Chapter 24 #2
Having told him that, we carried on and I soon realised that our doorstep encounter had been just the tip of the iceberg when it came to releasing the passion I felt for him.
‘Erik,’ I gasped as he kissed my throat and then moved on to my collarbone before turning further so his hands could find my waist.
There was no holding back from either of us and the deeper the kisses, the more I became aware that the Big Love I’d experienced before was nothing like this.
There was no doubt in my mind that we would have taken things further had Luke’s voice not rung out on the speakers asking us to go back, making us spring apart.
‘Crikey, Skylar,’ Erik said breathlessly as I stood up and rearranged my outfit.
‘I know.’
I’d never be able to visit the alcove again without blushing.
‘I don’t feel like I’ve cooled down much,’ he said as he also stood up.
‘Me neither,’ I agreed as we made a move to leave the fern garden.
And I didn’t feel like much of a friend, either.
‘But I can promise you that won’t happen again,’ Erik continued and caught my hand to make me stop. ‘That’s the second time we’ve jeopardised our friendship and I don’t want to lose you. I value you too much.’
My stomach plummeted, even though I knew he was right. The timing for both of us was rotten. He now had even more on his plate with his dad and agent nagging him to consider the television commentary role and I had no idea where my future might take me.
It was time to remind myself again how all of Mum’s rash relationships had ended. There was no friendship left following the fallout of any of those and I couldn’t risk mine and Erik’s relationship by allowing myself to further fall for him.
Nightingale Square might end up not being where either of us settled long-term, so whatever spark there had been between us, it had to be snuffed out.
I should never have kissed him again, and I only had myself to blame for the feelings I was going to have to start from scratch to battle back into their box.
‘And I don’t want to lose you either,’ I said and gave his hand a squeeze before letting it go. ‘Now, come on, before everyone thinks we’ve been spirited away.’
After a restless night, I was bleary eyed the next morning, but there was no time to kick November off with a Sunday lie-in because I’d promised to go back to Prosperous Place to help return the house and garden to its pre-Halloween state.
Kate was cooking a big breakfast to fill us up for the task ahead, so I ignored my bruised feelings and looked forward to the fundraiser debrief as I tucked into some bacon.
I walked into the Prosperous Place kitchen with a somewhat forced smile on my face, but it vanished when I spotted Erik looking furious and Kate and Luke sporting contradictory expressions of concern and amusement.
‘What’s going on?’ I frowned.
Luke looked at Erik.
‘Show her then,’ Erik said gruffly.
Luke leant across the table and slid over an open newspaper.
‘It’s not a paper we usually read,’ he told me. ‘But John was in the newsagent’s first thing, and someone was talking about this, so he picked up a copy and dropped it round.’
‘Is it your story about the fundraiser?’ I asked naively as I forgot Erik’s look of upset. ‘That was quick. I didn’t realise you’d been interviewed already. And this is a national.’
‘Just look at it properly,’ Erik said.
It took me a moment to register what exactly I was seeing.
‘Oh my god!’ I gasped. ‘Erik, that’s us!’
The photograph wasn’t as crisp as it could be, but the garden lighting showed that it was unmistakably us kissing in the fern garden the evening before and the clinch looked more passionate than I would have thought possible.
‘Former rugby star, Erik Svensson,’ I read aloud, ‘showing his softer side to mystery woman following a fundraising event in Norwich. This is outrageous!’
‘I know,’ tutted Luke. ‘It doesn’t even mention The Chapel.’
‘Luke!’ Kate admonished.
‘You’re right,’ he said, amending his tone, ‘it is outrageous and I can only apologise. To you both.’
‘Why are you apologising?’ I frowned as I turned the paper over and slapped it back down on the table.
‘Because I invited a photographer here to take some snaps of the banquet,’ he explained. ‘With the guest’s consent, of course and supposedly only for local use, too.’
‘Well, this isn’t very local, is it?’ I choked. ‘It’s countrywide! And what was he doing sneaking around in the garden taking photographs without our consent?’
‘He told me he was popping out for a cigarette,’ Kate said.
‘But in truth, he must have seen you two sloping off,’ Luke added.
‘We didn’t slope off,’ Erik ground out. ‘And how did he even recognise me? I was wearing that ridiculous costume for pity’s sake.’
‘You’re not exactly unknown around here, mate, and you do stand out a bit whatever you’re wearing,’ Luke pointed out. ‘My guess is the guy was… surprised by what he saw and decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. He sold it on sharpish, I must say.’
‘That’s what they do, isn’t it?’ I swallowed.
