‘In that case, do you want to text me? Whenever you like. I’ll call you back.’ Alex took her phone from her pocket. ‘I’ll text you now, so you’ve got my number.’
‘Yeah. Thanks.’
Carys recited her number and Alex sent the text.
‘Okay, I’ve got it. Will Leo be there? At the race meeting?’
‘The one on Saturday? I think so.’ She looked up at Leo and he nodded in confirmation.
‘Is he as good-looking as he is on TV?’
Carys apparently thought that, since he’d said nothing for a while, he wasn’t there, and Alex grinned suddenly, holding up one finger to silence him.
‘I wouldn’t like to say. You’ll have to tell me what you think.’
Was that a giggle on the other end of the line?
‘He’s nice to talk to. I’ll text you tomorrow, yeah?’
‘Yeah. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.’
They said their goodbyes, and Leo slumped back in his seat. Alex was smiling.
‘What? Don’t look so crestfallen; she said you were handsome.’
‘Right.’ Leo wondered whether Alex agreed with the assessment, and wished he had the nerve to ask her. ‘Reduced to a piece of eye candy while you do all the meaningful work.’
‘I’m not proud. If I need eye candy to get to speak to someone, I’ll take whatever opportunities I can get.’
‘Ah. And you call me a cynic.’ Leo couldn’t help smiling. It was Alex all over, not caring how she got her opportunities, but grabbing them with both hands.
‘No, I think you called yourself a cynic. And I think it was a very nice compliment. Carys obviously felt at ease with you, and that helped her talk about the things which mattered to her. You have a problem with that?’
‘No, no problem at all.’ He bent down to slip on his shoes and tie the laces. She was flushed with success and so, so beautiful. Perhaps...
Leo wondered how long it would be before he stopped hesitating over asking the simplest, most innocent things. Persuading himself not to overthink them might be a good start. ‘I don’t suppose you’d like to come along tonight? There are going to be some interesting people there.’
If she’d just stop blushing every time, it would make asking easier. ‘I don’t think I’m dressed for it.’
Alex would outshine every woman in the room, whatever she was wearing. But he had to admit that she might feel a little out of place in jeans.
‘Telling you that you’d make the whole room look overdressed isn’t going to work, is it?’ Leo took refuge in the charm that everyone expected from him, which Alex clearly didn’t take all that seriously.
‘No. That’s a bit over the top for my liking.’
‘We could swing past your place and you could slip into something suitable...’ He laughed as she pulled a face.
‘I’m not slipping into anything. Apart from my pyjamas.’
‘Okay.’ He wasn’t sure whether it was a relief that she’d turned him down, or a disappointment. ‘Don’t suppose you’re any good with a bow tie, are you?’
‘Why? Surely you’ve got the hang of that by now.’
‘It’s my policy never to tie my own bow tie when there’s a lady present.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Sounds a bit risky to me. What happens if they want to strangle you with it?’
Leo hadn’t really expected Alex to fall for that one either, but it was becoming increasingly compelling to watch her not falling for his charm. He walked back into the bedroom, smiling.
* * *
Ever resourceful, Leo seemed to have solved the problem of whether or not he was going to watch her up the drive outside her block of flats. Instead of stopping on the road, he turned in and brought the car to a halt a dozen feet from the main door.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon, then?’
‘You’re coming?’ She’d given Leo a copy of her calendar for the next month, but Alex hadn’t thought he’d bother with an after-school session.
‘If you don’t mind. I’d like to see some of the training that goes into the event days.’
‘You’ll be very welcome. But I have to warn you that it’s unlikely we’ll get much of an audience. That kind of thing has very low ratings...’
He narrowed his eyes momentarily, then brushed the dig off. ‘I’ll survive. I might be a little bit late, depending on whether my surgery runs to time or not.’
‘Right then. See you tomorrow. At whatever time you get there.’
She got out of the car and Leo turned in the driver’s seat. He looked stunningly dapper in his dark suit and bow tie and now that Alex knew exactly what lay beneath his white dress shirt, there was an edge of hard craving to go with it. She almost wished that she could have said yes to tonight.
There was a small problem, though. Leo seemed to assume that she could just pop home and shimmy into a little black dress, but she didn’t have anything that even approached that in her wardrobe. And, more to the point, she hadn’t quite found that place where she could turn up at a social event on Leo’s arm without feeling that made them more than friends. The interesting people would have to wait until she was more sure of herself.
The thought made her close the car door behind her with rather more vigour than she’d intended. Alex bent down, pulling her face into a foolish grin, and gave him a little shrug, as if she hadn’t banked on her own strength. He waved her away from the car and when she stepped back it slid away.
* * *
‘So. What’s he like, then?’ Rhona was busy taking off layers of clothing, to reveal a bright, ebulliently patterned dress. The heating engineers had been in first thing this morning and the radiators were pumping out heat, to the point that the windows had started to steam up.
‘He’s...complicated.’
If Alex had thought about her answer for more than five seconds, she would have known it would be like a red rag to a bull. Rhona pounced on the word.
‘Good-looking and complicated. Sounds like the answer to a maiden’s prayer.’
