A Story of Now (38 page)

Mia grins. “You hate it when people say that.”

“Yeah, but it must be true. Sometimes.”

They’re still sitting there, enjoying this tender, careful peace they’ve found with each other again, when the others arrive. They noisily join them on the rocks, full of their morning’s trip to the show.

Nina tells them about their day, about the jellies and honeys and relishes they bought and about some crazy beekeeper they met. Claire covers herself in sunscreen and then moves over into the sun to get warm. When she’s hot enough, she slides off the rocks and enjoys the rush of cool water over her skin.

The others soon follow, and Robbie and Pete swim out into the sun and carry out an encore performance of their ridiculous synchronised swimming routine.

And in the midst of the cheers and laughter and applause, Claire looks over at Mia. And Mia’s already looking at her. They share a private smile, and a sharp sense of relief washes over her. Whatever has happened, they are back in some form. She feels as though she can breathe again.

Everything will be okay
, Claire tells herself as she swims slowly out into deeper water. She will be okay. Mia will be okay. And, whatever happens, she and Mia will be okay again too.

CHAPTER 47

“So, where to, Claire?” Pete stands on the edge of the rocks and runs his hands back and forth through his wet hair. “Pick a city.”

Claire spreads her towel across the rock and lies down on it. “Paris, definitely. A week in Paris. No, two weeks,” she corrects herself, already dreaming of that holiday she’ll probably never get around to taking this summer.

“Haven’t you already been there?” Mia asks.

“Yeah, but with my parents when I was eleven. It wasn’t exactly the trip dreams are made of. My mother planned every single second of every single day, and we weren’t allowed to do anything else. My brother refused to eat any French food, so they had to keep taking him to McDonald’s. Versailles was half closed for restoration work, and Mum made us do the Louvre in one hour so she could go shopping after.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a regular, old, family-hell holiday.” Pete laughs. “Only in Paris.”

Claire watches him scoop up a handful of small rocks at the water’s edge. “What about you? Where would you go?”

“New Zealand, for sure.” He tosses a rock and watches it skip once or twice across the surface of the lake before it sinks into the water. “Definitely New Zealand. I’ll be snowboarding every single snow-covered incline I can find.”

“I’ll be in Paris with Claire.” Eli sighs as he flops onto a rock and uses Robbie’s leg as his pillow. “Or maybe Berlin. What about you, Mia? Fantasy destination?”

She yawns into her hand. “Reykjavik.”

Nina screws up her face. “Where the hell is Rakyar-what?”

Claire smiles into her towel, glad that Nina asked before she had to.

“Iceland.”

“And where’s that?” Nina asks.

Robbie pokes Mia in the leg before she can answer. “You are such a weirdo. Why can’t you go somewhere normal, like Disney World, or Hawaii? The only thing I know about Iceland is that crazy singer who was in that super depressing movie.”

“That’s one more thing than I know,” Claire mutters as she pulls her wet hair from her face and ties it back.

Mia wraps her towel around her shoulders. “I just want to see that crazy-beautiful landscape. Volcanoes, glaciers, jet black rocks. And I want to see people who believe in elves and eat pickled sheep testicles and who have no last names.”

Claire shakes her head and smiles into her towel. Mia is such a geek.

“And these things are actual cultural drawcards for you?” Robbie asks slowly.

“Yup,” Mia tells him cheerfully. “And if I can’t go there, I’m going to Barcelona.”

“Oh, maybe I’m dumping you now, Claire, and going with Mia,” Eli says.

Claire shrugs. “Whatever, Eli. I didn’t say you could come anyway.”

He laughs.

Mia sighs. “Really, I’d go just about anywhere, though, if you gave me a ticket. I haven’t really been anywhere outside Australia except London to visit Dad’s relatives.”

Robbie stretches his arms above his head. “Well, I know it’s a total cliché, but I still haven’t been to New York. So that’s where I’d go. And just so you know, I’m probably never coming back.”

“Oh well, thanks.” Eli reaches up and swats at his face.

“What are you getting huffy about?” Robbie laughs and leans down and kisses him. “You just ran away with my best friend to Barcelona. What do you care?”

“I really want to go to Perth,” Nina suddenly offers.

“What?” Claire lifts her head from her arms and stares at Nina. “You can go anywhere in the world in this game and you choose Perth? You don’t even want to leave Australia?”

