Nobody but Him Read Free Page A

extra for your trouble.’
    Julia grinned wryly, took a deep breath. ‘I don’t think there’s enough money in the world for my troubles.’
    Lizzie grabbed her in a tight hug and planted a loud kiss on each cheek.
    ‘Tomorrow. You. Me. A four-course meal of spag bol, white wine, red wine and chocolate, I promise. But you have to promise to tell me everything. Right now, I need to get back out there.’
    ‘Of course you do. I’m so sorry about tonight.’ Julia managed a sad smile.
    ‘It’s not your fault. Will it make you feel better if we workshop some form of revenge?’ Lizzie winked at her as she pulled the door open.
    Julia smiled. After all these years, her best friend still knew exactly the right thing to say.
    It was icy and blustery on the streets of Middle Point but Julia was glad of the ten-minute walk home in the dark.
    Above her, the streetlights flickered, crackling on and off in electrical spasms, shuddering as the wind swung the power lines back and forth. The throb of the ocean’s waves calmed her, as ever, and she took in the salty trace of the ocean in the air. In the morning she knew she would be able to stare out to sea again, but at this time of night, it was nothing but a mysterious blackness, unlit by street lights or any big city’s luminous haze. She could easily hide in this darkness.
    She needed time to clear her head. After talking with Lizzie, she’d grabbed her bag and coat and left the pub through the back door, navigating her way through the dimly lit car park to the side laneway and then out on to the esplanade. No, it hadn’t been a coward’s retreat, she’d convinced herself, but the safest way out of the place. How could she leave through the dining room and risk locking eyes with Ry? Her convenient escape would guarantee she could slip away unnoticed, at no risk of seeing him ever again. She still had some stubborn pride, after all, which she feared would be sorely tested if she were forced to slink past Ry, his wife and in-laws on the way out. A walk of shame from the sacked maidservant. That’s how city people had viewed her when she was a teenager serving them at the general store. Just another anonymous, interchangeable local girl there for the service of the holidaymakers and the weekenders.
    More things had changed about him than just the width of his shoulders, she decided, as she walked along the empty streets of Middle Point. He’d moved on, created a life. Why wouldn’t he have? And lucky for Julia, she wasn’t the same person she was at eighteen, either. She’d come so far, left so much behind except, apparently, the memories of him that came crowding in now.
    For fifteen years, she’d lived in another city eight hundred kilometres away and had felt safe in the knowledge that she’d never see Ry Blackburn again. She’d planned it well, knowing that after she’d escaped from Middle Point, the chances of turning a street corner in Melbourne and bumping into Ry were somewhere between none and Buckley’s. The odds were apparently not so good now she was back in her hometown.
    What she couldn’t figure out was, what was he doing back here? And why the hell had he bought the Middle Point Pub? While she knew she could get some more answers out of Lizzie, Julia also felt torn. Did she really want to know every gory detail about him, his wife and family and the labrador? Wouldn’t it be easier for both of them if she just did what she had to do and flew back home?
    They were questions she would think about tomorrow. For now, she had to make sure she had a plan in place to avoid him for the rest of her stay. She wasn’t back for long, so how hard could that be? Staying away from the pub? Easy. The town of Port Elliot was only a few kilometres down the road anyway and she could simply drive right there, once she’d borrowed Lizzie’s car, and get everything she needed.
    Julia smiled to herself. Crisis averted. That’s why they pay you the big bucks, Jones.