The next morning, Zac waited and the minutes ticked past. He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t show at all, but what he did know of her said that wouldn’t happen. He wished he’d met Ava ten years ago. When he’d still believed in fairytales.
Now he knew about this ring, he needed the story behind it, but it was the one thing he wasn’t going to ask. The risk of upsetting her was too great.
When Ava arrived, he watched her with an intensity he couldn’t prevent, and his heart kicked with unexpected recognition his brain didn’t get. It didn’t help the decision he’d come to.
There was something about the way she moved, though, that was distracting him. She had dressed casually in long shorts and an open-necked shirt that tugged at him, but he couldn’t pin it to a memory. Her blonde hair hung loosely around her face in damp tendrils and she brushed it away from her face as she walked. She’d stopped to shower but looked unhurried and graceful as she sailed past the doorman with a smile, then raised a hand as she crossed the foyer towards him.
He could feel his mood lift, and automatically he stood as she approached. ‘You look too good to have just finished night shift.’ The words came from somewhere deep. Though now that she stood closer, he could see her eyes seemed weary but not defeated.
‘I’ll get my rest. How are you?’
‘Looking forward to breakfast with you.’
She sat and he did too. As she studied him, she said, ‘Why do you think you feel that way?’
It was a challenging question, especially since both of them had been up all night. He smiled quizzically at her. ‘Isn’t it usual to feel uplifted by having breakfast with a beautiful woman?’
‘I have no idea. You tell me.’ She shrugged and didn’t seem particularly thrilled by his compliment. He had the feeling she was focused on a course of action or conversation and wouldn’t be swayed.
He grimaced. ‘So, maybe finding some answers to things I want to know is a relief as well.’ He handed her a menu. ‘I thought we’d order off the menu. To save bouncing up and down for courses from the buffet.’
‘Sounds fine.’ She looked over the top of the menu sheet. ‘Have you remembered anything?’
He shook his head in frustration. ‘I’m beginning to think I won’t. There’s plenty of medical literature that says it can go either way.’
She sat back in her seat and regarded him sombrely. ‘I think I’m coming to a sort of peace about that.’
Lucky you. ‘I wish I was.’ The nightmares wouldn’t let him.
‘Maybe you should. Though I guess it’s easy for me to say –’ she grimaced as she went on – ‘but it’s two weeks of your life, not mine.’
‘I took a week of yours trying to remember.’
‘Yes, you did, but I don’t regret it.’ She sat straighter in the chair. ‘So? Would you like to know the details of our first meeting? You know how we met, but we never did get down to the nitty-gritty of how we spent our time together.’
Too right. He needed the details of why he’d created such an impact with a woman who at most should have been a fling. And why he’d bought a ring. ‘Yes, I would. If you’re happy to put it out there.’
The waiter arrived and they ordered. As soon he’d left she said, ‘As I said before, we met on a flight from Sydney. During the flight we had a few wines, talked a lot, and after it – we ended up in your bed instead of at dinner.’
He blinked. First night? Then he watched her cheeks flush, but her eyes didn’t waver. He had the feeling she’d rehearsed that line to get it out in one go and that was brave. She really was incredible.
He wanted to hug her and say he respected her fearlessness, except he was still replaying what she’d said. ‘That doesn’t sound like something the Ava I met at your family station or the one at work would normally do.’ He spread his hands. ‘I’d have to say it doesn’t sound like me, either.’ He lifted his chin and met her gaze. ‘We must have connected?’
‘Oh, we connected, all right.’ She looked away and he wished she hadn’t. But he guessed he owed her the privacy of her own thoughts when she was being so open. When she turned back to him, her face showed only a slight smile. ‘It was a crazy rush the first time, but –’ their eyes met – ‘even in the rush, we were responsible adults.’ Her meaning was delicate but clear. He had been concerned about contraception and felt himself relax.
She didn’t miss his relief and her smile disappeared. She went on in the same quiet voice, as if giving clinical handover on the ward for a patient. Her control impressive. ‘You gave me the idea that one night was a one-off, ships-in-the-night thing, and we made no plans to meet again.’
That he could believe. It was most likely his decision, not hers, judging by her care of him since.
She went on quietly. ‘Then, unexpectedly, the next night we met again at work. On the flight you’d asked not to discuss work or family, and yes, it was a small shock when we ended up on the same ward. I followed your lead and pretended we were strangers, but you approached me the next morning and asked me back to your place again.’
That sounded so ballsy and not like him. ‘I was that crass?’
‘Can’t have been too crass.’ She shrugged and spread her hands. ‘I said yes.’
Indeed. ‘I must have been persuasive.’ He wouldn’t have thought he’d have had it in him after Roslyn.
She didn’t comment on that. ‘We had four days, every hour until the next shift started, until my move on to Yulara before holidays. You said you’d come down to the rock for the weekend.’
The waiter arrived with her black tea and his coffee. Another arrived with her cereal and toast and his eggs. When they left he asked what he’d been dying to ask. ‘Did I talk about when I’d go back to Sydney? Did we think we had a future?’
She took her time pouring her tea. ‘I was off to Yulara on Sunday and then holidays and wouldn’t be back in Alice for a month. You were meant to be back in Sydney after that.’ She raised her gaze to his. ‘I tried not to have expectations before Yulara.’
‘I’m sorry.’ He must have thought it was going nowhere, then. But when did the ring come into it? ‘That seems a pretty big ask. And you’re still talking to me?’
‘Funny that.’ She laughed, but it sounded too hollow to be amused. ‘You never promised anything, so my expectations were low.’
So he hadn’t asked her to marry him. Was the ring planning or in case? It was pretty impulsive after four days and so hard to believe of himself. But then Ava was a very special woman – he’d certainly learned that at Setabilly.
She was going on. ‘I half expected we would end when I left after our last night shift together.’ She shrugged. ‘Except you came to Yulara.’
He couldn’t help leaning forward in anticipation of discovering what happened next.
She smiled at him and the memory must have been pleasant. ‘You arrived as Jessamine had her twins.’
‘The forgotten twin birth.’
‘Yes. The birth went smoothly, thank goodness. It was good to have you there.’ She looked away before she went on. ‘Then we drove out to Uluru and the accident happened.’ She’d left something out. He didn’t know how he could be sure of that, but he was. She obviously had her reasons.
‘And then the accident happened,’ he repeated.
He remembered the description from the nurse in Yulara. His agitation, his loss of blood, which Ava had stopped before he’d bled out, and his critical condition in a place where advanced care wasn’t available. And Ava, who had refused to let him die.
He’d put her through a lot. ‘I’m sorry I got amnesia.’
She cast a critical eye over him. ‘You are high-maintenance.’
He laughed.