They could enjoy each other’s company and then say goodbye. But he would give her space. For now. This had to be her decision.
Luci towelled herself dry and slipped her sundress over her head. She’d had enough time in the sun but the extra layer wasn’t to prevent sunburn, it was to provide her with a bit of a barrier. Not that it afforded much protection but she needed all help she could get to ensure she didn’t just throw herself back into Seb’s arms.
She should be having doubts and reservations. She had known him for less than three days and she had never kissed a man she barely knew before. She’d never properly kissed anyone other than her ex-husband.
She should be having doubts and reservations about kissing him, full stop, but that wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t Seb who was making her nervous but the consequences of her actions.
She didn’t want to make a mistake or do anything that might jeopardise her time in Sydney. There were more important things than kissing a handsome stranger. They had to live together and work together. There were a whole lot of reasons why she should keep her distance and only one thing, her hormones, was telling her differently.
She was a single adult, there was no rule saying she couldn’t take this further, but she really wasn’t sure if she was ready. She needed some ground rules. She’d never done ‘no strings attached’ and she wasn’t sure if she could. Until she had processed the idea she felt it would be wise to keep her distance.
The kiss had been amazing. She’d seen it coming and she hadn’t stopped him. She hadn’t wanted to. She’d wanted to touch him, to taste him, but she hadn’t realised how hard it would make it to deny herself more. It was going to be difficult. She would have to find other ways of keeping busy. If she was busy she wouldn’t have time to think about him.
Seb had pulled some more food out of the ice box and assembled a picnic lunch. Luci was starving and she was more than happy to sample the selection. While she was eating she couldn’t talk but when they did talk Seb kept the conversation neutral. They talked about inconsequential things, a polite conversation between two virtual strangers, skirting around the issue that she couldn’t stop thinking about.
But not talking about the kiss didn’t stop her from thinking about it.
Seb shoved the crowbar behind the last of the kitchen cabinets in the galley of his boat. He had spent most of his spare time for the past week hunkered down, removing the shower and the kitchen cabinetry. The carpenter had told him not to expect the new fittings to be ready for installation for another fortnight but he needed to dismantle the old fixtures and he needed to keep himself occupied.
The demolition work was achieving three things—he was progressing nicely with his renovations, he was keeping his mind occupied, to a point, and he was keeping his distance from Luci. He had promised to give her time and space but over the past couple of days he’d found that if he spent too much time in the same space as her it was becoming increasingly difficult to resist the pull of attraction. It was difficult to be around her and not touch her. All he wanted to do when she was around him was to explore their attraction but he had promised not to push her.
Once again his boat was his sanctuary but this time he didn’t need it to help him over his heartbreak. This time it was to keep his mind off his desire rather than his despair. The physical work was a good antidote for the desire. He was so knackered by the end of the day that he would fall straight to sleep when he went to bed. That was a fourth benefit of the demolition work.
He’d had several brief affairs over the past three years but he had been very careful to avoid meaningful relationships. If Luci was willing there was nothing stopping them from having some fun, as her time in Sydney was limited anyway, but he realised she might still be working through her own issues. It would probably be wise to spend some time working out whether her issues were major or minor. He wasn’t prepared to get involved in anything too emotional—a physical relationship was fine but he didn’t want anything more serious than that.
There were all sorts of reasons why he should avoid Luci and he knew them all, he’d been running over them constantly.
She had led a sheltered life. A very sheltered life.
They had to work together.
They had to live together.
It was all a little bit too close.
But that didn’t alter the fact that he was excited by Luci and it had been a long time since he’d been excited by anything.
Although he knew it still might be better to avoid her he couldn’t avoid her completely. They had to work together and on Friday afternoon she knocked on his consulting-room door. He could smell her before he saw her. She smelt of frangipani.
‘Hi,’ he said as he looked up. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Good.’
She smiled at him and her blue-grey eyes sparkled. She looked happy. She glowed and he had the sense that she was filled with light that then spilled out to brighten everyone else’s day. At least, that’s how he felt when she was around.
‘Melanie Parsons is in the clinic today,’ Luci told him. ‘She has an appointment with the psychologist and then I’m going to do the health check on her four-year-old. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see her.’
‘Good idea. What time is she booked in with you?’ he asked as he looked at his diary.
‘She’s next. I’m just going to grab a coffee and by then she should be done with the psych consult. Give me ten minutes to get started on the toddler check and then come in.’
Luci was just helping Harper down from the exam table when Seb knocked on the door. She took Harper out of the room to the play area where Harper’s two-year-old brother was busy with the building blocks while Seb caught up with Melanie. When she returned Seb had been given the update on the two psychologist appointments Melanie had already had.
‘We are working on my responses so that I can try to manage the situation,’ Melanie told him. ‘And then we’re going to tackle the best way to get Brad in for a session as well.’
Milo was strapped into his pram in the corner of the room. He started to grizzle.
‘Sorry,’ Melanie apologised, ‘He’s due for a feed.’
Seb thought it was interesting that Melanie felt she needed to apologise for something that was perfectly understandable. She started to get out of her chair to attend to the baby when Luci offered her help.
‘Don’t worry about him. I’ll see if I can settle him for a bit, let you finish with Dr Hollingsworth.’ Luci lifted Milo out of the stroller. She blew a raspberry on his foot and his grizzles stopped, becoming happy chortling instead. She laid him on the exam table and distracted him with a mirror and a game of peek-a-boo, allowing Melanie to continue.
The young mother was watching Luci play with Milo while she spoke to Seb. ‘And I think I need to make an appointment to discuss a more reliable form of contraception. After this next one I reckon I’m done. Some days I feel like I’m not even managing with the three I already have.’
