Alice Cove

CHAPTER TEN

10.

Flashback.

“How did we miss this before?” Jackson asked my GP as we watched the ultrasound on the little television as she moved the stick around my belly.

I was in shock, I hadn’t said anything after she said we were having twins.

“Sometimes the babies can be in position next to each other, so one is hiding the other. And if you recall the heart beat was irregular last time, and that’s why we’re having this ultrasound once again,” Dr. Stefani began, “now I see it was irregular because it was two. One is much weaker than the other, I was expecting it to be just a murmur, these things happen all the time.”

I was so scared, but excited.

Dr. Stefani frowned at Jackson then turned to me, “are you happy?”

“Of course,” I beamed, “just a little scared.”

I took Jackson’s hand, but he moved away from my advance, rubbing his forehead.

Dr. Stefani wiped the gel from my stomach, “you can put your shirt down. Do you want a copy?”

“Yes please,” I said, sitting up, “is this why I’ve been so exhausted lately?”

Jackson left the room, we both turned and watched the door close.

Dr. Stefani gave me a sad smile, “he’s probably just nervous. It’s a lot to take in. But yes, most likely, you’re not looking after two of you now, it’s three. I don’t think you’re in the need for bed rest just yet but that will most likely come. Twins is very hard, especially when it’s your first pregnancy.”

She gave a couple pamphlets from her drawer, “the main thing is to keep your fluids up and try and do a bit less, definitely no working out anymore, except on the couch.”

“Thank you Dr. Stefani.” I gave her a weak smile before leaving the examination room.

I found Jackson pacing the hallway in frustration, not excitement.

I had no idea where Josh was taking me, but it was along a dirty track behind his property through the woods. Was he going to murder me now?

“You know I can beat you up right?” I looked over at Josh. We were in his car since the track was muddy and full of rocks, we were bouncing around and my Utes suspension wouldn’t be able to handle this.

He looked at me confused, “why are you telling me something I already know?”

“Just in case you were taking me out here to try something.”

He laughed, “you’re too feisty to try and kill. Besides, who would I watch murder docos with.”

I looked at him slyly, letting him know not to try it.

“You’ve clearly been watching too many of them,” he gave me a half smile.

It wasn’t much longer until the trees cleared and we could see the horizon at the top of the cliff. I didn’t even realise we were driving on a incline to this. The view was spectacular and I didn’t even know this area existed. It was in actual fact a water fall that had dried out but there was still water underneath not too far down forming a large lake.

“This place is incredible,” I said looking forward. It was a long clearing before the deep green forest started again towards the inland. The sky was clear and blue complimenting the green of the trees.

Below was the lake that looked like crystal from up here, the grass was an off shade of yellow, dying a bit but there was free horses and cows below. The true countryside.

“Yeah, I come here from time to time, usually on my dirt bike,” Josh came up beside me putting an arm around me.

I looked up at him, “is this yours?”

He nodded, “up until that tree line,” he pointed towards the trees I spoke of after the clearing.

“Wanna jump?” He asked.

“What!” My eyes widened.

I looked down, the lake wasn’t ginormous and probably shallow.

“So you did bring me to kill me,” I gave him a glance.

“It’ll look like a suicide.”

My mouth gaped open at him.

“I’m just kidding,” he nudged my should, “but seriously, want to jump?”

I looked down at the lake once more, “are you sure it’s deep enough?”

I wasn’t one to shy away from an adrenaline rush, I also didn’t want to break my legs.

“Yeah it’s fine, the storms we’ve had this summer has kept it deep enough, I was here a couple days ago.”

It did look like I couldn’t see the bottom.

“Well you’re taller than me, so if I’m breaking my legs so are you.”

He laughed, pulling off his shirt and unbutton his pants. I did the same, we undressed until we were in our underwear.

“Okay one last chance to back out, are you sure it’s deep enough?”

“I promise you.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” He grabbed my hand and I nodded.

He kissed me then counted down, “3.2.1”

We stayed holding hands and then ran and jumped…

And we didn’t die, I emerged from the water and Josh’s head was already above water. The water was warmer than I thought.

“That was amazing,” I said, breathing in some air before going back under again. I emerged, pulling my hair back off my face.

“The waters so nice right,” he declared.

I nodded, keeping myself above water.

Josh found my hand and pulled me towards him, I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he kept me afloat.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said. And then kissed my neck.

I held onto him tighter, kissing his lips and letting his tongue enter my mouth, wrestling with mine, he grabbed onto the back of my neck and pulled me even closer.

I broke our kiss and starting kissing his neck, licking the fresh water off of him. I could feel him get harder underneath me.

“You drive me crazy, you know that?” He said, kissing my cheek and I unlatched my lips from his neck.

I laughed, “it’s not my fault I’m so irresistible.”

He laughed too, “it kinda is.”

We played and swam around for a while until our skin got pruney. We got out and sat on the waters edge for a while, trying to get a tan.

“So how do we get back up?” I asked, looking at the top of the cliff.

“Well it’ll take about an hour to circle back up, or we climb,” Josh grinned at me. He knew I loved to climb and get dirty.

I grinned back, getting up quickly.

He laughed at my enthusiasm. I held a hand out and helped him up, even though he used more of his weight than I did.

