Page 11 of Doc Hollywood

She froze and blinked at him, suddenly overwhelmed by his presence, before she reminded herself she had just spent all day with him and that now was not the time to turn into a simpering girl.

“I’m sorry; I don’t have much food in the house.” Clara pulled open her pantry. “I’ve basically got two-minute noodles or two-minute noodles. Is that okay with you?” She cracked a massive yawn. “Sorry.”

She checked her phone: two thirty am. She debated going straight to bed, but her stomach let out a massive grumble.

“Totally fine. I used to live on them.” He pulled out a chair and sat down at the small kitchen table. “Can I do anything to help?”

“I think I can cope with boiling water,” she replied drolly, filling the kettle and flicking it on.

She opened two packets of noodles, then glanced at him, opened another two, and threw them into a bowl. Clara tried to resist the urge to look across at him as they waited in silence while the water boiled.

Pouring the water over the noodles, she finally looked up to see him staring at her and quickly averted her gaze as she waited for the food to cook.

“Cheese?” She held the parmesan in her hand and raised her eyebrows in question.

“Absolutely! My two favourite things. Carbs and dairy.” He grabbed the fork she offered, his fingers grazing hers.

Clara frowned at the tingle she felt when their hands touched, then dismissed it as exhaustion and sat down with her bowl of noodles.

Taylor picked up a giant forkful and eyed it for a second before stuffing it into his mouth. “My trainer and dietician would kill me if they knew I was eating this,” he muttered through the mouthful.

“Why?” Clara paused eating.

“All carbs have to be accounted for. And my exercise programme adjusted accordingly.” He shoved another mouthful in, sighing with happiness.

“Right.” Her brain wasn’t functioning properly, and she stared at him before blurting out, “Is that so you look hot when you take your shirt off?”

The words were followed by instant regret. What the hell did she say that for? Her cheeks burnt, and she looked down at the table, internally berating herself for her big mouth.

However, much to her surprise, Taylor laughed, a big, deep, genuine belly laugh.

“That is a great summary. Yeah. It’s so I look hot,” he drawled the word in amusement, “when I take my shirt off on screen.”

“Which you seem to do a lot.” Again, Clara couldn’t work out what had possessed her to open her mouth. “I’m just going to blame the twenty-hour day for all those comments. And if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take my foot out of my mouth and stop speaking.” She pushed a forkful of food in to stop any more accidental comments.

“You’ve watched some of my movies?” His eyebrow was raised, and his blue eyes pinned her.

She snorted, and some noodles flew out of her mouth and onto the table. Staring down at them, she could not believe what had just happened and squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

Clara only opened them when she felt something brush against her hand. Dropping her gaze, she saw Taylor giving her some kitchen roll he had grabbed from the counter. Snatching it, she hastily picked up the half-chewed noodles and deposited them in the bin.

She took a few deep breaths before deciding to ignore the noodle incident.

“Of course. Who hasn’t? You’re one of the biggest movie stars in the world.” She shook her head before she muttered to herself, “And you’re sitting in my kitchen.” She pinched her own arm. “Nope. Still awake.”

Her eyes rose at the massive burst of laughter that escaped Taylor.

“I’m so tired.” She smiled ruefully, meeting his eyes before she glanced away uncomfortably.

“I have to be at work in,” she checked her watch. “Five hours. So rather than digging my own hole any deeper, I’m going to have a shower and get some sleep. Please stay up as long as you want. Just chuck the plate in the sink when you’re done. There’s a TV through there,” she pointed through the door to her living room. “And I’ll show you to the guest room now if that’s okay?” She got to her feet and put her plate in the sink. “I’ve left thespare front door key on the hallway table. Just lock up when you go and post the key through the letterbox.”

Taylor still had half a bowl of noodles to eat but immediately stood up to follow her. “Thanks. This is really nice of you.”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. I often have the junior doctors stay over.” Her voice hitched before she continued, “We lost one of them last year because they were tired driving home. And I refuse to lose anyone else from tiredness,” she said fiercely.

“Clara, that’s—“

She didn’t let him finish. “Right, the bathroom is there,” she led him along the corridor of her single-level house and pointed to a white door. “And your bedroom is right next to it. I’m at the end, and I have an en-suite, so we don’t have to share bathrooms.”

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