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‘Oh, my God, Seth. That’s—’ Again, Mandy seemed lost for words. Tears now glistened in her eyes. ‘That’s astonishing.’
Seth nodded. If he wasn’t careful he’d have tears to deal with as well. He couldn’t talk about that day, couldn’t remember all that happened, without an accompanying cyclone of emotions.
‘What was it like?’ Mandy asked in a kind of hushed awe. ‘Were you scared?’
‘Hell, yeah. Of course I was scared. Shit scared. But I spoke to the ambos over the phone, so I basically knew what I had to do. And a big part of that was hiding how scared I was from Polly.’
‘Wow, Seth.’ Slipping her arms around him now, Mandy gave him a hug and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘I always knew you were an amazing guy. Even when we were kids, when I was giving you heaps and making out you were hopeless, I loved and admired you. So much.’
Shit. Now Seth really was blinking tears.
He wasn’t sure how long they sat there, in silence, staring into the bush.
Then Mandy chuckled. ‘Happy Christmas.’ And after a quick check of her phone, ‘Yep, it’s already after midnight. We’d better get to bed, or we’ll be wrecked for the rest of the day.’
‘Yeah,’ said Seth. ‘Happy Christmas.’ But the words were a whisper and his thoughts were in Melbourne with Polly.
Chapter Fourteen
Polly’s Christmas wasquiet—like really,reallyquiet. Mind you, that was exactly what she’d expected. Ever since her dad’s death, she hadn’t been invited to any of Mariah’s family gatherings. There’d been no contact at all, actually, so Mariah didn’t even know about Summer.
On Christmas Eve Polly took Summer into the city to be wowed by the famous Myer’s Christmas Windows. And she had great fun filling a stocking for Summer. Her obliging, darling girl was so cute, cooing and squealing with delight over her windfall of toys.
There had also been an office Christmas party, but Polly hadn’t attended it. Celia was still her only babysitting option and she was flat out doing everyone’s hair for all the parties that filled calendars at this time of year. And Celia’s own social life was pretty hectic too. But it didn’t really matter. Since the date with Will Cooper, Polly hadn’t bothered too much with social activities at the office.
Her date with Will hadn’t gone so well. Or, at least, it had been pleasant enough, until Polly realised halfway through the evening that Will’s main aim was to hook up for casual sex and she hadn’t been ready for that. Not that she’d been hoping to get serious either. She’d made a total hash of trying to explain this to Will, which was a pity.
Things had been a bit awkward in the office for a while. But Polly told herself all that really mattered was that the team was happy with her work and they paid her well. Besides, she still had the invitation to Silicon Valley up her sleeve.
Unsurprisingly, Celia had rolled her eyes when Polly had confessed about her failed date, but then the hairdresser had just started on the whole Seth rave again. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
So, all in all, Polly had been happy to spend her Christmas Day alone with Summer. More than once, she’d sent up a little prayer of thanks to the landscape gardener she’d chosen to be Summer’s father. While there’d been nothing in the paperwork to suggest he was easygoing and relaxed, Polly suspected that her hunch had been right. He’d passed those genes on.
She and her little sweetheart had enjoyed a pleasant enough day, dining on takeaway roast turkey and mango jelly and custard and watchingDie Hard,which was still Polly’s favourite Christmas movie.
She did wonder about Seth, however—although she had done her best to clear her mind of the X-rated possibilities Celia had suggested. After she’d sent Seth the Christmas card and the email link to an updated website, she’d hoped she might have heard from him by now. He was probably too busy having a good time, though, throwing brilliant parties in his beautiful house.
And that was okay.
Sort of.
*
On Boxing Day,Polly decided she needed an outing. She put Summer in her pram and took her for a long walk, following the winding path through the park and out the other side, exploring suburban streets where happy families were playing backyard cricket, firing up barbecues, or setting sprinklers on lawns for squealing kids to run though.
Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that she found herself remembering Wirralong and how she’d played backyard cricket with Seth. She remembered the time she’d sent a ball flying through a neighbour’s window and her father had made her pay for the damage in instalments out of her pocket money. At least her banker dad hadn’t charged her interest, she thought now, with a wry grin.
She wondered if kids in Silicon Valley played baseball in their backyards and that led to her wondering what sort of childhood Summer might have if they moved to America.
She still hadn’t quite made up her mind about the move.
*
Home again, Pollywas negotiating Summer’s pram through the front doorway when her phone vibrated in her pocket. By the time she’d extracted it, she’d missed the call, but the message on her screen told her it was from Seth.
She tried to ignore the silly zap that flashed through her, as if she’d walked into an invisible electric fence. At least Summer had fallen conveniently asleep, so Polly wheeled the pram into her bedroom and gently closed the door, then settled into an armchair to return Seth’s call.
He answered quickly. ‘Hi, Polly.’
