“This was such a great night, Tuck. Thanks.” She really wanted to kiss him. What harm could one little kiss do? She stood on her tiptoes and let her lips brush against his. Warmth flowed through her, and it wasn’t the Sydney heatwave causing it. It was a soft kiss with promise.
“See you tomorrow, Mel,” he said when he pulled back.
“Tomorrow.”
She slid into the taxi. She’d just kissed Tucker, and she wanted to do it again. She wanted to see him tomorrow and maybe after that. What was wrong with her?
Maybe nothing. Maybe this was the first thing she was getting right in a long time.
4
Tucker was awake very early. That was if he’d slept at all. He really wasn’t certain he had. Mel had kissed him. She’d kissed him. What did that mean? What should he do about it?
His heart said, “Go for it,” and his head said, “Do nothing.”
He couldn’t sleep, so he threw on some shorts and sneakers and headed out. He walked down to Circular Quay. There was a huge cruise ship waiting to depart. He could see a few passengers sitting on their balconies taking in the view. The ferries didn’t seem to be running yet; they were tied up at the wharves like characters from a children’s book. He headed down around the waterfront to the Opera House and into the Royal Botanical Gardens. Sydney was waking up on a hot and hazy morning. There were plenty of joggers in the park. A few people doing tai chi, some meditating. Some yachts headed out toward the heads. He could see some smaller boats, men fishing for fun. The laughing face of Luna Park mocked him from across the harbor.
“You have wanted to kiss her since you saw her again, and now it’s happened and you’re not sure,” it seemed to say. It definitely seemed to be smiling at the irony.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t sure, Tucker thought as he made his way through the gardens around to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. He wanted something real with Mel, and he didn’t want to blow it. Maybe the kiss was just a kiss, maybe it meant nothing at all to her. He was bad at this stuff. He wished he had a sister or someone to ask. He sometimes asked his personal assistant advice on this stuff, but he was pretty sure Rachel was off playing with her kids and didn’t want to discuss Tucker’s love life, if that was even what this could be called, on her Saturday morning.
Tucker felt maybe he had a chance with Mel, but he wasn’t quite sure how to play it, and the truth was he wasn’t the kind of guy who played games. He was a guy who asked the girl out, treated her well, and hoped for the best. He wasn’t sure that strategy was one that would woo Melissa Garibaldi.
He walked back through the gardens and bought a strong coffee for the walk back.
He knew his mother would tell him to be himself. But really, how had that worked out so far?
He took a shower in the hotel and got ready. All he needed was boardshorts and a towel, but he threw on a T-shirt as well. And grabbed a book.
When Mel messaged that she was on her way, he headed down to the lobby.
As always, he was kind of speechless at the sight of her. She wore a dress that looked like a T-shirt. It was red. A white bikini strap showed at the top. He hoped that bikini wasn’t white, or did he?
She gave him one of her smiles, and his heart did its usual flip. He’d only seen her a few hours ago. He shouldn’t be this affected by a woman, and yet he was. Hadn’t he always been, though?
“Good morning. How was the yoga class?”
“Good. It’s always busy in January. Lots of new year’s resolutions to be fulfilled.” She pecked his cheek.
“Did you just get up?”
He filled her in on his morning walk as they took the elevator up to the rooftop pool. This wasn’t one of the city’s most expensive hotels, but it did have one of the few pools with views of the Bridge.
“How nice is this?” she asked.
“Pretty nice.”
There was a family with two small kids and another couple by the pool. Aside from that, it was deserted. The proper tourists had no doubt headed to the zoo or off on the ferry or their bus trips already.
“It’s very nice.”
He held his breath as she peeled off her dress. White bikini. Hot damn. He felt his mouth go dry.
“Something wrong?”
He gave his head a vigorous shake. “Just out of curiosity, how many sexy bikinis do you own?”
She laughed. “You are so good for my ego. I have a few bikinis. How hot they are I think is a matter of opinion.”
