The Guy To Be Seen With (Valentine's Day Survival Guide)

by Harper, Fiona

  ‘I think we can make it work,’ she said, knowing that Daniel had just transferred his caustic gaze from Sarah to her once again. She turned and met him head-on. ‘There’s no reason we can’t work calmly together.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Sarah said, looking a little smug. ‘Daniel?’

  Chloe leaned forward a little, towards Daniel. He watched her, but didn’t move back. ‘She’s right, you know. About the media. At least this way you can talk about the plants, get some good media coverage for the gardens... Do a good enough job of it and no one is going to have time to ask you about your love life.’

  At least, that was what Chloe was hoping. Especially as she’d been the one blip on his radar all year—as far as she knew.

  Something in his eyes changed. ‘Okay,’ he said, looking back at Sarah.

  ‘Great,’ Sarah said, reaching for her mouse and giving her computer screen a glance. They were effectively dismissed. ‘I’ll leave you two to work out some more details, then we’ll catch up again in a couple of weeks to see how things are coming along.’

  * * *

  Daniel worked his way through the Orangery restaurant to a table in the corner. Chloe was already there, head bent over a notepad. She couldn’t possibly have heard him through the dull hum of afternoon tea, but she lifted her head and looked at him while he was still ten feet away.

  ‘Hi,’ she said.

  He nodded in return.

  Her voice had been calm and even, her expression neutral, but he sensed she was more nervous than she was letting on.

  It was strange. It was as if Chloe were a two-way mirror and, for a long time, all he’d been able to see was what she reflected back to him on the surface. But someone had now switched a switch somewhere or turned a light on, and suddenly he could see everything she’d been hiding behind. Was it just that he hadn’t been looking properly before? Could he have seen this all along if only he’d tried?

  She wore dark jeans, boots and a sweatshirt. Her hair was still curled as usual, but she hardly looked as if she had any make-up on at all. She looked fresh and young, an odd mix of the woman he’d pursued so relentlessly and the student who’d got her timing wrong. How he hadn’t recognised her the instant he’d seen her again, he didn’t know.

  He sat down. ‘Do you want another drink?’

  She shook her head, even though her cup was nearly empty. ‘No, I’m fine.’

  ‘So...Beauty and the Beast...’ He shrugged. ‘I reckon we all know who’s who in that scenario.’

  Her lips flattened and her brows lowered. ‘We’ve managed just fine for months without any name-calling—’

  He shook his head, leaned forward a little. ‘I didn’t mean you were the Beast,’ he said. ‘I thought it was obvious I was talking about me...that you were the...’ He trailed off and didn’t finish his sentence. Coward.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, and the resulting confusion on her face made her look younger still, very much like the girl he remembered. ‘That’s very... Thank you.’

  She stared down at her notebook for a second.

  ‘You’re not...flirting...with me, are you? Because I don’t think that’s a good idea.’

  He hadn’t meant to, but then he hadn’t meant to say anything like that at all. It had just popped out. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It was just my backhanded way of saying I didn’t handle things very well back in the summer.’ He shrugged. ‘You’ve met my sister, so you know subtlety is not a strong family trait.’

  That earned him the beginnings of a smile. He could live with that.

  What surprised him was the tug inside telling him it wasn’t enough, that he wanted to see her eyes light up and her lips stretch the way he had done before, back when things had been easy between them, back when she’d still been a potential something to him.

  He decided to ignore it and gestured towards the sketch pad. ‘You have some ideas?’

  She nodded, but didn’t flap it over to show him. Not yet. It took her a couple of seconds before she worked up the nerve. And he didn’t blame her. He’d been a complete pig to her, belittled everything she was. He didn’t have to lie, though, when he saw her sketches and notes; she had some really good ideas. Chloe was much more imaginative than he’d realised.

  Oh, you realised. When her hands were on your chest and her teeth were nipping your neck, you knew just how creative she had the potential to be.

