Page 99 of Escape for Christmas
‘Oh, that’s convenient,’ Sophie replied, waiting for him to mention who else would be there.
‘It is.’ Carl paused. ‘So have you decided on the bracelet and earrings?’ He lowered his voice. ‘I can do you a twenty per cent discount if you want them all. As you’re a friend.’
Sophie hesitated for a moment. It was a beautiful set and would go perfectly with her outfit, plus all of her money had gone into the move and business, so she deserved to treat herself for a change. She smiled. ‘OK, I shouldn’t, but why not? I haven’t splurged for a long time.’
‘Wise decision!’ Carl replied. ‘I can’t wait to see you wearing them.’
While he was busy wrapping her purchases and taking the payment, Sophie’s mind worked overtime. Dare she ask him outright? She sensed other people queuing up behind her.
Carl handed her the gift bag. ‘See you later then and, for your information, Brody is going tonight. So are Tegan and the oldies.’
Her stomach churned. ‘Are they?’ she said, feigning polite interest.
‘And I shall be very,verycross if knowing that fact putsyouoff.’ He grinned. ‘After all, you’ve got a beautiful dress to wear and some gorgeous new jewellery to go with it; you absolutelyhaveto show up.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
‘Are you sure you should be going tonight, Dad?’
Tegan was retying her father’s bow tie at her parents’ house.
‘Don’t fuss, please,’ Alan pleaded. ‘I won’t be overdoing it by spending a few hours out of the house, and I need it, after being cooped up for so long. And let’s face it, if something goes wrong, half the bloody boat is packed with medics.’
‘I hope we won’t need them,’ Tegan said.
Brody resisted the temptation to take off his own narrow black tie. He wasn’t used to formal wear, and he hadn’t worn his tux since a veterinary-awards do in London more than two years previously. He secretly longed to be at home, in front of the fire, with Harold for company.
Fiona appeared in a long dress, with a sparkly clutch bag under her shoulder. Brody was struck by how alike Tegan and her mother were: the same blonde hair, same slight figure, same air of brittle tension, except it was better disguised in Fiona’s case. They must both be worried sick about Alan, though he seemed jovial enough.
Tegan stepped back from her father, having finally fixed his tie. ‘There. Done. You look very smart.’
‘As does your mum. You both look absolutely smashing. Don’t they, Brody?’
Brody nodded. ‘Yes, they do,’ he agreed, adding, because for once he could speak the truth with a clear conscience, ‘stunning.’
‘I just need to touch up my make-up and then we can go,’ Tegan said. ‘I won’t be long. Brody?’
‘I’m coming. I need my wallet and phone from upstairs.’
‘Please don’t tell me you’re on-call?’ Tegan cried.
‘Not tonight,’ he promised. Although that meant there was no chance of him being called away and saved.
He followed Tegan up to her old bedroom, where they’d been getting ready for the party. Brody had come straight from work. He’d had a busy day catching up with patients and, in between his regular round of vaccinations and health checks, he’d extracted four teeth from a Miniature Schnauzer called Bentley and had microchipped a Hermann’s tortoise – a procedure he’d had to google. But none of the animals’ problems had even come close to stressing him out the way humans did.
Tegan sat down at the dressing table, topping up her lipstick.
Her grey satin dress had a draped back that showed off her bare shoulders. He’d seen it before; it was the same dress she’d worn on the night he’d first asked her out. Then, as now, she’d piled her hair on top of her head, and she wore sparkly studs in her ears. He’d turned up at a mutual friend’s posh birthday party, in his brogues and Barbour, after attending the difficult birth of a calf. He’d only meant tolook in and hand over a gift, but he’d stayed, looking scruffy and probably a bit smelly, like a servant gatecrashing the aristos.
Yet Tegan had said he looked sexy, and Brody still had no idea why she would think that.
Just because his father and Alan were close didn’t mean that he and Tegan were predestined to be together, though that’s how people around him viewed it. That’s why it was going to be so hard to tell their families the truth, because he knew they were all willing them to have a happy ending.
He’d loved Tegan. He still cared for her – beyond friendship, nothing like the love for a brother or a cousin, yet not in any of the ways he should feel, for a partner in life. Perhaps he never had. Perhaps he’d been afraid, at thirty-five, to accept that he might never find a special someone.
‘You’re quiet,’ she said, talking to the mirror. ‘You might have shown more enthusiasm for my outfit. You were a bit cold and distracted downstairs and you need to be more affectionate, so my parents don’t start worrying something is wrong.’
‘You look fantastic,’ Brody muttered. ‘You always do.’