“No, it’s a fact, Mel. You look smokin’ hot in your bikini.”
“Well, thanks.” She blushed. That was new.
She was blushing, and he sounded like an idiot. So much for his plan to play it cool.
He headed to the pool and dove straight in. He needed to cool off and fast.
When he reemerged, she was looking way too sexy on her banana lounge talking on the phone to someone.
“Yeah, well, let me see what Tucker has planned.”
He grabbed his towel and gave his body a pat down. “My friend Crystal and her husband are having a barbeque later today. I’m going. Would you like to come, or are you flying home today?”
He didn’t have a plan really. He knew he could keep his room. He didn’t need to decide quite yet.
“Uhm, would that be an imposition?”
She raised his eyes at him. “Would I be asking you if it were, Tuck?”
“I guess not, sure, that would be nice.”
It would be interesting to see Mel with people she knew. So far they’d been in a little bubble, just the two of them. Maybe it would prove to him all the reasons this was a bad idea, this hanging out and being friends or whatever it was. He knew she was on a man-ban, and he was a nice distraction, but was there more to it? He was damned if he could work it out
She chatted on about details for a few minutes and then hung up.
“Is your friend a stewardess too?”
“No, she’s an English teacher. We met at university. Then she traveled and met her husband, Dan, in the UK. They only moved to Sydney a couple of years ago. They’ve just bought a new place near me. Well, it’s not new, it’s actually old and half falling down, but it is new to them.”
He took all this in. Everyone knew Sydney property prices were crazy. They gave New York a run for its money. “What does he do?”
“Something in banking. It’s one of those boring jobs no one understands, but he makes loads of money doing it,” she said as she began applying sunscreen to her legs. Tucker couldn’t help but wish he was the one tasked with that job.
“It must be hard having those jobs, no one ever wants to discuss them.”
“I don’t think he cares. He has some work friends to discuss it with. He’s just deliriously happy to be living in Australia it seems. He was over the cold of England.”
“He might be rethinking that today.”
It was only eleven in the morning, and it was scorching hot. In fact, there was a heat haze hanging over Sydney, and the vague smell of a bushfire somewhere in the distance filled the air.
She gave him a grin. “Yeah, maybe. Anyway, the barbeque is at three. I think it’s just a few friends, nothing full-on.”
Tucker didn’t know about that, going anywhere with Mel felt full-on to him.
Mel was hot and happy. She’d spent three hours on the hotel deck with Tucker. They’d swum, they’d read, and they’d eaten club sandwiches. It had been a glorious escape from day-to-day life.
In fact, everything she did with Tucker felt that way, as if she was whisked away from everyday life where it was her slogging to get up, get dressed and look fabulous, get to the airport, smile all day, and then get home and throw a meal together ready to do it all again. With Tucker, it felt like the world was an easier place. She couldn’t put a finger on it, but she felt lighter. Things felt easy and fun.
Here was another example: they had left the bubble of his hotel, and now they were on a stinking-hot bus heading back to Balmain so she could change a
nd grab a dessert to take to the barbeque. Tucker had wanted to take a taxi, but she had insisted they take the bus. What an idiot she was. Partly it was because she didn’t want him paying for everything and she could only afford so many taxis on her budget, but instead, she needed to ground herself.
So many times today she had wanted to reach out and touch Tucker. It had taken incredible restraint not to wrap herself around him in the pool and kiss him. When they’d gone back to his hotel room so he could change and have a shower and the room smelled like Tucker and his aftershave, she’d really had to pull herself back from joining him in the shower.
Tucker was too good to be true, and she was on a man-ban and wasn’t thinking straight. She had thought she needed a slap in the face from reality, but as she stood on the stinking-hot overcrowded bus with Tucker pressed against her back, she seriously thought maybe the problem wasn’t reality but her. She made bad decisions; her judgment was off. This bus trip was case in point.
Tucker leaned down and whispered in her ear, “This is cozy.”
