Page 19 of The Beach Cottage
“I can help, if you like. I’ve filled out a lot of paperwork in my time. I’m pretty good at writing mundane details into small boxes.” He grinned. “I know focusing on one thing at a time is hard for you.”
The outdoor light illuminated his face. His chin was covered with stubble in a way that was both adorable and completely out of character for him. He was usually so well-groomed that it was off-putting. The opposite of Penny, who hardly looked in a mirror most days.
The two of them were like magnetic poles. They didn’t attract one another—they repelled. They couldn’t be more different if they tried. And yet, there was something about Rowan that not only got under her skin, but intrigued her. She couldn’t stand him, yet wondered what he was doing whenever he wasn’t with her. The fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about him infuriated her even more.
She rinsed off the board and herself while Rowan leaned against the house wall, arms crossed, watching her with a half grin on his handsome face. She was further irritated by his smugness.
“Why did you come over here to see me only to laugh at me?” she asked as she dripped dry outside the mudroom door.
His smile faded. Then he scowled. “I’m not laughing at you.”
“Yes, you are. I’ve seen that look on your face for as long as I’ve known you. You enjoy criticising and teasing me. Why do you do it?”
He pushed his hands deep into his pockets. She opened the door. For the first time, the look on his face stopped her in her tracks. Had she gone too far?
His nostrils flared. “You wouldn’t understand.”
She’d been half joking, but his response made her frown. Did he really go out of his way to irritate and laugh at her? She’d wondered for years, but perhaps she’d been right all along. It must’ve been some kind of game for him.
“Try me,” she said, pressing her hands to her hips.
He grunted. “You wouldn’t understand what it’s like to want something you can’t have.”
He raised a hand towards her face as if to cup her cheek with his palm, then let it fall to his side. His jaw clenched. Before she could respond, he spun on his heel and stalked into the darkness. The sound of his car door slamming and the engine revving to life before it growled away echoed through the quiet evening air. Penny gaped after him, her eyes wide.
After Penny had gotten dressed, she put off filling out the grant paperwork yet again and padded down the hallway in her bare feet to her brother’s room. When he was on the island, he stayed with her at the beach house. But most of the time, he lived on the mainland, travelling around to whatever construction site he was working on at the time. He’d married a woman on the mainland five years earlier, but they were separated, so she’d seen a lot more of him lately than she had in a long time.
She knocked on his bedroom door, and it swung open. “You decent?”
“Come in, Pen.”
She walked into the room and sat on his bed. The covers were wrinkled, and the pillow was at the wrong end. She’d never known Rob to make a bed in his entire life. He wasn’t much good at picking up after himself, either.
“How are Jacqui and Julian?” His estranged wife and son lived in Townsville. Julian was five years old.
He sighed. “He starts school next week.”
“That’ll be exciting for him.”
“I’m going to Townsville so I can be there to take him on the first day.”
“That’s good. You don’t want to miss it.”
He shook his head, his face grim. “I miss so much as it is.”
“Do you think you and Jacqui will ever get back together?”
He sighed. “I hope so. I’m working on it. I’ve been calling her every day in the hopes that she’ll talk to me, give me some idea what I can do to reconcile. But she’s still not cooperating. She’s good about Julian, though, and always gives me time to talk to him and tells me about what’s coming up.”
“If you really want to make things work, I’m sure you will.”
“I don’t know. She seems ready to move on. I think she might be dating again.”
“What makes you say that?” Penny asked.
He chewed on his lower lip, eyes bright. “She said something about her mum coming over to watch Julian the other night. I don’t know—the tone of it or something made me think she’d been on a date. But I could be wrong. I hope I am.”
“You still love her?”
