Page 22 of Sharing Forever in Hope Creek (Hope Creek #2)

Food and favourite colours were safe topics, but knowing they were likely to get much more personal very quickly, Callie lowered her hand, intending to distract him by caressing him intimately.

His hand shot down to cover hers and still her action. ‘Where did you grow up?’

‘Sydney. But—’ She’d been going to tell him enough questions for now, that they should be making the most of the time while Phil was still out, but he was taking ‘discovery’ seriously.

‘Do you remember your parents?’

His words had her stiffening in his arms, and she had to suppress the need to vault off the bed and move right away from him while she pulled herself together.

‘Callie?’ He shifted quickly and she was on her back looking up at him, unable to escape his gaze. ‘I’m sorry. You don’t want to talk about your parents?’

‘No.’ He was certainly attuned to her. ‘Unlike Stella and Morgan, I don’t have happy memories of my parents.’

He stroked his fingertips down her cheek gently. ‘I didn’t mean to trespass.’ Each word was slow and respectful, but there were questions in his eyes. Questions and unmistakable concern. And, while the concern warmed her, the questions terrified her.

‘I’m sorry, but my parents weren’t nice people and I don’t want to be judged by them.

’ Her words shook her because she’d never admitted as much to anyone in her life.

Her answer for anyone who’d ever asked had always been that her parents hadn’t been able to take care of her.

Nobody had ever pushed her for more information.

For her to volunteer that her parents ‘weren’t nice’ totally threw her.

She realised Jack’s opinion of her mattered.

‘I wouldn’t judge you by your parents, Callie,’ he told her gently.

‘Hell! I’m the last person on earth who’d judge anyone by their parents considering I was raised by a couple who lived in an open marriage.

They flaunted their lovers in front of each other and my sister and I, and they were so self-absorbed they employed a series of nannies to look after us.

Then they sent us off to boarding school—interstate—as soon as we were old enough. ’

‘Oh.’ That must’ve been tough, but his parents’ poor behaviour faded into insignificance in comparison to what Callie’s parents had done.

‘I had wondered when you’d said you’d been to boarding school in Melbourne.

I thought it must have been because they thought the school you went to was the best in the country or something. ’

‘My father was from country Victoria, and he’d gone to the all-boys’ school he sent me to,’ he conceded, ‘but I think it suited my parents to have Jacinta and I living so far away from them.’

‘Jacinta’s your sister?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are you in touch with her?’ It hardly seemed fair she was asking him questions when she wasn’t prepared to answer any of his, yet he didn’t seem to mind.

‘We keep in touch but we’re both busy and, having been at different boarding schools, I wouldn’t say we know each other all that well, although we were usually at home together during the school holidays.’

‘What does she do?’

‘She’s a brilliant criminal barrister in Sydney.’

A barrister!

Oh my God.

Callie’s whole body went weak and her stomach started churning. Ordering her dinner to stay where it was, she tried to focus on the rest of Jack’s words.

‘… lives in Rose Bay and is married to James, a senior counsel. They have a daughter, Eden, who’s …’ She could see him having to stop and think about it, ‘… almost two years old now.’

Say something—anything, she told herself, yet all the while, the words ‘brilliant barrister’ and ‘senior counsel’ kept bombarding her brain.

Finally, she managed, ‘Have you told … Jacinta about … about the baby yet?’

‘Not yet. But now the wedding’s over, I’ll give her a call.’ He paused. ‘I should probably call my mother, too, although there’s certainly no closeness between us.’

‘Didn’t you go back to Brisbane to help support her when your father was unwell?’ She was certain Stella had mentioned how Jack had dropped everything to support his mother and sister when his father had taken ill.

‘I did but, honestly, I don’t think she could’ve cared less whether I was there or not.

She’s never had any maternal instincts and I’ve never felt close to her.

’ He shrugged it off. ‘I went more to support Jacinta. She was having a hard time dealing with Dad’s death.

She had a lot of regrets about their relationship—or lack of one. ’

‘Oh.’ She looked past his shoulder and up to the ceiling. His words pierced right to the heart of her because she wondered how she would feel when each of her parents passed away.

Would she have regrets that she’d become estranged from them?

The shield she’d built around her heart whenever she thought of them suddenly weakened. Instantly she reinforced it, reminding herself that her parents had sealed their own fates with their actions. Besides, she had a child to consider now. She couldn’t expose her child to her parents’ world.

‘My mother lives in Argentina now with her new husband—a man she married when my father was barely in his grave. From what I can ascertain, this new guy had been her lover whenever he’d been in Australia playing polo.

’ There was disgust in his tone. ‘I don’t really care.

In fact—’ he looked amused, ‘—I will phone her on Monday or Tuesday. I’m sure she’ll be royally pissed off learning she’s going to have a second grandchild.

She ranted at Jacinta that she wasn’t old enough to be a grandmother when Jacinta was pregnant with Eden! ’

‘She sounds awful!’ As soon as she uttered the words she felt embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—’

Jack laughed. ‘Don’t be sorry. She is awful. In fact, awful is too nice a word for her!’

Yikes.

