Chapter 18
18
Though Anya had been worried there might be some resistance from Freya about her going out for the evening, when the little girl found out Chloe was coming to look after her, she was too excited to ask many questions. They even had fun choosing something for Anya to wear – thankfully she picked a floaty pale green maxi dress with a pretty floral detail and not the metallic gold catsuit Anya had once worn for a fancy dress party. Like Freya’s too-small frog wellies, Anya had no idea how the catsuit had survived the massive clear-out she’d had before their move. One of these days she’d have to see what else had slipped through the net. She still hadn’t tackled all the boxes and bags out in the shed, and until she did that Ryan and Matt couldn’t get started on converting it into a workspace. A tug of guilt pulled at her. There were so many other things she should be prioritising right now; going out on a date should be way down the list.
Anya eyed her reflection in the bathroom mirror she was using to apply her make-up while Freya splashed around in the bath. Or perhaps you’re just looking for an excuse to back out . She’d grown increasingly nervous as the day had gone on, and if the butterflies in her stomach didn’t settle down soon she wouldn’t be able to eat a bite later.
‘You look pretty, Mummy,’ Freya said.
‘Thank you, darling.’ Bending over, Anya added a dash of lipstick to Freya’s mouth and smiled at her. ‘You look pretty, too!’
Freya giggled in delight and they spent the next couple of minutes blowing kisses and giving each other ever-more-extravagant compliments until they were laughing so hard Anya had to wipe off her eyeliner and start again.
By the time Chloe arrived, Freya was in her pyjamas and had transferred her favourite dolls and teddies to the sofa ready for a Frozen watch party. ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ Anya whispered as she greeted Chloe with a hug.
‘Not at all. It’ll be the most fun I’ve had on a Friday night for a long time.’ Chloe held up a carrier bag. ‘I’ve got plenty of supplies to keep us going.’
‘I know I’m not going to approve of probably 90 per cent of what’s in there, so I’m not even going to ask,’ Anya said with a rueful laugh.
‘Girls’ night secrets,’ Chloe said, making a show of hiding the bag behind her back. She cast a critical eye over the shorts and T-shirt Anya had thrown on after her shower earlier. ‘You’re not wearing that, are you?’
Anya couldn’t resist glancing down. ‘What’s wrong with it?’ When Chloe frowned, she grinned. ‘My dress is hanging up in the bedroom.’ She checked her watch. There was still plenty of time before she had to get changed. ‘Do you want a drink?’
Though she’d seen it a hundred times before, Anya still ended up getting caught up watching the film – well, watching Freya watch it, anyway. Snuggled up with her toys, merrily stuffing strawberry bootlaces, sherbet-filled spaceships and all sorts of other sugary delights from the enormous bag of pick ’n’ mix Chloe had brought with her, Freya was in her element. Only a nudge from Chloe reminded Anya of the time, and she had to dash into the bedroom, pull on her dress and swap her slippers for a pair of flat, strappy sandals. She picked up the little cream evening bag that had room for a lipstick, a pack of tissues and her debit card. She hoped wherever Rick had chosen wasn’t too expensive and tried not to think about all the things the money could be better spent on.
Stop it .
Taking a deep breath, she put her best foot forward and walked into the other room. ‘Wow, look at you!’ Chloe said, giving her an approving look-over. ‘That dress is beautiful. Give us a twirl!’
Feeling giddily self-conscious, Anya turned around a couple of times, letting the floaty skirt of the dress flair. ‘I found the material online.’
‘You made it?’ Chloe’s eyes grew wide. ‘We must get the workshop sorted and get you back behind that sewing machine because I could sell a dozen of them, tomorrow.’
Anya blushed, absurdly pleased with her cousin’s obvious admiration. ‘Let’s make time this weekend to start clearing things out, then!’
‘Deal! Now hurry up or you’re going to be late.’
Having given Freya a hug and a kiss, and earned a complaint from her daughter that she was blocking the TV , Anya hurried out of the summer house and through the garden.
