An extract from local Port Elizabeth author, Lee-Anne Baines book – Over the Rainbow.
If you want to get ahead and read the entire book then Contact Lee-Ann HERE or pop into Fogartys Bookshop to purchase Over the Rainbow.
Chapter One
‘Who the hell is this?’ Douglas whispered as he stared at the girl sleeping on the couch.
‘No idea,’ Brad shrugged, standing next to the couch in a pair of faded jeans, rubbing his bare chest with one hand, holding a beer in the other, ‘she was here when I came downstairs this morning.’ He looked at the girl again. He had never seen her before. He would have remembered a sexy butt like hers.
She lay curled up on her right side, facing the back of the couch. Raven hair covered her face and fell onto the cushion behind her in thick cascades of soft curls. She was wearing blue jeans that fitted her comfortably and a green cotton T-shirt. A black leather coat was on the floor and the black boots she’d been wearing were placed neatly next to a large canvas duffel bag.
Douglas bent over to look for a luggage tag on it but couldn’t find one. He whistled softly, ‘She’s definitely new to town, with a butt like that I would know her by now.’
Brad grinned, everyone would.
‘This’s sure weird, man,’ Douglas sighed, not taking his eyes off her.
‘What?’
‘To have a woman sleeping in this house again, it’s been years.’
Michael walked into the living room, nursing a black eye. ‘What’s going on?’ He followed Brad’s gaze to the girl and his mouth fell open as he focussed on her.
‘Wow! Who is she, Stud?’ He looked at Brad who put up his hands and shrugged.
‘You think maybe Dan brought her home?’ Michael asked, his eyes drifting to the girl. It seemed absurd, but anything was possible.
‘No ways,’ Douglas laughed softly, ‘Hulk-man wouldn’t know a girl if he fell over one. He’s forgotten what they look like.’
‘Speak of the devil,’ Brad said as Dan walked into the room, yawning and running his fingers through short, dark-brown hair. He was a tall powerfully built man of twenty-seven with a handsome, rugged face and tired blue eyes that lit up when he smiled. He didn’t notice the girl and almost sat on her.
‘Where the hell did she come from?’ he demanded in a deep voice, sitting in another chair, suddenly awake. There was a woman in the house?
‘Thought you could shed some light on that for us,’ Douglas said, grinning at him. Dan shook his head, wishing Douglas wouldn’t grin all the time, it wasn’t normal. But then Douglas wasn’t normal.
‘Doubted you knew her,’ Brad said and smiled as he watched her roll onto her back, her hair falling from her face. ‘Oh, wow! She’s beautiful.’
‘Man, she’s,’ Douglas started, then gasped, ‘she’s . . .’
‘That she is,’ Dan agreed, the sleep gone from his eyes, the weariness from his body.
The front door opened and slammed shut. Calvin walked into the room with Joey behind him.
‘What the hell are you all staring at?’ Calvin glared at them before glancing at the girl, relieved she hadn’t left. He slumped into a chair and lit the cigarette he’d pulled out of his jacket pocket.
Joey retreated to a corner of the room with his hands dug deep into the pockets of his jeans, and eyed her through his mop of thick, dark curls.
They all watched as she stretched her arms, sighing softly. Then her eyes opened slowly ? glowing emerald-green eyes framed by long dark lashes which widened when she saw she wasn’t alone.
She sat up quickly, frightened. Where was she? She couldn’t remember. The night before had been confusing, terrifying. Her eyes darted around the room and she breathed out when she saw Calvin. The fact that she’d followed him so trustingly astounded her. But she had been exhausted. She should have left by now. She had promised him.
‘I’m sorry to trouble you,’ she said in a soft American accent, glancing at the mesmerized faces around her as she stood, her heart pounding.
‘No trouble,’ Dan assured her, wanting to stand but unsure if his legs would hold him. He was weakened by her radiance, and those incredible eyes.
She looked at Calvin, ‘Thank you for showing me here. I’m sorry I overslept.’
‘You know her?’ Douglas asked Calvin, surprised. She looked far too decent for him.
‘She came to Martie’s, wanting a room, so I brought her here,’ Calvin said in a deep, harsh voice, continuing to stare at the wall. Joey wondered why he wasn’t looking at her. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
She glanced at her duffel bag, wondering whether to just grab it and run. But she wouldn’t know where to go. She didn’t even know where she was. She fought back tears and looked around the room.
She sensed they wouldn’t hurt her, they seemed friendly. Her eyes settled on Calvin and ice-cold blue eyes turned to her. Yet, in the early hours of the morning when she’d walked into the empty bar and talked to him across the counter, his eyes had been warm and, in spite of her fear, she’d felt safe. No inner voice had warned her to run, to get away, or to distrust him. It was as if getting off the bus in the wrong town was somehow meant to happen.
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- Over the Rainbow – Extract One - 8 August 2014
