‘I need you to cleanse whatever it is you cleanse and cut the ties to Jane and Edward.’
Meg didn’t seem particularly fazed to find a distraught woman standing on her doorstep. ‘Are you sure?’ Meg asked, watching Hayley closely.
Hayley managed a nod and tried to ignore the emptiness that opened up at the thought. She followed Meg into her room and sat in the recliner as Meg took her through the relaxation techniques. Without even trying, Hayley stepped back into the past and instantly felt the fear and apprehension as she ran towards Edward at the tree. It was like Groundhog Day—nothing changed, it always ended the same way.
She saw Edward turn to her and tell her to run—that he’d find her.
She heard Meg’s words floating to her like a whisper on the wind. ‘Tell me what you’re feeling.’
‘I’m scared, I know neither of us will escape the men. I know he’s only telling me he’ll find me later to give me some kind of hope…but part of me believes him.’
‘You’ve been waiting for him to find you?’
‘We keep losing each other. We never find each other at the right time. I want him to stop trying to find me. It’s never going to be the right time. We’re not meant to be.’
‘If you’re ready to cut the cord, I want you to picture a rope linking you and Edward. I want you to remember back to the moment by the tree.’
She looked into his eyes, those same eyes she knew so well. Luke’s eyes. She saw love reflected in them, behind the fear and the terror. The kind of love that would follow her for a lifetime.
Hayley felt that familiar pressure against her chest as Meg talked her through visualising the cord being cut and the pain and the sadness being removed. Lightness filled her as the last of the sorrow dissolved, and Hayley found herself standing in front of the tree.
‘Goodbye, Edward,’ she whispered, feeling the burn in her chest followed by the sensation of being dragged backwards into the dark once more. When she opened her eyes this time she found that her cheeks were wet and her chest felt heavy with grief.
‘It’s all right, Hayley, just breathe, long and slow.’
Hayley hardly remembered what Meg had said to her afterwards; she remembered they’d spoken, but she’d been too wrung-out to contribute much. She drove herself home and ran a bath, letting the warm bubbles surround and comfort her. She closed her eyes and wept. She didn’t bother with dinner, she simply climbed into bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. The first in a very long while.
The morning ritual of throwing the donkeys their fresh hay before letting the chooks out of their coop and feeding them was a balm to her bruised soul. There was something soothing in stepping outside in the early morning air to be greeted by her small menagerie.
Her phone rang and she dug into the deep pockets of her cargo pants to locate it, seeing Sophia’s name on the screen.
‘Hales! How are you?’
What was she doing calling so early? Hayley glanced at her watch and realised it was almost ten o’clock. She’d been sidetracked after feeding the animals into watering the fruit trees and had lost track of time.
‘Sophia, hi. I’m great.’
‘Well, be prepared to be a lot more great. I’ve just got off the phone with Theo and they’ve finally got all the funding for Chance is a Fine Thing,’ Sophia said triumphantly. ‘They’ve already got interest from some pretty major Hollywood heavyweights to play Chance, and they’re ready to talk to potential screenwriters. I’m going to push them for a script consultant role for you.’
‘Seriously?’ When they’d sold the option for her first book she’d been super-excited, only to discover that contrary to what she’d always imagined when your book was bought by a movie producer, it didn’t necessarily mean it would ever get made. It had been so long since she’d heard anything about it that she’d pretty much learned to stop thinking about it, and now, out of the blue, it seemed it was going to happen after all.
‘Seriously,’ Sophia assured her. ‘They’re talking cast and location, and all sorts of wonderful things. It’s really happening.’
‘Holy cow.’ Hayley was too shocked to say anything more coherent but she was soon snapped from her stupor when Sophia mentioned Sydney. ‘Sorry, what?’
‘I need you down here for a few days. We have a few things to sort out.’
‘When?’
‘Tomorrow if possible.’
‘I’m not sure I can. I have animals…’
‘I seem to recall you have a certain sexy neighbour who I’m sure would be more than happy to pop over and feed them for a few days.’
There was a conversation she was pretty sure she didn’t want to get into. ‘I’m not sure. I’ll have to find out. I’ll need to get back to you.’
‘This is important, Hales. Do what you have to do, okay?’
‘Okay, I’ll call you back.’ She disconnected the call, her initial excitement dampened slightly by the thought of calling Luke.
She stared at the phone thoughtfully for a minute before scrolling through her contacts. ‘Hey, Jason. It’s me. No, I haven’t changed my mind,’ she said, rolling her eyes, ‘but I do have a favour to ask.’
Sydney had grown in the five months she’d been gone. It had to have. Surely it was never this big or busy before? There seemed to be more traffic, more construction, more noise, more people…more everything. It was a relief to step into the cool and quiet of Sophia’s office.
‘Oh dear, I take it things aren’t going any better with the cowboy then?’ Sophia said as she eyed Hayley from across the desk.
‘Why would you say that?’
‘Honey, not even makeup can hide a broken heart.’
Hayley closed her eyes briefly. Was she really that easy to read?
‘I can’t do anything to fix it,’ Sophia went on gently, ‘but I can help make this movie happen. It may not be a cure for a broken heart, but having your book made into a movie sure as hell must come pretty damn close.’
Hayley gave a chuckle despite feeling miserable. She had a point.
After that the morning flew past, and Hayley was grateful for the distraction. They discussed the details of the contract and went over anything they wanted to add before it was time to bundle into a taxi and drive to a meeting in the city.
The producers who were making the movie were based in the US and Hayley wanted to be sure they’d be true to her vision for her book series. Even though she’d have liked the movie to have kept the book’s Australian roots, the sad reality was that there was a lack of funding to produce quality Australian films. Changing the book’s location and giving her characters American accents would be a shock to the system, but it wouldn’t fundamentally change the storyline. As long as Chance remained a sharp-tongued, arse-kicking woman with a heart of gold and a soft spot for damaged but decent men, she could live with the location change.
After the meeting with the production company, Hayley’s head was swimming with details, but she felt confident they’d make a decent job of it. Bringing her books to life on the big screen was the icing on the cake, but it wasn’t what was most important to her—that was the books themselves.
She knew from personal experience how important books were. As a lonely kid, to her they were more than just an escape, they were a salvation, a way to forget the misery of her real life and live in a world where, even though things got dark, there was always a way out—a happy ending, good triumphing over evil. That was why she wrote her Chance Delaware books. Because she knew that somewhere out there was someone else who needed a heroine—someone to believe in even if it was just for a few short hours.
The view of the sparkling harbour before her and expensive menu should have been a distraction, after all they were celebrating—Sophia had insisted. How many times have I been to this place over the years? she wondered briefly. She’d lost count. She had smiled serenely when Sophia had told her she wanted to bring her here to remind her what she was missing, being out there in the sticks, but the truth was, as beautiful as the harbour and the restaurant and the city itself was, she didn’t miss it—any of it. What she missed was her animals and her little cottage. She missed home.