he seemed so boyish her heart snagged. For all his sophisticated suaveness the guy had issues that ran deep, and he was obviously still working through them. ‘That was weird. Mitchell has a night off tonight and wondered if I wanted to go round for a drink.’
‘Oh? You should go, then.’
‘Here we go again with the test. No.’ He picked up the menu and scanned it. ‘I’m not having you run out on me again.’
‘Seriously, this is good news, isn’t it? You should go before you both lose your nerve or find something else to argue about. Like who has the most bubbles in your damn lemonade.’
‘But I’m here with you. You’re important.’
‘I can wait.’ Laughing, she rubbed her shoulder. Since the jump she’d had a niggling pain there—probably pulled a muscle or something. In fact, generally she felt pretty wiped out with the adrenalin high leaching out of her system. She just wanted to crash. ‘Seriously, I’m not really hungry. You go and see Mitchell and I’ll head off to bed.’
She stood to go. The room swam around and she grabbed the table edge. ‘Whoa.’
‘You okay?’
‘Low blood pressure, I guess.’ The nausea swirled. When she could focus again she let go. It was definitely a good idea to go home, although it would be a shame to let the evening come to an end. But there would be more of him tomorrow. More tiny steps forward. ‘I’m fine. But I really think I need an early night.’
‘Alone?’
‘Yes. Alone, Max.’ She tutted, then looped her arm into his as they walked to the main road. He was such a muddle of contradictions. One minute he was intense and sad. The next he was cracking jokes about sex. He’d moved on swiftly from his dark mood. If only he’d give her the whole story. Then she’d truly feel like she understood him. But there was a way to go before that happened. ‘This has been the best night, but we’re still learning.’
‘We could learn a lot faster...naked.’
Yes, please. She batted his arm, shoving away thoughts of how good he looked wearing absolutely nothing. Nonna had always taught her that you had to wait for your rewards because they tasted all the more sweet. Gabby hoped like hell her nonna was right. ‘So, how did we do? You think you might want to do this again another night?’
‘Well, we have the team kayaking trip tomorrow evening.’ His eyebrows rose cheekily. ‘Watersport is always interesting to add to the sexy mix.’
‘Do you really think about sex every five minutes?’
‘Sex with you? Every three.’
‘Honestly! You’re incorrigible.’ But she smiled. The fact he still wanted her and cared enough to let her know made her feel hot inside. She’d never had that—had thought she’d had it once with Isaac but that had been a fallacy.
Truth was, she didn’t really want to go home alone. She didn’t want him to go off and see his brother. She wanted to lie in his arms and go to sleep. But she knew if they spent another night together she would be committing herself to him. And that would mean opening her heart, her old wounds, her memories. And she wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t know if she ever could be.
‘Let me take you home first.’ His arms circled her waist and he pecked a nonchalant kiss on the tip of her nose. ‘I’m worried about you. You don’t look well.’
‘I’m fine. Please, get to your brother’s before it’s too late.’
A taxi pulled up and he opened the door for her, paid the fare in advance and blew her a kiss. But as he disappeared into the darkness, her heart constricted.
It was already too late. Somewhere along the line she’d committed her heart to him and she couldn’t do a darned thing about it.
She fiddled with her necklace, clenched the diamond in her fist. But then what? If she was going to let him like her, and have a decent chance at a relationship, she’d have to be honest, tell him what she’d done all those years ago.
And she couldn’t do that. She just couldn’t.
9
Bad idea.
Max squeezed the beer can in his hand while his brother left the room to tend to Jamie. Getting together with Mitch was always difficult. Growing up, they hadn’t played board games, they’d played barbed games. Who could hurt who the most. Who could be the bolder, bigger, braver. Who was the best.
Distance had put paid to any kind of relationship. Hundreds of