by Holly Ford
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Well, he’s available, for a start.’ Lizzie ticked off her fingers. ‘Straight. Employed …’
‘Ha ha,’ Ella scowled.
‘Look, darling, I just hope you’re not—’ She stopped herself. ‘It wouldn’t be right to put yourself in the middle of anything that’s going on between Rob and Charlotte.’
Ella stared at her. She looked horrified. ‘I can’t believe you’d say that.’
Lizzie shrugged apologetically.
‘What kind of person do you think I am?’
Young. And determined. ‘All I’m trying to say is that using an old boyfriend to stir things up is the oldest trick in the book, but this is a real relationship you’re playing with here. It isn’t high school.’
‘Using? High school? Jesus, Mum.’ Ella looked away in disgust. ‘There’s no way I’d hurt Rob like that. Or Luke.’
‘Okay,’ said Lizzie, noting that Ella hadn’t mentioned Charlotte. ‘I’m sorry I said anything.’
She heard her daughter swear under her breath.
‘Listen, Mum, I don’t know what’s wrong with you at the moment,’ Ella glared, ‘but you need to sort it out.’
Ugh. Lizzie watched Ella flounce away down the hall. Well, that had gone— About as successfully as she should have expected, actually. She shook her head. Maybe Ella had a point. Maybe she wasn’t quite herself, maybe she hadn’t been since—
Oh dear, she realised suddenly, if Ella had gone to her room and she was in the kitchen, that meant poor Luke was alone on the terrace with Carr … Lizzie hurried back outside.
It was getting dark. In the glow of the fire, she could only see Carr, who was standing beside it with his back to her, leaning against the stone. She hesitated, wondering if it was too late to go back inside. But even as she thought it, he turned and looked at her.
Damn. Locating her glass on the table, Lizzie poured herself some more wine. She looked up to find Carr still staring at her, an empty glass in his hand. Remembering her manners, she walked over to refill it.
‘Thanks.’
Lizzie waited for him to say something more. But, of course, why would he bother? Giving up on politeness, she put the bottle back on the table and walked away. On the edge of the terrace, she stood and looked out over the softening hills. Such a peaceful view. She wondered what it was going to take to restore the peace with Ella.
‘I’m sorry.’
Lizzie jumped — Carr had followed her.
‘I didn’t mean to offend you,’ he continued, ‘earlier on. I think you misunderstood.’
‘You were concerned for Charlie,’ Lizzie said coldly. ‘It’s understandable.’
‘No, not just for Charlie … for you.’
‘I can’t imagine what you think there is about me,’ she snapped, ‘that could possibly concern you.’
‘Just how well do you know Luke?’
‘Exactly well enough to do business with him.’ Jesus! What was he inferring?
‘You should be careful with him.’ The dark eyes bored into her. ‘You and Ella, too.’
‘Thanks,’ she glared back. ‘For the advice.’
‘What I’m trying to say is, I’d hate to see you get hurt.’
‘I don’t see why you should care what I get.’
‘I—’
Furious, Lizzie looked away.
‘I shouldn’t.’ Carr took a step back. ‘You’re right, it’s none of my business. I’m sorry.’ Abruptly, he turned. ‘I should get going.’
Lizzie turned, too. God, she was shaking. Why did she let him do this to her? To her horror, she saw that Luke was standing right behind them.
‘I was just heading off,’ he said, with a wry little smile. ‘Thanks for a lovely dinner.’
Drawing herself up, Lizzie put her hand on his shoulder. ‘No,’ she said, pointedly. ‘Don’t go. It’s too late to drive all the way to Wanaka now. Stay the night.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘I absolutely insist.’ Sliding her arm through Luke’s, Lizzie headed back to the house. ‘Come on, I’ll make up your room.’
When she looked back, Carr was gone.
Chapter TEN
On the evening of Lizzie’s disastrous barbecue, Ella escaped the terrace, where her mother was making hard work of talking to Charlotte and Carr, on the pretext — flimsy, she knew — of offering Rob the last goat’s cheese fritter. Having volunteered to check the set of the blades on Lizzie’s ride-on mower, he was already on his way back from the implement shed when she met him with the tray.
