“It is?”
“Yes, because your objective was to stop Rosie thinking you’re in love with Declan. If you backtrack now, you won’t have solved your problem. You’ll have to spend the whole of Christmas trying to convince your sister and it will be stressful and exhausting.”
Her mood slumped. “That’s true.” And deep down she was mortified. She’d stayed away, she’d done everything she could to keep her distance. And she was so good at hiding her feelings she’d been confident that her sister would never find out. “You’re right, I really don’t want Rosie to suspect she was right all along.”
“And presumably it will make things awkward with Declan too.”
“I wasn’t looking at Declan. I have no idea what his reaction was.”
“He looked shocked.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” She groaned again. “I am never going to be able to look the man in the face again. What on earth must he be thinking?”
“How did it feel when you saw him?” The question was casual. “Are you still in love with him?”
Declan.
The strange thing was that until Will had mentioned him just now, she hadn’t given him a single thought since leaving the house. Which was odd, because for the past few days she’d thought of nothing else. She’d been dreading the moment they came face-to-face in case she gave herself away.
How could she have forgotten him so easily?
“Becks?” Will prompted her gently.
“I don’t know.” She frowned. “You know I’m not good at expressing my feelings and that’s mostly because I’m not very good at understanding what I’m feeling. My emotions are a total mystery to me. Declan has been part of the fabric of my life for so long I’m having trouble figuring out what I feel or where hefits. I can’t even work out where my sister fits, and that used to be simple. I’m going to spend the whole of Christmas avoiding half my family. Yay. Fun times ahead.”
“If your sister thinks you’re with me then it won’t be difficult at all. You won’t need to avoid anyone.”
“What are you suggesting? That we stay ‘together’? Well, you did say that if there was anything you could do to help...” As jokes went it was pretty lame, but he smiled anyway.
“I seem to remember telling you to let me know.” He adjusted her hat, tucking a strand of hair inside so that it didn’t blow across her face. “Maybe next time our relationship status is going to change you could warn me, so that I don’t blow it.”
“You didn’t blow it. You were amazing. You could have stood there and said ‘I don’t know what she’s talking about’ but instead you rescued me from my own mess. You’re a good friend, Will. The best. And now I’m going to be a good friend back by fixing this before it goes any further.”
“Why? There’s no hurry. I don’t have some girlfriend waiting in the wings who is going to be distraught by the discovery that I’m in a relationship with someone else. The easiest thing for everyone is probably to let this ride.”
“Let it ride?” She stared at him, sure she must have misunderstood. “You mean keep the pretence going?”
“Why not? Seems like the best solution to me. It would stop you feeling awkward around your sister, and around Declan. You could relax. You might even enjoy Christmas.”
She thought about it. He was right. It would make everything so much easier if everyone believed they were together.
“I can’t believe you’d do that for me.”
“I know. I’m a total hero.” He was teasing her, but the way he was looking at her made her feel decidedly strange.
It was probably lack of food. They’d both skipped lunch.
“Don’t get arrogant or you’ll stop being my hero.” She quickly thought it through, examining the idea for holes. “So,you’re suggesting that for Christmas we carry on the pretence—and that might work because all the attention is going to be on Jamie and Hayley anyway, and you’ll be with your family for most of it—and then what? In the New Year we tell them that we broke up? What reason would we give?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t like my Christmas gift? I could get you something you’d truly hate to make it more plausible. Everyone would feel sorry for you and completely understand your reaction.”
She laughed. “What would you get me?”
“Er—a lifetime membership to the noisiest night club in London?”
“Ouch. That would definitely be enough to ruin the relationship.”
“Or maybe a stack of romance novels.”
