The Auction a Romance by Anna Erishkigal Page 24

  "She said it would benefit Pippa to have both parents in her life," Adam said. "She's recommending I move back to Brisbane."

  I remained silent, considering the implications of what he'd said. Come the end of summer, I'd be out of a job and a home.

  "Rosie?"

  "Uh, yes Adam?"

  "You got real quiet on me."

  A sense of vertigo made the room spin. This home was no more substantial than the ghost-horse I rode each night or the fairy queen Pippa spoke to whenever she felt troubled.

  Adam cleared his throat.

  "Rosie? I, um… I wanted to talk to you about something, but, um, maybe I shouldn't do it over the phone?"

  I stared at Pippa hug her dog. I was too close to this situation. I'd allowed myself to daydream about the future and Adam just reminded me that dream had an expiration date. The girl on the white pony was nothing but a dream.

  "I went on a job interview today," I said emotionlessly. "It went well. Come the start of the school year, I will likely teach seventh grade at Saint Joseph's school."

  Adam fell silent.

  "I see."

  "I gave up my dreams once already for a man," I said curtly. "This time, I plan on doing what is right for me."

  I hung up the phone before I could hear if he even cared.

  I realized after how ridiculous I must sound. As if I was a jealous girlfriend.

  Chapter 24

  The crunch of tires coming up driveway heralded Adam's return on late Saturday night. A curious mix of anticipation and dread ate at the pit of my stomach. Thunderlane ran to the door, weaving back and forth until I let him out. I waited until Adam backed up his Mercedes next to his mother's ancient ute, and then opened the door so Pippa could run out to greet him.

  "Daddy!"

  I fanned myself to cool the sweat which made it feel like I was about to melt into a puddle of goo. In retrospect, it was too darned hot to cook the pork roast I'd picked up at the IGA today, but after the strained telephone conversations of the last two nights, it was time to make a peace offering. It wasn't Adam's fault my ex-professor had ordered the poor man to move closer to the Black Widow's lair? Was it?

  Adam struggled towards the house carrying far too many packages. I held open the screen door.

  "Here, let me help you."

  Adam's expression was a combination of wariness and relief, as though he wasn't certain how I would receive him tonight.

  "Thanks."

  "No problem."

  He headed straight into his room to deposit his luggage, and then came out again, snuffling the air like a hungry dog. His nose carried him into the kitchen where the scent of garlic and rosemary complimented the various pots of vegetables bubbling on the stove.

  "Roast … something?" He shot me a raised eyebrow, as though not certain whether I'd bite his head off.

  "Pork loin." I turned to Pippa. "Hey, nipper? Do you want to help me mash the potatoes?"

  Pippa bounded over to the 'scary drawer,' the one loaded with Adam's mother's kitchen paraphernalia, three-quarters of which I didn't have a clue of what it was for, and pulled out a strange-looking masher that looked like a bed-spring. She smashed the wire-thingy into the potatoes with zeal, spewing small flecks of whitish starch onto the counter and into her white-blonde hair.

  Adam raised an impressed looking eyebrow.

  "If you mash any harder, Miss Muffet, I'll put you to work drilling gas wells."

  Pippa giggled and resumed her zeal-filled mashing, filling the air with their starchy, potato scent.

  I pulled the roast out of the oven. Adam pulled out a chair and arranged himself into it like a panther in a tree, his long, muscular thighs tugging against the denim, his blue-green eyes on my every move as I worked. I finished making supper in silence, coaching Pippa to slather butter on the green beans and corn. After a few minutes, Adam got up and stalked outside to the patio.

  Pippa glanced up at me, her grey eyes troubled.

  "Should I ask Daddy if he'd rather eat outside?"

  "Sure, go ahead."

  A pang of guilt settled into my gut. In my zealousness to find someplace to call home, I'd forgotten there was one very vulnerable little girl caught in the middle who'd become all too attuned to her parent's changes in moods. Now -I- was having mood swings as well, which made me little better than the mother who kept pulling the rug out from underneath Pippa's very fragile sense of home.