‘Says the woman who’s engaged to the most uncomplicated guy I’ve ever met.’ Tom was solid, dependable and clearly just as head over heels in love as Rhona was.
‘I didn’t say that complicated made him a keeper. Where’s my mug?’
‘Here...’ Alex reached into her drawer and held it out. ‘Sorry. I tidied up a bit.’
‘I thought the place looked a bit stark.’ Rhona’s idea of tidy was being able to see over the top of the piles of files, magazines and paperwork on her desk. But it was organised chaos and she could pull exactly the right thing from the pile at exactly the right time.
‘You should see his flat. The only thing out of place in it was me.’
‘You went to his flat?’ Rhona grabbed her mug and sat down at her desk, clutching it. ‘Do tell. Is he really a blond?’
‘Of course he is. He was blond when I met him the first time.’
‘So you got close enough to look at his roots, then?’ Rhona grinned.
‘I don’t need to look at his roots; I know a natural blond when I see one. Just take my word for it.’
‘Okay.’ Rhona leaned back in her chair. ‘Natural blond, very handsome, complicated. Tidy flat...although I don’t necessarily hold that against him. Anything else?’
‘Very good at what he does.’
‘Aha! So you like him, then.’
‘He’s...got a lot of charm. And he’s tall.’ Alex decided to leave the bit about the great body out. Rhona was going to want a full description, and she’d been trying to forget all about what Leo might, or might not, have been doing with his great body last night. This morning’s papers had pictures of a very famous, very beautiful woman walking down the steps of a smart-looking building. Holding ti
ght to the arm that Leo had offered Alex last night.
‘And... Come on, Alex, you always go for the serious guys. Ever thought of a quick dalliance with someone who’ll leave you with a smile on your face?’
‘Leave me? You’re seriously suggesting I go out with someone who I know is going to leave me?’
‘Yeah. Don’t knock it. He crashes in, rocks everyone’s world and then leaves again. Five minutes of feeling good and then he doesn’t look back. You need to waste your time with a few like him, before you can work out who the right guy is.’ Rhona’s thumb gravitated to the band of her engagement ring in the way it always did when she talked about the ‘right guy’.
Alex sighed. Leo was already rocking her world, and the experience wasn’t altogether positive. He was charming, unpredictable, those flashes of commitment and compassion just enough to keep her wondering. Just enough to make her believe that there was more to him than met the eye, and that maybe he just needed someone to bring that out in him.
‘I don’t want someone who’ll leave me. And I can’t just tap him on the nose with my magic wand and get him to change. What’s the first rule in the book? You think you can change them, but you can’t.’
‘True enough. So ten minutes of magic is out, then. I bet he’d make it interesting...’
Alex knew he’d make it interesting. And she’d thought about it—who wouldn’t? But if the last ten years had taught her anything, it was to focus on the goals that were possible, not the ones which weren’t.
‘There’s no point in wasting your energy going after things you can’t have.’
‘Your famous single-mindedness?’ Rhona grinned. ‘You can take some time out from that, you know.’
‘What for? Life’s beautiful. Why fill it with the things you know aren’t going to work out?’
Rhona thought for a minute. ‘Dunno. You’ve got me there. Want some coffee?’
‘Yes, thanks. And thanks for the chat, Rhona...’
Rhona rolled her eyes but said nothing. There was nothing to say. It was all very clear in Alex’s mind. Leo was handsome, complicated and wouldn’t know what to do with a relationship if it smacked him in the face. And he wasn’t the one she wanted.
CHAPTER SIX
BY THAT AFTERNOON the picture in the paper—the one Alex was ignoring because it was none of her business—had done its work. Nudging at the jealousy centres in her brain. Telling her that all the good she thought she saw in him was just her imagination, and stamping on any notion she had of trusting Leo any further than she could throw him.
It had taken her three months to get a permit for the teachers’ car park, but when she arrived Leo’s car was parked in one of the spaces reserved for the Year Heads. When she inspected the windscreen, there was a note on the school’s headed notepaper giving him temporary permission to park there and when she shouldered her bag and walked towards the gym she saw Leo, wearing a fur-hooded parka, standing on the frozen ground by the entrance, talking to the headmistress.
Typical. Was there no one on the planet who was immune to Leo’s charm?
‘And Together Our Way provided training for your staff...?’
‘Yes, we have a two-day workshop every summer, in the holidays. The first one was just for our staff, but last year we invited PE staff from schools all over the borough.’ Belinda Chalmers was justifiably proud of the initiative her school had taken.
‘And has this impacted the culture of sport in the school? As a whole?’ Leo was absorbed in the conversation and hadn’t noticed Alex standing behind him.
‘Have you ever seen the winners of a race turn round to cheer the losers on to the finish line? I hadn’t, before I went to one of Alex’s race meetings, but now the idea’s caught on and it’s something a lot of our children do.’
‘Impressive. So the kids with disabilities aren’t just struggling to keep up. They’ve been leading the way.’ As usual, Leo’s questions had led him to the very heart of the matter.
‘Exactly.’
‘And you take children from all over the borough? Not just this school?’
