The Farmer's Perfect Match

by Marilyn Forsyth

  He turned his head away.

  Oops. That ragged breathing she could hear wasn’t his, it was hers. Just me then. Awkward.

  Somehow she twisted her body to turn the lean towards him into a back-stretch away from him, then she straightened and shrugged her shoulders up and down a couple of times. ‘Hard on the back, all this standing,’ she muttered.

  ‘I reckon there’s more to most people than meets the eye.’ Adam shifted in the chair and rearranged his long legs before continuing. Hopefully he’d missed her contortionist impression. ‘Take you.’

  Yes, please. Except this guy was totally taboo. So, thanks but no thanks.

  He pinioned her reflection with his gaze. ‘I’d like to know more about you, Evie.’

  They were entering dangerous territory here. Maintaining a professional distance was the only way to go.

  She waved a dismissive hand. ‘You already know all that needs knowing. I’m twenty-six, from Perth, and I’m a PA.’

  ‘No secrets you want to share?’ The look he gave her was assessing.

  She moved to his right shoulder, away from the interrogation of his gaze, and resumed snipping. ‘I’m an open book.’ Just don’t ask about my dysfunctional family … or that career malfunction … oh, and then there’s the tendency to fall for Mr Wrong. Apart from preferring not to have those little aberrations revealed, she was an open book. ‘How about you?’

  ‘I think everyone’s entitled to some secrets.’

  She searched for a good comeback but came up empty. No matter which way she stood, her body seemed to press into his shoulder. It’d been so long since she’d been in such an intimate situation with an attractive man, and it would have been nice just to enjoy the sensations, but that was a luxury she couldn’t afford with this man. Her body was already on high alert whenever he was within touching distance.

  He squirmed in the chair.

  ‘I’ll be out of your hair soon,’ she reassured him.

  He made a drum roll with his hands. ‘Boom-tish.’ He grinned at her reflection. ‘So what does a PA actually do? Besides cut hair.’

  ‘It’s like half-a-dozen roles in one. On this gig I’m the interviewer, makeup artist, sound technician, assistant camera operator, assistant editor and gofer. Hairdresser comes by default.’ She felt him stiffen beneath her hands. ‘Trust me, I’m doing a better job of this than Neil or Cam would.’

  His broad shoulders relaxed as he laughed. ‘Trust you, huh? Well, you’re halfway there. You’re … comfortable to be around. You’d make a good counsellor, I reckon.’

  A stab of disappointment speared through her, followed closely by acceptance of the inevitable. The only possible relationship between herself and Adam was platonic. She knew that. Comfortable was … okay. She could live with that. All she had to do was convince her body.

  As for making a good counsellor, if this gig fell through, it was an option.

  ‘I’m glad you feel that way. Means I’m doing my job right.’

  * * *

  So much in so few words. She couldn’t have made it any plainer. Of course it was her job to make him feel comfortable. Adam knew that. And it went without saying that a working relationship with her was all he could expect.

  It was just that, after too many months struggling with his loneliness, he’d awoken the last few days with a positive attitude to the possibilities of life that he hadn’t felt for a long time. He put that down to his first thoughts each morning being of Evie. Of spending time with her.

  He’d surprised himself with how capably he’d managed to keep up his own end during their banter, how relaxed he felt flirting with her. That he attributed to her influence too, to the way she made it so easy for him to talk. Granted, answering a heap of personal questions was not something he could say he actually enjoyed, but to be in the company of a beautiful woman who listened with total absorption and without judgement was a pretty good way to pass the time.

  Whether or not he’d find that same ease with the two female contestants lined up for him would become clear soon enough.

  ‘Just doing your job, huh?’ He swallowed past whatever it was that tightened his throat.

  Evie paused, as if weighing her words. ‘It’s important I do it well.’

  He understood that, knew all about throwing yourself into work. Sometimes that was all there was to beat back the emptiness. ‘I get where you’re coming from.’

  She stood still for a moment, regarding him in the mirror. ‘Yeah, I think you do,’ she said finally. ‘I have the feeling we’re a lot alike in that way.’

