Instant Family (11 page)

Chloe stood on the front path and waved as Simone backed her
yellow hatchback carefully down the driveway and onto the street.
She turned inside and closed the door. Drop in and see how they're
doing? Impossible. Seb would kill her Alex would... what? She
had no idea how Alex would react. He'd think she was paranoid and
suspicious. A loony.

The big, roomy house was unnaturally quiet after the chaos of the
long summer holidays. She wandered into the kitchen and began
stacking the dishwasher. The boys had rushed off early this morning, eager to get started on the project. Julian's interest had surprised
her. He was usually loath to tackle anything connected with outdoor
work. He did his share of the gardening chores grudgingly and always tried to do a trade-off with Seb when it came to lawn mowing or, worse
still, pool cleaning.

Seb must have told him things in private. Shared secrets the way
they always did. Maybe Simone was right, and the boys craved youthful adult masculine company. Both of them. She didn't know. How
could she? She was a girl. She'd only had a sister. Darling Terry.
They'd been as close as only sisters can be. The dish in her hand
blurred briefly. She shoved it into the rack, wiped her eyes, slammed
the door, and pressed the start button.

Chloe changed into her bikini for the luxury of a peaceful swim
in the deserted pool. She floated on her back, eyes closed, and allowed the heat of the sun to bathe her face and chest. Couldn't stay
too long; the late-summer sun was vicious. She flipped over and
stroked languidly up and down a couple of laps, then hauled herself
out and lay on the banana lounge in the shade of the wide verandah.

Wear something nice? Didn't she always wear decent clothes?
Simone had made her sound like some sort of unwashed hippie in
ill-fitting hand-me-downs. Chloe shifted her damp bottom and
eased the straps of her bikini off her shoulders. She closed her eyes.
A couple of galahs squawked loudly from their perch in next door's
towering gum tree. Cicadas whirred. The sound of a hot, dry Australian summer. She drifted in and out of sleep... such rare peace.
The boys would be hungry after their day as laborers... they were
always hungry... maybe order pizza.

The clang of the side gate accompanied by boisterous voices startled her awake. Seb and Julian were home. Her eyes flicked open.
She was dry-mouthed, heavy-headed, and blinking in the sudden
glare. The shadows had lengthened across the patch of lawn. Chloe
stretched her legs and toes, reached her arms over her head, and
yawned. The bikini top slid precariously, but she grabbed it with one
hand and retied the straps.

"Hi, Chloe." Julian was first to appear around the corner of the
house, wearing a grin from ear to ear.

"How was it?" She sat up straight, swinging her legs to the smooth
wooden planks of the verandah, moistening her sleep-dry lips with
her tongue.

"Fine. We're on our way to the shops."

"Why? I thought we'd order pizza." She yawned again, still
muzzy-headed from daytime sleep in the heat.

"Alex is doing a barbie for dinner, so we came home to get changed
and pick you up." He didn't stop to discuss it, just kept walking toward
the sliding door to the house.

"A barbie?" She stood up to follow him and ask for details, but
Seb and Alex appeared as Julian bounced up the verandah steps and
disappeared inside.

"Hi," said Seb, eyes averted. He followed Julian swiftly, leaving
Chloe with a smiling Alex unashamedly taking in generous eyefuls
of her bikini-clad body.

"Hello." He strolled closer and leaned against one of the verandah posts. His gaze traveled leisurely up from pink-painted toenails
to arrive finally at her hot face. "We finished the awning, so I thought
that, seeing as we were all starving, we could christen it with a barbecue."

Chloe gulped. She groped for her towel and dragged it hastily over
her shoulders, watching him watch her. He had on leather sandals,
baggy khaki shorts, and a navy T-shirt that displayed tanned, muscular legs and arms. He was also wearing the smile that created havoc
with her innards. Her right knee began trembling, so she shifted her
weight onto that leg in case he saw.

The weakness of her body infuriated her. It wasn't fair. This man
knew she wanted to keep the relationship with Seb on a certain level,
and here he was, inviting them for a barbecue. Inviting her when she'd
told him how she felt. How she ought to feel. The extreme physical
reaction to him was not part of the plan-the incapacitation of her
limbs, the raging heat of her blood, the soaring, crashing tumble of
her heart. Did he realize? If he did notice, he'd probably exploit it.

