Chapter One
Carrie looked around at the boxes in her apartment. Instead of facing up to everything that had happened, here she was leaving her life and a flourishing career behind. She wished she could put on a brave face and get through it any other way, but this move seemed to be the only solution.
‘You don’t need to worry about me,’ she reassured Kristy. Her sister had come over to help her pack, but Carrie was finding it hard to convince anyone that she could handle things her way.
‘Just don’t forget I’m here if you need to talk.’ Kristy sounded as though she’d resigned herself to the fact that Carrie wasn’t going to spill any more of the details behind this sudden move, and pushed a collection of folded tea towels into the top of a box.
As sisters they didn’t look much alike – Carrie took after their mum, Kristy after their dad – but they both had the long, wavy blonde hair that turned heads, and the tanned skin that loved the sunshine. Kristy had been the less confident of the two sisters once upon a time. She was the non-academic of the pair, but she was the one who’d come out on top with a successful marriage, a job she was happy with and a sense of togetherness and calm that Carrie envied and hoped to one day find herself. Their mum always claimed that the kindness of strangers was the biggest and best kindness of all, and as girls they’d been taught to include others, welcome unfamiliar faces, embrace peoples’ quirks and differences. But over time Carrie had begun to find it hard to let anyone in to her life. Her family claimed she was too independent and resourceful for her own good, and lately Carrie wondered at what point her strengths had become her weaknesses.
Carrie hadn’t told many people about what had happened to trigger this major change. Not that it was a huge secret – her boyfriend, Lachlan, knew, but Carrie had always been a private person intent on processing things her way and so she hadn’t shared it with anyone else. Sometimes she wished she could let people in, but somehow she’d missed learning that skill growing up and it seemed to get harder the older you got.
She taped up the last box of her belongings and heaved a sigh of relief. It felt like a start. Her things would go to storage until she sorted out her new house and then surely she’d be able to figure out her next step.
Kristy wound her hair up into a high ponytail. ‘It’s getting hot in here. Mind if I open the balcony doors?’
‘Go ahead.’ Carrie had already tied her hair back. It was hard work packing up and cleaning the apartment ready for the off, but relief swept in on the breeze that flowed into the tenth-floor apartment. The Melbourne sun graced the apartment for a good proportion of the day and the blinds would usually be tilted when it was so hot, but on moving day they couldn’t afford the luxury. They needed to keep going.
Kristy stood in the path of the fresh air for a moment and then looked over her shoulder at Carrie. ‘Promise me that if you need anything…anything…you’ll call me. I know how hard you worked to get to where you are. I’m so unbelievably proud of you, and always will be.’
Carrie smiled, grateful of the encouragement. ‘I just need some time out, that’s all. Medical school was full on after my degree, and I haven’t stopped since.’ As a paediatrician, first it was learning the ropes in the preliminary stages, then all the hard work as a trainee on the job, and even once you’d made it there was the ongoing need for continuous learning and staying abreast of the latest research and advances.
‘I know you haven’t, but I also know you love it. Not everyone can say that about their job and I’d hate to see you walk away from something so dear to you.’
‘I love my career, but I need a break,’ Carrie said firmly, as though saying it out loud would be enough to convince herself that was all it was, a break. She’d thrived on her career for so long but she couldn’t see a way forward unless she moved away from the norm and tackled something different for a while.
With the packing done, Kristy cleaned the insides of the floor-to-ceiling windows, amusing Carrie every time she moaned at how hot she was. ‘It’s like being in a greenhouse,’ she said, yet again moving into the stream of open air from the balcony doors for a bit of relief.
‘I appreciate your help.’ Carrie called from the kitchen area where she had her head inside the corner cupboard, wiping down the shelves, the back of the door.
Kristy declared her job finished and asked, ‘What time will Lachlan be back?’
‘He should be here any minute now.’ Lachlan had been transporting her things over to a storage facility since the crack of dawn.
‘He’s been an absolute star. You’re a lucky girl, Carrie.’
