‘Shame.’
He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ From his tone she suspected he was unnerved to hear her talking about marriage in such a positive way. Perhaps because he was worried she might become more attached to the idea of being his wife than he was comfortable with.
‘Don’t worry,’ she reassured him quickly. ‘You’re really not my type. When I get married for real it’ll be because I’m in love with my partner and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. That won’t happen with us.’
He continued to look at her in that unnervingly intense way he had, as if he was trying to read her innermost thoughts and catch sight of any lies she might be telling him. She stared boldly back, trying not to think about how devastatingly attractive he was.
‘I promise you, I will not want to stay married to you after the year is up,’ she reiterated firmly. ‘I’ve got too much going on in my life to be a wife and mother right now.’
She was sure she saw him flinch when she said that, but before she could say anything more he nodded curtly and said, ‘Anyway, you’ll need these for the doors.’ He pulled a plastic key card and a key for her apartment out of his pocket and handed them to her.
‘So you’re not planning on keeping me locked up inside all day, then?’ she asked in as jovial a tone as she could muster.
‘Of course not,’ he said, waving away her words as if they were completely ridiculous.
Her skin prickled as she remembered how reluctant he’d been to introduce her to Hugo as his wife earlier, but she bit her tongue. She really didn’t want to have a row with him on their wedding day. Not that it seemed they were actually going to celebrate it in any way.
This was confirmed when Xavier said, ‘Well, I’ve a lot of work to do today so I’ll let you get settled in. There’s food in the fridge if you want to eat in tonight.’
Disappointment trickled through her. ‘We won’t be eating together?’
‘Not tonight. I need to deal with something that’s just cropped up at work right away.’ He gestured towards his phone. ‘I’ll put your bags in your apartment and catch up with you tomorrow.’
‘No, don’t worry, I can take them.’
He paused, then nodded distractedly, and she watched him walk away and mount the stairs, heading up the wide staircase to the landing.
She suddenly felt very small and alone in the huge, dark house.
Looking down at the sheath dress she’d made especially for the ceremony out of one of her mother’s old dresses, she felt a heavy sense of trepidation sink through her.
No, Soli, don’t let it get to you.
Why she’d thought she needed to look good for this farce of a wedding today, she had no idea now. But it had been important to her to make an effort, even if Xavier hadn’t appreciated it. He’d not said a word about how she looked.
She hadn’t sewed her own clothes for a very long time, but being strapped for cash and not wanting to waste money on buying a proper wedding dress, even a second-hand one, she’d decided to make her own. She’d worked for three nights straight on it, and was really pleased with the results. Whilst working on it she’d remembered how much she’d enjoyed designing and making her own clothes before her mother had become too ill to look after herself and her father had died, requiring her to step into his role as carer, parent and breadwinner. Experiencing that had made her appreciate just how hard he’d worked to keep them all in the lifestyle she’d taken for granted. She wished fervently now that she’d had the opportunity to tell him how grateful she was to him for providing that for her.
She hoped he would have been proud of her for what she was doing here – making sure that her sister and mother were well looked after.
The way she needed to look at it was that Xavier was providing her with a unique opportunity to set them all up for the rest of their lives.
All she had to do was make sure she didn’t do anything to jeopardise it.
5
FRUSTRATION (UK)/TROUBLE (US) – ROLL A SIX BEFORE YOU CAN MAKE A MOVE.
The next morning Xavier came down to the kitchen at 7a.m. to find to his relief that it was empty of his new wife. He’d been hoping that Soli wasn’t an early riser, and wouldn’t expect to have breakfast with him, so he could continue with his usual morning routine of sitting at the kitchen table and reading the news on his tablet whilst sipping his first cup of coffee of the day in peace.
It looked as if he was in luck.
As he set up the coffee machine, he noticed some cake tins and spatulas and a few bags of ingredients on the worktop. The sight of them sitting in what he thought of as his personal space sent a tingle of annoyance through him.
Telling himself to relax, he tamped down on his irritation, knowing he was going to have to get used to sharing his house with Soli for the next year and getting uptight about a few pieces of kitchen equipment lying around wasn’t a good way to start. Anyway, it needed to look as if she lived in this house, he reminded himself, so having a few of her things scattered around would actually be a good thing.
He was just pouring the coffee into a mug when there was the sound of footsteps behind him and he spun around to see Soli standing in the doorway wearing a slouchy pair of pyjamas with a cartoon character on the front and her hair wild and sticking up around her head.
‘Morning,’ she said, hiding a yawn behind her hand. ‘You’re up bright and early.’
