for someone who didn’t get a lot of sleep.’
Callum shrugged. ‘Some things are worth losing sleep over.’
‘Absolutely.’ She looked like she was about to say more but one of the wait staff interrupted, filling Felicity’s cup with coffee. ‘About last night...’ she said after they departed, spooning in some sugar and stirring absently.
She seemed wary and unsure suddenly, staring at the circling spoon, reluctant to meet his gaze. Alarm bells rang in his head and his hair prickled at his nape. Was she going to suggest that they make it something more? Was she going to ask for his number? Or a date? Was she going to morph into some kind of clingy, bunny-boiler who wanted some kind of relationship?
Because, as incredible as it had been—and it had been incredible—he just didn’t have time and space in his life at the moment for a romantic entanglement. He was trying to get his life back on track and last night had purely been the inevitable end to a couple of hours of flirting and one massive adrenaline hit.
Hadn’t it?
Hell. He didn’t even know her last name.
‘I don’t...’ She placed her spoon on the saucer and glanced at him. ‘I don’t usually do this kind of thing.’
Callum nodded. There wasn’t one part of him that thought she did. ‘Yeah. I got that.’
‘Not that I think,’ she hastened to add, ‘there’s anything wrong with hooking up. It’s just not...me, you know? Well, of course you know because I’m totally screwing this up in a very unsophisticated way, exactly like I’ve never done this before, but look...I live in this small town where everybody knows everybody else and they’re all in each other’s business and all the guys my age there think of me as Flick so I don’t often get the opportunity to...’
He waited for her to continue but she appeared to have run out of steam. Callum couldn’t figure out where she was going with this. Was the reason she was telling him she was a small-town girl her way of saying her daddy had a gun and he was now part of the family whether he liked it or not?
‘Oh, God, sorry.’ She grimaced, covering her face with her hand before dropping it again and shaking her head. ‘I’m babbling. I swore I wouldn’t babble.’
Callum laughed, which surprised the hell out of him. She really was quite cute when she was flummoxed. ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m not judging you and there were extraordinary circumstances last night.’
‘Sure.’ She picked up her cup and sipped, her gaze zeroing in on his. ‘But you and I both know we were heading to bed even before our adrenaline-induced recklessness.’
There was no point denying that one. In fact, he was damn certain they’d have done it more than three times had their flirting not been so catastrophically interrupted.
‘You’re very direct, aren’t you?’ He liked that.
She laughed. ‘Usually yes. Although not so much right now. It’s the nurse in me.’ She glanced out the window for a beat or two before looking at him again. ‘What I’m trying to say—very inelegantly—is that I hope you don’t think...I mean want or expect even...that this is anything more than just last night. Just two strangers on a train, in a...bubble almost. Indulging in something spontaneous. I mean, I like you but...hell, I don’t even know your last name or where you live or what kind of doctor you are or even if you’re going on to Perth.’
Callum opened his mouth to tell her it was okay. He got it. He felt exactly the same way about what had happened between them. About spontaneity. About getting out of his head and just not being himself for a night. But she held up her hand to ward it off.
‘No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know any of it either. I’d kind of like to keep this whole thing as a big, delicious secret. This...crazy thing I did once that’ll make me smile whenever I think about it. Maybe...’ she smiled ‘...scandalise my grandkids about it one day.’
Grandkids. Of course there’d be grandkids. And kids. With honey-blonde hair and grey eyes. She was young and, despite what she said about the guys in her town, he had no doubt someone would snap her up.
Whereas he couldn’t even look that far ahead.
‘So,’ Callum said, forcing himself to lighten the mood, ‘you just want to use me for my body and callously walk away? Pretend it never happened?’
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she nodded and said, ‘Yes.’ She toyed with her spoon again. ‘Does that make me a terrible person?’
Callum chuckled at the little frown knitting her brow. He’d never met a woman who was such a compelling mix of confidence and uncertainty. ‘No,’ he teased. ‘Relax. It was one night. We barely know one another. I promise you haven’t broken my heart and I’m not about to drop down on one knee and ask you to marry me. You are not a terrible person and we should absolutely go our own ways after this with a smile on our faces and very fond memories of our night.’
‘Is that how you’re going to remember it?’ she asked, placing her elbow on the table and propping her chin on her fist. ‘Fondly?’
She was teasing now and he liked it. ‘Very fondly.’
She grinned. ‘Me too.’
‘Good. Now...’ he thrust the breakfast menu at her ‘...order your breakfast. You must be hungry.’
Her gaze dropped to the menu but he could still see the smile playing on her mouth as she muttered, ‘Starving.’
* * *
Felicity ate like the train was about to run out of food. She was absolutely famished from her vigorous night between the sheets. Callum laughed at how much she put away and the happy little bubble around her grew.
It continued when they moved to the lounge. Jock’s heart attack was a hot topic with their fellow travellers and everyone was agog at how they’d saved Jock’s life. They were so impressed they didn’t seem to mind the fact that both she and Callum had lied to them about what they did.
Or at least they didn’t call them on it anyway.
The day flew and before Felicity knew it the train was rolling through the outer suburbs of Adelaide, bringing her closer and closer to home. She was treating herself to a few days in the city first, though. The last week in October was a perfect time to do her Christmas shopping and also hit the beach before the full tilt of summer. There were no beaches in the Clare Valley. Vineyards and antique shops, amazing restaurants with gourmet offerings and dinky little tearooms for sure, but no beach.
It was back to work on Monday and the magical time she’d spent in Sydney with her best friend Luci and the train trip and last night would all soon be pushed to the side as she morphed back into Flick and her life revolved around work and small-town life.
So she was going to savour this for as long as she could.
Half an hour later the train had pulled up at the platform and she was saying goodbye to her fellow travellers and Donald as she disembarked. A part of her wanted to stay on for ever, stay in this bubble for ever with Callum. But it was neither real nor possible so she channelled Flick and let it go, stepping onto the platform.
‘Well,
