Ryan’s honeymoon retreat was the kind of paradise Abbey had never dreamed of.
The sign at the end of the beach road simply said ‘Bliss’, the word painted with small black lettering on a cream sign and discreetly tucked in between the coconut palms. Abbey had heard of this place, but had never been here. Few locals had, and for one good reason.
They couldn’t afford it.
From the time Ryan nosed his car into the wide, white sweep of the entrance the place screamed money at its most tasteful.
Reception was vast-a cavern of pale grey marble with great wooden ceiling fans, stirring the warm air straight from the sea, and huge cane chairs and settees with cushions that just begged to be sat on. The whole of Reception was open to the sea breeze, like a vast canopy. On one side was the white sandy road leading into the place. Once up the gracious, curving steps-assisted by doormen who knew just the right welcoming touch-all you could see was the sea.
Sapphire Cove was lovely, and ‘Bliss’ showed it off at its loveliest.
Abbey refused point blank to use the wheelchair Ryan produced. She hopped up the steps on crutches and gazed in awe out to sea as Ryan booked in. Even Reception wasn’t your standard hotel counter. A sleek and beaming lady, immaculately groomed and wonderfully welcoming, tactfully led Ryan to a small cane desk while Abbey and Leith gazed around in awe.
‘You wait until I tell my sister I’ve been here,’ Leith breathed. ‘One of the kids at school said his brother tried to come here and got kicked out. Oh, Doc Wittner, do you think Dr Henry can afford it?’
‘He must be able to,’ Abbey said doubtfully. ‘I wonder where Janet-’
‘They’re waiting for us in our villa,’ Ryan said, appearing at their elbow like a benevolent genie. He looked down at Abbey’s tight face in concern. ‘Are you tired? Would you like me to carry you?’
‘No. Ryan, we can’t… I can’t…’ Abbey gazed around in consternation. ‘Ryan, this place will cost you a mint. I can’t possibly pay you back for this.’
‘Maybe you already have,’ Ryan said gently, and he cupped her chin in his hand and tilted her face, forcing her eyes up to meet his.
‘Abbey, we both practise medicine. You choose to practise here for peanuts, and because of you people like me are free to practise elsewhere for sums of money that would probably seem to you to be obscene. Quite simply, that’s what I earn, Abbey. It isn’t fair but that’s the way it is. As a doctor, you’ve cared for my father for the past four years, and I’m grateful. You work a damned sight harder than I do for a lot less. So shut up now and let me balance the books a little.’
And, without waiting for another protest, he simply swung her up in his arms and headed down the path towards the sea. ‘Come on, then, young Leith. Let’s see if we can hang ten before lunch.’
They didn’t hang ten. Hanging toes over the end of a surfboard here would have meant an immediate bellyflop into the water. Sheltered from open ocean by the Great Barrier Reef, the surf at Sapphire Cove was non-existent.
The water was as calm as a mill pond, but it was far more lovely than any mill pond could ever be. Sparkling blue and stretching on for ever…
The farmer who’d done the milking for Janet had, at Ryan’s request, brought Janet and Jack here straight afterwards. Janet met Abbey with a look of wonder. Abbey’s mother-in-law was so stunned that she was almost ready to enjoy herself. To Abbey’s astonishment, she donned a pair of faded black bathers and was the first to hit the water, whooping with a delight Abbey had never heard from her.
‘Ryan says I’m to enjoy myself or he’ll take you home,’ she told Abbey. She grinned. ‘And he says if you go home you’re headed for a breakdown. So, with a threat like that hanging over my head, what’s a woman to do?’ She abandoned her walking stick at the water’s edge, forgot her arthritic hip and prepared to follow orders to the letter. She and Jack whooped and splashed in the shallows like two children instead of one staid grandma with grandchild.
And Abbey?
Ryan showed her to their unit, which was right on the water’s edge and unbelievably luxurious, allowed her two minutes to change into her bathing costume and then carried her to the shoreline. Here he set her down in the shallows on a cut-away seat-a seat with no legs-and organised another seat for her foot to rest on. His coup de grâce was a large green garbage bag which he taped over her massive bandage.
‘There. You can’t get your bandage wet if you try.’
And then he was off, scooping up the wondering Leith and carrying the little girl out on her first ever serious swimming lesson.
Abbey was left with her mouth open. Stunned as a beached whale.
For a transformation, a genie in a bottle could hardly have done better. She gazed about her in awe. The beach resort was unobtrusively netted, way out There was no threat of marine stingers here. Janet was lying full length in the shallows, her grandson crowing in delight as he crawled all around her. It was impossible to tell who had the biggest smile, Janet or Jack.
And Leith… The wan little girl was listening seriously to what Ryan was telling her and then putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles. Not such a big deal maybe-but Abbey knew how frightened the little girl was of new experiences and she also knew Leith wasn’t accustomed to water.
All of them-Janet, Jack and Leith-were putting their trust absolutely in Ryan Henry. Ryan had told Janet she must drop her isolated grieving and here she was, doing just that. He’d told Leith to leave her terror behind and the child had obeyed.
And what of Abbey?
It was Tuesday morning, for heaven’s sake. If anyone had told Abbey the week before that this Tuesday she’d be lying on the beach with her feet up she would have laughed in disbelief. Yet here she was…
She lay back and watched them. Her Jack. Her beloved Janet.
Her Ryan.
The thought brought her up with a jolt.
What had her heart meant by that? It had been an involuntary thought but it stayed, insidious in its appeal.
Her Ryan?
He was no such thing. Once upon a time she’d been proprietorial about Ryan Henry. ‘He’s my friend,’ she’d told her mother, and when Ryan had gone off with the big boys to play cricket or football or other boy stuff it had been all Abbey could do not to appear jealous.
Well, he wasn’t her Ryan now. He was engaged to be married to a lady called Felicity who, Abbey gathered, could appear at any minute. To claim her own. And Abbey certainly couldn’t let her jealousy show then.
Jealousy?
Abbey examined the word from all angles. How could she possibly be jealous of Felicity? After all, she hardly knew Ryan any more. He had left here almost twenty years ago. He was rich and successful and… and practically American.
But she looked out to where Ryan’s tanned, muscled body was glistening in the morning sun, the water running in rivulets down his broad back and catching the rays of the sun across the sea. He looked across and laughed at her, his eyes crinkling in just the same way they had when he’d first met her. A long time ago…
Some older girls had been teasing the tiny Abbey on her way to school, and one of them had tipped her lunch out into the dirt. Abbey had sat down, tear-stained and angry, trying to separate the dirt from her sandwiches. Then, all of a sudden, Ryan had been there.
‘Kid, I have six whole sandwiches, two chocolate bars and a game of football at lunchtime,’ he’d told her. ‘I can’t possibly manage to eat everything in the time available and if I did I’d get fat. Let’s feed your sandwiches to the seagulls and divvy up my lunch between us.’
Abbey had looked up through tears at this big, kindly boy with the twinkle and laughter behind his eyes, and her heart had been his ever since.
And, damn, the man just had to look at her now…
‘Penny for them.’