Fly with Me (9 page)

But it wasn’t
her life. That was one of the big problems. The other, well…she’d
fled that for awhile, but like all reality it was always lingering
in the back of her mind.

Feeling the
burden of it, she forced her thoughts on the music, unconsciously
starting to hum to the music until without knowing it, she was
singing softly to the song.

~*~

Sitting at the
kitchen table, Simon mopped up the last of the egg yoke with his
fifth slice of toast, popped it in his mouth and chewed before
swallowing. With a satisfied sigh, he pushed the plate away and
pulled the cup of hot tea forward. “Ash, I love you.”

She dimpled at
him from across the table.

Scott rolled
his eyes. “You love Cheryl, you love Ash, hell, you even love
Robby.”

Elissa glanced
at Ash.

“Robby runs
the café at the servo,” Ash explained. “Cheryl owns the local town
café.”

“Simon loves
anyone who can cook him a decent meal.” Scott paused. “Or simply
buy him a decent meal. He’s not that fussy.”

“What can I
say?” Leaning back in the chair, Simon rubbed his flat abdomen and
grinned. “Food and me are like bees and honey. We just belong.”

“That’s so
wrong, and so weirdly right.” Scott pushed to his feet. “I’m going
to get dressed for work. Seeing as you got a free breaky, you can
give me a ride.”

“Sure.” Simon
took a mouthful of tea.

Getting to her
feet, Ash started gathering the dishes.

With every
intention of helping, Simon started to stand, only to have Ash
point the fork she was holding at him. “You stay right there.
You’ve got a day of work ahead of you. I’ll handle this.”

“I’ll help.”
Elissa almost jumped to her feet.

Okay, she
stood, but he bet that inside she was jumping. Elissa Baylon might
look like she had everything under control, but there was a whole
lot more going on underneath that stoic demeanour than she was
letting on.

The woman was
a walking contradiction. He could see it, feel it, she gave herself
away with little things. A finger nervously tapping the handle of
the knife, the straightening of a napkin that was already ruler
straight. And she sat like she had a poker up her shapely derriere,
shoulders back, spine stiff.

Did she ever
slump, ever relax? Oh yeah, wait, she had - when she was crying her
eyes out on the balcony, and again when she relaxed back in his van
and listened to the music from his CD. He knew for a fact that she
wasn’t even aware that she had sung softly along with it.

He’d known,
had felt those dulcet tones slide into his soul, slide into his
senses, the beauty of her voice fill him with contentment. At least
for a short time until they got to Scott’s home. Once the music was
off, she wrapped all that coolness around herself, smiled at him
with a guardedness as she walked with him up the veranda steps, and
disappeared into the depths of the house as soon as Scott met them
in the hallway.

Part of him
wanted to follow but now wasn’t the time. He wasn’t sure exactly
when the time would be to face her up, but it would come. Until
then he waited to see if she’d say something, though he seriously
doubted it now. She was still pretending, though it was obvious
that she was waiting for him recognise her.

If only she
knew he’d recognised her as soon as he’d seen her. He’d not
forgotten her, not forgotten the way she cried all alone on a
balcony, her smile, her kiss, the way she’d sat beside him. The way
she’d left.

Normally if a
woman didn’t want to acknowledge their meeting he’d have accepted
it and just moved on, content to leave things lie, but with Elissa
it was different. He didn’t know why, it just was, so he did what
he always did and followed his instincts.

His instincts
had Elissa firmly in his sights.

Sipping on the
hot tea, he studied her as she chatted to Ash and wiped the
dishes.

Man, she was
pretty. Her cool beauty just begged to be ruffled. He wondered what
she’d look like with all that silky-looking hair tousled and
spilling over her shoulders, the coolness of her features flushed,
a smile curving those lush lips, her so-perfectly fitted shirt that
she’d changed into before breakfast a little askew with the top
three buttons undone to reveal what he just knew would be a
magnificent cleavage, going by the way those mounds pushed against
the material.

The woman who
had sung at the city pub had been alive with the music, animated,
different to the cool, collected woman who smiled and chatted
serenely to Ash.

