Fly with Me Read online

  Fly with Me

  By

  Angela Verdenius

  (Gully’s Fall series bk 4)

  (BBW Romance)

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2015 Angela Verdenius

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover images courtesy of © lumy010 | istock.com

  Cover by Angela Verdenius

  Smashwords License Statement

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  With Thanks

  With thanks once again to Murray Smith, a Bushie fighting for the Bushfire Brigade, for his help and information in regards to fire fighters. All mistakes are my own. I admit to having taken some liberties with the information to suit my storyline, but I’ve tried to keep the authenticity intact.

  We remember all those who risk their lives every day to keep us safe from fires, and we remember all those who have lost their lives to save ours. Our gratitude can never be put into words.

  Table of Contents

  Glossary

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Epilogue

  Bio

  Other Books by this Author

  Glossary

  I found that some overseas readers were having difficulty with the Australian slang, so I thought a list of the slang I’ve used will help while reading the following story. If I’ve forgotten any, I do apologise! Also, you’ll find some of our Aussie words have different spelling to the US. Interestingly enough, as I’ve grown (gracefully) older, I find a lot of our slang is bypassing the younger generation, so if a young Aussie says they have never heard a certain word, don’t be surprised! But trust me, I’ve used these words all my life growing up, and so have a lot of my family and friends. Does that make me an older Aussie? Heck yes! LOL

  Cheers,

  Angela

  Australian Names/Terms/Slang

  Ambos - ambulance officers

  Arvo - afternoon

  Barbie - BBQ

  Beaut - beautiful, awesome, great, wonderful

  Berko - berserk

  Bewdy - as in ‘awesome, great’

  Biccies - biscuits. The same as cookies

  Bikie - biker, person who rides motorcycles.

  Bloke/s - man/men

  Bloody - a swear word ‘no bloody good’, in place of ‘no damned good’

  Boofhead - idiot, simpleton, etc. It’s an insult, though sometimes we use it as a term of affection. It depends on how it is said and meant.

  Boot (of a car) - trunk

  Brown nose - currying favour, sucking up. Has a cruder description, but let’s not go into that here. Means the same thing!

  Budgie smugglers - men’s bathers, small, brief and tight-fitting

  Buggered - many Aussie use it as a slang word for ‘broken’ (it’s buggered), ‘tired (I’m buggered), and ‘no way’ (I’m buggered if I’m going to do that). Just some examples

  Bung/Bunging - as in ‘bunging onto something’, putting on something (bung veggies on a plate, putting veggies on a plate), usually in a careless or ‘easy’ manner.

  Cark/carked - die, died.

  Chips - in Australia we have cold crunchy chips form a packet, or hot chips known in some countries as French Fries

  Crash cart - resuscitation trolley in a hospital or medical setting - used for life threatening situations such as cardiac arrest

  Dander – temper

  Dill - silly, idiot

  Dogs - (as in attached to a truck) - trailers, enclosed or not, that carry goods or are empty.

  Doona - like a padded quilt that fits inside a cover and lies on the bed. Can have the warmth of two, three or four blankets, etc.

  Donger - penis. Also another meaning is a place people sometimes sleep in, such as ‘dongers’ on mine sites.

  Dunny - toilet. When used in the terms ‘built like a brick dunny’, it refers to something built solid, unmoveable.

  Firies - fire fighters

  Garbo/s - the person/s who drive and/or load garbage onto the garbage truck.

  Gee-gees - horses

  Giggle-box - TV, television

  Gob - mouth

  Got his/her/their goat – annoyed him/her/them

  Hoon/s - person/people who indulge in antisocial behaviour. Great explanation in Wikipedia

  Iced coffee/chocolate - a milk drink flavoured with chocolate or coffee

  Jumper - sweater

  Local rag - local newspaper

  Lolly - sweetie, candy

  Loo - toilet

  Lug - face

  Milo - chocolate malt drink. Can have it hot or cold. Yummy!

  Moosh - slang for face/mouth

  Mobile phone - cell phone

  Mozzie - mosquito

  NAD - No Abnormalities Detected

  Nong - idiot

  Nooky - sex

  Paddy wagon - four wheel drive police vehicle carries four police in the double cab and has a filled-in imprisonment section in the back to place prisoners.

  Panadol - paracetamol, similar to Tylenol in the US

  Pav/s - Pavlova/Pavlovas - best dessert ever!

  PCYC - Police and Citizens Youth Club

  Pedal Pushers - three quarter pants/knickerbockers

  Porking - having sex

  Primapore - sticky patch with a pad in it, a medical dressing

  Pub – hotel

  Quack – derogatory term for a doctor

  RAC - Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia. Covers insurance, holidays, loans, etc

  Red backs - poisonous spider, black in colour with a red stripe on its back.

  Rotty – Rottweiler breed of dog.

  Rubbers – condoms

  Sack - bed - as ‘in the sack’ meaning ‘in bed’

  Servo - service station

  Shag - sex

  Sheila – female

  Slab – carton of beer.

