Chapter 53
CHAPTER 53
T he three of them stood in the doorway to the beautifully decorated guest room. The walls were painted a powder blue, while a watercolour painting of the street hung on the wall. To the right of them was the ensuite. While in the centre of the room, the bed was decked out in pristine white linen—one double bed.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that you weren’t together,” Magdalen said, having apologised at least a dozen times already. “You’ve been so cosy and giggling together all night.”
“No, it was a work meeting,” Kent said, although he cleared his throat several times during the sentence, which made it sound terribly unbelievable, even to Gemma, who knew he was telling the truth.
“Is there any chance you’ve got a twin room available?” Gemma said. “Or maybe a double with a sofa? I don’t mind sleeping on that.”
“Don’t be silly. If there’s a sofa, I’ll be the one to sleep on it,” Kent replied.
“We don’t have anything else at all,” Magdalen said. “I’m so sorry, I really am. All our other rooms are booked up for the night. We’ve got guests coming for the weekend sailing event. Why don’t I book you a taxi, get you home that way?”
Gemma mulled the comment over.
“If we go home, we’ve got to come back here to pick up our cars tomorrow. That’s hardly the most productive use of time.”
Kent nodded in agreement.
“It’s fine. There are plenty of cushions. We can put them down the middle or something. Actually, there might be room for me to sleep on the floor?”
“Oh, I feel terrible,” Magdalen said.
Gemma shook her head. “Don’t be silly. You did a really nice thing. We’ll work it out. This is fine, honestly. It will just be like a work sleepover.”
“A work sleepover,” Kent said, raising his eyebrow as a smirk twisted on his lips. It took all Gemma’s strength to suppress her giggle. After all, Magdalen was clearly upset over the misunderstanding and Gemma didn’t want to appear rude.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Magdalen said. “And I’m sorry again.”
She went to leave, only to step back into the room and look at the pair.
“You swear you’re not a couple, and you’re not just winding me up?” she said.
“Definitely not.”
“Absolutely not.”
Kent and Gemma spoke simultaneously, at which point Magdalen gave a short shrug before turning back to the door for a second time.
A moment later, she shut the door behind her, leaving Kent and Gemma alone in the bedroom.
“Well, this was unexpected,” Kent said.
“That’s one way of putting it.”