One Baby Step at a Time Read online

  It was bad enough that he was living in the same building, so now she’d have to avoid seeing him out of work hours as well as at work, without him suspecting she might see him as other than a friend.

  A passing fancy, surely?

  But her reactions to him were forgotten as she topped the last dune.

  ‘What is that?’

  The words burst from her lips as she saw the racing-green sports car, hood down, cream leather seats, sleek lines shouting speed and, yes, seduction.

  ‘My car?’ His voice was quiet but she heard the pride in it.

  ‘Well, that will get you noticed in Willowby,’ she muttered, aware of just who would notice it first—the constant stream of beautiful women who used Willowby as a jumping-off place for reef adventures. True, they worked, if you could call hostessing on luxury yachts or on the six-star island resorts working, but since the mining boom had led to the town becoming one of the wealthiest per capita in the country, the place had been swamped by women, and men if she was honest, looking to separate some of that money from those who had it.

  ‘Gets me noticed most places,’ Nick replied, and the smile on his face made her stomach clench.

  That’s why he’d bought it! She knew that much immediately, remembering the email he’d sent her many years ago when he’d returned from his first stint with the army reserve, serving overseas. He’d helped to put back together young men blown apart by bombs in wars that ordinary people didn’t understand.

  He’d come home, he’d said, with one aim—to live for the day. He’d promised himself a beautiful car, the best of clothes and as many beautiful women as cared to play with him. ‘I’m honest with them, Bill,’ he’d said in the email. ‘I tell them all it’s not for ever, that marriage isn’t in my long-term plans. You’d be surprised how many women are happy with that—even agreeing that it’s not for them either. Things are different now.’

  Were they? Bill hadn’t been able to answer that question then and couldn’t now. For herself, she knew she wanted marriage, and children too, but not without love and so far, apart from that one disastrous experience, love hadn’t come along.

  ‘Ride with me,’ Nick suggested. ‘I’ll drop you back at your old bomb after breakfast.’

  ‘Ride in that thing? The town might have grown, Nick, but at heart it’s still the same old Willowby. I only need to be spotted by one of the local gossips and my reputation would be ruined. Did you see the de Groote girl, they’d be saying, running around in a fast car with a fast man? You, of course, will be forgiven. About you they’ll say, hasn’t he done well for himself, that grandson of old Mrs Grant? And such a kind boy, coming home to be with his gran now she’s getting on.’

  Nick laughed and headed for his car.

  ‘Okay, but I won’t offer to race you to the surf club,’ he teased. ‘Too unfair.’

  Bill climbed into her battered old four-wheel drive, the vehicle her father had bought her new when she’d passed her driving test. She patted the dash to reassure the car she wasn’t put off by its shabby appearance, or influenced by the shining beauty of Nick’s vehicle, but it was she who needed reassurance as her folly in suggesting he breakfast with her finally struck home. Even with her sea-drenched curls, and the tatty old T-shirt, she’d always felt quite at home at the surf club, but these days many of the beautiful people breakfasted there as well—

  Whoa! Surely she wasn’t concerned that Nick would compare her to some of the other women and find her wanting?

  Of course she wasn’t!

  Then why was she wondering if there might not be a long shift somewhere in the mess of clothes, books and papers in the back seat of the car—wondering if there might be a slightly melted tube of lip gloss in the glove box?

  Hopeless, that’s what she was.

  * * *

  He’d selected a table that looked out from a covered deck over the town’s main beach and the placid tropical waters. Bill slipped into a chair beside him, so she, too, could look out to sea. Far out on the horizon they could see the shapes of the islands that dotted the coastline—tourist havens on Australia’s biggest natural wonder, the Great Barrier Reef.

  ‘I’ve ordered the big breakfast for both of us,’ Nick informed her. ‘Anything you don’t want, I’ll eat. And coffee—double-shot latte still your drug of choice?’