“Okay, we should have taken a cab.”
“No, I like this.” He pressed himself a little closer as the bus pulled into a stop and he needed to let an elderly Chinese woman pass by with her pull-along shopping bag.
She didn’t hate his proximity either, but sheesh, there had to be a better way to get close to him. She just shook her head.
They finally reached their stop and hopped out in front of her favorite bakery. She was hot and dripping with sweat. This was so not attractive. Tucker, who had only showered half an hour ago, was already glistening with a sheen that was kind of sexy but probably not super comfortable.
“Okay, that wasn’t my best idea ever.”
They stepped inside the air-conditioned bakery and sighed in unison. “This is much better. Cake and air-conditioning.”
She watched him lean in to eye the display. She knew what she wanted. They made an amazing French lemon tart, or citron tart, but if he wanted something else, she could probably be persuaded.
“Hey, Mel.” Mark who ran the bakery appeared from the back. “The usual I presume.”
“What’s the usual?” Tucker asked. She pointed the delicious yellow tart. She loved the sweetness and the extreme sour aftertaste.
“Looks good.”
No argument, no fuss. She remembered her previous boyfriend insisting they have something he liked. Some disgusting bread pudding dish. “Do you like lemon tart?”
“Sure, what’s not to like?”
This guy just got better.
It was two blocks to her apartment, and she hoped neither she nor the dessert would melt into a puddle on the journey. “Do your friends have air-conditioning?” Tucker asked as she opened her own front door.
“No, they’re lucky their roof hasn’t fallen in yet. Their place is a renovator’s dream, or nightmare depending on who you ask.” She paused. “Not that my place is palatial, but I’m fairly certain the roof won’t fall in.”
“Your place is nice. It’s very you. And it is a very solid building.”
“In what way is it me?” she asked, surveying her space.
“Welcoming, friendly, pink . . .” he replied with a grin.
“I do like my pink.”
“I do remember that about you. Nice to see some things don’t change.”
She slid the tart into the fridge. “Maybe grab a cool drink while I take a quick shower. I won’t be long.”
When Mel reappeared, she had her face done up. She looked more like air hostess Mel than the fresh-faced and relaxed Mel of the past twenty-four hours. He wondered why that was. She had on a pink and white maxi dress, and her hair was up in a high ponytail.
“So, we can walk and grab some beers on the way, is that okay?”
“Lead the way.”
Fifteen minutes later, they were out the front of a Balmain terrace that certainly looked in need of renovation. The front wall was badly stuccoed sometime back in the sixties, and the front garden had been done over in pebblecrete sometime the decade after. It was two stories and wedged in between two other terraces that had been beautifully restored to their former glory. What it had going for it was location. It looked across the road to a beautiful park.
Mel didn’t knock, she just headed on in, calling out as she went, so Tucker followed. The hallway was dark, and the house had a definite smell of damp. The original kitchen was at the back and opened onto a small courtyard where there were six other people gathered. A pretty blonde he assumed was Crystal greeted Mel’s hello with a huge smile and a warm hug.
“You made it! And you must be Tucker.”
“Hi, thanks for including me,” he said, handing her the beer.
“My pleasure. Any friend of Mel’s.” She gave him a warm smile. “Sorry it’s so hot. Not that I’m in charge of the weather, but you know, sorry our house isn’t cooler.”
“It’s fine,” Mel said, heading straight to the fridge to put the dessert in. “We’ll just need to drink more.”
A tall bespectacled man came in. He wore a navy polo shirt and blue and white Hawaiian shorts. “Welcome to our humble abode.”
Hands were shaken, and introductions made. In what seemed like seconds, Tucker was holding a beer and whisked away to meet the three other men in the yard. As was tradition at an Australian barbeque, men were in one cluster and women in another.
“So how do you know Mel?” a fellow called Luke asked.
“We grew up together up in Queensland. I ran into her on a plane recently.”
“Cool. Small world.”
“I’m with Eva.” He pointed to a curvy brunette.
