Secrets in Pelican Crossing (Pelican Crossing #2)

Seven

Now Liz had sent off the email to Julie, she was impatient for a reply. What if the girl… woman had changed her mind? She couldn’t bear to have her hopes dashed. But it had only been three days since she’d laboured over the email before deciding to make it brief. If they did meet, there would be time enough for explanations.

But today, she had something else to think about. Unable to withstand Mandy’s continual nagging, she’d given in and booked the hot air balloon ride. This morning, she’d risen before the sun was up to meet her daughter an hour before dawn in a paddock outside town where the balloon was to take off. She was so nervous she hadn’t been able to eat anything before she left but had managed to gulp down a cup of coffee.

‘You’re going to love it, Mum.’ Mandy greeted her when she stepped out of her car, sorely tempted to get back in again and drive away. She loved the little, red, soft-topped Fiat she’d bought herself after the divorce. Tommy would have hated it, considered it was a toy car, but it suited her much better than the safe family Volvo he’d always insisted she drive. Maybe her purchase of the car had been one way of thumbing her nose at him and his opinions.

Liz gazed across the paddock to where a small group of people were standing around a basket sitting on its side on the ground, and two figures seemed to be shooting flames into a large piece of material which was gradually inflating to form a balloon. As the basket righted itself, Liz took a deep breath. It was too late to back out. What had Mandy let her in for this time ?

‘I’ll see you when you get back,’ Mandy said, giving Liz a hug. ‘You can tell me all about it.’

If I survive , Liz thought, but she listened carefully to the instructions of the man who appeared to be in charge and soon she had joined the excited group in the basket, above which floated the balloon. It somehow didn’t look big enough to support them in the air. Liz’s stomach churned.

‘Hold on,’ the man said – he’d introduced himself as Steve and spoke with an American accent – and with a few bumps they were off the ground and in the air. Liz closed her eyes. Maybe, if she didn’t look down, it would be all right. She had trouble standing in front of a full-length glass window, what would it be like to have only a fragile basket between her and… nothing?

There was the sound of excited chatter from the others in the basket. Liz cautiously opened her eyes. Holding tightly to the edge of the basket, she risked looking out… and down.

It was different from what she’d expected. It wasn’t as scary. They were floating with the breeze several metres in the air and gradually getting higher, but… she was no longer afraid. She took in the bird’s eye view of the shoreline and the bay below and began to understand how many people found it exhilarating. While she wouldn’t go so far as to describe the experience in those terms, and might not choose to repeat it, she was glad Mandy had persuaded her to ditch her inhibitions and come along. Seeing her hometown from this angle brought a whole new perspective. It all looked so beautiful, so calming, and the air up here seemed so very fresh. She breathed it in, enjoying the surreal tranquillity.

Nevertheless, it was a relief to set foot on solid ground again. ‘Thanks,’ she said to Steve as he helped her out of the basket. ‘That was quite an experience.’

‘No problem. Glad you enjoyed it. It’s Liz, isn’t it? You’re Mandy’s mum?’

‘That’s right.’ How did he know? How well did he know Mandy? He was closer to her age than Mandy’s, and wasn’t Mandy seeing Gary Whittaker?

‘Well?’ Mandy greeted her.

‘It was… good, better than I expected. ’

‘I told you you’d like it.’

‘But I don’t intend to do it ever again,’ Liz added, seeing a gleam in her daughter’s eyes.

‘We’ll see. How about breakfast?’

Liz suddenly realised she was hungry. The fresh air and, yes, she had to admit, the exhilaration of the balloon ride had given her an appetite.

‘ Blue Dolphin ?’ Mandy asked. The café close to the marina was a favourite of theirs, though not one Liz normally frequented for Sunday breakfast.

‘Meet you there.’

When she reached the café, the first person Liz saw was her friend, Poppy, who was with Cam Mitchell, the pair looking very loved up. She’d forgotten they made a habit of having breakfast there on Sundays, had done for years. Seeing them together brought home to Liz how much nicer it would be to be having breakfast with a man rather than her daughter.

She smiled at them, then she saw Mandy waving to her from a table in the far corner of the café and chastised herself. She should be grateful for what she had. She walked over to join her.

‘What did you think of Steve?’ Mandy asked when they had ordered and been served coffee. ‘Isn’t he hot?’

Liz stared at her. ‘Steve? I thought you and Gary…’

‘Not for me, Mum. He’s more your age.’

‘Oh, Mandy, you’re not trying to matchmake again?’

‘Just saying.’ There was a wicked twinkle in Mandy’s eyes, one Liz had seen before, when she signed her up for Happy Hearts.

‘Well, don’t.’ Steve had been a fine figure of a man, but what was someone of his age doing arranging hot air balloon rides? It was something for a younger man, one who was still making his way in life. Then she remembered how he’d known her name, known she was Mandy’s mother. A sudden thought occurred to her. ‘You haven’t been talking to him about me, have you? How do you know him?’

Their meals arrived, eggs benedict for Liz, and smashed avocado with roasted tomato and feta on sour dough toast for Mandy, preventing her from replying.

‘Well?’ Liz asked when the waitress had left, having ascertained they didn’t want more coffee .

Mandy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She took a sip of coffee. ‘I do know him,’ she said at last. ‘He dropped by one of my classes to hand out some brochures. It’s where I got the idea for your birthday. Since then, we’ve bumped into each other a few times. He often eats at the yacht club, seems to be a bit of a loner. I may have mentioned your name, said I had given you a voucher for the balloon ride.’ She put up both hands in a defensive gesture. ‘I swear that’s all. But you have to admit…’

Liz couldn’t help smiling. Mandy was incorrigible. ‘He’s a good-looking man. I’ll admit it, but…’

‘And he’s single.’

‘You didn’t ask him?’ Liz was shocked. Surely even Mandy wouldn’t go that far?

‘Have a heart. He always comes to the yacht club on his own. It a sure giveaway. He’s usually there on Thursdays. You could just happen to be there too…’

‘Enough!’ If they weren’t in a public place, Liz would have hit Mandy with something. As it was, she just glared at her. ‘I thought you had enough trouble finding a man of your own without trying to find one for me too.’ As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Liz regretted them. ‘Sorry, Mandy,’ she said seeing her daughter turn red, ‘I don’t know where that came from. But you have to leave me to live my own life the way I want to. If … and only if… I want a man in my life, I’m perfectly capable of finding one for myself.’

‘Sorry, Mum. I was only trying to help. I love you and I sense you’re lonely sometimes. I want to see you happy. I don’t want you to spend the rest of your life alone.’

‘I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. Shall we forget this conversation ever happened?’

‘Let’s.’

For the remainder of their meal, they kept to general topics, to how Mandy planned to expand her personal training business, and how Liz would spend Easter with both Tara and Mandy gone.

‘I intend to spoil myself rotten,’ Liz said, ‘binge my favourite shows on Netflix and catch up with my reading. You’ll both be back before I know it.’

But after she’d left Mandy with a hug and a kiss, and was driving home, Liz thought back to their conversation. Mandy was right. She did get lonely sometimes. It would be nice to have someone to come home to at the end of the day, to cuddle up to in bed. She had a vague recollection of saying – or of someone saying – something similar at one of the lunches with her friends. They had all been in the same boat, but now Poppy had a man in her life.

The image of Steve, the man she’d met that morning, floated into her mind. Would it be too blatant to do what Mandy suggested, to go to the yacht club one Thursday for dinner?