Someone Like You by Victoria Purman Page A

by a sudden urge to run his fingers through them, wondering what it would be like to hold her face in his hands and pull her lips to his in a kiss.
    ‘Where are you off to?’ If Lizzie was surprised to see him out at night, she didn’t show it. It might be what she’d ask anyone she came across on the streets of Middle Point in the evening.
    ‘Just walking,’ he said, shrugging his shoulders. ‘What about you?’
    ‘I left my phone at work so I had to go back. It was right there on my desk as it turns out. I’m the one the cops call if we get broken into or if the place burns down so I need my phone.’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘I was just heading home. Again,’ she laughed.
    Over her shoulder, the lights of the pub in the distance flickered in the twilight, beckoning him. Maybe he wouldn’t get there tonight after all.
    ‘Actually,’ she started and then paused before searching his face. ‘Why don’t you come and have a look? See how things are going?’
    ‘I don’t know…’
    Lizzie stepped in close to him and slipped her hand into his, her fingers soft and warm in the cool of his palm. She tugged him closer.
    What the hell?
    ‘C’mon,’ she whispered. ‘It’s not far.’
    He was stuck. Silent. There he was, in the dark, holding the hand of a beautiful woman and he remembered something about himself. About the way he used to be. And in that instant, he decided to let himself enjoy this moment, this one small slice of not feeling like crap, a sliver of time he might look back on one day and remember that he’d been standing with this woman, who was holding his hand with gentle insistence, like he was a real man. And he was holding hers like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like it was exactly where he wanted to be.
    ‘Dan,’ she said softly. ‘Come with me.’

CHAPTER
8
    Dan’s hand was large and strong and Lizzie’s felt small and delicate in its cocoon. They walked along the roadway in silence. There was nothing but the waves on the sand as a sound effect in the night. Step by step, they fell into an easy rhythm with each other, his long strides slowing to meet hers, accommodating her, meeting her relaxed saunter.
    Lizzie hadn’t planned to reach out and touch him, to entwine her fingers in his, to capture his attention that way. But she’d seen a flicker of hesitation in his eyes, a moment of vulnerability, and she’d acted without thinking. Going to the pub seemed like a first step and she knew, some part of her was convinced, that it was one he really wanted to make.
    So they walked. It was safer for him now, empty and shadowy in the streets. They weren’t likely to meet anyone who might want to stop and chat. No one would want to interrupt two people walking in the darkness, holding hands, looking like clandestine lovers.
    A wind picked up, swept off the water and it cooled her cheek, tickling her silver earring against the soft skin of her neck. She glanced up, watched the breeze play with Dan’s black hair, rustling it around his eyes. There was definitely something different about his face tonight, she noticed with a nervous tightening in her throat.
    She needed some safe ground. ‘You know Ry and Julia are planning the wedding?’
    ‘Don’t tell me. Vegas and a fake Elvis marriage celebrant?’
    She laughed. ‘I don’t think so unless Julia has some plans that this bridesmaid doesn’t know about.’
    ‘That’s nice. You as the bridesmaid.’ She felt a tightening in his grip. ‘Haven’t you been best friends since you were kids?’
    Lizzie smiled at each memory, most of them created on the beach just a glance away or on these seaside streets. ‘Besties since she sat next to me on the first day of primary school and shared her coloured pencils with me.’
    ‘You like it that Julia’s come home.’
    She gave him a quick glance but had to look away. His gaze was too open, he looked too interested. As if he was opening himself up to take her in.
    ‘Nothing was quite