All They Need - By Sarah Mayberry Page 0,79

then go to one of the local wineries for lunch. What do you think?”

“It sounds lovely. I can recommend a few places for you if you like. I always get good feedback from guests who try the restaurant at Paringa Estate, and I’ve been hearing good things about La Pétanque, too.”

“So which day would suit you better? Saturday or Sunday?”

She gave a funny little shrug. “Sorry, but next weekend isn’t great for me. Rex has got this thing at his school and I promised to help out.”

“How about the following weekend?”

She pushed her thick plait back over her shoulder. “Don’t change your plans on my account. I’m sure your parents are keen to see this money pit that you’ve bought.”

“Sure. But I’d like them to meet you, too,” he said.

Her smile was forced. “They can meet me any old time. Seriously, don’t put them off for my sake.”

He studied her a moment, tempted to push. Then he had a flash of her standing naked and shivering in his bathroom last night, fleeing from a bad dream she wouldn’t share with him.

“Okay, sure. Why not?” he said easily.

Her shoulders dropped visibly with relief. Just as well he’d already had a conversation with himself about being patient, otherwise his ego would be in the gutter right about now.

They went inside the house together and, because he couldn’t resist, he slid an arm around her shoulders. The tight feeling in his gut loosened as she leaned readily into the contact, resting her head briefly on his shoulder as her arm slid around his waist.

Slow and steady wins the race, he reminded himself.

Slow and steady.

GUILT ATE AT Mel for the rest of the weekend. No matter how many times she told herself she hadn’t technically been lying when she said she was busy the following weekend, the reality was that if she’d wanted to, she could have made time to meet Flynn’s parents.

And Flynn knew it, too. He hadn’t said anything, but she had seen the knowledge in his eyes as he’d accepted her feeble excuse. The urge to tell him that she’d changed her mind, that she’d find a way to be available, gripped her half a dozen times, but each time she balked.

She didn’t want to meet his parents. And not only because she didn’t have the greatest track record as far as parental approval went, although that was definitely a part of it. She didn’t want to meet Flynn’s parents because it felt like the first step toward something she didn’t want to even think about.

The man is besotted with you, Mel.

Her sister’s words kept echoing inside her head. She pushed them away again and again, but every time she looked at Flynn and saw the warmth and tenderness in his eyes her heart did a little backflip in her chest and she knew that he cared for her deeply.

This was serious for him. It was serious for her, too. More and more so. But that didn’t mean she was ready to meet his parents. It seemed…too much. Too fast. Too heavy. Too real. The ink was barely dry on her divorce papers. She needed time to adjust, for her head to catch up with her galloping, reckless heart.

She almost felt relieved when he left on Sunday night. She waved him off from her front porch, grateful that she was going to have a few days’ reprieve from the intensity of her own feelings when she was around him. Then she went inside and immediately registered how cold and empty her house felt without his warm presence.

Great. He’s barely been gone five minutes and you want him back already. Way to keep a grip on things, champ.

She didn’t call him the next day, to prove to herself that she could. But on Tuesday she caved and called and wound up agreeing to meet him at his place again that evening. She was pulling up in front of his town house when her phone rang.

“Mel, I’m really sorry. I’ve had a problem come up here at work. I’ll do my best to hose things down, but it’s going to be another twenty minutes minimum before I can get away,” Flynn said.

“No worries. I’ll go for a walk and check out your neighbors.”

“I’m really sorry about this.” He sounded frustrated and more than a little angry.

“Flynn. It’s okay. I get it. You have a big, big company to run. I’ll see you when you get here, okay?”

“Okay.”

She killed the time by driving around