She laughed. ‘None taken. That’s exactly right.’ She turned to Harry. ‘Harry, can you put your exam timetable up on the fridge, so we’ll know when not to disturb you?’
‘Will do.’
‘I forgot to ask. How did the first one go on Monday?’
Harry grinned. ‘Pretty good actually. It was a relief to get one out of the way. My next one is Friday. They’re all pretty much spread out over the next month, so I should have enough time to revise between each one.’
‘Great. I’m sure you’re going to smash them,’ Anna told him.
‘You deserve to,’ her father said, patting Harry on his back. ‘After all the hard work you’ve put in.’
Harry grinned at the rare compliment and Anna felt a warm glow spread within her. Everything was finally coming together. The only fly in the ointment now was Jack.
Chapter Fifteen
For the next few days, it looked as though Jack was going to toe the line. He’d come home the night of the argument reasonably early — though he’d crashed and banged his way upstairs to make his presence known. But he’d been up early for work the next day and contributed to the washing-up that evening, though he refused to learn to cook. To everyone else it looked as though he’d taken their father’s words to heart, but Anna couldn’t help noticing the hostile looks he threw at her whenever he got the chance. This wasn’t over yet. She did her best to avoid being alone with him.
Her father was the one who had surprised her most. He seemed to take to cooking instantly and had gone to the supermarket with her early on Saturday, after they’d discussed the menu for the week. This had left her plenty of time for photography during the rest of the day. During their shopping trip, he’d talked about taking a cookery course and had started coming home from work early each night, rather than going to the pub, eager to start cooking the evening meal.
Work was busy too. Daniel had been booked byFashionista Magazineto do an extensive shoot at London Fashion Week, both in front of the catwalk and behind the scenes, and they were busy organising the various photoshoots that would take place before and during the four days of the event. He’d also been asked to contribute to a book that was being written by a retired fashion designer, on fashion through the ages, and was searching through his archives for fashion photographs from the noughties. And when they weren’t concentrating on that, Daniel was helping her get together the photographs for her exhibition.
With work being so busy she was beginning to worry that she wouldn’t be ready for her own exhibition, which was rapidly approaching on 1 July. Charlotte had found a venue, althoughshe was keeping where it was going to be under wraps, building up to a big reveal nearer the time. When Anna pressed her to tell her where she had booked, all she would answer was that it was unique and perfect to showcase Anna’s debut. This not only frustrated Anna but also made her very nervous. She decided that all she could do was concentrate on the actual photographs and hope that the rest would fall into place.
* * *
Daniel was puzzling over the photographs he’d collected and printed so far for his section of the book on fashion. Preferring to see things in actual format, he’d laid them all out on the large table he used when he was selecting photographs.
‘What’s the problem?’ Anna came to stand next to him.
‘I’m just struggling to make a decision on what to include,’ he said, taking in how close Anna was to him and the way her floral perfume was tantalising him. Although they were growing closer each day that they worked together, and Daniel couldn’t wish for a better assistant, he was growing increasingly aware of how attractive he found her. That wasn’t something he was comfortable with at all. In fact, these days he was finding it very difficult not to reach out and touch her — he was experiencing such lurid dreams about her that he found it hard to act normally when she was standing in such close proximity.
He moved around to the other side of the table, anything to take away the temptation of wanting to reach out, take her in his arms and kiss those soft lips. He shook the thoughts away. ‘This period was all about cropped tops and cargo pants or bootleg trousers, which looks great on these models but it’s certainly not as extravagant as, say, the seventies or the eighties.’ He showed her some of the photographs the author had collated so far. ‘I might struggle to make my section stand out.’
‘Hmm, I see what you mean.’ She leaned across him as she selected some of the photos, too close to him for comfort. ‘I think this period was more about attitude, though. Look at the women in these pictures. They’re almost saying “I’m going to be me and I don’t care what you think of me.” You’ve certainly captured it here.’
‘Do you think?’
‘Definitely. They’re so expressive, you’ll easily stand out.’
He began to shuffle the photographs back into one pile, feeling his face growing pink at both her praise and her proximity to him. ‘Oh let’s forget this for today,’ he said. ‘I’ll have another think about it when I’m feeling a little less jaded. Now, why don’t you show me the photos for the exhibition you’ve been working on?’ He breathed a sigh of relief as she moved away to switch her laptop on. He’d have to find a way to keep his distance from her in the future.
* * *
As Anna walked home, she contemplated Daniel’s embarrassment earlier, when she’d praised his photographs. Why did he suddenly seem so shy around her? His behaviour was very different to the Daniel she had first started working for. She was still puzzling this when she opened the front door and made her way into the kitchen. The house was quiet, so maybe no one was home. She liked it when no one else was here. It was much more relaxing. Maybe she’d even run herself a bath and have a good long soak in the peace and quiet.
She stopped short when she saw Jack sitting alone at the kitchen table, a can of lager in his hand and several empty cans on the table.
‘Hello, big sister,’ he said with a snarl. She turned to go upstairs, anything to avoid being alone with him. ‘Oh, don’t runaway,’ he continued. ‘Come on and sit down. It’s ages since we’ve had a proper catch up.’
‘I’m not sure we have much to say to each other.’ She turned her back to him and tried not to show her fear.
‘Well, I’ve definitely got a lot to say to you. Come and sit down.’
‘I’d rather stand. Where is everyone?’
He shrugged. ‘Dad’s gone off somewhere on some kind of secret mission and who knows where Harry is. Probably at the library again.’
‘He’s in the middle of his exams and at least it’s peaceful there.’
