AllFreeNovel
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So they were.
‘You couldn’t have walked it,’ he pointed out as they pulled up at the iconic store.
‘I could have,’ Naomi insisted as she got out of the car. ‘I’ll walk back instead.’ She stood and looked up at the magnificent building, dressed for Christmas with red and green bows. People were already crowded at the windows, looking at the displays. ‘Oh, my goodness. I can’t believe I’m really here.’
‘Your coat awaits.’
Abe had on his own coat.
It was a long black woollen one worn over his suit, but once they had agreed where to meet and Naomi had wandered off, Abe saw that he was being noticed and decided that a wool hat of his own might be in order. He didn’t want to be constantly recognised all day, or for his sightseeing trip to be captured on someone’s phone just to be sold to the papers and all the palaver that would cause.
And, yes, he was taking the day off, and called Jessica as he took the escalator.
‘What should I say to Khalid?’ Jessica responded, clearly perplexed, because there was not a single Devereux in the office today, and that hadn’t happened in all the time she’d been there.
‘That I’m unavailable,’ Abe clipped.
‘Felicia and her entourage are here for you,’ Jessica said. ‘To measure you for next season as well as the Devereux Ball.’
Abe wasn’t listening. For the first time in what felt like for ever his mind wasn’t on work. In fact, his eyes were drawn to the most ridiculous, huge, pink bear with big black eyes, as black as Ava’s would undoubtedly be someday.
‘Sort it,’ Abe said, and rang off.
He thought of what Naomi had said, about the type of uncle he wanted to be. It had never entered his mind he might be the uncle-bearing-teddy-bears type. But if you couldn’t buy a giant pink bear for your one-day-old niece, who could you buy one for?
And that was how she next saw him.
Naomi was wearing the most gorgeous new red coat and held a large bag containing things pink. Pink sleepsuits, a pink blanket and also a little sleepsuit in a bright cherry red, the same shade as her coat. She was standing happily watching the world go by as she mentally planned the rest of her day, but then she saw Abe, standing on the escalator, wearing a black hat and holding a huge pink bear. He wasn’t smiling. Instead, he looked moody and scowling, and on seeing him her first thought was,Help!
Help! Naomi thought again, as he caught sight of her and smiled and walked over.
Please get on with being the utter bastard I’ve been warned that you are.
But help wasn’t arriving.
‘Nice coat,’ he said, which in itself wasn’t a problem.
More it was the approval in his eyes and the flurry it set off in her chest.
They loaded the bear into his car but, instead of saying goodbye to her, the driver was sent on his way, and it took a moment for Naomi to register that Abe was going to be her tour guide for the day.
‘To make up for not picking you up at the airport,’ he offered by way of explanation.
‘Really?’
‘Ethan asked me to, but I had a lot of meetings yesterday.’
‘And you don’t today?’
‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Well, I should go in, but there are a few issues and it might serve me better...’ He hesitated, because certainly he shared business matters with no one. ‘I forgot you were friends with Merida for a moment there.’
‘Oh, not you too,’ Naomi huffed. ‘I’ve got Barb backing off because I’m not real “staff” and now you...’
‘Really?’ he said, genuinely intrigued. ‘What would Barb tell you if you weren’t a friend of Merida’s?’
‘The gossip.’ Naomi smiled.
And on a slushy, wet street they faced each other.