  The idea of them being kindred spirits, even if only in this small way, brought a spontaneous smile to his lips.

  Instantly her gaze flickered away from his reflection. ‘Of course, that’s probably one of the few things we do have in common,’ she added, snipping concentratedly at the hair at his collar.

  The words hit home. The smile slid from his face. ‘Probably.’ He tried not to sound stung. No doubt she was right.

  If he’d only taken the opportunity to date more girls before inheriting the farm, women might not be such a mystery to him. He liked Evie. A lot. Her friendliness, the honesty she’d shown him from the moment they met, made him feel somehow worthy of being given this chance to find someone to love, someone to help fill this great pit inside him.

  But now, that initially refreshing honesty was causing him to doubt his ability to recognise sincerity. Clearly he’d misread her friendliness for attraction to him. And if he could be so easily fooled by her, then how the hell would he go trying to work out his supposedly perfect mate from the two women arriving soon?

  After all, that’s what this was about. Finding someone to share his lonely life. That was his priority.

  Yet he couldn’t take his eyes off this woman. And each time she leaned in close her tantalising scent wafted over him, and her soft breath on his neck just below the earlobe sent shivers down his spine. She might not feel the same way he felt about her but that made no difference to what was happening to him.

  His body’s instant response to the casual intimacy didn’t surprise him—it was a reaction repeated daily—but the intensity did. The warmth of her firm torso pressing into his shoulder sparked a staggering series of sensations that sent the blood rushing to his groin.

  His thoughts needed distracting. Wriggling restlessly in the chair, he floundered for something—anything—to keep up the conversation.

  ‘Something I’ve been meaning to ask, why do you only have a crew of three?’

  ‘The show’s been fast-tracked. The series that the station hoped would win the prime-time ratings isn’t rating well. They’re bringing in Perfect Mate to replace it.’

  ‘And the first episode goes to air at the end of next week?’

  She nodded. ‘That deadline is why most of the editing is being done on-site. Usually it takes place back at the studio, in post-production.’

  ‘So I’ll be able to watch my life unfolding on TV?’ An interesting, if slightly terrifying, thought.

  ‘No. Your contract stipulates no viewing of the program or anything related to it on any social media while the series is still in production. That’s what Neil told me.’ Evie clearly had a hero-worship thing happening with the man that Adam found a bit abrupt.

  ‘You think a lot of him.’ He tried to make it sound offhand. Why he was even bringing it up, he wasn’t sure.

  She flicked her long ponytail back over her slim, T-shirted shoulder and stooped to snip above his ear. ‘Neil took me under his wing when I first started. He knows everything there is to know about his job and I am unbelievably grateful he asked me to work with him again.’

  No romantic interest. Good. Not that he had any right to question her involvement with … well, anyone really.

  ‘So it’s good working with him?’

  She hesitated a second before responding. ‘To be honest, he’s a hard taskmaster. It’s challenging but I’m learning a lot.’ Her mouth cur
ved deliciously upwards. ‘I love challenges.’

  A muscle pulled somewhere deep within his chest, a tiny stab of hopeless longing. Okay. He got it. He was a challenge. Nothing more. He breathed in deeply. Fair enough. She had her job to do and he had his own obligations. The connection they’d established had to be kept in perspective.

  ‘You’ll rise to it,’ he said, managing the face-saving pretence of a returned smile.

  Hands on hips, she stood in front of him examining her handiwork, looking everywhere but directly at his face. ‘Don’t you doubt it.’ She dusted away the excess hair. ‘There. You look good enough to … I was going to say eat, but you know what I mean.’

  ‘That you’re hungry and I’m looking like some kind of foodstuff to you right now?’ he suggested, standing.

  She shook her head and laughed that low, husky laugh of hers. The one that set his heart singing.

  He was a lost man.

  CHAPTER

  5

  After having locked a clearly disgusted Bitzer in the shed in preparation for the guests’ arrival, Evie returned with Adam to the shade of the veranda. Bright sunlight bounced off the water in the distance, and the intermittent cry of birds punctuated the air. The restless murmuring of the sea where it met the shore echoed her own sudden disquiet.

