Chapter Two #2
‘I didn’t save the day. I came to help my dad out. He has a small farm. He needed someone to be there for him. He was…he wasn’t functioning. Couldn’t function. He was too wrapped up in grief.’
‘What about siblings?’
‘Honestly, I have no idea how we’ve drifted to this!’
‘Because, like I said, I want to get to know you better. You aren’t only interested in someone if they’re going to become a permanent fixture in your life. Aside from all of that, I find you attractive.’
‘Really.’ Her voice was thick with scepticism.
‘Yes, really. Tell me where this is coming from. You’re very, very sexy—has no one ever told you that before?
’ He raised his eyebrows at her expression.
‘Why are you looking at me with such a scathing expression? Doesn’t make you any less sexy, if you want to know.
We can explore that later. First, answer my question.
Is there someone in your life? My gut tells me no, but only a fool obeys his gut. ’
‘No,’ Ella said impatiently, ‘I’m not involved with anyone.’
‘Then have dinner with me. I know a good restaurant. I walk past it on my way to…where I’m renting. Nice atmosphere, always busy. Menu looks good…’
Ella could feel her heart thudding like a sledgehammer as she stared up at him.
It was busy outside the store. Everyone was out enjoying the dregs of summer before autumn and winter blew in, with jolly Christmas songs and cheerful reminders of what she was missing on the man front. The coffee shop opposite thronged with customers.
He found her attractive. He thought she was sexy. She should be wary of that, should have her guard up. Trusting a man wasn’t on her radar.
And yet…and yet… Here she was, guard up, being careful, settling into a life where nothing exciting ever happened because she’d been hurt, because she was cautious.
And here was this man, a stranger who would leave her life for ever in a week…
A stranger who had made her look at her own life and see what it lacked.
Ella was suddenly filled with a sense of reckless adventure, a feeling that life was slipping past her and, if she didn’t reach out to catch it, then by the time she woke up it might be too late.
‘Okay. Yes.’ She smiled hesitantly as their eyes tangled.
‘Good.’ Rocco drawled. ‘Because I want to know all about Ella and why she was so surprised when I told her that I found her attractive.’
He began strolling away from the store and she kept pace. She knew where this was going and she wanted it to go there. She wanted to break out of the walls she had built around herself and see what a bit of adventure tasted like. It was almost too exciting to think about.
There was freedom in knowing he wouldn’t be sticking around.
She could do what she wanted, say what she wanted, they could have a good time for the next week and then he would be gone for ever.
She was walking on air, barely aware of being shown to a table in the buzzy wine bar or wine being ordered.
‘Talk to me, Ella,’ he purred as soon as wine had been poured for them. ‘And don’t be shy. Or nervous, for that matter. You’re not nervous, are you? I don’t make you nervous, do I?’
Rocco enjoyed the way she blushed, the way the girl was so easy to entice out from behind the persona of the businesswoman—a persona that didn’t fit nearly as snugly as she maybe imagined.
At least, not to him. ‘I just don’t get why you’re here, working at Hailey’s.
It’s very pretty out here, but it’s not exactly the centre of the universe for a young woman, especially one who had dreams of being somewhere else and doing something else. ’
‘I told you, I came because—’
‘I know. There was no one else and you had to support your father.’
‘My brother did come over but he could only stay for a very short while.’
‘Why’s that? Shouldn’t it have been all hands to the pump?’
‘Conor…he lives in Australia and he’s married. He and his wife run a gym. He couldn’t take more than a couple of weeks off. You know how it is, when you work for yourself.’
Ella felt something she seldom had before—a deep sense of unfairness.
Was she being uncharitable? She felt tears prick the back of her eyes.
She was just being human. Conor had come, and then in the blink of an eye he’d gone, and here she was all these months later, still picking up pieces, still being the dutiful daughter while Conor carried on… just being Conor.
‘No. I don’t.’
‘What do you mean? Commitments…sometimes you can’t spare the time when you might want to.’
‘And did he want to? Because, from where I’m sitting, he sounds more than a little selfish. Surely he would have known that you would be putting your life on hold?’
And that was about the gist of it, wasn’t it? A life put on hold—her life.
