Surprise: Outback Proposal. Sarah Mayberry

so much, you can take some home with you, save you cooking dinner.”

      There was a solicitous note in his voice. She darted a look at him, ready to deliver her clear-the-air speech at the first sign of anything remotely unbusinesslike. But again he simply looked friendly and interested. The perfect business partner, in fact: cooperative, personable, intelligent.

      She was on tenterhooks throughout the entire meal, waiting for a repeat of the moment by the stove. It never happened. After they cleared the table, he brought out his paperwork and notepad and got down to business in earnest. Not once over the subsequent hours did he so much as hint that he saw her as anything other than his business partner.

      No hot looks. No lingering glances. No intimate smiles. Nothing except sensible, incisive business discussion.

      After two hours of intense strategizing, Lucy retreated to the bathroom again.

      She was confused. She’d been so sure…. The butterflies in her stomach, the pounding of her heart, the steamy intent in his eyes—was it really possible that she was so out of practice with all things male-female that she’d misread his signals? Could she have simply imagined that moment of connection? Was that really possible?

      She checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror and groaned as she realized she’d spilled sauce on herself, her baby bump having obligingly caught it. She stared at the red splodge, bright against the dark of her turtleneck, like a beacon drawing attention to her belly.

      “You’re an idiot,” she told her reflection.

      The tension she’d been carrying with her all afternoon dissipated as she sponged her top clean, shaking her head all the while.

      Call it hormones, call it nerves, call it whatever—she’d clearly misinterpreted Dom’s behavior. Of course she had. She was pregnant. Hardly an object of desire. She had to have been temporarily deranged to even entertain the idea in the first place.

      Feeling calm and centered for the first time all afternoon, she returned to their meeting.

      Thank God she hadn’t delivered her little speech.