“Just Christmas. They were a gift from Granny. Rosie’s are covered in snowmen. I wear them pretty much all winter because they’re comfy and they keep me warm if I thrash around in the bed and lose the covers.”
“You do a lot of thrashing?” His smile caused her heart to skip a few beats.
“It has been known. I also talk in my sleep and walk in my sleep. If that happens just steer me back to the bed. No need to wake me up.”
“I had no idea the night ahead was going to be so exciting.” Casually, he reached for the buckle of his belt, and she froze for a moment and then fled to the bathroom.
“I won’t be long.”
“Becks—”
“I just need the bathroom.”
“Are you all right? Did you eat too much chocolate?”
“Yes, something like that.” She closed the door between them and leaned against it. Would he actually have undressed with her standing right there? Had he forgotten she was in the room? No, it wasn’t that. It was just that they’d known each other forever and he didn’t see her that way. “Probably shouldn’t have drunk that wine.”
This wasnotgoing the way she’d hoped. She should havefelt relieved that they’d been forced to stay overnight because it gave her a reprieve from the family reunion she was dreading, but right now she wasn’t feeling relieved.
Frustrated with the workings of her mind, she turned on the cold water and splashed her face.
She wished Will had never called his mother, or at least that they hadn’t had that conversation.
Now she kept imagining him naked. And she kept thinking he was looking at her in a different way which wasdefinitelyher imagination going into overdrive.
She took a deep breath and then yanked the dress over her head.
This was insane. She had to stop thinking this way. Will didn’t have those sorts of feelings for her and she didn’t have those sorts of feelings for him, either. They had a long friendship and yes there was love, of course there was, but not that sort of love. Not the heart-racing, rip-each-other’s-clothes-off, explosive type of love. The love she felt for Will was warm and safe and quiet. There was nothing explosive about it.
She wasn’t like Rosie, who fell in love quickly and then fell out of love at approximately the same rate.
Becky had only ever been in love with one man in her life.
And he’d married her sister.
Chapter9
Hayley
It was snowing steadily now, soft flakes of white spinning and swirling in front of the car, sparkling in the headlights like frozen confetti.
Jamie drove confidently, followed a narrow lane for a short distance and then turned through a set of open gates. “We’re here. This is home. Someone has cleared the worst of the snow so that’s good.”
“This is it? I don’t see a house.”
“You will in a minute.”
“You don’t have any houses near you?”
“Nearest neighbours are across the field. The Pattersons. Family friends. She’s a retired dentist. He’s a historian. Written books about this area. We’re on the borders with Scotland so it’s all battles and conflict. Pick a time in history and someone was probably invading us. We have more castles than any other county, most of them in ruins of course but that just adds to the interest. My closest friend, Will, is their son. You’ll meet him at the party.”
“He is the one driving up with Becky?”
“Yes, although I’ve no idea how that happened. I don’t think it was planned. Then along from them are the Freemans. Geoff and Rita. I was at school with their youngest daughter, Beth. We kissed once.”
“You kissed her?”
“Technically she kissed me. We were seventeen. School play.” He grinned and she resisted the temptation to punch him on the arm.
