‘Oh, excuse me.’ Turning briefly, she flipped a businesslike smile over her shoulder.
And that was when it happened.
The sultry summer morning, the almost-naked strumming cowboy, the honking traffic, the crowd and Erin’s pressing appointment ceased to exist.
She was looking into a man’s face and was compelled to stand stock-still.
And stare.
He wasn’t drop-dead handsome exactly. But everything about him—everything—spoke to her. The clean-cut manliness of his face, the smiling warmth in his eyes, the healthy sheen on his short brown hair, his hard-packed leanness, his height—
Right then, in a New York split-second, Erin knew that her life had entered a new dimension of fabulousness.
A voice deep inside her whispered that this man was it—the answer to a secret question she’d been asking since she was eleven years old, when she and Angie had knelt at their bedroom window and looked out across the crowded Manhattan skyline to send girlish wishes into the night.
This man was the one.
He was meant for her.
Even his clothes—simple blue jeans and a white cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled back over his forearms—were perfect.
Erin couldn’t move.
And it looked as if he couldn’t either. He was staring at her so intently that he seemed as stunned as she was. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out and then he shook his head and he offered her a shaky grin.
And finally, when he did speak, it was little more than a whisper. ‘Are you real?’
Erin gulped. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve never seen anyone with such amazing blue eyes. Your eyes are so beautiful. Are they real?’
It was either the corniest come-on line in the history of guys meeting gals, or it was a wonderfully genuine compliment.
As a New Yorker, Erin was too streetwise and sophisticated to let some strange man sweep her off her feet, so she played it safe. She treated his remark as a kind of joke. ‘What do you take me for? Of course my eyes aren’t real.’
‘I thought they were too blue to be true. So what’s the trick? You’re wearing tinted lenses?’
It was only then that Erin recognised his Australian accent. Alarm bells rang.
Darn. He wasn’t a New Yorker—not even an American. Her vibes had been way off the mark. This man couldn’t possibly be meant for her after all.
She loved her home town and she couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She had no intention of falling for a tourist. She didn’t plan on getting interested in any man who lived as far away as Mississippi, let alone Australia.
Disappointment sluiced through her. But how crazy was that? What was the matter with her? How could she get so instantly worked up about a stranger—in Times Square, for heaven’s sake? She was normally quite level-headed, about guys. Too level-headed, Angie always claimed.
She offered the handsome Australian a parting shrugging smile and turned, about to head off down West 47th Street. But, with a neat side-step, he quickly blocked her.
‘Just a minute—please.’
If any other guy had blocked her way she would have told him to step aside unless he wanted to find himself down on the pavement. She’d learned some sharp moves in self-defence classes. But somehow even this guy’s intrusion into her personal space charmed her.
‘Excuse me,’ she said meekly, taking another step. ‘I have to get going.’
He didn’t hesitate to block her way again. ‘You can’t rush off.’
‘I can too. I have a meeting.’
‘Are you sure about that?’
Huh? ‘Well, yes, of course I’m sure.’ She gave an impatient roll of her eyes.
His gaze held hers.
Oh, God. There was something so wonderfully right about him—a kind of ruggedness that was manly without being rough, a toughness that would never be mean. And there was intelligence and a spark of humour in his eyes, and then there was his sexy smile. His smile sent shivers dancing through her.
‘I don’t think you should go,’ he said.
‘But I have to.’
With an outstretched arm he made a sweeping gesture that took in the crowds on Seventh Avenue and the towering buildings all around them. ‘Think how many hundreds of meetings are taking place right now, all over New York City. Surely it won’t matter if one person misses just one of them.’
It wasn’t a logical argument and she wanted to protest. She should have protested. She tried, but the words died on her lips.
‘There’s something more important that you’ve got to do,’ he said.
‘W-what’s that?’
‘Have coffee with me.’
She felt her jaw drop. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Absolutely.’
