“You are amazing! A saint and a wonder.” He grinned. “Am I laying it on too thick?”
“Perhaps,” Olivia acknowledged with a little laugh, although truth be told she liked his rather theatrical manner.
“Here you are.” She fetched the last cupcake and presented it to him with a flourish. Simon took it, a slightly odd, whimsical look on his face as he gazed at her.
“What…” Olivia said, starting to blush all over again.
“You’ve a bit of icing on your mouth…”
“Oh.” Now she was turning a lovely—or not—shade of scarlet as she managed an unsteady laugh. “Whoops…” She rubbed her mouth a bit frantically, but Simon shook his head and then, leaning forward, he touched the corner of her mouth with his thumb. It was a brief yet tantalising gesture, and it felt shockingly intimate. It made Olivia realise just how long it had been since she’d been touched, in any way, by a man. Too long.
“Sorry.” Now he was the one who was blushing, a faint rosy tint to his lean cheeks as he stepped back. “I didn’t…”
“It’s okay.” She turned away quickly, trying to hide how unsettled that little touch had made her. How it made her mind jump to other, more extensive possibilities. What was wrong with her? “Would you like a box?” she asked, speaking so fast that her words jumbled into one another. “And a ribbon?”
“Um, yes, sure.” Simon sounded as unsettled as she was, which was both faintly gratifying and…more unsettling. This was getting too weird.
Olivia felt as if she were all thumbs as she fetched a box from the pantry, jamming the sides and flaps together, her mind a blur. Quick, think of something to say…something innocuous and witty…
“Did you like yesterday’s cupcake?” she asked a bit desperately. “The cookies and cream.”
“Ah, well.” Simon looked a bit embarrassed, his smile apologetic. “It looked absolutely delicious, of course, but I didn’t eat it.”
“You didn’t?”
In an icy flash of horror, Olivia pictured him giving the cupcake to someone else—his adorable girlfriend, his pregnant wife, his little daughter. Of course he had people like that in his life.
“No, I gave it to…to someone else. But they enjoyed it, I assure you.”
Which left Olivia feeling even more awkward, because there was no way she could ask him to whom he’d given his cupcake, and he seemed almost reluctant to impart the information.
“Well, I hope you enjoy this one,” she said, every word stilted. “Salted caramel. That is, if you’re the one eating it.”
Simon just smiled, which made her feel worse. What was he not saying, and why? Or was she reading way too much into what was essentially a business exchange? She handed him the box. “Here you are.”
“Thank you so much. And here you are.” He handed her a five-pound note, his fingers brushing hers. “And no change. I absolutely insist.”
Which just felt like pity now. “Thank you,” Olivia said. “And…see you tomorrow?”
“I’ll be here.” He smiled, gave a mock salute, and then, far too soon, he was gone, the door banging shut behind him, letting in a gust of icy air that made Olivia shiver as she stared disconsolately out at the darkness.
Chapter Three
“Come in, come in!”
Harriet urged Olivia inside, brandishing a very full glass of white wine as her adorable dog Daisy frolicked about their heels, nearly making them both trip.
“Thanks.” Olivia smiled as she stepped across the threshold of Harriet’s converted-stable cottage at Willoughby Close. Ava, Ellie, and Alice were already inside, sprawled across the matching sofas. “Where’s Richard?”
“Upstairs, corralling the children. I’ve told them they will come down on pain of death, or at least a serious scolding, even Richard.” She plucked the bottle of average plonk Olivia had been holding. “You shouldn’t have, but I’m glad you did. I ruined the mulled wine with far too much orange juice, and we’re already mostly through the bottle of white Ava brought.”
“Oh, really?” Everyone’s glasses looked very full, Olivia noticed, and wondered what they were celebrating—or bemoaning.
“Let me get you a glass,” Alice offered as she rose from the sofa. “There’s still some white left…”
“Or this red.” Harriet placed Olivia’s bottle on the kitchen counter with a thunk. “What do you fancy?”
“Either is fine,” Olivia answered with a smile as she unbuttoned her parka. It was good to be with her friends, especially on a wet and windy winter’s night, where the only company she would have had was Dr Jekyll, who was definitely in full Mr Hyde mode at the moment.
“I’ll let you finish off the white, then,” Alice said cheerfully, and poured Olivia a glass to the brim before handing it over with a smile.
“So how is everyone?” Olivia asked as she plopped herself down in the middle of one of the sofas, between Ava and Ellie. Harriet flung herself onto the other one with a sigh, and Alice curled up in the opposite corner.
“We’re fine,” Ellie began, only to have her face crumple a little bit. Olivia sat up in alarm, sloshing her wine over her hand.
“Ellie…?”
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” Ellie said as she fished for a hanky and blew her nose. “I’m being hormonal and weepy for no good reason.”
“That’s not true,” Ava fired back. “It’s a big deal, Ellie.”
“What is?” Olivia asked. She felt as if she’d missed part of a crucial conversation.
Ellie took a shuddering breath and a gulp of wine. “Oliver and I—and Abby, of course—are moving to Oxford in January.”
“What!” Olivia stared at her in surprise and dismay. “But…why?”
“We both work in Oxford, and it makes sense to be closer,” Ellie said, sounding rather resigned. “And Abby’s been accepted for the next term to Headington Girls.”
“She’s going to a girls’ school?”
“She wants to,” Ellie said. “She pushed the application.”
“But…” Olivia was at a loss, although she realised she didn’t know Abby all that well. Mallory did most of the talking.
“She’s very driven,” Ellie said. “Unlike me. And a lot of the students at the comp