He’d like to
strip that serenity away, pull her down on the floor - better yet,
in the grass - kiss her senseless, lose himself in all that
softness, shake up her composure, have her moaning, squirming
beneath him, all that lushness his to explore, to taste, to bury
himself in while he watched those light brown eyes lose focus, grow
hot, those apple cheeks flush as desire rode her as hard as he
wanted -
“Crap!”

Simon leaped
back from the hot tea that had slopped out of the cup to spatter on
the table, the steaming liquid dripping off the wooden surface.
He’d jumped up just in time, the hot tea narrowly missing slopping
onto his crutch, which would have been damned painful.

Grinning a
little sheepishly at the staring women, he held out his hand.
“Sorry. Clumsy. Toss me the dishcloth, would you, Ash?”

She wrung out
the cloth and tossed it to him. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” Scott
drawled from the doorway. “Something on your mind?”

Simon’s gaze
shot to his friend, taking in the gleam in his eyes. Great. Scott
had seen him staring at Elissa. Time to head him off. “Just
thinking about everything we need to do today.”

“That made you
spill your cup?”

“Lost
concentration.” Simon sopped the tea up with the washcloth.

“Oh, I’d say
you were concentrating just fine.”

“Well, I am
dedicated to the job.”

“Dedicated,
yes. Job? Hmm.”

“Don’t listen
to him.” Taking the dripping washcloth from Simon, Ash handed him a
tea towel to mop up the last of the spilled tea. “I know how
dedicated you are to the job.”

“He’s
dedicated to the
job
, all right,” Scott said. “Always got
his eyes on the goal.”

Simon just
smiled. So he’d been caught watching Elissa, so what? She was
pretty, he was a man, he was admiring her.

Okay, maybe
‘fantasizing’ would be closer, and possibly ‘lustful’ could have a
place in there as well, but he refused to be embarrassed at his
friend knowing. Besides, past experience had proven that pulling
the wool over Scott’s eyes was not happening.

Carrying the
wet tea towel into the laundry through a door in the back of the
kitchen, Simon dropped it into a bucket. “Want me to put soaker in
here?”

“What a man,”
Ash said. “You’d actually put soaker in there without being
asked?”

Simon stuck
his head around the corner of the door to grin at her. “Your
wonderful, loving, dedicated fiancée wouldn’t?”

Scott flipped
him the bird.

“I saw that
with my eagle eye.”

“Your eye is
doing a lot of eagling today.”

“I’m not sure
that’s even a proper use of the word ‘eagle’.”

“It’s fine,
Simon.” Ash handed him a paper lunch bag. “Something for you for
morning tea.”

“All
right!”

“It’s to
share.”

“Are you
sure?” He held up the bag, looked at it worriedly. “Doesn’t seem
that much.”

“Maybe you
better give it to Scott.”

“Don’t you
trust me?” He grinned lazily at her.

Ash arched an
eyebrow. “Giving your dedication to
food
, no.”

“I’m wounded.”
Walking past her, he ruffled her hair. “Thanks, Ash, I’ll be sure
to guard this bag with my life.”

“You think
that won’t worry me more?”

Laughing,
Simon threw Elissa a wink, catching her off-guard. Her already big
eyes widened, a faint pink stealing into her cheeks.

Interesting.

“I’ll see you
later,” he couldn’t help but say, giving her a slightly longer look
that had her flustered.

“Sure,” she
managed, picking up another plate and starting to wipe it, her gaze
going to Scott. “Have a nice day.”

Scott caught
Ash’s hand, pulled her into him, gave her a smacking kiss on the
lips and released her with a roguish wink. “Keep those home fires
burning, honey, and I
do
mean burning.”

Ash blushed,
but her smile was so bright it almost lit up the room. “You know
it.”

“Oh, I do.”
Another wink, a smart smack to her bottom that made her squeal in
surprise, and Scott turned to Simon. “Come on, we’ve got work to
do. Fires to put out, people to rescue, being the heroes we are,
basically.”

“No probs.”
Cradling the paper bag of goodies in his arm, Simon followed Scott
out the door. “I’m all hero.”

No sooner were
they driving back towards town than Scott demanded, “Right, let’s
have it.”

“Have
what?”

“What are you
up to with my wife’s best friend?”

