Page 67 of The Wedding Proposal

Lucas crossed his ankle over the other knee and ran briefly through the details of his job and where he worked. ‘I’ve spoken to Vern, the owner of Dive Meddi, and we wonder if you’d like us to put on a Bubblemaker Session? A Bubblemaker session’s for under-twelves and it gives them a taste of using scuba equipment in an enclosed, safe environment. It’s all about fun and enjoyment but, of course, safety is paramount.’

He spent some time describing the facilities at Dive Meddi and what the ratios would need to be of child to instructor in the water. ‘The first step would be for Vern and I to visit the centre with a fun presentation on diving, including slides showing the equipment and some of the aquatic life that inhabits the waters around Malta.’

As Lucas and Joseph discussed parental consent necessary for children to take part in the pool session, transport, on-shore supervision, equipment, insurance and Joseph visiting the dive school and meeting Vern, Elle watched Lucas’s lips, enjoying his quick intelligence as he poured out information in a way that was interesting, comprehensive and comprehensible. Her eyes dropped to his hands as he borrowed Joseph’s pad to augment an explanation with a sketch.

Presently, it was agreed that Joseph would check out Dive Meddi late that afternoon, when the diving groups were back, with a view to the presentation happening late Friday afternoon.

Joseph asked Elle to devise and print posters for the noticeboard in the lounge and for the doors in the activity rooms.

‘Fine,’ she agreed, promptly. ‘Lucas, do you have time to run up to the computer room with me to help me get the blurb right?’

‘I’m happy to be in your hands,’ he said easily, making Elle blush again.

They left Joseph to whichever of the million-and-one admin tasks had risen to the top of his ‘to do’ list and stepped out into the hall. At the foot of the stairs they had to pause to let Oscar come cantering down.

He pulled up with a broad grin and a loud and over-effusive greeting. Then he checked the corridor in both directions and lowered his voice. ‘So, boyfriend-not boyfriend-boyfriend. Maybe it’s with you she had the big sexual night, yes? She told me about it.’

Horror shot through Elle’s chest. ‘Oscar!’ she hissed, her cheeks on fire. ‘That is so not appropriate.’

Oscar laughed. ‘Then you should not tell me.’

She turned to Lucas. ‘I was trying to stop him h-hitting on me. I didn’t go in to detail—’

But Lucas was grinning. ‘You went public that we spent the night together?’ he drawled. ‘That’s the best news I’ve had all day.’

‘Oh!’ Elle laughed, reluctantly. ‘Yes, I suppose I can see how that would work for you.’ Relieved that Oscar’s poison dart had turned out to be so easily deflected, she couldn’t resist sending the Dutchman a triumphant smile. It got her a glower in return.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Elle arranged her Friday so that she could whisk through Seadancer in the morning.

‘You’re very chirpy, young lady!’ commented Loz.

Elle hugged her and laughed. ‘A sister at Bettsbrough General Hospital says my mother’s doing better and it looks as if she might be able to move back to The Briars some time.’ Joanna would need a higher level of care than before but it was too early to plan. Out of her limited choices, it seemed the most desirable.

But of course it wasn’t her mother’s health that was making Elle dance through her day. It was Lucas. She couldn’t believe how the wariness that she’d thought graven on his face had vanished and that the suspicion in his eyes had gone. Last night they’d talked for hours. Talked and laughed and teased and made love.

They’d talked about only happy things, hopeful things. Summer in Malta. Making children laugh. Travel. Charlie obviously being nuts about Kayleigh — as opposed to his usual state of simply being nuts. The pleasure of a cool shower after an overheated day; what the surface of the sea looked like from beneath; why bed was positively the only place to share Marsovin wine.

After everything that had happened, it was bliss.

But once Lucas had fallen into the sleep of the physically replete she’d remained awake, battling with the spectre of Ricky, worrying whether Lucas’s parents would hate her all over again if or when they learned of the current situation. Had Lucas made the right decision? She didn’t know. Should she insist on full disclosure? She shied away, too relieved and too scared of losing Lucas again to be that noble.

But now, in daylight, Elle had returned joyfully to wallowing in the bliss. Everything looked worse at night. It was a well-known fact.

In the afternoon, Elle went up to Nicholas Centre, where Vern would give the Dive Meddi presentation and Lucas, according to him, would press the buttons for the slide show and laugh in the right places.

The setting out of chairs began an hour before the presentation and many of the kids had already congregated noisily in the big salon by the time Elle heard Lucas’s voice coming up the stairs. Elle instantly abandoned the computer room, where she’d been whiling away the time helping Carmelo set up a Nicholas Centre Twitter account. Carmelo was even faster.

‘Lucas!’ Carmelo beamed, intercepting Lucas as he reached the landing, hand raised expectantly.

‘Hey, Carmelo.’ With a big grin, Lucas dropped one of the black bags he carried to whip out an enthusiastic high five. If he noticed that Carmelo was dressed in cut-offs and a T-shirt just like Lucas’s cut-offs and T-shirt, he didn’t betray it. ‘This is my boss, Vern.’

Vern high fived Carmelo, too, and then shook hands with Elle. ‘Great to meet you.’ His hand was like a paw around Elle’s.

Elle took to Vern immediately. His thinning hair was coppery and curly and his eyebrows were set in a permanent arch, making him look like an oversized, faintly exasperated cherub.

In the big salon, leaving Lucas to set up a laptop and pop-up screen out of one of the capacious bags, Vern addressed the children with a brief and easy, ‘I’m Vern and this is Lucas.’ To Elle it seemed a casual opening, used as she was to the business world. But Vern seemed to have the knack of connecting instantly with everybody in the room and there was no sign in the audience of the kind of teen Aileen had warned Elle of, those who attended events solely to tut and roll their eyes.

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