by Jessica Hart
‘Oh, I wasn’t at the office all this time,’ said Guy, pulling at his tie to loosen it.
‘I wondered if you might have been catching up with someone special,’ said Lucy, ultra casual.
‘I was, in fact,’ he said. ‘Very special.’
‘Oh.’ It was just as she’d imagined, then. He’d had to tear himself away. Sorry, darling, he would have said. I’ll have to go and keep an eye on Lucy. She doesn’t seem to have a clue how to look after herself.
‘My mother,’ said Guy. ‘She’s going in for her operation in three days and is nervous about it but, being Ma, she won’t admit it. Her temper isn’t exactly sweet at the best of times and the pain in her hip is making it worse, so she’d bitten my head off twice before I even got in the door! I was glad to have you as an excuse to leave a bit earlier, I’ve got to admit.’
‘Oh,’ said Lucy again, a little unnerved by how relieved she felt. And what, exactly, are you relieved about, Lucy? a little voice asked in her head. Surely not that he chose to visit his mother instead of a girlfriend? Because that would be a very bad sign, given that his love life is absolutely none of your business.
Oh, and because you’re in love with Kevin…remember that?
Guy threw himself down in a chair and stretched his arms above his head. ‘How did you get on at the hospital?’
‘They say Richard’s getting better, but he looked awful to me.’ Glad of the change of subject, Lucy sat down opposite him on one of the plush cream sofas. ‘He was just lying there, wired up to all these machines. His parents are in a terrible state. They practically fell on my neck when I arrived.’
She sighed at the memory. ‘I sat and talked to Richard while they had a break. It felt awkward at first, talking to someone who couldn’t reply, so I ended up just saying the first thing that came into my head.’
Not knowing what else to talk about, she had begun by describing Wirrindago and her life there, but somehow she had ended up telling the silent Richard about flying back with Guy, and how unsettled he made her feel.
‘It was just rubbish,’ she said, faint colour staining her cheeks. ‘No wonder he didn’t come round! His parents were bitterly disappointed, though, so I said I would go back and try again tomorrow. Of course that just seemed to confirm to them that I had come back for Richard.’
‘Did you mention Kevin?’
‘Not exactly…’ Lucy fingered the piping on a cushion and avoided Guy’s eyes. ‘I did say that I had a boyfriend, but I wasn’t sure that they’d be that convinced if they knew that he was still in Australia, so I thought it would be more convincing if I said that I had come back to London with him.’
She cleared her throat. ‘Actually,’ she confessed, ‘I said it was you.’
Guy had been stretched out comfortably in his chair but at that he brought his arms down sharply and sat up straight.
‘You said that I was your boyfriend?’
‘Well, I said that my boyfriend’s name was Guy and that I was staying with him,’ said Lucy, uneasily conscious that she might have gone a bit far. ‘I didn’t think that you would mind. I mean, it doesn’t make any difference to you, does it? It’s not as if you’ll have to do anything.’
Guy’s expression was quite unreadable and Lucy regarded him doubtfully. It had seemed a good idea at the time, and she hadn’t really thought when she had told Richard’s parents about him, but perhaps it was a bit of a cheek.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said uncertainly. ‘You obviously do mind.’
The unfathomable look in the blue eyes dissolved abruptly and he was smiling once more. ‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘I’m flattered you would even think of me! Are we madly in love?’
Lucy flushed. ‘I did imply that we were living together,’ she admitted.
‘Aha! Well on the way to commitment, then! Does this mean that I’ll have the pleasure of your company for longer?’
‘No…God, no,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I rang my friend Meg and I can go and stay with her tomorrow. She’s out this evening, or I’d be there now.’
‘You’ll stay tonight, then?’
‘If you don’t mind,’ she said a little uncomfortably, hearing the echo of his voice. There’s always someone…who’ll sort things out for you.
‘Of course I don’t mind. We’re in love, aren’t we?’ Guy stood up and stretched. ‘I’m starving. Let’s go out and get something to eat.’
Lucy’s stomach rumbled at the thought, but she could imagine the kind of restaurants Guy frequented. ‘I’m not dressed for going out,’ she said, gesturing down at herself. ‘I don’t have anything smarter with me.’