  ‘It is, and thanks,’ Bill replied, telling herself at the same time that a nice normal breakfast with Nick should banish all the silly stuff that had been going on in her head.

  Especially as Nick was wasting no time checking out the talent, with his eyes on a group of three long-haired blondes, laughing and joking on the other side of the wide deck.

  ‘The town’s scenery’s improved,’ he joked.

  ‘It’s the money that’s being splashed around,’ Bill reminded him, deciding to take his comment seriously. ‘Money attracts money but it also attracts the kind of people who like to have it—like to spend it. The problem is that while the miners and the people who work in mining support services are all earning big money, the price of housing goes up, rents go up, and the ordinary people of the town, especially those who don’t own their own houses, are stuck with costs they can’t afford.’

  Nick smiled.

  ‘Still a worry-wart,’ he teased.

  ‘Well, someone has to worry about it. Nurses at the hospital don’t get paid more than their counterparts in other places in the state, yet accommodation costs in town are enormous. Fortunately the hospital has realised it has a problem and has built some small rental apartments in the grounds, but you spread that problem out across the town—the check-out staff at supermarkets, the workers in government offices, the council truck drivers—all the locals suffer.’

  She stopped, partly because she was aware she’d mounted her soap-box and really shouldn’t be boring Nick with the problem but also because the blondes appeared to have noticed him—new talent in town?—and were sending welcoming smiles his way.

  ‘Maybe they saw the car when you drove in,’ Bill muttered.

  ‘Ouch! And anyway the car park’s out the back. No, it’s my good looks that have got their attention—see, one of them is coming over.’

  One of them was coming over. The leggiest one, with the longest, shiniest, blondest, dead-straight hair!

  ‘Aren’t you Nick Grant?’ she asked, and as Nick nodded, she held out her hand.

  ‘I told the girls it was you. You used to go out with Serena Snow, didn’t you?’

  Again Nick had to agree, and the leggy blonde introduced herself.

  ‘I’m Amy Wentworth. I met you a couple of times at parties back then. What are you doing up in this neck of the woods? Holidaying? Off to the reef for a few days’ R and R?’

  So far she’d totally ignored Bill—not that it mattered, Bill told herself.

  She studied the woman while Nick explained he was working here, living in the new apartment building at the marina but with no elaboration on why. Amy raised her eyebrows.

  ‘Can’t imagine you in a hick town like this. Oh, I know there’s a lot of money around, but what do you do when you’re not working?’

  Nick grinned at her.

  ‘I’ll be doing pretty much what I did when I wasn’t working in Sydney.’

  Amy drifted away but Bill wasn’t going to let him get away with that tantalising reply.

  ‘Which was?’ she asked.

  ‘What which was?’

  ‘The “pretty much what you did in Sydney” bit of that conversation.’

  ‘Ah, but I told you years ago,’ he reminded her. ‘I had a good time and I intend to do just that up here. You don’t need nightclubs and friends with yachts on the harbour to have a good time.’

  ‘We’ve got a nightclub and a two of my brothers have yachts, or big motor launches,’ Bil
l said defensively, and Nick laughed.

  ‘Exactly, although I think the nightclub crowd are a bit young for me, but you can have a good time wherever you are. In fact, I’m off for three days next week and think I might pop across to one of the island resorts—do a bit of diving and fishing and...’

  ‘Meeting beautiful women,’ Bill finished for him.

  Again Nick smiled, although this time it was a little forced because in the back of his mind he’d had another reason for returning to Willowby, one that was becoming important to him.

  ‘That too, of course,’ he answered glibly. ‘Want to come?’

  CHAPTER THREE

  SHE DIDN’T REPLY, studying him intently for a moment instead, and he knew that look. Undoubtedly she’d picked up something from his tone.

  ‘Did it hurt you?’ she asked.

  Yep, he’d been right about the look and although he knew full well what she meant by the question, he wasn’t going to cede ground to her by admitting it.

  ‘Did what hurt me?’

