Chapter 24
Elodie felt wretched. She was back in her shop now. They had cleared up most of the obvious food debris at the venue, so that when wedding guests drifted out into the lawn again, they saw the strings of lights garlanding the marquee and the stars, and not mashed-up food. Mal had driven the van home, bringing back the empty trays and boxes. They hadn’t managed to catch sight of Saffron again, so she had no idea what was happening about the rest of her money, or Mal’s. They probably wouldn’t know until Saffron and Jamie got back from their honeymoon. If Saffron refused to pay, Elodie could argue that she had delivered on her side of the bargain, but … she could do without the fight.
She took her trays out and started washing them by hand. If she ever made it to having a bigger kitchen, she was definitely getting a dishwasher. It was nearly nine o’clock now and she was exhausted. The last thing she had to do was to wash, dry and put away her trays before she could wipe down her kitchen and go home. She needed a shower and, to be honest, maybe a whole day in bed.
Still, she was here now and this was the job she had to do. She may as well think about something pleasant while she did it. So, with her hands busy in the warm water, she thought about Mal and how he’d shut down Travis’s nonsense. She had never had someone stand up for her like that before. Her parents treated her like she was an idiot. Marty was a great friend, but he wasn’t much of one for confrontation. He would be on her side and join her in bitching about Trav after the fact, but he wouldn’t dare face up to him the way Mal had done. The fact that Mal had done it without even realising that Elodie could hear him … that was especially wonderful.
When she’d finished washing up, she should go see him. She looked down at her stained blouse and sensible shoes. Or maybe not. Perhaps it was better to arrange to meet up with him tomorrow, when she could be clean and wearing something less … food-stained. Her already low mood sank even further. Tears threatened, making her eyes hurt.
‘Why me?’ she said, out loud.
A tear rolled down her cheek. Having to clean up the remnants of her beautiful cake was the worst. Bad enough it was destroyed, but scooping up the pieces with her own hands had broken her a little bit.
A knock at the shop door broke into her pity party. Wiping her hands and then her face dry using a scratchy blue towel, she opened the door to let Mal in. He looked tired and food-stained too. Wisps of hair were escaping the man bun on the top of his head. He had bags under his eyes and stubble shadow over his face.
She locked the door behind him and brushed past him back to the sink. ‘I’m just washing these up before I close down for the day.’
‘I would have offered you space in the dishwasher, but it’s full.’ Without her asking, he grabbed a tea towel and started drying up the tray she’d just washed.
For a few minutes they stood together, side by side, her washing, him drying and placing the trays on the work table. It was comforting and companionable. If she hadn’t been so tired, she might have even wanted it to go on for longer.
When she’d washed the last tray, she wiped the sink down while Mal dried it up.
‘Where shall I put these?’ he said.
She pointed to her right cupboard with her gloved hands and he put them away. He had to stretch to reach, just like she did, but he was tall enough to manage without the little step stool. Watching him, she peeled off the gloves and washed her hands to get the warm rubber glove sensation off them.
It hadn’t been a very long interlude, but today she’d had a glimpse of how things could be, working in partnership with him. He was calm while she was quick to anger. She was organised while he tended to solve problems on the fly. They were a good team. Except their businesses had very little in common. This wedding had been an anomaly because it catered for a specific mixture of diets. There wouldn’t be many more of those. But how nice would it be to have someone who understood. Tears threatened again. She rested her hands against the table and hung her head, suddenly exhausted to her bones.
‘Are you okay?’ His voice was soft and somewhere behind her. The concern in it made the last of her resolve unravel.
Tears ran down her nose and dripped down. She swiped at them with the towel in her hands so that they didn’t fall on her nice, clean work surface. She shook her head. She was not okay. Right now, she had no more energy to put on a brave face.
‘Hey. Hey. It’s okay.’ He touched her shoulder.
She turned around and buried her face in his shoulder. ‘My cake,’ she said, into his shirt, which was still streaked with the remnants of said cake. ‘It’s all gone so wrong.’ She gave a loud sob. He wrapped his arms around her and held her gently. She gave in to the sorrow and fear and sobbed.