I’d never been the victim of an invasion of privacy like this before and felt exposed and vulnerable even though I hadn’t been identified.
‘I’m so sorry, Skylar,’ Erik said earnestly.
‘It’s not your fault,’ I told him, then added. ‘None of it is your fault.’
It had been me who’d kicked the kisses off, but I didn’t want to admit to that in front of Kate and Luke.
‘So, whose fault was it?’ Luke asked, a ghost of a smile playing around his lips. ‘My punch wasn’t that deadly, so you can’t blame me for getting you drunk.’
Kate gave him a shove.
‘Look,’ he carried on, ‘things like this happen all the time. Heaven knows, I had my share of misleading photos in the press when I was a model. Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping, remember that.’
‘I don’t think they wrap them like that anymore,’ I huffed.
‘But you know what I mean.’
‘You try telling my father that,’ Erik said as he held up his phone to show ‘Dad’ lighting up the screen. ‘That’s the tenth time he’s rung so far this morning. I bet he and Peter are loving this.’
As far as Erik’s father and agent were concerned it probably was perfect timing for Erik to be shoved back into the public arena again.
‘I am sorry about that,’ Luke told him with a nod to the phone. ‘Truly I am, because I know the hassle you’re going to get for it, but you’ll have to pick up at some point.’
‘Hassle,’ Erik frowned.
Talking to his father was obviously going to be more than a minor nuisance.
‘You can’t put it off for ever.’
‘I wanted to apologise to Skylar, first,’ Erik shot back at Luke. ‘Like I said, I am sorry and I do blame the punch.’ Luke opened his mouth to object. ‘Because I added a couple of measures of brandy to ours. We needed it to steady our nerves after serving that banquet.’
‘That’s right,’ I said, latching on to the excuse for our embrace. ‘We were tipsy and we ended up having a quick kiss. No big deal,’ I was seriously underplaying it. ‘Obviously we didn’t expect it to end up in a newspaper, but it didn’t mean anything, did it Erik?’
He hesitated before answering and, given that last night he’d said it wouldn’t happen again, I was shocked to see a look of upset cross his face. However, by the time Kate and Luke looked at him it had gone, so perhaps I’d misread his fleeting expression.
‘No,’ he said, as his phone rang again. ‘It was nothing. Bloody hell! I’ll speak to Dad and be back for breakfast.’
He walked out of the room, and I shoved the paper further away.
‘You can light the fire with that,’ I said. ‘Now, which room would you like me to start in and how do you want everything packed?’
‘Wouldn’t you like some breakfast first?’ Kate asked.
‘No thank you,’ I told her. ‘I’ve lost my appetite. We can talk later about the success the fundraiser has hopefully been.’
Erik was in a foul mood after the phone call to his father.
Apparently, it didn’t matter how he tried to express it, his dad wouldn’t believe that this hadn’t been a masterstroke on his son’s part.
A clever way of getting his face back in the public domain ahead of accepting the commentary job.
He’d even gone so far as to suggest that Erik should now take me – even though he didn’t know who I was – out shopping or to a restaurant and be snapped again.
Obviously, that wouldn’t be happening and at lunchtime, with most things packed away, I headed straight home taking my heavy heart with me.
‘How about this then?’ Rafe laughed, when I went to make a sandwich and applaud him for the brilliant costumes he and Grandad George had worn for the banquet. ‘I take it congratulations are in order?’
He was waving a copy of the offending red top about.
‘What are doing with that?’ I scowled. ‘You don’t read that paper.’
‘Lisa brought it over,’ he told me.
‘Of course, she did,’ I grumbled. ‘I bet everyone in the square’s seen it now, haven’t they?’
‘Probably,’ he said and gave me a quizzical look. ‘And I know you probably wanted to keep your relationship—’
‘There is no relationship,’ I snapped. ‘We’re not a couple. We’re just friends.’
‘So, this was…’
‘A phantom punch induced snog,’ I said glibly. ‘The sort of moment kids go in for at the end of a school disco. Nothing more.’
‘I see,’ Rafe said thoughtfully. ‘So, the last time it was the wine and this time it was the punch. Perhaps third time will be the charm, you’ll both be sober and able to see what’s so obvious to me.’
Having not known my father had been aware of our first kiss, that rather took the wind out of my sails. Were my feelings for Erik that obvious to everyone around me or just to Rafe?
‘You’re being absurd,’ I said, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘We’re friends, nothing more. Friends with a lot in their lives to process, so we’re helping each other through it.’
‘Well,’ Rafe said, with another nod to the paper. ‘The pair of you certainly have an interesting technique.’