‘That’s great, Flora. So now I need to look over my shoulder in case her stalker ex is on my tail looking for retribution because I went out on a date with his woman.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. That won’t happen,’ she cajoled.
‘It’d better not,’ he growled back.
There was a tense pause where they both breathed heavily down the line.
‘Okay, look, I’m sorry,’ she said, sighing. Deep down, she knew that it had probably been a crazy idea all along. She’d wanted to be able to fix this easily and she’d got a bit carried away. But this was Alex’s heart she was trying to shore up, not a flagging brand of soft drinks.
‘It was a stupid idea. Of course you’re not going to want to embark on a new relationship so soon after everything that’s happened to you recently. I just wanted to do something to try to help in some way.’
There was another loaded pause before he spoke. ‘It’s okay. I appreciate the sentiment behind it. But can we please agree right now that you won’t attempt any more matchmaking?’ He let out a gentle snort. ‘It seems we’ve found the one thing you’re not very good at.’
Pushing away the perplexity this comment provoked, she forced herself to laugh. ‘Yeah, I promise I’ll keep those urges to myself from now on.’
‘Probably best.’
She sank back onto the sofa, grateful that at least he wasn’t angry with her any more. ‘So what are you going to do with the rest of your evening?’ she asked tentatively.
‘I thought I’d go for a swim to clear my head,’ he said, sounding fed up.
‘Where are you going? Is there a good pool near here?’
‘I usually use the one at the Thermal Spa. It’s closest to my flat and there’s a heated outdoor pool on the roof.’
‘Ooh, I’ve heard about that but I’ve not had chance to go yet.’
‘It’s great, you should check it out some time.’
‘Maybe I should come with you now,’ she blurted out. She really didn’t want him to be alone when he was in such a bad mood. He’d probably go home afterwards and drink too much whisky again and she didn’t like the thought of him doing that. Not on her watch.
There was a pause. ‘Uh...okay, if you like.’ He sounded as if he was really hoping that she was joking.
‘Great,’ she said assertively, ignoring his reticence.
She’d not put on a swimming costume in a very long time. Swimming always seemed such a lot of hassle for so little gain, what with having to wash and blow-dry her hair and apply make-up twice in one day—but this was for a good cause. He might not think that he needed her right now, and he clearly wasn’t ready to date again, but she wasn’t giving up on her promise to Amy to look out for him.
‘Okay, I’ll meet you there in ten minutes,’ he said gruffly.
‘What? Why so soon?’ she asked, a little panicked about the lack of time to get herself organised.
‘It closes at ten so we’ll need to be there for the last session at nine o’clock.’
‘Ah. Okay. In that case I’ll see you there in ten minutes,’ she said.
‘Great,’ he replied, not sounding like he genuinely thought it was, before cutting the call.
She had a moment of panic when she realised that she didn’t have a swimming costume here in Bath, but after a quick bit of online research she discovered that a few of the clothes shops were open late for Christmas shopping.
Luckily it was only a five-minute dash from her flat into town so she was able to run into one of the stores and grab a swimming costume in her size from the sale rack, before dodging her way through the still-heavy crowd of shoppers to the Thermal Spa. She spotted Alex waiting for her outside the glass-fronted entrance with a rolled-up towel tucked under his arm.
* * *
Alex waved to Flora as she dashed towards him with an expensive-looking tote bag slung over her shoulder, wondering again how he’d found himself meeting her here tonight.
After it had become obvious that he and Lucy weren’t going to hit it off, he’d made up an excuse about a rehearsal and legged it out of there as fast as he could. He’d been intent on sinking a couple of beers he had in the fridge at home when it occurred to him that Lucy might call Flora to tell her how he’d disappeared on her and he’d decided it would be best to head her off at the pass.
Mistakenly, it seemed, he’d chosen an activity he thought Flora would never be interested in when she’d asked him what he was planning to do with the rest of his evening. He’d not banked on her determination to maintain control over the situation.
It was obvious now that she had made it her mission to stick to him like glue and he wasn’t going to be given any choice in the matter.
Once they’d got through the short queue at the spa they went their separate ways at the communal changing rooms, arranging to meet at the pool on the roof. Alex had already been swimming for ten minutes in the warm water, with the cold air stinging his cheeks, when Flora finally made an appearance. The complimentary robe was wrapped tightly around her and her hair was tied in an elegant topknot.
He gave her a somewhat reluctant wave, hoping that she’d choose not to brave the cold out here and swim in the indoor pool instead. She spotted him and waved back, a little mechanically he thought, and shuffled towards the cubbyholes provided to stash robes and slippers.
As she turned back to survey the pool he saw apprehension flash in her eyes. He guessed that she was determined to hang out with him, but the thought of doing it semi-naked didn’t massively appeal.
Well, she was the one who had insisted on coming with him.
His eyes widened and his pulse stuttered as he watched her slide off her robe to uncover the most revealing swimming costume he’d ever seen in his life. The material was cut high on her hips, forming a deep V that barely covered her modesty. The same went for the top of the costume, which was cut so low the flash of skin down her chest stopped just above her belly button. He found he was having a hard time tearing his eyes away from the gentle swell of her breasts, which were barely covered by the tight material.