‘Shh.’ Mal stroked her hair, his other hand resting on her upper back, holding her. It was so comforting that it made her cry all the more. Finally, when the worst of the tears had passed, she told him what was worrying her.
‘What if Saffron doesn’t pay for the rest of it? What if everyone finds it so funny that I become a laughing stock in the whole town? No one—’ A sob escaped. ‘No one takes me seriously as it is.’
He tightened his hold around her. ‘I do,’ he said. ‘I take you very seriously indeed.’
That was true. She thought about his impassioned smackdown of Travis’s sneering. He did take her seriously. She sniffed and buried her face in his shoulder. Wrapping her arms around him, she held on. He was so solid and reassuring. He felt like safety, and calm, and warmth. She could stand here, being held by him, forever.
‘All that food,’ she whispered. ‘We worked so hard.’
‘You know what I was thinking?’ he said.
‘What?’ It came out as a muffled ‘mmpf?’
‘If we’d known they were going to use your cupcakes as missiles, we could have used those burnt ones.’
She stilled. No, they couldn’t. Some people actually ate some cakes before … but so many had been thrown around and trampled. And she’d been so upset about burning a batch of cakes. Suddenly, it struck her as funny. She gave a slightly hysterical giggle.
When she raised her head, he was smiling at her. ‘I needed that perspective,’ she said, quietly. ‘Thank you.’
His smile faded and his gaze bored into her. ‘My pleasure,’ he said, softly.
She was caught in his eyes. His arms were still around her. She moved her arm from around his waist to touch his cheek. Stubble rasped against her palm. Without breaking eye contact, he leaned, ever so slightly, into her touch. She ran a thumb along his cheekbone.
‘That thing we parked,’ he said, his voice husky.
She needed a shower. He still had cake in his hair. They were both exhausted from the long day. They should really leave this conversation for another time. Except that would mean letting go and she didn’t want to. She stroked her thumb along his cheek again and watched his breath catch. She really, really didn’t want to.
‘I need a shower,’ she said, quietly.
‘So do I.’ His eyes were the darkest brown. ‘There is a shower at my house,’ he said.
‘I don’t have a change of clothes.’
‘Yes, you do. You have the tracksuit and jumper you were wearing this morning.’
So she did. She didn’t have clean underwear, but that was only a small point. Before she could think of another argument, he dipped his head closer and kissed her. Gently at first but then the kiss deepened quickly into heart-pounding, bone-melting ferocity.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes. Let’s do that.’
Elodie poked her head out of the bathroom to check the coast was clear. She was wearing a T-shirt she’d borrowed from Mal and a towel around her head, which was covered enough for Mal’s eyes, but she didn’t want to run into his housemates. A quick scurry down the landing and she was in his room.
He was leaning against the desk, still in his cake-stained clothes, reading something on his phone. When she pushed the door shut behind her with a click, he looked up. His eyes went wide. His mouth moved, as though he was trying to form words and couldn’t. She resisted the urge to tug down the hem of the T-shirt. It was a while since she’d had that effect on a man.
‘The … er … the shower’s free.’ She was bright red in the face, she just knew it.
She could almost see him shake himself back to coherence. ‘Yes. Shower. Right,’ he said. ‘Sorry. My brain stopped working for a moment there. You look … amazing.’ He looked her up and down.
Her heart flipped. It really had been a long time. She went over to the bed and sat down.
Mal grabbed the towel that was hanging over the back of a chair. ‘I will be right back.’ He turned to give her a glance so full of want that she went hot all over again.
He put his hand on the door handle.
‘Mal,’ she said.
He turned.
‘Don’t shave.’
His grin was a thing of joy. She couldn’t help smiling back. With nothing else to do but wait for him, she unwrapped her hair and ran her fingers through it. Even though it was still damp, she could tell that it was going to feel soft when it dried. Mal had ridiculously fancy shampoo. She just got whatever was on special offer. He must take care of his long hair better than she did hers.