  Snaggers - sausages

  Smoko - morning tea and afternoon tea break

  Soft drink - soda, fizzy drink

  Stiffy - erection, boner

  Tea - some people call the evening meal dinner. In my family, we’ve always called it tea, as in breaky, dinner and tea, or breaky, lunch and tea.

  Thongs - worn on the feet, same as ‘flip flops’

  Tickled pink - delighted

  Tim Tams - a brand of Arnott’s Biscuits. Yummy!

  TLC - Tender Loving Care

  Togs - bathers, swim suit

  Torch - flashlight

  Toot - toilet

  Tucker – food

  Twistie – a brand of cheese-flavoured snack food. Yummy!

  Ute - small truck

  Vegemite - most Aussies find this spread yummy, many non-Aussies find it too salty. Here’s the hint - if you ever have Vegemite, use it spread thinly, never thickly!

  Vollie - volunteers

  Wacky baccy - marijuana

  Wanger - penis

  Waterworks - crying

  Whopper - a lie

  Yamaha & Suzuki - ‘brands’ of motorcycles.

  You wally - silly

  Prologue

  Sitting at the bar, Simon sipped on a light beer and nibbled
on peanuts while watching the woman on the small stage.

  For a small bar it was rather warm and welcoming. Not like the pub back home in Gully’s Fall, but okay. It’d do to unwind in while he was staying in the city doing the course for his job.

  The evening crowd was filled with after-workers, young ones on dates, pretty much anyone who was old enough to enter and have a few drinks. And some, he suspected, a little younger than the legal age, but that was the barman’s job to sort, not his.

  But it was the woman on the stage who held his attention right now. Man, she was enough to make his blood quicken in his veins. That softly rounded body poured into jeans and tantalisingly covered by a pale pink cotton blouse set off her rubenesque figure to perfection. The blouse wasn’t loose, not by any means. Rather than hide her generous breasts and hips, it clung lovingly to them, even dipping in at the waist which gave her a generous hour-glass look. High-heeled sandals completed her outfit.

  Appreciatively, Simon’s gaze lingered on her. He did like a woman with curves, and this one had them in abundance.

  The fact that she was pretty was icing on the cake. Fair hair tumbled over her shoulders in a wild disarray of curls to sweep across her breasts. The heat of the lights on the stage had pinkened those apple cheeks, and her eyes - well hell, he didn’t know the colour, but he could see that they were outlined darkly. Mascara, eye liner, her own lashes? Who knew? Whatever, it lent them a slightly mysterious appearance. But those lush lips, man, they drew his gaze, just as they probably drew every red-blooded man’s gaze. Soft, plump, and plain kissable.

  If that wasn’t enough to catch his attention, the voice of the woman sure as heck did - clear, seductive, filling the room as she swayed that luscious body in time to the song she sung, one foot tapping in time to the drum behind her.

  He’d been spell-bound from the moment she’d stepped up onto the stage accompanied by a whole lot of cheers and hooting. She probably sung here often, was employed to keep the drinkers entertained. They sure got their money’s worth.

  Sitting sideways on the bar stool, Simon took another sip, feeling himself relax as the song changed from a fast beat to a softer, slower, and infinitely sadder tune. The woman’s voice held everyone spellbound as she sang, the music a perfect blend to her tone which swelled out to touch almost every person in the bar.

  More people came in, a crowd forming, and Simon couldn’t blame them. No one in their right mind could possibly walk past the door and not enter to listen.

  Song after song passed, alternating between fast, happy, sad, slow, mostly popular songs that had the crowd swaying to the tune or simply bopping along. It wasn’t only the crowd who enjoyed the singing, it was the woman herself. Simon might not be able to tell the colour of her eyes from the distance separating them, but he could see the happiness, the glow of someone who loved what she was doing. Her voice told the story of the song and that lush body did the same, dipping and swaying, strutting, provocative one song, gently moving with another song.

  Christ, the woman could sing, that’s all Simon could think, and she could move. Why hadn’t he heard of her? She had to have music out on CDs somewhere.

  He glanced at the barman. “What’s her name?”

  “Know what you’re thinking, mate.” The barman chuckled. “You won’t find her music in a CD shop.”

  “Then where?”

  “She doesn’t do this professionally.” The barman nodded towards the empty glass. “Refill?”

  “No, thanks.” Simon glanced back at the woman, watched as she shoved one hand through her hair to push it back from her face. “I can’t believe she’s not some big star.”

  “Definitely wouldn’t be singing here then, would she?”

  “Guess not.” But then the entertainment industry wasn’t easy to get into, so maybe- His gaze flashed back to her face as the music died away.

  “That’s it, folks!” she called out. “Thanks for a great time!”

  There were hollers of disappointment, pleadings to do another song, but with a laugh and shake of her head, the woman disappeared through a door in the side of the stage.

