16. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
E vie enjoyed the blast of cold water from the shower, rinsing off the chlorine after her morning swim. She'd got into a habit of swimming most mornings, enjoying the birdsong and the chill in the air before the sun rose for another hot day. She knew she'd be sad to leave the place behind when she had to return to work.
Mind you, she thought as she returned to her bedroom to dress, the one thing she was looking forward to was waking up without a canine companion. She coughed at the unmistakable scent that wafted over to her and opened a window as far as it would go, trying to see where Cyan's dog was.
Knowing that she’d placed Lou Lou carefully in her own dog bed around three hours earlier, having spent the majority of the night attempting to settle the disgruntled Chihuahua, she spotted her lying on Evie's pillow, flat on her back, eyes firmly shut and mouth wide open. Evie had to admire the small animal. How she’d been able to get onto Evie’s bed with those short legs was nothing short of impressive. The wind was less so. She'd have to look at what the dog was eating whilst she looked after her.
Pulling on some shorts and a t-shirt, whilst running through what the plans would be – even though it was a Sunday they were all still expected to be working, Evie leant over to stroke Lou Lou and jumped slightly as she heard the door to her bedroom squeaking on its hinges.
‘I thought you might like a coffee,’ James came in and placed a mug on the table next to her. ‘But I see you have company,’ he said, smiling in the direction of Lou Lou.
Evie pressed herself up into a seated position, allowing James to sit next to her on the bed. She enjoyed the weight of him being so near. ‘This is Cyan’s dog, Lou Lou. We’re minding her until Cyan comes back.’ James’ eyebrows shot up.
‘Minding her? I’m not really a dog person Evie,’ he said, looking over at the small animal who was awake and eyeballing him. She rolled over and carefully picked her way across the duvet to him, nuzzled his hand and then lay her head on his lap.
‘I’d disagree. Seeing as how well you two are getting on. Why don’t you take her downstairs and I’ll meet you down there.’ She watched as James rubbed the little dog’s ears fondly, then picked her up and left the room with a goofy smile on his face.
Later as they made their way to Cyan's house, with Lou Lou happily asleep in their living room, Evie caught James’ hand briefly. ‘I was sorry we had to cut our beach day off yesterday,’ she said squeezing it a little. He squeezed hers back, and after quickly looking to see if anyone was around, pushed her towards a wall which would afford them a little privacy. The kiss he gave he was so hungry Evie felt like she was melting. She was convinced they could stay like this forever until she heard the unmistakable roar of Bryn’s motorbike making its way towards the main house.
Kissing her deeply once again James reluctantly withdrew himself and ran a hand through his hair, neatening it from where her hands had been just moments before. Evie tidied her ponytail and dusted herself down a little in a bid to compose herself.
‘We need to make sure no one sees us Evie, not until the job’s done. We need the team’s respect,’ James added and Evie found herself nodding along though not completely in agreement. ‘We have so much to get done, the house is looking worse now than when we started. The last thing we need is anything interrupting work.’
Evie walked quickly to keep up with him. ‘I know, its fine. Though you realise the reason its worse is because we’ve ripped everything out, the next task is to make everything look better.’ She stroked his arm and was rewarded by the sight of little goose bumps pimpling his flesh. James looked over, his eyes light as the morning sky and gave her an odd half smile.
‘We’ve waited for ten years, what’s a few more days?’
Before she could reply James had strode on to meet Bryn, shaking the man’s hand. As she neared, Evie heard discussions of the measures needed for the wedding in just over a week and grimaced. There was a lot to do.
She made her way through the main door of the house, stopping to admire the sweep of the double staircase yet again. The main entrance held so much impact, she could imagine Cyan alighting down one of the flights of stairs in her bridal gown. A large piece of stained glass which sat above the door shone fragments of rainbow light across the now rescued parquet flooring, and everywhere Evie looked someone was busy doing something to rescue the mansion from it’s grey bleakness and restore some much needed class and colour. Heading up one flight of the stairs she took a left and made her way to the owners’ wing of the house. The other side held guest rooms, a lounge and bathrooms but this side was dedicated to Cyan. She had an enormous bedroom that had three large windows along one side looking out to the back of the house across the orchard. Another window was on the left and if you squinted hard enough a silver flash of ocean could be seen, even if it couldn’t be heard.
