CHAPTER 13
KATIE
Boxing Day.
Okay, that’s a lie. I know exactly how to feel about it. Terrified.
I wipe my sweaty hands over my beige linen pants.
It’s part of the outfit Rosie had chosen for me to wear for a day of travel.
She’d paired it with a white shirt and a navy-blue blazer.
Which, according to my new friend and fashion expert, is the perfect mix of elegant, casual chic that won’t wrinkle after hours on a plane, and screams ‘I’ve got money. ’
Even my clothes are liars these days.
“Leave it.” Jade slaps at my hands as I fiddle with the collar of my shirt.
As befitting her role as the best friend ever, she’s been here since the crack of dawn to help with all things girly.
Hair, make-up and packing, not to mention the hours of grooming and self-tanning she’d helped me with yesterday as well.
In pursuit of what she thinks is the start of my very own romance story, she’d given up her Christmas Day afternoon (after bringing over mountains of leftover food from her Kenyan-inspired Christmas lunch and watching Love Actually with me) to ensure my body is hair-free, and my hair is tamed. Or as tamed as it will ever be.
“This is a bad idea,” I tell her, nibbling on my thumbnail.
Again, she swats my hands away, glaring at me. “We spent hours filing those nails into a thing of beauty. At least wait until I’m out of sight before you ruin my efforts.”
I glance down at her work. Given my hands spend much of their time in latex gloves in the lab, I keep my nails short and low-maintenance.
Right now? After filing, buffing and painting, they look like they belong on the hands of someone else.
Someone who also belongs in this outfit.
And now that you mention it, with someone like Nathan.
“I’m sorry.” I flutter my heavy mascara-coated lashes at her in apology. “I’m so nervous.”
“Understandable,” she replies, smoothing back the flyaways from my forehead. “But you weren’t like this all week. It’s like you went shopping and your anxiety flew through the roof.”
I motion to the five (yes, five!) pieces of designer luggage gathered next to us. “Look at this, Jade. Not only did I have to buy a new wardrobe to attend this wedding, but I needed new luggage to go with it.”
She eyes the Gucci tote with envy. “If you don’t want it, I’ll happily take it off your hands.”
I pull the bag closer to me. I may be anxious, but I’m not crazy. This bag is gorgeous. “It’s not just the shopping spree, it’s…”
I trail off, the sensation of Nathan’s lips against mine so vivid I lose all thoughts from my head.
In the thirty-seven hours since his mouth left mine, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
And even though I know it meant nothing to him, to me, that kiss was everything.
That kiss will be the benchmark that I fear all other kisses will not reach for the rest of my days.
My dramatic self is shining with her hyperbole today.
“What?” my friend prompts me with a small frown on her face.
How long have I been lost in my post-Nathan-kiss-fog?
“It’s nothing.” I shake my head and gather my wits. “It’s so real now. I’m spending an entire week with Nathan’s rich and famous family and friends, pretending to be in love with him. What made me think I could get away with this?”
She tilts her head, her long braids falling over one shoulder. “Um, maybe because you’re halfway there already?”
I gulp and pull in a breath, ready to bluff my way through this. “Oh, come on—”
A sharp beep from outside saves me from some grade-F lying as we both bolt to the window.
“He sent a Bentley to get you?” Jade whispers with reverence, her hand against the glass like she longs to touch it.
“He said he’d send a car. I thought he meant an Uber.”
My bestie throws her head back and laughs, a full-belly chuckle. “Katie, when are you going to learn? That man is throwing out all the stops to impress you, and you think he’s sending some lowly Uber driver to get you?”
“I don’t know. It’s all too much.” I pat my stomach to settle the butterflies who are dancing at her words. “And stop saying things like that. It’s putting all the wrong ideas in my head.”
“Wrong in this case is open to interpretation,” she replies with a toothy grin.
