AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hugh nodded, but his attention was on the wooden surface of the desk. “Alegra Harris,” he said, a hint of puzzlement to his voice.
She blinked rapidly. “What?”
“That’s your full name?” He plucked her driver’s licence from her purse, which was lying open in front of him.
She sucked in her bottom lip. That would teach her to tidy up after herself. She waited for him to react, while thinking maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that she got everything out in the open.
“It’s a pretty name,” he said. “For some reason, I’d assumed Allie was short for Alison.”
“Right.” But he must have more to say about her name than that. It was a distinctive name. Surely he’d heard of her.
“Not a bad photo either,” he said, before returning her driving licence to the desk and flashing her a boyish grin. “How are your feet?”
Her feet? Why was he asking about her feet and not about the fact that not so long ago she’d been headline news on just about every media outlet? Had he really not recognised her name?
Even if he hadn’t, this would probably be a good time to tell him who she really was. Except he was asking about her bloody feet.
“Still hurting?” he prompted.
“Yes.” She stared down at them, then started to slip her left foot from her shoe before stopping abruptly. “They probably stink,” she said in a panic. “It might be better to keep them encased for now.” Except, now that she thought about it, they really were incredibly uncomfortable. She stood up before Hugh could comment. “Would you mind if I have a quick shower?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll be like two minutes.” She backed across the room, noticing that Hugh wasn’t even looking at her.
“What’s this?” He lifted a piece of paper from the desk.
Oh god. What had he found now? She could barely even complain about him snooping when she had everything spread out like that. As far as spies went, they probably didn’t come much less competent than her.
“What is it?” She craned her neck until he flicked the paper around to show her. “Oh, that.” She winced.
“Do you draw?”
“Kind of …”
“It’s part of the golf course, right?”
“Yes.” Her brain whirred, trying to come up with a plausible reason for redesigning the golf course.
“Have you been sketching for long, or is this a new hobby?”
She laughed loudly and the sound reverberated around the small space. “It’s not a hobby. I mean, clearly I can’t draw for toffee.”
Hugh let out a quick breath and slumped in the chair. “Thank goodness. I was concerned I was going to have to politely tell you it was good.”
“Thanks a lot!” She beamed. “It’s not that bad.”
“It’s pretty bad,” he said, an eyebrow twitching upwards.
“Yeah, okay, it’s bad. But it wasn’t supposed to be a work of art.” She decided honestly was the best policy and if that led to further questions, so be it. “Do you remember when I was talking to the guy in the pub the other night? The one sitting at the bar?”
“Max?”
“Yeah. He was telling me how he and his wife don’t play golf any more because the course is designed so the only option is to play the entire course. They have kids so they don’t have time …”
Hugh’s eyes dropped back to the paper in his hand. “So you decided to redesign the course?”
“I just got thinking about other possibilities and did a bit of research into golf course designs.” She shrugged. “I was bored and it was playing on my mind.”