  Daniel wiped that thought away. He shouldn’t think about her that way any more.

  Okay, he was in trouble already, because he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her that way nowadays. But he needed to try. If he didn’t, he’d be facing a sexual harassment suit. No way was Chloe Michaels ever going to let him within touching distance of her ever again. And he was supposed to be pleased about that.

  He pulled the tatty piece of paper out of his jeans pocket. It was stained and crumpled, even though he’d only scratched his ideas on it about an hour ago, nothing as neat as Chloe’s little black book with the elastic strap and colour-coded markers.

  For the next half-hour they talked designs and specimens, discussed how to use different areas of the vast Wet Tropics zone of the Princess of Wales Conservatory. It was usual to have a large display by the lily-pad pool, but Chloe had ideas about how to use some of the smaller nooks and crannies of the area too. Together they worked on an idea of contrasting the ugliest and most vicious-looking plants in the collection with the most fragile and colourful orchids. She wanted hanging displays and islands in the ponds, great towers of orchids in spiralling colours. It was going to look stunning.

  Eventually, she closed her notebook and looked around. While they’d been talking a couple of the other nursery staff had wandered over to see what they were planning, but she’d always found a way to lean over her notebook or distract them from its contents. ‘I want this to be a surprise,’ she said. ‘I know we’ll need a huge team of helpers closer to the date, but for now I’d like to keep this just between ourselves.’

  He couldn’t help smiling a little. ‘Need to know basis only. Got it. Anyone finds out too much and we deal with them.’

  Her lips twitched. ‘Exactly. There’s some rather hungry piranhas in the aquatic display. I’m sure they’d appreciate the nutritional supplement.’ And then she grew more serious again. ‘I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Daniel, but... Do you think we could meet somewhere less...public...next time?’

  ‘I’m not taking it the wrong way,’ he said. How could he? For the last three months she’d been true to her word. She hadn’t so much as looked at him with a flicker of interest. There’d been no text messages, no voicemails, no scented envelopes in the post. All completely what he’d asked for. So he shouldn’t really mind, should he?

  She’d moved on. Got over him. So maybe she was right: maybe he was big-headed, because he wasn’t liking the fact it had been so easy for her. The fact that she’d dealt with the whole situation with poise and dignity—much more than he had—only made him admire her more.

  But there was where the problem lay: usually, when he admired a woman, he let her know, he pursued her. He didn’t quite know what to do with all these new, noble feelings he was having for Chloe that meant it wasn’t going to end with a good night in bed. It was most unsettling.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘How about meeting at my house next Thursday?’

  She opened her mouth and he could tell she was about to knock him back.

  ‘I’ll ask Kelly to hang around,’ he added, knowing they’d struck up a friendship of late. ‘She usually has some pithy opinions on my great plans.’

  Chloe relaxed a little and nodded. ‘Okay.’

  ‘Okay.’

  A cute little line appeared between her brows. ‘We can do this, can’t we? We can act like professionals and make this thing a success. Because I r
eally want this thing to be a success.’

  He nodded. ‘Sure.’

  But as she walked away he drew in a deep breath and held it. He made himself turn to the wall and look at the white-painted plaster rather than at her rather fine retreating backside in its denim covering.

  See? He could do it. He was practically being a saint.

  Okay. Well, he was going to try his best. That was all anyone could ask.

  * * *

  Chloe closed her notebook, leaned back in one of Daniel’s dining-room chairs and sighed. ‘Finally, I think we have a handle on this thing,’ she said, and then she smiled, just a little. ‘You know this is going to be the best festival yet, don’t you?’

  Daniel grinned at her. Chloe smiled more than just a little.

  She lifted her tote bag off the floor and placed her notebook inside before pushing her chair back, getting ready to stand up. ‘Wait?’ he asked softly.

  She dropped back down onto the chair.

  ‘Before you go,’ he said, ‘I’d like to talk to you about some things...clear the air.’