“Fine, whatever.” I give up and grab a suitcase by a handle, lamenting how many trips it’s going to take me to get all these bags down all these stairs. “Gosh, I hope Nathan upgraded the luggage allowance for my ticket.”
Jade’s laughter kicks up a notch, bordering on a ruckus, and I ignore her, opening my door and stumbling to a halt instead.
“Dr Winslow?”
I blink. “Yes? That’s me.”
The man in a sharp black suit, white shirt and a black tie smiles at me. “I’m Graham. Mr Jackson sent me to escort you to the airport.”
“Right. Yes, thank you, Graham.”
He motions to the bags behind me. “I’ll get your bags sorted, if you want to make your way down to the car.”
“Um.” I scan Graham and then the mountain of luggage I can’t possibly need for the next seven days. “How about I help you?”
His answering smile is swift and kind. “It’s okay. I can manage.”
Glancing between the driver and a grinning Jade, I give up. “Well, thank you. I’ll just say goodbye to my cat and meet you down there.”
Graham nods and grabs hold of three suitcases at once. Clearly, he’s used to dealing with over-packers.
“Right, now are you sure you’re happy to take care of Nuke while I’m gone?”
Jade nods. “Of course. It will be easy. She loves me more than you.”
Again, I don’t argue. It’s true. That cat loves everyone more than me. “Well, thanks.” I pull her in for a full-body hug. “For everything. But especially for giving up part of your Christmas to make me Nathan-worthy.”
She pulls back, her perfect brows drawn down.
“That wasn’t it at all, Katie. You are more than Nathan worthy, just as you are.
This”—she waves up and down my body—“This is to give you confidence when you’re dealing with those people.
That’s all. You are a stunning, amazing doctor who doesn’t need a fancy wardrobe or polished nails to win a man.
In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve already won him.
All this stuff? It’s window dressing. Once they see who you are, none of it will matter. ”
My eyes fill as her words wash over me. She sounds like my mum, and I fall a bit more in love with my best friend because of it.
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She blinks her watery eyes and waggles a finger at me. “Now, no tears. That mascara is amazing, but not waterproof.”
I nod and hug her one last time. “I’ll see you in a week. Take care of Nuke and the tree for me.”
She beams a brilliant smile at me. “Have the best time ever. And be gentle with Nathan. He’s a mere man, after all; his heart stands no chance against you.”
I scoff and wave her delusions away. Reaching over, I run a quick hand over Nucleus, the most affection she will accept from me.
Then, with a sigh of excitement—nerves? trepidation?
—I head downstairs, where Graham has packed his fancy car with my fancy luggage as I head to the fanciest destination I can imagine.
It’s a week. Not much can happen in seven days. Before I know it, I’ll be back here, just Katie and her cat and her lab. Just like I like it.
Right?
?·?·?
“This is you.”
Graham pulls his fancy car to a halt in front of a section of Heathrow Airport I’ve never seen before.
I didn’t even know it existed. The handful of times I’ve visited this place involved crushing crowds of disgruntled and harried travellers, all standing in unmoving lines and complaining about how slow and inefficient this airport is.
Where we’ve stopped? It’s an oasis of vast, empty spaces, peppered with neatly dressed staff members rushing to open my door and sort out my luggage. This place—as the signage denotes—is for the first-class passengers. Who, in this instance, includes me.
“Um, sorry about all the bags,” I say to no one in particular. Apart from smiling at me, no one is paying me much attention. Too busy organising everything and leaving me with only time to think on my hands.
What am I supposed to do now?
“Katie!”
I turn and smile with relief at the sight of a glamorously dressed Rosie waving at me.
In complete opposition to what she advised me to wear for a nine-hour flight, she’s in a vibrant, blue-coloured maxi dress, complete with spaghetti shoulder straps and sandals.
It’s currently five degrees Celsius outside, and yet if she’s freezing, she doesn’t show it.
Nathan’s sister is nothing but perfect-looking all the time.
If I didn’t love her so much, I’d have to be petty and hate her.