“I’m not aware
that I’m up to anything,” Simon drawled.

“I saw you
ogling her.”

“Was I
ogling?”

“Staring so
hard I thought your eyes were going to pop.”

“I think you
might be exaggerating just a tad.”

“You were so
occupied with watching her that you nearly burned the family jewels
with hot tea.”

“I can
look.”

“Look? You
were practically salivating.”

Simon
smiled.

Scott propped
his elbow on the doorframe. “So?”

“So?”

“Don’t play
silly buggers. Are you after her?”

“Seriously?
You’re going to ask that?”

“Yep.”

“I want her. I
lust after her. I want her beneath me while I-”

“Jesus, Simon.
Settle down.”

“Hey, you
asked.”

“I’m almost
sorry I did.”

“Just
almost?”

“I’m waiting
for the full impact when Ryder comes along. Just wish Kirk was here
to listen. Man, he’ll be pissed that he missed this.”

“My heart
bleeds for him.” Simon pulled in behind the fire station. “Hey,
Hank’s already here.”

The Station
Officer was standing by the fire truck, his booted foot propped on
the running board while he studied the clipboard he held in one
meaty hand. “Full morning, boys.”

“I’m not sure
Simon could handle a full morning,” Scott replied. “He’s had a
bellyful of Ash’s food. And I do mean a bellyful.”

Hank cast
Simon a bland look. “What’s in the bag?”

“Morning tea,”
Simon replied.

“You might
want to take it with you.” Hank straightened. “You and a couple of
vollies are heading out to the bridge to do some back burning,
remember?”

“Which
bridge?”

“Down by old
Jack’s farm.” Hank took his foot off the running board. “Don’t tell
me you forgot about the burn.”

“Been looking
forward to it all week,” Simon replied, straight-faced. “Light a
fire instead of putting one out, kind of a little thrill.”

Scott
grinned.

Just then the
four volunteers entered the building.

“Right.” Hank
crossed to the office. “Let’s get this sorted so you blokes can
start earning your pay.”

“We don’t get
paid,” one of the vollies said.

“You have my
eternal love and undying gratitude.” Hank disappeared into the
office.

“Well, Laz.”
Simon looked at the volunteer. “What more can you ask for?”

“It’s enough
for me.” Laz placed his hand on his chest. “My heart
overflows.”

“Kinky.”

“Coming from
you, that’s a compliment.”

“No, coming
from Ryder that’s a compliment.”

“By the way,”
Laz said as they followed the others into the office, “I took
Arthur’s side in the bet.”

“Jesus.”

Chapter 3

Watching the
panel van back out of the driveway and pull onto the road, Elissa
frowned. Damn it. Simon - did he or did he not recognise her? It
was hard to tell, one second he was looking at her with a knowing
look, the next she could swear she was mistaken when she blinked
and his expression was friendly and innocent.

Well, not
innocent in that way, because a man like Simon wouldn’t be
innocent
innocent. Nope, not a hot firie like that,
especially in a small town. Come to think of it, he’d have his pick
of women even in a city. The man was just hot.

Cripes, she
might have problems but it didn’t stop her from admiring a hot
man.

And why the
hell was she mucking around? Why didn’t she just ask him straight
out if he remembered her? She could just start with a ‘you seem
familiar’ and see where that led. If he really didn’t remember her,
then that was a good thing. She didn’t want him to remember her
blubbering her eyes out on his hotel room balcony. No doubt she’d
made an impression then, imagine what she’d make now if he
remembered her? Embarrassment plus.

Imagine what
Ash would think if he revealed how he’d first met Elissa?

Holy crap.
Maybe it’d be better to not ask anything. Then again, what if he
suddenly remembered her and blurted it all out?

Crap. Crap
crap
crap
.

Elissa groaned
and face-palmed. Maybe the wisest thing would be to get to him
first, find a private place and confess, make him promise not to
say anything to anyone.

Yeah, that’d
work.

And if he
really didn’t remember, well, obviously she hadn’t made as big an
impression as she’d first thought and his interest in her hadn’t
run that deep.

Taking a deep
breath, she turned around to find herself face-to-face with Ash,
who was watching her with raised eyebrows.