Always and Forever (55 page)

‘So what? Tel him it’s his loss, walk away, then you, me and Trish can dance al night and find other gorgeous men.

What have you got to lose?’

Cleo’s shift ended at four and she’d arranged to meet Eileen and Trish in Eileen’s flat at eight. That gave her time to finalise her holiday packing, return some phone cal s and dress up for going out. But she did none of that. She asked Leah if she could borrow one of the spa’s vans and as soon as she had finished work, she ran out the front door of Cloud’s Hil , stil in her olive-green uniform.

The gates to the Wil ow Hotel had a padlock chain but the padlock was unlocked, so Cleo was able to prise open the gates a little bit. In her family’s time, the gates were never shut, but now they were so stiff that she couldn’t open them enough to drive the van in.

She began to walk up the drive in her high-heeled work shoes, a disastrous move since the potholes were worse than ever. Beside the hotel, a prefabricated site office had been set up and there were several diggers onsite, a sign that work had started. Cleo felt another twinge of rage that her beloved home was being torn apart. A couple of men in luminous yel ow safety

jackets and matching hard hats were standing with their backs to her beside the office and Cleo was able to slip in the front door of the house without them seeing her.

Inside, her old home was neglected and dusty, and Cleo realised to her horror that the two-hundred-year-old marble fireplace had been ripped out of the hal . How could they?

she thought, shocked. If this was what Roth Hotels was al about, then the Wil ow would be destroyed. What would be put here instead - some hideous reproduction edifice with gold inlays and a couple of china leopards on either side to finish it off? The stair carpet had been removed and the brass stair rods were flung any which way on the stairs. It was difficult to see that the best of the gracious old building was being incorporated into the new hotel, only that maybe the Wil ow wouldn’t even be standing soon. The more Cleo looked around, the angrier she became. This house mightn’t be in her family any more, but she’d have her say one last time.

She marched outside to the site office in a temper. The two workmen were stil standing beside it talking. ‘What the hel has been happening here?’ Cleo yel ed. ‘This is a beautiful old house and you people are ripping it to shreds! Have you any idea how valuable that fireplace is?’ ‘Hey, don’t tel us,’ one of the workmen said, holding up his hands in surrender. ‘Talk to the boss.’ He looked towards the cabin door.

‘Show me the boss and I’l talk to him,’ Cleo snapped. ‘I’d like to know if you’ve got planning permission to destroy this place.’ A third man appeared at the door. He was tal , wearing jeans and a T-shirt under his yel ow safety jacket.

His hair was cropped short, his dark eyes were narrowed and the expression on his handsome face was ice cold. It was Tyler.

‘You’re with the planning department now?’ he said acidly.

‘You do move around, Ms Malin.’

Cleo raised her chin an inch. ‘Hel o, Tyler,’ she said. The two workmen moved fractional y forward with interest. Tyler said nothing but swiftly exchanged a look with each of them.

‘Er, yes …’ one muttered.

‘Work to do …’

‘See ya.’

They hurried off.

‘You wanted to come and see what the horrible Roths were doing to your precious home?’ He sounded so angry, that Cleo was taken aback.

‘Wel , yeah. I wanted to see what had happened,’ she said.

‘Happy now? Are we destroying it to your satisfaction?’

Hard - that’s how he sounded, she realised with horror. Not like the Tyler she remembered, the man with the wry sense of humour and the wicked glint in his eye.

‘Destroying it is the word,’ she said.

‘Actual y, we’ve hired an architect who specialises in old properties to make sure the restoration is historical y accurate and that we don’t damage anything. We’ve taken out valuable pieces, like the fireplace, for safekeeping.

Destroying this old house is exactly what we’re not doing.

And you lied to me,’ he said. Stunned by his coldness, Cleo retorted: ‘And you were so truthful with me! You never mentioned anything about buying a hotel in Carrickwel , and you’d met me in the town. Didn’t it occur to you to say something?’ If he was going to be hard and cold, then she would be too. And if this was the real Tyler Roth, then she’d done the right thing by walking out on him. ‘Not mentioning important facts was very fashionable at the time,’ he snapped back. ‘I didn’t think I needed to bore you with my business plans. I thought you were a beautiful, sexy girl from a country town, not a Trojan horse.’

