He was definitely hungry, but he had a sneaking suspicion that New York Froth didn’t serve the one thing he was craving right now.
CHAPTER 6
LEAH
‘Interesting!’ said Connie.
‘What’s interesting?’ demanded Leah, spotting the look passing between her two new friends as she picked her way across the pebbles, wrapping her towel around her waist.
‘Veryinteresting!’ agreed Rosie, wiggling her eyebrows.
‘Whatis?!’
‘Oh, you know,’ said Connie, absentmindedly stroking her baby bump and looking adorable with her linen trousers still rolled up around her knees from her paddle.
‘I reallydon’tknow,’ said Leah.
‘Just the fact that your boss is looking at you as if you’re a particularly delicious ice cream on a very hot day,’ said Rosie.
Her boss?!
‘Will’s here?’ Leah gasped, automatically yanking her towel up higher to cover her chest. It didn’t help much, because it just left more of her legs on show.
‘He certainly is!’ said Rosie with a grin as she nodded to a couple of figures sitting on the ridge of pebbles at the high tide line. ‘This is just a guess… but I’m assuming he’s never seen you in a swimming costume before?’
Connie snorted, but Leah wanted the pebbles of North Beach to part and swallow her whole. No, Will had definitely never seen her in a swimming costume before. Hell… he’d never even seen her with her hair down before!
Biting down a wave of panic, Leah glanced up the beach. Sure enough, there he was… William Pepper in the flesh. And, just as the girls had said, he did seem to be staring in her direction.
Leah was pretty sure they were wrong about the reason for that penetrating gaze, though. That was probably more to do with the fact that she’d let her hair down—both literally and figuratively—and he’d caught her in the act.
Damnit!
Maybe spending her holiday in the same town as Will wasn’t such a great idea after all. It wasn’t that she wasn’t pleased to see him… because she wasalwayspleased to see him. But for some reason, she’d assumed he’d still be safely tucked up in his big house on the cliff, firmly in brooding-hermit mode.
If Leah had had even the slightest inkling that he might appear on the beach and catch her fresh from the waves, she wouldn’t have ventured in in the first place. She blew out a long breath. At least she was cold enough from the water that it should help mask her furious blush!
Maybe the fact that he was here on the beach was a sign that he was already starting to break out of whatever funk had been plaguing him for the last several months… but did hereallyhave to have a breakthrough the first time she ventured out in public in a swimming costume?!
Of course, now that Leah was looking in that direction, Will’s long, lean body was instantly recognisable. She’d memorised every strong line and angle of the man over the years she’d worked for him.
‘Where on earth did he get a dog?!’ she said, eyeballing the massive black, white and tan furball sitting between Will and another man.
‘That’s Stanley,’ said Rosie, as if that explained everything.
‘And next to him is Matt,’ said Connie.
‘Yep, my very own Dr Pepper,’ said Rosie with a dreamy smile.
That figured. Will’s big brother had a slightly different build, and his hair was darker and shorter, but the family resemblance was obvious – even from this distance.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Connie, impatiently. ‘We allknowthe pair of you are cuckoo about each other, that’s not news. But that look on Will’s facedefinitelyis!’
‘I’m sure he’s just surprised to see me with you guys, that’s all,’ said Leah, still doing her best to cover as much skin as humanly possible with the tiny towel she’d swiped from the flat.
‘Why shouldn’t you be with us?’ said Rosie in surprise.
‘Yeah, surely he knows we’re friends?’ said Connie.