  That's just because you keep hoping Adam and Pippa will stay so -you- can set down roots here as well…

  Argh! Be gone, pesky thought! Get out of my mind!

  I pulled the dishes out of the cupboard and set them onto a tray to carry outside. Pippa came bounding back in to inform me her father had said 'yes'. Adam stuck his head back in the door.

  "Do you need help carrying things?"

  Gregory would have sat there and made me make all the trips alone.

  "Take this." I handed him the dishes. "And I'll carry out the rest."

  Within minutes the feast had been laid out on the outdoor table that faced the river. Adam stepped into the house and came out a moment later carrying an armful of citronella candles and a book of matches.

  "To keep the mozzies away," Adam said. "Otherwise we'll be giving the Aussie salute with our forks."

  The candles cast a pale, flickering light around the patio, giving everything a soft, romantic feeling. The sun set, casting the river into darkness, but the scent of water was heavy in the air. A small breeze blew across the patio as Pippa chattered about how much money she'd earned towards her 'unicorn,' her latest ride on Polkadot, her school work, and a nest full of baby birds we'd discovered in a bush. At last she got around to the topic I'd hoped she'd bring up on her own.

  "Emily asked me to come to her Christmas pageant tomorrow," Pippa said. "Can we go, Daddy? Please?"

  Adam put down his fork.

  "I don't know, honey. I don't really know any of the people."

  "You know Emily's mother. And Mrs. Hastings. And I've met a lot of other people who said they used to be your friend."

  I forced myself to nonchalantly chew my pork roast, pretending I hadn't orchestrated this entire nefarious subplot. Adam shot me a 'help me' glance, but I pretended to be oblivious. Pippa had learned long ago to wrap her father around her little finger. I would let her pester him, and only jump in if I thought it would seal the deal.

  "Where's this pageant being held?"

  "At the State Primary School," Pippa said. "Emily said they hold it the last weekend before the summer."

  Adam picked up his fork and pushed his green beans into his mashed potatoes.

  "I went to that school," Adam said.

  "Really?" Pippa said. "What was it like?"

  I ate in silence as Pippa drew out of her tight-lipped father all the sordid details about his and his twin brother's trip through the Nutyoon school system, including favorite teachers, what sports they played, and the fact that, back then, Adam considered himself to be a bit of an odd platypus. He gave Pippa some innocuous 'blackmail information' about Emily's mother, and then the discussion turned to her new friend.

  After a while, I heard the concession I'd been hoping to gain.

  "Okay," Adam said. "What can it hurt? But you've got to be good for Rosie, okay?"

  "Okay."

  We finished supper and washed the dishes together, and then Adam herded Pippa into bed. The sound of giggles, accentuated by the occasional deep-throated laugh, filtered out through her bedroom door. It had been like that between me and my own father. A lump caught in my throat and I wiped away a tear. No wonder I'd latched onto Pippa and Adam. Their relationship reminded me of the one I'd lost as a kid. But what else could I do? Six weeks I'd been here, and already my attempts to make it permanent had been shot down.

  After a while, Adam came out to rummage through the fridge. I glanced up from my book as he set a beer down on the coffee table.

  "Thanks."

  Adam settled into hi
s favorite king chair. He sipped in silence, his expression guarded as he sized me up like an eagle watching a mouse. There was something about being scrutinized while wearing your bathrobe that made me feel exceptionally vulnerable.

  "So you plan on working at Saint Joseph's come autumn?"

  I took a breath. I'd told him a lie, and now I had to live with it.

  "I interviewed at Saint Joseph's," I said. "The headmaster still has to make his recommendations to the board."

  Adam leaned back into his chair, his expression cloaked behind that unreadable expression he often wore, the one which reminded me of the man on the painted stallion.

  "When will you know?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe in the next few weeks?"

  Adam nodded.

  "Just let me know, okay?"

  Was that all he was worried about? That I'd quit and leave him in the lurch? I was unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.

  "I told them I couldn't start until the last week of January. If they need me sooner, I'll turn them down."

  A plethora of emotions danced across Adam's chiseled features, and then disappeared behind that expression he no doubt wore when he negotiated deals with oil sheiks and billionaires.