Cleo could feel the blood roar in her head. She wanted to tel him that she lied about her surname because she didn’t want him pitying her or her family for what they’d lost. But she wouldn’t lower herself to explain why now. Not to this cold, arrogant pig.

‘You’ve big plans for the Wil ow, I know,’ she said. ‘Oh, sorry, the Carrickwel Roth. Another notch on your bedpost or your empire or whatever. Although your bedpost and your empire probably merge. Lots of wil ing girls on the payrol in your hotels, I’m sure.’

‘A different one every night,’ he said sarcastical y. ‘You saw the plans the night it was your turn,’ he added. ‘Is that why you ran away?’

‘I saw them,’ she said quietly, remembering her shock at the sight of a new, improved Wil ow. It had al looked so different and big and glossy. ‘I suppose you’l have confidence-building meetings when the new Roth opens, and talk about how you found this useless little country hotel that had been run into the ground by the Malins, and then you came along and turned it into the jewel in the Roths’

new European empire.’ He looked at her curiously. ‘Is that what you think? That I’d buy a smal hotel and make fun of the people who’d spent thirty years trying to make it a success?’

‘Isn’t that the plan?’ she asked bitterly, seeing her father’s sad face in those last months when the hotel was losing money. ‘Make it fabulous and laugh at us?’

‘Oh, forget it, Cleo,’ he said, and the anger was gone. ‘Stop playing games. I’m tired. I’ve been travel ing a lot. I got in last night and in the two weeks since I was last here, I’ve been on six planes and have more jet lag than I can cope with. I can’t cope with you too, Cleo. Go home,’ he added wearily. ‘This is my home!’ she yel ed.

‘Not any more. Go back to Cloud’s Hil . I came to find you there a couple of weeks ago and when I did, it became clear I’d made a huge mistake. You’re not who I thought you were, and I don’t mean because of your name. You didn’t waste much time after walking out on me, did you?’

Cleo couldn’t think what he meant, though her mind whirled.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I came to see you to tel you the truth. About why I left.’

‘Don’t bother,’ he said flatly. ‘I don’t want to know.’ He walked back towards the house, leaving Cleo standing impotently watching him.

How dare he? Furious, she began stumbling her way down the drive, angry with herself for having listened to Eileen and come here at al , and three times angrier with Tyler for treating her like that. What had she ever seen in him? And what did he mean, she wasn’t who he thought she was? He was talking in riddles. Two weeks ago he’d been here - she was hurt that he hadn’t tried to find her. That’s what a real man would do: drive at high speed up to Cloud’s Hil and sweep her up in his sleek dark car … Cloud’s Hil - what did he mean when he said he had come to see her? She certainly hadn’t seen him. Then she remembered. Two weeks ago Jason and Liz had dropped her home after dinner in Sondra and Barney’s house. And outside Cloud’s Hil , she and Jason had hugged each other. Cleo could remember how nice it had been to feel her brother’s arms around her, and how she’d waved him and Liz as they drove away, and there had been a strange car on the forecourt. Could it have been Tyler’s? Tyler thought Jason was her lover! No wonder he was so mad. He had come to Cloud’s Hil and he’d seen her hugging another man, and had rushed off in a rage. That must have been how it happened, she thought joyously. He didn’t hate her after al !

Quite the opposite.

But how could he believe she’d be interested in anyone else? Idiot. He should have trusted her and if he was any sort of man, he’d rush back down here and tel her it didn’t matter and he loved her and they could sort it out …

Cleo stopped. She was doing it again, living in the fantasy of the past, like Eileen had said. Tyler wasn’t a knight on a white horse, he was a man who’d been crazy about her and who now assumed that she had no time for him any more because she was seeing another man.

Only one person could sort this out, and it wasn’t him. If anyone had to be a knight on a charger, it had to be Cleo.

She swivel ed on her heels and marched fiercely back between the potholes and into the house, her heels making a racket on the grainy parquet of the hal .

‘Tyler,’ she said, ‘I want to talk to you.’

He was sitting on the bottom step of the big staircase and he looked bone-weary. ‘Talk away.’

Momentarily disadvantaged because she was now looking down on him like some giant Valkyrie, Cleo marched over and took a deep breath.

‘I walked out on you in your suite because I got upset when I saw what you were going to do with my home. But I should have given you a chance to explain. I came here to tel you that and that I am sorry.’

‘And that’s why you came?’ he asked softly.