  The air was clear as far as Chloe was concerned. Okay, maybe not totally clear; Daniel’s pheromones seemed to be particularly strong this evening. But if they were talking about their relationship—or non-relationship—she was fine.

  ‘It’s okay. Really,’ she said, flicking a loose ringlet out of her eyes with a nod of her head.

  ‘No, it isn’t. I want to—need to—apologise for the things I said that night.’

  Chloe blinked and her lids stayed shut a fraction too long. When she looked back at him, he was waiting, eyes intense, face serious. But there was an honesty, an openness, about him that she’d never seen before.

  But it wasn’t like those heated looks from the early days of their relationship. No, it was much more dangerous. This was the kind of look that made a woman ache for a man, somewhere deep, deep down inside, and Chloe was already too bruised in that place. She was also too weak to resist if he kept it up.

  ‘I’m sorry I called you pathetic,’ he said, his voice rough. ‘I don’t think you’re pathetic at all. Far from it.’

  She nodded. Her heart rate tripled.

  ‘And you were right. I overreacted...’

  Chloe licked her lips and twitched her shoulders in the slightest of shrugs. ‘Maybe just a little,’ she said dryly.

  ‘What happened that night...’

  She sat up straighter. ‘I really don’t want to rehash what went on at my houseboat—for all sorts of reasons.’

  He looked down, then back up at her. ‘No, I didn’t mean that night. I meant the other one—back when you were a student.’

  Chloe said something most unladylike. The only effect it had on Daniel was to make him laugh.

  ‘Seriously, nothing to explain,’ she said. ‘I got a little tipsy, you offered to walk me outside for some fresh air and then I made a total and complete fool of myself by trying to kiss you. Believe me, after all these years it’s crystal clear.’

  She couldn’t quite believe she’d said that, put it all so bluntly. And to Daniel, of all people. Why hadn’t a large pit opened up in his kitchen floor and swallowed her whole?

  ‘You were a student,’ he said. ‘It would have been completely unethical, even if I’d wanted to.’

  Chloe swallowed hard and nodded. Yes, she’d known that. Hadn’t stopped her doing it anyway. She’d never, ever drunk cheap cider again after that night. She tried to smile, but it felt more as if she was wincing. ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to say that. I know you wouldn’t have wanted to.’ She broke eye contact with Daniel and looked away.

  He was silent for a few seconds. ‘I shouldn’t have wanted to.’

  She whipped her head round to stare at him. Why was he teasing her like that? He was supposed to be apologising, she thought, not making it worse.

  ‘Daniel, so far you’ve been brutally honest about that...incident. You don’t have to lie now. You didn’t remember me at all.’

  ‘I didn’t make the connection,’ he replied. ‘And the details are still a little fuzzy, but I do remember an eager girl who always sat at the front for every lecture, who asked pertinent questions, who showed all the other students up with her passion and enthusiasm.’

  Passion and enthusiasm? Was that another way of saying huge crush on the teacher? She folded her arms on the table in front of her and propped herself up with them. ‘That girl was a joke.’

  ‘No... She was sweet and young and had one too many,’ he said. ‘What student hasn’t? But I should have handled that night better too.’ He paused and frowned slightly. ‘I probably would have, if it had just been any old sloppy drunken kiss.’

  The look in his pale eyes made her hold her breath.

  ‘You know we have great chemistry,’ he said, his voice deepening. ‘It was there then.’

  Chloe shook her head slightly. That couldn’t be. Yes, there had been fireworks and tingling and melting into a puddle at his feet, but that had been all her. It hadn’t been him. He’d pushed her away, body rigid, eyes full of shock, eyes full of...

  She looked back at him and he held her gaze.

  Eyes full of surprise, with wide pupils—just as they were now—not pinpricks of disgust.

  Oh.

  She swallowed. That didn’t change anything. He’d still done the right thing. If he hadn’t he’d have lost his job and her reputation would have been even worse than it had been. At least no one had seen that drunken pass in the car park. At least they’d only teased her about her obvious crush.