Rick was waiting for her on the street, leaning his back against the side of a smart-looking black SUV . The sight of him dressed up was enough to make her catch her breath. In a navy short-sleeved shirt that highlighted the impressive size of his biceps and a pair of tailored cream chinos, he was the dictionary definition of tall, dark and handsome. He straightened up the moment he saw her, the smile curving his lips sending little tingles of anticipation dancing down her spine. ‘You look lovely,’ he said, reaching out to take her hand. He drew her close enough to lean down and brush a kiss on her cheek. ‘Simply gorgeous.’
The rich, amber scent of his aftershave had her eyelids fluttering closed for a second, unable to cope with so many pleasurable sensations at once.
God, you smell good .
Her eyes flew open again, but Rick’s warm, friendly smile reassured her that she hadn’t humiliated herself by saying it out loud. She needed to say something, though. ‘Thank you. You umm, you look nice too, that colour really works for you.’
He brushed a hand over the front of his shirt and she could tell he was pleased at the compliment. ‘Are you ready to go?’ When she nodded, he used his free hand to open her door, releasing her with the other only after he’d helped her in. He waited until she gathered her dress well clear, then closed her door and circled the bonnet to get in the other side. ‘How was Freya? No problems with you going out tonight?’ he asked as they fastened their seatbelts and he started the engine.
‘She was fine, stuffing herself with sweets and having a lovely time with Chloe.’ She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘I’m not looking forward to dealing with the after-effects of her sugar rush later, I have to admit.’
Rick shot her a sympathetic grin just as he was pulling away from the kerb. ‘I bet. Fingers crossed she’ll be fast asleep when you get home.’
‘I can only hope!’
There was a lull in conversation as Rick negotiated his way through what bit of traffic there was. The village had grown from the seafront outwards in a higgledy-piggledy maze of narrow streets and dead ends. Even the later parts of the village that had been built in the seventies and eighties struggled to accommodate the combination of parked cars and the popularity of larger, wider vehicles like Rick’s SUV .
Once they were out on the coast road, she began to worry less about his paintwork and was able to relax a little more. ‘So this place you’ve booked for tonight, have you been there before?’
Keeping his eyes on the road, Rick nodded. ‘Yes, a couple of times. It’s not super fancy or anything, but the food is delicious, and if you like seafood they always have a daily special with whatever the chef has bought fresh from the boats that morning.’
She let her head loll back against the seat as she watched the beautiful scenery go by. ‘It’s been so long since I’ve been out for a meal that didn’t come with fries and a toy, I’m really looking forward to it.’
‘I can’t remember the last time I went for dinner that wasn’t either something to do with the council or a family occasion.’ Rick’s admission made her feel better, somehow.
She turned her gaze away from the window to watch his profile. ‘I thought you’d be much in demand on the Halfmoon Quay dating scene.’
He barked a laugh, his eyes flicking briefly across to meet hers before he looked back at the road. ‘The dating scene, such as it is, and I are pretty much strangers these days, I have to admit.’
Curious, she shifted a little in her seat so she could turn more towards him. ‘Why’s that?’
The nearest shoulder to her raised in a shrug, once again drawing her attention to the tightness of his short sleeve around the thick muscle of his arms. ‘I got bored, I guess. Going out on a date when my gut instinct told me it’s not going to ultimately lead anywhere began to feel like a waste of time. When I was younger, sure, but a holiday fling with someone who’s only going to be around for a week or two at most? That doesn’t appeal at all any more.’
‘I can understand that.’ She recalled her unpleasant encounter with Shelly Dean and what Chloe had said about her being sweet on Rick. ‘There was no one from the village you were interested in?’
They reached a junction and, although there was no traffic in sight, Rick stopped the car and looked at her. ‘No, the only person I was interested in didn’t live in Halfmoon Quay.’
Oh . While she struggled to drag up a half sensible response from her scrambled brain, Rick calmly put the car back into gear and continued driving. ‘You never said anything,’ she managed to squeak out eventually.