He said cheerfully, "Julian said you were here by yourself, so
would you like to join us?"

"Join you? I haven't said they could go yet." Didn't he get it?
Even after the conversation last night?

Alex drew in air and firmed his mouth while he considered his reply. "Chloe, it's just a barbecue. They worked hard, and I'd like to
thank them by feeding them. We all have to eat," he added.

"You should have asked me first before you suggested it." How
surly she sounded. Dragon lady.

He pushed away from the post. "Maybe I should have. I'm sorry.
But for heaven's sake." He raised one arm and let it fall. "Aren't they
allowed to have some fun?"

Chloe stared at him in shock as his offhand remark hit home. She
bit her lip and dropped her gaze to her feet. The anger died, extinguished in an instant by guilt. Her mouth opened and closed, but no
words came out. Instead, her lips trembled, and she had the most
horrible feeling she was about to cry. Why, she had no idea, but his
words had cut the ground from beneath her feet.

She clutched the towel around her upper body as a kind of armor
against his prying eyes and his unfairly harsh, penetrating remark.
"Of course they're allowed to have fun. You make me sound as
though I lock them up and don't let them out. I do want them to have
fun. They do. Far more than me. The house is always full of their
friends." Her voice nearly broke on the last words. She summoned
enough strength to finish. "I just want to protect them, that's all. I
don't want them to be hurt. But look what happened-Seb..."

Alex took the two steps in one stride but at the last second
stopped short of touching her. He gazed down at the distraught face
so close to tears and so deeply worried, and he longed to wrap her in
his arms and hold her tightly, protect her. Standing there trembling
in her hot-pink bikini, clutching that towel over her beautiful body,
she was sexy and desirable but so overwhelmingly vulnerable, he
couldn't possibly act on any baser instincts.

What on earth was she so terrified of? That he was a child abuser?
A slave trader? Surely not. He was a father himself; the idea of harming a child was abhorrent.

"I'd never hurt them," he whispered through a throat choked
tightly shut.

Chloe raised her head and looked into his eyes. Her expression
softened. The eyes blurred by unshed tears seemed larger, more
luminous. Lovely beyond belief.

"I'm sorry." She spoke so softly, he barely heard her. "I know you
wouldn't. I think you're a good man."

Never in his life had he wanted to hold a woman more. Never had
he wanted to kiss a mouth more. But he wouldn't. Couldn't. Not when
she was so fragile, so confused.

Instead, he lifted a strand of damp hair and gently eased it from her cheek. She didn't shrink from his touch. Her lips trembled
slightly; the depth of her eyes was hypnotic. Her warm, tanned skin
exuded an odor faintly reminiscent of coconut oil and chlorine. A
summer smell. Bikinis and sexy bodies. Boys and girls flirting and
making out. Too tempting. But off-limits. Chloe wasn't the girl for a
sexy summer fling. Chloe was a woman who deserved forever. And
he'd already done forever.

He swallowed, then smiled into those eyes with what he hoped
was a friendly, nonthreatening grin. "Go and change. Come with us.
I do a great barbecue."

She nodded once and slipped away from the fingers he hadn't realized were still resting gently against her cheek. When she moved,
the space she left was vast.

Just a barbecue. That's all. Just a barbecue. Chloe stepped into
the shower with the mantra spinning in her head. The boys deserved
a small treat at the end of the school holidays. Julian did, anyway.
They didn't socialize as a family much. None of them went away
from home very often. There was the odd school camp excursion.
They didn't go on family holidays. Couldn't afford to. Sometimes
someone would be invited down to the coast with a friend or for the
occasional sleepover. Katy stayed with Simone now and again. Mostly
the friends came here.

The family had been the focus for all of them. They preferred to
stay together. Perhaps it was a residual fear that if they split up, they
might never see each other again. Chloe had voiced that fear once in
a therapy session, and Ruth had replied that it was a perfectly natural reaction and would fade with time. Only if they became obsessive about staying together might problems arise.

