Authors: Alexis Fleming
‘Nope, just determined to teach Jake he can’t have it all his own way.’
Rachel raised her eyebrows at Zoe. ‘Just as long as you remember you can’t always have your own way either. I’d hate to see you get hurt again.’
‘Never going to happen,’ Zoe retorted. ‘I learned my lessons the hard way. Now, let’s go raid the kitchen for something to eat before we tackle the Garden Room. I’m starving.’
Rachel burst out laughing. ‘Girl, that’s not hunger. That’s sexual frustration.’
* * *
Jake pulled into the parking area of the local watering hole and cut the engine. There were more up-market hotels in town, but he and his brothers preferred The Thirsty Camel. The pub was the closest one to the inn his mother had acquired, not that that was the reason they frequented it. It was more the casual atmosphere that appealed to them.
Why it was called The Thirsty Camel he had no idea, although camel treks were a great tourist attraction in Alice Springs. He did know camels were introduced to Australia back in the early 1800s and had been used to haul supplies to the various properties within the central part of Australia. This was mostly hot desert country and it suited the beasts. Water was in short supply out here and the camels could travel for miles before needing to be watered and fed.
Jake shook his head. Why the hell was he sitting in his vehicle in a pub car park thinking about camels? Reefing the tie from around his neck, he tossed it onto the passenger seat. Then he shrugged out of the suit jacket he’d worn into work at the bank. It quickly joined the tie. After rolling the sleeves of the pale blue business shirt up to his elbows, he let himself out of the car and headed into the pub.
He and his brothers had been coming to this pub since they’d hit the legal drinking age. Jake remembered his first visit, the night after his 18th birthday. He’d gotten blind drunk, compliments of his older brothers. His mother had never let him forget it. The memory brought a smile to his face as he pushed through the door of the pub.
The front room was crowded, every table filled with locals. Jake waved his hand in acknowledgement of their greetings as he slipped through the patrons and headed into the small lounge at the back. His brothers were perched on stools up at the bar and he quickly joined them.
‘Hey, Simon, when did you get back? I thought you had another couple of weeks of your contract left to run.’ Jake slid onto the stool beside his youngest brother.
Simon thumped him on the back. ‘Jake, it’s good to see you. And I got back late last night. I managed to get everything done at the hotel in Fiji quicker than expected, so they let me off the last couple of weeks of my contract.’
‘You staying at the house?’ Jake signalled for the bartender and ordered a light beer.
‘Where else?’ Simon chuckled. ‘Can you see mother letting me stay anywhere else when I’ve just arrived back? She’s all for babying me right now.’
‘Enjoy it while you can,’ Nathan chimed in. ‘Before you know where you are, she’ll have you working your butt off at the inn.’
Drew, Nathan’s twin, leaned around his brother so he could see Jake. ‘So how
is
the inn going? I thought Mum was going to have kittens when the last decorator left. She mentioned a couple of days ago that she’d found someone else. What’s he like?’
‘She,’ he mumbled, somehow knowing what was coming. His older brothers may be grown up, but they hadn’t changed that much from when they were younger and teased the daylights out of him.
‘Oh-ho-ho.’ Nathan burst out laughing. ‘Now we know why you were so keen to move into the inn. Spill, brother. What’s she like?’
Jake frowned. ‘I didn’t know who it was until late yesterday. Hell, I didn’t even know it — she — was female. For some reason, I just assumed it’d be another guy.’
Simon dug him in the ribs with his elbow. ‘Come on, give. Who is it?’
‘Zoe Chandler.’
There was dead silence for a moment before all three of his brothers started to laugh. Jake tried to ignore them, concentrating on finishing his beer.
When Simon finally calmed down, he ordered another round of drinks for them all and then turned to Jake. ‘Little Zoe Chandler? That girl you had a hard-on for at school?’
Jake grimaced. ‘Yeah, that Zoe Chandler.’
‘She still as hot as she used to be?’ Nathan wanted to know.
‘She’s okay, I guess.’
Now that’s an understatement, boyo.
Drew, normally the quiet one of the twins, grabbed the opportunity to jump into the conversation again. ‘From what I hear, Zoe Chandler is a lady who knows what she wants and goes after it. The boys were talking about her at work the other day. Brad about got his balls handed to him on a platter when he tried to put the hard word on her. Seems the lady likes to do her own asking.’