Guy studied her. She was wearing jeans and a camisole top, with a soft little cardigan, and the beautiful blonde hair was clipped casually up. She didn’t look at all smart, it was true, but she looked fresh and natural and very pretty and, in spite of the inevitable effects of the long flight from Australia, there was a sparkle about her that no diamond necklace could have matched.
‘You won’t need sequins or a tiara where we’re going,’ he promised her. ‘You look absolutely fine.’
Lucy got to her feet, still hesitating. ‘To be honest with you, Guy, I haven’t got much money,’ she confessed at last, flushing with embarrassment. ‘Meredith gave me what cash she had, but it wasn’t much and I’ll need to find a temporary job of some kind to see me through until I can go back to Australia. Until then, I don’t think I can afford to go out.’
‘Dinner’s on me,’ said Guy, and then, when he could see her about to protest, ‘Hey, I’m your boyfriend, aren’t I? I don’t want you telling Richard’s parents that I’m too mean to take you out!’
Overriding her feeble attempts to resist, he bore her down in the lift and out into the cold London night. Lucy had been expecting that they would go to one of the smart restaurants nearby, but instead Guy led her away from the chic shops and bars and crowds and down a maze of small streets that seemed a world away from the glittering towers of Canary Wharf.
He took her to a tiny, unpretentious Italian restaurant that Lucy would have walked past without noticing if Guy hadn’t stopped and pushed open the door. Instantly they were enveloped in a fug of welcome warmth and noise. At first glance the restaurant seemed completely full, but the waiters and then the owners greeted Guy like a long-lost brother and, before they knew it, a table for two had been conjured up and was being laid with a flourish while the waiters vied to make Lucy laugh with their extravagant compliments.
‘Hey, that’s enough!’ Guy pretended to glower at them. ‘She’s with me!’
After Kevin’s laconic style, it was heady stuff. Kevin did strong and silent, not fun and flirtation, and, although it was just nonsense, Lucy’s spirits rose in response.
Taking a sip of wine, she put down her glass and leant her elbows on the table with a happy sigh. The restaurant was throbbing with the sound of people enjoying themselves, with chatter and laughter and the warm smell of good food, while downstairs what sounded like a large party of Italians were watching football on television, their whoops and groans erupting up the stairs at regular intervals.
‘This is a great place,’ she told Guy, smiling. She could feel her pulse quickening and all at once she had a sense of thousands of vibrant little restaurants like this one, each full of people talking and laughing, spreading out across London. It was almost as if the city had an insistent beat to it that made her want to tap her foot.
‘I’m glad you like it,’ he said, his eyes on her bright face.
‘It’s funny to think that we were in the outback only two days ago, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘It feels as if we’ve flown into a different universe. Wirrindago is so beautiful. It’s so quiet and so still and so big.’ She looked around the restaurant. ‘All these people, all this noise…it’s unimaginable there, and yet, when you’re here, it’s hard to imagine how isolated it is there.’
With a glance at her watch, she tried to calculate the time difference, her nose wrin
kling with the effort of concentration. ‘They should be having their morning smoko about now,’ she worked out and the blue eyes were momentarily wistful.
‘Are you missing Kevin?’
‘I haven’t had time to miss him yet.’ Lucy picked up her wine and avoided Guy’s eyes. Already Kevin seemed remote, she thought guiltily-like someone she had known in another life.
Only Guy was real. Sitting across the little table from her, he seemed extraordinarily vivid, as if everything about him was suddenly sharper and clearer in a way that left Lucy feeling uneasy. The easy pleasure she had taken in the restaurant had evaporated and in its place was a bubble of tension that cut off their table from everyone else.
‘I will, though,’ she told Guy, almost as if trying to convince herself. ‘I’ll miss him a lot.’
‘Of course you will,’ he agreed in a neutral voice.
Lucy was very aware of his blue eyes on her face, but she couldn’t look at him. Instead she swirled the wine in her glass and watched it intently, trying not to think about the slow, disturbing thump of her heart.
