The Girl he Never Noticed by Lindsay Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page B

sightings?’
    Liz shook her head but looked uneasy. ‘I’m wondering if he’s moved back to Sydney and that’s why he was at your great-aunt’s party.’
    ‘I can find out, if you like. But even if he has Sydney’s a big city.’ He flicked her an interrogative look.
    ‘No. No, thanks. I think I’ll just let sleeping dogs lie. Oh, look—they’re diverting the traffic. We could be just in time.’
    He seemed about to say something, then he shrugged and switched on the motor.
    As often happened when something came up out of the blue, things came in pairs, Liz discovered that same evening. She heard a radio interview with Scout’s father in which he talked mainly about the economy—he was an economist—but also about his move back to his hometown from Perth. And the fact that he had no children as yet, but he and his wife were still hoping for some.
    She’d flicked the radio off and tried to concentrate on the fact that her only emotion towards Scout’s father was now distaste—tried to concentrate on it in order to disguise the cold little bubble of fear the rest of it had brought her.
    The next morning her boss made an unusual request.
    She was tidying away the clutter on his desk, prior to a meeting with his chief of Human Resources, whenhe took a phone call that didn’t seem to be business-orientated.
    ‘Broke the window?’ he said down the line, with a surprised lift of his eyebrows. ‘I wouldn’t have thought he was strong enough to—Well, never mind. Tell him not to try it again until I’m there.’ He put down the phone and watched Liz abstractedly for a few minutes, and then with a frown of concentration.
    Liz, becoming aware of this, looked down at her exemplary outfit—a summer suit. Matching jacket and A-line skirt. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with it—no buttons undone, no bra strap showing or anything like that. So she looked back at him with a query in her eyes.
    He drummed his fingers on the desk. ‘Do you remember a song about a boomerang that wouldn’t come back?’
    She blinked and thought for a moment, then shook her head. ‘No.’
    ‘I seem to,’ he said slowly. ‘See if you can find it, please.’
    Liz opened her mouth, but she was forestalled by the arrival of his chief of Human Resources.
    Later that day she was able to tell him she’d found the boomerang song, and was rather charmed by it. ‘It’s a golden oldie. Charlie Drake was the artist,’ she said. ‘Not only wouldn’t his boomerang come back, but he hit the Flying Doctor.’
    ‘Excellent,’ Cam Hillier said. But that was all he said, leaving Liz completely mystified.
    Some days later he surprised her again.
    She was a bit preoccupied, because just before she’d left for work and had been checking her purse she’d found she’d inadvertently picked up a note meant for her mother. It was from an old friend of her mother’s who ran a dancing school, and it concerned the school’s annual concert. Would Mary be interested in designing the costumes for the concert? It would mean about three months’ work, it said.
    But Mary Montrose had penned a reply on the back of it.
    So sorry. Would have loved to but I just don’t have the time these days. All good wishes…
    She hadn’t posted it yet.
    Only because of looking after Scout could she not do it, Liz thought to herself, and flinched. But what to do? Scout spent two mornings a week at a daycare centre; more Liz could not afford. And those two free mornings a week would not be enough to allow Mary to take on a job she would have loved.
    Liz had replaced the note on the hall table, feeling jolted and miserable, and came to work.
    It was after she’d gone through the day’s schedule with her boss that he asked to see the next day’s schedule.
    Liz handed the diary over.
    He scanned it in silence for a minute or two, then said decisively, ‘Reschedule the lot.’ He handed the book back to her.
    Liz actually felt herself go pale. ‘The