He grinned.
‘You’re a playboy, aren’t you, Dan? You like women.’
He held up his hands. ‘Guilty as charged.’
‘Excellent.’
‘Now that’s not something I thought my sister would say.’
‘That’s because your sister is interested in understanding a man with similar proclivities.’
His face darkened. ‘No way, Lucy. Do not get yourself involved with a womaniser.’
She couldn’t help but smile. ‘Do you think so badly of yourself? And others like you?’
‘You got me there. It was pretty good having my life. Not so good being involved with me.’
She frowned briefly at his choice of tense. Was? Had something happened to make him change?
He grimaced. ‘That doesn’t sound great, does it?’
She shook her head. ‘Not really. It kind of sounds selfish, Dan, if I’m honest.’
‘And you’re always that.’
She didn’t bother confirming the obvious. ‘Also, it doesn’t sound like the boy I looked up to when we were kids. I don’t remember you being selfish growing up.’
He jumped up, crossed to the window and shoved his hands into his pockets. He stared out at the clear blue sky, the South Island a dark smudge on the horizon. He took a fraction too long to turn back. She knew that meant she was right. Washington had changed him.
In a burst of affection, she slipped her arm through his and leaned her head against his shoulder. They both faced the view. It was easier to talk like that.
‘What made you change, Dan?’
She felt him shrug but didn’t move away. She’d tried to get it out of him before. Each time his resistance grew a little weaker. With every visit he stayed longer, and the gaps between visits grew shorter. She sensed he was coming home in more ways than one.
‘Which change? The “me” who became a selfish womaniser, or the “me” you see before you now?’
She patted his chest. ‘This “me”.’ She felt him inhale, her hand rising against his chest.
‘I fell for a woman, got entangled with someone who…’ He sighed heavily. ‘I don’t know… is “betrayed me” too dramatic?’
‘Oh, Dan!’ From the look on his face, Lucy didn’t think it was. He sounded so destroyed she could have wept. ‘I’m so sorry. We didn’t... I mean, I didn’t imagine it was anything like that.’
‘No, well, my track record with women was the opposite. I hate the thought now of how much I’ve hurt people in the past. But,’ he said between gritted teeth, ‘more than that, I hate how women can hide so many secrets, so successfully. I mean, how can you trust them?’
‘Not all women are like that, Dan. Not by a long shot.’
‘Yeah, well, I won’t be testing that assertion any time soon.’
‘So… you’ve returned to MacLeod’s Cove to escape your life, lick your wounds and avoid women.’
‘Something like that.’ He looked at her carefully. ‘So when did my little sister become so adept at psychoanalysis?’
‘It comes with the territory. Running a café. Talking to people, watching them ruin their lives one minute, make a success of them the next. Wanting things, running from things. People are tricky.’
‘Tell me about it,’ he said dryly, taking a sip of his coffee. ‘Anyway, why the summons?’
‘I, Dan, have an enemy.’ She spread her hands. ‘I’m at war. And the stakes are high.’
