Chapter 16 Becky #2
“I seem to remember telling you to let me know.” He adjusted her hat, tucking a strand of hair inside so that it didn’t blow across her face. “Maybe next time our relationship status is going to change you could warn me, so that I don’t blow it.”
“You didn’t blow it. You were amazing. You could have stood there and said ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about’ but instead you rescued me from my own mess. You’re a good friend, Will. The best. And now I’m going to be a good friend back by fixing this before it goes any further.”
“Why? There’s no hurry. I don’t have some girlfriend waiting in the wings who is going to be distraught by the discovery that I’m in a relationship with someone else. The easiest thing for everyone is probably to let this ride.”
“Let it ride?” She stared at him, sure she must have misunderstood. “You mean keep the pretence going?”
“Why not? Seems like the best solution to me. It would stop you feeling awkward around your sister, and around Declan. You could relax. You might even enjoy Christmas.”
She thought about it. He was right. It would make everything so much easier if everyone believed they were together.
“I can’t believe you’d do that for me.”
“I know. I’m a total hero.” He was teasing her, but the way he was looking at her made her feel decidedly strange.
It was probably lack of food. They’d both skipped lunch.
“Don’t get arrogant or you’ll stop being my hero.
” She quickly thought it through, examining the idea for holes.
“So, you’re suggesting that for Christmas we carry on the pretence—and that might work because all the attention is going to be on Jamie and Hayley anyway, and you’ll be with your family for most of it—and then what?
In the New Year we tell them that we broke up? What reason would we give?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t like my Christmas gift? I could get you something you’d truly hate to make it more plausible. Everyone would feel sorry for you and completely understand your reaction.”
She laughed. “What would you get me?”
“Er—a lifetime membership to the noisiest night club in London?”
“Ouch. That would definitely be enough to ruin the relationship.”
“Or maybe a stack of romance novels.”
“That’s my sister’s addiction.”
“I know. You read crime and nonfiction. But I’m trying to give you a bad gift, remember?”
“Right. You’re good at this. Bad gifts, I mean.”
“I know you.”
That was true. In fact, it was a little unsettling just how well he knew her.
His hands were thrust deep into his pockets. He was standing close to her.
“It’s Christmas in two days,” she said. “You don’t have time to buy a gift so that isn’t going to work. You can just say you got tired of seeing me in a hoodie, or that you were appalled by my chocolate habit, or I wouldn’t go to big noisy parties with you—there are endless reasons.”
“I happen to like your hoodie. It makes me smile. And I’m not a lover of big noisy parties, either, and the people closest to me will know that, so neither of those excuses are going to work.”
“We’ll think of something else.” She paused. “Do you have any bad habits I don’t know about that might provide useful material in a breakup?”
“Several.”
“And they are—?”
“I’ll disclose them at the appropriate moment. As we are supposed to be displaying togetherness, this isn’t that moment. Put your arms around me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your sister is about to join us.”
“What?” Her heart rate doubled. She couldn’t deal with Rosie now. “I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. Put your arms around me.” He pulled her against him and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Her heart was thudding.
“Thank you, Will.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth. “For what?”
“For not raising your eyebrows when I announced we were together. For not yelling ‘you have to be kidding me’ or ‘do you really think I want to spend the rest of my life with Becky?’ For being such a good sport and not saying the wrong thing. When we get back, we’ll announce that you’re going to be spending Christmas with your parents as planned because it isn’t as if you get back up north to see them that often, and that after the party tonight, we won’t be seeing much of each other until we’re back in London. ”
“All right. Although I’ll have to think what I’m going to say to my parents.”
That was a complication she hadn’t considered. “Do your parents have to know?”
“Your mother will be on the phone to my mother before Santa squeezes his extra-large self down the chimney.”
“I’ll tell her not to say anything. I’ll emphasise that we never meant for this to come out this way and we want to do it together, at the proper time. I’ll say this is Jamie’s moment, or we think everyone should focus on Christmas—I don’t know. Something.”
They heard Rosie calling their names but they both ignored her.
Becky shivered as a few flakes of snow landed on her hair.
Will brushed them away and then he cupped her face in his hands, studied her for a long moment and then lowered his head and kissed her.
