Chapter 18
He should make polite conversation. For her sake, he needed to.
She was driving with a thick groove between her eyebrows, muttering occasionally to herself.
Even if he hadn’t learned to read her body language – right now it was hunched shoulders and a tight jaw – it would have been obvious she was upset.
She thought he wasn’t saying anything because she’d propositioned him, but in truth, he was thinking in endless loops, trying to justify accepting her offer – and recovering from the shock of her making it.
She wanted him, in one way, at least. Every time he circled back to that, it came with a jolt to his heart. He wasn’t the only one feeling this buzz. It wasn’t a new malfunction in his brain. His body and mind, his instincts, were actually working properly.
The moment she’d opened her mouth and kissed him back was something he’d remember until he died.
One kiss had exploded everything between them – which was exactly why he should leave it at one kiss.
Up until two months ago, she’d been searching desperately for her soulmate, and he was leaving for Canada in a few weeks.
Although perhaps his imminent departure wouldn’t matter to her, when all she’d suggested was a casual wedding hook-up with no emotional consequences.
But he’d hurt her feelings already and all he’d done was hesitate. Anything more would be a terrible idea. She was the life and soul of I Do – and now Great Heart – even though she would never believe him if he told her that. She deserved everything.
But if she really wanted something short-term…
They arrived back at the lake with several more loops still to play out in his brain.
She cut the engine of the new hire car, a slate-blue Fiat Panda this time, and flicked a glance in his direction and away again.
Her hair was mussed and limp after their long afternoon on the autobahn.
All he could think about was how he’d loved the feel of it.
She climbed out of the car before he could say anything – not that he had any idea what to say.
‘Ginny—’ he managed before she took off for the hotel.
She shook her head. ‘Don’t start this again.’
She was right. They were both better off if nothing further happened – would have been better off if that kiss had never happened.
He fetched his bags out of the car so she could lock it, then dawdled behind her to the doors which burst open just before she reached them.
‘Ginny! We expected you back hours ago. Are you all—?’ Tita gasped before she could finish her question. ‘What’s happened?’
‘It’s fine,’ she insisted.
‘There was an accident on the autobahn,’ Rhys answered as he approached. ‘Ginny did brilliantly and avoided the worst of it, but the hire car was damaged and we had to wait for a replacement. You’d better take her in for a drink and a rest.’
Before Ginny could react beyond her mouth dropping open and her gaze swivelling to him, Tita exclaimed, ‘Goodness! Sweetie, come in,’ and wrapped an arm around her to usher her inside.
He followed, keeping his head down and making for the stairs to his room.
When he shrugged out of his coat, the weight of it was unexpected and he paused, thinking of the chestnuts, remembering how Ginny had talked about her father, her voice cracked.
He emptied the nuts onto the little shelf by the door, wondering if she was doing the same.
At a dangerous loose end, he gave in to the temptation to flick through his photos from today, zooming in on the figure of her.
Scrolling further back, he found the photo he’d snapped of her at the waterfalls yesterday.
As always, it was like looking at a stranger, and yet her deep cherry-red lipstick and high ponytail had stuck in his memory.
There was a kind of familiarity in the shot, perhaps because he’d taken it himself.
Or perhaps because he knew what it was like to kiss her.
A knock at the door made him hurriedly switch off the camera.
He was almost relieved to have company. At least that would stop him from agonising over whether he should have accepted Ginny’s proposition.
But when he opened the door to Kira, her expression suggested he might have been better off brooding alone.
‘We’re having a drink downstairs and you aren’t getting out of it just because you guys apparently had a car accident.’
‘Er, okay. Give me a second.’
Packing away the camera carefully, he stowed it in the wardrobe and turned to find Kira absently picking up the chestnuts and turning them in her hands.
‘Ginny’s one of the worst drivers I know,’ she commented. ‘She stops and starts like a maniac. I’m so not surprised this finally happened.’
‘I know what you mean, but she did some pretty good stunt driving to avoid a real collision.’
‘Ha. I can believe that too.’
Downstairs, he found Andreas, Laurie, Willard and Toni at a table with beers. Kira took a seat she’d obviously just vacated.
‘Here, I smoked him out. We already got you a beer.’ She set the bottle in front of the spare seat and he slipped into it, stretching his legs.