  ‘You know full well what I mean,’ she said crossly. ‘Serena saying no to your proposal.’

  His turn to study her. The problem with friendship—a strong and enduring friendship like the one they shared—was that you couldn’t lie to the other party. Oh, you could fudge around a bit and dodge answering, but you couldn’t right out lie.

  He turned his gaze from Bill’s too-perceptive eyes and looked out over the beach and island-strewn sea.

  The truth!

  ‘More than I could have imagined,’ he admitted, and turned back so, now it was out, he could meet the gold-brown eyes fastened so steadfastly on his face. ‘I don’t think it was Serena’s rejection so much. I liked her well enough. For all her self-focus she was fun to be with and happy that we more or less lived separate lives—both of us working long hours at different times—so I can’t see why it wouldn’t have worked.’

  Bill’s small, rather shocked ‘Oh’ broke into his thoughts but now he’d started he wanted to finish what he’d been saying.

  ‘You know how I feel about the “l” word, Bill, so I can’t say I loved her, but what had...not excited but certainly intrigued me was the idea of having a family—a wife and child—people who belonged, not to me but with me, if you know what I mean.’

  The disbelief on Bill’s face was so easy to read he had to laugh.

  ‘Yes, yes, I know I said it would never happen, but finding out Serena was pregnant, well, it kind of changed something inside me, as if a wire that had been shorted out was suddenly reconnected and family stopped being in front of going down mines, abduction by aliens and the bogeyman in my fears.’

  He paused, marshalling his thoughts.

  ‘In part, it’s why I came home—came back to the only family I’ve ever known: Gran and you de Grootes.’

  ‘Looking for a family of your own?’ Bill asked.

  Again he paused, but honesty won out.

  ‘Yes, I think so—I think it’s what I need, Bill. What I really want.’

  ‘Oh, Nick,’ Bill said softly, and she covered his hand with hers as she had so often in the past. Though he’d reciprocated often enough, when some fool of a youth had hurt her in some way or when her pet hamster had died.

  The strange thing was that this time it felt different. Nice, but different.

  ‘I also need to sleep,’ he said, regaining control over some erratic emotions and reclaiming his hand at the same time. ‘Then this afternoon I must go over and see Gran. You want to come?’

  Fool! Wasn’t he going for distance here until he’d sorted out his reactions to his old friend?

  ‘No, I saw her yesterday—well, the day before now—although,’ Bill said firmly, ‘that brings me to another issue. I had an email from you only last week—you answered the one I sent to say she was looking a whole lot better—and there wasn’t a word about coming here to work. And if you were talking to Bob and pinching the best apartment in his building then you must have been fairly certain then.’

  Nick laughed again—the disjointed sentence was sheer Bill, words tumbling over each other to get said, especially when she was angry with him.

  ‘One,’ he said, holding up his hand and pointing to his first finger, ‘I wanted to surprise Gran and if I told you...’

  He let the sentence hang but had the satisfaction of seeing a faint blush colour her cheeks. As honest as the day was long, Bill would be the first to admit she found it almost impossible to keep a secret.

  ‘And two...’ he pointed to his next finger ‘...I wasn’t sure you were even here. In that email you’d said you had time off and were going to Townsville to talk to someone about some course.’

  She nodded.

  ‘The mine rescue people, about a new course. It was to be this week and next, but was cancelled. Pity really because it was going to be on flooded underground rescues and I haven’t done that yet.’

  ‘Mine rescue—flooded underground mines?’ He could hear his voice rising but couldn’t stop it. ‘What do you mean, you haven’t done that yet? What on earth are you doing, getting involved with mine rescue, and what are your brothers doing, letting you do it?’

  Her laugh made the sun seem brighter.

  ‘Oh, Nick, you sound just like Bob, but Danny and Pete are already in the elite mine rescue squad and they’ve encouraged me to get involved. I’m not up to their standard yet—not flying off to foreign parts to help out—but I can hold my own as part of the local team when the experts are away, especially with my nursing and paramedic experience.’

