Short and Sweet by Anna Jacobs Read Free Book Online

cuddly and warm, Jodie found herself softening inside as she held him. There was something very special about a child’s smile.
    It wasn’t till the second morning that she found out the ball had been postponed due to flooding. Typical of Australia. Drought one minute, flooding the next.
    ‘I’ve – um, bought you a ticket again,’ Marissa said airily.
    ‘You haven’t!’
    She shrugged. ‘You enjoyed it last time, you know you did.’
    ‘It didn’t have any effect, though. I didn’t meet a guy.’
    ‘Second time lucky.’
    ‘Don’t you ever give up?’
    ‘Nope.’
    Well, Jodie had brought her favourite outfit for the christening party and she’d thought about the flower farmer a few times during the year. It might be nice to run into him and catch up on how his new business was going.
    She found herself sitting with Pam and two strangers. Kate had got married to the guy she’d met last year and moved to another small town two hundred miles away.
    When the flower farmer turned up and asked Jodie for a dance, she felt relieved. She was safe with him.
    They had a couple of dances, then, as the room was getting distinctly overheated, he suggested going outside for a walk. Behind the hall was the Memorial Garden, with the monument to fallen soldiers in the middle. It was full of flowers this year.
    She realized she was holding John’s hand and smiled. How had that happened?
    As she looked sideways, their eyes met and he swung her into his arms for a kiss. She was so surprised she didn’t protest, even more surprised to find herself enjoying his kiss, not wanting it to end.
    He let her go and smiled down at her. Why had she ever thought he wasn’t good looking? He was gorgeous. She pulled his head down and gave him another kiss out of sheer curiosity. Hmm. Definitely not a trace of frog in this one.
    He pulled back a little. ‘This wasn’t meant to happen.’
    ‘Nothing much has happened yet.’
    His frown changed into a wry smile. ‘It will if we don’t watch out. I’ve thought about you all year. You’re even prettier than I’d remembered.’
    He set his hands on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. ‘Either you run away now or we give this a chance . . .’
    She didn’t run away.
    John was not only attractive, he was fun, in a quiet understated way. And she didn’t want to die a childless spinster.
    Of course Marissa didn’t stop crowing about it for years.
    Jodie didn’t care. She loved growing flowers and three children seemed like just the right number, especially when they were John’s children.

Dolphins at Dawn
    Anna’s Notes
    We live in a similar house to the one I’ve used in the story, with dolphins swimming past regularly and our own jetty. I like watching the young dolphins best. They’re as playful as puppies.
    It was inevitable that I’d use what I see from my window every day as the setting for a story.
    S ara fell in love with the house at first sight. Who wouldn’t? A town house with its own small jetty on a waterfront block. She’d lived in several parts of the world, but Western Australia would always be home and, after the accident, she’d moved back here to the holiday town of Mandurah.
    The sale went through quickly, though not quickly enough for her.
    The day she moved in, her neighbour was just getting out of his car in the next carport. He stopped to nod politely and would have turned away if she hadn’t moved forward and held out her hand.
    ‘I’m Sara King, coming to live next door.’
    ‘John Barraby.’ He shook her hand, nodded again and went indoors.
    So much for getting on with the neighbours. He clearly wanted nothing to do with her.
    She could see a little girl watching them through the window of the house. When Sara smiled and waved to her, the child’s face brightened and she lifted one hand.
    The man called out, his voice carrying clearly through the open windows, and the child vanished from sight.
    Miserable fellow! Would it have