Chapter Nineteen
After dinner Lachlan insisted he and Ben do the dishes again so Marie went for a shower and April headed out to her garden. While Ben had his hands submerged in the suds, Lachlan couldn’t resist pulling back the curtain to watch her.
“Oh man, you’ve got it bad,” Ben smirked and was rewarded with a fist in the arm. “Careful! I might accidently break one of your girlfriend’s plates and then you’d be in trouble.”
“Hardly,” Lachlan grinned.
“Is this really going to work?” Ben asked, his smile turning serious. “I mean the secrecy thing.”
“It’s important to her,” Lachlan frowned. “She told me about the day her parents died, the way she found them. Just hearing about it was horrific and she had to live it. So if this is the way she wants it then I’m fine with that. As long as it means I get to be with her.”
“That bad huh?”
“Worse,” Lachlan grinned again. “Besides, she only wants to keep us a secret until Marie has finished year twelve. She doesn’t want anything to distract her during these last few years of school. That’s only eighteen months.”
“A lot can happen in eighteen months. Back in Sydney you couldn’t keep her under wraps for five days, how the hell are you going to last eighteen months?” Ben ripped the plug out of the drain and rinsed the soap off his hands. “For all you know, someone has already figured out who she is and could be on their way here right now.”
“God, I hope not,” Lachlan sighed, wiping up his last plate.
“Marie’s worried about her,” Ben said after a moment’s silence. “She said this past week has been hell for April and she wasn’t sure how to help.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t a picnic for me either and now we’re past it. Things should be better now.”
“I hope so because if not, you and April aren’t going to be the only ones to suffer. It’ll be hard on Marie too.” Lachlan stared at his younger brother as he finished cleaning out the sink and hung the dishcloth to dry.
“You seem very concerned about Marie,” Lachlan observed, narrowing his eyes.
“She’s a cool chick and I don’t want to see her get hurt.” Ben kept his head down and Lachlan could tell there was more to it.
“Ben, you’re twenty-two,” Lachlan warned, “she’s only sixteen.”
“She’ll be seventeen next week!” Ben shot back defensively then bit his lip for giving himself away.
Oh shit. This was all he needed. His brother falling for his girlfriend’s sister. His girlfriend’s teenage sister. “She’s not even legal Ben.”
“Yes she is,” Ben said. “Or at least she will be next week.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The age of consent in Australia is sixteen unless you’re in South Australia, then it’s seventeen.”
“You looked this up today?” Sixteen? It just seemed so young. Lachlan felt uncomfortable even thinking about it, and the thought of his brother googling this information because he had the hots for Marie was disturbing.
“Of course not! It was a storyline for Clayton Downs last season.”
Lachlan’s relief that Ben hadn’t gone out of his way to search for the information was short-lived. His chest constricted as the ramifications of what Ben just told him sunk in. No way would April approve of Ben and Marie having a relationship.
“Please tell me you haven’t done anything stupid,” Lachlan growled, grabbing his little brother’s arm.
“I’m not an idiot,” Ben said through gritted teeth. “I like Marie, okay? Just because a piece of paper says I can’t legally do anything about it for another week, it doesn’t mean I can stop myself from liking her right now.
“But Lachlan, I’m not trying to seduce her. She’s too young. It doesn’t matter what the law says, I’m not prepared to be with a girl that age. Right now, me being five years older than her seems wrong and sordid. But in another year, five years won’t mean anything.”
Lachlan chuckled, “Looks like I’m not the only one waiting for Marie to finish year twelve.”
“Piss off,” Ben snapped and shoved past Lachlan. Still chuckling, Lachlan grabbed a couple of cola’s from the fridge and went out into the backyard.
April was sitting on Fire Mountain, her eyes closed. Unsure if she wanted company in Shaewal, he cleared his throat to attract her attention.
“Can I join you?”
“Sure.” Her lips curved up sweetly and he decided he would never tire of seeing her smile. He handed her a can and sat beside her on Widow’s Peak.
“You okay?” She’d been sitting in the garden alone for the past half hour and now that he knew what the garden meant to her, he wasn’t sure of her mood.
“I’m great.” She arched her eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”
Lachlan shrugged self-consciously. “You’ve been out here a while, that’s all. I just wanted to make sure.”
“I want to show you something.” She grabbed his hand and guided his fingers to the base of the boulder she was sitting on, below the line of ground covers that surrounded the rocks. Running his fingers across the cool surface, he could feel a series of gouges.
“Are those letters?” he asked frowning. “What’s it say?”
“RIP Katherine Pope. Widow’s Peak says RIP James Pope.”
“So these are memorial stones?” He asked standing up quickly, suddenly aware he’d been sitting on one.
“It’s okay,” she laughed. “We always sit on them.” Reluctantly he returned to his position beside her.
“After our talk this afternoon, I wanted to come here and be with them for a little while.” He reached out to grip her fingers, lending her his strength. “This garden was her idea, you know. When I was struggling with the first book, she suggested I visit Shaewal in person so that I could describe it from within. When we moved here, these two boulders were the first features I put in. Shaewal wouldn’t exist without them and I couldn’t imagine being here if they weren’t here too.” Silent tears created tiny rivulets down her cheeks but she didn’t appear to notice.
“You miss them, don’t you?” Lachlan whispered, shifting on his boulder and enfolding her in his embrace. She nodded, resting her head on his shoulder.
“Marie barely remembers them, so even though she knows about the boulders, she doesn’t really feel their presence here. But for me, when I was all alone with no one to talk to and a six-year-old to take care of, this is where I’d come. I used to spend hours sitting here after Marie had gone to bed, telling them about our days, crying when I felt the need. It helped.”
For a long while they sat in silence and Lachlan ignored the sharp edge jutting into his bottom. To have April open up to him was worth a few moments of discomfort, but that didn’t stop him from feeling relief when she finally suggested they go back inside.