Chapter 8 Becky
Becky
D o you think this place even has room for us?” Seeing the number of cars in the car park, Becky didn’t feel optimistic. “We might be sleeping in the car.”
“We’re not sleeping in the car.” Will pulled into a space and switched off the engine. “Did your mother respond?”
“Yes, she said not to worry about turning up a day late and not to take any risks on the road.”
“That sounds like a typical maternal response. Let’s go and check out the room situation before we unload our luggage.”
She glanced at the hotel. Smoke curled from the chimney, tiny lights shimmered around the eaves and a large Christmas tree was visible in the foyer. “This would be Rosie’s dream hotel.” She undid her seat belt. “You don’t want to call your mother before we go in?”
“We both know that your mother will have been on the phone to my mother within two minutes of receiving your message.”
“True. Okay, let’s go and see if there is room at the inn.”
“I don’t mind sleeping in a corridor if I have to, but I hope they have a restaurant because I’m starving. I wonder if Rosie and Declan are stuck in the same traffic.”
“They’re not. According to my mother they’re almost home. Declan messaged her half an hour ago. They were ahead of the accident apparently. Lucky them.”
“Maybe. Or maybe we’re the lucky ones.” Will locked the car. “I remember reading a review about this place or something. Brilliant restaurant.”
“Great. Anywhere that will feed me gets a full five stars from me. Although it’s probably less good for us if everyone wants to stay here.”
She dragged on her coat and walked with him across the snow-covered car park to the main entrance of the hotel.
He held the door open for her. “You don’t mind stopping? Your entire journey up north has been disrupted.”
“I don’t mind.” Part of her was relieved. The further up north they’d driven, the more her stress levels had risen.
But she’d been granted a reprieve, until tomorrow at least. She was happy about that.
They stepped through the doors into a foyer warmed by a blazing log fire. A large Christmas tree sparkled in one corner.
“That’s a good start,” Will said and smiled at the woman who approached. “We don’t have a reservation, but we were hoping for dinner and a couple of rooms?”
“Dinner I can do—I have one more table if you don’t mind sitting down in half an hour.
But I only have one room left and it’s up in the eaves.
Restricted headroom, although you should be able to stand up in the centre of the room.
” She eyed Will’s height. “Maybe. Just one bed, but it’s a big bed and there’s also a very comfy armchair. ”
Just one bed? Becky frowned. It sounded like a bad romcom.
“You don’t have a second room?”
“No.” The woman glanced briefly at a couple who had walked in behind Will and Becky. “And in fact we won’t have that one for long, so—”
“We’ll take it, thanks.” Will handed over his credit card in exchange for a key, which he handed to Becky. “You go up to the room and I’ll unload the car.”
“We’ll do it together, that way you won’t have to make multiple journeys.”
He didn’t argue with her, probably because he knew better than to do so, and they managed to grab everything and staggered back across the now icy car park without mishap.
Then they negotiated the challenges of an old winding staircase that grew narrower as they reached the top of the hotel.
Becky opened the door and laughed.
“She wasn’t kidding about the ceiling height. It’s definitely a mind-your-head situation, Dr. Patterson. You might want to crawl in on all fours.”
He followed her in, ducking his head to avoid the low beams. “This building is sixteenth century. Were people shorter then?”
“No idea, but this was probably the maid’s room.” She pushed her suitcase into a corner and deposited her coat on top. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep in the chair.”
“I’ll sleep in the chair. I can sleep anywhere. One of the benefits of a medical training.” He hung up his coat and opened his suitcase. “We have twenty minutes before dinner. Do you want to shower? There probably won’t be time for both of us to use it.”
“Of course there will. I’m not Rosie. I don’t need an hour in the bathroom and then another hour to dry my hair.
I’ll be out in five minutes.” She grabbed a few things from her suitcase and headed into the en suite bathroom.
True to her word, she emerged in under five minutes wearing one of the luxurious dressing gowns provided by the hotel.
Will was on the phone. “No, we’re fine. We’ll see how the weather is in the morning and send you a message.
We should be with you by lunchtime so there will still be plenty of time before the party.