  The band started playing again but without her dulcet tones it was definitely missing something for Simon. He glanced around the bar, watching for her appearance.

  “No use looking.” The barman appeared as if by magic. “Lis doesn’t come out into the bar after she sings.”

  “Where does she go?”

  The barman tapped his finger against the side of his nose.

  Great, she wouldn’t be appearing. Feeling as though he’d lost something he’d never even known about, Simon stood and stretched. “Well, if that voice of an angel isn’t going to come on again tonight, then I’m going to bed.” He glanced at the barman. “Is she coming back out again?”

  “Nope. When she says ‘that’s it’, that’s it.”

  Damn. With a mental shrug, Simon walked through the crowd and out onto the street. He couldn’t help glancing around but there was no sign of the woman, or if there was, she was lost in the crowd of people who spilled out to stand in groups talking, walking away, a couple getting a little antsy with each other and shoving.

  Definitely time to leave, he wasn’t interested in getting involved in a drunken brawl.

  Taking the elevator up to the fourth floor, he walked along the balcony until he came to his room. Everything was deserted, no signs of life. This particular section of the hotel was empty, the rooms being redecorated. His had already been done and he didn’t mind being on his own on this side of the fourth floor, so the hotel had happily rented him the room. Personally he liked the silence after the roar and bustle of the city, the intensity of the course he attended during the day, and the crowd below in the bar.

  Simon showered before flopping onto the bed, slipping on his reading glasses while simultaneously picking up his book and the remote control to flick on the TV. If it wasn’t for the weather forecast telling him it was raining outside right now he wouldn’t have known. Back home he’d have heard it clearly on the tin roof.

  Now that made him a little homesick. Still, he only had a couple more days to go before he headed for home.

  He read some of the book before removing his glasses and setting them on the bedside chest of drawers to watch a popular cop show on TV while munching on an apple. When he finally turned everything off and went to sleep, his dreams were filled with a sparkling smile and a lush body that swayed seductively enough to have him waking less than two hours later with heat in his groin and his pulse thumping a little heavier.

  Yep, the woman had definitely affected him. That hadn’t happened in awhile.

  Switching on the bedside lamp, he got up, grabbed a bottle of water from the little ‘fridge and crossed to the window, pushing it open the small amount it allowed to let in the rain-washed air, breathing deeply, only to grimace a little as the smell of exhaust fumes carried along with it.

  Man, he missed home. There the wind-washed rain would carry the scent of the bush.

  Looking out at the lights of cars thickly dotting the highway, he wondered if the mysterious woman drove one of them, had her own driver, or even had a boyfriend or husband who took her home.

  Taking a sip of water, he stared out at the lights for a long time.

  Slowly he became aware of something else, a soft sound at first, growing steadily before drifting off and restarting.

  Someone was crying.

  He looked at the door of his room. Whoever was crying was doing it on the balcony, and whoever it was, was crying like their heart would break.

  It wasn’t his business, people cried for all kinds of reasons, but what worried him was that no one apart from him was supposed to be up in this section of the hotel…and the fact that the balcony opened into the night air.

  Crossing to the door, he placed his ear to it and listened.

  Yep, definitely someone sobbing, and that someone sounded female. He listened for other voices, a male voice of a reassu
ring boyfriend maybe, or a female friend. Sister. Husband. Anything, really, that proclaimed the crier as not being alone.

  There was nothing but the lone crying.

  Shit.

  Running a hand through his hair, he sighed. Nope, he couldn’t just go back to bed. Not without taking a peek to see if the crier was okay and not in danger of maybe flinging herself off the balcony. God knew what was making her cry.

  Opening the door a fraction, he peeked through to see a figure sitting on the balcony floor, her back against the wall, the rail well above her. Her elbows were propped on her drawn-up knees, her forehead resting in her hands, head down as she just cried her eyes out.

  Bugger.

  Closing the door quietly, Simon took a mouthful of water, set the bottle on the little bench, crossed to the small table in the corner where his discarded jeans lay and pulled them on. Padding barefoot to the fridge, he retrieved another bottle of water, picked up his bottle and moved to the door. Opening it, he stepped out onto the balcony.

  The woman - girl, for all he knew - just kept crying like her heart was breaking. Was he coming across a broken heart? Wounded heart? Despair?

  He glanced around. Nope, no one lurked nearby, the dimly-lit balcony with the rooms running down one side and the waist high wall with a rail atop it on the other side, was entirely deserted except for himself and the crier.

  Moving across to stand beside her, he studied her. No smell of alcohol. Fair hair pulled into a thick, tight bun at the back of her head. In the dimness her blouse was pale, and he could see a pair of shapely feet in strappy gold sandals, neat little toes with the short nails painted some kind of pearly colour.

  Coming down onto one knee beside her, but not too close, he asked quietly, “Ma’am, are you all right?”

  The woman froze, but the sobs didn’t. They still shook her even as she visibly tried to hold them back.