Page 30 of Into the Tempest

He studied me. “Ah jeez, Tully,” he said. “Are you telling me you don’t? Because your mother is a good gauge at these things. You know she said that Rowan would marry Diah from the second he saw her because of some look in his eyes. I dunno, I didn’t see it. But she did. Same with Zoe. Said her and Chris’d be married within the year because of the way Zoe looked at him. Guess she saw it in you and the way you look at him. I dunno how these things work, but she hasn’t been wrong yet.”

I tried to swallow.

“How... how did I look at him?”

Dad sighed and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Are you saying you don’t have feelings for him?”

“Yeah, of course I do,” I whispered. “I... I love him. I haven’t told him that yet though, and I didn’t expect to hear it from you. But I’ve never felt like this about anyone. He’s... he’s amazing, and I want to be with him all the time. The idea of not being with him makes me feel sick. I could spend every minute of every day with him and it’s still not enough. I... want to do everything I can to make him happy.”

Dad smiled at me, a little proud, a little teary. “Sounds like love to me.”

CHAPTER SIX

JEREMIAH

Dinner with Tully’sparents and his two brothers was not what I’d been expecting.

I’d been expecting them to rebuke him for the public tirade whilst wearing a company shirt thing. I had been expecting that because Tully had been.

Especially from his father and perhaps Rowan.

But it never came.

Instead, they boarded up all the glass doors and windows while his mother got dinner ready. She made me help, with which I was no help at all, I’m sure. But while we busied ourselves in the kitchen, she asked me about the office and the new job, and if I was happy to have left Melbourne.

She asked me how I was finding Darwin and the terrible heat. She asked me if I actually enjoyed my time at the bunker in the middle of Kakadu or if I was just saying that to make Tully happy.

She was horrified and somewhat dismayed when I told her I’d loved it. That I couldn’t wait to go again. She’d sighed dramatically, and said it was no wonder Tully was so smitten with me.

I certainly hadn’t been expecting that.

We ate dinner at the dining table, and while it was an informal dinner, I did feel a little scrutinised. Especially by Rowan. He was polite, of course, but he was also curious and asked me about my doctorate and dissertation, and even though it was general conversation, it somehow felt as if I was being interviewed.

To see if I was good enough for his brother.

Ellis had grinned, about to speak, until Tully—while making direct eye contact with Ellis—took the carving knife from the tray of roast chicken and put it beside his plate. A silent threat, but Ellis wisely chose not to make any jokes at our expense.

I didn’t have any siblings, or a close family for that matter, so I never had this... feeling. Sure, there was antagonism and snarkiness between them, but it was clear they all loved each other very much.

I envied them.

I envied them a great deal.

Though something else I noticed over the course of the evening was Tully’s behaviour toward me.

He sat with his hand on my thigh for most of dinner and I caught him looking at me, as if he was trying to figure out a complex equation in his head.

He was still very much himself, but something was different.

Maybe it was just that Rowan and Ellis were sitting opposite us, or that his parents were at either end of the table.

They never mentioned the media circus. Not to me, anyway. But I suspected his father had said something on the matter when they were fixing the glass panels on the balcony.

I was still grateful.

Then his father asked me when to expect Hazer’s pre-show. He’d been a boy during Cyclone Tracy, apparently. “I remember it all too well,” he said.

“As early as tomorrow evening,” I said. “The frontal system will bring the beginning of the storm. Rain, wind gusts, sea swells, as I’m sure with which you’re familiar. Hazer will likely be a two-day event, from the first rainfall, beginning to end. The cyclone is expected to touch down at 7:00 am the day after tomorrow. It’s difficult to predict its behavioural pattern once it crosses land, but we can make educated projections.” They all stared at me, and I tried to lighten the mood. “It’s not too late to leave. You’d only have to drive a hundred kilometres south, maybe two. I estimate Hazer will progress east once it hits land. The change of atmospheric pressure will cause the storm front to ride the warmer ocean winds, so effectively it will mow through the coastline toward the Gulf of Carpentaria. It should downgrade in intensity once it hits though, but if you do decide to leave, please take Tully with you. By force if necessary.” I looked at Tully and grimaced. I never should have opened my mouth. “I don’t believe it’s deemed kidnapping if it endeavours to save your life.”

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