  "Thank you."

  We sipped our beer in silence. Some couples who were attracted to one another went out on dates. Others went someplace to talk. Me and Adam, since we already lived underneath the same roof, we sat on either side of this bloody coffee table which might as well have been the Great Wall of China and talked about absolutely nothing important. Why couldn't I just do as Linda had suggested? Why couldn't I tell Adam I wanted to stay here?

  Because the last time you told a man your dreams, he used them to manipulate you to support -his- dreams instead…

  "It'll be Christmas in a few weeks," I changed the subject.

  Adam stared at his bottle of White Rabbit. His next words came out so softly I almost didn't hear them.

  "Pippa will go with Eva for Christmas. If you'd like, you're welcome to take some time off to go visit your family."

  "I've never been much for Christmas," I said. "My father lives too far away."

  Adam caressed the woodland scene on the beer label.

  "Christmas was the one time of year Eva's father would let me come in from the oil fields. He would gather us all together at his homestead, starting with Midnight Mass and ending with a Boxing Day party that's a who's who of Eastern Australia." He looked up, his expression vulnerable. "It's why I agreed to let Eva take Pippa even though the court order says she gets to spend it with me."

  "Pippa said she only sees her grandfather once or twice a year?"

  "It's a bit more than that." Adam glanced down at his label. "Maynor Jackson is a very busy man. Sometimes he'd call and say he wanted to see her, but then he'd get busy and leave Pippa waiting by the door."

  "That's cruel," I said. "Kids get upset when their family stands them up."

  "I'm not going to throw any stones." Adam grimaced. "Sometimes, if I was out prospecting a well and we hit pay dirt, it would be me calling to explain it would be a few more days before I could get home, especially when Maynor started sending me out to prospect wells in the former Soviet Union. I was often gone more than I was home."

  Silence stretched between us. I could not picture Adam blowing off his daughter, but given how much he was forced to travel even now? Maybe… When you're young and your career belongs to somebody else, it's hard to say 'no' and risk losing your job, especially when your boss has no compunctions about blowing off his own family.

  "Is that why you went to work for Queensland Gas & Coal?"

  "You can't extricate yourself from a bad marriage when you've sold your soul to the devil." Adam's voice carried a tone of bitterness. "Randy Evans can't afford to pay me one-fifth of what Maynor Jackson used to pay, but he's a good man. He takes care of his employees, and he sends me out into the field a heck lot less than Maynor used to make me do. I took the job so I'd have more time to spend with Pippa."

  "How are you supposed to see her if you move all the way back to Brisbane?"

  Adam's face contracted into a peculiar mix of angst and anger.

  "Within fifty kilometers of Brisbane," Adam said. "The judge can't make me move a single meter closer."

  An odd sense of relief lifted my mood. Fifty kilometers? I pictured the maps I'd studied when I'd driven out here, the ring around Brisbane, all the suburbs within that fifty kilometer radius, all built up and clogged with cars. There were more teaching jobs near Brisbane. Maybe one of the resumes I'd just sent out might bear fruit? What school systems? He'd live along the A2, most likely, so he could get on and off the highway to commute to Toowoomba. I calculated the commute time in my mind. It was further away, perhaps another half an hour, but doable. But wait! Only a tiny portion of what Adam did entailed sitting in an office. Most of the wells he supervised on a daily basis were located between Dalby and Chinchilla. From here it was a three hour drive, difficult, but commutable. But from a Brisbane suburb?

  "It's a lot further away from your job than you are here," I said. "Who's going to take care of Pippa? And where will you put the horse you promised she could buy?"

  Adam opened his mouth as though he wished to say something, but then thought better of it and rose to his feet. He fished his wallet out of his pocket, and then placed a small, colorful rectangle onto the coffee table next to my beer.

  "Use this to pay for your expenses whenever you're buying groceries or taking Pippa on a day trip. It's a lot easier if my secretary handles paying the expenses than for me to worry about juggling cash. Especially, when I suspect, you haven't been billing me for half the things you've been doing."

