Free Berry Flavours by Darry Fraser Page A

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    It was just a hand-hold.
    “Here you go,” he said and opened a door with his other hand, flipped on the light switch in the bedsit.
    They both stared at the pile of smelly linen on the unmade bed. Faint wafts of it had settled throughout the room.
    Neither made any attempt to drop the others’ hand. “Not looking good,” he said still staring at the bed. “I forgot about it.”
    Hands dropped.
    Clancy walked into the room. “Doesn’t matter. You said it was clean, it’s just cupboard-musty.”
    Berry walked in behind her. “I’ll look again. There must be something at the house. I didn’t think it was this bad.”
    “Don’t bother. I can crawl on top of it and—” She waved her hands around.
    “Won’t hear of it. I’ll only be a few minutes.” He turned to face her, hesitating. Rommy came and sat beside her, looking up. “Truth is, I don’t want to...”
    “...what?”
    “...leave.” Berry looked down at his hands. “I mean, I’ll leave, I mean I’d rather not leave you here. There’s no key in your door. I’m sure it’s at the house.”
    Rommy kept looking up at her.
    “Oh.” Clancy shrugged a little at that. Did anyone have keys in their doors out here? “I’ll come up to the house with you. Find some linen. And you know, when we come back if you want we could sample that panna cotta tonight.” Clancy darted across to one of her bags and pulled out a lightweight jacket.
    “Great idea.” He got to the doorway just ahead of her. “Leave the light on, the screen keeps the mozzies out.”
    Rommy took off ahead of them.
    When Clancy left the bedsit and Berry’s hand found hers again, she pretended she hadn’t noticed. Berry seemed to be acting the same.
    His hand was warm, and big, and dry and strong and... He leaned across, gently holding her arm close and let his lips brush her cheek.
    She smiled, but didn’t turn to face him. She looked out into the dark night, holding her breath.
    They sauntered on up the slope to Berry’s house. The moon was climbing in the sky and its light was just enough to show her the pathway. Berry’s unerring stride indicated how well he knew the way.
    His hand had tightened on hers.
    Conversation was light, about nothing much. It seemed to Clancy to be flowing easily enough but about what, she couldn’t remember. A couple of times their shoulders bumped.
    A couple of times her head cleared. This was dangerous territory.
    Delicious territory.
    By the time they got to the house, Rommy was spinning round and round inside. He seemed pretty happy about something.
    The lights flicked on and Clancy found herself in an immense kitchen with gardenia-white cupboards, a huge island bench with a sink in it and a polished deep mahogany timber top. She looked across at a solid timber table made with great beams which would have taken several very fit men to move.
    She wanted to run her hands over every surface. She spun around to eye the oven, and the expanse of cooktop which mimicked the one in the restaurant, though not as big. “You use this kitchen much?”
    “Me? No.” Berry was alongside her, leaning back on the island bench and staring at the oven, too. “I built it so I could have friends stay with me when I take a break from the restaurant. Doesn’t happen often.”
    “It’s beautiful.” She turned back again to survey the rest of the place. Her gaze swept over a large antique sideboard, and the many family photos in frames which sat upon it. She walked over. “There are a lot of people here.”
    He came to stand behind her. “There were four brothers who settled here back in 1920, and they’re the patriarchs. The families still mostly have connections on Australis. I’ve got a brother, Flynn, he’s a stonemason here, Riley, my sister comes back and forth, and a cousin Joseph lives here on the north coast. He’s a grandkid of those two.” His finger moved to the right. “And this one’s my great grandfather, Phillipe.” He pointed