She was very glad when Joe, the owner, arrived, full of smiles, to take their order. ‘For you, bella?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Lucy, hastily consulting the menu. ‘It all looks so good…I would like everything! What can you recommend? Anything except beef!’
‘For you, the special tonight…linguine with crab and just a leetle chilli…light, delicious, just a hint of fire…’ He kissed his fingers in an extravagantly Italian gesture. ‘It is beautiful, like you.’
Guy rolled his eyes at the accent and leant over confidentially. ‘You know, he can speak English perfectly well, can’t you, Joe? He’s just showing off to impress you.’
Joe clapped his hand to his heart. ‘You are just jealous because you are a buttoned-up Englishman and you do not have the words to tell Lucy how beautiful she is!’
Lucy laughed, glad at the way the strangely tense atmosphere had dissolved into humour. ‘The linguine sounds fab, Joe,’ she said. ‘I’d like that, please.’
Joe smirked at her and turned to Guy. ‘Your usual, then, is it?’ he asked, switching seamlessly from a romantic Italian into a cocky Cockney, and Lucy was still bubbling with laughter as he disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
‘No need to ask if you come here often!’
‘More often than I use my kitchen,’ he admitted.
‘You’ll have to find yourself a nice girl who can cook for you,’ said Lucy, lavishly buttering a piece of bread. She didn’t think she could wait until her linguine was ready.
‘Sadly, most of the women I know are on permanent diets,’ said Guy, and she paused guiltily for a moment in mid-butter before deciding she was too hungry to care about appearances. ‘They do even less cooking than I do.’
He looked across the table at Lucy, her mouth full of bread. ‘I’m afraid you’re the only nice girl I know who can cook.’
As their eyes met, Lucy’s heart started that painful thud again, slamming slowly against her ribs in a way that made it hard to breathe. Uneasily, her gaze slid away from his and she swallowed the bread with some difficulty.
‘I’ve already got a job at Wirrindago,’ she reminded him when she could speak.
‘So you do.’ Guy’s smile was rueful. ‘I keep forgetting.’
There was a pause. Lucy pushed some breadcrumbs around her plate, unable to look at him for some reason. Her appetite had suddenly deserted her. As the silence lengthened, she pressed the crumbs on to her finger and licked them off.
‘Have some more bread,’ he said, offering the bread basket. His voice was very dry and, when she risked a quick glance, she found that he was watching her with an unfathomable expression.
‘Thanks.’ She took a piece, more for something to do with her hands than because she really wanted it. ‘It was kind of you to buy me dinner,’ she added stiltedly. ‘I was hungry.’
‘Well, you know what they say, Cinderella. There’s no such thing as a free lunch-or dinner, in this case. I’ve got an ulterior motive.’
‘Oh?’ Lucy stilled, the bread halfway to her mouth, as all sorts of scenarios chased themselves through her brain, each one more unlikely than the next.
‘I’ve got a favour to ask you.’
‘Oh?’ she said again weakly.
‘I was wondering if you’d come and see my mother one day.’
Lucy sat up straighter. ‘Your mother?’ It was the last thing she had been expecting.
‘The thing is, I think she could do with some distraction,’ Guy explained. ‘I know she’d like to talk to you about Wirrindago. She grew up there, and though she may have married an Englishman and made her home here, she’s still an outback girl at heart, I think. She can be a bit…abrupt,’ he said, choosing his words carefully, ‘but she’s been through some bad times, and her bark really is worse than her bite. Anyway, I’m pretty sure she would like you.’ He glanced at Lucy. ‘Would you mind?’
‘Of course not,’ she said. Given that Guy had paid for her flight, offered her a bed for the night and was buying her this dinner, it seemed the least she could do. And it was such a relief to feel that awful tension dissipate again that she would have agreed to anything. ‘I’d like to meet her.’
‘Really? That’s great.’ Guy seemed genuinely relieved. ‘Perhaps we could arrange something when she’s home after the operation?’
‘I’m sure that would be fine. I’ll give you my mobile number and you can call me or text me.’
