‘So I take it that’s a yes…’
He collected her at eight-thirty promptly the following morning. Amy had been up and ready since seven. She was back to her jeans, but this time twinned with a small, tight vest-top and her gorgeous new shoes. She had a date with the gardener, she told Claire breezily, who was secretly relieved that she had given up her pointless pursuit of James, and contented herself with only a couple of questions. Notably how she could manage to meet a guy in the space of twenty-four hours, but then she knew the answer well enough. Amy had a sunny personality that people were drawn to, even though she was merrily unaware of the fact. She was also cuter than she thought, with her wild blonde hair and big blue eyes giving her a gamine appeal that many men found captivating. She was far more suited to dates with a gardener than dreaming about the impossibly rich playboy James who represented everything that was unreliable about the opposite sex.
‘Bring me back a souvenir,’ Claire told her.
‘Only if it can be really tacky!’ Amy laughed.
‘And don’t fall for the gardener,’ her friend warned, uneasily aware that there was something different about her. ‘It would be hard to commute from London to New York three times a week.’
‘Believe me,’ Amy said sincerely, ‘there’s no chance of that!’ She thought of Rafael. He might have smouldering good looks, but he was not easy company. She found herself trying to explain the conundrum to Claire until she was interrupted.#p#分页标题#e#
‘Okay, okay, I get the picture! Though why you would want to spend time with someone you find hard going, I have no idea. That’s not like you at all.’ Curiouser and curiouser, Claire thought. She refrained from saying anything but wondered if jumping out of the frying-pan and straight into the fire would do her friend any good.
Amy rattled off the excuse provided by Rafael and which she had eagerly adopted as her own. ‘I’d rather not be around James just at the moment. I feel like an utter fool, to be honest. I mean, it’s not as though I haven’t known that he’s had women, but I suppose seeing it for myself up close and personal just really brought it home to me. I’ve been an idiot, Claire.’
Claire made indeterminate noises that might have been agreement or might have been denial. Fortunately, her friend did not ask for clarification.
‘So I just think it would work for me not to be around him too much here if I can help it, and no one’s really going to notice because we can all do our own thing if we want to. I mean…you could come out with us today if you want…’ She found herself guiltily hoping that her friend would turn down the offer, as she did, then she felt guilty that she could have been so selfish. She should want Claire around to dilute the sheer get-under-her-skin nature of Rafael’s personality.
‘Well, you won’t be missing much,’ Amy said stoutly when Claire declined. ‘It’s not as though the gardener’s a shed load of fun. I mean, the only time he laughs is when he’s laughing at me!’
‘But he’s good-looking…’ Claire said thoughtfully.
‘Not my type. You know I like the fun-loving sorts…and, yes,’ she continued irritably when Claire raised her eyebrows and grinned, ‘I suppose some people might find him hand-some…not cute, I hasten to add. In fact, he’s about as cute as a man-eating shark, but I suppose he gets a couple of looks when he goes out…’ A couple of hundred, she thought, recalling the heads that had swung around to get a glimpse of him. ‘But then he would,’ she said. ‘All that manual outdoor work…rippling muscles everywhere…but not a very sensitive kind of guy…’ she added.
‘So why do you think he’s taking a day off just to ferry you around New York?’ Claire asked with lively interest.
‘Maybe he feels sorry for me,’ Amy said, frowning. She couldn’t really imagine Rafael feeling sorry for anyone. ‘I did lay it on a bit thick about my broken heart.’
‘Maybe,’ Claire told her with drama in her voice, ‘he’s fallen for the charms of the beautiful Amy…’
Amy felt the colour start from the tips of her toes and work its way up. The laughter disappeared from her voice instantly. ‘That’s a ridiculous idea,’ she said huriedly.
‘But he’s spending a whole day with you, even though he doesn’t have to…’
‘Maybe he just likes the idea of going out with someone from The Big House…’
‘Even though he knows that you’re not made of money?’