  I picked up the MasterCard and ran my finger along the name engraved beneath the long, raised string of numbers.

  "It has my name on it," I said.

  "Of course," Adam said. "Otherwise they won't let you charge anything."

  An odd little sense of disappointment settled into my gut. I met his gaze.

  "Thank you."

  Adam picked up my bottle of White Rabbit, shook it and felt it was still half full, and then set it back down onto the small, wet condensation ring.

  "Goodnight, Rosie."

  "Goodnight, Adam."

  He placed his own beer bottle in the kitchen trash, and then disappeared down the hall to the garish salmon pink bathroom to shower and get ready to turn in. There was no lock on the toilet door, and I can't say how many times I'd daydreamed about 'accidentally' walking in on him while he stood naked in the shower.

  Bloody hell! Why'd Adam have to be such a spineless wimp when it came to dealing with his ex?

  Chapter 25

  The Christmas Pageant was a 'matinee,' scheduled for two o'clock, with a spaghetti supper to immediately follow. After an awkward lunch spent avoiding Adam's perceptive gaze, I retreated to my room to pick out something to wear. Usually, at school events such as this, the parents dressed nicely the way they would for church, but all I owned were my every day daggy clothes, a week's worth of 'teacher outfits,' and the little black dress I'd bought to appease Gregory. While nothing special, the black dress was too risqué, while my 'work outfits' were far too casual.

  Pippa knocked. I knew it was her because she always knocked in a funny sing-song pattern, whereas Adam always knocked tentatively, as though he feared he might someday walk in on me in the nuddy.

  "Come in."

  Pippa bounded in, the dog at her heels. She wore a violet silk party dress, with a matching chenille shrug and little violet matching leather slingbacks. The dress, I noticed, was a bit too tight, and the hem looked like it originally came below her knees.

  "Can you French braid my hair for me, Rosie?"

  "Sure," I said. "As soon as I find something to wear."

  "The black dress looks pretty."

  I held it up against me in the mirror.

  "Do you think it's too short?"

  Adam stu
ck his head inside the bedroom.

  "Is Pippa … oh … hey … um, sorry. The door was open."

  "It's okay," I said. "I was just trying to figure out what to wear."

  Adam stepped inside. He'd changed into a pair of charcoal dress slacks, lightweight wool, the kind so thin you could pass it through a wedding ring like a piece of silk, and a lilac dress shirt. His tie was the exact same shade of violet as Pippa's dress, most likely custom made, and even though he wore purple, he looked as though he'd just stepped off the cover of GQ Australia.

  I raised one eyebrow. Adam looked down at his shirt and shrugged.

  "It's from last Christmas. I haven't had time to bring Pippa into the city to buy something new and, honestly, even if I did, I have no idea what I'd buy. Eva always took care of these kinds of things."

  My image of Mr. GQ flew out the window, replaced by the Wicked Witch of the West peddling her bicycle furiously alongside Dorothy's house, cackling as the tornado carried the little girl off to the Land of Oz I forced myself not to scowl or ask, 'and I suppose Eva has a dress which matches Pippa's?'

  "Her shoes are too tight," I said.

  "They're fine," Pippa said. "See how pretty they are?"

  "Walk in them."

  Pippa took a few clumsy steps across the bedroom. Adam frowned. From the way Pippa placed her heels down gingerly so she didn't squish her toes, it was obvious the shoes no longer fit.

  "Seems you shot up over the summer, Miss Muffet," Adam said. "Better go change."

  "But da-ad!"

  "Go change," Adam said. "Unless you want to land flat on your face in front of your new friends."

  Eye roll. The Look. Mutter. Grumbling. Pippa headed back into her bedroom to put on her everyday sandals.

  Adam dominated my bedroom with his broad shoulders and narrow hips, a suntanned god who was dressed like he belonged in a board room rather than a cattle station. His eyes turned dark blue. I realized I still held the black dress up against my chest. I threw it down upon the bed with disgust.

  "I have nothing to wear tonight!"

  "I dunno … that little black number looks mighty nice." He waggled his golden eyebrows and gave me an exaggerated grin.