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Authors: Patricia Fawcett
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least …’ She smiled. ‘You are a bit.’
‘Sorry again. Tell me to shut up.’
She smiled at the sincerity, the faint awkwardness he was trying hard to conceal. She suspected he had worked himself into a frenzy about all this. He was sweet. Marina was right. Simon was simply a very nice man. Dynamic enough for her and, even though to be in ‘laundry’ seemed a bit dull to her, he liked his work and was keen to make a continuing success of it and she admired that in a man. Also, and this was why she could suffer all this talk about laundry, she didn’t really care what the hell nonsense he talked because she found him physically overwhelmingly attractive, finding pleasure in simply looking at him, liking the earnest look but always looking for the smile that lit up his face and his eyes. She was, she realized with a start, beginning to love this man.
‘But, just to finish off, running a business is lonely work. It alwayshelps if you’ve got somebody with you, a woman supporting you all the way,’ he went on. ‘My grandfather had his wife Isabel. Isabel …’ He hesitated and for a moment she thought he was about to say more about her but he did not, moving on. ‘And then there’s my mother Esther. She’s always been there for my father and she’s not just a sleeping partner. She attends all the board meetings. What she doesn’t know about the business isn’t worth knowing.’
‘I’m sure it isn’t.’
‘God, I’m sorry … there I go again.’ Suddenly he looked little-boy awkward, running fingers through his hair, floppy, clean-smelling, light brown hair. ‘I’m getting carried away here. I’m making a lot of assumptions about you and your feelings and you’ve only known me five minutes. I can’t think why I’m telling you all this.’
‘I’m glad you felt you could,’ she said. ‘It’s nice that you trust me. As you say, you’ve only known me a little while.’
‘But it’s long enough, isn’t it, Rebecca?’
They each drew a breath.
They were close but not touching.
The stillness was almost overwhelming.
It was, she knew, one of those defining moments she would remember for ever. A click in time. She would very likely bring it to mind when she was a very old lady lying on her deathbed.
The first time that he looked at her like that.
The first time that he laid bare his feelings.
She certainly hoped so.
The silence, seconds only, was electrifying and for a moment she dare not look at him, almost dreading what she would see in his eyes. He reached for her hand then raised it to his lips and kissed it, a fine gesture Terry would never have thought of doing in a million years. He looked her straight in the eye as he did it and it was there, plain for her to see. She very nearly fell against him then but something told her to hang back.
Soon. But not quite yet.
Simon was there, hanging on the hook, and all she had to do was reel him in.
By the time he left her at home that evening, she had been given a rapid run-down on the business which was happily in a robust state. She hadseen the balance sheets, the predicted profit figures and his personal bank books. As a chat-up line it was a non-starter, about as romantic as being presented with a saucepan for Valentine’s Day, but, on the other hand, she thought it quite charming of him that he wanted to impress her.
Impress her , Becky Andrews, who was nobody.
He didn’t need to impress her.
It didn’t really matter that he had money, lots of it, that he was the sort who was going to make more money. It didn’t really matter that she would never want for anything ever again if she married him. Married him? It would be marriage with Simon, nothing less. Marina had told her he was on the look-out for a wife and she recognized the urgency about him.
It was a little worrying that, first of all, she might be accused of marrying him on the rebound and, secondly, of marrying him for his money.
What did it matter what people
‘Sorry again. Tell me to shut up.’
She smiled at the sincerity, the faint awkwardness he was trying hard to conceal. She suspected he had worked himself into a frenzy about all this. He was sweet. Marina was right. Simon was simply a very nice man. Dynamic enough for her and, even though to be in ‘laundry’ seemed a bit dull to her, he liked his work and was keen to make a continuing success of it and she admired that in a man. Also, and this was why she could suffer all this talk about laundry, she didn’t really care what the hell nonsense he talked because she found him physically overwhelmingly attractive, finding pleasure in simply looking at him, liking the earnest look but always looking for the smile that lit up his face and his eyes. She was, she realized with a start, beginning to love this man.
‘But, just to finish off, running a business is lonely work. It alwayshelps if you’ve got somebody with you, a woman supporting you all the way,’ he went on. ‘My grandfather had his wife Isabel. Isabel …’ He hesitated and for a moment she thought he was about to say more about her but he did not, moving on. ‘And then there’s my mother Esther. She’s always been there for my father and she’s not just a sleeping partner. She attends all the board meetings. What she doesn’t know about the business isn’t worth knowing.’
‘I’m sure it isn’t.’
‘God, I’m sorry … there I go again.’ Suddenly he looked little-boy awkward, running fingers through his hair, floppy, clean-smelling, light brown hair. ‘I’m getting carried away here. I’m making a lot of assumptions about you and your feelings and you’ve only known me five minutes. I can’t think why I’m telling you all this.’
‘I’m glad you felt you could,’ she said. ‘It’s nice that you trust me. As you say, you’ve only known me a little while.’
‘But it’s long enough, isn’t it, Rebecca?’
They each drew a breath.
They were close but not touching.
The stillness was almost overwhelming.
It was, she knew, one of those defining moments she would remember for ever. A click in time. She would very likely bring it to mind when she was a very old lady lying on her deathbed.
The first time that he looked at her like that.
The first time that he laid bare his feelings.
She certainly hoped so.
The silence, seconds only, was electrifying and for a moment she dare not look at him, almost dreading what she would see in his eyes. He reached for her hand then raised it to his lips and kissed it, a fine gesture Terry would never have thought of doing in a million years. He looked her straight in the eye as he did it and it was there, plain for her to see. She very nearly fell against him then but something told her to hang back.
Soon. But not quite yet.
Simon was there, hanging on the hook, and all she had to do was reel him in.
By the time he left her at home that evening, she had been given a rapid run-down on the business which was happily in a robust state. She hadseen the balance sheets, the predicted profit figures and his personal bank books. As a chat-up line it was a non-starter, about as romantic as being presented with a saucepan for Valentine’s Day, but, on the other hand, she thought it quite charming of him that he wanted to impress her.
Impress her , Becky Andrews, who was nobody.
He didn’t need to impress her.
It didn’t really matter that he had money, lots of it, that he was the sort who was going to make more money. It didn’t really matter that she would never want for anything ever again if she married him. Married him? It would be marriage with Simon, nothing less. Marina had told her he was on the look-out for a wife and she recognized the urgency about him.
It was a little worrying that, first of all, she might be accused of marrying him on the rebound and, secondly, of marrying him for his money.
What did it matter what people
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