Come Down Under Page 15

  He nodded, still beaming at me. “Can Rose come with us?”

  I glanced at her. She was still soaking up spilled milk with the paper napkins but must have been listening because she blinked in surprise before shaking her head.

  “Oh, no, it’s okay, Luke,” she said with a fond smile kicking up the corners of her lips. “This is a night for you and your father. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

  Luke sighed, disappointment darkening his eyes. His spine seemed to turn to jelly as he hunched over.

  “Nonsense,” I said. “Come with us, Rose. What else are you going to do? Hang out in your hotel room by yourself?”

  Her brown eyes sparkled with amusement when they met mine. “Maybe. I like the peace and quiet, you know.”

  I snorted, arching my brow as I gave her a pointed look. “Nonsense. Come with us. Don’t make me drag you out again. We’ll give you a real taste of Sydney, won’t we, Luke?”

  He swung his gaze to hers and nodded so hard and fast I was afraid he might hurt his neck. “We will. You said you were new in town. We’re not. I’ve always lived here. We’ll show you around.”

  Rose bit the inside of her cheek, smiling at him but seeming more concerned when she looked up at me. “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to impose on your night.”

  “You wouldn’t be imposing,” I said firmly. “In fact, we’re not taking no for answer.”

  She searched my gaze before nodding slowly. “Okay, I’m in. As long as you’re sure I wouldn’t be ruining your evening.”

  “I think it’ll be the complete opposite.” I sent a pointed glance toward Luke, who was just about bouncing on the balls of his feet. “How do you feel about surf and turf?”

  “I love it,” she said after pausing for another beat. Then she dropped the soaked napkins in the trash with a plop and grinned at Luke. “Where are we going? Did I hear you mention something about a boardwalk fair earlier?”

  “Yes.” It was like someone had flipped a switch behind his eyes, the way he lit up while he told her about it. “We usually have dinner at my favorite place first. Then we go on rides and eat cotton candy.”

  “That sounds incredible,” she said, sounding completely sincere. It was weird. I’d seen a lot of couples at the boardwalk, and the women sometimes seemed to enjoy themselves, but Audrey had hated the place the one time I’d suggested they take Luke there.

  Although I’d learned by now that while they were both women, Audrey and Rose had nothing else in common. I wouldn’t compare the two anyway. It wouldn’t be fair, but that didn’t mean I could help an errant thought here and there.

  “There’s a carousel,” Luke was saying to Rose as we walked to the elevator, “and a Ferris wheel. Do you know how high Ferris wheels are? They’re so high that when you drop your ice cream, it splats all over the floor.”

  She wriggled her nose. “Let’s not drop our ice cream, then. It would be such a waste.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Especially because Dad said if I drop it, I can’t get another one.”

  “Hey,” I interjected as I jabbed the call button. “I said you could have another one, but that you had to be careful with it.”

  Luke let out a giggle and his cheeks flushed. “I was careful with it.”

  I bumped my hip gently against his shoulder, giving him a mock-serious look. “Were you? I could have sworn you dropped it because you wanted hazelnut-chip instead.”

  The color on his cheeks deepened, and he mumbled something, but Rose saved him. “You know what? We should never waste food but hazelnut-chip is my favorite, too. I understand how you’d be so distracted by the thought of it that you’d forget you were holding another cone.”

  Luke nodded solemnly, but we both saw the spark of humor in his eyes. “That’s exactly what happened.”

  “It won’t happen again, right?” she asked as the doors slid open in front of us. “Tonight, we’ll just get hazelnut-chip from the start. We’ll treasure our ice cream for as long as we can before we’ve eaten it all.”

  He raised his hand for a high-five and slapped hers against his palm. “That’s right. Team Hazelnut-chip.”