“I’ve spray painted the rocks that are anchored and better to use,” he said as we walked over to the cliff. I could see rocks spray painted black.

“You know I’m not as tall as you,” I looked at him, then back at the rocks. They were very few and far between.

“I’m sure you can manage with using a few in between, but try to stick to the black ones,” he said, tugging at the one at eye height for me.

“So there’s still a chance I’ll die,” I laughed.

He shrugged, “isn’t there always? You go first, and then at least if you get a shitty one I’ll be able to catch you.”

“Or take you down with me,” I countered with a shrug.

Josh lifted me up so I could put my feet on the first one and we were off.

I was like a spider monkey and did it with ease, I had barely any body weight to hold up and had done rock climbing in doors for all of my childhood, I knew to keep my arms straight as much as I could.

I made sure to use all the spray painted rocks, and then ones I needed between I would make sure to tug on first to see if they were stable, and few of them weren’t. I tried to throw them to the side, not down, considering Josh was right underneath me.

I reached the top in what I felt was record timing and stood up, looking down Josh was still quite a way behind me even though it’s apparent he’s done this quite a few times.

When he got to the top I put my hands out for him and helped him up the last step.

“f**k you’re quick,” we were both dry now and put our clothes straight on.

You knew this was my forte,” I laughed.

“Not like that,” he was a bit puffed out.

“What, you miss cardio at the gym do you?” I joked, poking his biceps.

“Yeah there’s definitely a lot more lifting over cardio at the farm, I ride a horse,” he frowned at me.

“Maybe you should be the sheep dog every now and then,” I laughed.

“I will f*****g chase you and catch you,” he threatened.

“Only because I’d let you,” I grabbed his shirt by the collar and pulled him down, kissing him quickly.

“You’re lucky I don’t chase you all the way back to the farm,” he said, opening the passenger door of the 4x4, “get in.”

I just giggled and did as he said.

When we got back to the house there was another car parked up, Hanson’s.

Hanson and Dan were both sitting on the porch.

“Aw! You didn’t bring the Range Rover?” I was referring to Dan’s car, his pride and joy.

“No f*****g way am I bringing Betsy in the dirt,” he furrowed his brow.

Josh laughed, “it’s a car man.”

“She is more than a car,” Dan exclaimed.

Hanson threw Josh and I a beer from the esky he was leaning on, “we brought the cows.”

“You know there’s plenty here right?” I waved behind the house to the paddock.

“I want to eat today, not next week.”

“That’s how long it takes you to prepare a cow? Yeah stick to your shanty beach house,” Josh smirked.

“More people get killed by cows every year over sharks, you know that right?” Hanson raised an eyebrow at Josh.

We all just laughed.

Hanson was a SUP instructor, which was the new craze over surfing. His business partner was the surf instructor, they also hired canoes and kayaks and such. Booming business in summer but not much else, he was on a similar schedule to me, except I was paid no matter what, he had to save all he could to make it last the year round.

We hung around all afternoon while we had the bbq until it was night. The moon was full and you could see every star in the sky. I laid on the grass watching the stars as the boys sat around the table talking s**t to each other. The sky was so clear, clearer than I’ve ever seen, maybe because civilisation seemed so far away.

Just as my eyes began to feel heavy a shadow covered my face and I looked up to see Josh positioning himself beside me. I noticed I couldn’t hear the others.

“What time is it? Where are the boys?” I asked.

“They went to the guest house to get some sleep.”

“Mhmm,” I kept watching the sky. Josh took my hand in his and we just watched together not saying anything for a few minutes.

“Tell me something I don’t know about you,” Josh finally said.

I laughed, “what do you mean?”

“I’ve only known you for not even 5 years, and know nothing about your life before you moved to Alice Cove,” he mused.

I don’t speak to anyone about my past life, for my own reasons. But I didn’t want to say that to Josh.

“I actually grew up in Alice Cove.” I declared.

Josh gave me a confused look.

“Well,” I rolled my eyes, “it was my home away from home, I went there for two weeks out of the year since I was a baby til like 20.”

“Bullshit,” he swore, “I definitely would’ve remembered you.”

I laughed, “alright slick, you probably wouldn’t have been around at the same time I was there.”

I could sense him rolling his eyes as he looked back up to the sky.

“You tell me something.”

“I actually found out a couple of years ago my dad had a few kids before me with another woman, while he was with my mum.”

I was shocked, “oh my god that’s crazy. Did your mum know?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know. I don’t even know them, I think it’s a boy and a girl. And it was before my parents were married so she might not have known.”

“So weird. And your mum stayed with your dad even after that.”

“Yeah, it was tough for a while but she’s fine with it now. Doesn’t want to meet them though.”

“Fair enough.”

Josh faced me. Holding himself up on his elbow, “you know you can tell me anything right?”

“Of course, I trust you,” I smiled, looking over at him.

“I love you Elody Clark, you’re so amazing.”

I think that was the first time Josh had said he loved me, properly. I knew I had love for him and felt it coming from him too. But I don’t think we actually said it, not even last time we dated, but it wasn’t as serious as now.

My breath hitched in my throat but a smile came across my face.

“I love you too Joshua Dawson.”

I leant forward and kissed him, he grabbed onto the back of my neck and held me there as he kissed me longer and harder.