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‘When you invite me.’
‘Tomorrow?’
His smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘I sense delaying tactics. Go and get on the plane, Lizzie. When you touch down in LA you’ll feel a whole lot better. If nothing else, at least you’ll have had a long sleep.’
The memory of that journey to England made her heart ache. ‘I don’t usually sleep on a plane. Not like I did coming over here. I must have been shattered.’
‘As long as it wasn’t the company.’
She tried to smile, but when tears flooded down her cheeks she knew it was no use. If she didn’t go now, she’d never go. Giving him a final quick kiss, she turned and walked away.
Staying might be what she wanted, but for too long she’d had what she wanted. Now it was time for what she deserved.
Chapter Twenty-One
It had been four weeks since she’d last seen Nick. Four seemingly endless weeks since he’d looked down at her with those expressive brown eyes and told her if she didn’t take up the Astella offer, she’d regret it.
Right now, exhausted from a 5a.m. start and roasting under hot camera lights, Lizzie was pretty sure he was wrong. The desire to model had been in her head and her heart from an early age, but a lot had happened in the eight years since she’d left England, all starry eyed, to model in New York. Sure she’d made a steady rise to the top, but on the journey up there she’d lost everything that was really important to her. Her family, her dignity and her sense of identity.
Somewhere along the line she also seemed to have lost her love for modelling. Where once it had been fun, an opportunity to travel and mingle with people she’d never otherwise have a chance of meeting, now she could only see it as a way to be near Robert and pay for his care. She had no skills other than her ability to pose in front of the camera, so while she could, she had to make the most of the one asset she had. In her heart though, she wasn’t modelling in LA. She was back in England, living in the country. With Nick.
She’d finally fallen head over heels in love, and it had to be with a man who lived thousands of miles away from her. But if living with him was pie in the sky, surely it wasn’t too much to ask to see him now and again? Despite a fair degree of prodding though, so far Nick hadn’t committed to a date to fly over. If she had any sense she’d know he was being evasive, and leave it.
Instead she found herself dialling his number after the shoot.
‘Hello, Nick Templeton’s phone.’
Expecting to hear Nick’s deep voice, Lizzie was nonplussed to hear the voice of a woman. A young, breathy sounding woman. It left her totally wrong-footed.
‘Where’s Nick?’
‘He’s just popped out. He’ll be back any minute. Can I tell him who’s called?’ The woman on the other end of the phone was composure itself.
‘Could you ask him to phone Lizzie?’ In her daze, she nearly forgot her manners. ‘Please.’
Of course there were dozens of perfectly logical explanations for why a woman was answering his personal mobile phone at nine o’clock at night, and none of them required either party to be naked. So why couldn’t she think of any of them right now? Why could she only remember his hesitancy about coming out to see her?
Lost in her dark thoughts, she almost missed hearing her phone ring.
‘Hi, Lizzie, it’s Nick.’
She’d been dying to talk to him, but now she was, she didn’t know what to say. ‘Thank you for phoning back.’ Formal and polite — very different from how she’d have been if he’d answered his own stupid phone.
‘No problem. How are things in the hotbed of LA?’
It was no use. She couldn’t have a casual conversation with him when her mind was screaming who was the woman who answered your phone? ‘Where are you, Nick?’ she asked sharply.
‘Still at work. Why? Are you okay? You sound a bit odd.’
‘Why did that woman answer your mobile?’
‘Who, Sally? I guess she must have heard it ringing on my desk when I dashed out to buy a sandwich.’
Her heart went into free fall. ‘The same Sally you were seeing?’
‘Yes.’
There was a humming silence while she worked out what to say that wouldn’t make her sound like a paranoid, jealous bitch. ‘I assumed . . . I mean, I thought . . .’ We were still in a relationship. God, had she been totally stupid? Was it out of sight, out of mind for him?
