Free Tangled Vines: An Australian Rural Romance by Nicole Flockton Page A

happened to me.”
    Damn, if only he’d take off those sunglasses so she could see what his eyes were telling her. Instead she placed her hand on his cheek. “But you can’t, can you? You can’t forget. It lives with you on a daily basis. Burying it isn’t going to make it any better. Perhaps you need to face whatever it is that’s eating you alive.”
    “And you think talking is going to help me deal with it.”
    “It’s a start. Tell me, Kyle. Tell me everything. I want to know. I want to help you.” Jordan laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him, trying to comfort him. He remained stiff in her embrace.
    Jordan pulled away from him and rose up on her tiptoe. She brushed her lips against his cheek. “Please, Kyle. Let me help you.”
    A shudder ripped through him and his arms closed around her, pulling her tightly against him. His cheek rested in the crook of her neck.
    They stood for endless moments in the middle of the vines in the early morning sunlight.
    His chest heaved up and down beneath her hands, and in that moment she knew Kyle had let go. Let his emotions out. As her neck began to grow damp she squeezed her arms tighter around him. She didn’t murmur words like
there there,
or
it’s going to be okay
. She waited it out. Waited until Kyle had spent all his emotions, because she knew what came next. He would want to run in the opposite direction. A man as powerful and successful as Kyle Davis didn’t cry in a woman’s arms. Didn’t show his vulnerable side.
    “It was Boxing Day, December 2004, when I woke up to Mother Nature’s hell.” He spoke quietly in her neck.
    Jordan wracked her brain trying to remember back that far. She would’ve been sixteen at the time, right in the middle of her rebellious time. Her father would’ve been settling in to watch the Boxing Day Cricket Test. What else had happened that day?
    Oh my God, the tsunami that caused havoc all over Asia. Kyle was there? He had survived? But he said he lost everything; what had he lost? Or, more importantly, who had he lost?
    So many questions she wanted to ask but out in the hot summer sun wasn’t the place to do it.
    “Let’s go inside,” she whispered.

Chapter 11
    Without waiting for a response she pulled away from Kyle, trailing her hand down his arm until her hand connected with his. She laced her fingers through his and with a slight tug headed back to the house.
    They made the short trip in silence. Jordan left Kyle to his thoughts. She had to make sure she approached the situation with sensitivity. Had he lost a girlfriend? Or maybe even a fiancée? Now she understood why he didn’t want to be around anyone at this time of year. How hard must it be to spend time with people who were ridiculously happy and excited while you suffered a major loss the day after Christmas.
    Once inside she relinquished her hold on his hand and went to the fridge. After the night he had, he probably didn’t need any more alcohol so she pulled out some orange juice and poured him a glass. She grabbed a bottle of water for herself.
    Jordan turned, drinks in hand, and found the room empty.
    “Shit,” she muttered as she put the drinks down.
    Would he have gone into the living room? Or maybe his office? If he’d wanted to hide from her, his office would be the most logical place to disappear into. It was what he usually did. Not once had she disturbed him there.
    Today she didn’t care about leaving him alone to work. Today she would be pounding on that door, demanding he let her in. Consequences be damned.
    Resolve pulsing through her, she headed down the hallway to Kyle’s office. When she reached the open doorway she had her answer—he wasn’t there. Turning, she went to the living and found that empty as well.
    “What the hell?” she groaned. “Normally playing hide and seek isn’t my game of choice. But if that’s what it’s going to be, that’s what it’s going to be.”
    Talking like someone actually