Chapter Fifteen
Finishing up with her final clients before the holiday break left Hannah no time for rumination.
But there was a lightness in her step that hadn’t been there before, which got her through a Crystalless morning and into coffee break.
No more work commitments until the new year, unless something had come up on her phone.
One message: I hope you don’t mind me contacting you on your work number but it’s the only one I have. I was wondering, now that you’re not Owen’s psychologist, would you reconsider having dinner with me?
A smile smarted her cheeks. She curled her fingers, resisting the urge to type an immediate yes . Was it too soon? Too near to wrapping up her involvement with Owen? Too close to Christmas?
Lenore’s advice crackled in her ears like a scratchy line in an old Hollywood movie reel: life is short, don’t waste it.
She typed her response. Yes, I would.
His reply was instant, as if he’d been waiting and watching the screen. Are you free tonight?
Tonight was the night before Christmas Eve. Almost a week since she’d seen Cole. And she had another eight days to spend with Lenore and Nancy, who would both be beside themselves when they found out she was going on a—
Stop overthinking and answer the man. Most definitely her dad’s voice this time. What was he doing weighing in?
Sure am. It’s a date , she typed.
As Crystal would say, sometimes you just had to trust the universe and take a leap.
She might have been the one who jumped at the invitation, but Cole had taken date planning to a whole other level. The string of texts she’d received over the course of the day bordered on excessive, possibly stalkerish, at least until the last message landed.
Still okay for tonight?
6pm pick up too early?
I have somewhere in mind—not in town.
Casual dress, nothing fancy.
Jeans and boots if you have them.
Hope that’s okay???
Sorry for all the texts, it’s been a while since I’ve been on a date. Just trying to get it right.
Sweet but strange. According to Crystal, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Why was that? Maybe his personality wasn’t as hot as his looks, or maybe he was all surface and no depth.
Only one way to find out.
For what was probably the tenth time, Hannah stared at her reflection in the mirror, smoothing the creases in her white linen shirt, checking her butt really didn’t look too big in her bootleg jeans. God, what was she, a boy-mad teenager?
One last fluff of her hair and she closed the bedroom door behind her. Take it or leave it, Cole Harrison. This is as good as it gets .
Having Nancy and Lenore sitting in the lounge room like parents waiting for their daughter’s prom date to arrive was frankly a tad embarrassing.
She probably should have arranged to meet Cole wherever it was they were going, in case she needed to make an early exit, but she’d been so euphoric about actually going on a date, it hadn’t even occurred to her. Until now.
‘I’m going to head out.’ Making a quick exit would circumvent any inquisition.
Lenore lowered her book to her lap and looked over the glasses perched on the end of her nose.
‘You look gorgeous.’ Sitting there beside the Christmas tree in her leopard print kaftan, silver hoops in her ears, her hair whirled into a bun, she looked more like a fortune-telling clairvoyant than a retired academic.
‘If he doesn’t fall instantly in love with you, the man’s a fool.
’ She winked. ‘Or at least in lust, but I suspect that horse has bolted.’
‘Lenny, leave the poor girl alone.’ Nancy tutted and waved a hand in the air. ‘Get going before she asks if you’re wearing your best lingerie.’
‘Ooh, I hadn’t—’
‘Have a good night, you two.’
Cole’s ute cruised into the driveway the second she stepped out the door. A big green tick for punctuality. He got out of the car wearing a khaki checked shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a pair of well-fitting jeans and boots buffed to an eye-catching shine. Another tick for grooming.
‘Hi.’
‘Hi.’ Her knees shook as if she’d stepped off a fast-moving treadmill and her mouth was sandpaper dry. ‘You look—’
‘You look—’
They both spoke at once and immediately laughed.
‘We both look great, right?’ As he opened the passenger door, he smiled that slightly bashful smile that turned her insides to molten lava. She breathed in the leathery, salty scent that was peculiarly him.
‘So …’ She snuck a peek at his biceps while he reversed out of the driveway. ‘Where are we going?’
‘On a picnic.’
‘Really?’ It had been years since she’d been on a picnic, possibly decades, and the spot her family frequented in the national park sprang into her mind.
The crunch of fallen leaves under her feet.
Rock-hopping with Maddie. Catching tadpoles as they listened to the magical burble of the creek.
Bittersweet memories that left a hollow in her stomach and a catch in her throat. ‘Where to?’
