‘Sure. You won’t have to worry about anything. It’s all under control. Enjoy the time with your family without stressing about anything here.’
‘Thanks, mate. That means a lot.’ Niall wouldn’t tell Troy that his being in charge could become a permanent arrangement, that he would be moving back to Scotland forever. He couldn’t face dealing with questions about it today but the stuff that matteredthe most here was gone and everything else important was in Scotland: his family, his sick father, his sense of belonging.
Back at his apartment, Niall sat on the deck overlooking the ocean and texted his brother, Sean, who lived in their home village of Kinshore on the Kintyre Peninsula in Scotland. It was the third reminder, but Sean needed things drummed in.
Gentle reminder to pick your big brother up from the airport on Wednesday. Campbeltown. 11am. Keep it under your bunnet.
Finishing the tepid dregs of the coffee from the moka pot, Niall tore open an envelope that had been in the mailbox, the name and address in his mum’s immaculate cursive script. Even though he’d told everyone, besides Sean, that he wasn’t able to attend because of business commitments, his mum wouldn’t want him left out and had mailed him the official invitation to his dad’s birthday party.
If Niall hadn’t already been planning a surprise arrival, then this invitation would convince him to attend. A beautiful, embossed cream card that, as well as his mother’s name, had his and those of all his siblings on it:
Amanda, Callum, Jamie, Niall, Sean, Cara, Eilidh and Nate would like to invite you to their home to celebrate the birthday and lifetime achievements of Jimmy Butler.
Every September, Niall’s mother, Amanda Butler, held a birthday party for his father, but this year’s would be especially poignant, because of his deterioration due to Motor Neurone Disease and the fact that it may be his last. The news about his father’s illness had come two years ago, butthe recent update, about two weeks before Rafe’s death, was that Jimmy Butler was on the decline.
Niall turned the card over and was slammed with a six-foot wave of emotion. There on the back was a picture of his whole family. Jeez, when was that taken? Must have been the last time he was home, which was… well, he’d only been back a few times since he emigrated out here twelve years ago, so two years past, just ahead of his dad’s diagnosis? Shameful that even with his dad being sick, he’d let the business get in the way of family.
Or was he letting the past get in the way of seeing family?
Niall blinked back stinging in his eyes. What the hell?
You miss them.
Fuck, he really did. He missed having his family around him. Rafe and his wife Suzy had been the closest thing, but Rafe was gone now and he and Suzy had barely talked. The questions she’d asked suggested she blamed him for Rafe’s death, like Niall could have done more to save him, even though the cause of death was established as an aortic aneurysm and nothing short of Niall having a medical degree and an operating theatre on site would have saved Rafe.
So what was the point of being in Australia now? It wasn’t his dead best mate. The surf school he and Rafe had founded paid the bills, but every day now was a struggle and a reminder that the team was down to one, the one who’d done most of the leaning in the partnership. Sure, Niall took on the challenge of working with troubled teenagers, but it was hard to help them change their lives when his tank was as low as it was.
As for women, he struggled to remember the last time he’d had sex that was better thansurfing. Truthfully, that bar had been set far too high a long time ago because the first time had been with such strong feelings attached. But Niall had well and truly fucked that up and no one else ever quite matched up to what he’d once held and lost because of his own mistakes.
No more Carli Casellis.
The girl he’d come to Australia for twelve years ago, making it to her street but not her front door.
And now here he was – a grief-muddled mess sitting atop a disaster zone, his best chance of getting laid some misguided woman who saw him as a project, his business destined to flounder with him at the helm.
“Good times,” as Rafe would have said, sarcastically, before clapping Niall on the back and telling him they’d get through it together.
So that was it. Niall loved his adopted country, but all the signs seemed to point to stepping back. The business could earn him passive income and he could do something else. It was time to go home where, sure, there might be demons and the pain of his dying father, but that father was the head of his family who may be the thing to give him the best chance of healing everything in his soul that was so very broken right now.
Chapter 2
Carli
Melbourne, Australia
The date itself – chicken parma in a Prahran pub – was an eight out of ten, but if Carli had a motto for dating it would be ‘once he knows, he will go’. And she was pretty sure she was about to make Jonah McKenzie disappear.
Normally the vanishing act happened after date one or two, but Jonah had made it to round three. Possibly on account of being cute. But cute wasn’t enough. You had to pass the test.
‘Yep, it’s a thing called Fibromyalgia,’ Carli explained, watching for the flicker of hesitation in Jonah’s eyes. ‘Lots of pain, some fatigue, no drinking, clean eating, trips to the oxygen therapy centre. It’s boring for some but it’s my life.’
Jonah swirled a cold chip abandoned ten minutes ago round some leftover ketchup on his plate. ‘Shit, Carls, that sounds full-on. I’d never have guessed. You look so…’
Here came the line. Carli waited like a stagehand in thewings, holding the script, giving Jonah a second or two before finishing his sentence for him. ‘Normal?’ she offered.
Jonah laughed and cute dimples flashed in his cheeks. ‘That wasn’t the word I was looking for. Or maybe it was. I didn’t know, that’s all. You hold it together bloody well. Are you in pain tonight? I mean, apart from the obvious, seeing as you’re on a date with me.’
Carli smiled at Jonah’s joke. ‘Years of practice. And I’m in a little pain but it’s not because of you.’
