Thirteen
Two hours later, with one bright orange gargantuan teddy bear in tow, Rowena looked up at the Ferris wheel. Night had settled in and the fireworks were moments away. Lachlan had suggested the best view in the house was at the top of the wheel.
‘Not quite as big as the one at The Royal Easter Show, huh?’
She laughed. ‘Not exactly, no. On the other hand, probably perfect for you.’
He winced, sucking air in through pursed lips. ‘Ouch,’ he said good-naturedly.
Rowena hadn’t met a man like Lachlan McCabe before. They’d spent two hours in sideshow alley, playing everything from the clowns to pluck-a-duck to hoop shooting and balloon burst, and he was utterly unconcerned if she bested him.
In fact, he seemed to revel in her competence.
The men she’d been with in the past—not that she was with Lachlan—were hardly Neanderthals, but they certainly had easily dented egos. Not him, though. As they went head to head, Lachlan was her biggest cheerleader.
She trounced him in the hoops and he absolutely smashed her in the shooting gallery.
She left him for dust in the balloon burst and he put his superior strength to good use by hitting the bell on the high striker when she could barely get it to move a foot.
But he’d been cheering for her the whole time, giving her tips on where and how to strike the base.
He hadn’t felt the need to prove himself on anything, which made Lachlan McCabe a refreshing change.
Of course, they could have done without his high striker prize. The giant tangerine bear had seemed funny at the time. Like the ultimate cliché in teenage girl/boy sideshow alley relations. But now, contemplating the Ferris wheel, it was a little impractical.
‘Well, come on, then,’ he said, ushering her to the guy taking the tickets and running the wheel. ‘The fireworks are about to start.’
There was no line as everyone else appeared to be either at or heading to the centre ring, so they walked straight onto their gondola. It swung a little underfoot as Rowena claimed the seat on the right.
‘Here.’ Lachlan stopped and fished in his pocket. He pulled out his wallet and handed over a fifty to the young guy who’d taken their tickets. ‘Stop us at the top so we can watch the fireworks?’
His eyes lit up at the note. Nodding eagerly, he took the money. ‘Sure thing, dude.’
Rowena’s heart fluttered a little. She had to admit, had they been a couple instead of two people who’d had a one-night stand they didn’t talk about, it would have been a terribly romantic—if a little clichéd—gesture. But somehow, without even discussing it, they’d become, well … friends.
Heart flutter notwithstanding.
With his bribe taken, Lachlan also stepped onto the carousel.
He, along with every other country person at the show, was in his best boots, best jeans, best button-down shirt beneath his fleecy jacket and shiniest belt buckle.
It flashed in the light now as he plonked the bear on the seat opposite before taking the seat next to her, the carousel rocking under his weight.
The seat was big enough for two, but only just, and she shimmied over as much as possible. Still, it was a cosy fit, their arms and thighs pressing together.
‘Hope you don’t mind?’ he murmured, as he removed his hat and finger-combed his hair. ‘No way can anyone other than a small child share with the bear.’
‘True that. Typical man.’
‘Hey,’ he protested, amused rather than annoyed. ‘How do you know it’s a bloke?’
‘Are you kidding? Look at that man spread. Definitely a dude.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ He nodded. ‘Good point.’
‘We could leave it behind?’
He feigned horror. ‘And risk someone stealing Colin?’
Rowena blinked. ‘His name is Colin?’
‘Sure, now we’ve established he’s a dude, I reckon he looks like a Colin. What do you think?’
‘I think Douggy’s daughter would be proud.’
They laughed and the wheel started with a lurch before they were lifted gently into the air. The sounds from the ground fell away, the music and buzz of the crowd a mere soundtrack now as the motor hummed and the metal squeaked around them and the breeze ruffled her hair.
It was a little chilly, her nipples beading in response, but she didn’t feel cold.
She was far too close to Lachlan’s big body, which was pumping out heat beside her at a rate of knots.
Not to mention the intoxicating effect of his aftershave, warmed to an incense-like haze, eddying around her on the breeze.
They were at the top before she knew it, their gondola swinging a little as the wheel creaked to a stop.
She looked out, the view encompassing the movement and colour of the entire showgrounds.
The elegantly lit pavilions, the garish, chaotic neon of sideshow alley, the erratic shimmer of glow sticks from bleachers crammed with spectators.
Absently rubbing her hands up and down her arms, Rowena let out a little happy sigh, the light winter wind blowing strands of hair across her face as easily as it carried away the sounds below.
