The Contract by Marsh, Nicola (read aloud books .txt) 📕

it. Thought it was unusual for a newly wed to spend so much time at the office. You know how he was after he married Kara. Couldn’t get out the door quick enough at the end of the day.”

Steve took a deep breath and unclenched his fists under the desk. Matt and Luke were the closest he had to friends, yet could he really divulge the truth to them?

“Go on, spill your guts, Rockwell. I know something’s bothering you.”

Making a split-second decision, Steve leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. “Amber and I are separated.”

He hated seeing the pity in Luke’s eyes. “That’s too bad. Want to go out and get plastered?”

Steve shook his head, amazed he felt like laughing; he hadn’t done that in months. “Wish it was that simple.”

“What happened?”

“I blew it. Big time. We got married for all the wrong reasons and by the time I’d worked it out, it was too late.” He paused, wondering why he couldn’t have laid it all on the line like this for Amber rather than skirting around the main issue, the fact he loved her. The baby had been fantastic news but it didn’t matter if he didn’t have her love. “Now she doesn’t want a bar of me and thanks to a few choice words on her behalf, the feeling’s mutual.”

Luke shook his head. “I know you, Rockwell. You can be pretty bloody stubborn. Not to mention demanding, controlling and an all-round pain in the ass. Are you sure there’s nothing you can do?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Nice to know who my friends are at a time like this.”

Luke chuckled. “Hey, I’m not the one buried in here, trying to score points with the boss.”

“I am the boss, in case you’ve forgotten.” Steve remembered how Luke had welcomed him into the firm after Jeff Byrne appointed him as a partner and had smoothed the way with Matt, who had coveted the position. They had become firm friends since, not that they saw much of each other these days.

“Anyway, enough about me. What are you doing in Brisbane? Anything to do with a woman?”

Steve had seen Luke in action with the opposite sex; women flocked to his friend, equating his blond, boyish looks with an easy-going, fun-loving guy who would stick around. They were right, to a point; Luke loved having fun, though with a myriad of beauties. He wasn’t a stayer, a fact most women didn’t like a hell of a lot.

“Women.” Luke rolled his eyes. “Give me a break. I’m up here to escape them, though I am staying with one at the moment.”

“This sounds interesting.” Steve wanted to hear Luke’s story, anything to divert his mind away from his own dreary problems. “What gives?”

“Don’t get too excited. I’m staying with my younger sister and she’s driving me mad, dragging me from one theme park to the next, then browsing through every shop between here and the Gold Coast. She’s nuts. She even took me to some way-out hippy joint the other day and tried to drape me in crystals, saying I had a bad aura or some crap. If it hadn’t been for the babe behind the counter, I would’ve been out of there in a flash.”

A strange, prickling awareness raised the hairs on Steve’s neck. Trying not to appear too eager, he needed to pry more information out of his friend. “You see babes everywhere you go. What was so special about this one?”

Luke’s eyes lit up whenever he discussed women. “Man, she was a stunner. Long, blonde hair, loads of it that hung down her back, hazel eyes and a bod that wouldn’t quit. The curves. And talk about big...” Luke used both hands to indicate massive breasts.

Steve quelled the urge to beat his sexist friend to a pulp. Surely the woman Luke had described couldn’t be Amber? Luke could have outlined any number of women who lived up here; Queensland brimmed with well-stacked blondes with killer bodies.

Luke continued, oblivious to his thoughts. “Pity she had a bun in the oven. I could’ve really gone for a looker like that.”

Luke’s grin faded as Steve jumped to his feet.

“What was the name of the shop?” Steve strode around the desk and stopped short of hauling Luke from the chair and shaking the answer out of him.

“Calm down, big fella.” Luke paused, driving Steve’s already skyrocketing blood pressure up another notch. “Let me think...something to do with inner peace...uh...”

“Was it Harmony?” Steve held his breath, trying to maintain his cool. He’d never wanted to hear an affirmative answer so much in all his life but if it was, what the hell was he going to do about it?

Luke snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that’s the one. Have you been there? What did you think of the babe?”

Steve didn’t trust himself to hang around; he valued Luke’s friendship too much for it to end in fisticuffs. Picking up his suit jacket off the back of his chair, he flung open the door. “That babe happens to be my wife. And she has a lot of explaining to do.”

Steve slammed the door on his friend’s gaping mouth.

* * *

Amber winced and rubbed her back. Standing on her feet all day wasn’t conducive to carrying around extra kilos, precious as the cargo was. She had a feeling sleeping on a cramped, saggy bed in her old caravan each night didn’t help either. Oh well, beggars couldn’t be choosers. At least she had a place to sleep at night, which was more than she could say for a lot of single mothers.

“Knock, knock.” Her