Tucker didn’t know if he needed to correct Luke and say he wasn’t actually with Mel, that they were just friends, but he let it go.
Crystal stuck her head out the kitchen door and called to her husband. “Tucker is an architect, honey, ask him about the house.”
“She’s subtle, my wife,” he said, pulling back on his beer. “I wouldn’t do that to you, mate.”
“I don’t mind taking a look at anything that particularly worries you.”
“Look at it, mate, the whole place is a bloody worry.” He chuckled. Tucker liked him. “Still, we’ve got a foot in the door, and we’re not paying rent.”
“True. Do you want to give me the tour?”
It wasn’t a big tour because it wasn’t a big terrace. The walls were solid, but Mel had been right, the roof was looking precarious at points.
“It kind of depends whether you want to patch a few things up or do a full renovation.”
“I know, the budget only allows for a patch up.”
“Fair enough. Let me think about it and I’ll shoot you some ideas.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I don’t mind. My brain will be thinking it all over anyway, might as well tell you what it comes up with.”
Back in the yard, Mel was talking to Eva and another woman who had arrived while he was upstairs.
“I saw Greg last night at The Oak. He seems really cut up about your breakup, Mel.”
“I bet,” she said, the sarcasm evident.
“No, he said you won’t even take his calls. He was really heartbroken.”
“And I suppose you were there to console him, Anne.”
“Well, we are friends.”
“Sure, well, you can do better than Greg.”
“But you don’t mind if I . . . see him?” Was this girl for real?
“You know what, you’re more than welcome to him, but you can do better and you will regret it.”
“Bitter much, Mel?” She cackled. “He said you were being a real bitch about things.”
That was enough as far as Tucker was concerned. “Hey, Mel, can I top up your drink?”
She gave him a wan smile. “Thanks, Tuck. This is Anne. My friend Tucker.”
“Friend, huh?”
“Yeah, we grew up together. I’m like the extra brother no one actually wanted,”
Tucker said.
“That’s not true.” Mel touched his arm and grinned. “Mum totally wanted to keep you.”
“Thanks, drink?”
“He’s cute. And you’re not dating. You don’t normally have man friends,” Anne said.
He didn’t hear Mel’s answer. He was in the kitchen grabbing the champagne to top up the glasses when Crystal stopped him.
“I’m glad you came. Mel hasn’t been out much since that scumbag Greg. What a jerk.”
“I know.”
“I never liked him, but what can you do if your friend is dating someone? You have to go with it.”
“I know. It sucks.”
“Exactly. What I hate most is that now she’s on this stupid man-ban. I mean, the man-ban is okay because you don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, but come on, he’s made her question her judgment. I’ve known Mel a long time. Sure, she’s dated some jerks, but her judgment is solid.”
“I would have thought so.”
“Exactly. I hate guys like that.”
“Me too,” he said, giving her a conspiratorial smile.
“I like you, Tucker.” She gave him a very appraising look. “Are you sure you and Mel can’t date?”
“Man-ban,” was all he said.
“Stinking man-ban,” she said as she headed out the door with the steaks for the barbeque.
Stinking man-ban indeed.
The afternoon had moved into evening. The cool change hadn’t come, but everyone had just adjusted to the heat it seemed. Maybe it was the alcohol, Mel thought. Sitting around in Crystal’s backyard chatting was as good a way to pass the night as any.
Mel had been nervous about bringing Tucker. Not because of him, he had a chameleon-like quality that seemed to ensure he fit in anywhere. No, she’d been worried about how he would react to her friends and if any of them would say anything detrimental about her. Only Anne had said anything that made her uncomfortable, and the truth was they weren’t really friends. She was another English ex-pat who worked with Dan. They were acquaintances at best, and if Mel were honest, she had always known Anne had a thing for Greg. She’d always been flirting with him, and Greg had never exactly held back.
Be Mine: Valentine Novellas to Warm The Heart Page 6
