Page 13 of The Wedding Proposal
Lucas sat back as the waiter arrived with their drinks, realising he was in danger of sounding like a pillock. ‘Sorry. Nothing. It was just idle curiosity that I don’t have the right to indulge. I’ll shut up.’ But it was interesting that she’d reacted so warily.
To defuse the situation, he caught her up on the antics of his brother, Charlie, who she’d always loved, trying to make her laugh.
When she seemed to have uncoiled, he brought the conversation back around to his ideas of how they were going to share the boat — to have his or her own space. Live and let live. Be considerate.
‘And not be grouchy.’ She sent him a sidelong glance.
‘I’m never grouchy,’ he protested.
‘You were when I arrived.’
‘Apart from then.’ He dismissed the moment with a grin, glad to see her recovering her spirit.
‘When’s your — the woman you mentioned coming over?’
‘Kayleigh? I’m not certain, yet.’ He tried to conjure up Kayleigh in his imagination: her striking face, her straight dark red hair and her frequent smile with the tiny gap between her front teeth. ‘She makes her own plans. She’s not high-maintenance.’
He included the last line to see whether Elle would point out the iniquity of valuing this trait when he’d always protested Elle was low-maintenance to the point of shutting him out.
But Elle just treated him to a polite smile. ‘She sounds very capable.’
‘Yes, and she has a busy job to work around but she’s hoping to get a late booking at a Sliema hotel.’ Not that he’d actually asked Kayleigh the details of her schedule.
Elle’s eyes widened. ‘She’s not staying on the Shady Lady?’
He was aware he’d made it sound that way when Elle’s obvious dismay at first seeing him had made him feel as if his insides, frozen for four years, had burst into flames but was able to say, truthfully, ‘She prefers a hotel.’
Picking up the menu cards, he passed one to her. ‘Hungry?’
They ate as the sun disappeared, the lights of Sliema beginning to glitter across the short stretch of water.
As they pushed away their plates, he released the question that had been jumping in his throat since she’d walked back into his life. ‘And how about you?’
She raised enquiring eyebrows, so blonde that they’d nearly disappeared in the cafe lights.
He took a draught of his beer. ‘Boyfriend,’ he said, casually. ‘Partner. Significant other. Husband.’
‘Oh.’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Not right now. The last man I dated was a drummer in a band. We saw each other for a while.’
They lapsed into silence. To the right, past the mouth of the harbour to the open sea, Lucas could see lights from boats, pinpricks in the darkness as if a couple of the shining stars above them had slipped. He quashed an impulse to ask more about the drummer. How long was “a while”? Had she considered making a future with him? Had he made her happy?
Or had he driven her away with demands that she reveal herself, commit herself, yet signalled his own commitment with a marriage proposal that had come out more as pragmatism than love?
Had the drummer been as obsessed with Elle as Lucas had been? Had the end of the relationship cut caverns in his heart?
He stole a glance at her as she stared out across the water, her profile perfect, her body curvy and firm, her satin hair stirring in the breeze. Then he took a breath and moved the conversation back to safer ground. ‘How long do you think you’ll stay in Malta?’
Blinking, she turned back to him. ‘Four months is my initial commitment. I’m going to be working as a volunteer at the Nicholas Centre, a drop-in youth centre. I’ll be responsible for the internet cafe. Young people hang out there, of all ages and backgrounds.’ Suddenly animated, she pulled herself up in her chair, placing her elbows on the table. ‘I had plenty of IT skills but I had to take online courses in child protection and safeguarding. It made me realise what the Nicholas Centre is all about.’
He listened, intrigued. How different an Elle she was, now. The Elle he’d known had been very much on the fast track of a competitive post-graduate programme in an IT company, working hard, playing the game, living the corporate life. Giving to charity had been through sensibly Gift Aided money, not with time and effort.
‘So what happens after the four months?’
She spread her hands in a “who knows?” gesture. ‘I might find a way of staying. I might move somewhere new. I’ve only myself to please.’
‘What about your parents?’
Elle looked down and began to toy with a fork on the yellow tablecloth. ‘They split up, actually. Dad went off with a woman who’s quite a lot younger than him. Tania.’ She smiled, faintly. ‘She has two kids, both at university, and is a bit defensive in case I take up too much of Dad’s time or money. But, of course, that’s not an issue.’