‘It’s a surprise.’ The rumble in his voice as he spoke, the cheeky raise of his eyebrows and the smallest curve at the corner of his lips sent her hormones into overdrive. As long as he kept his eyes on the road he wouldn’t notice her nipples standing to attention beneath her shirt.
Thank God she’d worn her sexiest underwear.
In what seemed to be a silent pact, neither of them mentioned Owen.
Tonight was about them, getting to know each other without the shadow of how they’d actually met darkening the conversation.
They chatted about the town, Cole growing up and her moving there, a few mutual acquaintances, the progress in his stepfather’s recovery and their respective plans for Christmas.
She even got through that topic without her muscles tensing or her pulse rate skyrocketing.
The talking was easy and relaxed and with every turn they took in the road as it wound higher into the escarpment, the swarm of butterflies careening around inside her stomach began to settle.
Coming on the date had been a good decision.
Pulling off the road, Cole got out of the ute and retrieved a picnic basket from the tray, handed her a blanket and led the way along a narrow trail.
He clearly wanted the destination to be a surprise, so Hannah resisted speaking or asking questions, focusing instead on the sway of his hips as he navigated the bumps on the path and the fine hairs feathering the nape of his neck.
All the while her blood was heating, warming her from her core to the tips of her fingers.
She checked her back pocket for the small foil packets she’d slipped in there at the last minute, two for good measure. A girl had to be prepared.
‘Here we are.’
Cole stepped to one side as they entered a clearing that ran down to the edge of the escarpment.
A swathe of gum trees reached all the way to the horizon, studded with patches of black where the fire had ravaged the land, but mostly masses of green shoots reaching their branches skywards as if throwing their hands up in celebration.
Hannah drew in a breath. ‘Wow.’ Such an inadequate expression of how she was feeling but all she could utter in the face of such beauty.
‘Pretty spectacular, isn’t it?’
‘I didn’t know about this place.’ She’d studied dozens of websites, planning out walking routes, but none of them had included the lookout.
Cole shrugged. ‘It’s a well-kept secret. Local hikers know about it but it’s not on any of the maps.’
‘You bushwalk?’
‘When I get the time. Haven’t done much of it lately. Too busy. But I’m hoping to get back to it once Bill is fully recovered and Owen doesn’t need babysitting.’
Stranger and stranger.
He took a step back and there at his feet was a cotton picnic blanket, a vase of apricot grevilleas sitting in the centre, batteryoperated tea light candles flickering in a horseshoe around the edge, two padded, ground-level seats and a bottle of champagne chilling in a cooler.
It was like something from a television dating show.
‘Oh my God.’ Hannah’s hands flew to her mouth, doing nothing to hide her smile. She glanced down at the blanket he’d handed her back at the car, clearly a ruse. ‘Did you set this up yourself?’
‘Mmm-hmm. Right before I came to pick you up, so hopefully the bottle is still cold.’ His face fell. ‘That is if you like champ—’
‘I love it.’ Something akin to a popping cork exploded in her belly, surprise bubbling all the way up to her temples. ‘It’s very romantic.’
A blush darkened Cole’s cheeks. Despite his rugged good looks, he really was quite self-effacing. Modesty was a lovely quality in a man.
‘It’s a great place to watch the sun set.’ He gestured towards one of the seats. ‘After you.’
She settled into the chair while he opened the champagne. He really had thought of everything.
‘Cheers.’ He handed her a full glass, clinked his own against hers. ‘Here’s to new—’ He stopped short, mouth partially open.
‘Beginnings?’ She could have added ‘friends’, but that was not what they were going to be.
‘To new beginnings.’
She took a sip from her glass, let the dryness of it sizzle inside her mouth and ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip, never once taking her eyes off him.
Openly flirting. But she wasn’t here for shits and giggles.
Lenore’s unsolicited counselling session seemed to have had the desired effect.
Life was fleeting and there was no time to waste.
In fact, time was of the essence.
Hinging at the hips, she shifted her glass to one side and pressed her lips to his.
Tentatively at first—probably blindsided, hopefully pleasantly—the corners of Cole’s mouth curved upwards.
In an instant, his lips parted and their tongues met in a furtive, blissfully slow dance.
Her eyes closed, a burst of orange light exploding behind her lids as his hand cupped the back of her neck, molten lava boiling in her belly, heat building between her thighs.