‘Scarlett?’ Nathan directed his questions to his daughter.
‘Go inside,’ she told Nathan and Amelia.
‘What have you done?’ Nathan asked but Scarlett merely rolled her eyes and repeated her request.
‘What’s going on?’ Amelia asked as they went inside the chalet. ‘What’s all this?’
Both of them took in the fairy lights strung all around the interior, the table with the bottle of champagne in the bucket, two glasses, the double beanbag she’d seen back at the apartment in Kyle’s bedroom now here with a baby-soft chocolate blanket draped over it.
‘You both need to talk,’ Scarlett clarified as Kyle turned off the fan heater that had toasted up the interior good and proper.
And with that they shut the doors and all Nathan and Amelia could hear was them both giggling outside.
‘It’s a conspiracy,’ said Nathan, the hint of a grin appearing.
‘I think you’re right. Apparently we need to talk,’ she said, repeating what Scarlett had said.
‘Are they trying to set us up?’ Nathan took in the romantic atmosphere the teenagers had managed to create. ‘Maybe Paul would appreciate it more, although from what you’ve said, posh hotels are more his thing.’
‘Paul’s gone. I haven’t seen him since the night at his hotel when I told him it was over.’
‘Right.’
Was that all he had to say? ‘Just so we’re clear, nothing happened between us at the apartment the night you showed up. And this time, I was the one who ended it, told him to go.’
‘You did?’
‘Turns out six months and a few thousand miles was what it took for me to realise we were all wrong together.’ Awkward, she reached out and toyed with the stem of one of the champagne glasses. ‘We should go. Valerie will wonder where you are.’ She became aware of him stepping closer.
‘She’s probably too busy with Harper to notice.’
‘Harper, one of the guests?’ She remembered being introduced to a bubbly woman with a sharp pixie cut at the inn shortly after Darcy’s announcement.
‘I work with Valerie in England, we’re good friends, nothing more.’
She left the glass alone. ‘What, so you and she aren’t…’
He’d come so close she had to look up to see his face. ‘Harper is Valerie’s girlfriend. Valerie is gay.’ She felt his soft breath against her skin. ‘She and I spend a lot of time talking about our kids, the trials of being a parent in the teenage years. Scarlet adores Valerie, I think she wanted us to get together until she realised that Valerie was already spoken for. And Valerie let me in on a secret tonight.’
‘What kind of secret?’
‘Scarlett and Kyle had both picked up on something between you and I, and being meddlesome teens thought they’d do something about it.’
She hesitated, caught out in the moment. ‘So this was all planned?’
He shrugged, amused, eyes glittering with mischief. ‘Scarlett asked Valerie to flirt outrageously with me at the markets and again tonight. She asked Valerie to gauge your reaction, text her whether she thought you were interested in me.’
‘And then they put all this into action. With Mitch’s help too.’
‘It seems that way, doesn’t it?’ He laughed and shook his head. ‘I was wondering what was going on. Valerie kept touching me, kissed me on the cheek enough times and left her lipstick there.’
‘I noticed.’
‘I would’ve asked her what she was playing at but we were accosted to come here.’ His hands reached up to either side of her face as he moved his closer. ‘Do you think we should be furious with Kyle, Scarlett and Valerie for conspiring to do this?’
‘That depends.’
‘On what?’
