Beauty from Pain(54)

Lachlan walks over to the car and opens my door for me, but says nothing about the man or why he’s at the vineyard the day after Christmas when all of the other employees are still off for the holidays. Of course, it’s not my business, so I don’t ask.


When we’re inside, Lachlan grabs a coldie (his name for beer), and we go into the living room to hang out. “Today is Boxing Day. If we were in Sydney, I’d take you to the harbor to watch the start of the yacht race to Hobart.”


“I’ve never heard of that before,” I reply.


It’s a big day for hitting the after-Christmas sales. And there’s a lot of sporting events planned for today. Australia’s National Cricket team had a test match scheduled this morning, which is a big deal around here.”


He grabs the remote for what he refers to as the idiot box. “I need to see if we won.”


After he sees the results of the game, he turns the television off. “That’s enough of that. Will you play something for me?”


I can’t resist his request or the urge to play since I haven’t touched it today. I play several of Lachlan’s requests, but he gets that wrinkle in his brow and I know he’s thinking hard about something. “What’s on your mind?”


He watches me a second before he says anything. “I was just wondering if, when you’re back home and you’ve become a huge success, if you’ll write a number-one hit about us?”


“I really hope not.”


“Why not?” He sounds offended. Or disappointed.


I watch my fingers strum the strings so my eyes don’t have to meet his. I don’t want to see them when I explain. “Because the best songs are written from the heart and the emotions you feel must be one extreme or the other. I’d have to be desperately in love or devastatingly hurt by you.”


Lachlan settles back onto the couch and kicks off his shoes, casually propping his feet on the coffee table. “Have you ever experienced either of those things?”


“I’ve never been desperately in love.”


“Does that mean you’ve been devastatingly hurt?”


I think of Blake and the way I felt when I found out he was married. “I’ve been hurt and it felt shattering at the time.”


“I don’t think you can’t have one without the other, so the two must coincide.”


He sounds like he knows a little something about love and pain. “Is that your opinion because you’ve experienced both?”


He laughs loudly and I look up from my guitar. “Hell, no. I’ve never been in love, so no one has ever hurt me.”


How is it possible that someone as beautiful as Lachlan has never had that experience? “You’ve never even thought you might be in love?”


“Never. What about you?”


Blake is in my thoughts again, reminding me just how wrong a person can be when it comes to love. “I thought I was in love once, but I was dead wrong.”


“I’m guessing he’s the one you were telling me about last night?”


I almost forgot about that. “Yeah, that would be him.”


“Did you ever dance for him?”


That came out of left field. “No. I never even told him I did it.”


Lachlan gets up from the couch. He grabs my wrist, pulling me to his side, and sets my guitar in its case. “Come with me. I want to show you something.”


He leads me to the gym and stops outside the door. “This is why Mike was here. He was installing this for you.” He opens the door and I see a shiny new pole toward the back wall. I cross the room and touch it before I look at Lachlan and smile.


Damn, he wasn’t kidding. He freakin’ installed a pole for me. Or for him.


“I want you to dance for me.” He opens one of the cabinet doors and takes out a box. “And I want you to wear this while you do it.”


I lift the top to find a black one-piece romper inside. The sides of the waist are cut out, leaving only a thin strip to cover me down the middle between the top and bottom. It’s hot and not like anything I’ve worn while dancing. When I take it out of the box, I have another surprise underneath: a pair of red f*ck-me pumps. I hold one up—they look like they’ll fit me perfectly.