Page 30 of Winter at Wishington Bay
He looked back at me, gave that ghost of a smile again and shook his head. ‘No. Thanks. You’ve done more than enough.’
‘OK. Well, have a good evening. Don’t work too late.’ I turned to go.
‘Wait.’
I turned as I heard the sound of the chair move, immediately followed by the excited revving up of Bryan’s little paws, unwilling to miss out on any possible excitement, trying to get a purchase on the wooden floor. He got his front paws to the corner of a thick rug and propelled himself towards Nate.
‘What’s wrong?’ I hesitated, one hand on the door handle.
‘Nothing,’ Nate said, grabbing his coat off the hook at the same time as shoving his feet into his boots. ‘I’ll walk you home.’
Bryan picked up on the magic W word in the sentence and began racing round even faster.
‘You don’t need to do that.’
‘I know,’ Nate replied, before looking down and meeting my glance square on. ‘But I’d like to.’
10
Did he really have to add ‘interesting and friendly’ to those gorgeous looks? Could he not have stayed the arrogant, rude man I’d initially thought he was? Honestly, him turning in to what was on the verge of ‘a really nice guy’ was pretty inconvenient, especially when teamed with those striking blue eyes that now looked out at me from under the beanie he’d pulled down low. See? Even a beanie, the one item of head gear guaranteed to reduce most people to looking like they’d raided their gran’s tea cosy stash to keep their head warm, looked good on him.
‘Sophia?’
I snapped to. ‘Huh?’
‘You OK?’
‘Yes. Absolutely.’
He frowned and pulled at the hat a bit. ‘I know it looks kind of ridiculous.’
I suddenly realised I’d been staring at him and, it would seem, he’d completely misinterpreted the reason. That in itself, was kind of adorable. And judging by the uncomfortable look on his face, this was no false modesty. I felt my heart squeeze and tried to ignore it, along with all the other feelings Nate McKinley was awakening. Automatically I reached up and caught his hands, gently pulling them away from his head.
‘It looks fine.’
So much more than fine…
Nate didn’t say anything, but his gaze drifted down to where I was still holding his hands. I dropped them suddenly – and inelegantly.
‘Sorry.’
He gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
‘I just meant… you need to have more confidence in yourself.’
His blue eyes focused momentarily on mine before looking away.
‘No one looks good in a beanie. But I’m afraid comfort is winning over style.’
‘See, that’s the thing. Ordinarily I’d agree with you. That’s kind of why I was staring.’
Mostly.
‘Because you seem to be the exception to the rule.’
His expression was one of embarrassed disbelief as I settled my bobble hat over my own ears.
‘Come on Bry, mate,’ Nate said, turning away and quickly ensconcing the little dog in his new coat and clipping the lead to his collar.
