Runaway Groom (7 page)

She straightened her spine and rang her sister.

“Hey! How are you?” June’s breezy tones chipped through April’s defenses.

“Pretty awful, actually. There was a fire last night in the coffee shop.” There was no point in sugar-coating the situation. “The apartment was damaged. This morning I’m homeless and jobless.”

“Oh no! My dress…”

June’s first thought was about was her dress. No questions about where April was living, how she’d make ends meet…

“The toile is intact, and I’m waiting for the silk to come in, everything is okay with your dress.”
Apart from the fact I can’t pay for the material.

“Oh that’s great.” There was silence for a moment. “You’ll get another job easily though, right? After all there must be a million coffee shops in London.”

“The thing is, June, I can’t pay for the silk.” April held her breath, hoping June wouldn’t make her beg. “I have to remake my collection, it was smoke damaged.”

“Oh.” There was a chill in June’s voice. “Oh, so you want me…”

“I need you to buy the material.”

“How much is it?” She’d never asked how much the material she’d insisted on was when April was paying. Irritation niggled. April pulled out her black notebook, unwrapped the elastic holding the pages in place, and searched it for the dress costings.

When she revealed the price, June gasped. “Wow, it’s really expensive.”

“Yes, it is.” She was buying the material at cost. If June had asked any other designer to make her dress, there was no way she’d be able to get it so cheap. “The best thing would be if you could transfer the money into my bank account. They’ll need to be paid next week.”

“My cash flow…”

June was making excuses?

“I can’t buy it,” April said. “I have lost my flat, my job, and my collection has been smoke damaged. As it is, I’m going to have to buy more material for my collection, not to mention…”

“Fine. Fine.” June spoke quickly. “I’ll get the money from Dad or Michael. You’ll have to give me a few days though. I hadn’t budgeted for this.”

Neither had I.
The thought burned through April’s mind.
I hadn’t budgeted for having to refinance my entire life in an instant.

“Good. I’ll email you my bank details.”

“Do that,” June said in a tone so harsh she might as well have said the very opposite. “Listen, I have to go. I’ll talk to you next week.” She hung up.

April felt as though she’d been shot full of anesthetic. Her senses were dulled as though her head was full of cotton wool, and her heart ached as if someone had removed it from her chest and pounded it with a hammer. Not once had June offered help or showed concern for April’s plight. She’d meant to tell June about how she’d met up with Matthew, about how he’d offered her somewhere to stay. But June was plainly not interested.

For the first time, the complaints her friends had voiced about her sister’s selfishness rang true.

Chapter Six

April was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a mug of coffee when Matthew walked in.

“You’re up early.” For the past week she’d still been asleep when he left for work.

She jabbed at the newspaper open in front of her with a pen. Some of the small ads were circled. “This morning, I’m looking for a job.” Her mouth twisted in a strangled semblance of a smile. “I need to make a contribution to the household.”

“What have you got so far?” He pulled up a chair.

“There are a few places looking for baristas.”

He reached for the page and scanned it. “All of these are looking for full-time. And there’s nothing local. Can you spare the time? I thought you needed to remake everything.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “I do. I can work at night though. I’ll try and keep the noise to a minimum.”

For the past couple of nights the steady hum of the sewing machine had filled the silent house. She’d purchased all the material she’d need, but rather than farm out the manufacturing to a seamstress, had been carefully remaking each piece of the collection. He didn’t know why she wasn’t getting help, but suspected it came down to finances. She was obviously broke.

“You’re crazy.” He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. “I have a solution.”

Her head tilted and her eyes narrowed.

“You can work for me.”

April shook her head. “I don’t know anything about your business.”

“You do know how to cook, though, don’t you?”

“Matthew…”

He held out a hand palm flat to silence her.

“I contacted an agency last week looking for a housekeeper, and they haven’t come up with any candidates yet.” The lie tripped easily off his tongue. The thought of some stranger spending all her time in his house while he was out of it wasn’t something he would ever contemplate, but April didn’t need to know that.

