Free The Maxwell Sisters by Loretta Hill Page A

hasn’t returned either.’
    â€˜Who’s Adam?’
    Anita brightened a little. ‘Our new winemaker. A lovely young man. Very helpful and he loves my cooking.’
    Natasha smiled wryly. Her mother loved anyone she could feed.
    â€˜You know what,’ Anita placed her hand in the small of Natasha’s back and gently pushed her towards the sitting room, ‘you go ahead. I’m going to get some more cheese. Everyone else is in there.’
    The sitting room was the biggest room in the house and the most accommodating for entertaining large groups of guests. Spacious and airy, it was lined on one side with bookshelves and on the other with two huge windows overlooking the lake. She used to sit in there and read as a kid. The four burgundy-coloured couches in the room were long and deep enough to lie on.
    But she’d only taken two steps over the threshold when she stopped in shock.
    The first face she registered was Heath’s.
    Heath’s!
    Olive skinned, with chiselled cheekbones, his large dark eyes were fringed by lashes that stared unwaveringly at her from across the room. Light flashed behind her eyes, her body went hot and then cold. She reached out and steadied herself against the doorframe, focusing all her willpower on closing her gaping mouth. His own lips were straight, neither smiling nor frowning as he regarded her with the deliberation of a cowboy before a gun draw.
    What the hell is he doing here?
    â€˜Tash!’ Phoebe materialised from nowhere, enveloping her numb body in an excited hug which didn’t really form that much of a distraction considering she could still see Heath over her sister’s shoulder. Sirens continued to wail in her head.
    What sort of ambush have I walked into?
    She felt bile rise up her throat as she looked around the rest of the room. Taking in the other faces. Eve’s pale one on the couch. Spider, standing by the window, with a kind of half-embarrassed, half-whimsical smile. Two other people she didn’t know were standing beside him and looked as nervous as she felt. A tall, white-haired couple, with similar eyes and facial features to Spider, so she assumed they must be his parents. It was almost like the scene of an intervention. But who for?
    â€˜How was your flight?’ Phoebe pulled out of her arms to demand cheerfully. ‘You must be exhausted driving all the way from Perth right after landing.’
    â€˜I didn’t,’ she responded stiffly, her eyes returning to Heath, trying to work out what angle he was playing. ‘I stayed overnight at a hotel.’
    â€˜ A hotel? ’ Phoebe swatted her arm. ‘You should have crashed at Eve’s.’
    Natasha didn’t know whether to be mortified or relieved as her gaze swung to the sister she hadn’t seen in over a year. Eve regarded her solemnly from the couch, a self-conscious expression clouding her eyes as she said thickly, ‘Of course. I mean, my couch is pretty comfortable and I have plenty of spare bedding.’
    Natasha took a breath to relax but her voice still came out stilted. ‘I didn’t want to cause any inconvenience.’
    â€˜It wouldn’t have been any trouble.’ Eve shrugged but looked down at her hands as though the statement was a futile one.
    Natasha completely got that. She really did. Eve’s reaction to her was perfectly understandable. But Heath?
    As her gaze was irrevocably drawn to his again, he walked across the room towards her. She shrunk into herself with every footfall until he was finally in front of her.
    He put a hand under her chin and lifted her lips for a kiss. If they had been alone she would have resisted. His mouth burned hers with their brief contact before he said, half-smiling, ‘Surprise.’
    She choked. Memories. Images. Pain. That’s all he brought back. She sighed in relief as he removed his hand from her chin, though in reality she felt more trapped than