her senses. She’d cried so hard when she’d telephoned Seth that he’d barely been able to make out a word she was saying, but eventually he’d understood that she wasn’t coming back, and, no, he shouldn’t fly over there to be with her.
It couldn’t work, she told him. Their worlds were too different.
For Seth, the lesson was clear.
Love, alone, was not enough.
The softest breath fanned Seth’s cheek. Startled, he turned to find Bella’s blue eyes half an inch from his.
‘What are you doing here, little one?’
‘Up!’ the little girl demanded, and before he realised quite what was happening she gripped his bed sheets, slung one leg high and hauled herself, like a tiny commando, up into the bed beside him.
‘Should you be here?’ he asked as he flung one hand out to prevent her from tumbling back to the floor. ‘Where’s Amy?’
Bella didn’t
