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* * *
When she got up the next morning, it was the first time in for ever her leg hadn’t ached. She was so used to the feeling, it was strange, but she almost missed it. Her hand reached automatically for the painkillers she normally took first thing in the morning and then she stopped herself. She didn’t need them.
Ever since her accident there hadn’t been a single day that her leg hadn’t ached unbearably.
Maybe it was the extremely comfortable bed? But she wasn’t stupid. On average she spent six hours a day on the slopes. Yesterday had been the first time she hadn’t.
She showered and pulled on some clothes, fully expecting Leo to have left some kind of note about working today. But, instead, he was sitting at the dining table, finishing a phone call.
He looked up as she walked through. ‘I thought you promised me pyjamas and thick socks?’
She shook her head as she looked down at her jeans and simple blue jumper. ‘I’m saving them for later. After a hard day’s sightseeing—what could be more perfect than collapsing into my pyjamas?’ She couldn’t take her eyes away from the view again. Daytime New York and night-time New York were equally beautiful.
‘It’s like a window to the world up here,’ she said breathlessly. She pressed her nose against the glass and looked down. People looked like ants darting purposely beneath her in a myriad of colours.
She spun back around and leaned against the glass. ‘I thought you had urgent business to attend to. Isn’t that why we came back?’
His face was serious for a second. ‘Yeah, I’ve just spoken to Joe. He’s quite the traditionalist. He wants to meet for dinner.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘That means that we have the day free to sightsee.’
Anissa’s stomach fluttered. She liked how that sounded. She liked it a lot. ‘So, where to, then?’
He held out his arms. ‘Your wish is my command.’
* * *
The first place he took her was an all-American diner near Central Park that was his favourite breakfast hangout. It didn’t look much on the outside, but one large stack of pancakes later Anissa was convinced.
He’d been too embarrassed to tell her he had virtually no food in the house—his lone bachelor status meant he rarely prepared meals—and that included breakfast. So he’d dashed off a quick email to his housekeeping services to stock his fridge before they’d left the apartment.
She was wearing that long blue coat again, the one that brought out the colour of her eyes, and he found himself fixating on them.
Next, it made sense to go to Central Park. They tramped through the snow together across the Bow Bridge and down towards the Angels of the Water fountain. Then they wove their way through the park towards Belvedere Castle.
‘I never knew there was a castle in Central Park,’ said Anissa as they turned towards it.
‘It was renovated in the eighties. I think up until then it had been almost neglected. Now it’s one of the visitor centres.’
A huge smile broke out on Anissa’s face. ‘It’s perfect, isn’t it? Small, but there’s something so personal about it.’
‘It’s been used in some movies.’
‘Really?’ She spun around and held out her arms. ‘Just think, I wonder if a real-live princess ever stayed here.’
Leo was looking at her with an amused expression on his face. ‘I’m not sure that anyone—royal or otherwise—has ever stayed here.’
‘But isn’t it nice to imagine?’ she said quickly.
New York was sparking something inside her. Or maybe it was Leo. Or maybe it was just being away from the thing that had surrounded her for most of her life—skiing.
‘Look at the gorgeous view across the park.’ She turned around and held up her hands. ‘Not that the view from your penthouse isn’t magnificent. But this, this is just different.’
His shoulder touched hers as he stood next to her on the ramparts. ‘Don’t you get tired of seeing snow all the time? Have you never longed for a sunny beach and the lapping ocean?’
It wasn’t the strangest question in the world but it kind of took her unawares. ‘I’ve never had a beach holiday,’ she murmured, wondering what it would be like to run about in a bikini all day.
Her hand went automatically to her stomach. ‘Imagine having to think about holding your belly in all day. Or whether you had enough sunscreen on the places you couldn’t reach.’
He gave a small laugh. ‘I can assure you, you don’t need to worry about your stomach. As for the places you can’t reach? That’s what other people are for.’ His face grew serious. ‘Anissa, how old are you?’