Carrie smiled. She was lucky. Sometimes it was easy to forget when Lachlan told her time and time again that this move was ludicrous, that what happened was part of her job and she needed to deal with it head-on. She’d not got much sympathy from him; then again, maybe he was trying to help her see sense and be strong, and in some ways he was right. But it didn’t mean she wanted to hear it over and over, a constant reminder of how she couldn’t handle a situation that many in her position would’ve taken in their stride.
From the moment Carrie had introduced her heart-surgeon boyfriend, eight years her senior, to her entire family, they’d been in awe of him and how clever he must be. Carrie’s mum was an interior designer, her dad ran a chain of bottle shops in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, and Kristy was the only other person in their family who had moved anywhere near to the medical profession, by training as a medical secretary. All of them were floored that this man was so clever, so able with his hands, and, as her dad had told her jokingly one night, ‘He’s not bad to look at either’.
‘I still can’t believe you’ve bought a place so far away.’ Kristy handed Carrie a can of Diet Coke from the fridge. ‘And a place that needs work doing. This apartment is immaculate – I can’t see you living in a mess for too long.’
‘I’m not that bad!’
‘Oh, come on. When we were growing up you used to tidy out the shoe cupboard for fun! You’d clean when Mum and Dad were out to surprise them when they came home. You’re a neat freak, Carrie.’
‘I’m sure I’ll cope.’
‘We’ll see.’ Her sister looked doubtful. ‘But, I’ll admit, you’ve chosen well. I fell in love with Magnolia Creek the first time I went there and I have fond memories of Magnolia House, where I got married.’
Carrie smiled at her sister. ‘It was a beautiful day and an amazing wedding. I hope you’ll come and see me, visit Magnolia Creek again.’
‘Just try and stop me.’ Kristy sipped her drink. ‘When do you start the new job? Carrie-the-babysitter. I can’t imagine it myself.’ She shook her head, amused. ‘You and babies don’t exactly mix unless it’s in a medical setting.’
Carrie elbowed her sister as she too hopped up on the edge of the kitchen bench, their legs dangling together in a row like they had back in their younger days, cooling down eating ice-creams by the ocean after school.
‘I like babies,’ Carrie pointed out. ‘That’s why I took the job.’
The position she’d taken as a nanny, or babysitter as it could also be referred to, was in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges, at the edge of Magnolia Creek, a town Carrie was already familiar with. She’d be looking after Maria, a ten-month-old baby girl whose parents, Tess and Stuart, worked full time and were waiting for a place to come up in a childcare facility. When Carrie had applied for the job they’d snapped her up even though she didn’t have any first-hand experience in nannying: it was her job as a paediatrician that had clinched the deal.
‘Think you can handle the job?’ Kristy wanted to know.
‘Of course I can. She’s ten months old – what could possibly go wrong?’ In truth, she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle three days a week looking after a baby for seven hours straight. Kristy was right. She did love kids, but she’d never spent that long a time with any of them, especially without any other adult company.
‘And what about this other job?’ Kristy grinned. ‘Yes, Mum let it slip that you had something in the pipeline.’
‘I can’t keep much from you, can I?’ She hadn’t mentioned it in case she couldn’t go through with a new role that would thrust her back into the hospital environment. She didn’t want to admit failure all over again. ‘Do you remember Serena?’
‘Lachlan’s friend with the drawn-on eyebrows?’
Carrie giggled. ‘That’s the one. She works at a new hospital near Magnolia Creek and Lachlan put us in touch. She’s got a pilot project she’s desperate to get off the ground and wants me to be involved.’
Kristy stopped sipping from her can. ‘A paediatric position?’ she asked excitedly.
‘She’s setting up a baby-cuddling program and wants me to be a part of the set-up and the operations of it.’
‘Well it’s a start – it’ll keep you in the game, so to speak. I don’t think you’ll want to be out of the job for long.’
Carrie knew her sister was giving her a nudge to tell her more about what had happened, but there were a lot of things Carrie couldn’t handle right now and analysing the situation she’d been in was one of them.
