Michelle Douglas - Road Trip with the Eligible Bachelor

He moved back to the bench. She stowed her handbag, made sure the kids had their seatbelts fastened and then moved to the driver’s seat. She glanced at Mr Fairhall and bit her lip.

Blowing out a breath, she wound down the passenger side window. ‘Mr Fairhall?’

He glanced up.

‘We’ve just had a family conference.’

He stood. He wasn’t terribly tall—he might be six feet—but he had a lean, athletic body that moved with effortless grace. She watched him approach—stared as he approached—and her mouth started to dry and her heart started to pound. She tried to shake herself out from under the spell, only she found she’d frozen in position. She wished now she hadn’t called him over.

With a superhuman effort she cleared her throat. ‘As we’re … uh … all headed in the same direction we thought if you would like a lift all or part of the way …’

He blinked. Hope lit his face, making it truly beautiful, firing his brown eyes with a light that made her swallow.

Road Trip with

the Eligible

Bachelor

Michelle Douglas

www.millsandboon.co.uk

At the age of eight MICHELLE DOUGLASwas asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. She answered, ‘A writer.’ Years later she read an article about romance writing and thought, Ooh, that’ll be fun. She was right. When she’s not writing she can usually be found with her nose buried in a book. She is currently enrolled in an English Masters programme for the sole purpose of indulging her reading and writing habits further. She lives in a leafy suburb of Newcastle, on Australia’s east coast, with her own romantic hero—husband Greg, who is the inspiration behind all her happy endings.

Michelle would love you to visit her at her website: www.michelle-douglas.com.

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To my gorgeous nephew, Josh—hero and all-round good guy

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EXCERPT

CHAPTER ONE

‘HELLO.’ QUINN LAVERTY tried to find a smile for the customer service clerk on the other side of the counter. She raised her voice to be heard above the jostling crowd. ‘I’m here to collect the car I booked.’

‘Name, please?’

Quinn gave him her details and tried to slide her credit card free from its slot in her purse with one hand. Chase hung off her other hand, all of his six-year-old weight balanced on one leg and her arm as he stretched as far as he could reach along the counter with his toy car, making the requisite ‘broom-broom’ noises.

She made him straighten and stand on two legs and then grimaced at the customer beside her who’d been ‘driven over’ by said toy car. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘No problem at all.’

He flashed her a smile and she found herself smiling back. Nice smile. Really nice eyes. Actually...

She frowned. There was something faintly familiar about him. She stared and then shook herself and shrugged it off, turning back to the clerk. It might just be that he was the exact model of son her father had always wanted—clean-cut, professional and respectable. She did her best not to hold that against him.

Speaking of sons...

She glanced to her left. Robbie leaned with his back against the counter and stared up at the ceiling, his face dreamy. Quinn tried to channel some of his calm. She hadn’t expected this all to take so long.

Mind you, when she’d booked the car over a month ago she hadn’t thought there’d be a national plane strike either.

‘I’m afraid there’s been a slight change to the model of car you booked.’

Her attention spun back to the clerk. ‘What kind of change?’

‘Ow!’ Chase pulled his hand from hers and glared.

‘Sorry, honey.’ She smoothed down his hair and smiled at him, but a fist tightened in her chest. She glanced back at the clerk. ‘What kind of change?’ she repeated.

‘We no longer have that model of car available.’

But she’d booked it a whole month ago especially!

The commotion in the car rental office didn’t die down. Beside her she sensed her neighbour’s frustration growing too. ‘I have to leave Perth today!’ He didn’t shout, but every word was clipped and strong.

He glanced at her and she suddenly realised she was staring. She sent him a buck-up smile and turned back to the clerk, doing her best to block out all the background noise. ‘I’m driving across the Nullarbor Plain. I need a car that can go the distance.’

‘I understand the reasons you booked a four-wheel drive, Mrs Laverty, but we just don’t have any available.’

Brilliant.

She didn’t bother correcting him on the Mrs. People made that assumption all the time.

She lifted her chin, preparing for a fight. ‘I have a lot of luggage to fit into the car.’ Another reason she’d chosen a four-wheel drive.

‘Which is why we’ve upgraded you.’

Was that what they called it? She folded her arms. She’d chosen the car she had because of its safety and reliability rating. As far as fuel efficiency went it was one of the best too. It was the perfect car to take them across the country.

‘We’ve upgraded you to a late model station wagon.’

‘Does it have four-wheel drive?’

‘No, ma’am.’

Quinn closed her eyes briefly, but all that did was underscore the scent of desperation and outrage in the air.

‘I want to speak to the manager,’ the man beside her clipped out.

‘But, sir—’

‘Now!’

She drew in a breath and opened her eyes. ‘I need a four-wheel drive. The fuel consumption on that wagon will be outrageous and as I’ll be travelling to New South Wales in it that’s an awful lot of fuel.’ She’d be driving the car for forty hours. Probably more. ‘And, I might add, with none of the benefits the four-wheel drive offers.’

Driving suddenly seemed like the stupidest idea a woman had ever had. She lifted her chin another notch. ‘Thank you, but I don’t want an upgrade. I want the car I originally booked.’

The clerk scratched his nose and shuffled his feet, staring everywhere but at her. ‘The thing is, ma’am, with the plane strike, you understand there just aren’t any four-wheel drives currently available.’

‘But I booked this over a month ago!’

‘I understand and I do apologise. We won’t be charging you for the upgrade. In fact, we’ll be offering you a discount and a credit voucher.’

That was something at least. Quinn couldn’t afford to stray too far from the budget she’d set herself.

‘And the crux of the matter is...’ the clerk leaned confidentially across the counter ‘...there isn’t anything else available.’ He gestured to the crowded room behind Quinn. ‘If you don’t want the station wagon we’ll have plenty of other takers who will.’

She glanced back behind her too and grimaced.

‘I can’t guarantee when a four-wheel drive vehicle will become available.’