Okay. What would she do if she were normal and did not have an irrational attraction to James that she really shouldn’t have because her best friend was in serious lust with him? She would knock on the kitchen window as she went past and wave airily if he was in there, and then walk on past. Knocking on the door might be over-friendly.
So she was going to knock on the window and hope that he wasn’t there.
It was very odd walking down the side of the path. It felt slightly intrusive, like she was spying on James or something.
He had the chairs arranged differently round her table outside the kitchen. She never left them like that. He had the cushions in different places too.
As she walked round the corner of the house and up to the window, her heart was actually thudding away. Ridiculous. She wasn’t usually a nervous person.
And, oh no. He was in the kitchen. Okay, fine, not a problem. Np. As planned, she was going to knock on the window, wave and walk off.
With the best will in the world, if you were knocking on a relatively low window, it was hard not to look through that window and into the room. James was doing something at the table, with his back to her. Dina wasn’t wrong about his physique. He was wearing a faded black T-shirt and as he worked at whatever he was doing – whatwasit? – she could see the muscles in his shoulders and upper arms flexing under the T-shirt. Rippling. Unlike on the other two occasions she’d seen him, his blond hair was appealingly un-styled and messy. His neck and arms were tanned. Gorgeous, basically. Exactly the kind of man who always appealed physically to Dina. And Cassie, if she was honest. Except, while Dina kept going back for more, Cassie had learned not to from bitter experience.
Right. She’d better knock on the window immediately or she’d look as though she was just standing leering. Peeping Cassie.
She should really have thought this through before she left Dina’s. She hadn’t had a shower yet or changed after her journey and she also hadn’t re-done her lipstick, re-brushed her hair, anything. Really quite stupid. James was looking sexily dishevelled and she was looking veryunsexily scruffy. And she was still staring into the kitchen at him. What if he could see her in a reflection or something? Or sensed her there?
She whipped her hand up and knocked, really fast, and far too loudly. It was a good job the window was double glazed, frankly, or she’d probably have broken it. She’dreallyhurt her knuckles. Ow.
James turned round, very quickly – not a surprise – he’d probably got a big shock given that her knock had sounded like gunfire – and broke into a smile when he saw her.
She waved at him and then pointed in the direction of the animals, returned his smile and turned round.
She’d got a couple of steps away when he opened the back door and said, ‘Hi, Cassie.’ Bugger.
He was so ridiculously pretty to look at, if you could call large, masculine-looking rugby player types pretty.
‘Hello, James.’ She sounded very formal. So odd to be essentially strangers and yet to have been sleeping in each other’s beds and using each other’s bathrooms for the past four months.
Why was she thinking about beds and bathrooms?
The silence was too long.
‘How was your journey?’ Thank the Lord he’d said something.
‘Good, thank you. I mean, lengthy, obviously, but I managed to sleep enough and there were no delays.’
‘Feels a bit surreal being here, right? I have to say that I found it odd being back in London but not currently being resident there. A bit like a parallel universe.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Would you like to come in and check out Laura’s cake?’
No. Cassie really didn’t want to go into herownperfect kitchen that she’d designed herself andlovedbut which was not currently hers. What if James had moved all her stuff around?
He opened the door wider and stood to one side. Bugger. She was going to have to go in or look rude.
‘I’d love to,’ she said.
For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to move out of the way and that they were going to end up in an awkward which-way this-way that-way moment, but fortunately he stepped back. He was tall. But not too tall. The perfect height. Also arguably the perfect width.
And now she was standing in her kitchen, with James. He hadn’t moved too many of her things and he was very tidy.
And. Wow.
‘The cake’s stunning,’ she said, moving forwards to look more closely at it. ‘Laura will love it.’
‘Thank you.’ James beamed and Cassie realised two things: one that a beaming James was literally the most attractive man she’d ever seen in her life, and two that the room smelled quite strongly of baking and he’d just reacted as though the cake was his own work.