Feeling the chill on her bare legs, she tucked herself into bed. Mal’s room was a small double room. Most of the space was taken up by a double bed that was shoved against the wall to allow space for a desk, the edge of which served as a bedside table. The other side of the room was taken up by a wardrobe and a bookcase overflowing with files. It was cluttered and messy. The desk, however, was tidy. There were three trays for paperwork, a laptop and a wirebound notebook, all neatly set. She guessed that he did his business admin from there sometimes.
There weren’t many knickknacks, apart from some photos Blu-tacked to the wardrobe doors. There were photos, as far as she could tell, of Mal and Jake – one from when they couldn’t have been much more than teenagers – and of Mal’s niece and nephew. This was a man who knew who loved him. He was so lucky.
Elodie sighed and leaned back. This bed was so comfortable. She tucked her arm behind her head and thought about her own family. Her parents loved her, she knew that, but they didn’t take her seriously. She was a child to them and her business was her little hobby. They were amused by the fact that she refused to take money from them to bail the business out. Amused. Not worried or angry. Amused. Then there was Trav, who hated her. She looked again at the photo of Mal with his family. She couldn’t picture having that kind of relationship with Trav. Ever.
Mal had stood up for her when Trav was being nasty. He hadn’t even known that she could hear him. He had said what he did because he genuinely thought she was good at what she did and super-organised. Even if he didn’t melt her with his kisses, she would love him just for that. The kisses were pretty spectacular though. She wriggled down further under the covers. This bed really was very comfy. She stretched. Her body felt like it had been wrung out. A yawn caught her. She pushed her hair away from her face. If Mal didn’t hurry up, she was going to fall asleep.
She tucked an arm under her head. She had to stay awake. She wanted to. Elodie sighed and her eyes drifted closed.
Mal showered as fast as he could. The sight of Elodie in nothing more than a T-shirt really focused the mind. The heat in her eyes when she’d told him not to shave didn’t hurt either. Damn this long hair. He had to wash it properly because it was full of cake and food debris. He rinsed off the shampoo, rubbed in conditioner and washed the rest of himself as fast as he could. He would normally leave the conditioner in a little longer, but needs must.
He stepped out of the bathroom wearing his boxers, his towel wrapped around his head. He carried his dirty clothes in a bundle. They would go in the wash tomorrow. He dashed for his room and let himself in. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Where were we— Oh.’
Elodie lay in his bed, one arm flung over her head, damp hair spread over the pillow, fast asleep. Oh. He couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed, but he understood. Really he did. He threw his bundle of dirty clothes into the big IKEA bag that served as a clothes hamper and towel-dried his hair. Now that he had stopped rushing, the day caught up with him. He checked the time. Nearly midnight. He had been up for nearly twenty hours, most of it spent on his feet. No wonder he was tired. He yawned as he walked to the bed.
Elodie looked so sweet in sleep. Her hair fanned out on the pillow. Her cheeks were pink. He watched her breathe for a minute. That little rosebud mouth that was so quick to set into a hard line. She looked luscious and soft. He gently pulled the duvet up and tucked her in. She made a little satisfied noise in her sleep. Mal smiled. He could watch her forever.
Another yawn. Okay, maybe not forever. He should get some sleep. For a moment, he wondered if he should sleep on the floor, but he reasoned that she’d been expecting to share a bed with him so she probably wouldn’t mind if he just climbed in with her.
With a sigh, he turned out the light and, using the faint glow from his phone, slid under the covers next to Elodie. The screen on the phone went black, plunging the room into darkness. Mal rolled onto his side, with his back to Elodie, so that his body didn’t make life awkward for him. Beside him, Elodie rolled over and threw an arm over him. She made another satisfied little noise and snuggled closer, her soft, warm body wrapping around him. Her hand lay loosely against his chest.
Now Mal was really glad he wasn’t facing her. This wasn’t how he’d thought the night would go, but if it meant that he got to feel her pressed against him like this, he would take being the little spoon. Mal smiled into the dark and put his hand over hers. He fell asleep holding it close to his chest like the precious gift that it was.