AllFreeNovel
Share Us
As opposed to making love, he thought ruefully, before he remembered. If he and Shelley did get physical, it would not be termed making love—not by anybody’s definition. Not now, and not after all that had happened. It would be explosive, probably amazing, and certainly shattering—sex. That was all.
‘Well, we have a good general store now, which is trying—and largely succeeding—to attract customers away from the big out-of-town stores. And there are a lot of arty-crafty people moving in—’
‘To Milmouth?’ she asked, surprised.
‘Uh-huh. There’s now a craft shop in the old bakery, which holds workshops in the winter months. You can make silver jewellery or learn to paint. And there’s a very good vegetarian restaurant—one of several new restaurants which have opened up. The down-side is, of course, that house prices are going up. But people seem to be opting out of stress-filled city life.’
‘And coming to Milmouth?’ she asked in surprise.
‘Why not? And speaking of opting out—did you know that Geoff sold the car showroom?’
Shelley shook her head. ‘I wasn’t really in Geoff’s good books when I left. What’s he doing now?’
‘Would you believe he’s bought an organic farm?’
‘Geoff?’ Shelley giggled. ‘Very trendy!’
‘And very successful, apparently.’ He looked at the way the candlelight flickered over her face. It was odd, this slotting into relaxed ways—feeling comfortable sitting at a table with her. Finding that talking to her was still as easy as a summer’s morning. Surely it shouldn’t still feel like that?
‘So Milmouth’s the place to be?’
He nodded. ‘Easy to see why—it’s an exquisite location, right by the sea, and it’s relatively inexpensive.’
‘Those are precisely the reasons I’m here myself,’ she agreed pensively.
‘Oh, Shelley!’ he mocked. ‘Didn’t I even enter into the equation?’
‘Yes! And nearly put me off coming back at all,’ she told him truthfully, wondering why that should cause him to smile.
He joined in with the food once the fish arrived, but drank only coffee while Shelley ploughed her way through a portion of chocolate mousse and cream.
‘Wow! When you break a resolution you really go for it, don’t you?’ he remarked softly.
She searched his face for hidden meanings, but there were none and she realised that the evening had passed in a pleasant blur. Apart from that bit at the beginning, they hadn’t really gone in for recrimination and heavy analysis. Thank the Lord. She didn’t think she could have taken it—it would have been too much coming on top of everything else.
‘Like some coffee?’
Shelley yawned. To be honest the food had provided a distraction as well as filling the gaping hole of hunger. It had been easier to put her head down and plough through the soup and that delicious fish than to have to meet that ocean-blue gaze head-on. And now she had eaten so much that she felt she must have gained at least ten pounds! She felt that her legs would barely be able to carry her back upstairs.
Which was good. She wanted to hit that pillow and just crash out. It was not on her agenda to lie awake half the night tossing and turning, unable to get Drew’s face out of her mind.
He saw her flagging and was infuriated by the sudden surge of protectiveness which washed over him. He guessed that old habits died hard. He would do the same for any woman who looked ready to drop, he told himself. ‘You look like you’re ready for bed,’ he murmured.
It was perhaps unfortunate that the way he said it made it sound full of sexual intent, and that a well-preserved woman in her forties who was passing their table on the way to the powder room heard him. She must have done. Why else did she ogle him, before raising her eyebrows slightly and passing Shelley a look of shrugging envy?
Shelley bristled at the implication. ‘I suppose you think that for the price of a discounted meal in a fancy restaurant I’m just going to fall straight into bed with you, do you, Drew?’
Her voice carried more than she had intended, or perhaps there was just a natural lull in the general low-pitched hubbub of the dining room. Whatever the reasons, the room grew silent and she could feel the eyes of every person in the place—bar the few people who were too polite to turn their heads—looking at them.
He studied her from across the table with eyes which were chilly now. ‘That isn’t my usual modus operandi, no. But maybe it’s yours. After all, isn’t that precisely what happened all those years ago? Only he got away without even having to buy you a meal!’
