It wasn’t the same kiss as they’d shared at Ellen Brook years ago. There was nothing questing or careful about it. It was filled with yearning, desperation, confusion, and he had nothing to give. It was a kiss that tried to take.
Remy put her hand on his chest and shoved. Two fingers caught inside the vee of his shirt, touching crisp hair and warm skin over a fast-beating heart, and it sent a zap through her fingers like static off steel.
‘Remy,’ he said on a groan, before he returned to her lips, and the kiss changed. Got tender real fast. She could have coped with his frustration, even anger, because it mirrored how she felt, but tenderness was something else. Tenderness played and plucked on her heart, made her mind and her body dream. It meant she’d start hoping again, and she’d wished her last wish for Seth.
So she kicked him, because her hand on his chest had given up pushing. All it wanted to do was wrap itself in a fistful of his shirt and tug him closer.
From the windowsill her leverage was off. She miscalculated, kicked the concrete before she got to his shin and her howl of pain was loud enough to snare the dogs attention.
‘The least you could do is hop about a bit. I think I broke my bloody toe.’ She rubbed her toe through the cap of her boot.
He let her go.
Her toe was going numb but her lips felt sweet and tingly, kind of like they did when she ate fresh pineapple. She took a tiny taste of her top lip, checking if it really did taste of pineapple. It didn’t. It might have tasted of grapes, though, and sunshine.
She tried to slide away. The problem was, sitting on the windowsill with Seth’s leg between hers made sliding difficult if she didn’t want to look like she was humping his thigh.
Hell and Tommy, did I just think about humping his thigh?
At the edge of her vision Occhy crouched low on his front legs, wagging his tail. Breeze snapped and snarled at him.
‘Tell her she should make love, not war,’ Seth said.
Remy smiled, but only for a second. This was serious. The kiss, the aftermath—something in Seth had softened today, she could feel it. If she could only work out how to get through to him, maybe they’d end up okay. Maybe she could find the way to put the past behind them. If she was brave.
Remy dragged her courage all the way from her throbbing toe. She looked up, met dark eyes staring down and said: ‘We never had any time to get to know each other, Seth. We only had two days. I mean … you never did take me for that cup of coffee. I think if you knew me, you’d know I’m honest. I try to be a good person. A good friend. I don’t lie.’
The warm pressure of his hand on her neck stilled. ‘I don’t think I know how to be friends with you, Rem.’
Slowly, he leaned closer and as gravity opened the vee of his shirt, she could see the springy mat of dark hair on his chest. She wondered how it would feel if she tangled her fingers in it and the part of her thinking about humping and tangling and kissing woke like a slumbering daisy in the morning sun.
‘Remy?’ A voice shouted.
Footsteps pounded the verandah.
Zac Williams burst around the corner, skidding on the concrete. He took one look at Seth and the dog near the gate, dropped the carton of eggs and cast about for something more lethal to use as a weapon. Fleetingly, his eyes settled on the solid handle of an old hoe propped near the shed door.
Seth dropped his hand from Remy’s throat. Both dogs barked. Occhilupo growled.
‘Occhy! Down!’ Seth ordered. Occhy dropped his hindquarters to the concrete and sat there like a lit gunpowder barrel on paws.
‘It’s okay, Zac. Don’t.’ Remy sprang from the window at the same time as Seth stepped lightly back, clearing a space for himself.
‘Thought there was a pack of dogs trying to kill each other up here … and I get round here and this guy’s got his hand ’round your throat,’ Zac said, eyes darting everywhere.
‘On her throat, mate,’ Seth responded. His confident tone didn’t help Zac’s face brighten from thundercloud.
Zac advanced. He looked alert, but not scared. Between the dog and the men, Remy had more testosterone under her verandah than an all-boy dorm.
‘Zac, it’s okay. He’s a—’ friend didn’t quite cut it so she took a slightly hysterical, steadying breath and started again. ‘Seth, this is my neighbour, Zac Williams. Zac, this is Seth Lasrey. He bought Montgomery Wines, remember?’
