The Goodbye Ride by Lily Malone Page B

know anything about me.”
    “That’s because you won’t tell me anything
about yourself.”
    “I can’t see why you’d care? It’s not as if
you’re staying around. Anyway, you have—”
    “I have what?” The muscle flicked in his
jaw.
    You have Vanessa. “Nothing.” She stared at the sparkling
crystal in her hand.
    His fingers tapped a beat on the old wax
bench. “If you’re talking about Antarctica, I told you I hadn’t decided whether
I’d go yet.”
    “Yes—because of your Pop and because of a
girl—I get it.” She waved the vase impatiently. “Look, Owen, no offence, but
what I do, who I do it with, where I live? None of it is any of your bloody
business.”
    “The hell it’s not.” Owen bounced from the
kitchen bench. “You’re the damn girl, Olivia.”
    His words exploded into the space between
them like a volcano unleashed. The intensity left her breathless. It surprised
him too, because his face softened and he stepped back.
    For long seconds they just stared at each
other, until Liv took a careful breath, as if testing the air. “ I’m the
girl?”
    “I’m sorry, that didn’t come out right,”
Owen lifted his hand, palm down. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
    Liv stepped around his legs, stepped around
the kitchen bench, buying time so she could process what she’d heard. He
reached for her arm, thought better of it, and dropped his hand to his thigh.
    Pushing the pile of plates out of her way,
she shoved the vase under the cold tap. Cutlery and glass grated in the
stainless steel sink.
    Liv picked up a camellia stalk, slid it
into the vase, picked up another and spun the flower in her fingers. “Owen, if
I’m… the girl. Why did you make me think you had a girlfriend? Who is Vanessa?”
    “Vanessa?”
    “A woman rang you today? This afternoon...
when we…well, I think you were about to kiss me…in the shed. Mark called her
your girlfriend.”
    “ Vanessa? Vanessa Bell runs the
Hahndorf Respite Care service. Granddad had a turn late today. I’ve just been
in to see him.” Then he shook his head. “Bloody Mark. Don’t believe a word he
says. He was just stirring me. He knows I like you.”
    That admission made blood bolt to her
cheeks. “Oh.”
    “Yes. Oh,” Owen said pointedly. “You’re the
one who assumed I had a girlfriend remember? The one who wouldn’t like getting
helmet hair?”
    Now she was the one who needed a helmet,
something to hide the crimson flush she was certain crept to the crown of her
head. “You could have set me straight, like you did when I thought Mark’s ute
was yours.”
    “If I’d known that was all that was holding
you back. I’d have come clean in record time.” His eyes creased into one of his
killer smiles.
    Liv got caught by the light in his eyes
which meant her second reaction—the one she probably should have thought of
first—was a little belated. “I hope your Pop’s okay?”
    “Granddad’s fine. He’s tough as old boots.”
    This time, Owen did reach for her arm.
Leaning over the bench, he took her wrist lightly in one hand, plucked the
camellia from her fingers and tucked it into the vase. His touch triggered
thrills all over her skin and she had to lean into the bench with her thighs so
her legs wouldn’t tremble.
    “Come for a ride on the Duke with me, Liv.”
His voice was soft, husky, and his charcoal gaze held hers. “Now. Tonight. Get
your stuff.”
    She stared at the polished surfaces of her
mother’s kitchen, trying to remember where she’d left her handbag, phone,
lipstick. Stuff. “What stuff?”
    “You’ve got a riding jacket? Leathers? A
helmet? You can’t ride like that.”
    She looked down at the tracksuit. “Oh.
Okay. Sure. Hang on. I’ll be quick.”
    “I’ll be here.”
    Liv raced to her mother’s junk room. That
too was immaculate. In the cupboard labelled ‘Olivia’, she dragged out
leathers, gloves and helmet, before hurrying to her bedroom to rip off the
tracksuit. She pulled