‘Aren’t you going to make her dinner?’ Hamish asked, and Susie smiled down at her puppy and her daughter and shook her head.
‘No one’s in a hurry.’
It was such a strange concept that Hamish blinked.
‘You want a seat?’ Susie wriggled sideways, making room on the bench.
Why would he sit down? Just to sit?
‘Maybe I’ll work on the path.’
‘With those hands? Are you out of your mind?’
‘We earls have great courage.’
‘You earls need a straitjacket if you work with hands like those. Just stop, Hamish. Rest.’
He sat. Gingerly. It felt weird.
‘Thank you for today,’ she said gently, and he felt even more weird.
‘Why…?’
‘You’ve made today happy for a lot of people. Just by being here.’
‘Just by exposing my knees?’
‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever,’ she said serenely, and he choked.
‘Right.’
‘Honest, Hamish.’ Her hand came out to touch his arm. Lightly resting. There was no pressure but the feel of her fingers on his arm was almost his undoing. That and the warmth of the night, the soft hush of the sea, the weird domesticity of pup and baby playing at their feet…
‘You were wonderful,’ she said, and suddenly she twisted so she could kiss him. Lightly. It was a kiss of thanks. No more than that. A feather kiss.
Except…it wasn’t.
People kissed all the time, Hamish thought. They kissed in greeting, and farewell, or as had just happened, to say thank you. It meant nothing. There was no reason to think that a twenty-thousand-volt electric charge had just cut off every other circuit in his body.
Why?
There was no reason, he thought, dazed.
Or was it because Susie was a thousand light years away from any other woman he’d ever dated? She was a thousand light years from Marcia. In her faded shorts and T-shirt and nothing else, nothing to attract, nothing at all, she smelt…she felt…
Soft and delicious and absolutely, imperatively desirable.
It was just the day, he thought, hauling back in shock and dazed wonder. It had been a day totally out of his experience, and he was floundering here because he’d never met anyone like this before, and there were probably thousands of women who were like this but he’d just never met them, and he was out of his comfort zone, and…
‘Hey, Hamish, I’m not planning on jumping you,’ Susie said, and he jerked back to reality. To Susie staring at him with eyes that were bemused-and maybe also a little hurt.
‘I know. It’s just…I’m engaged to Marcia.’
Maybe that had been the wrong thing to say.
‘I know you’re engaged to Marcia,’ she said with asperity. ‘You really do think I’m planning on jumping you. Just because I’m a widow.’
‘No.’
‘You do,’ she said, and there was no disguising the anger now. She rose and stood, glaring at him with her hands on her hips, vibrating with fury. ‘If your colleague in the next office said goodbye, have a good vacation, and kissed you, what would you have thought?’
‘Nothing.’ Of course not. It was what had happened. ‘Hey, Hamish is off on a vacation, can you believe that? ‘Bye, Hamish, take care.’ Kiss.
It meant nothing. But he had to stop thinking sideways. Susie was in temper-on mode.
‘But because I’m a widow, everyone looks at me like I’m encroaching. Like I’m just planning how to get the next man into my bed. Like I’m every married woman’s worst enemy. Even you. It’s so unfair. I loved Rory like I’ve never loved anyone. I’m not in the market for another relationship, and hauling Marcia over here just to protect yourself… Don’t think I don’t realise what you’re doing, Hamish Douglas. There was no inkling from you that Marcia would be coming until everyone looked at us like a couple. Then you started looking like a rabbit caught in headlights. It’s just so dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.’ She swooped down and lifted Rose into her arms.
‘Come on, sweetheart. We’ll go make you some dinner and leave his Lordship here in solitary splendour. In the knowledge that his virtue can remain intact for his precious Marcia. But know that even if there were a million Marcias-or do I mean if there weren’t any?-there’s no way I’m interested in you, Hamish Douglas, Not the least little bit. Not one skerrick. You leave me as cold as a flat, dead fish.’
She turned and wheeled into the house. Hamish was left starting after her.
Taffy looked at up him, doubtful.
‘I’d follow,’ he told the pup. ‘I’m a flat, dead fish.’
Taffy hesitated a bit more but then as Hamish remained unmoving she obviously decided that maybe Hamish was right. Flat, dead fish were a bit unappetising.
He followed Susie.
There was absolute silence. Even the hush of the sea was fading.
Nothing.
A flat, dead fish.
He should go check his e-mail. He should-
There was a groan from the house and Susie’s head appeared at the kitchen window.
‘Thanks for sending Taffy inside,’ she snapped. ‘She’s done her business in the hallway. Over to you, your Lordship.’
Great. He rose.
Even flat, dead fish had their uses.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHAT followed were a couple of very strained days. Susie and Hamish skirted each other with extreme caution.
They spent the mornings at the beach-well, why wouldn’t they as the beach was there and gorgeous? Taffy loved it. Rose loved it. Hamish loved it. He admitted that to himself but, hell, it was a strain. Susie was a small indignant puff of offence and she treated the beach as if they’d put a fence down the middle, with strictly segregated His and Hers zones. When he offered to take care of Rose to give her time to swim she accepted graciously-as if she was granting him a favour-but she flounced out to sea and flounced back, and ignored him in the interim.
‘I didn’t mean to offend you,’ he told her.
‘You didn’t offend me. You merely implied I saw you as husband material. As nothing could be further from the truth, I believe we need to keep things formal.’
Right. Formal.
By the time Marcia arrived on Monday evening he was almost relieved. Anything to break the formality.
Marcia arrived with Jake. Jake had gone up to Sydney for a one-day pain management conference, and as the times fitted perfectly, he’d offered to collect Marcia from the airport and bring her down. So at eight on Monday night Hamish strolled out to the castle forecourt to greet his fiancee.
‘Hi, sweetheart,’ he said as she emerged from Jake’s truck. He hugged her elegantly suited body close and kissed her-so deeply that he caught her by surprise. When the kiss ended she pulled back and looked astonished.
‘Wow,’ she said, touching her lips like they were bruised. ‘It’s only been a few days.’