‘Thanks.’
Oh, that smile … it was worth a much longer walk. Ella was still looking up at him when the hillside behind them began to vibrate with a familiar rumble. Oh, no. Sure enough, she turned to see Luke’s Aston Martin pull up in the drive below. Crikey, this was going to be interesting. Ella had a nasty feeling her mother’s documentary meeting was about to turn into a drama.
Her eyes flew back to Rob, who had frozen beside her, the fritter still in his hand. Together, they watched Luke walk up to the terrace. It was too far away to see the expression on Charlotte’s face as he sat down.
Rob put the fritter back on the tray.
Across the lawn, they saw Charlotte walk off. Uh-oh. Luke was going after her. Ella saw him reach out and touch Charlotte’s arm before they disappeared into the vines. Looking up at Rob’s face, she felt a surge of anger. If he loved her, she would never, ever, make him feel that way.
‘Did you know,’ Rob said, conversationally, still looking after them, ‘Charlie used to be engaged to that guy?’
‘Really,’ said Ella, carefully. Wow, so Charlotte had actually said yes? She hadn’t got that from Luke’s story. ‘Before she met you,’ she reminded him, reassuringly.
‘No, actually.’ Rob gave a pained little laugh. ‘It wasn’t.’
‘Still,’ Ella stammered, ‘it was a long time ago.’
‘He broke her heart.’
Luke broke her heart? Ella shifted uncomfortably. What on earth could she say? ‘Girls get their hearts broken all the time,’ she tried. ‘It’s amazing how well we mend.’
‘You don’t understand.’ Rob’s gaze swung back to her. Seeing the pain in his eyes, Ella fought the urge to put her arms around him. ‘Charlie doesn’t want to get married. She never has.’ Rob paused. ‘But she did to him.’
‘Come on.’ Ella put a hand on his arm. ‘Your glass is empty.’
‘Yes.’ Recovering himself, Rob managed a smile. With one last look in the direction Charlotte and Luke had gone, he let Ella lead him back to the terrace.
Lizzie cornered her in the kitchen, furious — as, Ella supposed, she had every right to be. She really should have warned her mother that Charlotte and Luke had a history. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t, except …
‘It seemed kind of private,’ she tried to explain. ‘And anyway, I didn’t know Luke was coming back.’
By the time she made it back outside with Rob’s wine, Charlotte had returned. Well, that was good. She was standing talking to Rob at one end of the terrace while, at the other end, Carr pretended to look at the barbecue.
‘But we can’t just leave,’ Ella heard Rob say. He sounded quite angry. ‘Lizzie’s made dinner for us.’
Ella looked around for Luke. Ah, there he was. She watched him making his way slowly back through the vines. He paused to examine a leaf. Ella didn’t blame him — it was a long, lonely walk back up to the house. She wouldn’t have liked to have made it herself. Carr, she saw, was already glaring at him. Putting the bottle down on the table, Ella headed down to meet him.
‘So,’ she said gently, ‘how did that go?’
‘Well, she’s talking to me.’
‘That’s good.’ Ella nodded encouragingly. ‘What did she say?’
‘She told me to go to hell.’ Luke said. ‘So I think we’re making progress.’
‘Did you—’ She hesitated. ‘Did you get to say wh
at you needed to?’
‘I said I wanted us to be friends.’
‘Do you? Want to be friends?’
He shrugged. ‘It’s the right thing to say, isn’t it?’
Ella paused to study his face as they reached the end of the vines. ‘It is if you mean it.’
Luke looked back at her. For a moment, she thought he was going to say something serious, but instead his mouth curled into its usual half-smile. ‘You’re looking lovely tonight,’ he said, his voice falling an octave. The green eyes travelled lazily over her, taking in her dress. Reaching out, he brushed a finger along its beaded strap. ‘I like this. It suits you.’
Ella almost laughed. ‘She isn’t watching.’
The muscle beside his mouth twitched. ‘Who?’
‘And you,’ she said, ‘are not my type.’
‘No?’ He shot her a truly devastating smile. ‘What is your type?’
Involuntarily, Ella glanced up at the terrace.