  I laughed, but as we descended, I wondered how the hell I was supposed to get through this night unscathed. I’d promised Rose I would keep things professional, but it wasn’t like it’d been easy thus far. I wanted her more than they wanted their damn ice cream, but instead of talking to her about that kiss and trying to set the record straight about it, I’d kept my head on straight and my dick in my pants.

  But this? Having her talking and laughing with my son like she was his best friend? This was the kind of thing that made me want into her heart and not just into her pants. I’d already liked her enough. I hadn’t needed this, too.

  Unfortunately though, it didn’t get better from there. On the way to the restaurant close to the pier, Rose sat in the front seat of my car after buckling Luke into the back. She turned to face him immediately, leaving me as a keen observer.

  “Tell me about this place we’re going to. Does it have good milkshakes?”

  His head bounced up and down as he inched as far forward as the seatbelt would let him. “The best. Do you like steak?”

  “I love it.” She grinned, cocking her head. “If you tell me they have the best steak, too, it might just become my favorite restaurant in the world.”

  “It has the best steak.” His chest swelled. “It’s my favorite, but you can share it with me.”

  “Thanks, bud.”

  The two of them talked nonstop all the way there. Once we were seated in the family-style dining room, they had a race to see who could color their picture the fastest and goofed off while they took selfies on my phone.

  I watched them with a genuine sense of awe. Luke had never connected with anyone as fast as he had with Rose, and she seemed to love it. I couldn’t keep my eyes off them. Or, more accurately, off her.

  When she stole one of Luke’s fries and he actually pushed his plate toward her to offer more, I had the strangest desire to drop to one knee and present her with a napkin ring as a placeholder for a real one.

  Wait.

  Back the fuck up.

  Where the hell had that come from?

  I’d known this woman for less than a month. I hadn’t even done anything with her other than kissing. Why the fuck had I just had a thought about marrying her?

  It was official. I’d lost my damn mind. Either that or I was just in desperate need of a good fuck. Yeah, that. Let’s go with that.

  Chapter 23

  ROSE

  “Glad you decided to come out with us?” Jude’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

  We were standing behind the railing at the carousel, waving at Luke every time he came around. The boy was in his element, his smile as wide as the deep blue ocean behind him whenever he saw us.

  I turned my head to be able to see Jude from the corner of my eyes, not that I’d forgotten he was there. It would have been impossible.

  Unfortunately for my libido and me, I could feel his heat radiating into my side where he stood pressed against it. Every time he moved even slightly, I felt the muscles in his arm ripple against mine. My arm, that is. Not muscle. I don’t have many of those.

  Smiling as I tried not to notice how completely gorgeous he was with the setting sun casting a golden light on his hair, a serene smile on his lips, and his eyes relaxed and happy, I nodded. “Yeah, I’m having the best time. Thanks for inviting me with you. You’re sure I’m not imposing? I know you’ve had a rough day. If you’d rather just spend some time one on one with your son, I’ll understand.”

  “You’re not imposing, Rose,” he said, his voice gentler than I’d probably ever heard it. “He loves having you here and so do I. We’re happy you could come with us.”

  Did I just hear that right? He loves having me here? I almost swooned. Any red-blooded female would have if the smile he was giving me right then was aimed at her.

  “Well, as you p
ointed out, I didn’t have a very exciting night planned otherwise.” I chose to ignore the “loving having me” part.

  If I said the L-word around him, there was every chance I would stop to obsess about how easy it would be to really fall for him. Especially with the way he’d been recently, but even more so with the way he was around his son.

  Kids weren’t something I thought about all too often. For years, my sole focus had been Oxford and keeping up my grades. I loved children, though. As a general rule, they loved me, too. It was a throwback from my babysitting days when I’d still been saving up to help with some of the expenses of getting me to England.

  “What?” Jude pressed a hand to his chest. “You mean you don’t like the peace and quiet of hanging out in your hotel room all by yourself every night?”

  I laughed, lifting my shoulders as I tried not to fall into the depths of those eyes of his. “Nah, this is way more fun.”

