She glanced up at me and that’s all it took to make me smile: the little dent in her chin. ‘How?’
‘A GoPro,’ I said with a provoking lift of my brows, ‘on your own bike.’
She chuckled, even though I hadn’t been joking. ‘I’m not going to ride with you guys.’
‘You said you weren’t scared to get back on a bike.’
‘There’s a big difference between “getting back on a bike” and a training ride for the Tour de France. I said don’t push me.’
‘And I found it incredibly sexy when you said it.’
She eyed me doubtfully and crossed her arms, which only drew my gaze to her outfit. She must have had a whole suitcase of these dresses in different colours and patterns – all designed to pull my eyes to the little details of her body that sucked me in.
Today’s number had little strings tying the sleeves up, which made me think about undoing them, tugging one shoulder down—
I took a deep breath. ‘You could hop up on Nellie’s bike right now and have that skirt blow up in your face.’
‘I think you must be confusing this one with my other exploding dress.’
Grinning at her, I slid along the car a little closer. ‘Which one is the exploding dress? The one with the floof things at the bottom or the one where you could undo the belt and the whole thing would fall off?’
I liked making her jaw hang open so far I could almost hear it creak. ‘Firstly, that dress has a button that keeps it closed,’ she began after recovering from her strangled cough.
‘Way to destroy a guy’s fantasy.’
She made that frustrated noise in the back of her throat that I had grown fond of, but ignored the comment. ‘And secondly, the one with the floof things – if I have interpreted your questionable description correctly – is a skirt, not a dress.’
‘There’s a difference?’
‘Of course there’s a difference! One can be worn by itself and the other needs a blouse for the top half.’
‘I think “needs” would be open to interpretation.’
She made the noise again. ‘Your imagination is a scary place.’
‘But you’re in it pretty often – usually in a nice dress that doesn’t explode. I like your dresses.’
‘I don’t think I have one in your size,’ she quipped.
When she matched my smile, I was a little worried myheartwould explode. ‘You owe me a prank, Kubicka,’ I reminded her. ‘I’m waitin’.’
‘You can wait a little longer,’ she said, her nose in the air. I never wanted to see anything else in my life, with Leesa looking happy in front of me, the majestic Dolomites a dramatic background.
‘That’s enough for now, Colin! We’re not here for the charming company.’
She stiffened at Dad’s interruption and I swallowed the many unwise words bubbling up in my chest, instead giving her a lazy salute and heading back to where the others sat, legs sprawled, on a park bench.
‘I hope you got some good footage,’ I heard Dad say. ‘Lots of shots with the logo.’
I slowed my steps so I could hear her reply. ‘It’s not only about the logo. Maybe you’d have ten minutes for me at some stage so I can show you the approach we want to take? I’ve spent quite a bit of time analysing successful content from previous Tours and it’s not going to look like advertising. I’ll be happy to take you through it.’
Damn, I liked her accent when she was being all articulate.
‘Sounds good. I remember the dance videos you used to do with Doortje and the girls. Looks like you might have found your feet even though you left us too soon.’
Even before I turned around to confirm, I knew Dad’s comments had hit a nerve again.
‘You were bloody difficult to replace, you know,’ Dad went on, oblivious to her pasted-on smile and fidgeting.