Of course she was surprised. And pleased. But she ignored the little voice inside her shouting, yes, yes, yes! ‘How can coffee with you be more important than a business appointment?’
For long seconds he didn’t answer and she almost wished she hadn’t asked, because there was only one correct and sensible answer and it wasn’t what she actually wanted to hear. But then his sexy mouth curved into another brain-melting smile.
‘We should have coffee now because this city is so huge and frantic that if I let you go I might never see you again. This could be the one and only chance we’ll ever have to get to know each other.’
Oh, help.
‘And I think we really should get to know each other.’
Oh…help! Deep in her bones she was sure that he was right.
He managed to frown and smile at the same time and Erin couldn’t help smiling back. Next minute they were swapping proper introductions and then they were heading down the pavement to the nearest diner and Erin was calling Angie on her cellphone to tell her she couldn’t make it to their meeting.
‘Something’s come up,’ she said.
‘What kind of something?’
‘Something urgent.’
She heard her sister’s suspicious groan. ‘I’ve just spent nearly an hour on the bus and the subway to get here.’ Angie had moved to Queens when she married her fireman husband, Ed.
‘You can show our designs to Mario. You don’t need me, Ange.’
‘This had better be a matter of life and death.’
‘It is.’ Erin knew she didn’t sound at all convincing.
There was an eloquent pause from Angie and then… ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s a guy.’
Erin winced, but didn’t reply.
‘I’m right, Erin. I can tell. It is a guy, isn’t it?’
‘I’ll call you soon, Angie.’
‘Is he with you now? Is he gorgeous? He must be divine. I know you, sis. You wouldn’t cancel unless he was a god.’
‘I’ll call you.’ Erin snapped her cellphone shut, cutting Angie off mid-scream. Then she noticed that her companion was also making a call on his phone.
‘Yeah, mate, I’m really sorry,’ he was saying. ‘I’ll get back to you.’ As he finished and slipped the cellphone into the back pocket of his jeans he caught the curiosity in Erin’s eyes and he shot her a cute guilty smile.
She shook her head at him. ‘Don’t tell me you had to cancel a meeting too?’
‘Just a writer bloke who knows an agent. I’ll catch up with him another time.’
‘You’re a writer?’ How interesting.
He shrugged. ‘Not really. Nothing serious.’
‘So, what do you do?’
Luke told her.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh… my… God. Erin couldn’t hold back a gasp of dismay. ‘A cowboy?’ How on earth could she be even remotely interested in a cowboy?
Luke shot her a wary sideways glance. ‘They don’t call us cowboys in Australia.’
‘But you ride horses and you wear a big hat and you round up cattle and—’ Gulp. ‘And you live out in the middle of a prairie.’
‘Yeah. I guess you could
say I’m guilty of all that.’
Erin felt a swift surge of panic. Cowboys were so not her scene. She should get out of this fast. Now.
But she couldn’t get past the absolute certainty that in every other way Luke felt so right for her, and he looked so incredibly delectable and at home right here, in the heart of Manhattan.
‘If it helps, I promise not to yell out yee-haa! Or to call you ma’am or little lady,’ he said with a clever switch to a Texan drawl.
He crossed his heart and his sexy grey eyes twinkled and she thought, What’s the harm in having coffee?
‘God, you’re gorgeous.’ Across a table in the diner Luke stared at her.
Erin pressed her hands to her cheeks to hide her blush, took a deep breath and then let it out quickly.
‘Erin Reilly,’ he said slowly, repeating her name as if he were tasting it, like vintage wine. ‘With a name like that and with your colouring, you must have some Irish heritage.’
‘My father’s Irish. From County Clare.’ She felt eerily excited, as bubbly as champagne, and the words just spilled out. ‘But my mother’s New York-Italian. My sister Angelina has dark hair and eyes, like our mom’s side of the family.’
‘And your father migrated here?’
‘Yes, but then he went back to Ireland.’
Luke frowned. ‘To stay?’
‘’Fraid so.’
