When they finally stepped out into the night, Anna breathed a sigh of relief. Which was followed by a wave of embarrassment and guilt.
‘I’m sorry—’
‘No. Don’t say that. You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one who should apologise. For putting you in a situation where you didn’t feel comfortable. It never occurred to me—’
‘It was a restaurant for heaven’s sake. Why can’t I go to a restaurant? I know it’s been a while, but what sort of person have I become?’ Anna started walking towards the car.Stridingmight be a better word. ‘It’s just dinner. A night out with a man I’m really attracted to and I can’t do it. Next thing you know, I won’t want to leave the house. I will spend the rest of my life alone.’
Justin took her hand and pulled her to a stop. She turned to face him and was finally able to bring herself to look up at him, expecting to see derision and pity on his handsome face.
She saw neither.
He smiled gently. ‘You’re really attracted to me?’
‘Well, yes.’
‘Wow.’
The tone of his voice dragged her away from her place of misery and self-pity and she started to chuckle. ‘You shouldn’t be surprised. This must happen a lot. Women liking you, I mean. Not disastrous dinner dates.’
‘Who says it’s a disaster? It’s not over yet. Come on.’ He took her hand again and held it as they walked.
CHAPTER
16
How could he have been so stupid? He should have known that people would stare at Anna’s face. Just because the colour of her eyes and the brightness of her smile and the sexy note to her voice made her beautiful to him, it did not mean others didn’t see the scars. He’d seen her raise a hand to touch that scar so many times. How could he not have realised how much she still suffered because of it? He’d made her feel bad and he wanted to kick himself for it.
Instead, he prised the lid off the takeaway container. ‘I hope you like egg fried rice.’
‘I do, actually. And sweet and sour chicken.’ Anna opened another container.
‘I’m glad. There wasn’t that much choice.’ He’d been lucky to find the Chinese takeaway. Without that, he might have been reduced to finding a truck stop or a servo that did food. He would have made it work, because he was not taking Anna back to another restaurant where she might be stared at again. All he’d wanted was for the two of them to be somewhere quiet. Alone. So he could try to make amends.
‘This is a nice spot. How did you know about it?’
Anna was right. It was a nice spot. The creek in front of them was quite small, but it bubbled along fast, adding rippling noises and flickering moonlight on the water to the stillness of the evening. The sky above was clear and the starlight painted the scene with a gentle hand. The bank of the creek was grassy, but the grass was short and green thanks to the attention of grazing animals. All they’d needed was a blanket from the emergency equipment locker on the back of his vehicle and they were comfortably set up for a takeaway dinner.
‘When you’re with the RFS, you get about a bit. You find places. Some of them you want to share.’
He looked at Anna, but she had her head down, liberating chopsticks and tiny bottles of soy sauce from a brown paper bag.
‘How long have you been with the RFS?’
‘Pretty much since leaving school. Both Ben and I have.’ He didn’t want to bring his brother into the conversation, but it wasn’t easy to leave him out. From the moment they were born, just minutes apart, Ben had always been such a huge part of Justin’s life. His twin. His shadow. They had always been there for each other. If there were times, and now was one of them, when Ben was more a source of concern than anything else, wasn’t that part of what being brothers was all about?
But he didn’t want Ben intruding on tonight.
‘Try the vegetables.’ Anna passed him a container with chopsticks ready to use.
‘Thanks.’
They both started to eat. The food was nothing like as good as the restaurant food would have been, but Justin could feel Anna beginning to relax. And that was better than all the fancy food in the world.
‘We should have stopped at the drive-in bottle shop for some beer.’
Anna pulled bottles of water out of another bag. ‘Which do you want—the plain water or the touch of lemon?’
‘Either is fine for me. You take the one you want.’
