Bait(68)

And then I see Serena at the railings. I point and wave and Cam does too.

“Shall we shout her, Cam? See if we can get her to hear us? Maybe she’ll come down too if we’re loud enough.”

I don’t really expect him to join in as I shout her name.

She clasps her hand over her mouth as he does.

I spin him around so he can’t see her surprise.

And I thank my lucky fucking stars that Mariana got her way with this stupid bloody swimming pool.





Twenty-Nine





Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon.

C. Day Lewis





Abigail



My monster doesn’t come for me all week. I’m having fun all the same, planning the barbeque and dancing until my feet ache at Diva’s on Thursday night.

I only check my phone once when I get home, but when I do, there’s a single message waiting for me.

It makes my heart soar.

Soon.

That’s all it says.

I get ready on Saturday morning with high spirits and a smile on my face. I style my hair in curls with Sarah’s help and slip on my beautiful new dress, only sighing once in the mirror at the pity he won’t get to see me like this.

And then I go.

Lauren and the girls are already on Castle Green when I get there. The wine is flowing freely, the smell of charcoal is in the air and the weather is holding.

Everything is great.

Jack takes great pleasure in introducing me to all the people I’ve yet to meet from the other office. I shake hands and smile and struggle to assign names to faces, scouting the crowds for any clients I should be recognising but haven’t yet met.

“Stop bloody working,” Lauren giggles in my ear as I’ve introduced myself to the fifth person at the salad table in a row. “Kick back, get drunk, have fun.”

“You’re such a slacker,” I tell her, and stick my tongue out.

“No,” she says. “You’re such a bloody professional. You’re giving the rest of us a bad name.” She nudges me in good humour.

She has got a point. For all the enjoyment I’ve come to find in the position I grabbed hold of during my crazy relocation effort, I’m beginning to think it’s time for more of a challenge.

It amazes me that I feel ready. Hell, it amazes me that I’m back up from my knees with my head held high.

Because of him.

I crush that thought.

Not just because of him.

Because of Lauren, and Kelly, and Jack. Because of Sarah. Because of stupid nights at Divas and learning to enjoy phone calls home again.

Because of me, too.

I’m chowing down on a burger when my skin prickles, happily tipsy enough on two large glasses of white that I brush the sensation off as nothing.

I convince myself I’m imagining things when I catch a glimpse of a familiar silhouette weaving through the crowd at the raffle table.

No.

It can’t be.

But it is.

Kelly’s voice shrieks in my ear before Lauren’s. “You didn’t say you were bringing him!”

I turn to stare blankly, even though my heart is thumping.

She points to a huddle of clients by the bandstand. “There. Look.”

I don’t see a thing, until I do.

And there he is. Large as life at my work barbeque. Looking thoroughly at odds with everyone else here, even though he’s wearing a tux.

He’s wearing a fucking tux.

Fuck.

He looks fucking magnificent.

Better than magnificent.

He looks like a perfect nightmare. Darker than I’ve ever seen him, even in the glaring sun.

“You could knock me over with a feather,” Kelly says. “That man is fucking delicious.”

“He really is,” I tell her, and then I grin. “Hung like a donkey, too.”

I leave them with open mouths as I abandon my burger on a trestle table and head straight for the beast himself.

He meets me halfway, as though this is the most natural thing in the world.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper-hiss, before he can even speak.

“I said soon,” he tells me. “This is soon.”

“And this is my work barbeque.” I can’t hide the smile. “Technically for employees, suppliers and clients only.”

My tummy flutters as he leans over and presses his lips to my ear. I love the sound of his breath.

“And technically I’m a client. I ordered some filing cabinets, you can check the records.”

My eyes widen and his are laughing.

“You’re a client?! Of Office Express?!”

“Like I said, you can check the records.”

He lets out a low laugh as I grab my phone from my handbag. My fingers are shaking with a strange jittery excitement as I call up my work login.

Filing cabinets… Malvern… past ninety days…

I get a few hits. Names I recognise. A few clients I’ve seen today already.