David strode forward and held out his hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”
Relieved that he wasn’t about to have some unwelcome revelation foisted on him, Jim gripped his hand in a very firm handshake. “And you, David.” It seemed her father had come to the same decision about his name as she did. “And call me Jim.”
“Will do, Jim. I’ll see you on Friday, then.”
The alarmed look returned to Jim’s face. “Friday?” he repeated faintly.
Amber took pity on him. “David is going to pick me up. We’re going to dinner at St Augustine’s on Friday.”
“St Augustine’s?” Jim looked from one to the other.
“That’s right, sir.” David corrected himself. “Jim. I’ll come by at eight.”
He turned to Amber. “Goodbye, Amber. And thank you for agreeing to come.”
Her heart nearly stopped when he said her name. The second syllable came out like a little puff, causing his beautiful lips to pout slightly. She cleared her throat. “My pleasure.” She was sure it would be.
His lips curved into another of his rare smiles and she lifted her eyes to his. The smile lingered in the green of his eyes long after his lips resumed their usual stern shape.
David glanced at Jim and nodded before turning and descending the steps with a purposeful tread. She liked how sure he always was—so opposite to herself. She sighed as he got into his dark blue Jaguar and drove carefully across the potholed drive. Amber winced as the car bounced and crunched over a rutted area which had suffered at the hands of her habit of parking on boggy ground, now dried hard, and an errant tree root. The car disappeared among the trees which lay between the house and the road. She waited as she heard him pull out smoothly onto the highway and drive off towards Akaroa.
She shook her head in disbelief. Green-Eyes, David, here to see her. She twisted her mouth into a grin. He must like her. She called for the dogs who’d trotted after the car and sat staring at where it had disappeared into the trees as if they, too, couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.
She walked back to her father, who still held a kettle in his hands. She took it from him with a grin and went inside the house. After a moment Jim and the dogs followed.
“Did he…”
“Did he what, Dad?”
“Did he just call me Sir Jim?”
Amber burst out laughing and continued to laugh as she placed the kettle on the kitchen bench. “I think he did, although I don’t think he meant to.”
Jim grunted. “I doubt there are many things that young man does without meaning to. He’s, well… He’s quite unlike any of your other young men, Amber.”
Amber flicked the switch on the kettle and turned to face her father. “That, my dear father, can only be a good thing.”
“Yes, indeed.” Jim replied, but Amber noticed he didn’t look convinced. But he would be, or at least she hoped he would be, because Amber had never been as attracted, or as intrigued, by a man in all her life.
Amber ranout of the sea toward Flo’s Backpacker’s Lodge.
She grabbed her towel and bag and opened the small gate that stood between Flo’s back verandah and the beach. The main living room was already crowded with people. She shouldn’t have stopped for a swim, but she couldn’t help herself. Deferring her gratification wasn’t her strong suit.
“Sorry I’m late,” Amber mouthed to Flo as she sat cross-legged on the floor. The others shifted along for her. Flo smiled and looked up at the long-haired, earnest man standing up. He swallowed and began talking.
“Thanks to Flo for letting us use her place. But we all know why we’re here.”
“Too right!” someone called out. “They can’t keep on getting away with it!”
“Precisely. Sterling Property Holdings are true to form and continue to ignore our protests about demolishing historic houses in central Christchurch.”
“They called Tiritea a slum!” said Flo.
“It’s not a slum,” said Amber, looking indignantly from Flo to the speaker. “It’s beautiful.”
“Itisbeautiful,” affirmed the young man, smiling at Amber. “Andit’s important. It’s the birthplace of one of our foremost citizens—someone who we have to thank for all the past work on saving our beautiful land—and is a prime example of early colonial architecture.”
“And EarthFoods wouldn’t find anywhere else as cheap to operate from.”
