Like now? his inner voice asked. What did he expect? That in a month’s time he would forget her? Or that she would come back with him to his brash world of corporate hospitals and city life and just be with him? Or that he would stay here?

He shouldn’t be doing this, but darn it felt good to watch her walking beside him. He could feel the smile tug at his lips, easing the emotional exhaustion he’d been dragging around like a two-tonne rock since the accident.

If he was sensible, instead of savouring the joy of the moment like a kid with a lollypop, he’d be thinking how to explain about Roslyn. How to explain that he felt bad about having slept with someone else so soon after his wife’s death, and that, because of where they each lived, they had no long-term future.

Some of the joy seeped away and he glanced down at Ava. She looked up at him and smiled, and he forgot all that and tasted sweetness again.

Chapter Six

Ava

Excitement effervesced along Ava’s veins like a dropped can of cola shooting fizzy streams outwards to her fingers and toes. Maybe she had a chance to get to know this man properly. Find out why he hadn’t wanted to talk about his life before now. Learn about his loss, hear about his work and family. Most especially, find out why he’d waited outside maternity for her this morning when he had reduced a connection she’d thought special to something gossip-worthy.

She tried not to hold her breath in case he reverted to being distant if they ran into someone from the hospital. Nobody passed before they came to his four-wheel drive.

He opened her door first, and when she was settled she watched him stride around to his side.

Nice manners … Nice butt.

What was it about this man that penetrated her barriers? Apart from mind-blowing sex the night before last, that was. There’d been plenty of guys around at work and at the few social occasions on the station since Jai but she hadn’t been interested.

Was it a positive sign that he was obviously doing this against his better judgement, or a bad sign? And all that baffling subtext. Was it a lack of real feelings and he was just a sex maniac who fancied her, or was it something else?

Maybe she should just ask. For her own protection.

He climbed in and shut his door, then glanced across at her as he reached for the key. When he smiled, she felt her resolve soften and the need for answers fade.

‘We’re mad,’ he said.

That took her words away until she managed, ‘It’s only breakfast.’ But they both knew it wasn’t. As a reflex she added a little too forcefully, ‘Why did you want me to pretend we didn’t know each other last night?’