‘I’ll come out as soon as I can,’ she said shortly. ‘In the meantime, please just stay here.’
‘Sure. Just as long as your interpretation ofas soon asdoesn’t prove to be too long.’ He half-smiled. ‘We’re in this together now, Ella. So, like I said, don’t look so anxious. When faced with a problem, two will always be better than one at dealing with it.’
Ella’s heart thudded, then he reached out and trailed the back of his hand against her cheek and she felt a tide of shameless response wash through her. It was almost too much to turn away and not keen towards that warm hand and lose herself in its comforting touch.
She exited the car at speed and then took a deep breath before she inserted her key into the lock and let herself through the front door.
Rocco watched as she vanished through the door and shut it firmly behind her. Around him, the snow continued to fall gently, insistently. Away from the glittering Christmas lights strung from lamp post to lamp post in the town, out here felt quiet and remote. The house was a stone structure, sprawlingin a U-shape that enfolded the courtyard where he was parked. Around it, open fields stretched through the gathering twilight in magnificent isolation.
Comfort zones had long been left behind. He was dealing with a situation for which nothing had prepared him but in truth, looking back, he felt that comfort zones had been dumped the minute he had met her. It was a relief that her explanations to her father had been perfunctory. That said, facing her father was something he would be able to deal with.Shewas the one who made his stomach twist with nerves because he didn’t know where he stood with her. Because, for the first time in his life, getting what he wanted wasn’t going to be a straightforward exercise and the stakes were the highest he could ever have imagined. His parents would have to be told immediately and there could be no question that he wouldn’t marry the mother of his child.
He was absently staring at the door when it opened and there she was, framed in the doorway. For a few seconds, the breath was sucked out of him. She was so small, so slender, and yet right now she was singularly the most powerful person in his world.
He leapt out of the car and strode towards her. ‘Ready?’ he murmured, looking down at her.
She flashed him a look that was a mixture of defiance and anxiety and he recalled the sensation of her soft skin under his fingers when he had touched her cheek. The surge of physical awareness that had jolted through him.
He also recalled the fleeting but powerful acknowledgement that she had responded to that touch in a way she might not have found entirely unwelcome. He’d felt her body come alive, just for a moment, had felt the sudden softness in her and had known, on some level, that she wanted him. Desire was a difficult beast to control.
He looked at her with lazy speculation.
‘Just don’t say much. I’ve told him that you got in touch and…’
‘And? Since he’s under the impression that you’re crazy about me, are we on course for a grand, romantic reunion?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because anything between us is over and done with. You know why. I don’t have to keep going into it.’
‘So the part I play is…?’
‘We’re friends.’
‘Lovers to friends,’ Rocco mused. ‘I always thought it went in the opposite direction—friends to lovers.’
‘Not this time.’
She uneasily remembered what she had told her father—that she’d fallen for a guy before acknowledging that they lived in different worlds, worlds that would never be destined to meet. She hoped nothing she had said would come back to bite her. Fortunately for her, her dad wasn’t the sort to launch into animated conversation about anything. He would eye Rocco suspiciously, would be tight-lipped and unwelcoming and she would lead the way in dispelling any notion that Rocco was anything but someone who would have no place in her future aside from fulfilling the duties of fatherhood. All Rocco had to do was go along with everything she said and keep contributions to the conversation to a minimum.
She could only hope that he wouldn’t be a wild card.
As Rocco looked around him with curious eyes, what he saw was an old house, unrenovated but sturdy, built of concrete and stone, with thick walls and furnishings that were old and tired. Scott Campbell, weathered from a life spent outdoors, was proud and silent, in his mid-sixties at most, who looked much older than his years.
Rocco liked him on sight. He could deal with this man. He would enjoy it, in fact.
His handshake, as he was introduced, matched his host’s in firmness. He smiled a warm, engaging, encouraging smile. At the same time, he paid utterly no attention to Ella’s slight body suddenly stiffening by his side.
‘Mr Campbell. I can’t tell you how honoured I am to meet you and how pleased.’ He lowered his voice and bent the few inches that brought him face to face with the bright blue, narrowed eyes focused on him. By the end of the evening, he intended to wipe out every scrap of wariness and suspicion. He might be cast in the role of lover turned friend but, by hook or by crook, the distinction would soon become pleasantly blurry.
He clasped the leathery hand warmly between both of his and smiled. ‘Circumstances may have taken me away prematurely from your enchanting daughter, sir, but I assure you that I will not fail when it comes to fulfilling my duties supporting her in these…unexpected but very happy times…’
He sensed rather than saw the wiry body relax. Not much, but enough to encourage him. ‘But I’m sure there will be ample time to discuss everything with you on that subject, to reassure you that your daughter will be supported one hundred percent by me. In the meantime… I’ve always had an interest in farming. I would consider myself privileged to hear everything about your farm. Who knows?’ He chuckled. ‘I might find there’s a farmer lurking inside me somewhere…’
Rocco was invited to stay the night. Separate rooms, of course, as they were now justfriends, but still…
Several hours later, Ella was still reeling from Rocco’s charm offensive. He’d laid it on thick. Her taciturn father, known tohappily spend an evening without uttering much more than a couple of sentences, had been downright loquacious.
