In Safe Keeping (29 page)

Laila slowed, drank him in, praying the thrill that surged through her body every time she laid eyes on him would never lessen. She hadn’t seen him since the early hours of yesterday morning, though they’d spoken a little on the telephone.

The policewoman had driven her home around dawn, and she hadn’t woken until after one on Sunday afternoon. By that time, there was a message from Evan saying he’d been called over to the Peytons’ place. He wanted to be with her more than anything, but they were mending bridges after some argument. She didn’t ask for details. She didn’t need to know. Then Poole Greenwood had called an urgent meeting last night in view of what had happened.

But now, for the next little while at least, he was all hers.

He mouthed the word ‘hello’, poking fun at her temporary hearing loss.

She gave him a playful punch on the arm. ‘I can hear perfectly well, thank you, apart from some high sounds.’

‘Glad to
hear
it,’ he said with a laugh. ‘I’m sorry. I really can’t help myself.’

She laughed and glanced at his happy profile. Two weeks ago when they’d walked through this park, he’d been frustrated and angry. ‘It’s nice to hear you laugh.’

‘You too.’

They walked along the path to the coffee cart and waited while the barista made them lattes.

‘Congratulations by the way. I’m assuming that’s the class action filed?’

She nodded. ‘I can’t believe it. And we’re already beginning to see some positive things from the military, which is great.’

‘The press were out in force.’

‘I know. Mike tipped them off.’

‘I have a theory,’ he said, giving her the kind of dazzling smile that stole her breath. ‘You broke up with me, because you believed the divorce would be your breakthrough case, right?’

‘Right!’ Laila pulled a face. ‘From now on, I’m leaving the multimillion-dollar cases to you.’

‘Well, I think this class action will be your breakthrough case. It’s your passion, your area of expertise.
This
case will be a boon for your practice.’

‘Well, who knows Mr Barclay? You could be right.’

It was a nice way of looking at it anyway. And he’d alluded to their break-up. Had that been intentional? Was it a way of broaching the subject of where they went from here?

She hoped so.

‘I can’t believe it’s only two weeks since I filed those orders for Scarlett. What will happen with the development now?’

‘That’s one of the things we’ve been in discussion about. I’ll have to make special application to the court to get them lifted.’

Laila sighed. It was all such a mess, and with Scarlett yet to be stabilized, it wasn’t going to end any time soon. ‘I’ve still got her file. To think I asked her to come in today and pick it up.’

‘Don’t worry. We’ll work it out. The main thing is everyone’s safe, and the children are with their father.’

‘How are the family?’

Evan shook his head. ‘They’re devastated. The marriage breakup and blackmail threats were hard enough to cope with, but this? I mean, Scarlett’s a very sick woman, but George Peyton doesn’t take kindly to people hurting his family, and I’m family, according to George. They raised me from the time I was nine, you know?’

Laila blinked. ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘It’s true.’

When the coffees were ready, they carried them over to a wooden picnic bench. The weather had cleared up, just in time for the beginning of the new working week.

‘The truth is, I don’t know who my real father is. He’s listed as ‘unknown’ on my birth certificate. My mother was, well,
promiscuous
is probably a nice way of putting it. I was a neglected child. For all I know, I could have half a dozen half siblings out there. It’s not a background I’m proud of.’

She could see that. Evan Barclay was a proud man, and yet modest at the same time. She imagined him the kind of man who’d keep a small inner circle, and keep them close.

‘I know all about bad backgrounds, Evan. We don’t get to choose our parents.’

He took a sip of coffee. ‘I still don’t like talking about it.’

His words made her heart constrict, and she reached out and covered his hand with hers. ‘You don’t have to.’

‘I want to. There’s a biography coming out about me in the next couple of days, and I have no idea what the author has dug up. I don’t think it’s right for you to learn about me that way.’

‘Okay.’ Laila sipped her coffee and waited. No matter what he revealed, she wouldn’t react too strongly. Evan Barclay wasn’t the kind of man to go looking for sympathy.

His eyes fixed on a point in the distance, like he’d turned inward, like he’d gone back somewhere. ‘There was a bad flood one year, when I was about eight. The army was called in to do the clean-up. My mother met this soldier. He was a really nice guy, well, I thought so, but I was only a kid.’

Even now it hurt, twisted his gut when he remembered back. ‘Mum really liked him, and I thought for a while I was going to get a nice father, but he shot through without a word. Mum went downhill after that, kind of lost it. That’s when I became homeless.’

‘Oh, Evan.’

There was shock and a glimmer of tears. But then she blinked a couple of times and appeared to steel herself, clasping her hands around the recyclable cup.

He took a deep breath. ‘I’m not going to bore you how I got by, suffice to say I made friends with the indigenous kids and played a hell of a lot of football. Then one day, George caught me stealing food from his property. He took a shine to me, took me in, and I guess, in the usual Peyton style, pulled some strings with the relevant department so I could stay on the property with his housekeeper, Marion. I lived there until I was fourteen. I did the school of the air, and I learnt to read. Marion loved books. Through her I developed a love of reading.’

‘Is she still alive?’

‘No, she died a few years ago.’

He paused for a while, and Laila continued to drink her coffee. She’d been so wrong in assuming his polished style came from a privileged background.

