Page 53 of The Wedding Proposal
Elle blinked. ‘That’s really nice of you but I’m not in a position to date at the moment.’
Oscar nodded. ‘Of course. There is the boyfriend who may not be a boyfriend. The boyfriend who brings his woman here, under your nose.’
‘Kayleigh? She’s his brother’s girlfriend. She was alone, initially, but Lucas’s brother, Charlie, has arrived to be with her, now.’ Elle couldn’t keep a hint of triumph from her voice. Now that she knew the situation between Charlie and Kayleigh she could once again utilise Lucas’s presence on the boat to ward Oscar off.
‘Really?’ Oscar was still smiling irritatingly, knowingly. ‘So. Is Lucas the boyfriend or not the boyfriend?’
Summoning a friendly but dismissive smile, Elle made to move around him. ‘I don’t really need to discuss this with you.’
Then she gasped as she found herself trapped suddenly between the doorjamb and a man so large that he filled all of her vision. His voice was low and his breath hot on her skin. ‘You avoid me, but that doesn’t mean I shall go away. I have an ambition that Elle shall look at me as she looks at little Carmelo. With soft eyes and a beautiful smile. And hugs and kisses, just like for Carmelo.’
For an instant Elle froze, bad memories sending the blood singing in her ears. Then anger flew to her rescue. Never again would a man intimidate her, make her powerless. She took a long slow breath so that she could force her voice to ring out. ‘Of course I haven’t kissed Carmelo. He hugged me; I could hardly shove him away. Get away from me. I’m not comfortable with this conversation and it’s unacceptable that you invade my personal space.’
‘Then the conversation must instantly end.’ Oscar stepped back, bowing her through the door in front of him with the air of one humouring a capricious child.
‘If you behave like that again,’ she said, coldly, holding her ground, ‘I’ll complain to Joseph. That was inappropriate and there must be no repetition.’
Oscar’s grin became wider than ever. ‘Englishwomen! You take everything much too serious. In the Nederlands we are more relaxed, more adult.’ Then, as if an idea had just struck him: ‘If Lucas is your boyfriend, it is not a problem for me. I understand a relationship that is open.’
Elle laughed her scorn right into his freckly face. ‘Lucas is the last man in the world to entertain an open relationship. Believe me on that one.’
Chapter Sixteen
Lucas cornered Vern in his ‘outdoor office’, where Vern sometimes took his hated paperwork, a table with blistered white paintwork on a flat place on the rocks. Only one chair stood at the table. Vern didn’t encourage loiterers.
Although Lucas held the day’s student record files, he kept them behind his back. The only thing Vern hated more than paperwork was more paperwork.
Lucas had provided surface cover at Ghar Lapsi today while Lars and Brett led tourists down into the crystal depths to spy on octopus and swim with rainbow shoals of fish. He didn’t enjoy taking his turn to provide surface cover, but at least it had given him an opportunity to think. Now he was ready to share those thoughts with Vern.
‘How do you feel about helping local kids from a youth drop-in centre?’
Vern didn’t look up. ‘What kind of help?’
‘I was wondering whether we could give them a Bubblemaker Session.’
Turning PADI forms over with distaste, Vern sighed. ‘What kind of drop-in centre? Nothing to do with nasty habits?’
‘No. It’s just somewhere for kids to hang out. Play games, do activities, use the internet cafe.’ He sketched in a few more details about the Nicholas Centre and Joseph. ‘My brother’s girlfriend works with children and she got talking to someone I know who volunteers there, so we went up to visit. I sort of got involved.’ He pushed back his hair, damp because he’d been washing off the equipment used for today’s dive and had cooled himself in the spray. ‘So I was thinking we could go there and do the youth programme diving presentation and then get some of them up here in the pool. Obviously, I volunteer my services.’
Slowly, Vern sat back, squinting against the slanting sun. A big tawny man with a lot of body hair, he was a bit like a mangy bear and had a habit of growling to hide his soft heart. ‘We’d need some responsible adults here from their end, safeguarding and all that stuff.’
‘They have their own youth leaders. Maybe one or two of them? And, hopefully, Joseph.’
‘At least that many, yeah, depending on how many kids want to make bubbles.’ Vern tapped his pen against his cheek.
‘Might be a nice PR exercise, being nice to local kids,’ Lucas suggested, persuasively.
Vern grunted. ‘It’s only a good PR exercise if we get the press here and sound off about what wonderful people we are to give time and resources to provide some kids with fun. Otherwise, the only benefit for us that I see is a warm glow at having done a good deed. And there’s the cost of air and the damage to kit. Kids always break things.’
Lucas glanced over at the seawater pool, dancing with sunlight. He thought about Carmelo and imagined his big eyes alight with joy and wonder. ‘Some of those kids don’t even have properly fitting clothes. It’s unlikely that they’ll get to try the expensive adventure of scuba unless someone provides the chance for them.’
Slowly, Vern nodded. ‘OK, let me think about it. Maybe we could work something out at the end of a day when we’ve had only fairly shallow dives. By the time the instructors and divemasters get back here and sort the equipment out, some surface time will have elapsed, and you’ll go no deeper than two metres so it won’t add much to nitro levels.’
He turned his attention back to his paperwork. ‘Now give me whatever you’re hiding behind your back and sod off to see your youth centre guy.’
A couple of hours later, Lucas stepped aboard the Shady Lady and saw Elle’s top half moving around in the galley. ‘Let’s clear the air,’ he said, dropping his bag on the floor of the saloon and crossing to the steps so that he could see all of her. Her hair was wet and she was wearing one of those things that seemed a cross between a minidress and a pair of shorts. The outfit showed a lot of leg. He didn’t let her catch him looking. He could read enough wariness and mistrust in her eyes without that.
He reached around her to grab a bottle of beer from the fridge. ‘I acted like a prat: I’m genuinely sorry. I don’t really know what I was thinking of and I don’t suppose there’s any point trying to analyse it. It was childish and stupid.