The Acacia Junction show may not have the numbers or the variety of a big city equivalent, but it sure was pretty up here.
‘You’re cold.’
She turned her head to look at him, the wind ruffling his hair, too. ‘I’m fine,’ she dismissed with a shake of her head.
But he was already shrugging out of his Country Road jacket and pressing it around her shoulders. Rowena opened her mouth to protest again, but his warmth and the heady scent of him enveloped her, and she lost the will to part with either pretty damn quick.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured. ‘You won’t get cold?’ Given he felt like a furnace beside her, she doubted it, but his cotton button-down didn’t look that substantial.
‘Nah. Me and Colin, we have testosterone to keep us warm.’
They both looked at Colin’s huge, overstuffed, man-spread blankness and laughed. The gondola rocked rhythmically, creaking back and forth.
‘Amiright, dude? Fist bump.’ Lachlan offered his fist to the bear, who stared with beady eyes and a fixed, surprised expression at nowhere in particular, and Rowena laughed again.
A voice over a loudspeaker interrupted, announcing the imminent start of the fireworks, and Rowena returned her attention to the centre ring, angling her body in the direction of the show.
‘Here we go,’ he murmured, his voice near her ear, the warmth of his breath fanning the side of her neck as he angled himself too, his front close to her back, his arm sliding along the rolled edge of the seat behind her.
A pop soundtrack blared out, but she was only really conscious of him. Until the first rocket fired into the air, anyway, the noise hitting her like a hammer to the chest, grabbing her full attention as a shower of pink sparks bloomed to life in the sky.
Below them, the entire crowd sighed in delight.
Another followed, and another, until the sky was alight with greens and reds and blues. A flurry of frothing white sparkles spewed from the ground before more pyrotechnics shot high, erupting into bright starbursts of colour overhead.
The crowd oohed and ahhed, and Rowena found herself just as much in thrall. And that felt good. It was hard to believe that a few months ago she’d been in a very different place, her ability to feel this level of … joy, non-existent.
And now here she was, hanging in the sky, feeling every pop and sparkle like bubbles of champagne in her blood. So she revelled in it, lapping up the spectacular sight with all the wonder of a firework virgin, her pulse fluttering.
Although that could possibly have something to do with her Ferris wheel companion.
‘Oh,’ she sighed ten minutes later as the finale of sparks finally faded from the sky, the smoky haze blown away on the wind. ‘That was so pretty.’ She turned back to face him and he shifted to accommodate her, his arm staying firmly along the back of the chair. ‘Wasn’t it?’
His smile was as warm as the rest of him. ‘Indeed.’
But the way he was looking at her left her in no doubt he wasn’t just talking about the fireworks. Suddenly, it felt like they were the only two people in Acacia Junction, swinging in a creaky gondola above the earth.
Well … except for Colin.
Lachlan’s gaze dropped to her mouth and Rowena’s lips actually tingled. Her fluttering pulse was definitely all about her companion now. The colourful strip lighting that decorated both the outside and inside of the wheel structure lit his face, emphasising that jaw and those soft blond whiskers.
Slowly, he lifted his hand, his fingers picking up a strand of hair that had blown across her face and tucking it behind her ear. Her breath hitched as a surge of desire every bit as potent as the one she’d felt in her hotel room at The Stockman lit her up like a torch.
It was a bloody wonder the gondola hadn’t combusted from how much heat they were producing.
He didn’t remove his hand, it just stayed there, cupping her face, his thumb a slow, lazy caress across her cheekbone as his eyes held hers unwaveringly.
Oh, crap … he was going to kiss her.
And, god knew, up in their little mechanical bubble, she wanted him to. Hell, she had half a mind to close the distance herself and move into all that heat.
They were so close, it wouldn’t take much.
But the last thing he needed was some crazy mixed signals from her. And the last thing she needed was to complicate something that was supposed to be simple. Move to Acacia Junction, stay for six months, leave.
‘Lachy,’ she murmured as his eyes slid to her mouth once again and her belly looped-the-loop.
His eyes flicked to hers. ‘Mmm?’
‘You look like you’re about to kiss me.’
‘That depends.’ A small smile played on his mouth and his thumb brushed rhythmically back and forward. ‘You want me to kiss you?’
‘No.’ She shook her head.
He chuckled. ‘Really?’
‘Okay, yes,’ she admitted, because she was pretty sure she had kiss the hell out of me stamped all over her face. But as his mouth advanced towards hers, she quickly shook her head. ‘But still no.’