Summer in Sydney. Fiona McArthur

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      Cort knew he should just drop her home, should go back to his own and sort out his head instead of her, because he didn’t know how he was feeling. Elise was right, as always—if love came again, he’d expected more of the same. With Beth, passion had been a slower-building thing, colleagues first, then friendship, dinner, a steady incline to a higher place, but with Ruby it was like a rapid descent, this jump into the unknown.

      ‘Do you want to come in?’ As they sat at the traffic lights he just said it and he saw her frown, because they were two minutes from her home. ‘My place,’ Cort said.

      ‘Careful,’ Ruby warned. ‘You’ll be giving Ellie ideas.’

      ‘I’m always careful,’ Cort said, just not where Ruby was concerned.

      It was the most stunning flat she had ever seen—not the interior, more the view.

      Cort fetched her a drink and flicked through his post but didn’t open it. It was from lawyers who were tying up Beth’s estate and one from the nursing home too, no doubt with the final bill. He thought for a moment about telling her, but despite her smile she was dealing with so much already. He knew that, though he longed to share it, it might be better to wait just a little while longer, because this evening was about Ruby and getting her through the next week—his grief, his past, would still be there, waiting. Ruby’s future was the only thing that he might be able to change.

      ‘They pay registrars too much.’ She looked out at the view and swirled her drink. ‘It’s gorgeous.’

      He couldn’t embarrass her or make her feel awkward—couldn’t tell her about insurance payouts and the guilt of buying a place that his wife would have loved. So deep was the pain of his past, he just didn’t know how to share it.

      He knew, though, how to remove it for a while.

      And if that sounded selfish, Cort didn’t care because he knew he helped her too. Knew that somehow she confided in him.

      ‘You need colour.’ She looked at his surroundings. ‘This is brown, Cort, not taupe.’

      ‘I’ve got colour.’

      And that made her blush because his eyes were on hers, and her cheeks turned up the colour a little bit more.

      ‘Look,’ he said, because he was worried for her, ‘about nights—’

      ‘Am I here for a lecture or sex?’ Ruby interrupted, ‘and if it’s both, can we skip the lecture? I’ll be fine on nights. I’m just going to …’ she gave an impatient shrug ‘… not think about it.’

      ‘I’m shadowing Jamelia,’ Cort said, ‘so I’ll be around, but …’ he hesitated, ‘I don’t know how she could know anything, but I think Sheila warned me today, about you, about us. I certainly haven’t said anything.’

      Of that she had no doubt.

      ‘Sheila’s a witch,’ Ruby said. ‘She’d just have to look into her crystal ball.’ But Cort just stood there, not impressed with her theory.

      ‘I don’t think we’ve done anything at work that’s been obvious, but there were a lot of people at the party and your housemates …’

      ‘They would never say anything.’ She had no doubt there either. ‘Siobhan was at the party. I don’t think she likes me …’

      And that made sense to Cort, because Siobhan had made it clear on a number of occasions that she liked him.

      ‘Maybe they just …’ Cort tried for the right word and came up with a very simple one. ‘Noticed.’ Even if he played it down, even if he’d pretended not to notice, from his first day back at work he’d noticed Ruby, had found himself watching her when he hadn’t intended to.

      And now he told her just how much he had … noticed.

      ‘I didn’t need help with that arm,’ Cort said, and he watched her blink as his words hit home. ‘Ted was completely zonked, I could have done it without local anaesthetic and he wouldn’t have felt a thing, wouldn’t have moved a muscle.’

      Ruby started to laugh. ‘So you got me into trouble.’

      ‘You were already in trouble,’ Cort pointed out. ‘I do feel bad, though.’

      ‘For what?’ Ruby asked, and she felt a sort of warmness spread through her that this guarded man, one she’d thought she’d hauled to her room and randomly seduced, had been attracted to her all along.

      Had, in fact, instigated it.

      She’d never have guessed, not for a moment, not if she looked back and replayed every minute before that night over and over, because all he’d been was crabby.

      ‘I’m glad you told me.’

      ‘And you?’ Cort asked, not for ego but he was curious. Had the attraction that had hit been as instant for her?

      ‘I thought you were good looking,’ Ruby breathed. ‘I guess I didn’t think further. You were just …’ And she looked at him and told him exactly what he was. ‘Gorgeous.’

      ‘We have to be careful,’ Cort said, ‘till you’re done.’

      And the warmness that spread through her turned to fire as she realised what he was saying.

      ‘I shouldn’t have picked you up today, but I was worried about you,’ Cort admitted. ‘I thought you hadn’t shown up for your nights. You told me you were on nights on Monday.’

      ‘Sheila changed them,’ Ruby explained again. ‘I have to do three, and she suggested I do them with her. I’m on tomorrow.’ He could hear the dread in her voice even though she tried to veil it, and he didn’t really understand. There were so many things he loathed. Every step he had walked along the corridor in Beth’s nursing home he had dreaded and her funeral hadn’t exactly been something he’d looked forward to, but he’d just put one foot in front of the other and got on with it. It had never entered his head to walk away.

      ‘You’re going to be fine. I’ll be at work, though I’ll have to—’

      ‘I know, I know,’ Ruby interrupted. ‘You’ll just ignore me like you ignore everyone.’

      ‘I don’t.’

      Ruby just shrugged.

      ‘And I won’t come to the house …’

      ‘They really wouldn’t say anything.’

      ‘It’s a few nights, Ruby.’ Which sounded easy, except he’d driven around looking for her when he shouldn’t have and even a few nights seemed impossible from here. ‘Once it’s over …’ He left the rest to her imagination and, boy, did it soar.

      She had been scared to even glimpse at a future, hadn’t thought that her blissful night with this incredible man could be anything other than a cherished memory. That a man like Cort might really want to get to know her more.

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