Free The Shooting by Chris Taylor Page B

took pity on me. We’ve been friends ever since.”
    Lily smiled at him and Tom couldn’t help the stab of jealousy that pierced his insides. He had no right to be jealous. Charlie had told him they were friends. Good friends. There was nothing wrong with that.
    “I take it you’re a better map reader than he is?” Tom said, making an effort to keep his voice light.
    Lily nodded and this time, the smile she turned on him seem to come more naturally. “I guess you can say that. I manage to get us to where we need to go most of the time.” She turned back to David who still had his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t I?”
    David smiled down at her fondly. “Yep, I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
    “Lost, that’s where.” They shared another mutual look of contentment and understanding and Tom was suddenly envious of their closeness. Whether there was more to their relationship than they were saying, he had yet to discover, but there was no denying they shared a special bond.
    “How long have you been in college?” he asked, keen to discover how long they’d known each other.
    “We’re coming up to the end of our first year,” Lily replied. “I went to college straight out of high school. David took a gap year.”
    Tom digested that information in silence. No wonder she looked so young. She was probably eighteen or nineteen. Much younger than the girls he usually dated. As the oldest of seven children, Tom had matured early and had always had a finely honed sense of responsibility. He could still remember coming home after school and having to watch over his younger siblings until his mom came home. Sometimes it was an hour or two later, depending on what she’d been doing.
    Marguerite Munro had worked as a nurse during the early years of her marriage. After the children arrived, whilst she gave up her career, she became heavily involved in charity work and often didn’t arrive back home until well after they’d climbed off the school bus.
    Still, what was in an age? Tom had dated girls his age and even older who lacked common sense and know-how. Age didn’t always equate to maturity. Just like youth didn’t necessarily mean stupidity.
    Eighteen or nineteen—what did it matter? Somehow, some way, she’d touched him way down deep inside. He’d never felt that way with anyone and he owed it to himself to see if she felt the same.
    He looked at her and David again and while her roommate still had his arm around her shoulders, there was nothing possessive in his embrace—more like a protective, older brother. Tom could relate to that and he was absolutely fine with it. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he was pleased she had someone looking out for her.
    A renewed surge of confidence flooded through him and he turned to shake David’s hand in farewell.
    “It was nice to meet you, David. I guess I’ll see you later.”
    David winked at him and then threw Lily a teasing smile. “You can bet on it. Have a nice time.”
    * * *
    Tom opened the door to the glitzy restaurant that overlooked Sydney Harbor and Lily was once again impressed with his old-fashioned manners. He’d opened the door for her when she’d climbed into and out of his car and now, was ushering her up the stairs. She held onto the balustrade to steady herself and found Tom’s hand right there at her elbow.
    “Are you okay?” he enquired in his deep, sexy voice that sent her pulse into overdrive.
    “Yes, thanks, I’m…I’m fine. My sandals are…a tad high. They’re slipping a little on the parquet floor.”
    He glanced down and nodded, at once understanding her dilemma. The highly polished tiles were a beautiful chestnut color and gleamed golden in the restaurant’s soft lighting, but it also looked hazardous to anyone wearing four-inch heels.
    “I don’t know how you walk in those things at any time, let alone over a polished floor,” Tom teased.
    Lily smiled. When he smiled back—a slow, sexy