(2012) Evie Undercover (31 page)

‘
Don’t worry
,
I’ll tell her.’
She forced herself to smile.

‘And you must come along, too. Your presence will help to lighten the conversation,’ he added with a teasing smile.

She beamed at him. ‘I’ll let that pass, but only because the salad was so good. And
also because
it’s your turn
to go
under the spotlight now.
Has
your week
gone well
? Your working days have
certainly
been long
enough
.’

‘That’s par for the course with these big cases, I’m afraid. And if you think that I work long hours, you should see the length of the day that the junior barr
isters sometimes have to work. T
hey often don’t
pick up
a brief until the evening before they have to
argue
the case. It’s not unknown for barrister
s
to work through the night and then go straight into court.’

‘
God, how
gruesome
!
’ She moved back a little to let the waiter remove her plate. ‘What about the libel case you’re working on now
–
is it going well?’

‘I think so. All one can do at this stage is prepare as well as is humanly possible,
and that’s
what I’ve been doing. I’m trying to cover every conceivable angle – I don’t like surprises in court.’

‘
Not surprises in court, maybe, but s
o
me surprises can be fun
–
like
surprise presents. My parents used to ask me every year what I wanted for Christmas and my birthday, and I had to come up with something or they’d get me a boring, sensible present, such as s
omething for school or gloves.
I always hated knowing what I was going to get before I got it. I’d have loved them to have chosen something for me that they thought I’d like.’

‘Even if you didn’t like it?’

‘Yup,
even if I didn’t like it. It’s the t
hought that counts, after all.’

Oh,
no
! S
he
shouldn’t have said that – she
didn’t want to think like that
.

S
uppose
Tom
was in the same mindset and
focused on her original in
tention,
not on
the fac
t that she’d changed her mind.
She’d been
so
w
alking on air
since Gabriela’s reassurance
that
s
he hadn’t
for a m
inu
t
e
considered
that
possibil
i
ty
.
Oh, i
f only
her
throwaway comment
hadn’t put that thought into her mind
!

The waiter approached with two plates of food.

‘I think that’s our beef
coming,’ she heard Tom say, his voice coming from far away.

She stared down at the plate that the waiter had put in front of her, and all she could see were the words
Pure Dirt
,
written large in lurid red.
Her
stomach
lurched
.

Get a grip, she told herself. Bloody well
,
get a grip.
I
f she couldn’t
control
her
thoughts
, she
’d end up blurting out the truth
just to feel better
. S
he absolutely didn’
t want to do that
, b
ut s
he could see it happening so easily.
She was going to watch what she drank and she was going to make sure that she kept
to herself all
the things she
wasn’t ready to
say.

For a start
, she must stop second-guessing what Tom
would
say when he knew the truth. It was pointless – she
hadn’t
really
got
a clue how he’d respond. Secondly, she must dig deep into her psyche and find the enterprising Evie of Italy
–
the Evie who’d jumped on top of her bed in a nightdress
and
begg
ed
her boss
to get into that bed. That Evie would be able to cope
brilliantly
with the present situation and with everything that the coming week
was going to thro
w at her.

She took a deep breath,
and
picked up her knife and fork. ‘
So where were we?
’
she asked with a bright smile.

‘
We were just about to return to the agency, I believe, or
rather
you were. In
a week’s time
, I think you said
.’

‘
Don’t remind me
.’
She wagged her finger at him admonishingly.

‘
All right, I won’t. But t
hey’re lucky to have you
, and I bet they know it. Y
ou’re the sharpest temp I’ve ever had.
I just hope that Zizi can find something you’d like better.
’

‘By
“
ever had
”
…?’

He laughed. ‘That I’ve ever had working for me, pedantic Evie.’

She beamed at him and took a bite of her food.
‘
Wow! O
n a different subject, this mousse is yummy.’

Tom
paused in the midd
l
e of cutting a piece of meat and
glanced
across
at her plate. ‘You mean the celeriac? Yes, it’s delicious
. Celeriac
’
s lovely
in soup, too.’