‘Ugh.’ Luke sighed. ‘Don’t tell me — the boy next door. Not you as well? What’s so special about that guy?’
Apart from the obvious? ‘He’s nice,’ she told him.
‘Nice?’
‘You should try it sometime.’
Luke grinned. ‘I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t suit me.’
‘I don’t know,’ Ella looked him over appraisingly, ‘you might be surprised.’
Together, they stepped out onto the lawn.
‘I guess if I were a gentleman,’ he sighed, ‘I’d leave about now.’
She shot him a look. ‘So you’ll stay for dinner, then?’
His grin returned. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’
It wasn’t her fault. Luke had never been going anywhere, Ella told herself, hours later, fleeing the kitchen and Lizzie’s accusations. She hadn’t set anyone up. And the last thing she wanted was to ruin Rob’s relationship with Charlotte. Well, okay, if they were to break up, she wouldn’t exactly be shedding a tear, but that wasn’t the same as trying to cause it. God, how could her own mother think so badly of her?
‘Whoa.’ Luke, stepping out of the bathroom, caught her as she nearly collided with him in the hall. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Apparently,’ Ella snapped, ‘this evening is all my fault.’
‘Your fault?’ His mouth twitched. ‘That’s excellent news. For a while there I was a bit worried it might have something to do with me.’
She tried to smile back.
‘Hey,’ Luke searched out her eyes, ‘can I help?’
‘No.’ She glanced down at his hand on her arm. ‘I’m okay.’
Luke let go. Not meeting his eyes, Ella hurried on down the hall to her room. Inside, she sat on the bed and drew her knees up. Richard stared down at her from the wall.
‘Yes,’ she told him, ‘I wouldn’t mind betting this is something to do with you. What’s up with you two? Why aren’t you talking to Lizzie?’
Looking around at her photographs, she felt a sudden longing for the old Fulham house. For London. Everything seemed to go so much better there … Ella stopped herself. Oh, that’s right — no, it didn’t. She pulled the quilt up around her shoulders and looked out at the blackening line of the hills.
After a while, she heard a diesel engine turn and saw Carr’s ute drive away.
‘Here we are.’ Her mother’s voice drifted in from the hall. ‘Do you need anything?’
Luke must be staying, then. Listening to the faint sounds of them making up the bed, Ella felt oddly comforted by the thought of him there on the other side of the wall. You just don’t like empty space, she told herself. Since Jules and Seb — not to mention Richard — had gone, it had felt a bit weird sleeping all the way down here by herself, a whole house away from her mother.
‘Well!’ Lizzie was back in the hall. ‘You don’t mind if I turn in, do you?’
Oh, for heaven’s sake — Ella checked her watch. It was nine o’clock. Though in fairness, after the evening they’d had, it did feel a bit like midnight. She could easily crawl under the covers herself.
‘Oh. No, of course not,’ she heard Luke say.
Poor guy. He was probably wishing he hadn’t stayed now. Ella waited a while to make sure Lizzie was gone; she had nothing to say, right then, to her mother. Then she pulled a cardigan over her dress and walked out onto the terrace.
She found Luke sitting on its edge, swirling a glass of pinot in his hand. The rest of the bottle was beside him.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey,’ he smiled.
‘Mind if I join you?’
‘Pull up a glass.’
Getting one from the kitchen, Ella looked back over her shoulder at Luke. He looked so lonely sitting there. She walked back outside, put some more wood on the fading fire, and sat down beside him, her feet resting in the grass.
‘Here we are again,’ he said, looking over the lawn to the hills.
‘It’s becoming a habit,’ Ella agreed.
‘I’ve had worse.’ Luke filled her glass. ‘So, are you going to tell me what that was about in the hall?’
‘Oh, Mum and I had a little fight, that’s all.’
‘What about?’
She sipped her wine. ‘You, actually.’
‘Me?’ Luke’s mouth twitched. ‘I’m flattered.’
‘Don’t be,’ she said. ‘Mum thought I was taking advantage of you being here tonight to try to break up Charlotte and Rob.’
He frowned. ‘Why would you …?’ The green eyes glinted with mischief. ‘Oh, that’s right, I forgot.’ He poured himself more wine. ‘So, were you?’
