Page 15 of Hot in the City
Scanning the surrounding landscape, she spotted him up a tree, or rather hanging off a pencil-straight Norfolk Island Pine. The system of ropes and pulleys looked complicated. She strolled to the base of the pine and waited, craning her neck. Up, almost to the sky.
Dan wore stereotypical lumberjack gear. Well-loved Levi’s and a red checked flannel shirt. Nothing wrong with that. Nope. An urban lumberjack. Exactly Dan’s style. Hers too, if she had to pick a fantasy-boyfriend look.
A safety helmet covered his head, but the rear view was outstanding as he descended. Completely in control, Dan lowered himself, rappelling off the tree trunk, making it look easy.
He hollered on the way down to earth. “Nat, helllooo!”
Landing with a thud, he grinned as he pulled off the helmet and unhooked the abseiling harness around his hips.
She laughed, surprising herself. She’d skipped breakfast due to nerves. “Good to see you again.”
Damn, what an understatement. Her eyes drank him in like a fine Italian wine, when she’d been subsisting on piss-weak light beer. From his delicious grin and stubble coated jaw to his flashing ebony eyes, his face was perfection. It would take her years to describe him in words. Pencils or paints were her language. She’d love to sketch him again.
Her one sketch of him at university was still a prized possession. He was hidden away with a bunch of pressed flowers and concert tickets, in the folio usually stashed under her bed. It was now out on her desk.
Dan gestured to a picnic blanket and knapsack near a park bench. “Come sit down.”
He sat, stretching his long legs out in front of him. The man took up space. She remembered, from sitting close together in a library study room. The air was always thick in that confined space. Out in the open, her skin still tingled with awareness, and his earthy scent teased her senses, making her giddy.
Natalia lowered herself onto the blanket. In denim shorts and a white t-shirt, her skin seemed over-exposed. And hot.
Dan glanced at her, then leaned forward looking out over the lawn. “Thanks again for coming. I’m rapt you agreed to help with the project.” His voice was low and husky, almost conspiratorial. As if they shared a secret. Maybe they did.
She hoped the project wasn’t the only reason he’d contacted her.
Watching him, she leaned back and rested her weight on her palms. “Are you really looking for a botanical artist? Or have you lured me onto your picnic blanket under false pretences?”
Dan’s smile was naughty. He rubbed his stubbled jaw. “Both. I want an artist, and I really want you.”
Thud. Her heart slammed against her rib cage.
Dan’s eyes poured over her, slick as paint poured on canvas. When she risked a glance at him, he wasn’t checking out her legs or her boobs in her tight shirt. He was staring at her hand.
Her left hand. The Ring.
“I can explain...” Could she? How could she explain a relationship, an engagement, that she didn’t understand herself?
Ted hadn’t mentioned love, but neither had she. The closest she’d come to feeling that emotion had been with the man sitting beside her.
Years ago, she’d thought she and Dan had something special. From her perspective, their one-and-only kiss had meant everything. But any artist knew, perspective was a trick of the eye and the mind. It depended on where you stood. Dan had left Melbourne the very next day. Without saying goodbye.
She gulped in fresh air, trying not to let the old hurt cut again. She had more on her mind. The arrangement with Ted wasn’t working. Her instant attraction to Dan only underlined the fine print, all she was missing out on. But extricating herself from the engagement could be tricky.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain to me.” Dan lay down with his hands behind his head. “I should be the one explaining.”
She glanced at him and her heart shuddered. Dan in serious mode wore the hard-jawed expression of a man carved from a mountain. Like a dead President on Mount Rushmore. But more handsome.
“I didn’t want to leave Melbourne when we were at uni. But I was only nineteen and Dad needed me. He couldn’t keep the gardening business going. It was his heart. He passed away two years later. I kept the business running and made it a success. It’s what he wanted.”
Natalia reached out and stroked her fingertips along his jaw. A needy sound rose from his throat, a sigh crossed with a groan. She pulled back, as if burned.
Touching him was a mistake, unless she gave up everything. Forgot about Ted. Unless she was brave enough to reach for Dan, with all she had.
She turned and whipped open her sketch book with trembling fingers, fumbling for a pencil in her bag. She needed to do something with her hands. She wanted to capture his expression. And it was easier to talk when she drawing.
As she sketched, the words flowed. “Ted and me. We’re engaged, but it’s no fairytale. It’s an arrangement that suits us both. At least, it did. We’re friends.” She sketched Dan’s face – the broad sweep of his eyebrows, sharp planes of his cheekbones. And that jaw. “Not best friends though. I’m having second thoughts.”
She hadn’t said that out loud before.
