Chapter Three
HE WAS SO damned sure of himself!
Sammy had spent the next forty-eight hours fuming. Her ability for recall was obviously world-class because she could remember every detail of Leo’s visit and every fleeting expression on his face as he had laid out his proposal.
The fact that he had waltzed in with an engagement ring said it all. He hadn’t expected to leave her flat without a satisfactory conclusion to his offer.
He hadn’t arrived on her doorstep to ask a favour of her. He had arrived on her doorstep to blackmail her into helping him out. He’d held all the trump cards and he’d known that she would have been unable to refuse him.
As he had cleverly pointed out, her agreement to go along with him would make a world of difference to her mother and would relieve her of the constant low-level stress of worrying about the house and the unpaid remainder of mortgage.
The fact that she would also have her daughter around and at hand for as long as was necessary had been just another bonus factor.
The deal was done before he’d issued her a time limit in which to make her mind up. He’d even correctly predicted that her mother had been well aware of his proposition so there had been no shock or surprise when Sammy had called to discuss it with her.
And now here she was, waiting for him to show up like a sixteen-year-old nervously counting the minutes until her date showed up to take her to the prom.
Except Leo was no normal date and her nerves did not stem from eager excitement.
She saw his car when it had almost come to a stop outside the house and she hurriedly flew back from the window and then waited until she heard the buzz of the doorbell.
She had dressed in defiant combat mode—literally. A pair of combat trousers, a green long-sleeved thermal vest, over which she had on her warmest army-green jumper, trainers and her waterproof coat with its very sensible furry hood.
She pulled open the door and, for a second, the breath caught in her throat as she stared up at him.
It was freezing. Sleet was falling, the skies the colour of lead. Yet, for all the discomfort of the weather, Leo still managed to look expensive, elegant and sexy in black jeans, a black jumper and a tan trench coat.
‘You’re not wearing the engagement ring’ was the first thing he said.
‘I didn’t think there was any need to stick it on just yet.’
‘Every need. The loving couple wants to advertise their love, not hide it away like a shameful secret. Where is it?’
‘It’s in my bag.’
‘Then I suggest you fetch it out and put it on. And there’s something else.’ He eyed her outfit. ‘I’m under strict orders not to tell you this, but there’s a little surprise reception waiting for us when we get to my father’s house.’
Sammy, in the act of rustling through her backpack to locate the box with the engagement ring, froze. ‘Surprise reception?’
‘My father’s idea. You know he’s inclined towards sentimentality.’
‘This is a fake engagement, Leo! It’s going to last until Adele is over here and then there’s going to be a fake break-up!’
‘Believe me, I told him that, but he said the whole thing wouldn’t sit right without some kind of celebration marking the big event.
He’s got a point. Over the years, he hasn’t exactly been reticent when it’s come to voicing his desire to see me married off.
After our last conversation, he confessed that he’s done a bit of complaining to his cronies at the bowling club and the gardening club and all those other clubs he’s joined, that he’d like nothing more than to have a wonderful daughter-in-law.
Apparently, it’s what my mother would have wanted.
It seems he had chatty conversations with her every so often and she told him that she was keen to see me settle down.
I have no doubt that that little titbit has also been discussed over fertiliser tips for the roses.
It would seem odd if his dearest wish were to come to pass and he kept it to himself,’ Leo told her flatly.
‘His friends would be mortally offended and, worse, some might suspect that he was making the whole thing up.’ He glanced across at her.
‘And, like I said, there can be no room for speculation about this.’
‘It just doesn’t seem right, Leo.’
Leo clicked his tongue impatiently. ‘We wouldn’t be doing this if Gail weren’t so patently unfit to be in charge of the child.’
‘You should stop calling her the child. It makes you seem cold and unfeeling.’
‘We’re getting off-topic,’ Leo drawled. He held up a bag, which she hadn’t noticed him holding, and dangled it in front of her. ‘Little present here for you.’
‘Huh?’
‘Outfit for the engagement party you don’t know about.
I thought a dress might suit the occasion a little more than jeans and a jumper, which I somehow knew you’d greet me in.