‘No!’ Ella glared at him. ‘I’m not like that.’
‘Sweetheart,’ Luke said, ‘everybody’s like that.’
‘I’m not,’ she repeated miserably.
‘Saint Ella.’ His thumb grazed her cheek. ‘You and Rob make a perfect couple.’
‘That’s not funny.’
‘I’m sorry.’ He shot her a grin. ‘What is it about him? Seriously?’
‘What is it about her?’
‘Charlotte?’ Luke’s eyes flitted back to the hills. ‘You know’ — he gave a half-laugh — ‘I’m not sure I can remember.’
She waited, watching him.
‘The thing is, when she and I were together, it was … well, I hadn’t had that before. I haven’t had it since.’
Ella touched his knee. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘I’m sorry she … that she hurt you.’
Luke smiled. ‘Rumour has it that I deserved it.’
They sat in silence, watching the sky fade. Ella shivered; she should have put some jeans on.
‘Here.’ Shrugging his jacket off, he draped it over her legs.
‘Thanks.’ Ella hugged the jacket around her knees.
‘Are you going to try,’ she asked, after a minute or two had gone by, ‘to get her back?’
‘You think I should?’ he replied, turning to her with his usual lazy half-smile.
‘I don’t know.’ Ella wasn’t sure if he were teasing her or not. ‘She seems pretty happy.’
‘Maybe she could be even happier with me.’
‘Maybe,’ she said, uncertainly.
‘But you don’t think so.’
Ella was silent.
‘And what about Rob?’
‘What about him?’
‘Could he be happier, do you think?’
‘Maybe,’ she allowed. She watched Luke’s face as best she could in the darkness. ‘But it doesn’t matter what I think. It’s for him to decide.’
‘How very adult of you.’
‘I’m doing my best.’
‘I see that.’ He reached for the bottle. ‘We should probably talk about something else.’
‘Do you want to talk about something else?’
Luke sighed. ‘I wish I did. How about you?’
Ella shook her head. ‘You never answered my question.’
‘What question?’
/> ‘Are you going to try to get Charlotte back?’
‘Honestly?’ He looked away, picking at a blade of grass. ‘I don’t know. The truth is, I don’t have a clue what to do.’
Ella put a sympathetic hand on his arm. ‘Don’t.’
Luke turned back to her, strangely naked without his smile. ‘You think she’ll shoot me down.’
‘No. Maybe. But if she doesn’t … well, either way, people are going to get hurt.’
‘And by “people”,’ he said slowly, ‘you mean Rob.’ He looked down again. ‘Don’t you want to pick up the pieces?’
‘No,’ she said, thinking back to Rob’s face as he’d watched Charlotte walk away. ‘I’d rather he stayed whole.’
‘Christ,’ Luke laughed grimly, ‘you really do have it bad.’
Actually, she felt better than she had for weeks. She sipped her wine.
Luke stared at her. ‘So we go down as the also-rans, you and I?’
‘I guess we find another race.’
‘You know,’ he told her, ‘you really are very grown-up.’
‘Thank you.’
‘I don’t suppose you’d like to show me your photographs again?’
Ella laughed. ‘Goodnight,’ she told him, firmly. Handing Luke’s jacket back, she clambered to her feet. Then, on impulse, she bent and kissed his cheek.
He looked up at her with his real-person smile. Walking back to her room, Ella thought she’d like to get a shot of that, sometime.
The next morning, curled up on the sofa with her laptop, Ella went over the shots she’d taken the previous week — again. Wordlessly, Lizzie placed a cup of coffee beside her.
Ella accepted the peace offering. ‘Thanks, Mum.’ For some reason she’d woken up in a really good mood this morning.
The phone rang. Lizzie picked it up and, after a moment, carried it outside.
Ella arrowed through her work. There was some okay stuff, but nothing she liked as much — Ella flicked back — as the shots of Carr up on Blackpeak’s boundary fence.
‘Is that the stuff you’re working on now?’
She looked up as Luke leaned in over her shoulder. Fresh out of the shower, he was wearing a frighteningly sharp pinstriped business shirt and knotting a rather luscious silk tie under its collar. ‘Can I see?’