‘Ma will be delighted,’ he said, pouring Lucy some more wine. ‘I think part of her problem at the moment is that she’s bored. She’s always been so active, but her arthritis has meant that she hasn’t been able to get out much recently. All she’s had to do is sit at home and complain about me. There’s lots of scope there, of course, but even she gets tired of going over the same old ground after a while.’
‘Gosh, what does she criticise you about?’
Guy leant back in his chair and grinned. ‘Well, that depends on her mood. My wasted youth is a favourite, or it can be something I’m wearing that she doesn’t approve of. If I turn up in a pink shirt, that’s it for the evening! At the moment it’s my failure to get married, settle down and provide her with grandchildren that is her biggest gripe.’ He made a face, but Lucy didn’t think that he seemed particularly crushed. ‘I split up with my girlfriend before I left for Australia, so it’s a sore subject.’
Ah. Lucy had been wondering why there was no sign of a girlfriend and, since he had raised the subject, she didn’t see why she shouldn’t be nosy and ask about it.
‘What happened?’
‘Nothing dramatic,’ said Guy. ‘There was just no chemistry for either of us…and I do think a relationship needs some flash and dazzle, don’t you?’ he said, eyes gleaming, and Lucy had the nasty feeling that he was thinking of her relationship with Kevin.
There hadn’t been a chance for any flash and dazzle with Kevin, she thought, but she didn’t see why she should tell Guy that. Let him think that she and Kevin had barely had to touch each other for the sparks to be flying-as they would have done if they had ever managed to snatch more than a few moments alone, Lucy reassured herself.
‘Yes, I do,’ she said and met his eyes squarely. No way was she going to let Guy suspect she was at all flustered by talking about sex with him. ‘I think physical attraction is a hugely important part of a relationship.’
‘Well, that’s what was lacking with Anna and me. It’s not that she isn’t attractive-she is-but we didn’t make each other’s heart beat faster.’
Uncomfortably aware that her own heart was beating rather faster than normal, Lucy reached for more bread and wished Joe would hurry up with her linguine.
‘So it was a mutual decision?’
‘Yes, but you’d never hear my mother accepting that,’ said Guy. ‘She didn’t like my previous girlfriend-she said she was too thin-and when Cassie went back to her old boyfriend, s
he was heartily relieved. Then I met Anna, and Ma thought she was great. She’s convinced Anna left me because I didn’t ask her to marry me quickly enough, and now she’s blaming everything that goes wrong-including her hip operation-on what she calls my “morbid fear of commitment”!’
His tone was light, but Lucy wondered if he cared more than he was prepared to admit.
‘Are you afraid of commitment?’ she asked.
‘No,’ said Guy. ‘I’m thirty-three and I’ve got to the stage where I wouldn’t mind finding the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with, but I’m not going to let my mother push me into marriage just because she wants grandchildren. I’ve told her that I’ll get married when I’ve found the right girl.’
‘And you haven’t found her yet?’
Blue eyes looked into blue. ‘No,’ he said slowly, almost as if he wasn’t quite sure. ‘Not yet.’
CHAPTER FOUR
THERE was another of those silences when all the air seemed to leak out of Lucy’s lungs and she could feel herself prick-ling with awareness. She was intensely glad when Joe reappeared beside them, bearing two steaming plates.
‘Buon appetito!’ he said at his most Italian, and waved over a waiter. By the time they’d finished with the pepper and the Parmesan and the topping up of the glasses, the awkward moment had passed.
The linguine was as delicious as Joe had promised, but it was hard to eat gracefully. ‘It’s lucky we’re not on a date,’ Lucy said indistinctly as she sucked in a loose strand of pasta.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Guy, amused. ‘If I were your boyfriend-or hoping to be-I would like the way you eat. You do it the way you do everything else, with gusto.’
‘Meredith says I’ve got too much enthusiasm.’ Inexpertly, Lucy twirled another mouthful of pasta around her fork. ‘She says I should learn to think before I act.’
He looked interested. ‘Do you think that’s true?’
‘Well…sometimes I get into situations and find that they’re not quite what I imagined,’ she admitted, ‘but things usually work out-and it’s not always because Meredith rescues me,’ she added before he could suggest it.