“Rosie.” I rush to her side, sparing a last glance at where my luggage has been whisked away. How do they know who I am? And where I’m going? This is a whole different world; this place where money makes everything easy. “You are gorgeous!”
Rosie pulls me in for a hug before leaning back and running her gaze over me. “You follow instructions well. You look perfect.”
My cheeks heat at the compliment. If there’s one thing I excel at, it’s listening to people who know more than me. Rosie lives in this world, so for the next seven days, she will be my guide.
“Thank you.” I smooth out my pants, happy to see they are still wrinkle-free as promised.
“Are you ready for this?” She links her arm through mine and pulls me further into the building.
“No,” I admit, pulling in a deep breath and smiling. It even smells rich in here. Like vanilla and old money. “But let’s do it, anyway.”
We walk into the first-class lounge, and I follow Rosie’s lead, handing over my passport at the desk and leaving it there.
I’m assuming all the paperwork will be taken care of while we indulge in pastries and perfect cups of tea; again, it’s a window into how the other half live.
Or the other one per cent, as the case may be.
“Kitty Kat.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention, and I swallow the entire pistachio macaron I’d just stuffed in my mouth before turning.
It’s been two days since I’ve seen Nathan, since that kiss, and I’m still not ready to face him.
To face him and pretend to be in love with him, while pretending not to actually be in love with him.
It’s so complicated, I’m getting a tension headache already.
“Hi.”
Today, like me, Nathan is dressed for travel. He’s wearing dark denim jeans, a white t-shirt and a navy woollen cardigan. On anyone else, this would suggest dowdy; on this man, it screams yummy! Or kiss me.
Oh boy, am I in trouble.
“You look beautiful.” Nathan steps into my space and brushes his lips over my cheek. It’s the lightest of touches, and yet it sets my skin on fire. My lips tingle as they watch on with jealousy, wanting the same attention given to them.
To give my hands something to do, other than grab onto him, I scoop my hair away from my neck and over my shoulder. Jade had spent a long while working on straightening it this morning, knowing that once the humidity of St. Lucia hits its strands, it won’t look like this again.
“Thanks. So do you.” The words are out of my mouth, and all I can do is blink and blush. Did I just tell him he looks beautiful?
Nathan smirks and tucks me under his arm. “Thanks, girlfriend.”
Ah, yes. The subterfuge starts now. Today and for the next week, I’m his girlfriend. Flirting, compliments and touching are all part of the deal.
Hmm, I don’t hate it.
He walks us over to where Rosie is seated, watching us with a knowing smile on her face.
“Girlfriend, h-hey? I t-think we can come up with s-something better than that,” I stammer, going for nonchalant but sounding starstruck instead.
His gaze traces over me, and he pulls me in even closer, like he wants every part of my side touching every part of his. “Oh, I can do better. What do you prefer? Darling? Sweetheart? Baby?”
My heart stutters. Never, ever have I been called any of these endearments. That Nathan is the one saying these things is mind-blowing.
It’s all fake, Katie. Please don’t forget that.
“How about you pick something that feels right?” My voice has a breathy note that is embarrassing. I need to pull it together.
Nathan peers down at me, his lips parted as he stares. “Hmmm, this may take a minute.”
I nod. That’s fair. Perhaps because it’s fake and none of these nicknames feel right?
“Come on, you two love birds,” Rosie calls with a cheeky smile. She’s loving every minute of this. “We’re boarding.”
I glance around to see a handful of passengers meandering towards the plane and marvel again at how easy this all is. No lining up, no waiting around for hours, no…anything. Just turn up, eat many pastries and board.
“A girl could get used to this,” I mutter under my breath.
Nathan takes my hand in his and plants a soft kiss across my fingers. “My girl should get used to this.”
My stupid heart loves the sound of everything he just said, so I duck my head and hide my face, my thoughts and my feelings behind a curtain of my hair.
My girl. I may just love that endearment most of all.