Aunty Marge returned with her own tray of cold drinks. Joelle nabbed a gla.s.s of chilled punch and roused herself to say h.e.l.lo to her Dad and Uncle Phil at the barbecue.
"h.e.l.lo, love," said Phil. "Long time no see."
"Hi Uncle." Joelle hugged her father. "How are you two doing?" she asked eyeing the raw sausages and steaks piled on a tray.
"Not quite up to speed yet," said her father, swatting at a marauding fly with his tongs. "But it"s all under control if you"ve been sent out to spy by your mother."
"No, I"ve only just walked in the door. Anyway I"ve been talking to Gran and Marge and Kelly." Joelle laughed. "Whose idea was catering?"
"Mine. I didn"t want your Mum working on her birthday."
"Will had to fight tooth and nail to be allowed to do the meat after last time apparently. What happened exactly?" Phil asked with an exaggeratedly innocent expression on his face.
"Never you mind," said her father as Joelle opened her mouth to explain how twenty guests had eaten charcoaled meat in the middle of the night. "Accidents can happen. It was a new barbecue and I hadn"t learnt all its little foibles."
"How are things in The Garden of Earthly Delights?" asked Uncle Phil. He rolled the name off his tongue with relish. It never ceased to amuse him.
"Really busy. We had a big wedding yesterday. I was exhausted last night. We had to get up early to finish everything. The bride was extra fussy but it went well."
"Is that where you were yesterday?" interrupted her father. "Your Mum was worried when you weren"t home all day. She kept getting *leave a message" when she rang and your mobile was off."
"Yes. I had heaps of messages from her. What was that about? Why was she so desperate to remind me to come today? Did she think I"d forget her birthday?"
"No, she...you know what she"s like...she wanted the whole family here."
"It"s nice," put in Uncle Phil. "We don"t get together often enough."
"No, I"m glad you all made the effort. Especially Kelly and Tom bringing Mum down with them."
"I hear you"re to be a grandfather, Uncle. That"s wonderful."
"Isn"t it? For once I"ve beaten this character to the punch." Uncle Phil flung an arm around his brother-in-law"s shoulder.
"I"m not even in the race," said Joelle. "Sorry, Dad, and I doubt whether Mel is either. Bridget could be your best hope."
"I"m too young to be a grandfather," her father said.
An elderly man approached across the gra.s.s. "Will, I"ve been sent to tell you it"s time to start cooking," he said.
"Thanks, Gordon."
"Too b.l.o.o.d.y hot out here." Gordon saluted and wandered away towards the house.
Joelle watched her father toss the meat onto the sizzling hot plate. Almost immediately, a mouth-watering aroma drifted around the garden, taking her back to countless other Sunday barbecues with or without hordes of guests. Sometimes he"d cooked for just the four of them, sometimes two or three friends dropped in or one of the girls had a group stay overnight.
How could they function without Dad in his *Famous Chef" ap.r.o.n given to him by Mel, his surprising and uncharacteristic pa.s.sion for Latin American music, his enthusiasm for trying different recipes on his hotplate, his love for his girls?
She slipped an arm around his waist and deposited a kiss on his cheek.
He turned his head, surprised, tongs raised in one hand. "What"s that for?"
"That"s for being the best Dad ever," she said.
He squeezed her with his free arm and returned the kiss. "You"ve made a pretty good job of being a daughter."
"Here"s the other one. Melanie," said Uncle Phil. "h.e.l.lo there."
"Hi Uncle." Melanie gave him a quick hug. "Hi Dad, hi Jo."
"h.e.l.lo, love."
Joelle studied her sister. She"d added another stud to the collection in her ears and her hair had changed colour again. Deep burgundy with orangey tips cut in a s.h.a.ggy style. Hairdressing was her current focus. She had on a black singlet top barely reaching the waistband of her short wine coloured skirt, thong style sandals, ankle bracelet and her toes sported two silver rings. A stubbie of beer swung from one hand.
"Is that a real tattoo?" Joelle asked as Melanie turned to inspect the cooking meat and revealed a small dragon winding over her tanned shoulder.
"Yep. Like it?"
"A tattoo?" asked her father. "Where?"
Melanie pulled the singlet strap aside.
"Not bad," said Uncle Phil. "Has Natalie seen it?"
"Not yet."
"I like it," said Joelle. Mel gave her a surprised grin.
"Really?"
"Yes. It"s a lovely Chinese dragon. Symbolises good luck"
"There"s not much I can say, is there?" Her father prodded a sausage. Juice and fat squirted hissing onto the barbecue. Obviously, he didn"t think much of the good luck aspect.
"Not a thing, Dad," said Melanie. She took a swig from the stubbie and belched quietly.
Uncle Phil raised his eyebrows.
"Is Paul here?" asked Melanie.
"No."
"Who"s Paul?" Uncle Phil"s eyebrows danced upwards again.
"Jo"s boyfriend," said Mel.
"No, he isn"t. He"s a friend."
"Since when?"
"Since he"s always only been a friend." Joelle began to walk towards the house. The last thing she wanted was an interrogation and discussion of her love life in front of her father and Uncle Phil.
Mel followed. She was like a terrier sometimes. Didn"t know when to drop a subject. They reached the steps to the terrace and she said, "Who was the guy you had coffee with yesterday?"
