'I find that hard to believe.'
'Try harder.'
He laughed. Her cheek twitched into a smile. She slid lower on the step, and told herself she couldn't get closer to being physically grounded unless she lay on the dirt.
'You're in a profession which must be teeming with men. How is it you haven't succumbed to sweet nothings whispered in the dark by some guy with a clipboard and a brain the size of the Outback?'
'I'm not that attracted to clipboards,' she admitted.
'Mmm. It can't help that your colleagues all have Star Trek emblems secreted about their persons.'
'Oh, ho! Hang on a second. I might be allowed to diss my fellow physicists, but that doesn't mean you can.'
'Is that what I just did?'
'Yes! You just intimated all astronomers are geeks.'
'Aren't they?' he said without even a pause.
She sat up straight and held a hand to her heart to find it beating harder than normal, harder than it had even when she'd been a green teenager. It had more than a little to do with the unflinching, alpha-male thing he'd found within himself in the intervening years. It spoke straight to the stubborn independence she'd unearthed inside herself.
'You realise you are also insinuating that I am a geek?' she said.
This time there was a pause. But then he came back with, 'Yes. You are a geek.'
Her mouth dropped open then slammed back shut. Mostly because the tone of his voice suggested it didn't seem to be the slightest problem for him that she might be a geek.
'Rosalind,' he said, in a way that made her want to flip her hair, lick her lips and breathe out hard.
'Yes?' she sighed before she could stop herself.
His next pause felt weightier. She cursed herself beneath her breath and gripped the teeny-tiny phone so tight her knuckles hurt.
'I realise it's last minute, but I was wondering if you had plans for dinner.'
Um, yeah, she thought; cheese on toast.
He continued, 'Because I haven't eaten, and if you haven't eaten I thought it an entirely sensible idea that we make plans to eat together.'
Oh? Oh! Had Cameron Kelly just asked her out?
CHAPTER THREE
ROSIE looked up at the sky, expecting to see a pink elephant flying past, but all she saw were clouds streaked shades of brilliant orange by the dying sunlight.
To get the blood flowing back to all the places it needed to flow, not just the unhelpful areas where it had suddenly pooled, Rosie dragged herself off the step and walked out into the yard, running a hand along the fluffy tops of the hip-high grass stalks.
Dinner with Cameron Kelly. For most girls the answer would be a no brainer. The guy was gorgeous. She couldn't deny she was still attracted to him. And there was the fantasy element of hooking up with her high school crush. One of the invisibles connecting with one of the impossibles.
But Rosie wasn't most girls. She usually dated uncomplicated, footloose, impermanent guys, not men who made it hard for her to think straight. She liked thinking straight.
The only time she'd ever broken that rule was with a cardboard cut-out of a gorgeous A-list movie star Adele had nicked from outside a video store for her seventeenth birthday. He was breathtaking, he never talked back. Never stole the remote. Never left the toilet seat up. Never filled any larger part of her life than she let him. Never left …
She wrapped her hand round a feathery tuft of grass and a million tiny spores flew out of her palm and into the air, floating like fireflies in dusk's golden light.
Her mother had been the very definition of other girls. She'd fallen for the wrong man, the man she'd thought would love her for ever, and it had left her with a permanently startled expression, as though her world was one great shock she'd never got over.
After years of thought, study and discovery, a light-bulb moment had shown Rosie that, contrarily, the way to make sure that never happened to her was to only date the wrong men-those who for one reason or another had no chance of making a commitment. She could then enjoy the dating part dead-safe in the knowledge that the association would end. And when it did she wouldn't be crushed.
So, back to Cameron Kelly. He was gorgeous. He was charming. But most importantly beneath the surface there was a darkness about him. A hard, fast, cool character that he was adept at keeping all to himself. He was fascinating, but there was no mistaking him for some sweet guy looking for love.
And, of all the men who'd asked her out, she knew exactly what she was up against. Cameron Kelly was the least likely man in the world Rosie would again make the mistake of falling for, making him the ideal man for her, for now.
'I haven't lost you, have I?' he asked.
You can't lose what you never had, she thought, but said, 'I'm still deciding if I'm hungry enough for dinner.'
'It's a meal, on a plate. I was thinking perhaps even cutlery may be involved.' His voice resonated down the phone, until cheese and toast was the last things on her mind. 'We can reminisce about average cafeteria food, bad haircuts and worse teachers.'
'When did you ever have a bad haircut?'
'Who said I was talking about me?'
'Ha! You know what? I don't remember you being this ruthless at school.'
'Have dinner with me and I'll do my very best to remind you just how bad I can be.'
Suddenly her hands began to shake. She wiped them down her jeans, dusting off the tiny fragments of plant residue. Then said, 'Where would we go?'
'Wherever. Fried chicken, a chocolate fountain, steamed mung-beans; whatever you want, it's yours.'
'Steamed mung beans?'
She felt him smile, and even without the visual accompaniment it made her stomach tighten. But now that she'd reconciled herself to her attraction to him she let herself enjoy it. It felt … wonderful. A little wild, but she had a handle on it. This was going to be fine.
'I didn't want to be all he-man and impose my carnivorous tastes upon you,' he said. 'For all I know you might well be a vegan, anti-dairy carb hater.'
'So happy to know I give off such a flattering vibe.'
'Your vibe is just fine,' he said, his voice steady and low and, oh, so tempting.
She stopped brushing at her jeans and hooked her thumb tight into the edge of her pocket. 'Imagine me as the least fussy woman you've ever taken to dinner.'
'Then I know the place. It's so informal, it's practically a dive. They make the best quesadillas you'll ever have.'
'Mexican for grilled cheese, right?' How ironic.
It was his turn to pause. 'It seems I have failed in my attempt to impress you with my extensive knowledge of international cuisine. Mmm. I'll have to up my game.'
Rosie took a moment to let that one sink in. It left a really nice, warm glow where it landed; her hand clutched the fabric of her old black T-shirt against the spot. 'And I guess dinner would be one way of making up for the astrology jibe.'
'I admit, it was hardly gracious.'
'It was hardly original, either.'
He laughed again, the sound sliding through the phone and down her back like warm honey.
The distant tones of a warning bell rang in the back of her mind, but she was confident enough of him and of herself to say, 'So, yes. To dinner. Sounds fun.'
He gave her the time, and address of the place that made the exotic grilled-cheese, and they said their goodbyes.
When Rosie hung up the phone she realised her knees were wobbling like mad. She slumped down upon the metal step, hugged her arms around herself and looked up.
The clouds had moved on, the colour of the sky had deepened, and several stars had shown themselves. When she hadn't been paying attention, the world beneath her feet had turned.
The world turned some more until night had well and truly fallen upon Brisbane. The bark and bite of peak-hour traffic had subsided to a low growl, and Rosie pulled her caramel velvet jacket tighter around herself to fend off the night chill as she walked briskly down the city footpath. Late for her date.
A minute later the maitre d' at the Red Fox bar and grill pointed the way through the bustling bar crowd towards a table along the far wall.
A dive, Cameron had promised. The place was anything but. It was bright, shiny, cool, filled with men with more product in their hair than she had in her bathroom, and women wearing so much bling around their necks she wasn't sure how they kept upright. While she'd been in so many seedy places in her time she could practically write a guide, Cameron it seemed was still very much a Kelly.
She ruffled her hair, wished she'd washed it or put it up, or had a haircut in the past six months, and excused herself as she nudged a group of hot young things out of her way.