They were close enough now to shake hands. Seth held his palm out first and Zac hesitated before he shook it. ‘I didn’t realise you two knew each other … like that.’ The hand not shaking Seth’s motioned between Seth and Remy.
‘We don’t! Not like that,’ Remy said. ‘Seth’s here to assess my grapes.’
Zac’s eyebrows quirked. ‘Is that what you call it, hey? Well, sorry to interrupt.’ He glanced over his shoulder, where twelve eggs had smashed themselves on Remy’s concrete. ‘Shit. Sorry about those eggs, Rem. False alarm I guess.’
‘Never mind, mate. It’s good to know Remy has friends who look out for her,’ Seth said.
‘It’s okay,’ Remy said, feeling for Zac. ‘I didn’t hear your ute. I would have come out.’
‘I’m driving Mum’s car. Mine’s getting new tyres.’ He kept a wary eye on Seth, and Occhilupo.
‘I’ve got to go anyway, Rem,’ Seth said. ‘I’m seeing Dave and Nance Hackett at noon.’
‘They grow for Chameleon too,’ Remy said.
Seth nodded in a way that told Remy he already knew. ‘I’ll be in touch. Good to meet you, Zac.’
He called Occhilupo. It took a few seconds, and a sharper, ‘Occhy, get here,’ to break through, but eventually the man and his dog were both in the ute, and gone.
‘So that’s Seth Lasrey, hey?’ Zac said, leaning his backside on the same stone window ledge where Remy had been thinking about humping exactly three minutes ago.
‘The one and the same,’ she said, listening to the sound of Seth’s ute engine grow fainter.
‘You two looked pretty cosy, Rem. You never said you knew him.’
‘I used to work for Lasrey Estate in Margaret River, before I moved here. I had some trouble there and he sacked me. Well, his mother sacked me. It’s a long story, and if I tell you, I’d have to kill you.’
‘Hey! My lips would be sealed.’ He made a zipping motion.
‘You’re a bigger gossip than any of your sisters, Zac Williams, and don’t think I don’t know it.’
‘Harsh, Rem. That’s harsh.’
***
By the time Seth reached the end of Remy’s driveway, he was planning when he might see her again. He slowed, checking for traffic before pulling out to the bitumen, picking up speed.
Occhilupo plunged his head out the side of the ute. Tongue hanging out, mouth open into the wind, rocking and rolling with every bounce of the tyres. He seemed none the worse for wear for his dive off the chain.
Pity he couldn’t keep Occhy with him all the time. Days like this when he was out and about, Occhy could come along. The days when Seth was at the winery, or in back-to-back meetings in the city, Occhy had to stay on a very short chain at the dog-friendly motel. It was the only pet-friendly accommodation close enough to Montgomery to make the travel time feasible.
‘Nothing like what your girlfriend’s got to run around in, hey, buddy?’ Seth said to the big mug head that was so close to his driver’s side window, he could have reached back and given it a pat.
Whoa. There’s an idea. Maybe he could talk Remy into keeping Occhilupo at her place?
He tossed that idea around all the way to his next appointment and when he was almost there, he had the plan together.
Seth used the blue-tooth connection in his car to dial Maggie at Montgomery Wines.
‘Welcome to Montgomery Wines, this is Margaret speaking,’ she said.
‘Maggie. I’m on my way to the Hackett’s. Then I have to go back to Remy Roberts’ place. I’m a couple of hours away if anyone’s looking for me. I’m about to lose the battery on my mobile though. Anything urgent, you can get me at Remy’s.’
‘Okay, Seth. No problem, I’ll pass that message on.’
‘Thanks, Maggie,’ Seth said, and there was a grin on his face as he broke the connection. A plan always made him feel better.
Buzzing down the window, he hung his arm out the opening and let the warm wind buffet his hand. Thinking about the dogs. Thinking about Remy.
He felt good. For the first time in a long time, he felt good.
Then he thought of all the things he had to discuss with his mother, and his mood dimmed.