  “Well, it’s about to become even more fun.” His gaze slid to the entrance of the carousel. It had stopped spinning and the kids were climbing off. “If you like carnival games anyway. If you don’t, you’re going to hate what comes next.”

  “It’s a good thing I love carnival games then. We have this fair back home my friends and I went to every year. I used to rule at ring toss. It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure I can kick your ass in it if you’re up to the challenge.”

  Jude smirked, but it wasn’t that trademark cocky smirk he gave to the press or the world at large. Somehow, this smirk seemed softer, more intimate. But it was probably my imagination wanting it to be that way.

  I nearly rolled my eyes at myself. A smirk is a smirk, Roselyn. Get over yourself.

  “I’m up for it,” he said. “You should know I’m the king of the dart game, though.”

  “Really?” I batted my eyelashes innocently, but I couldn’t quite keep a straight face. “That used to be my dad’s game. He’s spent hours training me, but I’ve never beaten him before.”

  Jude pretended to buff his nails on his collar. “Well, don’t expect to start winning at it now. You’ve had fair warning.”

  “That was awesome, guys,” Luke gushed when he came through the gate from the carousel, his eyes all lit up and his features as relaxed and happy as his dad’s were. I wondered if he knew what his mother was doing and what he would think about going to live with her, but I’d already decided against bringing it up. “What’s next?”

  “What do you say we go show Rose what Aussie carnival games are like?” Jude asked. “She says they have them back in the States, too, but ours are better, right?”

  “Right,” he said without any hesitation, then held his hand out for mine. “But don’t worry. We’ll teach you. Dad’s very good at teaching people how to play these games.”

  “People?” I asked, feeling an irrational stab of jealousy as I glanced over my shoulder at him.

  He rolled his eyes. “Just Luke. I’ve taught Luke how to play them. Why, you jealous?”

  “Nope,” I lied, but the look he gave me told me he knew it.

  Something passed between us—something that was definitely less than professional. It made a shiver rush through me and brought a secretive smile to my lips. Before I could wipe it off, Jude saw it and strangely returned it before pointing toward the cluster of games near the beach.

  “Let’s do the ring toss first,” he said. “Rose thinks she can beat me.”

  Luke shook his head sadly, glancing up at me with eyes filled with sympathy. “You can’t. No one beats my dad, not even my grandma.”

  It was clear from the way he said it that Jude and his mother were his heroes. In his eyes, they could probably do no wrong. Again, I found my mind wandering off to his mother and whether he felt the same about her.

  If what Jude had said about her not caring about Luke was true, it seemed like it would be criminal to even threaten to take him away from people he obviously idolized. Maybe she really didn’t care, though. I didn’t know anyone that callous personally, but I sure knew they were out there.

  If that was what Jude was dealing with, Shane’s words from that first day would make a lot more sense. He had said Jude was dealing with a lot more than I knew about. His mood swings would also make more sense if any of my assumptions were correct, which made me a lot more forgiving toward him. It didn’t excuse his behavior or his treatment of me, especially that morning before we kissed, but the why of it had been turning in my head, tripping me up, and this might just be my answer.

  “Well, I’m still going to try beating him,” I said to Luke. “That’s what it’s all about, right? Trying your best?”

  “Yep. Dad always says no one is going to build a monument to you for doing anything more than giving it your best.”

  “Exactly.” We came to a stop at the ring-toss stand and Jude paid for our tickets despite my insistence that I would buy my own.

  He placed a stack of orange tickets in my palm, letting his fingers linger for just a beat longer than necessary. “There you go. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Five minutes later, they were both staring at me with their jaws slack and their eyes wide. Luke took the stuffed duck I held out to him, clutching it to his chest. “This is the biggest animal we’ve ever won here.”

  I tossed my hair over my shoulder and shrugged, winking at my new friend. “Really? Maybe we should go over to the dart game and see if we can win an even bigger one.”