  She parked her rear against the wooden railing alongside Adam. ‘You must be looking forward to meeting the girls?’ She couldn’t help herself; she tried to sound casual but cursed herself for asking, unsure she wanted to hear the answer.

  ‘If you say so.’ He turned and slowly scanned his domain.

  She followed his lead, her gaze taking in the open bush with its ochre-red soil to the south, then moving to the gnarled trunks of the melaleucas that marked the course of the stream to the north of the house, and finally coming to rest on the sparkling blue of the ocean to the west.

  ‘Reckon this place’ll pass muster?’ he asked, glancing sideways at her.

  There he went, changing the subject again, the way he always did when she asked a personal question. Now was not the time to challenge him on that, though.

  She screwed up her face in thought. ‘Hmm. Let’s see. Beautiful natural bush surrounds. Pristine beach. Spectacular stone-built homestead. Yeah, I guess it ticks all the boxes.’ Her flippant response left him stony-faced so she relented with a grin. ‘The girls are going to love it,’ she assured him.

  ‘I want to know what you think of it.’

  ‘It’s heaven. I’m loving spending time here.’

  ‘You are?’ He sounded genuinely pleased. ‘I … like you being here,’ he said, leaning in towards her with a shoulder.

  This close she could smell the subtle fragrance of freshly showered male. She breathed in deeply and her heart started to pound erratically beneath her T-shirt. This had to be her new favourite smell in the whole world. She found herself pulled towards him by a weird sort of gravity, as if her heart was straining to escape her chest to seek shelter close to his. She would have lost her balance if he hadn’t reached out to steady her.

  Glancing up, she almost staggered again under the weight of his gaze. His breathing was calm; hers, anything but. A pulse triple-timed in her neck and lightning-like shivers zigzagged up and down her spine. Tingles emanated from where his fingers touched her arm. Awareness accelerated through her, a pure pleasure that surged whenever skin-on-skin contact with him occurred.

  The temptation to push further into his touch, to move into the embrace offered by his arms, was strong. What undermined her even more was that he didn’t want to let her go. She knew it. He knew it.

  A car horn blasted the air. They sprang apart.

  Cam appeared in the doorway, his tousled blond hair in its usual disarray, the ever-ready camera mounted on one shoulder. ‘Let the fun begin.’

  ‘Go get ’em,’ she returned as airily as she could manage, hoping the intense effort it took wasn’t as obvious as it felt.

  She could still feel Adam’s strong touch on her arm, fingermarks burned into her skin. She risked a look at him as he passed her. ‘Ready to play?’

  ‘Games are not my forte.’

  Evie wound her arms around the upright, watching as he made his way between the giant palms flanking the steps and strode over to the Land Rover, his boots crunching through the thick layer of crushed oyster shells that made up the circular driveway. The freshening sea breeze pressed the thin fabric of his white shirt against his chest, outlining that impressive set of pecs, and for a guilty moment she allowed herself to admire the powerful figure he cut. Although she had yet to meet the two young women emerging from the vehicle, knew them only from their résumés and photos, there was no possible way they could help but be impressed.

  Adam removed his hat and stretched out a welcoming hand. The taller of the two, the curvy redhead in a strappy floral sundress, was Meghan McNicol. As she shook his hand, the petite platinum blonde, Christine Wright, pushed forward. Dressed in eye-popping short shorts, fluoro-pink tank top and wildly inappropriate heels, she made quite a sight.

  Evie watched in fascination as the woman’s gaze travelled shamelessly down Adam’s face, across from shoulder to shoulder, finally coming to linger on his broad chest. Then, flicking back her shoulder-length hair, she placed a hand on each of his arms and reached up to kiss his cheek. The move, a replica of Evie’s sister Lulu’s tactic with any new man she fancied, had Evie bristling as she instantly relived a series of stinging images.

  The effect on Adam was all too easy to read. The shifting then re-shifting of his feet betrayed his uncertainty. He didn’t know whether to kiss her back.

