Page 31 of Escape for Christmas
Brody was giving her that look again. It made Sophie glow, as if she was sitting in front of the fire in the farmhouse. And how had she not noticed what a gorgeous voice he had? That Cumbrian accent was both soft and rugged, like the moss growing on the felltop rocks.
Wow, this fizz was strong … or could it be that, in sharing her past with him, this was the moment when she’d truly arrived in Bannerdale: the emotional moment as well as the physical?
Sophie took a large sip of her drink. Emboldened by Brody’s reaction, and possibly too many glasses of champagne, she said, ‘You should really reciprocate, you know? Share some of your secrets too.’
‘My secrets?’ He laughed, yet Sophie detected a hint ofwariness behind the amusement. ‘I’m not sure I have any that you’d want to know.’ He shrugged.
‘But you do have some?’ she pressed.
‘You seem to forget, I’m a boring country vet.’
‘That’s not an answer.’
Again that wistful smile emerged, the one that revealed a glimmer of longing for some distant horizon. Sophie wasn’t sure she was in the picture he was imagining, yet Brody put his empty glass on the hay bale and looked at her so intensely that a shiver ran down her spine.
The animals snuffled innocently in their stalls; the stable had an earthy comfort that felt like a safe space.Shefelt safe, and Brody knew everything about her now. She had nothing to lose.
‘I’m not sure I should be doing this …’ he said.
Sophie moved a little closer to him. ‘Doing what? Talking to me? Listening? Telling me about yourself? We’ve lived next door to each other for the best part of the year. You can trust me.’
‘I know that. If I trusted anyone, it would be you, but …’
‘But what?’ Sophie felt confused. Maybe she’d misread the signs, but she thought they had a special connection. She was longing to kiss Brody. Willing it.
For a few magical heartbeats she was certain he was going to lean in and kiss her. Instinctively she closed her eyes, anticipating the warmth of his lips on hers, ready to sink into a moment she’d been thinking about more and more since the lantern parade. The moment when she kisseda lovely, empathetic and divinely sexy man at a Christmas party.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t.’
Sophie opened her eyes to find that Brody had shuffled away from her, and now he couldn’t even meet her eye. ‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled again.
‘Brody! Where are you?’
The shout was like a gunshot going off. ‘Fuck, it’s Mum!’ He leapt up so quickly that he knocked Sophie’s arm and her glass slipped from her grasp and shattered on the cobbles. Harold’s barks echoed around the stable.
‘Harold. Come here! He’ll cut his pads,’ Brody said.
Sophie crouched down, her heart hammering. ‘I’ll clear it up.’
‘No!’ he replied sharply, then more softly, ‘No, I’ll do it. You might hurt yourself.’
‘What do you mean?’ Sophie insisted, feeling like she’d been dumped in a tub of cold water. Surely Brody hadn’t been too scared of his mother finding them together … If so, then he definitely wasn’t the man she’d thought he was.
‘Brody! Are you in there?’ The voice was closer.
Before either of them could reply, Louise stepped out of the shadows into the stable, her sequin jumpsuit shimmering in the light.
When she saw Sophie, her jaw dropped momentarily.
‘Oh. It’s you,’ she said tightly. ‘I wondered where you’d both got to.’ She dragged her gaze from Sophie to her son. ‘Brody, there was a phone call for you.’
Brody pulled Harold tighter to him. ‘Phone?’ he said, as if he’d never heard of such a device. ‘No one has called me, Mother. I’ve got my mobile here with me.’
‘On thehousephone.’ Louise glared at them both. ‘It was Tegan. She was in a taxi on her way from Windermere station.’
Now Brody’s mouth gaped open. ‘Tegan’s atWindermere?’ he said.
‘She was,’ Louise replied. ‘She’s now waiting for you in the drawing room.’
