Chapter 25 #2
‘Come here,’ said Leo, and he pulled me close.
There was comfort in the warmth of his embrace, but I knew I couldn’t allow myself to get too used to it.
The reality of the danger which Blake could pose had suddenly come home to me, almost in a literal sense, and I knew I couldn’t afford to get distracted at such a critical point.
How long had the man I’d known as Brian James been living around the corner from me?
Had he been watching me, using what he saw to help build a profile which he knew would appeal to me?
‘Is there someone you could stay with for a few days?’ Leo asked.
‘I’m sure I’m being over-cautious, but it might be better for my peace of mind if you could be elsewhere, just until we’ve sorted out this situation.
I don’t feel easy knowing that he’s staying so close to your home. Would Moira take you in?’
‘Absolutely,’ I said. ‘The only issue is that she lives in the rest of the house above my flat. It wouldn’t exactly be providing the distance we’re after.’
‘Then you’ll have to come and stay at mine,’ said Leo without hesitation. In any other circumstances, my heart would have been singing at the invitation, but it had been delivered in a decidedly impersonal tone, and I was aware the motivation behind it was purely practical.
I made a lukewarm protest, but I knew I’d feel physically safer staying at Leo’s, even if I was running the risk of becoming even more emotionally vulnerable. I was grateful for his kindness.
‘Will Moira worry about where you’ve got to?’ asked Leo.
‘I’ll text her to say I’m staying with a friend,’ I said, already knowing that it would send Moira and Rami into a paroxysm of inquisitive excitement.
* * *
Leo lived in a pretty village several miles out of Oxford.
He’d left his car at home, not wanting to run the risk of Blake Jenkins recognising it, so we got the bus back instead, sitting together on the top deck.
I felt inordinately tired, the stress of the last few days catching up with me, and I had to fight the temptation to let my head rest on Leo’s broad shoulder and doze off as the bus trundled its way through the countryside.
‘I’m renting this place from a friend who’s travelling abroad for a year,’ he explained as he unlocked the front door, the outdoor light illuminating the chocolate box style cottage, complete with softly scented wisteria winding its way up the honey-coloured stonework.
‘He says I can have first refusal if he decides to stay abroad and sell up. I’ll miss him if he does do that, but I’ll admit I’ve fallen for the house and wouldn’t mind making it mine permanently.
’ He smiled. ‘Of course, I’ll have to have established my business properly by then in order to afford it. ’
When I’d first met Leo, he’d struck me as being the type of bloke to live in an impersonal warehouse flat, full of shiny chrome surfaces and black leather sofas.
But knowing him better, I could see why he felt so at home in this little house with its cosy, shaker-style kitchen and squishy armchairs.
It was a comfortable and undemanding environment, the kind of place where you could relax and be yourself.
Or it would have been, if I hadn’t then started worrying about the sleeping arrangements.
An only-one-bed scenario could lead to all kinds of complications which were probably best avoided, given the other dramas I was dealing with.
Fortunately– or unfortunately, as the braver side of my mind put it– Leo had a spare bedroom, and he’d thought of all the practicalities.
‘Here’s a t-shirt for you to sleep in. There’s a spare blanket in the chest at the end of the bed if you get cold, and I’ll put some towels out in the bathroom for you,’ he said from the doorway.
‘There’s a new toothbrush in the cupboard which you can use.
Feel free to bob downstairs and put your clothes in to wash and dry overnight so they’re fresh in the morning for you. Have you got everything you need?’
Everything except you, I said silently. But this was hardly the time or the place.
Leo was such a gentleman that, even supposing he had any interest in me in that way, he’d probably worry about taking advantage of my emotional state following the discovery that the scammer lived near me.
And, while it would be wonderful to briefly forget my fears in Leo’s arms, my troubles would still be waiting for me in the morning.
‘Mm-hmm,’ I said.
‘Try not to let it worry you, Kat. We’ll sort it all out tomorrow. All will be well.’
For a moment, I wondered if he was referring to my internal dilemma, then I realised that his focus, as always, was on the investigation.
‘I hope so,’ I said, thinking of both situations.
‘Good night. Sleep well.’
‘Night, Leo. You too.’
He seemed to hesitate on the threshold– or was that just my wishful thinking?– then he turned and went into his own room, the wooden floor of the hallway creaking beneath his feet.
I had a quick shower, put my outfit in to wash as offered, and settled myself in the spare room.
Wearing Leo’s clothing was a poor substitute for actually snuggling up in bed with the man himself, but I found comfort in it nevertheless, and drifted quickly off to sleep embraced by the subtle, clean scent of his t-shirt.
* * *
I woke in the middle of the night with a pounding headache and a desperate thirst, my adrenalin pumping after a vivid nightmare in which Blake Jenkins was chasing me through the streets of Oxford.
I felt my way to the bathroom in the dark and took a long drink of some toothpaste-tasting water to calm myself down.
I’m at Leo’s house, I’m safe, I repeated in my head until my heart rate returned to normal.
As I rinsed the cup out and put it back on the edge of the sink, the fabric of the t-shirt tickled the back of my legs.
It felt so intimate to be wearing Leo’s clothing, especially as I had nothing of my own on underneath.
I thought back to that moment in the car when he’d gently stroked his palm across my ribs.
How I wanted to experience that sensation again, only this time for real.
Back in the hallway, my eyes now adjusted to the gloom, I hesitated.
There were two doors in front of me– my bedroom and Leo’s.
There was nothing stopping me from softly knocking on his door and asking to go in.
Nothing but myself. But somehow in the timeless world of the dark, it felt like it would be easier to make that move, to tell Leo, and perhaps even show him how I really felt.
As Caro would say, what was the worst that could happen?
Do it, my heart urged. Just that one step forward could change everything.
Why shouldn’t I take a chance on happiness?
I had dithered for long enough, telling myself that I wasn’t worthy of a man like Leo.
Perhaps it was time for me to stop listening to that voice of negativity and be brave enough to trust my heart instead.
I raised my right hand, curling my fingers into a loose fist ready to rap my knuckles against the wooden door.
Then I heard Leo’s voice inside the room.
‘Yeah, of course. Try not to worry. It’ll all be sorted soon, and then we can get back to normal. Night, Jill.’
My hand fell back down by my side. He was on the phone with Jill.
His fellow rowing coach. The ‘someone close to me’ who he’d supported through the very worst of times.
That was probably what he was doing right now, continuing to be a listening ear for a woman who was still struggling.
But the niggling voice of doubt at the back of my mind suggested another explanation for the late-night phone call with its hushed, intimate tone.
Perhaps Leo’s relationship with Jill was even closer than he’d admitted to me.
After all, he had made a big point of saying he wasn’t in the market for a date when we’d started our investigation.
I’d interpreted that as him meaning he was content in his single status, but it was very possible that I’d got the wrong end of the stick.
Had I once again allowed my imagination to see things that weren’t there, to create another fictional happily ever after with a man who was equally unavailable as the so-called Brian James, although for very different reasons?
Would I never learn my lesson? I turned on my heel and quickly fled back into my bedroom, praying that Leo hadn’t heard the creak of the floor beneath my feet.