Author's note: Please review! I'm seriously desperate for feedback!
Chapter three
It wasn't long after Lana put her plastic raincoat on that she realized it wasn't terribly good at protecting her from the rain, which wasn't coming down in bucket loads, unless the buckets were the size of swimming pools. She was saturated, as she followed Peter down the path that lead to Leah and Dan's house. Nothing could be heard over the rain but the odd crack of thunder or splash of a foot in a muddy puddle. No words were uttered between Lana and Peter except the occasional "this was" or curse to the weather.
Walking barefoot, her stiletto heels hanging from her fingers, Lana's feet were covered in mud, and Lana, being just a smidgen clumsy, fell -splash- face first into a great puddle of watery-brown mud, which covered practically all of her. The raincoat wasn't terribly good at protecting her from mud either.
In fact, the plastic disposable raincoat, which was much like a garbage bag with arm holes and a hood, wasn't very good for much at all. Not even sitting there and looking pretty, a skill even a shovel-nosed lobster can manage in the right light.
"Lana, are you alright?" Peter asked, water pelting on his back and dripping off his nose.
Lana pulled herself out of the puddle and wiped the watery brown mud off her face. She attempted to stand, however, when she did, she discovered that she had twisted her ankle during her fall and that it was terribly painful to stand on.
"Yowch!" she exclaimed as she wobbled onto her uninjured right leg, and Peter grabbed her hips to stable her.
"Here," Peter said, putting his very wet are under her arm and around her back to support her weight. Her warmth surprised him.
Lana rested her arm on Peter's shoulder, and hobbled along for the rest of the journey, rain pouring down, clothes saturated in water and mud and sticking to their skin.
The relief they felt when they arrived at their destination was such that even a great writer such as I could not express it in writing. However, this writer prides herself on her undeniable talent and skill in the art of interpretive dance, and would quite happily perform to explain this expression of relief Peter and Lana felt, but I'm sure that you, the reader, would much rather know what happens next than to watch me perform an interpretive dance. Your loss, I suppose.
"Lana! Peter!" Leah said as her saturated friend and brother-in-law came through their front door. "You're soaked!"
They stared at her blankly.
"I wouldn't want to be driving in this weather," Dan said entering the kitchen. His eyes widened as they fell on his co-worker and his brother standing in the doorway. "You, walked?"
"Yes," Peter replied, dripping on the wooden floor. "It wasn't raining when we started."
Now, no one who knew Dan Baker well would ever describe him as "scheming". However, on rare occasions a delicious plot would form in his head, one too delightful and appetizing to push to the back of his brain.
One-thirty that Sunday morning, one of these rare delicacies found its way into Dan's thoughts, as he stared at his saturated detective brother and mud-drenched, wet workmate.
Dan knew that Peter hadn't had a girlfriend since Claire left him three months ago and that he was feeling a little on the lonely side. He also knew that Lana, new to Summer Bay without many contacts and friends in the small beachside town was also feeling a little lonely.
One plus one makes two, Dan thought.
"Well come on in and we'll get you two cleaned up," Leah said, ushering them into the kitchen. Lana pulled the wet, mud covered plastic disposable raincoat over her head to reveal a just-as-wet mud-covered once-baby-pink holter-top and saturated brown ruffle skirt. "We'll get you cleaned up and you can go home straight away."
"Oh no," Dan said, putting his scheme into action."I wouldn't drive in this weather, it's far too dangerous."
Leah raised an eyebrow. Since when did her husband use the phrase -"far too"?
"Well, it is dangerous but I've had training-"
"And I've got to go to the city tomorrow to-"
"-The roads won't be busy-"
Dan cleared his throat. "Look, it's too late for you to be driving, you're both too tired, and it's too dangerous to drive when you're about to nod off, and especially in this rain. Now you can both have a shower, we'll lend you some pajamas and we'll clean you clothes for tomorrow. If we unfold the futon you can both sleep on there."
Lana was hesitant. "Are you sure?"
"It's no problem." Leah assured her.
"Well, if you're sure."
Peter and Dan disappeared and Leah busied herself finding a towel and an icepack for Lana's ankle and making hot chocolates for them all.
"Could I borrow your phone for a while? I just need to call my sister in the city to check up on Skye."
"Skye?"
