Michelle Douglas - Road Trip with the Eligible Bachelor

‘So can’t you stop chafing at the constraints and just...just look at this time as a bit of a gift? Embrace it as an unexpected holiday or a timeout from a hectic schedule?’

He stared at her. ‘A holiday?’ He said the words as if testing them out. Very slowly he started to nod. ‘Fretting about the delay isn’t going to change anything, is it?’

Precisely.

‘In fact, it would be making things harder on you and the boys.’

‘And on you.’ She shook her head. ‘I hate to think what your raised cortisol levels are doing to your overall heath.’

‘Cortisol?’

‘It’s a hormone that’s released into our bloodstreams during times of stress. It’s not good for us in large constant doses.’ It took an effort of will not to fidget under his stare. She waved a dismissive hand. ‘I read about it in a book.’

This man would benefit from regular meditation too, but she didn’t suggest it. She’d suggested enough for one day. She leant back on her hands and lifted her face to what was left of the sun and made herself laugh. ‘We’re certainly getting holiday weather.’ Summer might be over officially, but nobody had informed the weather of that fact.

He glanced around and nodded.

‘Look at how blue the sky is and the golden haze on the horizon. This is my absolute favourite time of day.’

His shoulders loosened.

‘I love the way the shadows lengthen and how stands of trees almost turn purple in the shade, like those ones over there,’ she murmured.

He pulled in an audible breath and let it out in one long exhalation.

‘I just want to drink it all in.’

They were quiet for a few moments. She hoped he was savouring the afternoon as much as she was.

‘You remind me of someone.’

It was the most relaxed she’d heard him sound. ‘Who?’

He swivelled to face her. ‘My turn.’

She blinked. ‘For?’

‘For sharing something I think you want to know.’

It took all her willpower to not lean forward, mouth agape. She hadn’t expected him to actually take part in her ‘you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine’ strategy. She’d just wanted to impress upon him the importance of this trip. Not that she had any intention of telling him that now, though.

‘Okay.’ She forced her eyes back to the hazy horizon, careful to not make him feel self-conscious.

‘Daniel’s death has devastated my family.’

His brother had died in a car accident eight months ago now. It had made all the headlines. She gripped a fistful of blanket, her heart burning for Aidan and his family.

‘He was the apple of my parents’ eyes. His death shattered them.’ He stared down at his hands. ‘Hardly surprising as he was a great guy.’

He didn’t have to say how much his brother’s death had devastated him. She could see it in his face. A lump ballooned in her throat.

‘Ever since Danny’s accident my mother has lived in mortal fear of losing me too.’

The poor woman.

And then Quinn saw it, what Aidan wasn’t saying. With an effort, she swallowed and the lump bruised her all the way down until it reached her stomach. ‘So this plane strike and your road trip across the country, it’s going to be a real...worry for her?’

And that was what had really been chafing at him. Not the interruption to his political campaigning or the fact he was missing important meetings.

‘What did you call it? Cortisol?’

She nodded.

He pointed skyward. ‘Hers will be through the roof.’

And Aidan wanted to do whatever he could to ease his mother’s suffering. Her heart tore for him.

‘My parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary is soon and—’

‘When?’ Good Lord! She had to make sure he got home in time for that.

‘Not until the twenty-fourth of the month.’

She let out a breath. She was hoping to be at Mara’s no later than the twenty-second. He’d get home in time.

‘I should be there helping with all the preparations. There’s a huge party planned. I encouraged them to have it. I thought it might help.’

That was when she started to wonder how much of his life he was putting on hold in an effort to allay his parents’ grief. And what of his own grief?

She surveyed him for a long moment. When he turned to meet her gaze the rich brown of his eyes almost stole her breath. She swallowed, but she didn’t look away. ‘Aidan, I am truly sorry for your loss.’

He looked ragged for a moment. ‘Thank you.’

The silence gathered about them and started to burn. ‘May I say something about your mother?’ she whispered.

He stilled. He turned back. ‘Only if you say it gently.’

Gently? Her heart started to thump. She moistened her lips and stared across to the playground with its riot of happy laughter. ‘I can’t imagine how bad it would be to lose one of my boys.’ Her voice wobbled. ‘I can’t actually imagine anything worse.’

He reached out and squeezed her hand.

‘In fact, I can’t actually comprehend it, and I’m utterly and probably somewhat selfishly grateful for that.’

‘It’s not selfish, Quinn,’ he said quietly.

‘Your poor, poor mother, Aidan.’ She clasped his hand tightly. ‘God forbid if I should ever lose Robbie, but...I can’t help feeling that wrapping Chase up in cotton wool would not be a good thing to do. For him or for me.’

He met her gaze, his face sober. ‘She can’t help her grief.’

‘No.’ But tying Aidan down like this was hardly fair. ‘You will get home safe and sound and in one piece.’ It was probably a foolish thing to say because neither one of them could guarantee that. But she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

‘Of course I will.’

‘And there’s nothing you can do for your mother at the moment except to give her a daily phone call to let her know you’re okay.’

‘No,’ he agreed.

‘Can you live with that?’

‘I guess I’ll have to.’

‘You know,’ she started slowly, ‘this might be a good thing.’

‘How?’

‘Maybe it’ll force her to focus beyond her fear, especially if she has the party to turn her attention to. And once she does that she might realise how irrational her fear is.’

His face lit up. ‘You think so?’

Oh, heavens, she’d raised his hopes. Um... ‘Maybe.’

He stared at her for a long moment and then he smiled. ‘That person you remind me of?’

Her heart started to thump. ‘Uh-huh?’

‘It’s Daniel. Quinn, you remind me of my brother.’

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