“Good lunch?” he asked, walking them to the parking lot.
“Great lunch!” both young women said together, then laughed.
“Well, the restaurant boasts a much-lauded chef,” Simon pointed out with satisfaction. “What did you have?”
“Rose will tell you in the car.” Alana lightly touched his arm. “She says you’re driving her home?” Actually, Alana could easily have done that, but Rose obviously didn’t want to miss out on a little private time with Simon.
“I wouldn’t want her to drive after a few drinks,” Simon said. “Our Rose can be quite naughty!”
“I like to enjoy myself, Simon, darling,” said Rose, suddenly feeling free to take his arm. “We had a brilliant time.” She puckered up to kiss Alana goodbye. “Just double-checking—you’re entering The Naming, of course?” she asked. “Will I ever get a chance to shine? Everyone thinks I’m pretty cute, but you’re something else again.”
“I’m not entering, Rosie,” Alana said firmly. “And I’m thinking it would be absolutely wonderful if you won.”
“Truly? You want me to win?” Rose’s big blue eyes widened.
Alana nodded. “I’ll take loads of photos of you wearing the crown.”
Simon, however, was searching Alana’s face with a frown. “You’re joking, aren’t you, Lana?”
“No, Simon, I’m not,’ she said sweetly, resisting the urge to pinch his cheek.
“But I’ve already entered you,” Simon burst out, near broken-heartedly.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Simon. It’s my decision not to enter.”
“Well, that’s good news of a kind.” Rose was looking on the bright side. “It gives the rest of us a chance.”
Alana was walking, head down, to the ute, when a tall figure loomed up in front of her, his height blocking out the sunlight. “Hi,” Guy said in a perfectly calm voice. “Lost in thought?”
She was glad her eyes were hidden behind the dark lenses of her sunglasses. “Why, hello, Guy. Is this the way it’s going to be from now on?”
“And how’s that?” He took her arm with unbearable gentleness and moved her into the shade of a trellis that was covered in a prolifically flowering white vine.
“We’re not friends any more?”
“Were we ever friends?” he asked ironically, his dark eyes moving slowly over her.
She averted her head. “Maybe not. I’ve just had lunch with Rose.”
“So I heard,” he answered smoothly. “She thinks the world of you, Alana.”
“And I’m very fond of Rose. It’s Violette I like to keep a million miles from. Violette is still telling anyone who will listen Simon and I are two minutes from the altar. At least that’s what Rose just told me.”
He was looking at her white shirt, at the first three buttons undone, allowing a mere glimpse of the shadowed cleft between her breasts.
She felt she was burning alive, unable to lock out the memories of his hands on her.
“Well, I do hope you put her right!” he said.
Alana gave in to a wry laugh. “You should have seen her rush off with Simon. She told me about the job. She’s thrilled. It’s wonderful you’re giving her a chance, Guy. It’s what she needs. Rose is capable of so much more.”
“I did it for you, Alana, as you well know,” he returned bluntly.
“Excuse me?” She threw back her head, aglitter in the sunlight.
“Don’t play dumb. It doesn’t suit you in the least. I did what you suggested. I set it up so Rose and Simon are thrown together. I understood that’s what you wanted?”
She heard the birds calling to one another, the bees droning, inhaled the nearly overpowering sweet scent of the cascades of white flowers. “Do you want me to go down on bended knee and thank you?”
He smiled. “Actually, that could be nice. Why don’t I drive you home instead? It’s damned hot, and I know for a fact the air conditioning in your ute has broken down.”
“Is there anything you don’t know? Anyway, there are such things as windows,” she pointed out. She who had been forced to spend several minutes fixing her windblown hair when she’d arrived.
“If you could manage a smile, I’ll get someone to fix it and deliver it back to the farm. Probably by tomorrow afternoon.”
She would be a fool to turn such an offer down. “I can’t let you do it, Guy.”
“But you can let me play matchmaker to get Simon off your back?”
She smarted—just as he’d intended. “I love Simon.”
“As a friend. Simon needs to be strong about recognising that fact. I’m sure Rose will do her very best to offer sympathy. I like Rose. As you say, there’s so much more to her than she’s been allowed to show. I think she can do this job, and do it well.”
“So do I!” Her note was overly emphatic, as though he might change his mind. “She’s ecstatic about it.”
His mouth twitched. “I think she’s more ecstatic about coming into daily contact with Simon. They’re both gentle people. I need hardly say you’re not!”
“Neither are you!” she shot back, affronted.
“You are going to let me drive you home, though?”
She stared up at him. “You’re an intimidating man when you want to be, Guy Radcliffe.”
He took her arm, leading her off to the reserved parking area, under shelter, where his car had pride of place. Once there, he opened the passenger door for her—but before she could make a move to slide into the leather seat he suddenly caught her chin, turned her face up to him and kissed her mouth.
She didn’t know if it was fierce or tender or a combination of both, but her legs turned as wobbly as a toddler’s.
“Lucky for you I’m not intimidating all the time,” he said, placing a hand on the top of her head and guiding her down into the passenger seat as though she were his prisoner.
The countryside revealed itself in gentle swells of hill and dale, in every possible shade of green. Alana was very sensitive to all the different shades of nature. Graceful, broad-domed shade trees lined the valley road, and in the huge paddocks some species of wattle had already begun to burst into the glowing masses of golden blossom that outstripped the display turned on by the red and pink flowering gums.
Alana stared through the window of the gently purring car as the Valley landscape flashed by. The interior was beautifully