From the look of trepidation on her face she wasn’t entirely comfortable wearing it. Not that it had stopped her from coming out in public in it.
The woman certainly had guts.
His mouth suddenly felt inexplicably dry as he watched her saunter down the steps into the pool, keeping her head held high, despite the flush of colour that stained her neck and cheeks. Once fully immersed, she swam towards him with a lofty look on her face, appearing less embarrassed now that her body was hidden under the water.
‘Nice cossie,’ he quipped, finding it impossible not to tease her and biting back a grin as he watched the colour return to her cheeks.
‘I didn’t bring one to England with me so I only bought it five minutes ago. It didn’t look like it’d be so revealing in the shop,’ she shot back.
He couldn’t help but laugh at the odd mix of superiority and mortification on her face.
‘Well, you can pull it off,’ he reassured her, feeling the urge to be kind now. And it wasn’t as if he was lying either. She had an incredible body—curvy but toned, as if she ate healthily and spent plenty of time exercising.
‘Er...thanks,’ she said, looking a bit shocked at the compliment and a little unsure about how to react to it. She must have decided that he was still teasing her because she swam away without another word, over to the other side of the pool where there were benches under the water and jets making bubbles like a hot tub.
Shrugging off her abandonment of him, Alex did laps of the pool, dodging around the few other people courageous enough to venture up there in the dead of winter. The water was wonderfully warm once you were in it, but he knew from experience it took a brave soul to get out afterwards with the cold wind whistling across your damp sk
in.
Once he’d got rid of the weird rush of adrenaline the sight of Flora in that swimming costume had brought on, he swam over to where she was crouching under a small waterfall. He watched as she moved from side to side, letting the strong jet of water massage her shoulders. Her make-up had begun to run down her face, but he thought that if he pointed it out he’d probably get dunked for his trouble.
‘How’s that working out for you?’ he asked once she’d opened her eyes and noticed him there.
‘It’s absolute bliss,’ she moaned in a voice so full of pleasure it made his stomach do a weird kind of flip.
‘Here, come under—it’s great,’ she said, moving to one side to give him room to experience it too. She was right—it was wonderful to feel the water pounding hard on his shoulders, pummelling away the tension from the last few days. He closed his eyes and let himself feel the pleasure of it, allowing his thoughts to drift away to nothingness, a state that was rather alien to him at the moment. It had been a long time since his head had been clear of swirling chaos.
When he opened his eyes, Flora was staring at him with a strange expression on her face, as if trying to figure out what was going through his mind.
‘How was your week? Did rehearsals go well?’ she asked, glancing away to watch her hands as she swished them through the water in front of her.
His mood dimmed at the memory of what a joke his musical skills had been this past week.
‘They went okay,’ he muttered.
‘Oh, dear.’
She looked back at him with sympathy in her eyes and on the spur of the moment he decided to trust her with the problems he was having. Perhaps talking about it would actually help. ‘To be honest, I’m finding it hard to feel the joy in playing at the moment,’ he said with a sigh.
She gave a sage sort of nod. ‘Well, that’s not entirely surprising; grief can knock the stuffing right out of you.’ Bouncing gently on her toes, she flashed him an empathetic smile. ‘I’m sure your muse will come back soon enough. You just need to work through this rough patch,’ she stated with an authority that made him suspect she’d been telling herself the same thing.
He continued to look at her for a moment, and it suddenly occurred to him that she was the only person in the world who knew exactly how he was feeling right now.
She gazed back at him, the intensity in her eyes doing strange things to his insides.
‘Hey, have you lain on your back and looked at the sky yet?’ he asked, to break the unnerving mood that had fallen between them.
‘Uh...no,’ she said, looking a little discombobulated by the sudden change in subject.
He waved for her to follow him. ‘Come on, it’s really worth it. You can actually see some of the stars, despite the light pollution.’
They floated on their backs, side by side, staring up at the velvety midnight-blue sky, pointing out the star clusters that twinkled faintly above them.
‘This reminds me of the holiday to the south of France I went on with Amy a couple of years ago,’ Flora said, lifting her head out of the water to look at him. ‘We were staying at this gorgeous little gîte near St Tropez and we spent most of the week floating around in the outdoor pool because it was so hot.’ She smiled, the look in her eyes faraway but happy. ‘One night we got so drunk Amy fell over a small wall in the garden and didn’t realise she’d broken her toe until the next morning.’
‘I remember her telling me about that,’ Alex said with a grin.
‘It was so swollen she couldn’t wear anything but flip-flops for a couple of weeks afterwards.’ Flora smiled widely. ‘Unfortunately the English weather wasn’t as clement as it had been in France, so she looked completely ridiculous walking around in the pouring rain with her feet bare and pink from the cold.’
She giggled at the memory, the sound of it making something fizz in his belly.
