Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
The public terrace was quiet at this hour, but Alba wasn’t surprised. The birds were barely awake, even as the early morning light warmed her face a little. She looked around, but all she found was steam drifting up from the spa pools.
Alba sank deeper into the warmth of the jacuzzi and closed her eyes.
The water lapped gently against her shoulders, the hum of the jets vibrating through the tiled bench beneath her.
Normally, it would have been soothing; it was exactly the sort of quiet indulgence people came to places like this for. But her mind refused to cooperate.
She’d slipped out of the suite while Ellie was still asleep, moving as carefully as possible so the mattress wouldn’t shift and wake her.
It had seemed like the safest option at the time, because the longer she’d lay beside Ellie in that enormous bed, listening to her gentle breathing, the harder it had been to put her thoughts in any sort of sensible order.
So she’d escaped.
Which would have worked beautifully if her brain had agreed to shut up for five minutes. Unfortunately, it hadn’t. Instead, it had replayed the conversation from the balcony over and over again.
Ellie…and dating.
She rested her head back against the edge of the jacuzzi and opened her eyes, staring up at the pale blue sky stretched above her.
This was exactly the type of mess she’d promised herself she wouldn’t create.
She’d come here knowing Ellie was straight, she’d come here knowing Ellie was her boss, and she’d come here knowing the safest thing she could possibly do…
was keep their friendship firmly inside the boundaries it already had.
Yet she’d somehow managed to fall for her anyway.
A quiet, humourless laugh slipped from her lips. “Brilliant work. Well done.”
Her eyes stung as tears started to form. Oh, for God’s sake. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, but the tears slipped free anyway, disappearing immediately into the warm water surrounding her shoulders.
This was ridiculous. She was sitting in a luxury spa overlooking a beautiful lake…crying over a woman who didn’t even know she felt this way.
And then she heard footsteps approaching across the stone tiles. “Alba?”
Alba quickly wiped at her face, hoping the steam would hide whatever evidence remained.
She turned just as Ellie appeared at the edge of the pool.
Her hair was in a messy bun, some of it escaping and falling loosely around her face in a way that made Alba’s eyes mist all over again. God, she was so effortlessly beautiful.
The robe she’d thrown on looked as though it had been tied in a hurry, the belt knotted carelessly at her waist, and Ellie had concern written plainly across her face. “I wondered where you’d gone when I woke up.”
“Morning.” Alba cleared her throat and forced a smile. “I was awake, so I thought I’d get a head start on the day.”
Ellie studied her, and then she frowned. “Have you been crying?”
“N-no.”
Ellie quirked a brow. “Your eyes are red.”
“It’ll be the steam,” Alba said quickly. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Mm. Like a log.” Ellie didn’t move. She simply stood there watching her, her expression calm but clearly unconvinced.
When she eventually slipped her robe from her shoulders and laid it carefully on a nearby lounger, Alba became distracted by her all over again.
This had to stop. It really had to stop.
She refused to spend the rest of her time here with Ellie feeling like this.
“I thought I’d have a dip before breakfast.”
“Always good to wake yourself up first.” Ellie slid into the jacuzzi, moaning as the water wrapped around her. She lay her head back and closed her eyes, smiling. “I thought you’d run off on me for a moment.”
“Nope. Still here.” And right now, that was unfortunate. Maybe she should have run off.
Ellie lifted her head suddenly and eyed Alba. “What’s going on? Because something is.”
Alba paused. Her instinct was to brush it off completely, to make some ridiculous joke and move on, but Ellie’s gaze was so steady that she knew she wouldn’t get away with that.
So, she reached for the safest lie she could think of.
It wasn’t a million miles away from the truth; she was having issues with her ex-wife…
It just wasn’t her reason for being out here so early this morning. “Audrey texted me last night.”
Ellie’s expression changed instantly.
“She won’t let me see Ralph. The dog we got together.”
The bitterness in her voice was real because the situation itself was painfully true.
Ellie leaned forward in the water. “Seriously?”
“She tells me he doesn’t need to spend time with Colin and I, but he’s my dog just as much as he is hers.
” Alba scoffed. “Actually, I’ve done more for him than she ever has.
She’d happily leave him alone all day and night if she could.
I’m the one who pays for someone to sit with him when she’s at work. ”
“She doesn’t cover that herself?”
