AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Julian said again, “I need to talk to you. Get out of the car.”
Hayden got out, because Julian wasn’t going anywhere, and he couldn’t exactly back out and run over his foot, could he? Or sit in the car while Julian tapped on the window, because that would be a ridiculous scene, and he wasn’t much for drama anyway.
“Right,” he said, when Julian had backed up out of the space to make room and Hayden had slammed the car door. “I can’t wait. Groveling apology? Cutting remarks about my life that you failed to think up the first time around? Let’s have it.”
“Why are you parking in my garage?” Julian asked.
Hayden laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Did your family buy it, then?” He could have said, Because I’m a thrifty Kiwi, and I bought a bloody expensive monthly pass to visit you that still has two days to run, but why should he?
Julian looked down his aristocratic nose. He wasn’t far off two meters tall, another fact that had once made Hayden swoon. Now, Hayden was noticing that he was possibly a bit … weedy. Julian didn’t do much working out, because, he’d said, “Horses, racing shells, and possibly a bit of boxing at school, dear boy. Those are the only necessary pursuits of an English gentleman. At least one who inherited the Lumley physique, don’t you think? I’m not sweating like a navvy just to fit in with the latest trend. They’re the ones who want to look like me, but you know— L’habit ne fait pas le moine. The habit doesn’t make the monk,” he’d translated for Hayden’s benefit. “The monk is made of what lies within.” He’d laughed as he’d said it, though, and added, still laughing, “Which is bloody pompous, of course, but there you are, I am bloody pompous. Or confident. We’ll call it that, shall we?”
At the moment, though, Julian wasn’t saying that. He was saying, “You know what I’m talking about.”
“No,” Hayden said, “I find I can’t imagine. Other than the groveling apology. I can just about imagine that.”
“You’re stalking me.”
“I am?”
“You know you are.” Julian sighed again. “Look, dear boy. It was awkward, we’ll both admit, but you need to face facts now. I’m with somebody else, and you need to move on. It was terribly nice, but it’s over.”
“Uh-huh.” Hayden had leaned against the car now and folded his arms. He should be trembling at the confrontation, but somehow, he couldn’t. “How’s that going, then? Still blissful? Everything you’ve ever dreamed of? Did he replace the cashmere jumper yet?”
“We’re going to Fiji in the new year, actually,” Julian said. “Since you ask. Trevor wants to sail there, as he’s got a break from work. Lovely adventure, don’t you think?”
Hayden had to laugh. “In that boat? It’s over a thousand nautical miles to Fiji. Ten-day sail at the best of times, with nowhere to stop, and we’re still in the midst of cyclone season. You’ll either drown or get blown off course and die of thirst.”
“I can sail.” Now, Julian’s voice was stiff. “And Trevor’s learning. And we’d buy a bigger boat, obviously.”
“You can sail in Waitemata Harbour,” Hayden said. “Maybe up the coast a bit.”
“And you’d know better?” Julian asked.
“Well, yeh, I would. Enough to know I’m not sailing to Fiji, anyway. Also enough to know that I’d go stark raving mad after ten days on a boat that size, and likely cannibalize my partner if things went pear-shaped and the stores ran out. And when Trevor says ‘we,’ he means …”
“He has money,” Julian said.
“Boat money? Really? Saved up, then, has he? Or is he spending it as fast as he’s earning it? While he’s on a ‘break from work’? I know a little something about fellas who get into a lucrative line of work and piss it all away. I wouldn’t count on his half.” Hayden was doing exactly what Isaiah had been rude for doing—talking about how much money people made. He also didn’t need to be having this conversation, but he found he didn’t much fancy scuttling away, either, as if Julian had wounded him.
“At least he’s not dull,” Julian said. “At least those ‘fellas’ he knows aren’t rugby players, with all their brains in their hands and feet.”
Now, Hayden was the one sighing. Also regretting that he’d engaged. “It’s been lovely catching up, of course, but honestly, a tiny bit dull. I need to go home to my cat. George gets lonely. Also peckish. Past his teatime.”
“I’m sorry if your life isn’t exciting without me,” Julian said. “I’m sorry you haven’t found anyone. That doesn’t mean you can come here and lurk in the shadows like this. If Trevor finds out, it’ll scare him.”
The hilarity was rising in Hayden’s throat. “Which would be the point of stalking, if I were stalking. And I thought he was so strong and fit and exciting. I’m sure I’ve seen him having a stoush with somebody on TV. That all for show, then? He can’t throw a punch? Can’t even take on a lawyer?”
“I’ll ring the police,” Julian said.
“Do that,” Hayden said. “Please. Ring them now, so they can explain the nature of my offense to me.”
“You’re a contracts lawyer,” Julian said. “Not a criminal one. You don’t know.”
“You’re right,” Hayden said. “Not about the law, because I do know that, but that I fail to understand your predicament or the threat I pose, other than poking holes in your sailing dream. Dim, I reckon. But, fun as this has been …” He opened the car door, rested his hand on the top of it, and turned for a last word. “I really do need to go feed my cat.”
CHAPTER 7
Fine for Penguins and Bonobos