"None of your business," Joelle said automatically. The Annie grapevine hadn"t failed, just as she"d thought. Paul should know by now too, otherwise why had Mel brought up the subject at all? She thought Paul was too boring for words.
"I saw Annie last night at Frenetic. She said he was a hunk and you two were gazing into each other"s eyes."
"What? Annie"s such a..." Joelle laughed incredulously. "He came into the shop to buy flowers and asked me to have coffee. He was very nice and he had some time to fill before he went back to Sydney. I think he"d had a traumatic meeting with someone and he just needed a friendly chat."
"And?"
"And nothing."
"So? Have you given Paul the flick yet?"
"I think so," said Joelle. Something about the expression on Melanie"s face-surprise, sympathy perhaps, or at least a softening of the normally scornful curl to her lip made her say, "But I don"t see why I couldn"t have an innocent coffee with another man even if I hadn"t split with him. Paul"s too...oppressive. He doesn"t understand I"m not madly in love with him. He"s always coming in to the shop-like he"s checking up on me. I suggested he go out with other girls and he freaked. He went all cold and angry."
"You"re better off," said Mel. "Trust me."
For once Joelle could agree with her sister, much as she hated to admit it. She pulled the sliding door open, standing aside to allow other guests to move outside. Mel headed for the kitchen swinging her empty stubbie by the neck. The caterers were busily setting out food on the dining table that had been pushed along one wall of the s.p.a.cious family room.
Grey-haired old Mrs Wilberforce was sitting by herself in a corner clutching a gla.s.s of fruit punch. Joelle walked over to join her, dragging another chair close.
"h.e.l.lo Mrs W," she said.
"h.e.l.lo, Joelle."
"I hope you won"t mind but I parked on your nature strip. There wasn"t any room anywhere else."
"That"s all right, dear. It"s a wonderful party isn"t it? Your mother has so many friends, it was kind of her to invite me."
"Of course she"d invite you. You"ve been neighbours for as long as I can remember."
"Yes, John and I came here about a year after your parents. You were just a tiny baby, I remember, and your Dad was a history teacher at the school."
"Yes, he was made Princ.i.p.al when I was about five."
"I used to mind you and your sisters for your mother sometimes."
"I remember that too. We liked playing with Pebbles."
"Poor Pebbles has moved on to the big doggy playground," Mrs W said and chuckled. "Years ago now."
"Mum used to get upset when Pebbles jumped up and licked our faces." Joelle laughed. "She doesn"t like dogs. She"s more a cat person."
"Natalie"s a lovely lady. She gave me a beautiful bunch of flowers yesterday. *To make up for all the cars and bother in the street today", she said. As if I"d worry about something like that on her birthday."
"I wonder where she got those," said Joelle in surprise.
"Oh, from your shop, of course," said Mrs W. "Where else? Your sticker was on the wrapper. The liliums are wonderful, such perfume it fills the whole house."
"She must have popped in when I was out. We had a big wedding to do yesterday." But if she had, why hadn"t Viv or Tracey mentioned they"d seen her and why had she tried to phone all day? If she"d been to the shop she"d know about the wedding. She could easily have left a message. As Alice said, *Curiouser and curiouser."
Plus the liliums had sold out on Friday and she"d been in the shop all day except that half hour with Shay. Viv would definitely have mentioned seeing Natalie.
Later, when the last guests had staggered off into the darkness, the relatives had departed, the caterers had packed up and most importantly cleaned up, and the Latin American music was back in its box, Joelle sat on the terrace in the warm night air with her family. Mel sprawled on one cane chair with her bare feet on another. Her parents lay side by side in recliners, gazing up at the stars.
"Thank you for a lovely birthday." Her mother smiled from one to the other. Joelle"s father extended his hand and she took it. "I"m truly blessed. I have a wonderful family. It"s such a shame Bridget isn"t here."
"We have a fantastic Mum," said Joelle.
No-body spoke for a few minutes. Joelle stared into the darkness of the garden. A gentle ocean breeze began stirring the leaves and moving cooler air about, heavy with the smell of the sea. Such a lovely night. What was Shay doing right now? Was he thinking about her the way she was thinking about him? She"d have to leave soon. Work tomorrow. Where had those flowers come from her mother had given Mrs W?
"Mum?" she said. "When did you buy those flowers you gave Mrs W?"
"Flowers?" Her mother"s surprised voice sounded loud in the quiet of the night.
"Mrs W said they had our sticker on the wrapper."
"Oh. Umm I..."
"Someone gave them to your mother," came her father"s quiet voice.
"Who? A secret admirer?" asked Mel.
Joelle giggled. "Why would she give them away, in that case?"
"So Dad wouldn"t murder him and bury him in the garden."
"Maybe he already has."
"It was someone who came to the house to see us," he said in a voice clearly fed up with their nonsense.
"When?"
"On Friday."
That made sense but who could it have been? Why were they both being so cagey? Joelle began idly sifting through the customers who"d bought bouquets with liliums on Friday. Not too many because there hadn"t been a lot left.
"Who was it?" she asked.
"For heaven"s sake why are you two so nosey?" snapped her mother. "We"d invited someone over and he brought me flowers."
"And you gave them away? Nice one," said Mel.
"The perfume was rather overpowering but they were so pretty I didn"t want to throw them out."
"I"ve got something to tell you," said Mel abruptly into the silence that followed this statement.