  Jude grinned and crossed his arms. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m going to get you a bigger one, buddy.”

  He didn’t.

  “I can’t believe I kicked your ass at darts,” I said gleefully once we left the next game. “That’s awesome.”

  “It really is,” Luke gushed at my side.

  Contrary to what I might have believed, Jude wasn’t a sore loser. He slung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his side, his breath tickling my ear as he murmured into it. “If anyone was going to beat me, I’m glad it was you. You’re not going to be insufferable about it, are you?”

  Was I? How the hell was I supposed to know? I could barely breathe, being so close to him again. I swiped my tongue over my lips and reached for my scattered thoughts. “I, uh, no. What’s next?”

  “The Ferris wheel,” Luke cheered, tugging me along with his hand still in mine. “We always go on the Ferris wheel after the games.”

  “Yeah, we do, but maybe we should sit it out this time,” Jude said. “Only two of us can go on the Ferris wheel at a time.”

  “No, don’t skip it,” I said. “You two go. I’ll get the ice cream for after. That’s more my speed than Ferris wheels anyway.”

  “Why?” Jude asked as Luke let go of my hand to say hi to a friend from school. “Are you afraid of heights?”

  “No.” I sighed, not planning on telling him the truth. But he just raised his brows at me and waited patiently for the rest of my answer. “I just don’t like Ferris wheels. Heights are fine when there’s something solid keeping you up, but a Ferris wheel is never that solid.”

  His eyes burned into mine, but he nodded without giving me any shit. It was unexpected. Guys usually mocked the heck out of me once they learned I was afraid of a Ferris wheel, of all things.

  “Okay, we’ll be right back. Don’t disappear on us?” That same burning was still in his eyes, like he was really, really serious about not wanting me to leave.

  “I won’t. I’ll be right here when you guys get done.” I smiled, and Jude nodded.

  He walked backward away from me, his eyes not leaving mine until the last possible second. Then he pivoted and met up with Luke in the line to get on the ride. As I watched them get settled in on the faded yellow seat and click the safety guard into place, I felt the strangest sense of rightness taking hold in my chest.

  This was the first time I’d felt truly welcome since leaving Oxford. And even Oxford hadn’t felt much like home. It had become my home and I had convinced myself it felt like it, to
o, but there had always been the knowledge in the back of my mind that it was just a landing place before I took off in a new direction.

  Oxford had always been the dream, but England was never part of my permanent plan. Because of that, I’d tried my very best to feel a sense of rightness and belonging, but I never had.

  But this place?

  I breathed in the sea air and relished the warmth of the setting sun on my skin. This was a place I’d be able to see as home.

  It was so beautiful and wild and free. And so were the people who lived here.

  As I watched the old Ferris wheel grind into motion and carry Jude and Luke to the top, I marveled at my boss. He wasn’t the man I thought he was when I first met him.

  Every day that I spent time with him, I realized more and more just how badly I’d misjudged him. I blamed that damn book and the media for giving me such a skewed perception of him.

  In reality, he was a much more well-rounded person than I’d thought he was. Sure, he was a party boy, and he could be a bit of an abrasive ass, but he was also a good father.

  And a good man. That much, I could see now, plain as freaking day.

  And he’s a pretty good kisser, too, I thought, looking up and catching him staring right at me. My breathing hitched. Why does it feel like we’re moving away from professional again?

  Chapter 24

  JUDE

  Luke walked between Rose and me, holding my hand in one of his and hers in the other. Lucky little bugger.

  I never thought the day would come when I’d be jealous of my seven-year-old, but it had. I’d have given a lot to have been the one walking into the hotel holding her hand.

  “Thanks for walking me in,” she said. “I had fun. We should do it again.”

  “Definitely,” I replied but didn’t stop walking. “We’re not leaving you here. We’ll go up with you.”

  “Are you inviting yourself to my room?” she asked, looking at me over the top of Luke’s head.