Jake felt an immediate flash of anger race through his blood at Drew’s comments. He wanted to find this Brad person and kick him in the gonads himself. Beat the living crap out of him until he stayed away from Zoe. Then he’d…
He cut the internal thoughts off, his mouth dropping open. Holy shit, he was jealous. When the hell had that happened?
‘Didn’t she get married almost straight after school?’ Nathan mused. ‘I seem to remember hearing Dad discussing it with Mum once. They didn’t realise I was sitting in the kitchen and could hear everything they were saying.’
‘Yeah, everyone thought she already had a bun in the oven and that’s why she married so young, but when no baby appeared, the gossip died down.’ Nathan signalled for the bartender to order more drinks.
‘No more for me,’ Jake said. ‘Two lights are plenty. I need food more than I need alcohol.’
He was suddenly glad the need for more drinks had interrupted the conversation about Zoe. Somehow, he felt disloyal discussing her with his brothers.
He wasn’t about to let on, but he knew a lot more about Zoe’s circumstances than any of them realised. He and his father had discussed the situation as it referred to the bank. Zoe’s ex had taken out a mortgage loan a couple of years before he and Zoe divorced. After they split, Des had taken off and the loan was in default so the bank had no option but to foreclose.
But it wasn’t the loan money that had worried Jake’s father so much. It was the way the man used to talk about Zoe, the confidences he shared. Talk about an antiquated idea of women.
Slap ‘em around if they get out of line. Cut off their friends, curtail their activities, and soon enough they’re dependent on you for everything. They don’t speak unless they are spoken to. That’s the way women should be handled.
Christ, Jake could hear that little weasel’s voice in his head even now. No wonder Zoe had left him. And since that day, she’d never depended on a man. Never allowed anyone else to control her future.
A light bulb suddenly went on in Jake’s brain. Hah, no wonder the lady had a few issues. ‘It’s all about control,’ he muttered.
Simon frowned. ‘Sorry, what was that, Jake?’
He shook his head. Damn, he hadn’t realised he’d said that out loud. ‘Zoe’s marriage. It was a pretty bad scene from what I understand.’
‘Des was in our grade at school,’ Nathan said with a nod towards Drew, ‘and later on, in the same football team as us. He was a controlling bastard back then and I can’t see him changing simply because he got married. Yeah, I’ll bet it was no bed of roses for Zoe. No wonder she took off.’
The bartender slid a couple of menus along the bar and Jake used it as an excuse to change the conversation. ‘I’m starving. Let’s order.’
Nathan held his hand up. ‘Sorry, not me. I promised Sherry I’d be home for dinner.’
Simon looked at his watch. ‘Going to be a bit late, aren’t you?’
‘Nah, Sherry’s putting the kids to bed early and then preparing a special romantic dinner for the two of us.’ He grinned. ‘There you go, Jake. If you still want Zoe Chandler, get some romance going.’
Jake snorted. ‘Yeah, right. My last lady friend told me I was the most cold-hearted bastard she’d ever known.
And
the least romantic.’
Simon, who’d been quiet for the last 10 minutes or so, turned a quizzical glance towards Jake. ‘Seriously, does she still do it for you?’
He thought about telling his brother to butt out and mind his own business. He thought about lying. Then he grimaced. This crew knew him too well. They’d spot a lie at a hundred paces.
He drew in a deep breath and exhaled on a loud sigh. ‘Okay, you want to know? Yeah, she still pushes my buttons. But she’s not about to relinquish control to anyone and I sure as hell can’t see her going for anything more than a casual liaison.’
‘What about you? What do
you
want?’
Jake held his hands up. ‘Hey, enough, you fellows. Guys aren’t supposed to discuss stuff like this. It’s just not manly.’
Nathan and Drew burst out laughing. ‘They do if they happen to have interfering brothers,’ Drew said.
‘On that note, I have to leave. I’m going home to my lovely wife and my romantic dinner.’ Nathan dug into his pocket and dropped a couple of bills and a handful of coins onto the bar. ‘Jake, I’ll see you later. Oh, totally off subject, but one final word before I get out of here. A message from Mum.’ He bent close to Jake’s ear. ‘
Portrait
. Mean anything to you?’
A tortured groan built up and Jake let it roll up through his throat. ‘She hasn’t said anything for a while. I thought she’d forgotten all about it. Or at least I hoped she had.’