“You need a job, and I need some help around here.” He spoke fast to convince her before she threw up more roadblocks. “Every night when I get home I’m too exhausted to even work out what I want to eat. And I have to wrangle the laundry and keep this place clean. I eat out every night because I can’t find the time to shop and cook.” He leaned forward. “You can drive, can’t you?”

She nodded.

“You could take the car today, fill up the fridge, and help me out. I could pay you. It wouldn’t be much but…”

“I’d be happy to cook for you anyway, and of course I’d help you out, you don’t need to pay.”

He held her gaze. “I don’t want you to have to go and work in a coffee shop to make money when you could make the same amount by working for me, and cut down the amount of time travelling. You’d be able to get on with the collection.” She was weakening; he could see it in her eyes. He pulled out his wallet and withdrew a bundle of notes. “It’s only for a month or so, until you have your collection finished. I’m so busy with the Albios launch, you don’t want me to starve and have no clean clothes to wear, do you?”

Her mouth curved in a slow smile. “So, cleaning, doing laundry, shopping and cooking dinner,” she said. She reached out a hand to his. “Deal.”

There was absolutely no reason why the feel of her warm palm against his should send a rush of electricity up his arm. He reached for the car keys from the middle of the table. “I’ll catch a cab…”

“I can drop you off and then go on to the shop. And I can pick you up later.”

His employees would have a field day with a woman dropping him to the office. “No need.” He pressed the keys into her hand. “I’ll see you later.”

*****

April didn’t want to rely on anyone. Independence was one of the reasons she’d worked all the way through college and after it as well, even though her father had always tried to foist money on her. Right now she didn’t have a choice in the matter. Matthew was right, trekking out to work every day would take away from the time she had to spend on remaking her collection. And until Elizabeth’s insurance company paid out, she had no money to pay rent on somewhere new.

Matthew needed her and was prepared to pay for her services.

There was something immensely satisfying about attacking a list of tasks and ticking them off, one by one. Shopping? Check. Dinner prepared? Check. Laundry done? Check. After a mop of the kitchen floor and a quick vacuum around the living room the rest of the day would be hers.

She’d dusted every inch of the living room, found homes for all the DVDs that had escaped their boxes, and stacked them in alphabetical order on the shelves. He had an unhealthy fixation with disaster movies.

Rooting around behind the cushions on the sofa had yielded a small fortune in change and long lost pens, and she’d rescued a jam-jar from the kitchen to stack them in. At least the laundry had made it as far as the hamper, or at least most of it had. Presumably firing dirty washing at the basketball hoop directly above the hamper was fun, and picking up the miss-shots less so.

Now she had the house in some sort of order, maintaining it would be easy.

She picked up the old newspapers stacked on the shelf beneath the coffee table to consign to the recycle bin, and shoved them into a large paper bag from an exclusive man’s shop.

Her cell phone rang. April glanced at the display.

“Hi Dad.” She settled down on the sofa and pulled her legs up. “How’s it going?”

“I should be asking you that.” Jack Leigh’s voice was serious. “When were you going to tell me about your apartment? I had to hear it from your sister.”

“I didn’t want to worry you.”

“She says you’ve lost your job.”

“I lived above my job, Dad,” she explained. “It was a two-for-one strike.”

“So you have nowhere to live, and no job.” He sounded exasperated. “Don’t you think this is something I should know about?”

“There’s not much you can do.” She pulled in a deep breath.

“I can send some money. Help you get back on your feet. June rang me to ask for money to buy fabric for her wedding dress. She told me you’re broke and can’t afford to buy it.” A pause. “Do I gather your sister wasn’t paying for the dress?”

“I wanted to make it for her, Dad.”

He made the teeth-sucking noise again. “You volunteered to cover all the costs too?”

There hadn’t been much volunteering about it. June had presumed April would cover all the costs and it had seemed petty to ask for money, before now.