The owner’s wing comprised a suite of rooms. The bedroom, an equally cavernous dressing room with more floor space than Evie’s entire flat; a bathroom that was soon to be complete with roll top bath, and a sitting room which looked out across the front of the house.
Evie spent the morning helping to paper the walls in the bedroom with the team. Mick had set up his heavy duty stereo and it was blasting out hits from the nineties. They worked quickly together, and it was with a large amount of satisfaction that Evie stepped back a few hours later to assess how the room looked. The look in this room was meant to reflect the countryside setting it was in, but with a modern twist. Grace had commissioned hand painted wallpaper with a floral pattern which replicated the vivid pink peonies and bright orange roses that grew in the garden, and Evie was bringing in some choice antique furniture that reflected the age of the building. But she was going bold with a dark moss green ceiling and bronze accents. Evie’s idea, that Grace had agreed to, had been to give Cyan a space that felt like a warm cocoon. Somewhere to escape the day-to-day. She was pleased it was beginning to come together.
Sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, enjoying the sunlight streaming across the wooden floors, Evie decided to call Grace so her friend could see how things were coming together. She found her number and pressed call, noting in the small frame of the phone screen that despite being inside for the last week she’d still picked up a light tan and her freckles had popped across her nose and cheeks.
‘Hello, I thought you’d forgotten me,’ Grace grinned. ‘Tell me everything.’
Evie spent some time showing Grace the wallpaper and the rest of the suite, detailing all the things she knew her friend would need to hear – the obstacles overcome, the impressiveness of her design and the beauty of the house.
Resting against the wall of the sitting room, Evie looked out of the window onto the drive as she spoke to Grace. ‘So I think it’s working. I mean we’re a long way from finished, but it’s looking good,’ Evie waited to see her friend nod.
‘Definitely. I’m really proud of you. You and James are working so well on this…speaking of…how did the beach date go?’ Evie had been texting Grace updates on how she and James were getting on.
Evie sighed a little. ‘We were interrupted by Cyan. She wanted us back at the house so anything that could have happened didn’t…but we did have a very intense kiss this morning,’ she said remembering how it had felt and blushing, then smiling at her friend.
‘That’s all sounding good, why don’t you look happy? He’s not messing you around?’
Evie looked at the screen and decided to confide her concerns. ‘He doesn’t want anyone to know. He says it’s because he wants this project to go off without a problem, but I don’t see why we can’t be open in front of the team. They’re a nice bunch.’ She idly began picking at bits of paint that needed to be sanded off the window frame.
‘You won’t want to hear this, but he’s right. It’s probably easier to just let whatever it is between the two of you play out as privately as possible, and then when you know what it is, you’ll be able to announce yourselves. Give yourself a bit of time honey, it’s only been a few days and you’re not even sure what’s going on. You don’t need conversations with strangers.’
‘Mmm.’ Evie continue to strip the paint flakes and decided to open the window to get to a few more, it was oddly satisfying. As she opened the window she caught someone talking heatedly somewhere outside. It sounded a bit like it might be James.
‘Grace, can I call you back?’
Craning her neck Evie tried to locate the source for the clearly angry person, judging by the raised voice. She spotted James under the window, behind a hedge trying to get himself some privacy but the light wind was carrying strains of his one-sided conversation over to her as he seemed to be negotiating with someone on the phone.
‘No…I won’t…I won’t tell her…you have my word…’
Tell who what? Evie tried to hear more but frustratingly James had moved out of earshot. Just as she was about to give up and ponder on what she heard, he returned to the same space under the window in time for her to catch what she was almost sure was the words ‘I love you’, before he hung up.
Evie’s heart sank. He had been playing her all along.