She didn’t understand why she found it so easy to talk to this man. Was it because he was a stranger? Because he wouldn’t be hanging around, so she would never have to face the consequences of anything said in confidence?
Or, deep down, had she simply been lonely after her mother died, and after the break-up that had been so painful? Did this guy just happen to have the key to open up a well of sadness she’d never properly acknowledged?
‘I guess my kid brother’s always been selfish.
’ Ella sighed. She propped her chin in the palm of her hand and looked at Rocco’s beautiful, sympathetic face.
Something inside her leapt, a thrill of succumbing to a feeling she wanted and was no longer going to resist, something that had been growing ever since she’d set eyes on him.
‘My mum had cancer when we were both still at home and…well… I was always the serious one in the family, the dependable one. I was the good little girl and Conor was the one who got away with doing what he wanted.’
‘I get it.’
‘What? What do you get?’
Rocco didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds.
He’d never felt this engaged in a conversation with any woman in his life before but then, he reminded himself, he wasn’t Rocco, he was Jose.
Jose came with freedoms that Rocco had never had.
Of course he would react in ways that were alien to the carefully controlled guy he’d always been!
‘You never had your moment of rebellion because your brother was the one who did that and, for as long as he was the rebel, you subconsciously strove to be the one who kept things on an even keel, especially if your mother was chronically ill.’
‘How did you just do that?’
She smiled, and for a second Rocco’s heart swelled with pleasure. He wasn’t the billionaire who ran an empire and gave orders to people who jumped when he spoke. He was the kid who got the answer right in class in front of the girl he wanted to impress.
‘Do what?’
‘Get me to open up to you. I haven’t said that to anyone but, yes, you’re right.
Conor was the rule breaker, and the more he broke the rules, the more I obeyed them.
I suppose I thought that he could have stayed longer after mum died.
He was helpful, and he arranged a lot of things while he was here, but then he was gone and here I am. I stayed.’
‘But surely you didn’t have to?’
‘Why is this conversation all about me?’ Ella glanced at the menu that seemed magically to appear in front of her and randomly chose something off it without really registering what she was ordering.
She laughed but her laughter dried up at the depth of his dark gaze as it rested on her, questioning, thoughtful and breaking down yet more of those barriers she had erected.
‘Maybe I fell into a rut.’
‘Too much excitement out there? Easier to kick back and see where life decides to take you?’
But he was smiling when he said it, and she smiled shyly back at him.
‘I needed to get away,’ she said in a low, broken voice.
‘I… I never thought I’d end up getting away for good.
I always assumed I’d finish my geography degree, but then I came back here and day to day reality took over, and one day I realised that finishing my degree was no longer a priority.
I guess… I fell into a rut of my own making. ’
‘You said that you needed to get away…’
‘I… I’m boring you. I’m talking all about myself. You must think I’m crazy to be sobbing on your shoulder when I don’t even know you.’
‘Maybe that’s why you find it so easy.’
‘Tell me about yourself.’
Their food had arrived, as if mysteriously, because Ella was so oblivious to everything around her, including the waiter who had refilled their wine glasses and presumably made the usual noises to ask what they wanted.
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Do you have any family? Brothers? Sisters? Cousins? Annoying uncles and aunts you only see at Christmas? Do you miss living in Spain, running your store there? Actually, you haven’t really told me where you live… Do you live over here?’
Rocco lowered his eyes. Her open honesty was discomforting, reminding him why he was here in the first place, and honesty didn’t play a big part.
He squashed his niggling conscience fast. What was happening here wasn’t about his acquisition of the store.
What was happening here was about the two of them and their unlikely attraction.
‘No brothers or sisters. An uncle, yes—not in touch. He’s the black sheep of the family.’
‘That’s a shame,’ Ella said with sympathy. ‘Family is so important, and it doesn’t sound as though you have lots to go round.’
‘Can’t say I’ve shed tears over that.’
‘But there’s always a reason that a black sheep is a black sheep, don’t you think?’
‘Haven’t really thought about it.’
‘Sometimes it’s the family dynamic, having to live up to a sibling who’s cleverer or better-looking or the favourite…’