It was so unexpected she almost jumped, but his mouth was warm and skilled, his kiss slow and deliberate, and instead of jumping she kissed him back, her fingers curling into the front of his coat as she tried to balance herself.
Kissing didn’t normally make her head spin, but today her head was spinning.
Keeping one hand locked behind her head, he used the other to hold her against him and she found herself pressed against the hardness of his thighs, anchored in place by the solid strength of his body.
She forgot that it was snowing and she was freezing, she forgot that he was doing this to convince her sister, she forgot everything except the exquisite intimacy of his kiss.
When he finally lifted his head she was glad he was still holding her because she felt dizzy and slightly disconnected. Also disappointed that he’d stopped.
Will. Will? Never in a million years would she ever have suspected he would kiss like that. Not that she’d thought about it. She hadn’t thought about him , not in that way (until the night before when for some reason she’d started thinking about little else).
She knew exactly why he’d kissed her. He was helping her. Because that was what friends did. If she’d known he was that good at kissing she would have suggested they do it sooner. And more often. As a hobby, obviously. Like enjoying a drink, or a movie. Not because it meant anything.
“Will! Becky!” Rosie’s voice drifted across to them. “I’ve been yelling, but you couldn’t hear me.”
Becky waited for Will to release her but for some reason he didn’t seem to be in a hurry.
“Sorry, Rosie. We were—preoccupied.” He was talking to her sister but still looking at Becky and she found she couldn’t look away.
He really did have the bluest eyes.
She swallowed. “That was—”
“Yes,” he said softly, brushing her cheek with the tips of his fingers. “It was.”
She kept telling herself that this was Will, just Will, but her heart rate wasn’t paying attention. There was a delicious squirmy feeling low in her belly which refused to die down.
“You’re surprisingly good at this—” she felt her cheeks go pink “—pretending I mean, obviously.”
There was a hint of laughter in his eyes. “Obviously.”
“But we have a plan.”
He hesitated. “We have a plan.”
“You two! I’ve been yelling and you didn’t even hear me.
” Rosie arrived, breathless. “And I thought it was bad watching Jamie and Hayley slobbering all over each other, and now you two are doing it too?” She gave Becky a keen look and Becky wondered if the words big fat liar were tattooed on her forehead.
“You’ll have to forgive us—” Will kept his arm around Becky “—we’ve kept it a secret for so long it’s a relief to finally be able to be honest about our feelings.”
“Right—I—” Rosie gave a helpless shrug. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!
And I’m sorry. I don’t know what made me say what I said.
It’s been crazy lately and Declan and I—well, that doesn’t matter.
I’m so happy for you, really. And I know you probably hate me for making you the focus of attention, but if it’s any consolation I embarrassed myself far more than you.
” She gave Will a big hug and then did the same to Becky.
Becky felt Rosie’s hair brush her cheek and she felt her arms squeezing her tightly. Something swelled in her chest. She’d missed her sister. She’d missed her so badly.
They held each other and it took a moment for it to dawn on Becky that Rosie hadn’t finished her sentence.
She’d said Declan and I...
Was something wrong between the two of them? No, surely not. She’d never seen two people more wrapped up in each other than those two. But something must be wrong. Why else would Rosie be feeling so insecure about her relationship?
But Rosie wasn’t one to bottle up a problem. If she was worried, she would have talked to Becky before now surely?
She ignored the little voice in her head reminding her that she hadn’t exactly made herself accessible to her sister. She tried not to think about the number of times Rosie had invited her over and she’d refused.
Guilt shimmered through her.
She had no idea how she was going to handle this. She needed to sort things out with Will and fix things with her sister.
But this wasn’t the time.
“Forget it. No harm done. We should get back.” Her head was throbbing. She hated emotional chaos. “Will needs to get home and see his parents.”
“Oh, no need for that. They’re here.” Rosie adjusted her hat to stop her hair blowing across her face. “That’s what I came to tell you.”
“Here?” Becky’s stomach lurched. “You mean here at our house?”
“Yes.” Rosie linked arms with her as they headed back to the house. “Our mother called your mother, Will.”
“Right.” Will’s stride didn’t falter. “Of course she did.”
Crap. Crap.
Drowning in guilt and mortification, Becky glanced at him but his face revealed nothing.