She wrinkled her nose a little. ‘Twenty-eight. But I’m sure you’re not supposed to ask me that.’
‘You really haven’t had a proper holiday before, have you?’
Her brain flooded with a whole host of memories. Alain, her ex-fiancé and coach, had always been about the skiing. Always about the lucrative sponsorship deals he could score for her—or, now that she thought about it, for them. Any time they had gone away she’d always been training for the sport and had never had a chance to see the sights. His idea of love had been to push her to be the best skier that she could be.
At the time that had seemed right. But now, standing in Central Park, she wasn’t so sure.
She sucked in a deep breath, letting the air come back out slowly, forming steam in the air in front of her.
‘Anissa? What’s wrong?’
Leo’s arm slipped around her body, his arms overlapping hers. ‘You’re shaking. What is it?’
She couldn’t stop the tremble in her voice. ‘I’m just remembering things. I’m just realising the number of places I’ve visited but never actually seen.’ She turned around in his arms so that she was facing him. It felt safer this way. Safer than staring out into the expanse of the park.
‘I’m just wondering how much I’ve missed out on.’
She couldn’t look into those blue eyes. She didn’t want pity. Now she was feeling foolish. Foolish that it had taken her until this moment to see what had been happening in her life. She gave her leg an unconscious rub.
It wasn’t sore. It wasn’t aching. She’d thought about that this morning. The last time she’d talked about skiing to Leo she’d told him she couldn’t bear the thought of not skiing every day. But now she was here—now she had a chance to think about something other than skiing—she was wondering how she’d let her life feel so closeted.
Tears formed in her eyes as she tried to swallow the huge lump in her throat. Leo pulled her towards his chest. ‘I’m supposed to be making you happy,’ he whispered, ‘not sad.’
She did something automatic. She hugged back. And it felt good. It felt warm. Even though the temperature around them was zero.
‘It’s not you, Leo. It’s definitely not you.’
He pulled back with his hands on her arms. ‘What, then?’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t explain. But I feel like I’m just waking up.’ She gave a wry laugh. ‘I’m twenty-eight and I’m just waking up.’
She was embarrassed by how she was feeling. Embarrassed by the whole host of emotions sweeping around her.
Leo tilted her chin up towards him. ‘Well, in the spirit of waking up, how about we do something else? What do you say?’
She sucked in another breath to steady herself. ‘I say that sounds great.’ She pulled her phone from her pocket. ‘And I know exactly the place I want to go.’
Five minutes later they had coffee in their hands from one of park vendors and, after a long walk and consulting the map on her phone, she led Leo to an exit halfway up the park.
He laughed when he saw what was ahead. ‘You’re taking me here?’
She held out her arm. A little buzz of excitement spread through her. ‘Where else does any
kid want to go but the American Museum of Natural History? Dinosaurs. A giant blue whale. Meteorites. Hours and hours of fun.’ She gave another little sigh. ‘Childlike distractions. Maybe we both could do with some.’
Leo gave a slow nod of his head. ‘I’ve stayed in New York all these years and I’ve never managed to get here.’ It was almost as if he was talking himself into it. ‘One of the guys in the office raves about this place.’ He reached out and took her hand. ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’
* * *
He’d felt a wave of panic earlier when he’d seen how upset she was. But something had told him not to pry—not to press too much. Just to step back and be her friend.
But thinking of Anissa in only friendly terms was a feat in itself. More than once he’d padded through to the kitchen last night and stared at the closed bedroom door, wondering about the woman lying on the other side.
He would never have knocked—no matter how much he’d wanted to.
But even sharing his space with someone else was new to him. No one had slept overnight in the apartment before but him, and it felt different knowing someone else was there. Leo had sometimes prided himself on his own space, his own privacy, and just having her there was an adjustment. It gave him a weird vibe—one that he wasn’t quite sure about yet.
