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‘Yup, go and be free.’ She looked to Connor. ‘It’ll do her good to get out.’
Samantha guffawed. ‘Geez, thanks, mate, it sounds like you’re trying to get rid of me.’
‘That’s because I am.’ Shea grinned good-naturedly at Samantha’s playful chagrin. ‘So go, and have some fun.’
‘Awesome, I’ll call by and pick you up at six then,’ Connor chimed in.
‘Oh, no, you don’t have to do that, I’ve got a hire car.’
‘I know I don’t have to, but I want to.’ His smile was ever so charming, and damn sexy to boot. ‘That way you and Mum can enjoy a couple of glasses of wine without you worrying about driving back to Shea’s.’
‘Thanks, Connor, but what about you being able to enjoy a few drinks with us?’
‘I’ll just have a couple of light beers, so all good. The cook has to remain somewhat sober, or God knows what we’ll be eating.’ He lightheartedly grimaced.
Samantha and Shea chuckled at his spirited expression.
‘Right, okay then, it’s a date … ’ Samantha felt a rush of panic at her verbal diarrhoea. ‘Well, not date date, but sort of, but not … ’
Oh lord just kill me now!
‘Relax, Sammie, I knew what you meant.’ Connor’s chuckle was sexily gravelly.
‘Right, yes, of course you did.’ Oh lordy, if her face got any hotter right now …
‘I’ll take these, thanks Suzie.’ Connor gave her some grace by turning his attention to the florist. ‘Catch you later, Sammie, and say g’day to that husband-to-be of yours, Shea.’
‘I will, Connor, catch you mate,’ Shea said, entwining her arm into Samantha’s then basically helping her out the front door. ‘That man has very clearly got something over you, my dear friend.’
‘He does not.’
Shea rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, pull the other one, Sammie, you go all gaga every time you’re around him.’
‘I do not,’ Samantha definitively stated.
‘Uh-huh,’ was all Shea said, but her face told Samantha everything she didn’t want to know.
Connor Gunn did have something over her. And she liked it. Way too much.
CHAPTER
10
True to his word, Connor turned up smack on six o’clock. Samantha had been ready and waiting since five-thirty, after changing three times and finally deciding on her first choice of a floaty turquoise sundress and tan sandals. The matching earrings and necklace Shea had loaned her added a nice boho vibe to the outfit; if only she felt inside the way she looked on the outside. The fluttering butterflies in her belly had grown bigger wings in that half an hour of toe-tapping, leg-jiggling waiting, much to Shea’s amusement, making her as restless as a frog in a sock.
‘You’ve got it bad for him, girlfriend,’ Shea had said with a cheeky smirk.
‘I do not,’ was Samantha’s way-too-quick, and slightly feisty, reply.
‘Ha, you can’t fool me, Sammie,’ had been Shea’s spirited response.
Samantha’s retort had been to give her friend the finger as she’d bid her goodbye and scooted out the front door with Connor’s mum’s gift and a bottle of good cabernet merlot in hand. She just hoped she liked the perfume and bath salts she’d picked up from the chemist, along with a lavender-scented silk eye mask. And as she’d traipsed down the steps – towards where Connor was watching her from the driver’s seat, his forearm resting on the windowsill and his arresting blue eyes glued to her every step – she had to ask herself: who in the heck was she kidding? She still had that thing for him, the one that made her insides tip and tumble, and that magnetic lure he’d possessed over her all those years ago was still there, stronger than ever. And she couldn’t help but wonder, as she neared the purring grumble of the V8 four-wheel drive, whether she was feeling so attracted to him because Connor was so comfortingly familiar in her time of vulnerability, or was it because deep down, underneath all the weight of their past and the shine of her armour, she really hadn’t ever stopped caring for him, possibly even loving him?
‘Hey, Sammie Samsung, you look nice,’ he said as he jumped out and dashed around to the passenger side door. ‘Here, let me get that for you.’
‘Thanks, Connor.’ She smiled, and then slipped up and into the passenger seat. He passed her the seatbelt. ‘Always the gentleman, aren’t you?’
‘I’m not sure about that, but I do my best.’ He grinned as she snapped the seatbelt into place. ‘But make sure you don’t tell anyone about my chivalry, because I got me a hard reputation to uphold around these parts.’
