A Very Special Holiday Gift

She wondered if he couldn’t stop thinking about his sister. Was he simply too upset to sleep? She wished she could help.

‘I don’t have any brothers or sisters,’ she said tentatively.

Zac frowned.

‘Sorry,’ she said quickly, wincing at her third apology in as many minutes. ‘I just thought you might want to talk, but I shouldn’t have—’

‘No, no, it’s OK.’ He sighed again, and lay staring into space, apparently thinking...

Chloe waited, not sure what else to say.

‘Liv was eight years younger than me,’ he said quietly. ‘When our parents died, she was only ten, so I felt more like her father at times.’ His mouth was a grim downward curve. ‘She was my responsibility.’

Chloe stared at him now as she tried to take this in. Was the poor man blaming himself for his sister’s accident? Did he feel completely responsible? ‘But you must have been very young, too,’ she said.

‘I was eighteen. An adult.’

Only just, by the skin of your teeth. ‘How awful for you to lose both your parents so young.’

‘Yeah,’ he agreed with another sigh.

Chloe didn’t like to ask, but her imagination was running wild. ‘How did it happen, Zac? Was there an accident?’

He shrugged. ‘We’ll never know for sure. My parents were sailing somewhere in Indonesia when their boat just disappeared. My father was a geologist, you see, and my mother was a marine biologist and they were mad keen on science and exploration, always on the lookout for a new discovery. I suppose you’d call them nutty professors. Eccentrics.’

So they’d just disappeared...? Poor Zac. How terrible to have his parents simply vanish, to never know if they’d been taken by pirates, or capsized in a tropical storm, or drowned when their boat struck a coral reef...

‘They—they couldn’t be still alive, living on some jungle-clad island, could they?’

Zac’s mouth tilted in a wryly crooked smile. ‘I’ve played with that fantasy, too. But it’s been seventeen years...’

Chloe couldn’t imagine how awful it must have been for him—a mere eighteen years old and forced to carry on living without answers, just with terrible possibilities.

‘Right from the start I was worried about Liv,’ he said next. ‘I couldn’t bear to see her disappear into a foster home, so I applied to be her guardian. I dropped out of uni and got myself a job, so we could live together and I could look after her.’

‘Goodness,’ Chloe said softly, hoping she didn’t sound as surprised as she felt.

Zac’s lips curled unhappily. ‘It was possibly the stupidest decision I ever made.’

‘Don’t say that. I think it was incredibly brave of you.’

She was stunned to realise that Zac had sacrificed his own goals to try to keep what was left of his family intact. All she’d ever known about his private life was the revolving door of lookalike leggy blonde girlfriends. He’d never seemed to really care about any of them beyond their sex appeal and she’d assumed the ‘care factor’ gene was missing from his DNA.

But it was clear to her now that he’d cared very deeply about Liv.

‘I couldn’t keep her on track,’ Zac said, so softly Chloe almost missed it. ‘Liv never really looked on me as a parent. She wouldn’t accept me in a fathering role, so I had very little influence, I’m afraid. I think she was mad at our parents for disappearing the way they did and she saw me as an inadequate substitute. Before she was out of her teens she was into drinking and trying drugs. And then she was like a nomad, never wanting to settle. She didn’t want to study and she would never stay in one job for long enough to get any real skills. She was like a butterfly, always searching for a brighter flower.’

‘Might she have inherited that urge from your parents?’

‘Quite possibly, I guess.’

He stared unhappily up at the cabin’s ceiling and Chloe wished she could offer him wise words of consolation.

She did her best. ‘Honestly, I don’t think you should blame yourself for this accident, Zac.’

But he simply shook his head and closed his eyes.

* * *

It was ages before Chloe drifted off to sleep and when she woke a soft grey light filled the cabin and flight attendants were bringing around hot towels to freshen their hands and faces, as well as glasses of orange juice.

‘Morning, sleepyhead.’

Zac’s seat was already back in the upright position and he looked as if he’d been to the bathroom and washed and shaved.

Chloe yawned and hoped her hair wasn’t too messy. In a minute she would follow his example and freshen up. ‘What time is it?’

‘Seven forty-five. That’s Greenwich Mean Time, of course. If we were still at home it would be five forty-five in the evening.’

So...her parents had almost completed their first day in the hotel. Chloe hoped they were still enjoying themselves.

If she’d been in Brisbane, she would be putting the final touches to the office’s decorations and making last minute checks about the drinks and ice.

‘I hope you’re not worrying about your parents.’

‘No, I’m not.’ She knew they were in good hands and she’d left the hotel desk, the hired nurse and the chauffeur with all the phone numbers and information they could possibly need. ‘I was thinking about the office Christmas party tonight, actually.’

‘Really, Chloe?’ Zac was frowning at her now, although his eyes glinted with puzzled amusement.

‘I was looking forward to the party,’ she admitted, no longer caring if this revealed her inadequate social life.

‘You were looking forward to watching half the office staff get plastered and then staying behind to clean up their mess?’

She opened her mouth to protest.

Zac’s smile was gently teasing. ‘You’re going to see London at Christmas. I promise you that’s a thousand times better than the office do.’

‘I suppose it would be. When should we get our first glimpse of England?’

‘Oh, in about an hour.’

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_c9b1cdc0-893d-5519-8bf0-0ef2957d8dc4)

IT WAS RAINING when they touched down at Heathrow, but somehow that couldn’t dim Chloe’s excitement. As business class passengers with only carry-on baggage, she and Zac didn’t have to hang around in long queues and soon they were outside, suddenly very grateful for their warm overcoats and scarves.

While they waited for a taxi she made a quick phone call to her parents.

‘We’re about to go down to the dining room,’ her mum told her excitedly. ‘We’ve already checked out the menu and we’re having lamb cutlets and then rhubarb crumble. Give our love to Zac.’