Nathan burst out laughing. ‘You have got to be joking. You really thought she’d forget about it? You’re crazy. This has become a family tradition now. Sorry, brother, you don’t have any choice in it. We had to put up with it. Now it’s your turn. I’m out of here.’ Still laughing, he disappeared out of the bar.
Simon grinned and raised his eyebrows. ‘He’s right, mate. She’s already started on me because I just turned 33 and I only got home last night. But my portrait can’t go up until yours does.’
Jake shook his head. He thought he’d gotten away with it. Damn it, now he was going to have to find a painter.
Hang on, you have a painter right on your doorstep
.
Yeah, but a house painter, not a portrait painter, although he vaguely remembered his mum saying something about Zoe selling landscape paintings. He wondered if she did portraits as well.
But if she wasn’t so great at painting portraits, and he convinced her to have a try and it turned out bad, maybe his mother would give up the idea and just go with a big blown-up photograph instead.
Damn it, he didn’t have time to sit around getting his mug painted. And it was kind of underhanded to ask Zoe when he was hoping she’d fail. Nah, he couldn’t do it…could he?
‘Hey, Jake, you zoned out there, mate.’ Simon poked him in the ribs again. ‘You thinking of the delectable Zoe Chandler again?’
Jake smiled. ‘I was, as a matter of fact.’
‘You really still have a thing for her, don’t you?’
‘She makes me laugh at myself. Makes me forget that I’m supposed to act like the old man.’ He shrugged. ‘I kind of like the challenge. She’s sexy as hell, but totally prickly if she thinks you want to take control. And I only just realised that tonight.’
‘If she makes you laugh at yourself, she’s alright in my book,’ Drew said. ‘You’re too damn serious at times. You need to lighten up a bit.’
Jake placed his order for a large steak, jacket potato and a big side salad before turning back to his brothers. ‘I sometimes think I was born old.’
‘Nah, Dad just trained you too well. He had a plan for us all. Nathan was to go into medicine. Okay, we have our doctor. Me? The law. You and Simon were to follow him into banking.’
Simon chuckled. ‘Except I kicked over the traces and rebelled, hence my working in the hospitality industry. I thought he’d have a stroke when I told him what I was going to do.’
The bartender brought cutlery and condiments and placed them on the bar in front of the three men. Once he’d moved up to the other end of the bar, Drew dragged his stool around to the other side of Jake so he didn’t have to talk across Simon.
‘So what are you going to do about Zoe?’ he asked.
Jake grimaced. ‘If all I wanted was a one-night stand, I have the feeling she’d be all for it. But there’s more than that between us. I’d like to see where it goes, but after Des, she’s so into keeping control of everything, I’m not certain she’ll ever let me in, if you know what I mean.’
He shot Simon a quick glance. ‘And before you say anything, I’m not talking about who’s on top either. That’s not the type of control I’m talking about.’
Simon propped his hands on the bar and rested his chin on them, his brow furrowed in thought. ‘Romance!’ He lifted his head and grinned at Jake. ‘That’s the answer. Like Nathan and Sherry.’
Jake just stared at him, eyebrows raised.
‘No, I’m serious,’ Simon said. ‘You’re living together at the inn. Mum tells me the kitchen is fully functional now. Cook her a romantic meal with wine and candles.’
‘Get real, Simon. You’re the chef in the family. I cook a great steak on a hot grill and I do good scrambled eggs on toast. That’s about it.’
Jake’s normal abode was a serviced apartment in town. An apartment building with restaurant attached. Yeah, he could nuke a frozen meal in the microwave, but how romantic was that? There simply hadn’t been the need, or the time, to learn to turn out gourmet meals.
Damn it, he was well and truly screwed. He couldn’t even
do
romance.
‘Okay, this is the last one. Move the light over this way a bit.’ Zoe hooked the delicate crystal prism into its slot and then slid down the ladder, aided by the bright glow from Rachel’s flashlight. Standing back, she angled her head to stare at the chandelier. ‘Turn it on, Rach, and let’s have a look.’
Gaze still trained on the chandelier, Rachel backed up to the doorway and hit the switch on the wall with the flat of her hand. ‘Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?’
‘You did a fantastic job of matching the crystal.’
Rachel grinned as she swaggered over to join Zoe. ‘Thank heavens for old boyfriends who remain friends afterwards. I rang Ted yesterday. I figured if anyone could track the right ones down, it’d be him. He couriered them up here early this morning. They’re not exactly identical, but they’re so close it’s hard to tell the difference.’