Nina shrugs. “I’ve never been there.”

Pete frowns. “But it’s like not going anywhere.”

“Um, it’s further than New Zealand,” Nina tells him. “And you want to go there.”

“Not much further.”

“It totally is.”

“No, it’s not.”

Eli pipes up. “It’s way further.”

“Oh God.” Claire buries her face in her arms. “Someone Google that, please, just to shut them up.”

Mia laughs and shakes her head. “I don’t need to. It takes six hours to fly to Perth, and it’s four to New Zealand. Have you looked at a map recently, Pete?”

“Yes, I have, thanks, Mia,” Pete sasses. “Anyway, at least New Zealand is a different country.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not going anywhere any time soon,” Nina says and sighs. “I’m too broke.”

“And lazy. It was hard enough to get you out of bed and up here,” Claire teases.

“Shut up.” Nina throws a twig at her. “I was hungover.”

“Doesn’t matter if you’re broke anyway,” Eli reminds her. “It’s a fantasy game, so you can go anywhere you want to go.”

Robbie sits up. “I must interrupt all this game with a very, very important question.”

“What?”

“What are we having for dinner?”

Claire smiles. No matter what time of day it is, it seems as if someone is talking about when they’ll be eating next.

“We have all that stuff we bought at the market today, remember?” Nina tells him.

“Oh yes!” Robbie rubs his hands together, gleeful.

“Um, by the way, is it weird that we are on a holiday and still fantasising about holidays?” Eli muses.

“Yes, actually, it kind of is,” Claire mumbles. She rolls over and stretches her arms above her head.

Robbie laughs and stands. “Yeah, it’s just plain greedy. We’re a bunch of spoilt brats, clearly. I’m going back to the house to forage. I’m hungry.”

Claire sits up slowly. “I’m going back too.” She’s tired even though it’s only late afternoon. All she has done all day is hang out by the lake, but she’s exhausted. She pulls her shirt over her head and yawns again. She is going to have an early night. And she is going to finally sleep, damn it.

Robbie steps over to her and holds out his hands. She lets him pull her up, grateful.

He squeezes her hands and then drops them. “You look weary.”

“Yeah, all this relaxing is clearly draining.” She hangs her towel around her neck and picks up her book.

And suddenly everyone starts to get up and gather their things, ready to go back to the cottage. They traipse up the path in the last of the afternoon sun and plan their meal.

“Hey!” Nina suddenly pipes up in the middle of the debate. “I know where I want to go that’s outside Australia. Dollywood!”

“As in that Dolly Parton theme park?” Robbie asks slowly.

“Yep,” Nina says. “I love her.”

Claire shakes her head and rolls her eyes. Of course Nina, adorable freak, loves Dolly Parton.

“Yeah, well, you’re going there all on your own, babe.” Robbie throws an arm around Nina’s shoulder. “And, Mia, I think Nina might have just pipped you at the post for weirdest holiday destination too.”

CHAPTER 48

The crickets are loud tonight, even louder than Claire’s thoughts.

It’s been a long day at the lake, and craving some peace, she left the others in the house and hopes they’ll stay there. She’s tired of them. Well, she’s not tired of them, exactly, but has suddenly grown weary of the constant talking and laughing and movement of people in and out of rooms. Her nerves are jangled from the endless noise and flux around her. What started out fun has become—just for the moment—too much. It’s also because she hasn’t slept well the last couple of nights between the hangovers and the noisy mornings and this thing with Mia.

And tonight she hoped for some quiet, that maybe everyone will run out of steam, and they can chill. And it was looking that way until Robbie’s friends called. Some people he knows were driving up this way and asked if it was okay if they came by. Of course she’d said yes. And it was today that they called. And of course it was late, and they were stuck and wanted to stay the night in the bunkhouse. Claire said yes to that, too. It would’ve been too Scrooge-y not to. Their new presence has amped the energy in the house again, and she can hear all the talk and laughter growing louder behind her as they drink the fresh round of beer his friends brought.

But Claire can’t face it all right now. She needs a minute on her own. So much has happened in the last couple of days, she needs to take a breath. Here, on the large wooden step, she sits in the darkness and empties her mind for a while. And it feels good to just
be
, to sit peacefully in the hot night air where nothing is moving, not even the branches of the trees.