“No, and I don’t want to call her bluff by refusing to pay it because she’ll just let the dogsitter go, and Ralph will drive himself nuts alone all day.”
Ellie shook her head. “She’s a piece of work!”
“Tell me about it.” Alba looked down at the swirling water between them, watching the gentle currents created by the jets. “I miss him. Colin misses him terribly.”
Ellie inched her way around the jacuzzi and settled beside Alba. “I didn’t realise she was still giving you grief.”
“She always is in one way or another.”
Then Ellie shifted on the bench again. The jacuzzi wasn’t particularly big to begin with, but now the space between them felt noticeably smaller. “I’m sorry she’s doing this to you, Alba. You’d think being Head of Department, she’d have better things to worry about.”
Alba shrugged. “I’ll get to see him eventually. Audrey can only be petty for so long.”
“Still…that would upset anyone.”
Alba managed a small nod, grateful that Ellie had accepted the explanation without digging further. Because the truth would have been far more embarrassing.
Ellie rested her arms along the edge of the pool, her foot brushing against Alba’s beneath the water. The contact was brief, accidental even, but Alba felt it all the same.
“Alright. New plan.”
Alba frowned. “What plan?”
“We let go and make the rest of this weekend worth it.”
Oh, if only you knew just how much I want to let go…
Alba’s mind very unhelpfully interpreted that sentence in a way Ellie almost certainly hadn’t intended.
Images flickered through her mind before she could stop them.
She forced a small smile instead, hoping her eyes hadn’t given her away.
Because Alba’s idea of making the rest of the weekend worth it involved nothing more than a bed and a very naked Ellie Hamilton.
“Sounds like a plan I can get on board with.”
Ellie floated on her back in the outdoor pool, enjoying the way the water cradled her as she stared up at the sky.
This morning had started off a little uncertain, but Alba had brightened up since their chat in the jacuzzi.
It was still early, but the rest of the hotel was beginning to slowly wake up.
A couple had settled on loungers at the far end of the terrace, their voices low as they talked over steaming cups of coffee.
Somewhere behind them, through the open doors that led back into the spa, Ellie could hear breakfast beginning.
Thankfully, the pool in general remained quiet.
Still, peaceful…which Ellie suspected was exactly why Alba had suggested moving into it after the jacuzzi.
Ellie lowered her feet until they brushed the floor beneath her, the heat of the water shifting as she stood upright. She pushed a hand through her damp hair, sweeping it away from her face as droplets slid down her neck.
“You’re awfully quiet.”
Ellie turned. Alba was a few feet away, leaning casually against the edge of the pool with her arms resting along the stone behind her. Her shoulders were far more relaxed than they had been a little while ago now, and the smile that played on her lips looked easier than it had before.
Ellie felt a sense of relief settle inside her. “Just enjoying the peace. It’s rare.”
Alba angled her head. “I don’t imagine you get much peace running a secondary school.”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
Alba laughed, and Ellie instantly found herself enamoured by it. She’d noticed it more and more lately—the way Alba’s laugh seemed to lift the entire atmosphere around her.
Ellie pushed herself away from the wall and swam slowly towards the centre of the pool. When she turned again, Alba had moved as well. They weren’t quite close enough to touch, sadly, but they were close enough for Ellie to see the small droplets of water clinging to Alba’s collarbone.
She forced her gaze away before it became obvious she was staring. “You seem better.”
“It was nothing a jacuzzi and good company couldn’t fix.”
Whatever had upset Alba earlier, she seemed determined not to dwell on it now.
Ellie respected that. If Alba wanted to move forward rather than dig through it again, she wasn’t about to drag her back there.
She waded through the water until she reached the shallow end of the pool where Alba was sitting on the step.
And then Alba rose to her feet, the water dripping down her bare thighs, and lifted a brow. “Race you to the other side?”
Ellie frowned. “What?”
“Race,” Alba repeated, pushing away from the step with a grin. “Come on, Hamilton. Show me what you’ve got!”
And then she was gone.
Ellie laughed and followed. The water rushed around her arms as she surged forward, cutting cleanly through the surface as she chased after Alba.
The sudden burst of movement shattered the quiet calm of the morning in the best possible way.
By the time Ellie reached the opposite edge, Alba was already there, gripping the side of the pool and laughing hysterically.