Damien said. ‘The truth is, after what you told me I didn’t want to get your hopes up. That afternoon at the bar just before I proposed to Chelsea—’
Caleb held up a hand to stop his friend from saying any more. He remembered full well what he’d admitted to Damien in a unseemly fit of empathy brought on by a mix of hay fever medication, a week of late nights covering for his love-struck business partner, and a rearing of the ugly head of some random lone romantic gene life hadn’t yet managed to quash.
He hadn’t thought it wise to tell his best friend that he and the guy’s sister had done the horizontal tango in a canoe in the University of Melbourne boat shed the day before she’d fled the country. But he had admitted that he’d had feelings for her a long, long time ago.
In case Caleb was feeling particularly forgetful Damien added, ‘If not for my screwball parents setting such a bad example of what a real relationship should be like you and I could be related.’
Caleb’s hand moved close enough to Damien’s mouth he had to lean back away from it. ‘Thanks for the recap.’
Damien grinned. ‘Any time. So how did the big reunion go? Did violins play, hearts dance, angels weep?’
‘It was peachy. Not exactly as exciting as root canal, but more fun than test cricket.’
Damien’s eyes narrowed. ‘Like that, is it?’
Caleb smiled; no teeth, no humour.
‘I go on my honeymoon in three days’ time. Between now and then I’m going to need you around and I’m going to want her around. So promise me you’ll play nice.’
Caleb took a stuffed mushroom from a passing waiter and said nothing.
‘It’s taken some kind of convincing to make my new bride believe not all families are as screwed up as hers. I don’t need you two going at each other as you always did and spoiling the illusion for me, all right?’
Instead of dignifying Damien’s comments with a response Caleb stared at a point in the middle of his forehead, turned up the volume of his voice and asked, ‘Are you wearing make-up?’
Damien’s chin dropped and his eyebrows disappeared under his dark fringe. ‘Are you kidding me?’
At her husband’s raised voice Chelsea stopped talking and turned to join their little gathering. Kensey formed the last edge of the circle. And both women turned to look hard at Damien.
Caleb popped the mushroom in his mouth, grinned at his friend and walked away. Out of the marquee and towards the house.
‘Play nice!’ Damien called out from behind him. ‘For my sake, play nice.’
Caleb gave a small wave over his shoulder and made no promises.
Caleb rounded the corner of the Halliburtons’ large foyer and found Ava sitting on the winding staircase, her legs drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, her ankles turned so that the toes of her silver Mary-Janes kissed.
Even though she had an empty stubby of beer dangling from one hand she couldn’t have looked more like a little kid dressed up in her elder’s finery if she’d tried.
When she saw him there she smiled.
‘Hi,’ she said, tilting the beer his way.
‘Hi,’ he said, pulling up short and tucking his hands into his trouser pockets.
Her smile, if anything, widened. And if she was any other woman, he would have thought by the coquettish look in her eyes the bottle in her hand swinging back and forth meant she was contemplating replacing one vice for another.
‘We have to stop meeting like this,’ she said.
‘Ten years and not a word. Now twice in ten minutes. If I didn’t know better, Ms Halliburton, I would think you were following me.’
‘Hey, I was here first.’
‘So you were.’
He smiled. She smiled some more. It was all far too civilised. It couldn’t last.
‘Any particular reason you’ve chosen to snub the festivities?’ he asked.
Her soft mouth slowly grew wider and wider until her face was all about killer cheekbones and eye sparkles, and Caleb decided it best not to say anything remotely nice or amusing in the hopes she’d save that debilitating smile of hers for someone else.
‘I’m hiding,’ she said.
‘From whom?’
‘Family, basically.’
‘Right. So have you caught up with your father yet?’
She bit her lip and looked straight through him for several seconds before blurting out, ‘Aunt Gladys. I’m mainly hiding from Aunt Gladys. She’s cornered me three times already with the aim of setting me up with her nephew Jonah. The fact that Jonah is also my cousin seems to have escaped her.’
‘That’s a tad alarming, even for Aunt Gladys.’
‘I’ll say. I figure if I stay out of sight she’ll find some other poor sap to coerce.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
Caleb wondered why she hadn’t just told Aunt Gladys she was with someone. The image of the lanky grey-bearded professor, who no doubt thanked his lucky stars daily for whichever man in her past had sent her into the arms of someone of his ilk, popped unwittingly into his mind. He mentally stuck out his foot and smiled inwardly as the figure tripped over his large shoes and fell face flat on the floor.
After that diverting little thought he figured now seemed as good a time as any to find out what the situation was.
‘You didn’t think to bring a date along to ward off randy family members?’ he asked. ‘Just in case I run into Aunt Gladys I’d love to be fully informed so that I can help you out any way I can.’
Ava blinked and her eyes suddenly seemed darker. ‘I only arrived this morning. Not much time to rustle up a date. There was a guy washing windows at an intersection on the way from the airport. If only I’d been more on the ball.’
‘If only.’
If only she would give him a straight answer.
Maybe what she needed was a straight question.
‘So where’s this professor of yours Damien told me so little about? Back at the hotel? Past his bedtime? Or did he not want to give up his nightly malted milk by the fire with his cat at his feet to come across the pond?’
‘Yep,’ she said, not looking at him. ‘Something like that.’
She lifted herself off the step and wobbled a tad. Caleb wondered if that had been her first beer.
‘So,’ she said, head down, hair falling in a