His face was unreadable but Cleo knew pretty much what he’d say next. Forget it, Cleo, or something like it. ‘Yes,’

she said proudly. ‘I screwed up and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I was crazy about you but I guess I’l have to get over you.’ Her courage began to go at that point. He was saying nothing; there was no warmth in his eyes. It was hopeless, she should never have come back. He didn’t care about her or whether she’d been hugging her brother or another man. ‘And you don’t know what you’re missing, Tyler Roth, because I’m honest and upfront and we could have had a wonderful love, but you didn’t have the courage to ask me how I felt about you. I’d have told you I loved you and that the man I was hugging two weeks ago outside Cloud’s Hil was my brother Jason. But you’ve missed the boat, Mr Roth. Goodbye.’ She mental y added the words,

‘So there!’

Turning with a flourish, her heel caught on a loose bit of parquet and she felt herself fal backwards until two firm arms caught her.

‘Do you make a habit of fal ing into men’s arms?’ Tyler asked softly.

Cleo caught her breath and then lost it again, because of the

way he was looking at her, with a kind of wild joy. She was stil caught against him and his mouth was inches away from hers, almost moving as if to kiss her, like the romantic hero of her beloved Rodriguez books …

‘What the hel ?’ she said suddenly, and she reached up, pul ed his head close and kissed him.

‘I didn’t want you to get into this without knowing that I’m not your average girl,’ Cleo said when they came up for air.

Tyler smiled at her lazily, a smile that sent a shiver through Cleo’s entire body. ‘I never thought you were.’

Four months later.

Far below, Mel could see Carrickwel spread out in the dark winter evening like a velvet cloak covered with twinkling fairy lights. Fairy lights made her think of al her unfinished Christmas tasks: tasks she should be completing instead of lounging in the comfort of the Cloud’s Hil hot tub with Caroline, Leah and Cyn, sipping cafe mochas and chatting.

Outside, there was snow on Mount Carraig and a December bite to the air, but even with the sliding doors opened, the hot tub room was gloriously warm.

‘I should feel very guilty to be lying here,’ Mel said, stretching one leg out luxuriously in the water. ‘It’s only a week to Christmas. I ought to be rushing round the shops buying Santa presents, and panicking about emergency gifts for everyone.’ ‘Me too,’ said Cyn. ‘I went shopping last week and in the end, I didn’t buy a thing for anyone else, which is awful. Just more clothes for me.’ Her eyes shone and she looked so happy and alive, that everyone smiled at her pure pleasure. ‘Did you know you could buy silk bras with bows holding the two sides together? I got two.

Imagine, me with two silk, bow-tied bras! I never thought I’d see the day.’

The other three laughed.

Mel thought that the change in Cyn was incredible. The first time they’d met, she’d found it hard to see how even Leah could rescue the scared, lonely woman buried in self-loathing. Her weight hadn’t been Cyn’s big problem: it was the fact that she thought she deserved nothing better.

But Leah, with her genius when it came to troubled people, had somehow managed to make Cyn believe in herself and give her hope. Cyn would never be a sylph, but she was no longer dangerously obese. She was healthy enough to go to the gym, and, most importantly, she was enjoying her life.

So much had changed in al their lives, Mel reflected, and it was down to Leah.

‘Daisy said she was thinking of sel ing lingerie in Georgia’s Tiara,’ Caroline revealed. ‘Which would be lovely. She buys such beautiful, feminine clothes, I’d love to see what sort of lingerie she’d pick. And al the local men would be thril ed because they could just go into the shop, mutter that they needed a Christmas gift, Daisy could hand them a pretty box, and that would be it.’

‘Is that what Graham’s doing for Christmas?’ teased Mel gently. Cyn wasn’t the only one who sparkled with life these days. Caroline and Graham had managed to come through the agony of infidelity stronger than ever.

If Mel hadn’t seen the pain it had put her friend through, she’d have almost said that Graham’s affair had strengthened their marriage. It was so easy for people to fal into the trap of taking each other for granted, but being aware of what he could lose had clearly given Graham a shock.

‘We’ve moved on,’ Caroline had explained earlier that afternoon as they swam laps in the pool. ‘It’s different now.

I’m different and so’s Graham, but there’s more respect for each other. Does that make sense? We both know we have to work at our marriage, but it’s worth it.’