Page 52 of Where the Wattles Bloom

Oh, crap … he was going to kiss her.

And, god knew, up in their little mechanical bubble, she wanted him to. Hell, she had half a mind to close the distance herself and move into all that heat.

They were so close, it wouldn’t take much.

But the last thing he needed was some crazy mixed signals from her. And the last thing she needed was to complicate something that was supposed to be simple. Move to Acacia Junction, stay for six months, leave.

‘Lachy,’ she murmured as his eyes slid to her mouth once again and her belly looped-the-loop.

His eyes flicked to hers. ‘Mmm?’

‘You look like you’re about to kiss me.’

‘That depends.’ A small smile played on his mouth and his thumb brushed rhythmically back and forward. ‘You want me to kiss you?’

‘No.’ She shook her head.

He chuckled. ‘Really?’

‘Okay, yes,’ she admitted, because she was pretty sure she had kiss the hell out of me stamped all over her face. But as his mouth advanced towards hers, she quickly shook her head. ‘But still no.’

His eyes searched hers for long moments before he let out a long, slow sigh, his thumb slowing to a standstill, his forehead coming to rest on hers.

‘I’m sorry,’ Rowena whispered.

Because she was. But not as sorry as she’d be in five months if she let this become something it could never be.

He’d already told her he belonged here.

And she did not.

He dragged in a breath. ‘No. I’m sorry … just a moment of madness. The Ferris wheel. The fireworks.’

‘Yeah.’ Rowena nodded, their foreheads still touching, as strangely reluctant to break their contact as he seemed to be.

It’d be so easy, she knew, to kiss him and to hell with the consequences. Just follow this wherever it might lead and worry about what was going to happen when it happened. But now was not the time in her life to introduce any extra emotional baggage.

‘You ever get the feeling you’re being watched?’

The question came out of the blue and Rowena struggled with it for a second before he turned his head and fixed his gaze on a staring Colin.

Rowena laughed. Saved by the bear.

‘I think you should have custody of Colin,’ he said, his hand falling away from her face as he sat back a little, creating space between them.

‘What?’ Rowena also sat back, pleased for the distance, even if it wasn’t doing anything to dissipate the little skip in her pulse. ‘No way, he’s yours.’

‘But I’—Lachlan clutched his chest dramatically—‘won him for you.’

Rowena might have laughed had she not been so horrified. If she was rejecting what she knew would be an exceptionally good kiss because she wanted to leave Acacia Junction with no strings, then she sure as hell was rejecting orange Colin of the dead, beady eyes.

‘Oh, nope.’ She shook her head. ‘I couldn’t possibly deprive you of your spoils. You were so strong’—Rowena injected some breathiness into her voice—‘and so … impressive the way you wielded that huuuge hammer with all those huuuge farmer muscles.’

He narrowed his eyes at her, but the effect was ruined by the flash of humour in his gaze. ‘If you think I’m not going to run with you using huge—twice—in a sentence describing me, even if it is false flattery, then you’re wrong.’

She grinned. ‘If you keep Colin, I’ll throw in another.’

‘Oh, really?’ He smiled as he stuck out his hand and they shook on the deal. Then he quirked an eyebrow. ‘Well?’