‘She didn’t complain though,’ Flora continued. ‘She never complained about anything. Just got on with it.’ He could hear in her voice how much she’d loved his sister and he suddenly understood what had drawn Amy to her. She was clearly a fiercely loyal friend once you got past her hard shell.
‘Yeah, she was a trouper all right,’ Alex said, thinking back to how his sister had remained her cheery, positive self even during her last week in the hospice. ‘She was telling jokes right up until the end of her life,’ he said, swallowing a hard lump that had formed in his throat.
They talked for a while longer as they floated around in the water, about memories they had of Amy and all the times she’d cracked a joke, even though the situation had seemed desperate to everyone else. She’d always had a way of seeing light in the dark.
It was wonderful to conjure up memories of his sister like this and hear things he’d never known about her too. Having always been so wrapped up in his music he’d not paid as much attention to what was going on in Amy’s life as perhaps he should have done. He knew that. Flora had been bang on when she’d accused him of keeping people at arm’s length. He did do that. So hearing about a previously unknown side of Amy’s life from her best friend made him feel closer to his sister.
The whole experience was so enriching that Alex felt the first lift of positivity for the future he’d had in months. So it was with regret that he dropped his feet back to the floor and stood up, aware of Flora doing the same next to him.
‘I guess we should get out before they close the place,’ she said, tugging on the straps of her swimming costume and looking a little uncomfortable about the idea of leaving the refuge of the water.
‘Yeah, I guess so.’ They looked at each other for a moment and he was aware that a subtle shift had occurred in their relationship. ‘I tell you what,’ he said, motioning for Flora to stay where she was. ‘Wait there a minute.’ After swimming to the steps he hauled himself out of the water into the freezing air and moved briskly to the cubbyholes to grab her robe. He held it open at the edge of the pool, averting his gaze so he was staring out over at the view of the cityscape instead of directly at her. He heard her wade quickly out of the water and as soon as he felt she was close enough he wrapped the robe around her, hiding her from any prying eyes.
‘Thanks,’ she said, looking up into his face and giving him a smile of genuine humility.
‘You’re welcome,’ he replied, taking a step back from her. He had the strangest compulsion to tie the belt tightly around the gown for her to make sure her modesty remained intact, but he stopped himself from reaching towards her. He wasn’t sure whether she’d appreciate such an intimate and domineering gesture coming from him.
They stood there for a moment, smiling at each other, before Flora broke the moment by gesturing towards the steps that led back down to the changing rooms.
‘Okay, well, I’ll see you at the front desk. Unless you want to get going straight away?’ she said, clearly trying to sound unbothered either way.
‘No, I’ll wait for you. See you there in a few minutes,’ he said, not wanting to end their night together just yet. Not when they were finally starting to find common ground.
In actual fact, he had to wait a while longer than he’d anticipated at the front desk before Flora appeared with her hair blow-dried back to perfection but her face free of the heavy make-up she’d been wearing earlier.
She looked younger and more approachable like that and it triggered instinctive warmth towards her that hadn’t been there previously. She wasn’t such a bad person to hang out with, he mused, and it was actually great to be able to talk to someone else who knew Amy well. None of his friends here in Bath had even met his sister. She’d cited being too busy at her job up in Glasgow to make it down south to see him when he’d first moved here, and then of course she’d become too ill to travel.
‘Sorry to keep you,’ Flora said as she reached him, not quite meeting his gaze.
She shot him a startled frown.
‘In a good way, I mean,’ he said quickly. ‘I prefer you without it. You really don’t need it.’ He shrugged. ‘I always think the natural look is sexier on a woman.’
For the first time since he’d met her she looked a little uncertain about what to say next.
‘I guess I’d better let you get home,’ she said after a beat, giving him a tight smile and making a move towards the exit. He followed her, noticing how stiff her posture seemed again now.
‘You’re welcome to come back to my place for a drink,’ he said, realising that he didn’t want to be on his own right now.
She turned to give him a look of surprise. Evidently she’d been expecting him to stride off without even a backwards glance. His stomach did a flip at the pleasure on her face.
‘That would be great, if you’re sure you’re not too tired?’
‘Exhaustion seems to be my permanent state of being at the moment,’ he joked. ‘But seriously, you’re most welcome,’ he added when he saw her face fall a little.
‘Well, okay then,’ she said, recovering quickly. ‘Lead the way.’
CHAPTER FOUR
ALEX LET THEM into his ground floor flat, which was housed in one of the elegant golden stone-fronted Georgian terraces that the city was so famous for, and gave a wry smile at the look of shock and disorientation on Flora’s face as she realised he hadn’t led her into a hovel of iniquity.
‘This is—’ She gazed around at the high-ceilinged room, taking in the squashy leather sofas and the sharply designed high-quality furniture he’d collected throughout his year of living here. His pride and joy, a black lacquered grand piano, stood proudly in the bay window, while his other instruments—a guitar, zither and accordion as well as various other accompaniments—leaned neatly against the wall next to it.
His Mistletoe Proposal Page 5
