Chapter 29
Hamish
He’d never been happier to hear a storm blow in. Not because it meant he’d get out on the seeder tomorrow, but because it had given him an excuse to stoke the fire in the lounge room before Jemma returned from Evie and Paul’s. And more heat meant fewer clothes.
Alongside him on the sofa, laptop on her knees, Jemma swivelled to flip her long legs over his thighs. ‘See? Making time for us. Multitasking for the win.’ she said, looking up from her screen with a grin.
She wore glasses when she was working and he’d never seen anything cuter in his life.
The storm prowled toward them, attacking with ferocious growls. A crack of thunder rumbled through the room and a log fell in the fireplace as though the tremble had dislodged it.
Jemma glanced at the window, where the premature darkness of the storm almost assuaged his guilt at not being out at the farm working.
Lachlan would understand why he’d taken the day off: he’d been in the same situation only a year back, when Charity had consumed his every waking moment.
Honestly, his brother wasn’t a whole lot different now, his life revolving around the woman he loved.
Hamish smiled to himself: for the first time, there was a chance he could look forward to something similar.
‘That storm sounds so wild,’ Jemma said. ‘More elemental than they seem in the city.’
‘You want to ask Charity about wild storms. She’s sure got a story to tell.’
‘How about you tell me?’
‘If that’s what you want me to use my mouth for …’
The warm silence of the room, broken only by their murmured words, wrapped them for long minutes as Jemma proved that she had other plans for his lips. Eventually she sighed, straightened and readjusted her laptop.
‘Just like that, your focus is back on work?’ he said, stretching his legs.
‘Not back—it never departs,’ she warned.
‘I’m taking that as a challenge.’
‘I’ll look forward to seeing how you handle that.’ A smile ghosted Jemma’s lips, but her focus was on her screen as she tapped at the keyboard.
‘I’m not keen on you driving out to your dad’s in this weather, Jem.’
She snorted. ‘Next you’ll start singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.’
He crooned the first couple of lines.
‘I really can’t,’ Jemma replied, not even getting the beat right.
He groaned. ‘You could have warned me that you can’t hold a tune. I might have to rethink the begging.’
‘I do quite like a bit of abject grovelling.’ A notification popped onto her screen and she scanned it, then pouted. ‘Gerard wants me in the office tomorrow.’
‘I thought you were cleared to work from here for a while?’ Although Jemma had said—with her usual degree of confidence—that they’d manage a long-distance relationship, he wasn’t keen on trying it so soon.
At all, in fact, but he knew this relationship was going to require negotiation and sacrifice.
And he was totally there for it. Just … he’d have liked to have Jemma to himself for more than a few hours at a time.
‘I still have to go into the city on occasion. I’m due in court at the end of the week.
And when Gerard clicks his fingers, we jump.
Besides’—she pointed at the screen—‘there’s not a whole lot of data I can compile for him.
I’ve assessed the potential, calculated the obstructions and competition.
There are only so many statistics available, basically lists of what’s gone to court from regional jurisdictions.
Those figures aren’t going to change overnight and I guess setting up a new practice has to be a bit of a leap of faith. ’
‘I guess the risk is Gerard’s, anyway.’
Jemma screwed up her nose. Adorably. It’d be wrong if he kissed it while she was talking work.
‘Only financially. If I say the practice is viable and it fails, it’s my reputation on the line.
’ She blew out a tense breath. ‘I risk looking like an idiot.’ She paused, frowning as though lost in thought.
‘Regardless, I wouldn’t steer Gerard wrong for personal gain. ’
‘Personal gain?’ His heartbeat competed with the rain drumming on the iron roof.
Jemma set aside the laptop and regarded him levelly. ‘I want to have that adventure with you, Hamish. I’m not sure exactly what it’ll look like, but I’m telling Gerard that I’m throwing my hat in the ring to head up a rural branch of GB he was now chasing her.
She pushed herself from his chest with a groan.
‘No. Much as I want to … experience the storm with you, I need to get back to the cottage and pack my gear so I can head off early. Now I have a plan, it’s logical that I use the rest of this week to tie up loose ends.
And make sure that Gerard is aware of my preference.
If anyone’s going to set up a rural office for him, it’s going to be me. ’
‘You moved on quickly from “hat-in-the-ring”,’ he teased.
She lifted one shoulder. ‘I’m the best for the job. I’ll make sure this branch of GB perhaps that was his way of making sure I wasn’t too freaked out, just concerned enough that I’d figure having him around would be a great idea.’
‘I don’t think a brick through the restaurant window is trite.’
Jemma’s face fell. ‘I know. That one’s an aberration. But if it was Tien, I wouldn’t have to worry …’
He raked a hand through his hair. Jemma was too eager to seize on Tien as a ‘safe’ stalker, too willing to set aside the flaws in her argument.
It threw him—until he recognised the cause of her reaction: fear.
‘Well, if he thinks it’s okay to endanger you and your family like that, I’m definitely coming back to town with you.
’ He lifted his left arm. ‘Due a physio visit, anyway.’
‘Thought that was on Saturdays?’
‘And I thought you didn’t listen to conversations that bored you. Are you admitting you hang off my every word?’
‘More like admitting I’ll have to find a way to shut you up, if you think you’re that interesting,’ Jemma replied, sliding her hand around the back of his neck to pull his mouth to hers.
Even the taste of her was exotic, intriguing, expensive.
This relationship could quite easily cost him everything. Yet he was willing to pay the price.