Wanted: Outback Wife

‘Great. I’ll pick you up in fifteen,’ he said.

He was gone before Jodie had the chance to explain to him that she would meet him downstairs. There was no way she was going to let the girls know that she was seeing him again. It was bad enough that she knew that she was fast becoming enchanted by the guy. If they had any inkling, they might just try to talk her out of letting him go.

Fourteen minutes later, bathed and dressed in track pants, a white T-shirt and sneakers, Jodie sidled out into the kitchen.

‘Brunch is ready,’ Louise said, waving a French stick and a round of Brie at her.

‘Not for me.’ She placed the phone casually back on the cradle.

Lisa took one look at her garb and lifted two shocked eyebrows. ‘Going jogging, are we?’

‘A walk, at least. I’m feeling the need to exercise away all those bread rolls and red wine I’ve ingested over the last two weeks.’

‘Bread doesn’t make you fat,’ Mandy insisted, biting down onto a piece of bread smothered in soft cheese. ‘It’s all in your head. Think thin and you’ll be thin. Jogging is for suckers.’

They all turned to glare at naturally stick-thin Mandy who had no idea how good she had it.

‘Well, this sucker will be back in a while.’ With a quick wave over her shoulder, Jodie slipped out the door and ran down the three flights of stairs just as Heath reached the front alcove where they had said their moonlight goodbyes only hours before.

‘Hi! Don’t! I’m here!’ she cried out, so that he wouldn’t reach for the doorbell. The poor guy flinched.

‘So you are,’ he said. ‘And all in a rush to see me.’

Jodie opened her mouth to negate that idea, but then realised it was probably easier to let it lie. ‘Hungry, remember?’ she said.

Tugging a cute pink cardigan over her T-shirt to dress up her outfit just a tad, she took the opportunity to find out if he really was as attractive as she had remembered him. Lo and behold, in the harsh light of day, Heath Jameson—in chinos and blue and cream Hawaiian shirt that set off his eyes, his tan, and his general gorgeousness beautifully—was pure masculine heaven. Ouch!

‘Ready?’ he asked, and then he smiled, his face coming over all warm and encouraging, and Jodie had to abstain from leaning against him just to soak up some of that Australian warmth that Louise had begun to notice in her.

‘So, where are you taking me?’ she asked.

‘To heights of gastronomic pleasure the likes of which you have never seen.’

Heath drove from Jodie’s apartment back towards his beach-side St Kilda hotel, stealing glances at the woman in the passenger seat of his car.

He had spent a good portion of his morning wondering if his great first impression of Jodie had been falsely remembered. In the light of their secret tryst out into the Melbourne night, her side-splitting tales of her time at the hands of her meddling housemates, and with the addition of a truly fantastic kebab to finish off the night, he thought perhaps he had been so hoping for it to be perfect that he had indeed willed it to be the best blind date any guy had ever known.

But as Jodie had leapt through the doorway like a whirl-wind of nervous energy just now, madly pulling her auburn waves into a quick pony-tail, flapping that bright pink cardigan at him like a flag at a bull, her wide green eyes wild with panic as he reached for the doorbell—obviously because she didn’t want her roommates to know what she was up to—he knew his concerns had been unfounded.

She was bright. Complicated. Nervous as an unbroken colt. Utterly lovely. And she smelled so good he had to remind himself to breathe out as well as in.

Last night he hadn’t been able to put his finger on it, some lingering sweetness that played with his senses. But this morning it came to him like the subtle scent of grass after a storm. Strawberries.

As he pulled his car into a park on the St Kilda Esplanade, just near a row of white-sailed market stalls, he shot a look her way.

Something in her demeanour had him thinking she was preparing to give him the brush-off, but he wasn’t having any of it. He was struck by her. Truly struck. And a risk was not a risk if the path to your goal was clear.

And since he didn’t believe a word of her claim that she hated desserts as much as she said she did, he took her to the one place in Melbourne that would tempt her to change her mind.

If anything could.

CHAPTER FOUR

WITHIN minutes, the French pastry shops on Acland Street in St Kilda loomed. Jodie had heard rumours of such a place and had quite purposely never been down this road.

Ten-foot-high windows each showcased a dozen shelves packed with melting moments, glimmering fruit tarts, decadent éclairs and every sweet delight a person could crave. Like someone trapped in the desert for ten years, Jodie was drawn towards the mirage, her tastebuds going into overdrive as long-ago memories tickled at her senses.

The feel of pastry melting on her tongue. Sherbet crackling against her lips. And chocolate. Oh, the heavenly melting sensation that was chocolate.

The truth was, Jodie loved desserts, but her mother was diabetic, and corruptibly so. Patricia was so lacking in will-power Jodie had once found her passed out on the kitchen table with an empty bottle of chocolate syrup beside her. Since that day, Jodie had doggedly trained herself to live without the taste of sugar.

‘Come on, order something sweet,’ Heath offered. ‘Anything you like. It’s on me.’

Jodie perused the glassed-in rows of cakes and was stoic. Even though Patricia was nowhere in sight, it was a testament to her own continuing will-power, her very difference from her imprudent mother, that she do without.

‘Tea, black, no sugar, and a savoury scroll.’

‘Come on! This place is the Mecca for dessert lovers. It’s legendary. You can’t possibly be telling me that there is nothing sweet here that can tempt you.’

Oh, yeah. There sure was. Which was why she was being a good strong girl and ordering something not decadent in the least. ‘Sorry. I am a tea and scroll kind of girl.’

His eyes narrowed and she realised her words had held a tinge of bitterness she had not meant to reveal. She smiled inanely and moved inside to the counter where she placed her order.

‘Add two chocolate croissants and a tall black to the order. Three sugars and a small jug of milk on the side. Ta,’ Heath said from somewhere behind her, his breath washing over the back of her hair. ‘Don’t panic, both croissants are for me. One’s for the road.’