ME TOO, JAKE THOUGHT, confirming his earlier idea about taking Abby overseas with him. Not that he would mention it to her just yet. It was too soon. Not for him. For her.
‘Would you mind if I asked you something?’ he said.
‘That depends, I guess, on what it is.’
‘Nothing too personal. While I was waiting for you at your place this morning, I saw a big pile of books on your coffee table in the living room. I couldn’t help noticing that they included some of my uncle’s favourite novels, which reminded me that you asked me if he’d left you books in his will. Am I right in presuming he gave you those books?’
‘Actually, no, he didn’t. But he did give me a list of books which he said any self-respecting female should read. I bought them myself from a secondhand book shop.’
‘I see. And have you read them all yet?’
‘I’m on the last one now. Rebecca.’
‘And which ones are your favourites?’
‘Goodness, that’s a hard question. I liked them all. But I guess not equally. I’d already read three of them at school. Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Oh, and I’ve seen about three movie versions of Great Expectations, so I knew what was going to happen, which half spoils a story, doesn’t it? Though I can see now how brilliantly written they all were. Difficult to pick out just one. Hmm... I adored Shōgun. What a fantastic story with a fantastic hero! The Fountainhead was riveting stuff too, though the main characters were a bit OTT, in my opinion.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Jake said. ‘What did you think of To Kill a Mockingbird?’
‘Oh, that was a wonderful story. It made me cry buckets. So did Anna Karenina. That poor sad lady.’
‘So you don’t have an all-time favourite?’
‘Not really. Though it might be Rebecca, as long as it finishes well.’
‘What part are you up to?’
‘She’s about to come down the stairs dressed in that same outfit Rebecca wore, and I just know Max is not going to be very happy.’
Jake had to smile. ‘You can say that again. Actually, you’ve quite a bit more to go. And a few more surprises to come.’
‘Don’t you dare tell me anything!’
‘Obviously you haven’t seen the movie version.’
‘No. I didn’t know there was one.’
‘Yes, it was made in nineteen forty, only two years after the book was published. Alfred Hitchcock directed it. Laurence Olivier played Max and Joan Fontaine was the unnamed heroine. I’ll get a copy for you after you’ve finished the book.’
Her face carried a touching mixture of disbelief and excitement. ‘Would you really?’
‘Of course.’
‘But where would you get a copy from?’
‘You can get just about everything over the internet these days.’
Happiness radiated from her truly lovely green eyes. ‘Would you watch it with me?’
‘It would be my pleasure. It’s a great film. Craig loved it, though not as much as the book.’
‘Your uncle was an incredibly well-read man, wasn’t he?’
‘Yes. And he read books right across the spectrum from literary works to popular fiction. He was the same with music. He absolutely adored the classical composers, but he loved all music, from Country and Western to rock and even rap. There wasn’t a snobbish bone in his body.’
‘You loved him a lot, didn’t you?’
Jake’s heart squeezed tight in his chest. He scooped in a deep breath then let it out slowly. ‘I’m still angry with him for not telling me he was terminally ill.’
Abby nodded. ‘You’re right. He should have told you.’
Jake shrugged, not wanting to spoil their weekend together by talking about sad things. Thinking of Craig, however, had reminded Jake of what his uncle had told him in that last letter, about living life to the full. Suddenly, he didn’t want to wait to take Abby overseas with him. Time to seize the day!
‘Do you have a passport, Abby?’ he asked.
‘What?’
‘A passport. Do you have a passport?’
‘No. Why?’
‘You’re going to need one when we go to Hawaii in January.’
She blinked over at him. ‘Are you serious? You want me to go to Hawaii with you?’
‘Not just Hawaii. I also want to take you to mainland America. California first, and possibly Vegas, then later over to New York. After New York, we’ll go on to Europe, but only after the weather turns kinder. Europe in the winter is not for a girl who’s never been out of Australia.’
‘But...but...don’t you have to be here in Sydney to do your show?’
‘No. I don’t want to do it any more. I’m going to sell it. I have a buyer who’s been after the show for ages. You’re going to love Europe, Abby,’ he swept on, feeling the excitement already building. ‘And Asia. Especially Japan.’
When he glanced over at her, she was shaking her head at him, her expression troubled. ‘Maybe by January you won’t want to take me anywhere.’
Jake could not have been more startled. ‘And why would that be?’
‘You might grow bored with me.’
He smiled over at her. ‘I find that highly unlikely. What’s the matter, Abby? Don’t you want to go?’
‘Yes,’ she said after a heart-stopping space of time. ‘Of course I do. It’s just that...’
‘Just that what?’
‘What if you grow bored with me when we’re overseas? You won’t dump me in some strange city, will you?’
Jake was so shocked he almost ran off the road. As it was, he hit the shoulder, sending gravel spurting out behind them.
‘Hell, Abby, what kind of man do you think I am?’ he threw at her once he’d righted the car. ‘I would never do anything like that. And I won’t grow bored with you. Where on earth is all this talk of boredom coming from?’
‘According to Megan your girlfriends don’t last very long.’
Jake rolled his eyes, inwardly cursing the tabloids for reporting every time one of his relationships broke up, even the ones that never really got off the ground. They made him sound like a playboy of the worst kind. He realised Abby would take some convincing that he wasn’t that bad.
‘Firstly, let me say that it’s not always me who ends the relationships. The women I’ve dated always claim they don’t want marriage, but in the end they do. That’s a deal breaker for me, Abby. You sounded very sure last night when you said you didn’t want to get married again and I believed you. Was I right to believe you?’
‘Absolutely,’ she said with a little shudder.
Jake still couldn’t make up his mind whether her aversion to marrying again was because she’d loved her husband too much to contemplate marriage to another man, or because her dead husband had done something to turn her off the institution.
He decided to find out.
‘But why is that, Abby?’ he asked. ‘What happened to turn you off the idea of remarrying?’