‘Anyway, when I was fourteen, George said I could apply for a football scholarship to the boarding school where Duncan went. I knew Duncan from when he’d stayed at the property on holidays. We became good friends, and while I loved the time I spent up there, the isolation was beginning to get to me. I needed more. Anyway, we’ve been best mates ever since. I became like an adopted son to the Peytons, though strictly I was a ward of the state.’

‘What happened to your mother?’ Laila asked. She hadn’t had the best of upbringings herself, but at least she’d had food and a roof over her head.

Evan drew in a deep breath. ‘She died when I was about sixteen. George paid for the funeral.’

Laila gave a sad smile. ‘I think I may have greatly misjudged the Peytons.’

‘I did too. Oh, they’re not perfect by any means, and they’ve done things in the past I wouldn’t have, but they do a lot of good things too, especially for the indigenous people in that area. They’ve built schools, hospitals and the like.’

‘Really?’

Evan nodded. ‘Duncan too.’

He heard his mate’s voice in his head.
You know what she’s like. Everything’s going along fine, and all of a sudden she goes a bit nuts.

He sighed. ‘I think I’ve been a bit rough on Duncan lately.’

‘You couldn’t have known, Evan. Who really knows what goes on in other people’s marriages?’

‘I can’t help feeling I’ve let him down though. Anyway…’

It was time for the hard part. No way of getting around this, he just had to put it out there.

He took the cup from her hand and put it on the table. He was threading his fingers through hers when he noticed her rings were missing.

Was that significant?

He hoped so.

‘I think we’ve got something really good going on, if you take away all the crap of the last two weeks. I told you all this, because I think it’s important for you to understand that the person you’re seeing isn’t
owned
by anyone.’

A deep blush rose in her face and she shifted on the wooden bench seat. ‘I was awful to you the other night. I’m so ashamed…’

‘Don’t be. The Peytons don’t own me Laila, but they did make me who I am.’

To his surprise, Laila gave an adamant shake of her head. ‘No,
you
made you who you are. You were a little boy Evan, stealing food because you were hungry, doing what you needed to — to survive.’

She pulled a hand away and laid it over her chest. ‘That strength, that risk taking. It was already in you.’

Evan’s throat began to close over, and he swallowed hard. This woman talked so much sense, and she understood him more than anyone. Now she knew the truth, he needn’t worry about hiding it anymore. She’d had her own bad start, but she’d been open about it, shared it with him, whereas he’d never been emotionally mature enough to talk about it.

Well from now on, that was going to change.

Their eyes locked, and all of sudden the air became charged with the kind of sexual tension that always happened when they were together.

He looked down at her bare hands again. ‘You’re not wearing your rings today.’

‘No.’ Laila reached up, took hold of his sunglasses and lifted them off his face. She wasn’t sure how easily Evan Barclay spooked when it came to discussing these sorts of things, but when she said what she needed to say, she wanted to look in his eyes.

‘After our fight the other night, I realised I was wasn’t grieving for Will anymore, but mourning the loss of another man.’

She watched his beautiful mouth curve in a smile, but it was the loving glow in his eyes that had her standing up and coming around to his side of the table. ‘I love you Evan. I love you, and more than anything, I want to be with you.’

He stood and folded her in his arms. ‘I love you too, Laila,
so
much.’
The words were whispered right against her ear, like he was making sure she heard. ‘I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up.’

She leaned back, took hold of his tie and pulled his head down until his lips claimed hers in a passionate kiss. He groaned deep in his throat, flicked his tongue across the seam of her lips until she parted them. She linked her arms around his neck, closed her eyes, breathed him in, felt his coat brush her legs as his arms tightened around her.

‘Oh, get a room.’

They pulled apart as two teenage boys rode past on skateboards, grinning.

‘That reminds me,’ Evan said, his lips against her cheek.

‘Hmm.’

‘Are you free tonight?’

Laila pulled back a little and raised her eyebrows. ‘Don’t tell me we’re actually going on a date?’

‘I made a reservation at the Rockpool, if you’d like to have dinner?’

‘I would love too, Mr Barclay.’

‘Oh, and pack an overnight bag.’

She reached up and fiddled with his tie. ‘You want me to stay over?’

He grinned then. ‘Give me some credit. I’m more romantic than that. I’ve booked a suite at the same hotel where the Law Society dinner was held. I think we should start over.’

Happiness bloomed in Laila’s chest, spreading throughout her body until her entire being hummed.

This was big.

No, this was
huge
.

A man like Evan Barclay didn’t make these sorts of gestures unless he was serious about a woman.

‘So, we’re outing ourselves as a couple, making our first public appearance?’

Grey eyes glittered in the sunlight. ‘If that’s okay with you.’

‘On one condition.’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Only one?’

She smiled and pressed her lips to his again. ‘That we make tonight a very early night.’

Thanks for reading
In Safe Keeping
. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage
leechristine.com.au
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You’ve just read a book in my Grace and Poole Lawyer series. The other books in this series are ‘In Safe Hands’ and ‘In Safe Arms’.

If you liked this book, here are my other books:

This book was published by Escape Publishing. If you’d like to sample some more great books from my fellow Escape Artists, please turn the page.

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