‘Really, Star Wars? How old are you? And what’s with the telephone voice?’
He looked at her and in his best Yoda voice said, ‘Doesn’t matter, age. Always cool, Star Wars is. Work tone, voice is.’ After a moment, when she was still scowling at him, he laughed sheepishly. ‘When I get nervous, I go all hoorah Henry in the voice department. I don’t know why. My dad does it.’
She groaned, but it trickled into a giggle despite her best efforts. He laughed too, his deep voice chuckling along as he put his things away, throwing his bag over his shoulder.
‘I do know you from somewhere, it’ll come to me.’ Rebecca ignored him, quickly cleaning his table down and getting it ready for the next day. Taking her time till he went away. Then she realised he wasn’t going anywhere.
‘Right, well I’ll be off,’ he surprised her by saying. ‘Okay if I leave my bags with you? I only need my wallet, Hans is taking me out for a pint.’
Rebecca mentally took out some of the pins from Hans’s voodoo doll in her head. Not the good ones like the goolies, just the boring ones, like an elbow.
‘Oh, that’s nice,’ she replied, as though bored. Really, she was thanking the god of pubs for giving her a little bit of time to come round to the idea of having this man in her personal quarters. ‘Well, have a nice time.’ Cloth in hand, she was waiting for him to say goodbye, see you later, and leave. He just stood there gawping back.
‘So,’ he says, looking from his feet to her face to back to his feet, which were encased in very unsuitable shoes. I’m surprised his toes haven’t dropped off yet.
‘So,’ she repeated, looking pointedly at the door.
‘Er, a key?’ he ventured. Oh dear Lord.
‘Hans wants to give you a key?’
Luke ran his hand through his hair, a nervous gesture. Good. You need to be nervous, asking me for a bloody key.
‘Er yes, he said you kept a spare for er … guests.’
‘Great. That doesn’t make me sound like a hooker at all.’
His face fell. ‘I didn’t mean—’
‘It’s fine,’ she retorted, smiling through tight gritted teeth, taking a key out of the drawer next to the till. ‘Here’s the key. You’ll have to come through the shop, so please don’t forget to lock up properly.’
He still didn’t move, so she went to him and held the key out, taking care to hold it by the string it was attached to. She didn’t trust herself to touch him flesh to flesh. He stood there a beat too long, staring.
‘What are you looking at?’
‘Nothing, sorry.’ He seemed to mentally shake himself together, before taking the key gently from her grasp. She could feel the heat from his skin. ‘I’ll lock up, don’t worry. Just leave my bags there, I’ll bring them up when I get back.’
She nodded at him dumbly, having had no intention of carrying them up anyway. Who was she, Jeeves?
‘Fine, see you later then.’ She turned to leave to go upstairs, eager to wash the day off and frantically clean up the guest room.
‘Rebecca? Thanks again for putting me up. I really appreciate it, and I’ll make it up to you, I promise.’
She turned to say something to him, acknowledge him, but he was already on the other side of the door, locking up. She watched him put the key into a zipped pocket, and when he looked up, their eyes locked. She raised a hand and softly waggled her fingers at him. He did the same with a gloved hand. It looked more like a lobster claw, but it still made her heart beat that bit faster for some reason. It was probably just the fact that she had given a total stranger a key to her castle. As he walked away in the snow, giving her another long look over his shoulder, she had one thought in her head.
That man is going to be trouble.
*
Hours later, after a night of emergency cleaning, leg shaving, and hiding of personal information around the lodge, Rebecca turned off the radio and headed to bed. She did think about delving into her bedroom drawers for that slip she knew she still had kicking about, just in case they happened to cross paths in the middle in the night going to the bathroom, or getting a midnight snack. She soon talked herself out of it, seeing sense in favour of PJs and fluffy unicorn slippers, which were shrugged off at the side of the bed. She shouldn’t be embarrassed of her comfy clothes, he was the invader, after all. It was her home. Besides, he might think she was trying it on with him, all nipply from the cold floor and groggy from sleep. That would be far worse than him laughing at her oversized Disney nighties. Snuggling under the covers with a satisfied sigh, she finally felt herself relax a little. She had been thinking about waiting up for Luke, to check he locked up properly, but decided it would be better to get some sleep and get out of the way. What would I say to him anyway? It’s not like I even want him here.
She’d closed her own bedroom door, leaving the guest room wide open to avoid any confusion when he got home. Picking up her Kindle, she thumbed through the covers to find her next read, and settled in, switching off her bedside lamp and snuggling into the pillows in the dark, the screen the only light in the room. Peace and quiet, just how she liked it. She sped through the first chapter of the book, where a dashing hero sidled up to a coquettish woman in a bar.
Then she found herself wondering if Hans was having a good night. He’d seemed very excited to see Luke. Did Holly know him too? Rebecca herself didn’t recall a Luke in any of Hans’s ski stories. He wasn’t one
