However, in the morning, despite her resolutions, Anna was at a bit of a loose end. It was Sunday, so there was no way to talk to the lawyer her friend had put her on to. She left a message on her answer machine. She wanted to talk to Mary, she decided, to see if there was a chance she would eventually sell the business to her, but for now, she just wanted to see if she could stay on as an employee.
Kurt was up before her and went for a run. Anna decided to test her ankle and try a bit of yoga out on the lawn, which was where he found her when he came back. She looked up and found him watching her from the open kitchen window as he drank a glass of water, his Adam’s apple bobbing. She gave him a wave.
“Morning. Sorry I’m in your sweats again. But I only have jeans and they just don’t work for doing downward dog.” He came out onto the deck, two glasses in hand.
“I don’t mind. You look better in them than me. But you know, if you needed to get anything, there’s a shopping centre in Balclutha. I could take you if you wanted?” He looked a bit awkward so she gave him a smile.
“That would be fantastic. I’ll go back to Auckland at some point and pack up all my stuff, but I really am struggling with what I’ve got on me.” She hoped that was hint enough that she planned to stay. She decided to lay her cards on the table a bit more. “Do they have a picture theatre? Maybe I could shout you to the movies?” She was next to him now and she took a glass from his hand, fingers brushing. She took a sip.
“Yeah, yeah, we could do that,” he said. They stood drinking water and looking at each other, both grinning.
“I’d better jump in the shower then,” he said and Anna briefly contemplated asking if he’d like some company.
“So, Jules seems lovely,” Anna said as she put on her seat belt. Kurt smiled.
“Yeah, she’s a good sort. So is Dean.”
“What does he do?” Anna asked.
“They own a security company,” he told her. “I got him to bring me some surveillance stuff for the garage actually.”
“It’s nice that you’re so friendly,” Anna said, hoping it didn’t sound like she was digging for gossip, which she totally was. Luckily he took the bait.
“Yeah, we had a really easy divorce, all things considered. Jules has family here, and she had been happy to come home from Dunedin initially, but she got bored. Frustrated really. I was working too much — it was just me back then — and we just got to the stage where we weren’t really happy any more, you know?” He gave her a sideways glance and she nodded. “I guess not having kids made the decision easier to move on.”
Anna thought about that. About telling the kids she and Greg were done. She’d known they were all old enough to understand, but she had still dreaded it. She had stuck it out for them, thinking that having their parents together was important, but now she realised it was better that they saw her happy. Maybe she and Greg would even get on better once they had both moved on.
She imagined Greg dating again, prodded at the idea like a sore tooth to see if it would hurt. It didn’t. But she imagined he’d probably be a cliché and find some younger model to stroke his ego.
“So, what was so awful about Lisa?” she asked. Kurt laughed.
“Nothing really. She was just a bit high maintenance, and hard work.” He gave Anna a serious look. “And she wasn’t keen on rugby — or dogs,” he added.
Balclutha was a slightly bigger town with a long, impressive multi-arched bridge that crossed a heavily swollen river. It had a surprisingly good range of shops and Anna managed to get some clothes for the bakery as well as workout gear and more underwear. She was low on cash so she decided to leave buying shoes and just wear Mary’s.
She wondered if Cliff would let her pay off the van repairs. She would need to sell or give it to Faith if she wasn’t going to travel back in it straight away. Would she keep her Range Rover? Or sell it and buy something down here?
She stocked up on a few toiletries as well and then she and Kurt had lunch. The cafe wasn’t overly busy and they found a small table easily in a corner. The menu was fairly basic. Anna decided on a roast vege salad and a smoothie. Her ankle was a little sore so she fished out some painkillers from her handbag.
Kurt offered to order for them and when he came back to the table, pulled up an extra chair before gently lifting her foot up onto it. His palm felt scorching hot against her ankle and Anna took a long drink of water before she looked up at him. He was watching her intently. That electric energy was back, fizzing between them. Kurt cleared his throat, fiddling with their table number.
“Wayne called. The red Mazda was spotted out near the McCarrolls’ farm last night, and Mike is going through footage on the new security camera I installed yesterday to see if he’s been lurking around,” Kurt said.
“And if he has been?”
“Then we might park the van outside tonight if that’s okay with you? And wait.”
“Oh, like a stakeout? Can I come? Please? I’ll be quiet as a mouse. You won’t even know I’m there.”
Kurt grinned. “I think you might be a bit of a distraction even if you were silent,” he said, and Anna blushed.
The movies were actually set up in the old theatrical society clubrooms, so there was only one choice. It was a horror movie and Anna was a bit of a chicken when it came to things leaping out at her, but Kurt seemed happy with it so they got popcorn and drinks and settled into the old vinyl chairs.
The movie was terrifying. Anna spent the first half covering her eyes, trying not to scream. At some point she realised she had her hand on Kurt’s thigh, gripping hard. She loosened her grip, but then decided to leave it there. It was firm and warm and she wanted to inch it up further. After a while though, he jiggled around and then shifted her hand down closer to his knee. But he left his palm on top of hers. It seared heat through her, like tiny sparks. His hand was a lot bigger and he had nice long, tapered fingers and big tidy nails. He even had sexy wrists and veiny forearms and before she knew it, the movie was done and she’d spent half of it getting turned on by his hand.
He held hers all the way back to the car.
The drive back seemed to take forever. Anna felt like a horny teenager, hoping her date would make a move at the end. Just before they hit Bode, Wayne rang. Kurt put him on speaker.
“Hey, mate, just wanted to let you know those plates you ran came back. They belong to a Maureen Harwick in Christchurch. Red Mazda.” Kurt looked at her and she shrugged.
“Did you look her up?” Kurt asked.
“Yep. Has a son Gary. She claims he took the car last week and hasn’t come back. And get this: he’s wanted for questioning by police in Wellington about that pickled hand that went missing from Te Papa.”
“Shit. Okay. Let me check in with Mike, see if there was any sign of him last night. You free to do some surveillance tonight?”
“Yep, all good. You said you checked the van out, yeah?”
“Yeah, but maybe go in and look underneath it.”
Kurt hung up and looked at Anna who looked horrified. “Ewww! Do you mean to tell me there might be some mummified hand in Rizzo?” She shuddered. “It did smell a bit musty. What does a hundred-year-old hand smell like?”
Kurt laughed. “I doubt it’s just a hand wrapped in bandages. It’s probably in formaldehyde or something.”
Anna gave him a scathing look. “Oh, well, now I feel so much better,” she said sarcastically. He grinned.
“I doubt it’s in there anyway. Like you said, maybe his mate took it?”
Back at Kurt’s they discovered Gary had been lurking around the garage the night before, the distinctive red Mazda showing up clearly on the video footage.
“Looks like I’ll be doing an all-nighter,” Kurt said. “I might try and catch a nap before I go.”
Anna watched him walk down the hallway, trying to muster up some courage. Just do it, she told herself. Be brave.
“Would you like some company?” she asked.
He turned, gave her an appraising look, and strode back towards her. His face was hard to read. He stood in front of her, looking intently at her eyes. Her pulse was frantic in her throat.
Then he was kissing her, and shit, her insides were melting. He tasted faintly of butter and his hands came up to cradle her face as he pressed his lips more urgently against hers. She made a soft moaning sound against them and he lifted her up, cupping her arse. She pushed her hands up under his shirt, feeling the taut muscles of his back and she wanted to climb inside him. He carried her back down the hallway and into his room and they were scrambling for each other’s clothes and Anna thought she might combust.
“Are you sure?” he asked, and she’d never been more sure of anything in her life.
