Page 42 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
‘Ugh. I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t asked now.’ Cal pulled a face but there was a tease in his eyes. I rolled my lips, thinking. I had a feeling that getting Cal Martin to open up was still going to be like cracking one of those walnuts that sit in the bowl all throughChristmas, refusing to be beaten – or eaten – and his comment, although teasing, confirmed it so I went with an easier starter.
‘Right. You tell me why you moved to the village and how you feel about it now you’ve been here a while and have got over the initial shock.’ I grinned.
‘OK. Deal.’
We sat in silence for a moment.
‘But you go first,’ he said.
I moved the coffee cup handle a littleand then raised my gaze, bumping into Cal’s. He was studying me. His fingertips brushed mine, just for a moment. ‘If you don’t want to though,’ he said softly, ‘you don’t have to.’
‘No,’ I said, putting on that brave face I’d just been talking about, ‘we made a deal.’
‘Screw the deal. We’re friends. I want you to be comfortable with me, and right now you don’t look it.’
I shook my head. ‘It’snot you. I mean, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you anything.’ And the weird thing was, I did. I was used to spilling everything to my family, which by extension, meant Xander and Giselle, mostly because I didn’t have a choice. Trying to hide something from any of them was impossible. They knew me too well. But outside of that precious, protective circle, my business was my own. At least thatwas how I liked it to be, which had made what had happened all the more difficult to handle.
But there was something about Cal Martin – nothing to do with how good he looked, how great he smelled when he’d come back into the kitchen that morning after his shower, or how he had a smile that could scramble your brain at ten paces. It was more than that. And that was kind of exciting. And also scaredthe pants off me.
‘I’m kind of surprised you don’t know really. Or maybe you do anyway.’ I was stalling.
When he spoke, his voice was soft. ‘Until you tell me, it’s a little bit tricky to answer that for definite.’
‘It’s nothing really,’ I said, flapping a hand in dismissal at the same time as I felt the heavy knot in my stomach form at the memory.
‘Clearly it’s not nothing. You’ve gone almostas pale as George was in the night.’
‘I used to go out with one of the racing drivers for a while. Actually I was engaged to him. It … kind of all got a bit messy towards the end and the paparazzi were used to following Marco anyway so when everything hit the fan, it not only spread around the paddock but got splashed across the papers too. My poor family had the media on the phone and some eventurned up at our home trying to get soundbites and even more gossip. Since then, Dan just sort of switched to referring to me as his sister rather than using my name, just in case.’
Cal said nothing for a moment. ‘Surely he didn’t think I was a media informant?’
I shook my head. ‘Of course not. But I guess you were new to the village, and to be honest, I think it’s just a habit for him now.And if it makes him worry about me less, then I’m good with that.’
‘So when you say Marco, you mean Marco Benoit?’
‘Yeah. I know. Unlikely, huh?’ I laughed, trying to relax the tension from my shoulders. Marco was well known for his penchant for leggy models and actresses. Being none of the above, no one was more surprised than me when he’d asked me to dinner and it had taken him several attemptsto convince me that I wasn’t actually being pranked.
‘No, that’s not what I meant. I was just checking we were talking about the same person.’
‘Right.’
‘I follow Formula One but I must admit the gossip side of it all – what’s going on in the drivers’ lives – tends to pass me by. It’s all about the cars and the racing for me.’
‘It’s a shame not everyone feels that way.’ I smiled, rolling myshoulders. ‘Unfortunately the world’s insane obsession with celebrity tends to mean blanket coverage these days.’
‘And you got caught in the middle of that?’
‘Yeah. Kind of,’ I answered, not looking at him, my fingers worrying the paper napkin I’d replaced on the table from my lap.
Cal caught my hand. ‘I’m sorry you weren’t given the privacy you deserved at what was obviously a difficult time.’I nodded, keeping my head down, concentrating on keeping my breathing even. ‘From the look on your face, I’m feeling kind of shitty about asking you anything now.’
My head snapped up. ‘No! Really, don’t. I did, do, want to talk to you.’
He smiled, the warmth of it doing as much for me as the fire crackling just across the room. ‘Thank you.’
‘And really you don’t have to tell me anything aboutyou. I promise not to ask again. Actually that’s a lie because like I said, I can be accidentally blunt and I may ask questions that might cross your self-imposed boundaries, but I will at least try not to delve into your personal life again.’
Cal gave my fingertips a quick squeeze as he gave another glance at the weather. ‘No. We had a deal and I dug up painful memories for you, albeit unintentionally,’he added as he saw my mouth open to protest, ‘so the least I can do is tell you why I moved. It’s not exactly personal.’
