Chapter 7 #2
‘Er… yes, sure. If you like,’ she said, folding her arms around her middle and looking suddenly a little uncomfortable about standing in front of him in her nightwear.
‘Feel free to get dressed first,’ he said with a reassuring smile, ‘but only if you want to. Don’t do it for me.’
‘Nah, I’m fine,’ she said, letting her arms swing down to her sides and pushing back her shoulders. ‘Let’s do it now.’
He really liked her self-confidence.
So they started off by chatting about simple things like their favourite books and films and music, then they moved on to which countries they’d like to visit and why.
‘So, it sounds like you haven’t travelled much yet,’ he said as she reeled off the long list of places to visit on her bucket list.
‘I’ve not had much chance,’ she said with a sad smile. ‘Ever since my dad died, I’ve had to spend all my time working and looking after my mum and sister.’
‘Yes, of course,’ Xavier said, chastened. He’d almost forgotten how much she’d had to deal with during her relatively short life. ‘That must have been pretty tough.’
‘Yeah, it was at the beginning,’ she said, hunching her shoulders, but maintaining her sunny smile.
‘My mum got very depressed after we lost him and started really struggling with her Parkinson’s, and Domino was too young to help out.
She still needed someone to look after her and I was the only one available. It didn’t leave a lot of time for me.’
‘No. I bet,’ was all he could muster in response.
It made him realise how easy he’d had it being an only child with family money behind him.
Glancing at his watch, he gave a start of surprise.
He’d been enjoying chatting with her so much he’d not noticed how the time had flown. ‘Hey, it’s nearly lunchtime already.’
‘Oh!’ she said, looking slightly panicked. ‘I’d better get dressed and grab some lunch. I have a hair appointment at two o’clock.’
Once she’d dashed off and changed her clothes they reconvened in the kitchen and ate their fill of the delicious food that Soli had loaded the fridge with – which mostly consisted of Mediterranean-inspired fare like brightly coloured salads, a cold meat platter and a range of healthy grains – before she excused herself to go to her appointment, leaving him on his own.
Experiencing a strange surge of energy once she’d gone, he took himself off for a long, hard session in the gym, followed by a lengthy swim in the pool.
Finally feeling as if he’d got past the odd edgy tension that had kept him moving, he went for a scorching hot shower, coming down from his bedroom to find a wonderful smell wafting from the direction of the kitchen.
Striding in, he found the room empty, though it was clear Soli had been in here recently because there were mixing bowls in the sink and a dusting of flour on the work surfaces.
The smell seemed to be coming from the range oven and he peered through the glass to see a large cake rising inside its tin.
Despite having stuffed himself at lunchtime, he heard his stomach give a growl of hunger. He’d told her he didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but he’d make an exception for something that smelt that good.
‘I thought we could take it to the party as a gift for your friends,’ came a soft voice behind him and he spun around to see Soli standing in the doorway with a tentative smile on her face.
There was a strange rising sensation in his chest when he noticed how her wild curls had been tamed into sleek blonde waves, making her look a good few years older than she was.
Not that he didn’t like her usual hairstyle.
In fact, he probably preferred her hair au naturel, but he appreciated the effort she’d gone to for the party.
‘Your hair looks nice,’ he croaked through a suddenly dry throat.
It must be the heat from the oven getting to him.
She gave him a wide, delighted smile. ‘Thanks, I’m glad you like it.’
‘Are you going to be wearing that later?’ he asked jokily to distract himself from the inappropriate way his body seemed to be responding to her now, pointing to the bathrobe he’d loaned her that morning, which she had wrapped tightly around her.
She smiled back. ‘I wasn’t planning on it, no. I bought a dress especially for the occasion. I hope it’s the right sort of thing.’ He noticed her jaw twitch and realised she was probably as nervous about going tonight as he was.
‘Don’t worry, they’re a friendly crowd, on the whole.
’ He took a stabilising breath. ‘I probably ought to warn you that there’s a good chance my ex, Harriet, might be there, and there could be a bit of tension.
’ He frowned, wondering how best to explain this without having to go into too much embarrassing detail. ‘We didn’t part on great terms.’
‘Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. So it wasn’t a mutual split, then?’
He looked at her steadily for a second, weighing up whether or not to answer that, before shaking his head. ‘No. It was her choice. But I’m over it now.’
Soli’s eyes narrowed as if suspicious of this bold statement. ‘How long were you with her?’
‘Four years. We met in our last year of university.’
The usual wave of hurt flooded through him at the thought of Harriet and all that had happened between them, but he was determined not to let seeing her again ruin his night tonight.
He needed to concentrate on getting through this thing successfully with Soli and convincing his friends they were a real married couple in order to avoid any more personal humiliation. That had to be his top priority.
‘Is there anything specific I need to know? So I don’t make a faux pas if we meet her?’ Soli asked, her expression open and her voice so kind it reached right inside him and tugged at his heart.
He almost told her everything, right there and then, but decided against it at the last second. She didn’t need to know all the sordid details. It wasn’t as if everyone would still be gossiping about it now. Surely they’d all moved on.
‘No. I think it’s probably best if we just avoid her. I don’t want to cause a scene, especially not in front of Hugo and Veronica, who are friends with both of us,’ he said stiffly.
‘Okay. Well, thanks for the heads up.’ She was looking at him now with a concerned expression, as if she suspected there was more to it than he was telling her.
Nothing, it seemed, got past Soli.
There was an awkward beat of silence where they both smiled at each other, and he couldn’t help but think how pretty she looked.
Her pupils seemed to dilate as she continued to maintain eye contact with him and she drew in a soft, breathy gasp, opening her lips a fraction as if she couldn’t quite get enough air.
His gaze immediately moved to her mouth and he had to force himself not to start wondering what it would feel like to kiss those soft, inviting lips again.
‘I should get the cake out of the oven before it burns,’ she said a little over-brightly, jarring him out of his lascivious trance.
‘Yes. Okay. You do that,’ he said, a little rattled by his body’s instinctive response to her. ‘I’d better go and get ready for the party. We need to leave in about an hour.’
At the door he turned back to watch her as she busied herself around the kitchen, drawing in a great lungful of the delicious smell of the cake as she opened the oven door and bent down to lift it out.
‘There’s a good chance that won’t make it out of the house,’ he joked. ‘It’s altogether too tempting.’
She turned to give him a startled look, quickly recovering her composure when she realised he was talking about the cake. ‘I thought you didn’t like sweet things?’
He raised an eyebrow, tamping down on his amusement about the misinterpreted innuendo. It wasn’t really appropriate to flirt with her when they were on their own. ‘For that,’ he nodded to the tin she had in her oven-gloved hands, ‘I’ll make an exception. It smells incredible.’
Her answering blush brought a smile to his lips, and he allowed himself to flip her one last grin before walking away to prepare for the party, hyper-aware of his blood pumping hard in his ears.