What would he think about her parents if he ever found out the truth?

‘How would you feel about flying to Sydney with me to meet Jacinta and James?’

No.

Everything in her railed against meeting his sister and her husband and she broke into a cold sweat.

They were lawyers, for goodness’ sake. Lawyers were trained in cross examination and the last thing Callie wanted was to be put under the microscope and have Jack’s sister or brother-in-law digging into her past.

Most people could be easily put off from asking questions. Most people respected the vibe that she didn’t want to talk about her childhood and upbringing, but a lawyer … And, of course, because she was having Jack’s baby, his sister and brother-in-law would be naturally curious about her past.

‘Er …’

‘Do you know when it’s considered unsafe for you to fly?’

‘No. I don’t. I’ll … ask the doctor at my next appointment.’ That would at least buy her a little reprieve and, who knew, with a bit of luck by the time she had her next appointment, she’d be past the safe time for flying and unable to travel to Sydney.

Coward , her inner voice screamed.

Yes. She was a coward, but at the very least she could hope for more time for Jack to get to know her in case he judged her by the sins of her parents. Margaret was right in saying Callie had spent a lifetime trying to prove she wasn’t like them.

‘You’ll like Jacinta and James. It’s always amazed me how they’re brutal in the courtroom but totally relaxed socially.’

Brutal.

Oh gosh.

‘Bathroom,’ Callie blurted.

When Jack moved to one side to let her up, she leaped off the bed and ran to the bathroom to be physically ill. It was stress that’d made her ill, but thankfully she’d be able to pass it off as being due to her pregnancy.

It was a bit disconcerting to realise he’d followed her into the bathroom. As her stomach heaved, he held back the strands of her hair that had escaped her swept-up hairstyle during their passion. He rubbed between her shoulder blades with his other hand.

How embarrassing. This was as far away from romantic as it was possible to get.

After all the intimacy they’d shared making love, this was a real come down as a ‘get to know you’.

In sickness and in health.

The traditional words that Mitch and Stella had included in their wedding vows played through her head.

‘All over?’ Jack asked when she’d knelt quietly in front of the toilet bowl for a little bit without her gut wrenching.

She nodded.

‘Let me help you up.’

Her body was trembling when he helped her to her feet and her knees were sore from resting against the unyielding tiled floor, but there was nothing left in her stomach to empty.

Jack was unshakably kind and supportive as he led her to the basin so she could wash her face. Opening one of the mirrored cabinet doors above the basin, he pulled out a new toothbrush and some toothpaste.

‘Thankfully the cottage is well stocked for guests,’ he told her.

‘I think I’ll jump in the shower, too.’

He was attuned to her needs because he respected her need for privacy and didn’t suggest they shower together. ‘Will you be okay? You don’t feel faint?’

‘No. I’ll be fine.’

He nodded. ‘Well, call me if you start feeling weak or faint. I’ll be within earshot.’

‘Thanks.’

Standing under the warm jet of water, Callie soaped herself with the fragrant lime and lemon shower gel, then stood for a few seconds with her arms wrapped around her body.

She’d have to meet Jack’s sister some time.

She could probably find excuses not to travel to Sydney until after the baby was born, but wasn’t it better to go sooner rather than later and get any questioning over with?

She thought back to Stella and Mitch’s vows, too.

Communication was important.

If she and Jack were going to work at having any future together as a couple apart from the inevitability of their shared parenting roles, she’d have to come clean with him about her past at some point. Wouldn’t it be better if she told Jack the truth rather than him learning it from someone else?

Yes. It would be better to be honest with him.

But when? How long did she give them to get to know each other before telling him and hoping that the truth didn’t prejudice him against her?

Turning the water off, she stepped on to the cool tiles and dried herself off with a sumptuously fluffy bath sheet. She wrapped the towel around herself and walked back into the bedroom.

Jack didn’t notice her. He was looking at the screen of his mobile phone and she saw that his features were tense as he scrolled through a long message.

‘Is everything okay?’ she asked quietly.

‘Yeah, fine,’ he told her before he scrolled up and re-read the message—his frown deepening.

‘Jack?’

‘All good.’ He lowered his phone and sent her a devastatingly handsome smile that made her heart flutter. ‘How about you? Are you feeling better?’

‘A bit.’

‘Do you normally get sick at night? I hope it wasn’t brought on by our lovemaking.’

Callie smiled. ‘It definitely wasn’t but thank you for being concerned. It’s most likely because it’s been such a long couple of days.’

‘Do you need me to get you something to eat or drink now?’

‘No thanks. I think I need to sleep.’

Jack glanced back at his phone.

Callie got the impression something was definitely wrong, but she wasn’t about to push him for an explanation.

She figured he was entitled to keep private whatever it was that troubled him.

There were, after all, things about her life that she didn’t want to reveal to him.

Besides, he ran a huge corporation and there were bound to be issues from time to time.

She guessed it was a business problem rather than something personal.

One day maybe they’d reach a point where they both felt comfortable enough with each other to share their secrets and concerns. Until that point, she’d let him keep his secrets because she definitely wanted to keep hers for as long as she could.