AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Reuben shifted uncomfortably in his chair. It was now or never. He really needed to be honest with her. He licked his dry lips. ‘About your summer clothes...’ he started.
‘What?’ All of a sudden her voice and eyes were razor sharp. He could almost feel her gaze penetrate his skin. What was it with women and their senses? They could practically smell when something was wrong.
For the first time in his life words stuck in his throat. What was wrong with him? He’d never been a stranger to the truth—in fact, he’d often been criticised for his direct approach.
‘Maybe you should get some new things,’ he said slowly, trying to pick his words carefully. ‘Cruises are quite glamorous, aren’t they?’
‘You don’t think I’m glamorous enough?’ The words shot out and he cringed.
‘No. No, that’s not what I meant at all.’
‘Then what did you mean?’ Women didn’t usually make him squirm. This was a first for Reuben Tyler.
Her gaze was fixed on him. Like some kind of female superhero with laser vision. Who could have guessed the girl that had been the giant pink teddy bear could do a complete turnaround?
She was doing her best to appear direct. To have a little edge. Trouble was, he already knew her a little better than that. He’d seen the vulnerability in her eyes. He’d seen the hurt. And he didn’t want to be the person responsible for that.
He leaned his elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand. ‘There might have been a bit of an issue with Josh.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘What kind of issue?’
‘He might have disposed of the rest of your clothes.’
‘He what?’
Heads all over shot round. A few of the counter staff stood up on their toes, trying to see who’d yelled, but since Lara was on her feet it was pretty obvious.
Reuben could feel all the gazes turn to him. Yeah, right. This was all his fault.
He gave the slightest shrug. ‘Sorry. The guy’s obviously an idiot. He said he’d dumped all your stuff when I asked.’
She leaned across the table towards him. ‘And you knew this? You knew this a few hours ago and you didn’t tell me?’
There was a loud tut behind them. Reuben shook his head and turned, giving a smile to the elderly woman behind him who was looking at him as if he’d just run over her cat.
He lifted his hand towards Lara. ‘I thought you might be upset.’
The colour in her cheeks was building. If he’d thought her eyes had been lasers before, now they were definitely shooting sparks.
He was surprised by how cute she was when she was angry.
‘I guess I was right,’ he said, as he picked up his coffee and drained his cup.
Lara’s fists were clenched on the tabletop. It took a few seconds for the blanched knuckles to be gently released and Lara sagged down into her chair.
‘All my things...gone?’ she asked.
He nodded his head. This was what he’d wanted to avoid. Her shoulders slumped and the high colour in her cheeks started to disperse, replaced with a white pallor.
She blinked. Oh, no. Her eyes were getting that sheeny way—the way they did before a woman burst into tears.
She started murmuring. ‘But what am I going to do? That was my entire summer wardrobe.’ She shook her head. ‘I have nothing—not a single thing to take with me on the cruise.’ One fat, hot tear spilled down her cheek. ‘And I certainly didn’t budget for this.’
She took a deep, ragged kind of breath. She was twisting a napkin between her fingers. ‘It’s not just the clothes. I had other things in that case. Things that meant a lot to me. Things I can’t replace.’ Her voice was getting shakier as she spoke.
‘What kind of things?’ He could feel the march of a thousand cold feet down his spine. What else had Josh flung out to the trash?
‘There...there was something special.’ A tear rolled down her cheek.
‘What was it?’
She shook her head and brushed away the tear. ‘It was nothing. It wasn’t valuable. Just a keepsake. Something I’ve had since childhood.’
He was curious now. It must have been something special for her to be reacting this way. He reached over and touched her hand.
She gulped. ‘It’s silly, really. It was a book. A copy of Alice in Wonderland. My gran bought it for me when I was little. We used to read it all the time. And it doesn’t matter that I could walk into any bookshop and buy another copy. It wouldn’t be this one. The one we read for hours.’
Reuben spoke quietly. ‘And it was in the case with the summer clothes?’
He shouldn’t just have held Josh against the wall. He should have done much, much worse.
She gave a little nod. ‘I just can’t bear the thought I won’t see it again.’ She pressed her hand against her heart. ‘It was full of memories for me. Every time I opened the pages again I thought about my gran. She died just after I’d been accepted for university.’
Something clicked in his brain. ‘And you didn’t go?’
Lara bit her lip. It was obvious she was thinking about how to reply. He didn’t do this. He didn’t form emotional attachments with women. He didn’t like tears and sniffles. It was his first cue to walk away.
Or his first cue to do his natural alternative—throw money at a situation.
He reached across the table and grabbed Lara’s hand. ‘Come on.’ He pulled her to her feet and started walking.
He could sense she could barely keep with his long strides but he didn’t want to think about that too much.
‘Reuben, where are we going?’ she sniffed.
For some reason he couldn’t even bear to look at her. Here was a woman he barely knew—but he couldn’t stand to see her upset. It did strange things to his brain. Strange things to his equilibrium. And he couldn’t quite fathom why.
This wasn’t his fault. None of it was his fault, but that wasn’t helping.
There was one thing he could do here—one thing that he had. The thing that seemed the quickest fix for most people in the world. Money.
CHAPTER FIVE
LARA COULD FEEL panic begin to set in. Where on earth could she get some money? She had a tiny bit of spending money for the cruise, put away every month and hidden in an account that Josh had known nothing about. She’d hoped it would cover the gratuity charge for the trip and whatever drinks package she want
ed to buy. She’d prepaid a few excursions when she’d booked the trip and had thought she wouldn’t need much more money.
If only she’d known.
She cringed, putting her head between her hands. Five weeks ago she’d bought a pink dress with tiny glittery beads. More money than she’d ever spent on one item. But it had practically called out to her from the shop window. And it was perfect for a cruise. And she’d had the rest of her wardrobe—or so she’d thought.
She started to think frantically. Borrow. She could borrow clothes. But who from? One of her best friends was in Australia and the other in the US. She had a couple of acquaintances in London but none of them were the same size as her.
She started fingering the edge of her jacket. There was a whole wardrobe full of clothes upstairs in the house. She’d already borrowed a nightdress from Addison—but that had been an emergency situation. There was no way she could let herself borrow any of Addison’s clothes. They were way out of her league. And what if she damaged something? How on earth would she replace it?
She swallowed. Her mouth was dry. She could do with some water. She could feel herself starting to panic. Control. It was slipping away from her just when she’d thought she could capture it back. Josh had been quite controlling. Comments about her hair, her make-up and her clothes. She’d tried to ignore them, but after more than a year together he’d chipped away at her self-confidence. Now, just when she thought she could shake him off, he’d done something else to control her. This wasn’t just about the clothes. It was about taking back charge of her life.
Reuben had ushered her into a lift. She hadn’t been paying attention but the doors swished open right in the heart of the designer womenswear section. Right now she couldn’t even afford to buy a pair of sunglasses—not when her finances were in such dire straits.
Reuben was still muttering into his phone. It was obvious from the expression on his face and his tone that he wasn’t the slightest bit happy.