” He listened for a moment and then smiled.
“She’s fine. Yes, they had two spare rooms. Lucky for us.
Anyway I need to go because we have the last available dinner reservation and we don’t want to lose the table, because we’re both starving.
See you tomorrow.” He put his phone down on the bed.
She tightened the belt on her robe. “You told your mother we have two rooms?”
“Yes. It avoids speculation.”
Becky opened her suitcase. “She doesn’t think we can share a room without jumping on each other?”
“She has an active imagination, and she thinks I spend too much time at work. She likes to point out that I have a job, and a home, and that the only thing missing from my life is romance.”
“Yeah, I get that, but not with me. I mean, I’m virtually family. That would be a bit gross, right?”
He hesitated briefly and then smiled. “Totally gross. Have you finished in the bathroom?”
“Yes, I’ve—”
“You have five minutes to get dressed.” He disappeared into the bathroom and a moment later she heard the sound of the shower running.
She stared at the door and frowned, wondering why that exchange had seemed odd.
He was probably just embarrassed. Or even appalled at the thought of his mother pairing the two of them off.
He was probably trying to wash away the image.
And talking of washing, was he really going to manage in the tiny bathroom?
The shower was nestled under a sloping roof. Would he even fit?
She pictured him trying to wedge his wide shoulders under the jets of water and then imagined him naked.
Naked. Will? The trajectory of her thoughts left her feeling hot and flustered and she was relieved there was a door between them.
He’d been in there for a minute which meant she had approximately two minutes to calm herself down.
What was wrong with her? Since when had she started imagining Will naked?
It was that comment about his mother wanting romance for him, obviously. Why had he told her they had two rooms? Why hadn’t he just laughed and told her it was one room but hey, this was Becky so that wasn’t exactly a problem.
The two of them together was a ridiculous thought. She and Will had known each other forever. She loved him of course—absolutely, but in the same way she loved her brother. In many ways Will was her second brother, which made imagining him naked both weird and unsettling.
That was definitely not something to dwell on.
Trying to delete that image from her brain, she rummaged through her suitcase looking for something suitable to wear.
Not jeans presumably. And definitely not her hoodie.
The place had looked romantic. Dressy. She wasn’t good at either of those things, but she didn’t want them to be refused a table, so she dug out the red dress she’d borrowed from Rosie and never returned and pulled it on together with thick black tights and boots.
She so rarely wore dresses the whole experience felt weirdly unfamiliar, but at least no one would throw them out of the restaurant.
She dried her hair in less than a minute, glanced in the mirror to check she didn’t look as flustered as she felt and saw Will emerge from the bathroom.
His chest was bare and he had a towel looped around his waist. It came rather too close to the image she’d had only moments earlier and she opened her mouth to ask why he hadn’t used one of the robes when she realised there had only been one and she’d used it and then left it in a heap on the floor.
She hung up the robe and then repacked her suitcase. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
“Why would you do that? Wait for me here. It will only take me a moment to dress.”
He was true to his word, and moments later they were heading down to the restaurant.
The place was crowded, and the atmosphere lively. Candles flickered on tables and festive garlands studded with tiny lights were strung along the beams. Their table was nestled in one corner, close to the crackling fire and slightly apart from the other tables.
They ordered their food and Will smiled at her. “This is cosy.”
“It is.” It was also intimate. Normally she wouldn’t have noticed but now she was noticing.
She took a sip of the wine that had been delivered to the table and was relieved when the food arrived. At least it gave her something else to focus on.
Dinner was delicious, and the conversation should have been easy because this was Will, but for the first time in her life she felt self-conscious with him and it made her skin prickle.
The dress didn’t help. She wasn’t used to sitting across from him wearing a dress.
Also there were candles, and fairy lights, and the atmosphere was unashamedly romantic.
The couple closest to them were holding hands across the table, clearly on a festive date.
Becky ran her fingers round the neckline of the dress, wishing she’d worn something different. She was hot, and not just because she was sitting close to the fire.
It was Will. Or rather, it was that conversation she’d overheard him having with his mother.