Little did I know that you would go one step further and dress for all-out war.
And don’t argue with me on this one, Sammy. Put it on and let’s get going.’
Sammy bristled but he wasn’t going to budge and she snatched the bag from him. Pink, with fancy black lettering, clearly designer. Clearly the sort of thing he liked seeing women in, which would be just the sort of thing she wouldn’t want to wear. ‘Bossy,’ she muttered, heading inside.
‘And another small point.’ He stayed her. ‘We’re supposed to be engaged. People who are engaged are generally happy and pleased to be in one another’s company. Sniping and snarling is going to have to stop. Do I make myself clear?’
Sammy went beetroot-red. ‘I feel as though I’ve been forced into doing this,’ she admitted truthfully. ‘And now I’m being ordered to get dolled up.’
‘I’m no more a fan of deception than you are, believe it or not.
I’ve had to rearrange vast swathes of my working life to accommodate the joy of being engaged and getting out to Australia to sort out a woman who has been a thorn in my side since Sean died.
Throw into the mix that I find myself coping with someone who seems to have perfected the art of moaning, and you get the picture that I’m not exactly a willing participant in this situation!
And, just for the record, you should try thinking about all the upsides of being forced into doing this.
Life is going to be very sweet for you from here on in.
If stress causes ill health then you should be fighting fit for a hundred years!
And you might just like the dress I brought for you.
I’ll wait here while you put it on.’ He glanced at his watch pointedly and lounged against the wall in we’re-on-a-deadline-here mode.
She had expected small, tight and borderline tarty.
It was what the women he went out with wore.
That was his preferred style of dress for a woman.
So she was startled to find herself stepping into the most beautiful soft, dusky pink woollen dress imaginable.
Long-sleeved, knee-length, simple cowl neck, it was soft and demure and fitted her like a glove and she hated to admit it but she loved it.
She also hated to admit that it challenged her view of him as a womanising playboy who had got his own way on this, secured his deal with her and now wanted to dress her up like the sort of doll he imagined would pass muster on his arm in the role of fiancée.
This dress was classy and it had been, she was forced to concede, a thoughtful purchase.
He had actually considered how she would react in her scruffy clothes at a surprise gathering and had pre-empted her embarrassment by providing her with the perfect outfit.
She was much subdued when she joined him back in the hallway, where he was still lounging against the wall, scrolling through his cell phone.
Brilliant eyes shielded as he looked at her, Leo straightened and briskly congratulated her on the quick change of clothes.
Not a word about how she looked, she thought with a flare of disappointment, which she immediately quelled because none of this was real.
‘Do I look a little more presentable?’ Had she actually meant to ask that?
‘Definite step up from the war zone look,’ he murmured. He opened the car door for her and she stepped inside. ‘Now all we need is a smile now and again and some lingering, tender glances and you’ll be the complete package.’
‘You’re very cold, aren’t you?’ She absently thought that he was truly breathtakingly handsome. ‘And your dad is such a warm person.’
‘And look where it got him,’ Leo responded without skipping a beat. ‘After my mother died, he couldn’t cope with solitude so he allowed his emotions to carry him away and he ended up with Georgia. Need I say more?’
‘He was vulnerable,’ Sammy admitted, startled out of her idle gazing at his profile.
‘He was vulnerable because he allowed himself to get swept away by his emotions. If that doesn’t convince you that emotions are best left at the front door, think about Sean.
I admit he was never the most focused guy in the world but who knows.
He might have achieved something if he hadn’t been taken in by Louise. ’
‘So your answer is to just...lock your emotions in a box and throw away the key?’
‘It’s stood me in excellent stead over the years.’
Sammy could now understand why his father was so desperate to have contact with Adele.
He would have wanted to anyway because that was simply the kind of man he was, gentle and effusive and warm, but, with no prospect of his own son rushing down the aisle in a hurry to start the next generation of little Morgan-Whites, he probably saw Adele as his one and only chance of having what amounted to a grandchild.
‘Don’t you plan on marrying...for real?’