Page 28 of Marry Me…Maybe?
‘So you did it,’ he said, finally looking up from his paper.
He sat back in his chair and wrapped his hands around his mug before raising it to his lips and taking a long sip.
She waited impatiently for him to continue. ‘Did what?’ she blurted, barely a couple of seconds later. She’d never been good at waiting for news.
‘My mother’s agreed to let Lula use the house for her wedding reception.’
He gave her a minute to punch the air repeatedly with joy, before looking at her pointedly, demanding her attention back.
‘I think she’s convinced enough of our relationship now,’ he said, placing the mug carefully down on the table. ‘We don’t need to hammer it any more. In fact, we’d probably be tempting fate by arranging more dates around her. We’re bound to let something slip if we start to relax and get too cocky.’
His blunt suggestion felt like a smack in the face after the closeness they’d shared only hours ago. Obviously, Theo didn’t have as much of a problem with cutting their little dalliance short as she did. He’d pulled any trace of the passion from last night tightly back under wraps – she was now beginning to think she must have dreamt it.
The guy was phenomenal at detachment. He even gavehera run for her money, and that was really saying something.
She got up, feeling a sudden urge to move about. She hated dealing with things ending. This was precisely why she never let herself get too attached to a man.
‘Okay, then I’d better head off. I guess I’ll see you in a few weeks at Lula’s wedding,’ she said smartly, making for the door.
‘Emily?’ His voice was gruff, with a hint of urgency.
She stopped and turned to face him again, her heart pounding, wondering whether he was going to change his mind and ask her to stay for just a little bit longer.
‘It was fun working with you,’ he said, before giving her a curt nod and turning back to his newspaper.
She was well and truly dismissed.
She wasn’t going to let him get to her.
No way.
When she got home, she took a shower, then went straight out again to see some friends, ending up having a fun, raucous day with them which was only marginally tainted by a nagging sense that something was missing.
It couldn’t have been Theo, though – she was sure of that.
He called a couple of days later to let her know that he’d managed to persuade the vicar of the estate’s chapel to let Lula and Tristan get married there if they wanted.
‘That’s fantastic, Theo!’
There was a short silence on the other end of the line. ‘Yes. Well, he seemed quite happy to accommodate a good friend of the family.’
She got the impression Theo had been given the third degreeabout his own plans for getting married in the future. That must have made him uncomfortable.
‘Well, Lula will be delighted when I tell her. It’ll be the icing on the wedding cake.’
‘Good,’ he said brusquely.
There was another pause. ‘So, how’s it going with your mother? Is she still there?’ she asked, to fill the descending silence.
‘Actually, I need to talk to you about that.’
Dead air hummed through the line as she waited for him to continue, her heart rate picking up and her hand twitching around the phone in anticipation of what he might be about to say.
‘Yeeess…?’
She told herself to keep cool, annoyed by the disturbing hum of excitement in her belly provoked by his cryptic silence.
‘She’s going to stay with friends while Lula’s wedding is going on at the house and for a few days afterwards, so all the rooms are free for the guests, but then she’s coming back to stay for another week. She’s…’ he took a breath, ‘…keen to see you again. She wants me to set up another lunch date. She intimated that she’d be going back to Spain soon after that, and that she’s been considering reinstating my inheritance and signing the house over to me before she leaves.’