  Nick didn’t know why he was surprised, but just the thought of mine rescue made him shudder. Danny, the second of the de Groote boys, had taken him and Bill down a mine when they’d been in their early teens, and though Bill had revelled in the darkness and gloom, he had hated every minute of the musty smell and the idea of being over a mile beneath the mountain.

  Had been afraid every minute of it, to be honest, but he hadn’t mentioned that part to his fearless friend.

  Though Bill was terrified of snakes, so—

  ‘I’m heading home to bed,’ she said, cutting into his thoughts and sounding so casually at ease she obviously wasn’t feeling any of the strangeness he was. ‘I guess I’ll be seeing you around.’

  She stood up, paused, then dropped a light kiss on the top of his head.

  ‘Nice to have you back, curly,’ she added lightly, before weaving her way between the tables and disappearing round the corner of the deck.

  He couldn’t help but turn and watch her go.

  * * *

  Bill pondered Nick’s startling revelation that he’d discovered he wanted a family. Was that why he’d come home? Did he see Willowby as the place to raise this family?

  They were unanswerable questions so she moved on to considering the uneasiness the subject had caused in her insides when it was nothing at all to do with her.

  Although hadn’t that been her dream? The memory of her delight in finding she was pregnant made her stomach tighten.

  Enough!

  No melancholy!

  And anyway, wasn’t there enough to occupy her brain with Nick’s sudden reappearance?

  She drove home slowly and carefully, aware she was tired, but her mind now snagged on the unexpectedness of the situation—on Nick.

  But thinking about it, she could see it was only natural that Nick would want a family for all he’d spent his youth mocking the institution. She’d always known his mockery was to cover the hurt of his own parents’ behaviour, jaunting around the world, crewing on luxury yachts, visiting exotic places, their son left with his grandmother not, as they’d said, so he’d have stability but because it had made it easier for them to continue to enjoy their lifestyle.

  They’d eventually drowned at
sea when their own, much smaller yacht was caught up in a typhoon, but their deaths had had little effect on Nick because Gran had given him more than stability, she’d given him love—unquestioning and all-encompassing love.

  So, while Nick’s admission was surprising, it was her own reaction to it that needed more consideration. As did her reaction to the sight of his bare chest, and the way his muscled thighs had matched her strides on the beach, or the strange feelings seeing him had produced, not in her heart where their friendship lived,but along her nerves and—

  No, she wasn’t going there!

  Surprise—that’s what had caused the weird reactions.

  She stopped at the control panel to the underground parking area to press in the security code then drove in as the big door opened. She parked and made her way to the lift, the exhaustion that followed a busy night on duty fast catching up with her.

  Exiting on the sixth floor, she headed down the corridor to her apartment, an end one with a view out to sea, a really special place to live for all she’d complained about its size. Two floors above her the two penthouses spread across the top level—big four-bedroom homes, each with three bathrooms, wide decks taking in the view out over the Coral Sea, and a smaller deck on the western side, looking back towards the green-clad mountains.

  Bill smiled to herself, pleased that even in choosing accommodation that might only be for a year, Nick was following his avowed intention to have nothing but the best!

  * * *

  It had to be tiredness, Nick decided as he drove home, that had weakened him to the extent he’d admitted his disappointment over Serena and the baby to Bill. Normally he’d have teased her about being nosy, or asked a question about her own love life to divert her attention from the fact he hadn’t answered, but, no, he’d heard himself bleating out his pathetic reaction, even feeling remembered pain for the loss of a dream—a family of his own.

  But he hadn’t lost the dream, he reminded himself. Wasn’t that why he was here? He’d been drawn back by Gran, of course, but also by the feeling that in Willowby he might find the woman who would help the dream come true. A family woman and, yes, his thinking had been that Bill would know someone who’d be just right for him—Bill or someone in her family. They were into family in a big way, the de Grootes.