‘You brought all this from America? It must have cost you a fortune.’
‘Mmm. But I couldn’t leave it behind.’ She grinned down at Maddy. Could I, now? Want to see my bed?’
‘Oh, yes...’ Maddy bounced across the room and grabbed Bryony’s hands. ‘Please...’
Bryony grinned at Jack. ‘You can see it, too, if you’re interested,’ she offered. ‘Otherwise, go grab a beer from the kitchen straight down the hall. I should have offered you one before I showered. I’m sorry. All I could think of was getting rid of my smell.’
Jack forgave her. Just like that. He got up in a daze and found himself not getting a beer but standing by Bryony’s bedroom door staring in amazement at the bed.
It was vast, king-sized or bigger, carved in some sort of deep red wood—mahogany or something similar—with huge posts at each corner and all hung with gold and purple drapes—like something out of a sultan’s palace.
‘It’s ridiculous.’ Bryony chuckled. ‘I’ll have to sell this. Roger says he won’t sleep in it in a fit and it’s hardly a guest bed.’
‘Roger?’ Jack was finding it hard to catch his breath.
‘My fiancé.’
A fiancé. Yeah, right. Jack managed to catch his breath on that one. For some reason, it made things seem more in control.
‘I’d like to sleep in it,’ Maddy announced, unaware that a spiral had just stopped mid-spin for Jack. ‘Very, very much.’
‘Well, if Jack says you can, then maybe one night you can spend the night with me and Harry.’
‘Harry sleeps here, too?’
‘Actually,’ Bryony admitted, ‘Harry and I swim in this bed. I told him he should really have been a giant wolfhound just to fill it up. We thought of letting out pillow space.’ She ruffled the little girl’s pigtails, and Maddy, who normally cringed when touched, wiggled her head as if she thoroughly enjoyed being ruffled. ‘Okay, miss. Let’s cope with these dogs. Harry first because he’s the worst. And then your Jess.’
What followed was a very silly hour. If anyone had ever told Jack he’d enjoy himself so much washing and blowdrying a couple of smelly dogs he would have thought them ridiculous. But Bryony had them all in fits of laughter. They ended up—all of them—back in her crazy sitting room, knee deep in rugs with damp dogs and hot air going everywhere.
The dogs thought it was wonderful and so did Maddy. Jack was just plain hornswoggled. Who the hell was Roger? Finally he could bear it no longer.
‘So tell me,’ he said as the overfluffed and pristine dogs rolled on the rugs with Bryony and Maddy. ‘What the hell are you doing here in Hamilton? Is Roger a local?’
Bryony’s laughter died a little.
‘Roger lives in Sydney.’
‘But...you’re marrying Roger.’
‘Not until next year.’
‘I see,’ he lied. He didn’t see at all. But...presumably you came from New York to marry Roger?’
‘Well, sort of.’ Bryony grabbed a passing dog and started brushing. She sighed. ‘Roger and I have known each other for ever. He proposed years ago, but I hadn’t seen the world yet so I took off to America. I’m an interior designer.’ She grinned. ‘If you hadn’t guessed.’
Silence. Bryony cast a swift look at Jack. He was frowning, and for some reason Bryony found herself fighting for words.
‘I built up an interior design agency in New York, but I missed Australia,’ she continued, talking too fast now. ‘And Roger kept visiting and giving me all the good reasons I should marry him. And then Myrna—I met Myrna at university and we started in business together way back in the Dark Ages—wrote that she was having twins and her interior design business here would have to close if she couldn’t find anyone to look after it for a while. So I figured I’d come home in stages. Twelve months living here getting used to not being in New York—and then Sydney and marriage to Roger.’
‘but...I thought you were American.’ Maddy didn’t like this turn of events. Bryony moving on...Bryony an Australian...
‘I’m half American,’ Bryony told her. ‘My mom was American, but she married my dad a long, long time ago and he’s an Australian.’
‘Oh.’ Maddy’s face cleared. ‘You’re still like me, then.’
‘Yep.’
‘But...you’re going to live in Sydney?’ The disappointment in Maddy’s voice was poignant and Bryony reached to give her a hug. Jack stared. Maddy... Hugs...
‘I’m not going to Sydney for yonks.’
‘What’s yonks?’ Maddy asked, bewildered.
‘Yonks is so far ahead I refuse to think about it.’
‘Don’t you want to marry Roger?’
‘Sure I want to marry Roger.’ Bryony’s voice was defensive. ‘He’s cute.’
‘So’s Harry,’ Jack said dryly, and Bryony grinned.
‘Yeah, well, Roger has certain advantages over Harry.’
‘What?’ Maddy demanded.
Bryony’s green eyes twinkled. ‘Well, for a start he’s a rich lawyer. He can keep me in the manner to which I wish to become accustomed.’
‘Jack’s rich,’ Maddy retorted. ‘You could marry him.’ Yeah, right. All of a sudden, the silence was loaded. Bryony scrambled to her feet. ‘Tea,’ she said. ‘I’m starving. Are you?’
‘Yes.’ Maddy was definite, but Jack rose too, and took her hand.
‘We have to go, Maddy.’
‘I’m not offering a seven-course meal here,’ Bryony told him, and grinned. ‘I can’t. Cooking is not my forté. I’m offering toasted cheese sandwiches.’
Maddy’s face set into obstinacy. ‘Cheese sandwiches are my favourite.’
Jack looked down at his small daughter and sighed. He shouldn’t be here. This woman was beautiful. This woman was intelligent and funny. This woman was eccentric. This woman was engaged to another man.
He should get the hell out of here—right now.
But Maddy had come alive. His daughter had been with him for three months now and she’d been flat and listless and uninterested the whole time.
Bryony had made her laugh. You could forgive a lot of a woman who made your daughter laugh.
Besides, there was a part of Jack that wanted to spend more time here, wanted to sit on the other side of the kitchen table and watch Bryony make toasted cheese sandwiches—watch Bryony do anything...
‘If you have enough bread and cheese,’ Jack found himself saying weakly.
‘I have enough to burn,’ Bryony said cheerfully. ‘And I hope that’s not prophetic.’
CHAPTER THREE
SO DID he stay for long?’
Monday morning. Time for Myrna and Bryony to get together and discuss Hamilton’s interior decorating needs for the week. Myrna and Harry were on the couch; Bryony was disappearing under cushions on the floor. Interior decorating was taking a back seat.
‘About