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He did a mock stagger, like he might faint. “Hot damn, I like it when you say yes!”
Before she could think of a thing to say in retort, he’d disappeared inside.
She was feeling much more awake when Lachlan came back out, carrying bags of food. “There’s a nice park a couple blocks that way—” He pointed toward town.
“It smells too good and I’m too starving to wait.” As if on cue, her stomach rumbled, embarrassingly loud.
“All right. How about over there?” He pointed to a rock outcropping at the edge of the parking lot.
He scrambled a top it first, setting the food down, and then reached a hand to help pull her up beside him.
She laughed when she saw the size of the burger. “What am I supposed to do, unhinge my jaw?”
“Want to trade?” He showed her one of his meat pies, which looked a bit like a mini pot pie.
“No, but can I try a bite?”
“Of course.” He immediately held one of his meat pies out to her and she bit into it while he kept hold of it. “Everything tastes better when you share it.”
“Mmm.” The pastry was light and flaky and the meat filling tasted of wine. “That’s pretty good.”
“You like it?” Lachlan looked genuinely surprised, and for the first time she wondered what kind of first impression she’d made on him. Maybe not a very good one.
“Yeah, I do. Call me pleasantly surprised.” And just for fun, she gave him a wink of her own.
“Do you want more?” He was so generous. She hadn’t let herself really see it before, but he’d been generous with his time, hours and hours he’d spent collecting her, and now he was sharing his food, before he’d even had a chance to eat a single bite.
“No, I’m good. But,” she held out her burger to him, “do you want some of mine?”
“Nah. I think you need it more than I do. I haven’t traveled around the world in a single day.”
“Okay, but you have done a lot of traveling today.” Without thinking about it, she’d laid her hand on his thigh, right where she’d left marks on him earlier. She couldn’t believe she was touching him, like they’d known each other forever. She didn’t go around touchinganyonelike that, especially not people she’d just met. “And suffered while doing it too. I’m sorry about that.”
He shook his head. “No suffering involved. I was glad to do it.”
“Well, I appreciate it. And what do I owe you, for lunch and gas and…”
He leveled a stare at her and holy hell, the intensity of it made her feel like a deer in the headlights. “You don’t owe me a thing…” She was just about to protest when he broke the tension with that mischievous smile. “Except for that second plane ride you let me win.”
She knew she shouldn’t say it, but she did anyway. “You’re supposed to forget about that!”
He shook his head at her. “You’re out of luck if you think I’m ever going to forget.”
The air between them practically shimmered with heat, but she couldn’t tell if it was from him or her or the warm weather. For just a moment she let herself pretend that maybe he was more than just charming, that maybe he really did want to spend more time with her, that maybe there was something special about the connection she felt between them.
They settled into the kind of silence that fell when good food was involved, though Lachlan finished his in about three minutes flat. He sat next to her, thrumming with a kind of restlessness the racehorses she rode sometimes got—the kind where they stood still, but she could feel their every muscle was coiled and ready, itching to move.
When she finally finished her gigantic burger, she felt almost like herself again. “Oh, I feel so much better. Thank you. I needed that.”
“You’re welcome.” Lachlan smiled at her as he gathered up their trash. “Wait here.” She did what he said, and she didn’t mean to but her eyes traced his path as he strode back towards Beth’s. Of course she’d noticed how handsome he was when he’d first woken her up back at Bankstown, but this time she let herself really appreciate the swing of his broad shoulders and his powerful stride as he moved across the parking lot.
When he came back, she could tell he had something in his pocket. “Dessert?” He held out a package to her that read TimTams across the front.
“Oh! Lena’s told me about these! I’ve been wanting to try them!”
“Thought they might be a winner.” God his smile was gorgeous.
She imagined him climbing back up on the rock, the two of them splitting whatever was in the package, maybe letting herself lean into him… Then she came back to reality. Whatever she felt crackling in the air between them fleeting, temporary. It was charm and flash, not substance.