‘Yes. But we don’t have enough places for all of the children who want to come. Even though we have a new gym building, we only have so much space and equipment. And there’s a very high ratio of trainers to children during the sessions, so we’re limited by that as well.’
‘I wonder... Do you think I might do a telephone interview with you for my show? It would be great to get someone who understands the wider impact of the work that Alex and her charity are doing.’
‘Of course. I’d be very happy to talk about it.’
‘Fabulous. I’ll give you a call tomorrow if I may, and we can set something up.’ Now that he’d finished with the questions, he finally noticed Alex’s presence and his face broke into a broad grin. ‘Hey. I’ve just been hearing...’
He broke off as a minibus edged its way into the space next to his car, brushing one of the wing mirrors so that it snapped forward. Alex heard Belinda Chalmers’ sharp intake of breath.
‘Oh, really. There’s plenty of space on the other side...’
‘Looks as if he’s missed me.’ Leo tried to divert her, but Belinda Chalmers was already marching across towards the car park, no doubt intent on giving the driver a piece of her mind.
‘All the same. Your car’s blocking the side door of the minibus, and it’s easier for the children to get off that way. You might not be so lucky when he realises that and tries to back up again.’ Alex squinted at the gap between the minibus and Leo’s car.
‘Yeah. You’ve got a point...’ Leo pulled his car keys from his pocket and turned to stride towards the car park.
It seemed that the minibus driver had the same idea. He moved back a couple of inches then thought better of it and switched the engine off. Then the back doors of the minibus opened, and he jumped out and began to unload sports bags. There seemed to be some jostling going on inside the minibus and Leo suddenly increased his pace from a brisk walk into a run.
A boy jumped down from the back of the minibus while the driver’s back was turned. ‘Sit down everyone...’ The driver’s instruction came too late and another boy tumbled out after the first.
A high scream floated through the cold air. Then another. Alex dropped her bag and started to run towards the bus. She could see Leo kneeling beside the fallen child, who seemed to be fighting him off, and Belinda Chalmers climbing into the back of the minibus to restore order amongst the children who were still inside.
‘Andrew... Andrew.’ The boy who had fallen was almost hysterical and Alex knelt down beside Leo, trying to calm him.
‘Get off me...’ Andrew pulled himself up to a sitting position and aimed a punch at Leo’s face. Apart from a sharp intake of breath, Leo didn’t react.
‘Andrew.’ Leo took his cue from Alex and used the boy’s name. He couldn’t possibly know what the problem was, but he seemed to sense that there was one and held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. ‘Listen... Listen. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re all right.’
He sat back on his heels, still holding his palms forward for Andrew to see. The boy stilled, staring at him intently.
‘Not too keen on doctors, eh?’ Leo smiled at him.
That was the understatement of the year. When Andrew had first come to the training sessions, he’d insisted that the doctors had stolen his left foot, and he hated them for it. He was working through that with his own doctors, who were slowly gaining his trust, but an unexpected injury and an unknown doctor were too much for him.
‘Andrew, this doctor’s like your doctor at the hospital, Dr Khan...’ Alex shot Leo a glance, wondering if he’d play along, and he nodded. ‘He’s not going to touch you unless you tell him that he can.’
A rush of tears spilled su
ddenly down Andrew’s cheeks. From the way he was holding his right leg, it looked as if he’d injured it when he fell, and it must be starting to hurt now. And the boy was reacting to the pain, trying to protect himself in the only way he knew how.
‘Tell him... I don’t want him.’
‘Tell me yourself.’ Leo’s voice was gentle, seeming to understand everything. ‘Loud and clear. Make sure I hear you...’
‘I don’t want you!’ Andrew turned his head, shouting the words straight at Leo.
‘Okay, that’s fair enough. But will you let me just watch? I won’t come any closer.’
Venting his feelings at the top of his voice seemed to have calmed Andrew, and he nodded silently. Leo slowly started to take his parka off and Alex caught the significance of the gesture. Taking it from him and laying it down on the icy ground, she sat down on it.
‘You must be cold. Come here, eh?’ Andrew let her lift him gently onto the warm down of Leo’s jacket and she put her arm around him, hugging him close as the shivers of cold and fear subsided.
‘That better?’ Leo ventured a question.
Andrew nodded in reply, and Leo tried another. ‘If you’ve hurt yourself...’ He shrugged as if it wasn’t completely obvious that Andrew had hurt his ankle. ‘You could just point, if you felt like it. Perhaps let Alex take a little look?’
Andrew pointed at his ankle and Alex reached for his leg, pulling the soft fabric of his tracksuit bottoms up a little. The boy nestled against her without protest and she carefully took his trainer off and then his sock. The ankle was red and already beginning to swell, and Andrew looked at it mournfully. Injuring one of your ‘good’ limbs was every amputee’s worst nightmare.
Leo’s brow darkened, just for a moment. He’d know as well as Alex did that the ankle needed attention, but quite how they were going to do it without distressing Andrew even more was another matter.
‘That doesn’t look too bad to me. If we put a little bit of ice on it and a bandage it’ll be better in no time.’ Leo was deliberately looking on the bright side and assuming that there was no fracture, but it was the right thing to say. Andrew brightened visibly.
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