"Yeah, my daughter." The look on Leah's face asked for more information. "She's fifteen. My sister Holly has just taken her up to Queensland and they're finishing their trip tonight with an all night movie marathon. I'm sure Skye will be fine, it's just I told her I'd call her tonight -"
"Sure," Leah answered with a smile, handing her the telephone. A teenage daughter? Lana had a teenage daughter? She supposed Dan had just forgotten to mention it. But Lana was only twenty- twenty-nine. She must've fallen pregnant at fourteen.
Lana dialed her sister's number into the phone. It rang thrice before being picked up.
"Yo, it's Holly."
"Holly?"
"That's what I said. How ya doin' Lana? It's a bit past your bedtime, isn't it?"
"Big night," Lana replied, exhaustedly. "Can I talk to Sky?"
"I dunno, I'll have to tear her away from the TV; she's currently glued to the screen by her own drool - Orlando Bloom marathon. We're watching pirates of the Caribbean now."
"Well that explains it." Lana replied, and heard the phone being passed to her daughter.
"Hey Ma," a chirpy voice said on the other end of the line. "I was expecting you to call a little earlier than this."
"Yeah, I was too. There was this accident with some of the kids that are gonna be in your grade, but it's okay, they're all alright."
"Did you go to that party you were telling me about?"
"Yeah," Lana explained the last eight hour's drama to her daughter who was eagerly listening two-hundred kilometres away. "And now I'm standing on one leg in Leah's kitchen, wrapped in a towel and covered in mud."
"Wow. My Mum's a hero." Skye said and laughed. "Anyhoo, Orlando's waiting for me Mum. I'll see you at around lunch time tomorrow, okay."
"Okay. Have fun."
"I'm sure I will."
"Love you."
"Love you too, Mum."
"Bye."
"Bye Mum."
Lana hung up the phone and smiled as Leah handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate, white and pink marshmallows bobbing on the surface, and an ice pack wrapped in a tea-towel. "Thanks."
"The showers free," Peter announced, entering the kitchen in a pair of borrowed blue and white striped pajama pants and a white sleeveless singlet. Lana was impressed by what she saw.
Leah handed him a steaming mug of hot chocolate and he thanked her.
"Let's get you some pajamas," Leah said, guiding Lana to her and Dan's bedroom.
Leah opened the top drawer of her chest of drawers and searched through it to eventually find a pair of pink flannelette pajamas with blue love hearts on them. "These should fit and be warm enough."
"Thanks a billion, Leah," Lana replied and took the soft, bright pink and blue pajamas from her. "These should be fine… That's the bathroom just across the hall I presume?"
"Yeah. Go for it." Leah replied as Lana hobbled out of the room and Dan entered it.
"Are you sure the futon would be comfortable enough for them?" Leah asked pulling her own pajamas out from under her pillow and pulling up the doona on the bed. "Couldn't we find somewhere a little less, lumpy?"
Dan smiled, "Im sure they'll be fine."
The futon in Dan and Leah's lounge room was a must have item for any wannabe cupid, as, during the night, it bends in the middle, causing the unsuspecting victims to become… much better acquainted. It was a crafty, sneaky plan, and as Dan smiled and sipped his hot chocolate he was pleased that he was making such a cunning plan into reality.
"You never mentioned that Lana has a daughter?" Leah said as casually as she could manage.
"Yeah-oh-yeah." This fact had slipped his mind, and made matters more complicated. Lana had mentioned her daughter earlier in the week, but she hadn't come up in the conversation since, mainly due to the fact that Lana had had no spare lessons on Sunday and only one on Thursday and Dan had hardly spoken her at all on those days. "I thought I mentioned it. Must've slipped my mind…"
Meanwhile, Dan's older brother Peter was leaning against the wall beside Dan and Leah's bedroom door. It was only when the bathroom fogged up that he realized how easily he could've peered straight in and have seen Dan's workmate, Lana, undress.
From the moment he saw Lana, Peter had felt attracted to her; she had a nice figure, pretty face, long brown hair. As the night had progressed he'd seen glimpses of her personality; he'd seen how willing she was to spring into action as soon as she was needed, how she was so caring and motherly to the unconscious Cassie on the beach, the way she didn't complain at all when she hurt her ankle and fell in the mud. These gave him the impression that she was willing to work, courageous, caring, compassionate and brave. All traits he found highly attractive.
"Peter"
"Huh?" he flicked his head around to face his brother.
"Come help me unfold the futon."
"Yeah, okay."
Next chapter: some one very unwanted arrives in the bay...
Oooh! I wonder who it is?