He laughed, not an entirely happy sound. ‘I was going to. I’d geared myself up for it, even made sure I was over at Ryan and Helen’s on the day I knew you and your mum were due to arrive. I can picture you now, pretty enough to take my breath away in a pink sundress with tiny straps. You’d cut your hair shorter since the last time I saw you, and it had these blonde streaks in it.’
She raised a hand to her fringe in remembrance. ‘That was the summer I turned seventeen. Mum finally agreed to let me dye my hair.’ It was hard to get the words out because she knew now why he’d never told her how he felt. She wanted to tell him to stop talking, but the lump in her throat was growing bigger and bigger.
‘You looked so different, glamorous and so grown up compared to Chloe even though you were the same age.’ Rick had to stop at another junction, but this time he didn’t turn and look at her as the words kept tumbling from his lips. ‘My heart was beating so fast I was sure everyone would be able to hear it, and I was terrified at the thought of speaking to you, and yet deep down I knew this was it, that you’d notice me standing there. That our eyes would meet like in some romcom. And then the other passenger door opened…’
‘And Drew got out of the car. Oh, Rick, I had no idea…’ She closed her eyes, her heart breaking for the anxious, excited boy she’d heard an echo of in his voice, and perhaps a little bit for herself too. How different things could’ve been if she hadn’t met Drew that day he came in to the department store where she’d had a Saturday job. She and her coworker had even played rock-paper-scissors to see who would get to serve him. Anya had won, or so she’d thought at the time.
A soft hand covered hers and when she opened her eyes, she realised Rick had pulled the car over into one of the viewing point car parks that were scattered along the coastal road. ‘Hey, I didn’t mean to upset you.’
She turned her hand over so they were palm to palm the way he had when they’d been in the café the other day and threaded their fingers together. ‘I had no idea. If I had…’
Reaching out with his free hand, he briefly touched a finger to her lips. ‘No. We can’t change the past, and if you hadn’t met Drew you wouldn’t have Freya.’
Anya nodded. ‘She’s the only thing that kept me hanging on, you know, in the darkest of days. I’m worried already if I should even be here. I can’t risk things not working out between us, but I don’t know how we can make a go of it without her being involved. It seems crazy to be even thinking so far ahead when we’ve barely started our first date, but I have to consider Freya in all of this. If she becomes too attached to you and then we split up I don’t know what it would do to her.’
Rick squeezed her hand. ‘Like I said before, I’m not interested in a casual fling. I’ve waited more than ten years for the chance to be with you, Anya, I’ll do whatever you need me to do to make this work. We can take things as slow as you like and I’ll stay away from the summer house if you prefer. Not getting to see each other as often as we might like is a small price to pay if it means protecting Freya. She has to be your priority.’
His gentle reassurance calmed the butterflies in her stomach. ‘Thank you. It’s not my intention to mess you around or make you feel like I don’t want to be seen with you…’
‘But you’d rather not be the centre of attention again,’ he finished, echoing what she’d said to him in the café.
She shuddered. ‘Not if I can help it.’
He reached out with his free hand to cup her cheek. ‘May I kiss you?’
She nodded, unable to speak, her heart suddenly hammering so fast. He leaned towards her, stopped suddenly with a laugh as his seat belt jammed, and just like that the tension of the moment melted away. They both fumbled with the release mechanism and leaned in, almost bumping noses in their sudden haste. His lips were soft and there was still a hint of mint from his toothpaste. He slanted his mouth over hers, first left and then right as though seeking the perfect angle, and then his hands were in her hair, and hers rose to press against the smooth cotton of his shirt, the impossible hardness of his chest beneath the material, and she couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything other than respond to the pressure of his lips as the kiss shifted from a question to something closer to a demand.
‘Well,’ Anya gasped when they finally broke apart. ‘That puts aside any worries I had about whether or not we had sufficient chemistry.’
Rick sank back against his seat with a strangled laugh. ‘We might have to wait here a few minutes before we drive on to the restaurant.’
She didn’t catch his meaning until he shifted as though trying to adjust his trousers. She made the mistake of glancing down at his lap and quickly turned her hot face towards the window. Oh! Well, that put aside another one of her worries.
She decided to keep that observation to herself.