Was she obsessive? Is that what was happening now? To her? Alex
obviously thought so. And Simone, in a loving way. Although it was
difficult to tell with Simone. She wanted Chloe to have a boyfriend,
but she wouldn't want her to walk away from the children. Simone
couldn't see the inherent contradiction in her scenario. What twentysomething young man would take on a girl with three children? He'd
want her to be free to go out spontaneously at night, stay out late, go
away for the occasional weekend. All the things she'd done as a student. Hopeless now.

Chloe turned off the taps with a vicious twist. Yep, this would be
just another barbecue with a well-meaning friend. Might even be fun,
and at least they wouldn't have to worry about what to have for dinner.

Alex sprawled on the banana lounge Chloe had been using, while
he waited for the crew to assemble. He folded his arms behind his
head and enjoyed the rest after a day of hard labor. The sparkling
blue water of that pool looked inviting. Very tempting to strip and
jump in. Just imagine what Chloe would do if she found him swimming naked in her pool. Attack him with that straw broom propped
against the wall, probably. He chuckled. She was so sweet. Trying
so hard to be a good mother to them all. And succeeding.

Those two boys were amazingly identical. Seb had a slightly
larger frame and more muscles from his sporting activities, but their
voices, expressions, and faces were so similar as to be indistinguishable. Great senses of humor. Especially Julian with his dry wit and
knack for impersonations and accents.

The inclusion of Julian in the project had been a mystery, but
Alex figured it was curiosity rather than a desire to get his hands
dirty that had lured him away from his more cerebral pursuits. Like
Seb, Julian hadn't shirked his jobs. The whole activity had been fun
and taken half the time it would have on his own. In fact, unbeknownst to Chloe, they'd finished just after lunch and spent the bulk
of the afternoon listening to music and talking under the new
awning. A rare afternoon of relaxation for him. He'd even turned his
answering machine on and his cell phone off.

A barbecue seemed a natural conclusion to a pleasant day. And
the boys thought it natural to include Chloe. Katy, whom he was
yet to meet, was sleeping over at the grandma's, apparently, or she
would have come along too. How many fourteen-year-olds automatically included their eleven-year-old sisters in social get-togethers?
Extraordinary how comfortable he felt with them, when children
weren't his thing at all.

The sliding door scraped. Alex sat up as the boys reappeared.
They'd changed their shirts in his honor. He grinned.

"Pool looks good."

"Come 'round for a swim if you'd like," offered Seb. "Everyone
else does."

"Thanks. Might take you up on that one day. Have to ask Chloe,
though"

"She doesn't mind our other mates coming 'round," said Julian.

"I'm not really your mate, though." Alex pointed at Seb, whose
expression had sagged with disappointment. "I'm his jailer."

"What does that make me?" cried Julian over Seb's crow of relieved laughter.

"The condemned man's visitor," said Alex.

Chloe stepped onto the verandah amid the laughter. She'd
changed into a short white skirt and a blue tank top that showed off
the honey gold of her skin. Did she realize how attractive she was?
Alex doubted it very much. She didn't spare much thought for herself, or if she did, it was only in relation to the kids.

"Ready?"

"Did you check the windows?" she asked the boys.

"Yes." Seb sighed ostentatiously and glanced at Julian.

Julian explained to Alex, "When we all go out, we each have a
job. Ours is closing all the windows. Katy makes sure the cat is out
and the cat flap is locked, or at least she did until the cat ran away."

"It's dead," put in Seb.

"She might not be," said Chloe. "Simba disappeared," she added,
sending Alex a quick, meaningful glance.

"Cats sometimes come back after being away for months," he
offered, hoping he'd interpreted her look correctly.

He must have, because she said, "That's right."

"I bet it's been run over," said Seb. "It's been gone a month already."

"Don't you dare say that to Katy anymore." Chloe cut the obviously well-worn argument short by looking at Alex. "Shall we take
our car?"

"No need. I can drive you home afterward."

"We can walk home," said Seb. "It's not far." He jumped off the
verandah and headed for the gate. Julian sprinted after him and jostled his way past to be first to the car.

"They're good kids," Alex said softly as he followed beside Chloe.
"You've done well."

"Hardly." But he could tell she was pleased, because the edge had
left her voice, to be replaced by a dry skepticism.