‘Without his family?’
To her surprise, she found that she wanted to explain it all, and she told this stranger more than she’d told many of her friends. ‘Dad begged Mom to join him, but she won’t leave Manhattan.’
Luke needed a moment or two to take this in. His grey eyes were pensive and then he seemed to shrug whatever bothered him aside. ‘Have you been to Ireland to see your dad?’ he asked.
‘Yes, I’ve been over there quite a few times. I love Ireland.’
Luke seemed genuinely interested in everything about her and, because she felt so amazingly rapt yet relaxed, she found herself telling him a whole bunch of stuff about herself.
‘And what about boyfriends?’ he said.
‘What about them?’
‘Are you guys on this planet, or what?’
They both jumped as an impatient voice sounded close beside them.
‘You ordered coffees, didn’t you?’ whined the waiter.
‘Oh, yes, thanks.’ They’d been so entranced with each other they hadn’t even noticed him.
With a shake of his head, the waiter set their coffees down and bustled off muttering darkly about lovebirds.
Erin felt another blush hit her cheeks and Luke was grinning as he added sugar and cream to his coffee.
‘You were about to tell me about your boyfriends,’ he said after he’d tasted his coffee. ‘Tell me the bad news. I know there must be an entire army of men beating a path to your door.’
She dropped her gaze and ran her finger over the handle of her coffee cup. ‘No one special.’
Then, to cover her awkwardness, she demanded to hear all about Luke and his family.
He smiled. ‘Actually, I’m a quarter Yank. My grandfather came from Louisiana.’
‘Really? But he went to Australia?’
‘Yeah. He was based in North Queensland during World War Two. At the end of the war, instead of asking my grandmother to travel to the US as a war bride, Grandad returned to Australia to work on our property, Warrapinya.’
‘And he liked it? He stayed there?’
Luke nodded.
‘Did it work out? Did your grandparents live happily ever after?’ This question was suddenly very important to her.
He smiled. ‘Couldn’t be happier. I’d say their marriage was about as good as it gets.’
Luke told her more about his travels and about Australia and his cattle ranch, but then he looked around at the busy diner and said, ‘This is so crowded in here. I haven’t been to Central Park yet. Will you be my tour guide?’
Erin didn’t hesitate. She showed him the way down Sixth Avenue and they strolled through the park beneath stately American elms and past cool green lawns until they reached the quiet serenity of Strawberry Fields, and the whole time they walked they talked and they feasted their eyes on each other.
They didn’t touch, not even to hold hands and yet their attraction was scorching. Exquisite. Erin couldn’t be sure her feet were actually touching the ground.
Some time during that golden afternoon the fact that Luke was an Australian either became irrelevant or part of his allure—which, she could no longer be sure. Somewhere between the laughter and the longing, it simply didn’t matter.
What mattered was the chemistry, the connection, the tug of honest-to-God lust and the promise of perfect friendship. What mattered was that she looked into his eyes and was filled with a wonderful sense of well-being, an intoxicating, inner radiance.
When they left Central Park through the West 72nd Street exit they couldn’t bear to be parted. They dined together that evening. And afterwards, Erin asked Luke back to her apartment.
The outside world stopped for the next week.
By the end of it Erin was so heart-and-soul deep in love she couldn’t imagine her life without Luke Manning.
‘This week has been fabulous,’ she told him.
He grinned. ‘Only fabulous?’
She grinned back. ‘Matchless then. Off the planet. The most wonderful seven days, surpassing anything I’ve ever dreamed of or hoped for.’
Drawing her close, he kissed her neck just below her left ear. ‘You’re perfect, Bright Eyes.’
‘We’re both amazing.’
‘Olympic standard sex.’
‘Gold-plated.’
He laughed. ‘Damn right. We’re the duck’s pyjamas.’
But it wasn’t just the love-making. They felt right in so many ways—they liked the same music, enjoyed the same movies, even laughed at the same moments in the movies. Erin loved to cook Thai and Luke loved to eat it.
