‘No, just go warm up before you catch your death.’ His tone was gruff and not to be argued with. It sent a shiver through her that wasn’t entirely about the cold.
‘You’re soaked.’
‘Go on with you. I’ll dry quickly enough. I was only out in it for a few minutes. Besides, I’m used to working outdoors, Ms de Wilde. You are not.’
Alex squirmed. He wasn’t wrong. But he didn’t need to treat her like some kind of helpless girl. Or as a de Wilde.
‘It’s O’Neill,’ she said firmly. And because she had been through this far too many times, she added, ‘Dr Alex O’Neill.’ She leaned on her title a bit, as she usually had to with a certain type of man.
Nick Walker fixed her with an appraising kind of look, pursed his lips and then nodded slowly. ‘All right then, Dr O’Neill.’ He didn’t hesitate over the switch in names, which was a point in his favour. It wasn’t sarcastic. Not quite. But it was perhaps on a more than nodding acquaintance with sarcasm. ‘Please take a seat. I’ll be as quick as I can.’
And then he was gone, heading further into the house and down a passageway which vanished behind the main staircase. She remembered it leading to the kitchen, where she and Theo used to sneak off to in search of treats from her grandfather’s cook, a matronly woman with a huge smile and a jovial nature.
Nick Walker moved fast for a big man. And quietly too. Fluid, like some kind of predator stalking its prey. She couldn’t take her eyes off him until he vanished from view.
Nick Walker. Caretaker. Groundsman. Theo’s best friend. The thorn in her side. The man she needed to tell that once she sold this house he would be out of a job and out on his ear. Once her lawyers unravelled the legal tangle her brother had left her in.
She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, having seen him…and his size. He had far more claim to say he lived here than she did.
And that was a problem. Because while he did, she was going to have the damnedest time selling it.
Wonderful.
CHAPTER 3
NICK
Nick wasn’t sure what he had expected. It had never occurred to him that Theo’s twin sister would look…well, likethat! Theo had said she was smart and funny, but he hadn’t thought she’d be so stubborn. Or that she’d have a voice Nick could listen to reading a dictionary. Or a fragrance that made him think…so many things he had no right to be thinking. He needed to be careful, that was all. Very careful.
The problem was, he’d never been very good in social situations. There were many reasons for him to stay up here at Wildewood, on his own, away from prying eyes and prattling tongues. That was just one of them.
‘So it’s not your deal,’ Theo had said. ‘You have other strengths, Nick. And who cares anyway. It’s not everyone who can charm the trees.’
Sally had been even more dismissive. ‘No one else can do what you do here,mo stór.’
But he had always had them there, to deal with people. And now…
Well, he didn’t have anyone.
He’d loved her brother, and missed him every day. Nick had lost far too much over the years but that didn’t make Theo’s lossany less. If anything this was the most painful. They’d worked together, dreamed together. Theo had given him his hope back when he’d thought it lost forever.
Now he had no one.
But here she was. Like a ghost herself. She had some nerve coming back here now after the way she had treated Theo. She’d ignored countless invitations from her brother, even when he had needed her most. Too busy being famous in the States. Ghost hunting. Like that was a real job.
But when he’d seen her sitting there in the car, so pale, staring at the house for so long, Nick hadn’t known what to think.
Theo might have come to terms with what had happened to their father here, but he had been adamant that Alex never would.
‘She won’t come back,’ he had said any time the subject came up. And he had been right.
‘It was worse for her,’ Sally had said, in those soft, sad tones. ‘You know it was. She found him.’
So Nick had never actually expected Alexandra de Wilde to arrive, even with her curt messages insisting that she was on the way. And now she was here.
She was going to sell Wildewood Hall. To be rid of that part of her past for good. He’d been a fool to believe otherwise. Watching her enter the house, he’d known. She didn’t want it. She had never wanted it. She looked so awkward and uncomfortable.
Well, that could work in his favour, surely, help him persuade her to leave. He needed to get her out before she started poking around too much.
