‘Did you have a reservation, sir?’ A neatly pressed waiter appeared with a couple of menus.
‘I’m meeting Ms O’Flanagan. She doesn’t seem to be here yet.’
The waiter nodded. ‘Right this way.’ He led Cam to a row of booths along the back wall. ‘Here we are, sir.’
‘No…this…’ His voice disintegrated as familiar blue eyes so like his own looked back at him. Not dulled with drugs and depression and lack of interest as he remembered, but smiling and clear and alive. His heart spun a circle inside his chest, and somewhere deep inside him an ache that had embedded itself there for fourteen years dissolved.
‘Hello, big brother.’
He slid into the booth before his legs crumbled beneath him. ‘Amy.’ His voice barely rose above a whisper. ‘How…?’
‘Didi set it up.’ Amy poured a glass of water from a pitcher, set it in front of him.
His hand shook as he reached for the glass and lifted it to numb lips. He took a long slow sip to steady himself before he spoke. ‘I don’t understand.’ How long had Didi known and kept it a secret from him? ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he muttered, and slid along the seat to crush his sister against him. To inhale fresh citrus shampoo instead of stale booze and dope.
‘Where is Didi?’ he asked finally, still holding Amy, unable to let go.
‘She stayed long enough to make sure I didn’t run out on you.’
‘She was here?’ Cam looked about him, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.
Amy nodded. ‘She’s seen me outside your apartment. She caught up with me the other day and we had a long talk.’ She twined her fingers with his, her eyes glinting in the candlelight. ‘Now you and I are going to talk. Starting with the last time I saw you…’
‘You love her, don’t you.’
Cam’s fingers tightened on his coffee cup. ‘It’s not that simple, Amy.’
‘Yes. It is.’ Amy’s piercing blue gaze met his. ‘You love someone you don’t give up on them. Ever. You never gave up on me when you could have turned your back and walked away from a hopeless case.’
‘This is different.’ He stared into his coffee. ‘Our relationship was only ever temporary.’
‘So she says. You—’
He shook his head. ‘She and her family have issues they need to sort out right now. She needs space.’ But his heart was stirring to life in a way he’d never felt before. Was he ready to lay that heart on the line again?
Didi watched the reunion scene from a discreet distance through the restaurant’s windows. In the dim candlelight Cameron was so focused on his sister, she knew he wouldn’t notice her. But she could watch him for one more moment. A last glimpse through blurry eyes before she tore her gaze away and hurried to the waiting taxi outside.
Three hours later she was standing outside her parents’ Rose Bay mansion with two bulging suitcases. She punched in the security code and the high wrought-iron gates swung open on smooth oiled hinges. The panorama of lawn and paved driveway stretched in front of her like a marathon course.
Head high, Didi. She’d done what she’d set out to do. She was a success. There should be a trumpet fanfare for her return, or at least two people waiting on the steps with open arms.
So why did she feel like a little girl again trying to win her parents’ approval?
The porch light winked on but the house was in darkness as she rolled her suitcases up the drive.
She rang the bell, heard it echo down the hall. A neighbour’s dog barked and the sounds of night stirred in the nearby rose bushes.
Digging out her old key, she fitted it to the lock and let herself in. The door opened with its well-known scrape of wood against wood. She hoped they hadn’t changed the security code as she tapped it in but no ear-splitting noise eventuated.
Familiar scents assaulted her nostrils. Mum’s French perfume and the smell of old carpet. The Ming vase still sat on the antique rosewood table in the hall.
Nothing had changed.
Everything had changed.
She dragged her cases upstairs, hesitated at her parents’ bedroom door. The familiar gold rose-sprigged quilt but the paintwork was new. She wrote a quick note, left it on the bed, then headed to her old room.
Everything was as she’d left it. Pink. It was like stepping back years and that feeling of suffocation with it. No. This time it would be different, she told herself, shaking it away, unzipping her case and dragging out her toiletries.
She was going to work here—in Sydney. The only contact with Cameron Black would be through email when she had pieces to deliver. Apart from that, she would not think about him, ever again.