Nobody but Him by Victoria Purman

Author:Victoria Purman [Purman, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Contemporary Women, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781743644935
Google: gSNcAAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Harlequin Enterpises AU
Published: 2013-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

17

Two hours after presenting to the board of Blackburn and Son Developments and winning its agreement to create Windswept, Ry and Dan were propping up the heavy wooden front bar of a boutique pub in a little Adelaide laneway just around the corner from their office. They were crammed in with the hundred or so other Thursday night patrons, who were drinking cocktails and champagnes and designer beers, celebrating the end of another working day in the city’s business district.

‘Dan,’ Ry slurred, propping one polished black shoe on the brass footrest in front of him and loosening his tie. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you. Any of it.’

‘You got that right.’ Dan held up two fingers to the bartender, signalling for another round. ‘Windswept is going to win awards, you know that? Those plans are incredible. Remind me again, how many homes are we gonna build?’

‘Five hundred. And how many trees are we planting?’

‘Quarter of a million. We are fucking awesome,’ Dan shouted and clinked his glass with Ry’s before throwing an arm around his shoulder. Ry let himself feel proud of this moment. There were only three people in the world who knew how hard the past five years had truly been, the blood, sweat and tears — especially tears — involved in just surviving. In making it to this day and being able to celebrate and see a future. He’d have to call his mother and tell her the good news.

Another icy-cold beer appeared in front of Ry and he rubbed his fingers over the condensation, creating lines on the glass like a map.

‘Dan, what do you reckon Dad would say if he was here?’

Dan slapped him on the back. ‘Mate, he’d be buying drinks for the whole damn bar.’

Ry smiled wistfully at the memory of his father’s warm heart and generosity. He wished with everything he had that Charles Blackburn could be right alongside him to celebrate Windswept. But that wish was five years too late to come true.

Five years before, Ry’s father had just returned from emergency talks with the bank over the company’s debts. The global financial crisis had hit the property market — and Blackburn and Son Developments — hard, and Charles, his father, was trying desperately to stop the company from going under.

Ry sipped his beer and re-lived that night for the thousandth time. It was imprinted on him like a scar. It was always easier to put the pieces together afterwards, Ry knew, but he should have noticed his father’s distraction in the months beforehand. How hard he’d been working, how pale he’d become. That particular night Ry had noticed for the first time just how old his father looked, his cheeks sagged into slackened pockets of skin on his jaw, as if it didn’t have the energy to keep itself elastic anymore. The larger-than-life man he’d known was wearing a suit that looked two sizes too big. Ry realised later — much later — that Charles had been fighting so hard to keep the company alive, that it had sucked the life out of him.

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