Chapter 16 #2
Striding up and down a patch of worn grass, Tad tried to convince himself he was being irrational.
But was he? Whenever he’d imagined the kind of person Clare would find, he’d never imagined someone like James Gardner.
He was too tall, too austere, too corporate.
Even his name sounded uptight. Tad had imagined Clare falling for someone more like her first husband, someone who laughed a lot, loved her implicitly and never, ever stopped her from speaking.
Tad should feel happy for Clare, but instead he felt a lurch of something else, a burgeoning realisation that things were changing, people were moving on. That he might lose the bond he’d forged with Clare, that it might already have been severed – he just didn’t know it yet.
For now, though, it was time to plate up the starters. Gianna bustled into the kitchen – and as he headed in, she was fetching more bottles of champagne from the cold room.
‘I can’t keep their glasses full this evening. These new guests, they drink like the fishes,’ she said with a shake of her head. ‘Perhaps we feed them soon, before they fall over?’
As Matteo brought the last of the starters through, Tad waited for the room to settle. Like the rolling of a dice, he allowed fate to dictate where he would end up finding a space.
It looked as though there was no chance of him being seated near Amy, with Malcolm already to one side of her, and Hugh on the other, struggling to pull out his chair. Tad strode across to help, taking the backrest of the chair and sliding it out for Hugh.
‘Oh, actually, do you know I might go and sit over there,’ Hugh said, waving an outstretched hand across the table at the gap beside Kathleen. ‘Don’t want the old bird left unattended, do we? Why don’t you sit here, Tad?’
Hugh rounded the table with far more athleticism than had been required to pull out a chair, leaving Tad with no option but to do as he was told.
Not that he minded. Amy turned and stared at him as he slid into the chair, then smiled.
She’d obviously caught the sun, her cheeks carrying more colour than usual.
It accentuated her features, made her blue eyes sparkle more vividly and her hair seem even more golden against the black of the beautiful dress she wore. In short, she looked fantastic.
‘Do you mind me sitting here?’ he asked.
‘Of course not,’ Amy said.
Tad lifted his fork, but his attention was on her. ‘How are your ribs? Still painful?’
‘You were right about the bruising. It’s coming along nicely.’ She gestured at her side, hidden under the silky black of her dress. ‘I think it might match this dress by the end of the week.’
Tad swallowed, stilling himself before he could suggest he should take a look, make some jokey comment about having a rusty first-aid qualification.
That would be the last thing she’d want, especially after he’d kissed her and then pushed her away.
No, it would be the last thing she would want because she was already in a relationship…
Although, while they’d been kissing, it had been way too easy to forget that pertinent piece of information.
* * *
Amy studied his expression. Why had she drawn attention to her body like that? Of all the things she could have said, why had she chosen to say something clearly so embarrassing to him? It was written all over his face, even though he was doing his best to hide it.
Now she knew Tad wasn’t in a relationship with Clare, what she should be doing was finding out why he’d actually rejected her when she’d thought they were getting to know one another rather well. ‘How come you aren’t sitting with your friends?’ she asked.
His eyebrows dipped like a pair of swallows on the breeze, his expression folding into a frown as he said, ‘They aren’t my friends.’
‘But I thought…’
‘Clare is my friend, but I’ve only just met the rest of them.’
‘Oh, I totally got the wrong end of the stick,’ Amy said.
She paused, then decided this was the moment.
This was the second in time where she either went for it and asked him, straight out, all the questions that had been plaguing her – or she had to shut up, right now, and ride out the rest of the week as if it was like every other week, in every other destination she’d ever visited with Billie.
‘About what?’ Tad was still staring at her, his fork hovering in his fingers, unused.
Now or never, Amy. Now or never.
‘When Clare and her friends arrived, it’s – well, maybe it sounds silly, but I was sure you and she were together.’
‘Together?’
Was he being purposefully dim?
‘Yes. I mean, now I see that’s not the case.’ She waved a hand in the direction of the tall, dark and – yes, Billie was correct – very handsome man seated next to Clare.
‘You thought we were together, like, together together?’
Amy half shrugged, half nodded.
‘Me and Clare – no, never like that. We’ve been through a lot, but that’s never been on the table.’
‘Thought it rather explained why you found kissing me such a mistake,’ she said. ‘Is there someone else, then?’
‘No.’ His expression remained unfathomable.
‘So, why was kissing me such a problem?’
Christ, she’d finally gone there and asked it, no frills, no dressing it up.
‘It’s…’ He looked confused for a moment, like she’d caught him out on something – or perhaps he was stunned by her lack of subtlety. Then his expression took on an intensity which gave Amy goosebumps. ‘Because I might be single right now, Amy, but I understand you’re not.’
Already hot to the touch, Amy’s cheeks ramped up to unprecedented levels, reaching ghost chilli pepper heat as she frowned in confusion. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Billie told me you’re involved with someone back home. And listen, it might not be going well or whatever with him, but I’m not keen on being someone’s holiday fling.’ He frowned. ‘I prefer to be exclusive with someone, you know? I shouldn’t have kissed you – I’m sorry.’
Amy continued to stare at him as though he’d recently arrived from the moon.
‘Billie said I was in a relationship?’
‘Aye. At least, I believed that’s what she said, but you’re looking at me like I’ve gone mad.’
Amy glanced across to where Billie was engaged in a lively discussion and looked as though she didn’t have a devious bone in her body.
‘But that’s weird. I split up with Shaun ages ago.’
‘She said something about you holding a flame for someone back home and I assumed…’
‘Well, you know what they say about assumption, don’t you? Is that why you thought kissing me was such a mistake?’
Amy watched as a muscle twitched in Tad’s cheek, and he set down his fork.
‘So, you’re single, too?’ he asked.
‘Yes. So single it hurts sometimes. Not that it matters…’
They stared at one another, Amy allowing Tad’s intense gaze to wash over her like melted chocolate over a strawberry.
‘Are you two planning on eating your starters, or are we going to have to wait all night for the main course?’
Kathleen’s Aussie tones, none too subtle as they broke through Amy’s thoughts, finally shook Tad into action as he took a breath and lifted his fork once more.