Andreas tapped the neck of his beer against Rhys’s. ‘So, where are you going for your next assignment, you lucky bastard?’
He was off balance already and the question tipped him further. ‘Canada,’ he answered reflexively. He opened his mouth to explain it was a two-year contract, maybe a permanent move, but before he could get the words out, Willard was clapping him on the shoulder.
‘That’s brilliant! Glad to hear you’ve got something lined up.
Not that we don’t love to have you around in Weymouth.
I only wish I could offer you more work myself,’ he said with a grimace.
‘It’s such a shame there seems to be so much more work in wedding photography than climbing photography.
Are you holding up okay with all the people and the events? ’
‘I’m okay, I just don’t really know what I’m doing,’ he admitted.
‘Cheers to that,’ Andreas said.
‘That’s why we’ve got Ginny,’ Kira joked.
Laurie laughed, which sent a prickle up Rhys’s spine. ‘To Ginny!’ he said, lifting his drink to clink with the others one more time. ‘May she keep Andreas in line for long enough to get him to the altar.’
Kira went to take a sip of her beer but choked before she could swallow. She was staring over Rhys’s shoulder. He had an inkling of who would be there before he turned. The claustrophobia of this wedding meant he couldn’t seem to get away from her.
The warm fizz in his stomach when he contemplated turning to look at her suggested he didn’t want to get away from her. In fact, knowing she was there seemed to settle pleasantly in him.
That was a change.
The cadence of her footsteps as she approached was energetic, familiar.
He picked up the light flowery scent of her skin and took his time enjoying the anticipation before lifting his eyes to her.
She’d taken off her make-up. No more smudged black eyeliner with a subtle wing effect.
She’d changed her clothes, but he recognised her fluffy sweater and the way she clasped her hands in front of her.
It took him too long to remember that she’d overheard Laurie’s poor-taste joke.
But instead of getting upset, as she had at the waterfalls, she quipped, ‘I’m glad you all know who’s in charge here, but I’m afraid keeping Andreas in line is well above my pay grade.
The rest of you, though…’ She lifted a playful finger, pointing at Willard and Kira, Toni, Laurie and wavering when she reached him.
‘Are you going to join us?’ Toni asked, shuffling her chair to the side and making space for an extra one – right next to him.
His thoughts raced forward to the prospect of sitting next to her. They wouldn’t talk, because anything they’d say to each other would be charged with what had happened on the autobahn today.
Even yesterday, he might have cringed at the awkward prospect, but today, his breath caught in anticipation, his heart pounding.
‘No thanks, Toni.’
Rhys blinked. The space next to him seemed to burn as he struggled not to take it personally. Of course she was still mad at him for turning her down, although it had been the hardest thing he’d had to do in a long time and it was feeling like the wrong decision right now.
‘I’ll only cramp your style,’ she said lightly. ‘You guys enjoy your ball-and-chain jokes and I’m just going to eat something and go to bed. All this romance and commitment and love is exhausting sometimes – even on days when I don’t have a car accident.’
She turned to Andreas, one hand on her hip.
‘Just let me know if we’re calling the whole thing off, okay?’
‘We’re not—’
‘God, I’m not being serious. I’m here for the canapés, the champagne and the bows, but the emotional stuff is all on you, Andreas. The rest of you might need to step up and, you know, be real friends?’
She blinked, as though she hadn’t intended to say all that, but Ginny wasn’t good at holding back and it was something he… Well, he appreciated that about her.
‘I need food, like, two hours ago,’ she muttered. ‘You all… go ahead and toast me while I stabilise my metabolism.’
They watched her go in awkward silence until Andreas chuckled. ‘She’s so agreeable and then bam! She gets you in the teeth.’
Rhys couldn’t disagree with that.
Andreas continued speaking. ‘One of the endless idiots she’s dated should have come up to scratch. They were all empty-headed lumps. She deserves better.’
She was out of earshot, heading for the bar, but something made her glance back over her shoulder. How many times had their gazes clashed like this in the gym over the past eighteen months? But this time… This time she was really looking back at him.
‘She does deserve better,’ he mumbled. But he was still going to go to her room tonight and see what happened.