Kristy finished her drink and rinsed out the empty can ready for recycling just as a knock at the door signalled Lachlan’s arrival.
‘Hey gorgeous.’ Lachlan hugged Carrie the second she opened the door. He always did, and always kissed her full on the lips no matter who was around, who was watching.
‘Hey you. That’s the last of them.’ She pointed to the boxes stacked by the door waiting for him. He’d been hauling boxes all morning but still had that scent of aftershave and an immaculate appearance. With his olive skin, dark eyes and deep brown hair he was neat, together and, most of all, hot. When Carrie had first met him at the hospital, she’d been barely able to string a sentence together because he was, as she’d overheard somebody say, ‘drop-dead gorgeous’.
She stepped over the pile of discarded bubble wrap, dodged the rolls of thick brown tape, and handed him a cold can of drink from the fridge.
‘Thanks.’ He kissed her again before beaming a smile Kristy’s way and, as they launched into a chat, Carrie was reminded that this man would do anything for her. When she’d upped and left for the Gold Coast five months ago without so much as a hint that she was walking away from her job he’d still been here when she came back. She’d half expected him to have moved on but he hadn’t, and it was that faith in her that drove home how much he cared and how much he was in this for keeps.
‘Are you meeting with the property developer today?’ Lachlan put down his can of drink and hoisted a box into his arms. ‘Owen, was that his name?’
‘That’s right.’ She had told her boyfriend that she knew Owen from way back, via Kristy. He hadn’t asked anything more, and she’d already given Kristy the heads-up, saying it was easier not to go into the real details. Kristy had shrugged nonchalantly and said it didn’t affect her, but wondered whether honesty would be a better policy in the long run.
Carrie dated Owen more than a year ago, but they’d never been serious. A nomadic, fun guy who bought and renovated properties for a living, Owen was no more a threat than Neville, the short, rotund, balding man who worked alongside Lachlan at the hospital and ate way too many pies on his lunch break.
Carrie had contacted Owen when she saw the house in Magnolia Creek up for sale, asked for his advice and expertise, but she’d never told Lachlan that he was an ex because Lachlan, the confident, unflappable heart surgeon, had an insecure streak when it came to his girlfriend. When they first started dating he’d been adamant that Carrie could have her pick of men and even though she’d insisted she only wanted him, when other men crossed her path, particularly anyone who made her laugh and smile, he got really uncomfortable and didn’t like it. At the time she’d been flattered. Her previous boyfriends had let her be herself, do what she liked, talk with whomever she wanted. It was nice to feel as though her man wanted her close, but lately it was becoming a strain. She needed time to think, time to process, and she wasn’t getting that here in the city.
‘I’m hoping Owen will be able to come to the house today or tomorrow,’ she said, ‘so we can go through the changes I’m looking at doing to the property.’
Lachlan winked at her. ‘Make sure he doesn’t rip you off because you’re a gorgeous blonde with long legs and…’ His voice trailed off when he caught Kristy’s look. ‘OK, enough details. Just make sure you shop around for prices, get a good deal.’
‘Don’t worry, I will.’ Carrie grinned. She might be blonde and female, but she knew how to handle people who tried to take advantage.
‘Good, and we’ll soon have a great weekender we can use whenever we like,’ Lachlan declared, ‘or even rent out to holidaymakers.’
Carrie smiled because it could be a good idea long-term – but, then again, she hadn’t really thought much past its purchase and renovation.
When Lachlan and Kristy disappeared with as many boxes as they could realistically put in the lift at once, Carrie got on with the task of cleaning the wardrobe in the bedroom. She wiped it all down and then used glass cleaner on the mirror. Lachlan had ranted on about how meticulous she needed to be to get her full security deposit back and so she’d been up with the sunshine today, ensuring she left everything shipshape.
And now with all the boxes gone, the entire apartment sparkling clean and ready for the real estate agent to do the final inspection, Carrie stood at the edge of the room and took a final look at the apartment she’d lived in for almost two years.
It was time to start a new chapter in her life. And maybe the only way to move on was to turn one page at a time.