Page 58 of A Scottish Highland Surprise

“Helena? Are you listening to me? You’re miles away.”

Helena huddled deeper into her pink fluffy jacket. “Sorry.”

Chris delivered one of his charming, lopsided smiles that made her chest fizz. “I’m saying that I’d like you to manage my new business. Well, once it’s off the ground, that is.”

Helena blinked at him. So, she hadn’t imagined it. That was what he’d said after all. “But I don’t understand. I work for your mum.”

She felt herself cringe – why was she stating the obvious?

Chris indicated for them to sit down again on another bench. As soon as they did, he reached over and seized hold of her hand. The sensation triggered a gasp that Helena tried to disguise with a forced laugh. “I already have a job,” she managed.

If Chris noticed how awkward she was, he didn’t show it. His dark blond hair ruffled. “I know you do. But, no disrespect to my mum, you are wasted there.”

Helena watched him shuffle a little closer to her. In truth, she was willing him to. His knee glanced against her thigh. She steadied herself. Oh, for pity’s sake! Get a grip, she scolded herself. You have a husband and six-year-old daughter. “But your mum has been so good to me.” She found herself drinking in every detail of Chris’s golden good looks. “What business are you talking about? I mean, I’m very flattered and I love clothes, but I’m not an expert on fashion…”

Chris held up one hand, a smile flickering around his mouth. “My new business is nothing to do with fashion.”

“Sorry. You’ve lost me.” Helena could feel herself beginning to submerge in Chris’s gaze. She set her spine straight. This was crazy. She shouldn’t even be here, let alone listening to Chris’s offer of a job. She knew what she should do. She should thank him for thinking of her and walk away; rise up from this park bench, where the leaves were beginning to pirouette around her long lace-up boots, and go home.

She knew she was falling for him. Every time she saw him, her heart twisted in on itself. She had to stop it. She had Marnie to think of. But what was this? whispered another voice. It wasn’t an affair. The thought of it made Helena’s freckle-tipped cheeks zing with colour. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, was she?

Before she could stop herself, Helena was blushing to the tip of her tilted-up nose. “What sort of business is it, if it isn’t to do with fashion?”

Chris searched her face for a reaction. “A crockery shop.”

Helena pulled herself upright. “Are you joking?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?”

Helena could feel her brows gathering in confusion. “But why would you want to do that? Your mum already stocks crockery.”

“Well, of a fashion,” conceded Chris with that mischievous smile of his that always made her stomach squirm.

A small boy trundled past on his scooter, followed by his harassed-looking mother.

“And she already knows, so there’s no need to get yourself all worked up about it.”

Helena’s stunned mouth dropped open further. “What did she say?”

Chris shrugged his broad shoulders. “She was fine about it, especially when I pointed out that as I was starting a new business here, that would mean I wouldn’t be heading back to London for a while.”

Helena was sure there was a charged emphasis in his voice.

Her thoughts skittered in all directions. This was good. This was great. Wasn’t it?

The autumn sunshine washed across the grass, spilling over the empty swings and roundabout.

“I’ve already bought some premises here in Briar Glen. Actually, it’s very close by. The owner was selling up and it won’t take much to bring it up to date.”

Her head was on autopilot. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think she had climbed onto the kids’ roundabout and spun herself round several times. “Blimey. You haven’t hung around then.”

“Mum thinks you do a great job, Helena. Please don’t think she doesn’t. But she admitted to me that the space in Sparkling Gifts is limited and she knows you get frustrated at times, that you can’t expand that part of the business for her.”

Chris gave a delicious smile that, had Helena been standing, would have knocked her clean off her feet. “So, I put it to her that if we were to open a crockery shop, she could return to concentrating on her usual stock and she could hand over the crockery she has just now to us.”

A thrilled sensation tripped up her spine. Then the cold chill of reality, mixed in with a wave of guilt, gripped her. “But Marnie… I…”

Chris dismissed her concerns. “I’ll be appointing staff. You’ll be the manager, so don’t worry about Marnie. That won’t be an issue.”