‘To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever had it before.
I was thinking it was celery, but it’s
obviously
not.
That’s me being an a
irhead
again.
’ She
shook her head, and cut into her beef.

‘I’m not
so
sure about
that
airhead thing. Not at all
.
I suspect that there’s more to you than meets the eye.’
Her
heart switch
ed
into treble speed.
Where was he going with this?
S
he started to eat more quickly.

‘I think you’re a
very
bright cookie,
’ he went on
when he’d finished what he was eating
, ‘
al
though for some reason you don’t like to show it. But whatever the reason, you’re a cookie that I’ll miss having around the house. And don’t ask me if I’m talking about ginger nuts,’ he added with a
laugh
.

Relief flooded through her.
Thank you,
guardian angel
! They’d moved away from a potential minefield and were back on safe ground.

‘But we haven’t been at
the house at the same time at all this week, have we?’ she said lightly. ‘So me not being there in the future won’t be that different for you, will it?’

‘Oh, yes, it will. In a way, you were there when I got home
Monday and Tuesday night,
with
your presence all around me
:
your scent was in the air; the cushion you leaned against was crumpled into your shape; the sheet of paper you doodled on was lying on top of the desk; the little heart you drew at the end of your every message spoke to me. Yes, you were there with me, Evie, even though I had to close my eyes to see you.’

‘Oh, Tom,’ she said softly.

‘And it was a bloody marvellous feeling to come home to you, even if it wasn’t the physical you. It was so good that it made me wonder what it would be like to come home to the actual you.’

T
heir eyes met, and held.

‘Would you like me to remove your plates,
Mr
Hadleigh?’

‘What!’ he exclaimed with a start. He stared down at their empty plates. ‘Oh, I see. Yes
,
I think so
,
we both seem to have finished. Thank you.’

When the plates had been cleared away, the waiter returned to their table. ‘Would
either of
you care to see the dessert menu?’

‘Would you like some dessert? They do a wonderful chocolate pudding that would be right up your street.’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t want
another thing, thank you,’ she replied. Her eyes ran lightly across
Tom’s
face. ‘I might think of something later, though.’

As t
hey made their way from the restaurant back to the car, strolling up a narrow cobbled lane
lined on either side with black bollards
,
Tom slid his arm around Evie’s shoulders. He heard her
sigh
happily
, and he smiled to himself as he felt her
nestle more
deep
ly into the crook of
his
arm.

He’
d been longing to see her again from the m
oment
he’d left her, and he’d
been
intense
ly frustrated
that his work was so all-con
s
uming that
he’
d
had to wait until
Saturday
to see her
.
On a couple of occasions
in the week
when he’d
got home late in the evening
, he’d been tempted to call
her
and ask
her
round
, but he’d held off
.
He hadn’t wanted her to think
that
he took her for granted. No,
their first time together
in England
had
to be a proper date.

As he’d left his house
earlier
to go and collect her
, he’d felt a momentary
twinge of
f
ear that the
night
might not
live up to
his
expectations
,
which had been growing daily
. B
ut the evening
had been everything
that
he’d
hoped it would
be
,
and
more.

He glanced down at Evie
and tightened his hold on her
.
She
was
even more beautiful than he r
emembered, and every bit as much fun.
It had
been as easy to talk to
her
as
it had
been in Italy, and he could truthfully say that he’d never
had
a
dinner
conversation
that was
as pleasant
and
relaxed
as their conversation
had been
that evening
. A
nd nor had
the time
passed
as
quickly.

And the night
wasn’
t over yet.

He felt
a stab of anticipation in his groin
.
She
hadn’t hesitated to say yes when he’d suggested a nightcap back at his place
, and unless he was very much mistaken, she was longing for what he hoped would take place as much as he was.

G
lanc
ing
up at the sky
as
he
walked
along, he
s
aw that it was full of stars. They would be t
he same stars that had shone down upon them on their last night in Italy
, he thought
–
t
hat
unbelievable
last night
in Umbria
.