“And all the way here you were telling me there was nothing to worry about,” he teased, his smile widening and those gorgeous dimples making an appearance.
“It was an act. A broken wrist takes a long time to heal and you’re a winemaker and how are you supposed to make wine with a broken wrist? Let alone drive yourself anywhere … And what if …” It was no wonder she was getting worked up. While she’d remained calm on the outside, she’d been replaying the awful scene in her mind since they’d got into the SUV with Jonno. What if he’d been bitten by that snake? Weren’t all snakes in Australia deadly?
What if something had happened to him, something serious, and she’d lost him?
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’m good.” Jules dropped her head and rested it against his chest. She felt the soft caress of his thumb through her top and it sent a shot of warmth through her. All she wanted was to curl up in bed with him and …
And what?
It wasn’t just sex she wanted. She wanted to hold him and kiss him and just lie next to him, just be with him. I’ve fallen for the hot Aussie winemaker, she realised, surprising herself.
Matt brought her back to reality when he said he needed to sort out some stuff at the front desk. “Would you mind calling a taxi for us? Here, use my phone. I’ve got a number saved in my contacts.” He unlocked his phone and handed it to her.
“Oh sure, or I can get us an Uber?”
“Uh, not sure we have many of those out this way.” He winked. “You happy to wait here?”
“Yeah, sure.” Matt jogged off towards the front desk and Jules had to stop herself from calling out to be careful. She was about to call for a cab when Matt’s phone rang, startling her and nearly making her drop it. She recovered, pressed the green button, and raised the phone to her ear.
“Hello? This is Matt’s phone.”
“And who are you?” asked a woman’s voice.
“Oh, I’m … a friend—of Matt’s. He’s just … He can’t come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?”
“It’s his mum. Wait a minute. You’re not Kirsten, are you?” Jules had no idea who Kirsten was, but it was clear from her tone that Matt’s mom did not like her.
“Uh, no, ma’am, this is Jules. I met Matt at Christmas. I’m a friend of Chloe’s. Do you know Chloe?”
“Mmm.” The response sounded like a growl and Jules just knew it was accompanied by a frown, even though she couldn’t see the woman’s face.
“Oh, look, Matt’s here!” she exclaimed as she held out the phone. “It’s your mom,” she mouthed.
Matt’s inquisitive expression morphed into one Jules couldn’t read, and he took the phone from her and pressed it to his ear. “Hi, Mum, what’s up?” It was obvious from the false cheer he affected that Matt wasn’t about to reveal his whereabouts or what had happened.
His expression changed again, and Jules watched as he looked at the floor, his mouth flattening into a thin line and his brows meeting. “Yeah, no—” He’d clearly been cut off and although she couldn’t make out most of the words, she did hear “Kirsten” a couple of times and from the tone of Matt’s mom’s voice, she was not pleased.
“Mum. Mum, we can talk about this another time … Yeah, well, it’s not why you called, so what’s going on? Oh, right. Yeah, I can make that work, no worries. No, I’m happy to, Mum. Look, I’d better go. I’ll call you later, okay? Yeah. Love you too. ’Kay. Bye.”
He dropped the handset by his side and finally met Jules’s eyes. “Sorry ’bout that.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, she just needs me to take her to the doctor the week after next.”
“Ah, I see.” Was he really going to ignore the whole “Kirsten” thing?
“Do we still need to call a taxi?” he asked. Apparently, he was, yes.
“Yeah, your mom called before I had the chance.”
“No worries.” He scrolled through the phone one-handed and made the call. “Ten minutes,” he said, adding a weak smile.
Jules nodded. Say it, she prompted herself. “So, who’s Kirsten?”
“Oh, uh …”
“Annnd …” she drew the word out, “why did your mom freak out when she thought that I was Kirsten?”
Matt bit his lip, then reached for her hand. She let him take it. “How about when we get back to my place, we talk? ’Kay?”
“Okay.” Jules’s stomach tightened into a knot. This was it. This was where she learnt that Matt had an ex-wife, or possibly a current wife, and that for him, she’d just been a bit of fun. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have cared. This was how she liked her romantic liaisons—no promises, no feelings, casual.
But that was before the beach when he’d wrapped her up in that beach towel and held her, before those sexy cheek kisses at Christmas, before the honest conversations and sleeping next to him, before a dramatic fall from a horse, throwing him into the path of a deadly snake.
For years now, Jules had liked things casual, but that was before she fell for Matt.
Damn it. I really am a goner.
Chapter 27
Chloe
“This is amazing!” Chloe had to shout above the sounds of the carousel, its music box trills as loud as any club she’d ever been to.
She and Archer were riding side-by-side horses, his going up as hers went down and vice versa. She was getting dizzy, but that may have been the two cups of Glühwein they’d had before the ride.
Winter Wonderland was “going off” as the Aussies would say, with thousands of fair-goers milling about the stalls, and the carnival rides blinking garish coloured lights and blaring tinny renditions of famous pop songs from the 80s. Archer had won her a particularly tacky stuffed reindeer