‘You mustn’t leave me,’ she said late one afternoon when they were sitting in the window-seat in her small living room. She paid more rent than she could sensibly afford for this tiny apartment, simply because she loved this seat in the window.
This was her private eyrie from which she watched her world. She loved sharing it with Luke. They sat opposite each other, legs entwined, drinking ginger tea out of oversized bright violet cups and looking out across the city. Far below them neon signs flashed gaudy flickers into the twilight.
Luke sighed and avoided her gaze. ‘There’ll come a time soon when I’ll have to go home. I have no choice. My parents are getting on in years and they rely on me to help run Warrapinya.’
‘Well,’ she said, after only the slightest pause, ‘if you have absolutely no choice, I’ll have to come with you.’
Luke couldn’t hide his surprise. He put his cup down and reached for her hands. ‘Erin, I couldn’t ask you to do that.’
She pouted. ‘Why? Don’t you want me?’
‘Of course I want you. I don’t know how I’ll survive without you.’
Yes. She could see the tummy-tumbling truth of it in his eyes.
‘How do you plan to handle our relationship then? Do you have shares in an international airline?’
‘I wish.’
His thumbs massaged the back of her hands.
‘There’s got to be a solution, Erin. But it wouldn’t be fair to ask you to leave all this to come back to Australia. You’d hate to be stuck out in the bush where I live.’
‘Your grandfather managed.’
‘It was different for him.’
She looked at Luke and wondered how he could be so damnably calm while he talked about leaving her. Her insides were erupting. ‘I wouldn’t hate the bush if I was there with you, Luke. I’m sure I have a pioneering spirit. I could live on a ranch. When I was in primary school my favourite book was Little House on the Prairie.’
He made a light scoffing noise. ‘The Outback’s hot and
dusty and lonely and isolated. You’ve spent your entire life in Manhattan, surrounded by people—by millions of people. The country around Warrapinya is empty. And it’s dangerous.’
‘Dangerous smangerous.’ Setting aside her teacup, she pivoted forward, balancing on her knees till she was nose to nose with him. She smiled into his gorgeous grey eyes. ‘The Outback’s just wide open spaces and gum trees and cows. It can’t be more dangerous than the streets of Manhattan.’
He began to protest but she silenced him with a long lush kiss on the mouth. ‘Are there muggers at Warrapinya?’ she asked.
‘There are deadly snakes and spiders, and plenty of dirt and dust.’
‘Dirt and dust?’ Rolling her eyes to the ceiling she gave a dismissive little laugh. ‘You live in a proper house, don’t you? With a roof to keep the rain off and a bath to wash the dirt off?’
‘Yeah, but what about the isolation?’
She touched a fingertip to his divine lower lip, traced its curve and watched desire warm in his eyes. ‘I’ll have you there with me, Luke.’
‘Minx.’ Groaning softly, he drew her close and wrapped his big arms around her and he pressed kisses over her face and into the white curve of her neck. But then, too soon, he lifted his head and sighed again.
‘What now?’ she asked petulantly.
‘What about your business?’
Oh, yes. Good question.
Erin suppressed a spiky surge of disquiet. ‘Do you have a telephone and an Internet connection?’
He shook his head. ‘There are telephones, but no Internet.’
That stunned her.
‘But the government assures us that we should all be connected over the next couple of years.’
Laughing a little wildly to cover her shock, she kissed the underside of his jaw. ‘As long as I can have a table in a little corner somewhere, I can work, and if I can keep in touch with Angie by telephone and mail her the things I make, I can still operate my business. Everything should be fine.’ She was so in love with him it was easy to believe in miracles.
Luke’s hands gripped her shoulders and he set her a little apart from him. ‘If you come with me, Erin, I want us to be married.’
‘Do you?’
Marriage was an enormous step, but one look at the intense emotion in Luke’s face and she knew that her question was foolish.
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