She gets her little pocket of peacetime—maybe half an hour—before she hears the screen door open and shut behind her. She fights the urge to sigh, not quite ready for the world just yet.

A voice says, “Go on.” Then Claire hears the clatter of Blue’s paws as he takes off past her, out into the night.

She lets out a breath. It is just Mia. She pads across the darkened porch toward her.

“Hey.” Claire smiles at her and turns back to the darkness. Strangely, even though Mia is so much of the reason why Claire feels like this, she is also the only person she can stand to be around right now.

“Can I sit?”

“Of course.” Claire slides over on the porch step. “What’s everybody doing?”

“I have no idea.” Mia settles on the step next to her and stretches out her long legs. “I was doing the dishes. They sure as hell weren’t there.”

Claire smiles and rests her elbow on her knees, her chin on her hand, listening to the crickets go crazy as they have done every single summer night she has ever spent here in their restive presence.

“You want some?” Mia holds out a nearly full beer.

Claire shakes her head. “I need a break.”

“Me too,” Mia agrees. “I don’t even know why I accepted it.” She puts the bottle down on the step near the porch post and leans back on her arms.

They sit quietly side by side, and Claire enjoys this new peace that exists between them after this day of slowly mending whatever it was that was broken between them last night. Everything still feels uncertain, but it also feels slightly less fraught and hurting. And for now, despite the questions that are left unanswered, Claire’s willing to take it because it’s better than the questions left unasked.

Suddenly, a huge thud and a yell rips through the air, followed by peals of laughter inside the house.

“What…was…that?” Claire asks, wary. If those idiots break anything, her mother will kill her.

“I have no idea. But they’re laughing, so I guess it is safe to assume no one needs to go to the hospital.”

“I’m more worried they’ve damaged something, and I am going to get murdered by my parents.” Claire frowns as there is another thump and a cheer. “Do you think I should go check?”

“The responsible part of me wants to say yes you should.” Mia suddenly sits up, shifts forward, and wraps her hands around Claire’s upper arm. She leans in close so their shoulders touch. “But the part of me that doesn’t want you to leave wants to say you shouldn’t.”

Claire turns slowly, chin still in hand, surprised at such candidness. But before she can complete the smile that starts the moment she hears those words, Mia’s mouth is on hers, fixed in a soft, steadfast kiss. And when Mia pulls back, Claire’s eyes widen, but she still delivers on that smile.

Mia gives her a shy answering smile but doesn’t say a word. She leans in and presses her lips to Claire’s again.

Claire automatically lifts her hand and slides it across Mia’s cheek. Her fingers come to gently grip her neck as she returns the kiss. This might be the last thing on earth she expected to happen tonight, but there’s no way she’s going to question it either.

So this is the answer. This is what it feels like when Mia sticks around, Claire realises. She removes her other arm from Mia’s clutch so she can reach around and trace her hand over her shoulder. She edges it under the weight of Mia's thick hair to the warm skin at the base of her neck. She closes her eyes and feels a small thrill as Mia’s hand skims over her bare legs. She gently clutches Claire’s thigh just above the knee, helping to hold them in this awkward sideways pose on the step. It’s a position that neither seems to want to abandon, not enough to break this kiss, even to rearrange into something more comfortable.

There is another loud crash. The sound of hysterical laughter and frantic footsteps bursts out into the night.

Claire pulls away, her brows knitted, as a light goes on in one of the front rooms.

“Do you need to check on that?” Mia’s voice is husky.

Claire shakes her head, takes a deep breath, and gathers her courage. “I should, but…” She takes Mia’s hand and stands.

“Then what?” Mia’s face is a question mark as Claire takes her other hand and pulls until she complies and stands.

“Well, Mia,” Claire whispers because she knows her voice will come out weird if she tries for any louder. “For the first time, you’re not bolting.” She squeezes her fingers, enjoying the embarrassed smile her statement provokes. “So I am just making sure nothing disturbs that.” Claire tips her head in the direction of the house, where they can hear the sound of laughter and now footsteps coming closer. “So come here.” She leads her by the hand up the steps. They tiptoe across the creaking wooden surface, hurry past the lit windows and to the darker side of the porch. When she gets around the corner, in the shadows of the house, she stops, leans against the wall, and tries to put the mess of her thoughts into a semblance of order.