As Long As She Lives (full published version!)

Chapter 1

** As Long As She Lives which is now available worldwide in print and eBook in (ePub as well as Kindle) at the usual online retailers (Amazon, eSentral, Nook etc...) 

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Cheers!
Darcy.

CHAPTER ONE

The Great Ocean Road plunged into the Otways Forest and Cait Lancaster lowered the window of her borrowed car. Eucalyptus. Ti-tree. Damp bracken. Home.

She wasn't ready. She could still turn back. No-one knew she was coming. Which was terribly rude, when she thought about it. Sure, if they'd known she was in the country she would have been invited but as it stood, she was basically crashing the party. It would only be polite to do a U-ey right now and head back to Melbourne.

"Merde!"

A bright orange ute fishtailed onto the road in front of her. She swerved into the emergency lane and stamped on the brake. Two trail bikes swayed in the ute's tray and a beer bottle flew out the window as they disappeared around the bend.

Handbrake. Emergency lights. Breathe.

In her side mirror, the dirt road they must have come from was clear and signposted. She hadn't registered it at all. She reached for the hair band she kept around her wrist, pulled hard and let it slap against the tender underside. She wasn't sure if it was the pain itself or the gasp that the pain caused but it always cleared her mind.

She was ready. She had, quite literally, trained for it. Steve had chosen her niece's birthday party for good reason. The family camp site was familiar, happy ground for Cait and they'd be less likely to ask difficult questions surrounded by six-year-olds.

If worse comes to worst, Steve had said before she'd set out this morning, let them see that it makes you uncomfortable to talk about it. When you have to, give everyone a different part of your story, then the gossip will be all about putting your story together, not questioning it.

She pulled back onto the road.

It wasn't long before a flutter of red and yellow caught her eye against the grey-green of the eucalypts. Balloons tethered to a familiar roadside mailbox marked the track into the forest. No turning back now.

The track was chopped and muddy – too many tyres too soon after rain. The steering wheel fought her as the car rocked and slipped toward the campsite. She didn't dare take her foot from the accelerator for fear of getting bogged.

Handmade "Parking" signs pointed to what they had always called the top paddock, though it had never held animals. The sundried ground was firmer under her wheels as she made her way along careful rows of sneaker-shaped four-wheel drives, each with what seemed to be an obligatory stick-figure family on the back window. The sight of a white four-wheel drive with a vanity plate reading FLISS made her chuckle. In his last email, only weeks ago, Sean had told her that Felicity wanted one of the gas-guzzling cars. He'd sworn he'd never have one in his driveway.

Leaving her gear in the car, she made her way down to the main clearing. A veritable village of tents surrounded the shed, which had always been the heart of the site. Actually "shed" was an understatement. It was really a triple-car garage on a concrete slab raised a metre from the ground to guard against flooding. All three roller-doors were open but the shed was deserted. A CHOCK! and a cheer floated in through the back door. A game of cricket was in progress in the lower paddock.

Peeking out the back door, Cait watched as the batsman whose dismissal had no doubt caused the cheer exchanged the bat with the next player, who posed when he reached the wicket. The bowler ran in and, with a windmill of arms, sent the ball down. The batsman stepped in and swung so hard he spun right around. Half the spectators cheered. The fielders moaned as the ball flew over their heads, through gum tree branches and into the river. Beyond the natural boundary of the field, this was a clear six runs. One of the fielders sank to the ground, shaking his fist at the sky, getting a good laugh from the rest of the team. Cait grinned; Felicity hadn't trained the larrikin out of her brother altogether.