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‘Then I’ll spell it out. Does she know you love her?’
He tried a casual shrug, though his acting had always been lousy. ‘Of course she does. She’s been like family. I suspect you love her, too. I mean, we’ve known each other forever.’
Charlotte pulled her armchair closer and hissed in frustration. ‘Stop it. I’m not talking about love between friends, love between family. I’m talking love between man and woman. Love that should lead to marriage, children, and happy ever after.’ Gently she patted his face. ‘Why have you never told her you love her, Nick?’ she asked more softly.
He shut his eyes and rubbed a hand across his forehead, feeling a build up of tension that would probably lead to one humdinger of a headache. ‘What good would telling her serve? We tried being lovers; it didn’t work out. I’m not about to start embarrassing her by spilling my feelings.’
‘What if she feels the same way? Something passed between you both out there on the catwalk earlier. It wasn’t just friendship.’
‘Leave it,’ he snapped. ‘Yes, of course I love her, I always have, but the fact is, she doesn’t feel the same way about me. That’s why she ended it.’
‘You love me?’
Suddenly, horror of horrors, he looked over his left shoulder to find Lizzie behind him, her face as pale as a sheet. Welcome to total humiliation. With an anguished groan he leant forward and hung his head in his hands, waiting for his frozen brain to come up with some totally rational, believable reason for why the words she’d just heard didn’t actually mean what she thought they did. He couldn’t think of any. All he could think of was how much he needed to get out of this damn place as quickly as possible; to hang on to any tiny shreds of dignity he still possessed.
‘How long have you been listening?’ He raised his head and dared to look at Lizzie.
‘Long enough.’ Her eyes were startlingly bright, her face still showing signs of shock. She moved towards him and he guessed she was wondering what to do, how to console him, how to help him out of the giant crater he’d just found himself in. He, too, was trying to work out how to escape, when salvation arrived in the unlikely form of Hank.
‘Ah, there you are, babe,’ he announced, striding up to Lizzie. ‘They need us for the finale.’ He placed a proprietary arm around Lizzie’s waist, and Nick instantly saw red.
‘Get your bloody hands off her,’ he growled, shooting to his feet.
Hank raised a dark eyebrow, a sneer sliding across his handsome features. ‘Who the hell are you?’
‘I’m the man who’s going to shove a fist in your face and ruin those perfect features of yours if you so much as touch her again.’ Anger shimmered off him as he took a deliberate step forward, putting himself right in the model’s personal space. He’d never been more grateful for his height.
Hank glared back for a few thumping moments, then dropped his arm from Lizzie’s waist. ‘Time to go, sweetheart. I’ll be waiting for you.’ He swaggered out the same way he’d entered.
‘Nick.’ He could see she didn’t know what to do, what to say.
‘Leave it.’ Her eyes silently pleaded with him to talk to her, but Nick had had enough torture for one day. ‘You know once there was a time I didn’t think I was good enough for you,’ he told her. ‘God knows, my dear uncle was fond enough of telling me that, and in many ways it’s still true. But when I look at the type of man you prefer, I realise I’m better than that. I would have been good for you, if you’d let me.’ A wave of utter weariness descended on him and he slumped back onto the sofa. ‘You’d better go.’
‘But we need to talk about this—’
‘No.’ Nick spoke over her. Was she mad? Did she really think he wanted to talk about this? Sit down and pick over the bones of their relationship, friendship, whatever the hell it was, when he’d just opened up his heart and let her see right inside it? ‘Don’t keep them waiting. Go and do your job.’
He could see Lizzie was torn. In two minds whether to try and rescue their friendship or ensure she still had a career. Unsurprisingly, the career won. ‘Okay, I can see you need some space, but don’t think you’re running away. I’ll come and find you as soon as I’m done. There are things that need to be said.’
Perhaps, he thought. But he wasn’t planning on saying anything for a while. At least not until he’d got his head together and didn’t feel like dying with embarrassment every time he looked at her. Realising this was goodbye, he stood and gently kissed her cheek. ‘Your parents would have been proud of you tonight. Robert would have been proud.’ He paused and looked deep into her eyes. ‘I’m really proud of you,’ he added softly.
Tears spilt onto her cheeks. ‘This conversation isn’t over,’ she warned, her voice thick with emotion.
But it was. Nick made sure of it. Although he had to drag Charlotte kicking and screaming, and flinging words like coward, numbskull and pig-headed at him, he was soon out in the cold London evening and flagging down a waiting taxi.
* * *
Lizzie should have been on cloud nine. The show had been incredibly well received. And so had she. Yet instead of enjoying the adulation of her peers, basking in the delight of the Astella design team, she was trying to find Nick. In her heart, she realised it was a fruitless exercise. As if he was really going to hang around, ready to put his heart on his sleeve and talk to her. In the end, pleading a headache, she escaped into a waiting limo and rang his mobile. He answered on the second ring.
‘That’s it then? You leave without saying goodbye?’ Although she knew shouting at him wasn’t likely to help, she couldn’t stop herself. Her emotions were running far too high for a calm conversation.
‘I did say goodbye,’ he replied stiffly, immediately on the defensive.
She remembered his parting words, about how proud he was of her. His way of saying goodbye. ‘And what about what I overheard?’
‘That was a private conversation with my sister.’
‘Private? You don’t think I have a right to know how you feel?’ When he didn’t reply, she tried another angle. ‘Were you ever going to tell me?’