  She found she couldn’t speak above a whisper. ‘I don’t know how that helps anything, but thank you for being honest with me.’

  He exhaled. ‘I don’t know how it helps, either. I hadn’t quite planned on saying it. But maybe it needed to be said.’

  Chloe nodded. She wasn’t sure if she agreed. It was hard to feel that distance between them now. She needed that distance. Because she had her own apology to give, her own admission to make.

  But at that moment Kelly appeared in the doorway. ‘Uncle Daniel’s presence is required. Apparently, Mummy cannot read The Gruffalo with all the right voices.’

  Chloe stared at the table top. See? That was why she needed distance. Because Daniel Bradford was the kind of man who did voices at story time. She hadn’t known that about him. But there was a lot she hadn’t known about him.

  Daniel gave a weary shrug—one Chloe didn’t buy in the slightest—and headed upstairs. Kelly went to one

  of the kitchen cabinets, pulled out some wine glasses, filled them with Chardonnay from the fridge and plopped one down in front of Chloe.

  ‘Really, I shouldn’t...’

  Kelly just nudged the glass closer.

  Chloe picked it up and took a tiny sip. She’d accused Daniel of only seeing what he’d wanted to see in her. Hadn’t she been just as bad? Even though it had been ten years on, he hadn’t lost that fantasy edge for her. He’d been that two-dimensional object of a crush, the unattainable alpha man, and she hadn’t looked any deeper than he had. She’d been too busy caught up in the fact that the unattainable had suddenly become attainable.

  Chloe took a bigger sip.

  But now she was seeing the man inside. Not a fantasy. Not a dream. Just a wounded man who was trying to deal with the bullets life had shot through his heart. And, damn, if that didn’t mean she was starting to fall for him.

  She took a whacking great gulp of wine.

  ‘How’s things?’ Kelly said, eyeing her up and down.

  Chloe slumped forward and let her forehead hit the table.

  ‘That good, huh?’

  Her brow squeaked against the varnished wood as she nodded. Kelly just went and got the bottle out of the fridge and placed it on the table between them.r />
  ‘What’s my brother done now?’ she asked.

  Chloe sat up and shook her head, pursing her lips. Where on earth should she start?

  ‘He likes you, you know.’

  Chloe didn’t say anything. That was what she was afraid of. It was much easier when he was hating her, pitying her. There was no chance of hoping then. She decided to take another tack.

  ‘He told me about his wife and son,’ she said quietly.

  Kelly nodded and took a long swig of her wine. ‘Pretty much destroyed him,’ she said. ‘He loved that boy so much...’

  She trailed off and her focus became distant. It was a while before she could speak again. It was a while before Chloe was ready for her to.

  ‘And he worshipped Paula. But they couldn’t put what they’d had back together after Joshua died. She retreated into a world of bitterness and guilt and he didn’t know how to follow.’ Kelly looked at Chloe. ‘She hated him for that.’

  She reached over and covered Chloe’s hand with hers. ‘He’s just really scared, you know? It’s not that he doesn’t know how to love, but that when he does it’s so full-on...’ She shook her head. ‘He can’t stand the thought of loving and losing again, so he just doesn’t let himself care. Be patient with him.’

  Chloe wanted to pull her hand away, but she thought it might offend her friend. ‘Oh, I’m not sure if...’ If what? If she wanted him to care? She wanted it so badly it hurt. Didn’t mean it was going to happen.

  ‘Is that what happened with Georgia?’ she asked.

  Kelly frowned and stared into her glass of wine for a moment. ‘Maybe. I don’t know. On paper they should have been perfect for each other. I really love Georgia, really hoped she’d be able to get him to unlock, but for a long time they just drifted along and then I think she pushed him too hard, too fast.’

  Chloe nodded, and then she asked the question she really didn’t want the answer to. ‘Do you think he’ll ever be ready?’