  Don’t do it.

  He didn’t. Instead he jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

  Her eyes slid closed, relief and unease battling it out in her head. Relief that Adam hadn’t fallen for the ploy, unease that one of these women was shaping up to be the kind of woman Evie avoided like the plague.

  Beautiful. Manipulative. Just like Lulu. Her eyes flew open at the unwelcome thought.

  Much as she wished she could look away, she couldn’t. Trying to listen in from this distance was pointless, so she fixed her gaze on the three-way interaction being recorded. When Cam indicated where he wanted them to stand, Christine immediately hooked her arm proprietarily through Adam’s, looking up at him all innocent-eyed and saying something that made him chuckle. Meghan responded with an aside to Cam that had both men laughing out loud and Christine’s eyes narrowing in annoyance as she moved in even closer to Adam.

  Cold with foreboding, Evie’s heart sank into her stomach. If a life spent filing away nuances of behaviour had taught her anything it was that Christine Wright knew exactly the type of behaviour that would get her noticed. No doubt her attention-seeking personality was precisely why she’d been selected for this show, but what defences could a country boy like Adam possibly have against the wiles of a city princess?

  Professionally, Evie shouldn’t care. But she did. In the space of a few days she’d come to like and respect Adam enormously. Too much, she silently acknowledged.

  Her gaze returned to the group. Adam was wearing that easy grin, the same beautiful grin she’d stupidly begun to think of as reserved for her. His more-than-evident pleasure at the other girls’ company brought her crashing back to earth.

  Man, what was I thinking?

  She had to restrain herself from slamming her head into the wooden post. Of course that smile hadn’t been exclusively for her. This whole show was about Adam finding a partner, about recording the developing relationships between these three people, about him choosing either his perfect match or his opposite. Of course he was delighted to meet these women; their arrival was what he’d been waiting for.

  The connection she had with him was no more than that of friends. What an idiot she’d been to imagine otherwise, even for one second. Her only role here was as a part of the team recording this journey. She was, as Neil had been at pains to point out, merely a fly on
the wall.

  And about as significant as a fly, in Adam’s sphere of existence. Her attraction to him was an unexpected complication she had to ignore. It might even be the case that she was attracted to him simply because he was unavailable. Her self-defence mechanisms over the past year with regard to the opposite sex had been many and varied.

  ‘Hey, Evie.’ Neil interrupted her introspection, waving her over. ‘Come and meet the girls.’

  She waved back. The courtesy of introductions, to Miss Wright in particular, held all the appeal of a bikini wax, but she plastered on a smile and strode over, determined to present her professional best for the boss.

  ‘Ladies, meet Evie, our PA. The go-to girl for anything you need.’ Neil handed over the two mobile phones he was juggling. ‘Just don’t ask her for your phones back. I’ve explained the necessity for no outside contact while you’re up here. Now, if you’ll excuse me.’ He grabbed a large, brown-paper-wrapped parcel from the car and headed inside.

  ‘Hi, I’m Meg.’ The redhead stuck out a friendly hand. ‘PA? Personal Aide?’

  ‘Actually it stands for Production Assistant. What it means is general dogsbody,’ Evie replied, smile still fixed to her face.

  ‘Being the only gender capable of multi-tasking has its drawbacks, doesn’t it?’ Meg laughed, a loud, infectious sound.

  Evie’s smile finally became genuine. ‘Ah, you’ve been there.’

  Meg rolled her eyes and nodded knowingly. ‘I’m a legal assistant in an all-male firm.’

  Evie chuckled. ‘Say no more.’

  She turned to find the blonde’s bright-blue eyes inspecting her from head to toe. ‘Hi. You must be Christine.’

  ‘I prefer Chrissy. Nice to meet you.’ She sounded anything but.

  The response came automatically. ‘You too.’ Evie didn’t mean a word either.

  ‘Let’s get you girls settled in.’ Adam hauled a suitcase from the boot.

  ‘Wait a sec.’ Cam swung the camera away from the girls to focus on Adam. ‘Missed that. Can you do it again?’