At that moment, the sound of Maddy’s voice and easy laughter travelled down the hall from the front of the house. She was in the front hall and obviously chatting to someone on her phone, finishing a conversation as she dumped her bags, evidenced by the thud on the floor.
Ben pushed his mum into the hall, and she obviously grasped his intentions, hurrying towards the front door to intercept Maddy and prevent her from making her way into the tense situation at the back of the house.
As his mum left the room, and while Ben’s attention was turned to ensuring his sister’s safety, his dad used the opportunity to lunge. It was obvious he was going to go after Ben’s mum.Not happening.
In automatic response, Ben stepped in front of his dad, using his body to prevent him from following his mum down the hall. Ben pushed his dad against the doorframe, knocking the wind out of him slightly. His dad grabbed for him and wrestled him to the centre of the kitchen, pushing with all his might and causing Ben to lose his footing on the linoleum. As Ben tried to get his feet back under him, another shove from his father saw him flying towards the glass sliding door with no possibility of preventing impact. Ben raised his arms in reflex to break his fall, but the force with which he was pushed, and his sheer size propelled him straight through the huge pane of glass.Fuck!In a matter of seconds, he was lying on his back on the timber decking staring at the sky while he tried to get his breath back. He tried to heave in some air, but his lungs were having none of it. He kept himself calm. He’d been winded before. Mind you, that was during a footy game, but still, he’d be able to breathe again in a minute.
Thank God, it could have been worse—it could have been Mum or Maddy. Or I could have been really hurt.
He’d barely had the thought when the sound of both his mum’s and Maddy’s screaming cut into his consciousness and the pain hit. Sharp, stinging, agonizing pain, which increased with each breath. Turning his head slightly, Ben looked down at his body, finally becoming aware that he was more injured than he first thought. Blood. So much blood.
Nausea rose, and he swallowed heavily. His mum crouched at his side amongst the broken shards of glass and pressed a towel to the gaping wound in his arm.
Then he blacked out.
* * *
Grey and blustery,wet and miserable; you couldn’t have asked for a worse day by the coast. Spence had been to the beach earlier in the day but grabbed only a couple of waves before packing it in. Only the die-hard surfers were silly enough to suffer through the atrocious conditions, and he definitely wasn’t one of those. He’d returned to the house midmorning and was painstakingly packing the contents of the old sideboard in the guest dining room after lunch. Jenny had plans to give the room a facelift, giving it a more Hampton’s style.
When Jenny had bought the B & B a few years previously, it had come fully furnished, including most of the other contents needed to run a guest house. The rooms were big and airy, but the decor and the furnishings were on the heavy side. The furniture was dark timber, the pieces large and intricately carved. He had no idea how old they were, but they were definitely antiques. The walls of the dining room were papered in deep maroon floral print, and the carpet also a floral pattern but well-worn and faded over time. Jenny had already removed the heavy brocade curtains and just left the sheer ones behind, so some light came through the window to supplement the dim light from the chandelier. Spence made a mental note to look at replacing the light bulbs, half of which were blown, although he hoped Jenny would replace the entire fitting.
As he wrapped the dining room china, he stared out the window at the wild ocean. The huge swell of steel-blue water, topped with foamy caps, mirrored his thoughts that were up and down and all over the place. He couldn’t seem to avoid thinking of Ben. When he was working in the garden, he thought of Ben working on his landscaping jobs. When he was helping with the inside jobs, like he was doing today, he thought of the renovation work that Ben was undertaking. He kept wondering what Ben would be doing and thinking.
It still hurt so much to even think of Ben getting married that he doubted he’d be able to return home and pick up their friendship, and that made him sadder than anything.
The thought of the loss of their friendship was almost unbearable. He wanted Ben to be happy, and he wanted to stand by his friend and support him, but he just didn’t think he was up to it. At least not yet. With a resigned sigh, he wrapped the last teacup before heading to the kitchen to grab himself a coffee.
The kitchen was an interesting blend of coastal and industrial, if there could be such a thing—the industrial look from the stainless-steel appliances and the stainless-steel benchtop that ran along one wall. The rest of the kitchen was a painted timber in a restful shade of cream with a light blue trim.
He grabbed a mug from the overhead cupboard and filled it from the pot that had been brewed earlier. He got the milk from the fridge and added a splash before taking a seat at the kitchen table and resuming his staring out the window and thinking routine.
One thing he did know he had to do was to get back to work. He couldn’t stay with Jenny and Jack indefinitely, and his job would only be held open so long. He knew the only reason he’d been given so much time off already was because of his high sales rate in a particularly difficult economic period where selling houses was tough, but he shouldn’t push his luck. He resolved to call the office and commit to returning at the start of next month, although he wasn’t sure selling houses was his passion anymore. He’d loved working on Jenny’s B & B and the grounds, so now considered flipping houses as a potential career. Taking his coffee with him, he returned to the dining room to retrieve his phone, which was on the dining table next to the old sheets of newspaper. After having it hidden away for so long, he’d taken to carrying it around, but left it on silent most of the time so that he could ignore all the well-meaning messages from his mum in particular. He loved her to bits, but she didn’t understand the concept of space and had taken to not only calling the house phone but also leaving him messages, despite him giving her regular updates to say he was doing okay.
He looked at the screen and wasn’t surprised to see the missed calls. What was a surprise was the number of them—five from his mum, two from Cameron, two from Mel, and even one from Suzie. He dialled his voicemail and listened to the first message.
“Spence, it’s Mum, sweetheart. Now don’t panic, he’s alright, but Ben’s had a bit of an accident. He’s at the hospital, but he’s doing fine. I thought you’d want to know, and I didn’t want you to hear from anyone else. Call me when you get the message, sweetheart.” There was a slight pause. “Oh, and Spence, he really is going to be okay, I don’t want you to worry or to drive home like a lunatic.” Another pause. “I love you.” And the message ended.
But hedidworry. Of course he fucking worried.Oh God!His stomach was in knots. He raced upstairs. It only took him five minutes to grab his wallet and keys and make his way to the car. Fifteen minutes later, he was on the Pacific Highway and heading back to Newcastle.
