by Margaret Way
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re smart. You’ll figure it out. One piece of advice. Take it slowly.”
She searched his face. Blaine was a central part of her life, but hunkering down inside her bolt hole had become a habit. “You make that sound like I could be steering into dangerous waters.”
“And so you could be.”
“They know I’m coming?”
Blaine nodded. “I expect they’re feeling their own brand of trepidation. But life has moved on. You have moved on, Mallory. You’re Doctor James now, a highly regarded professional in your field. You could even be of help to the child.”
The thought took the edge off her upset. “Only I’m certain Jason and his wife wouldn’t want any help from me. Jessica was never my friend.”
“I did tell you that as well.”
“You did indeed.” Between the heat and her sizzling emotions, she felt compelled to get away from him. “You know I’ve always thought you a complete—”
He cut her off, opening her car door. “No need to say it, Mallory. I can fill in the dots. And it wasn’t always. Once we were good pals, until puberty got in the way.”
“Puberty? Whose puberty?” she demanded, incensed.
“Why, yours, of course. I’m not a fool, Mallory. I know you hate it, but I know you too well.”
“You’ll need to do a lot of catch-up.” With practised grace, she swivelled her long, elegant legs as she settled into the driver’s seat. “You find this funny?” She caught the glint in his eyes.
“Not at all. I just hope you’re relatively okay with it.”
“Like I’m relatively okay with a Category Five cyclone. What time tomorrow?”
“Say eleven o’clock. Robert has a new housekeeper. Mrs. Rawlings. She lost her husband, Jeff, to cancer.”
She nodded. “Uncle Robert did manage to tell me. I’m sorry. He told me plenty about your goings-on as well. We do so know he thinks of you as the son he never had. What did go wrong between you and Selma, anyway?” Her voice was edged with malice, when malice didn’t come naturally to her. “I would have thought she was madly in love with you.”
“You’ve managed to make that sound like one would have to wonder why.”
“Just trying to spin your wheels. Besides, I didn’t think you cared all that much what I thought.”
“I’ll let that one go as well. It was Selma who decided against an engagement,” he offered with no loss of his iron-clad composure.
“It was the other way around, I fancy. She loved you, but you found you didn’t love her, or not enough to get married. Had you a new conquest in mind?”
He made to close her door. “Let’s swap stories at another time, shall we, Mallory?”
“Nothing in it for you, Blaine. I’m a closed book.”
“Unknowable to everyone but me.”
She could have cheerfully slapped him. Instead she found herself tightening her body against the odd tumbling inside her. “I assume that’s your arrogance talking?”
“Not entirely. See you tomorrow.”
He shut her door.
He walked away.
He didn’t look back.
Available now from Lyrical Shine
He was her knight in shining cowboy boots
HER AUSTRALIAN HERO
By Margaret Way
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USA Today Bestselling author Margaret Way has written more than 130 books—many of them international bestsellers. She has been published in 114 countries and in 34 languages. Her novels are set in her beloved Australia, where she was born and lives to this day. Her stories always contain the beauty and rugged nature of rural and Outback Australia, as well as the rainforests and coral reefs of Northern Queensland.