“She…”

“You’re a student, for God’s sake. Trying to make your way in the world without help. I admire that about you, honey, but your sister should at least have covered the costs of materials. She should be paying you for your time too, but I guess there’s no way June would even think about that.” It was the first time she’d ever heard Dad criticize June. “I want your bank details so I can do a transfer today to cover the material. I’ll add something to cover the rest of the supplies too. You shouldn’t be expected to pay for her dress. Now tell me, what do you need? Have you found somewhere else to live?”

“I’m staying with a friend for the moment.” With luck, he wouldn’t want to know exactly who. “I’ve found a temporary job. I’ve been able to work on remaking my collection.”

“Your collection is damaged?” Her father’s voice rose. “Your sister didn’t mention... “

“Everything is under control. I’m sorted. It’s going to take a lot of work but I’m on top of it.”

“I’m flying to Dublin in a couple of weeks. June wants to show me the wedding venue.” To April’s relief he sounded calmer. “I’ll spend a few days there and then fly over to see you.”

A bead of sweat trickled down April’s spine. If he came to London, he’d find out exactly where—exactly who… “There’s no need. And I’m so busy at the moment I won’t have much time to be with you.”

“I’ll call when I have the tickets booked.” There was no arguing with Jack in this mood. “Now, be a dear and give me your bank details.”

*****

As the front door swung open, the smell of something delicious wafted through the air. He should have called, should have told her he wouldn’t make it for dinner tonight.

Matthew glanced at his watch. Four o’clock. Just enough time for a quick shower and to change before the meeting with the Albios people. Even though they were interested, there were other players in the game, and tonight would be a chance to make a personal impression over dinner. There was no way to get out of it. Hopefully April would understand.

He checked the spotless kitchen, and glanced into the living room which was transformed from its usual messiness. The wooden furniture gleamed, and she’d even tidied up the DVDs. He peered closer—wow, she’d even alphabetized them. He’d reckoned tales of people arranging stuff in alphabetic order was an urban legend, but apparently not. 

As he climbed the stairs a low buzzing came from the floor above. She must be working on her collection. There’d be time enough to talk after his shower.

The knowledge April was upstairs inhibited him from his usual sing-in-the-shower-fest. He loved belting away songs under the spray, but had been told often enough by his family his enthusiasm didn’t make up for the inability to hold a tune. Instead, he washed his hair, then ramped the spray up to full and rotated his shoulders under the hot steam.

There was a shocked gasp.

Matthew’s head swiveled, and through the transparent glass shower enclosure, saw a pair of shocked blue eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know…” Her face was beet-red as her gaze flickered the length of his naked form and back to his face. “I—” She turned on her heel and fled as though pursued by a serial killer.

He’d been thinking about business, but the moment he’d seen her standing in the bathroom his treacherous body had instantly reacted. With a curse, Matthew rotated the dial to cold and stood under the frigid spray until his erection subsided. It took a lot longer than he’d hoped. In fact, his reaction to her was so extreme he had to think of erection-killer things before he felt confident enough to step out and wrap himself in a towel.

“April?” She was nowhere in sight, but at his call she peeked around his bedroom door.

“I’m sorry. I thought there was an intruder.” She was staring at the floor.

“It’s not your fault. I had to come home early to change.”

Her gaze lifted, tracking up his half-naked body in a way that made his mouth dry.

“I smelled dinner.” He felt such a heel, she’d cooked, and he’d… “I’m sorry, I should have called but I have a business dinner tonight.”

“It’s okay. It will taste even better tomorrow.” A faint smile flirted with the corner of her mouth.

“You have it.” He wished her damned dimple wasn’t so inviting.

“I made lots. If you’re not going to be here tonight, maybe I’ll have a couple of friends around.”

Relief flooded through him. Instead of being disappointed, she’d turned the situation around. “Good idea.” He walked to the clothes he’d laid out on the bed. “Don’t wait up for me, I’ll probably be late.”

She nodded. “I’ll let you get dressed.”

Living with April was killing him.

*****

Marie and Eliza were dying to get together, so she’d worked hard all afternoon, made herself a quick omelet, shoved the stroganoff in the fridge, and flicked on the fire for some instant ambience.