“We’re sitting over here,” Taylor said, offering her his arm like a guy in a period movie might, and that’s when I knew he might have a chance. People seemed to call them period movies for more than one reason. Firstly, because of time period, and secondly, when shark week hit,Pride and Prejudicewas played on high rotation at Sophie’s place. She smiled up at him and tucked her arm in his before he led us through the crowds to the outskirts.
“Egad,” Max muttered, mostly to himself. “The boy might just pull this off. He is punching well above his weight but—”
“I’m Ben.”
My eyes jerked around at the sound of a deep voice. It was rich, dark, sounding like a vat of molten chocolate would feel if I dipped right into it.
I was used to playing Sophie’s wingwoman. It’s not as if I was hard up for guys myself, but sometimes men’s frenzied responses to my friend needed a little… mediating. But all thoughts of Soph went right out the window when I looked up to find the source of that voice.
No one had a right sounding and looking like he did. He was huge, towering over me and his friends, sporting a massive frame and, while that was enough to make my mouth to fall open, it was his eyes that caught my attention. Pale blue and crinkling at the edges as he smiled, slow and sweet. He raked a hand through a shock of sun-bleached blond hair and then stepped in closer, not looking away for a second, before he said, “And who are you, lovely?”
Lovely? Lovely!I wanted to change my name by deed poll so that everyone going forward had to call me that, because the sound of that epithet coming from him was my idea of heaven.
Answer the nice man, my brain thought furiously as silence stretched on, Max looking back at us with a quizzical expression.Answer him!
“Lily!” I replied belatedly, thrusting my hand out into the space between us with way too much gusto. “My name is Lily.”
He took my hand, but there was no quick handshake. He clasped it with his, mine dwarfed by his massive palm.
“That’s a beautiful name,” he said, smiling slowly. “But we better catch up to the others. Taylor looks like he’s found the woman of his dreams and we’re here to make sure he doesn’t make a total dick of himself.”
“Ten bucks he crashes and burns before the first drink,” Max said with a snicker.
“Nah, he’ll get at least one drink in,” Ben countered. “As long as he doesn’t start discussing computer databases or anything. First sign of nerd talk, we change the subject. Second? Kick him in the shins, subtle-like.”
“You’re… talking strategy about how to get your friend laid?” I asked, going to pull away from Ben’s grip, but his fingers tightened slightly. His thumb rubbed across the back of my hand, just a gentle swipe, but I could feel it all the way down to my toes. I left my hand where it was then, a very happy little appendage being cradled within his.
“That… probably seems crass,” Max said with a sheepish smile. “And maybe something we shouldn’t be talking about in front of her bestie.”
“Nothing bad will happen to your friend if she decides to hang out with Taylor,” Ben assured me. “He’s a good guy, he’s just—”
“Obsessive. Really, really obsessive,” Max supplied. “Intense, full-on: did I mention obsessive?”
“Max, Taylor and me, we’ve been friends since forever,” Ben explained as we weaved our way through the crowd, finally coming to an open space on the edge of the mass of people. “I drove the two of them up here for the start of the uni year.”
“We’re from Campbelltown,” Max said.
“The farming town in the south east?” I asked.
“The very same. Not much to recommend it but sheep, sheep and more fucking sheep,” Max said, then flashed me a grin. “The wineries are nice though.”
“You get to escape it for most of the year at least,” Ben said in a low rumble.
“You’re not a student here?” I asked Ben, way too much emotion in that question.
Get some bloody chill, Lils, I snapped at myself.
But rather than be freaked out by the overenthusiastic, stalker girlfriend act I was running with, the man just smiled and shook his head slowly.
“I have to get back home tomorrow. My family has a… business that I’m an important part of, so I don’t get to run away and play uni student for three quarters of the year like these fellas.”
“Like you’d be able to sit through lectures without falling asleep anyway,” Max shot back with a grin. “Well, Taylor hasn’t driven the girl away yet, so there’s hope. Time for a celebratory drink, I’m thinking. What’re you having, Lily?”
“Oh!” I sculled the rest of my drink down, something that earned me a little cheer from the two guys, then I reached into my bag to pull out my wallet.
“Don’t go worrying about that,” Ben said, closing his free hand over my other one and pushing my wallet back into the bag. “We’ve got you.”
“Ben’s family makes big money, so he’s picking up the tab,” Max said with a waggle of his eyebrows. “So time to go big. Rum and coke? Rum and coke?” He pointed to Ben and then me, not bothering to get our answers before taking the handful of cash the big man offered him and dashing off to get exactly that.