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Authors: Abigail Gordon
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won’t be up.’
As they walked back to the village in the silent night Amelie risked another question about his private life, which she didn’t think would offend. ‘Does your tennis partner live locally?’
‘Yes,’ he said easily. ‘She returned to Bluebell Cove, where she was brought up, some months ago after a distressing divorce, and we got to know each other at the tennis club.’
‘Oh, I see,’ she said, and thought what could be more appealing than an attractive blonde divorcee? Certainly not a nondescript junior doctor who couldn’t even keep Antoine the unadventurous happy.
Their two residences were in sight and Amelieknew she didn’t want this time with Leo to end. Yet end it must, as the next thought that had come to mind was what it would feel like to be kissed by the Angel Gabriel.
When they stopped at her gate it was clear that the man by her side had no such thoughts. His mind was on more mundane things, such as a reminder to lock up securely before she went to bed and a wish for the best of luck with Ronnie down on the beach the next morning.
But she couldn’t let him go with just that. Thanks were due because he had given up his evening for her and she said awkwardly, ‘I’ve had a lovely time, Leo. Thank you for the meal and the rest of the evening.’ Standing on tiptoe, she brushed her lips lightly against his cheek.
At the moment of contact he stepped back and Amelie felt her colour rise again. When would she ever learn? Antoine’s treatment of her should have made it clear that she wasn’t ever going to be any man’s dream girl. Leo had backed off as if she was infectious, and that was after just a thank-you peck on the cheek. The pleasure of the time they’d spent together was disappearing like water down a drain.
He sensed her hurt. Could tell by her expression that he’d hit a nerve and wanted to kick himself for upsetting her, but Amelie wasn’t to know that he was telling himself all the time to cool it with the young French doctor, and a peck on the cheek might soon transfer itself to the lips, and could go on from there.
‘You don’t have to thank me for anything, Amelie,’ hesaid abruptly, to bring an end to the awkward moment that had come out of nowhere. ‘It is just a matter of being polite to a stranger who feels out of things because she knows no one here… And now I’m going to say goodnight.’
She nodded, and without speaking watched him move briskly towards the apartments without a backward glance.
‘Ugh!’ she breathed when she was inside with the door locked, as Leo had instructed. For someone known as the village Romeo he had taken a dim view of that butterfly kiss on the cheek, which was all it had been. What was the matter with the man?
Hadn’t she made it clear that she wasn’t in the market for love, or any of the trappings that went with it? And even if she had been, she was way out of his league, so why had he shied away from a simple expression of gratitude?
Up in the apartment Leo was also taking stock of those embarrassing moments outside the house across the way when Amelie had tried to thank him and been repulsed.
She wasn’t to know how much she’d got through to him during the evening by just being there, and how much he’d known it would be a mistake to let those kinds of feelings take hold. The outcome of it was that it had to stop.
As from Monday morning it was going to be strictly business and nothing else between them. He’d playedhis part in making her welcome. Now she was on her own, socially and at the practice.
The hire car they’d arranged for her was there, waiting to be used, so he was going to suggest to Harry that she should do some of the house calls on her own, leaving him free of the close contact with her in his car, which couldn’t be avoided.
He was as easy with women socially as he was with men, but it was all on the surface. With Amelie it wasn’t like that and he knew why. It was as he
As they walked back to the village in the silent night Amelie risked another question about his private life, which she didn’t think would offend. ‘Does your tennis partner live locally?’
‘Yes,’ he said easily. ‘She returned to Bluebell Cove, where she was brought up, some months ago after a distressing divorce, and we got to know each other at the tennis club.’
‘Oh, I see,’ she said, and thought what could be more appealing than an attractive blonde divorcee? Certainly not a nondescript junior doctor who couldn’t even keep Antoine the unadventurous happy.
Their two residences were in sight and Amelieknew she didn’t want this time with Leo to end. Yet end it must, as the next thought that had come to mind was what it would feel like to be kissed by the Angel Gabriel.
When they stopped at her gate it was clear that the man by her side had no such thoughts. His mind was on more mundane things, such as a reminder to lock up securely before she went to bed and a wish for the best of luck with Ronnie down on the beach the next morning.
But she couldn’t let him go with just that. Thanks were due because he had given up his evening for her and she said awkwardly, ‘I’ve had a lovely time, Leo. Thank you for the meal and the rest of the evening.’ Standing on tiptoe, she brushed her lips lightly against his cheek.
At the moment of contact he stepped back and Amelie felt her colour rise again. When would she ever learn? Antoine’s treatment of her should have made it clear that she wasn’t ever going to be any man’s dream girl. Leo had backed off as if she was infectious, and that was after just a thank-you peck on the cheek. The pleasure of the time they’d spent together was disappearing like water down a drain.
He sensed her hurt. Could tell by her expression that he’d hit a nerve and wanted to kick himself for upsetting her, but Amelie wasn’t to know that he was telling himself all the time to cool it with the young French doctor, and a peck on the cheek might soon transfer itself to the lips, and could go on from there.
‘You don’t have to thank me for anything, Amelie,’ hesaid abruptly, to bring an end to the awkward moment that had come out of nowhere. ‘It is just a matter of being polite to a stranger who feels out of things because she knows no one here… And now I’m going to say goodnight.’
She nodded, and without speaking watched him move briskly towards the apartments without a backward glance.
‘Ugh!’ she breathed when she was inside with the door locked, as Leo had instructed. For someone known as the village Romeo he had taken a dim view of that butterfly kiss on the cheek, which was all it had been. What was the matter with the man?
Hadn’t she made it clear that she wasn’t in the market for love, or any of the trappings that went with it? And even if she had been, she was way out of his league, so why had he shied away from a simple expression of gratitude?
Up in the apartment Leo was also taking stock of those embarrassing moments outside the house across the way when Amelie had tried to thank him and been repulsed.
She wasn’t to know how much she’d got through to him during the evening by just being there, and how much he’d known it would be a mistake to let those kinds of feelings take hold. The outcome of it was that it had to stop.
As from Monday morning it was going to be strictly business and nothing else between them. He’d playedhis part in making her welcome. Now she was on her own, socially and at the practice.
The hire car they’d arranged for her was there, waiting to be used, so he was going to suggest to Harry that she should do some of the house calls on her own, leaving him free of the close contact with her in his car, which couldn’t be avoided.
He was as easy with women socially as he was with men, but it was all on the surface. With Amelie it wasn’t like that and he knew why. It was as he
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