‘You could look into it.’
She nodded. ‘True. I know an excellent mortgage broker. She might be able to work some magic.’ A yawn came from nowhere.
‘You’re tired. You need to go to bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.’
‘Don’t be silly, Luke. The bed is enormous. We’ll share it. But I do need to go to bed.’
‘Why don’t I go and find the crowd in the bar, let you have some privacy? I won’t wake you when I come in if you’re asleep.’
Shortly after she had drifted off she was aware of Luke coming back and she kept her eyes firmly shut as she listened to him take his suit off and slide into bed next to her. She felt the bed dip as he got in and she allowed herself to move closer to his warmth.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hattie woke before her phone alarm went off, as she knew she would. She had been aware of Luke sleeping next to her in the bed, breathing deeply and very occasionally giving a little snore. She wasn’t used to sharing a bed with anyone and thought she’d find it difficult, but in fact she found she liked his silent, comforting presence.
Now, she slipped out of bed, gathered her clothes and got ready in the bathroom. She’d showered the previous night to make the process of leaving quicker and quieter. She’d got to her car and put her case in the back before she realised the outfit that she’d pictured so clearly hanging from a hook in the back was missing. Then she remembered it was still on the back of her bedroom door, all ready to go in the car.
She stood in the dawn wondering what she should do. She was due at her parents’ for breakfast – they were already annoyed with her for not arriving the previous evening. If she went back now she could get to the venue in time to set out the place cards. But her parents wanted her before that.
She was still thinking about what she should do when Luke appeared. He looked very tall and rumpled. ‘I saw you standing here. Is everything all right?’
He shouldn’t have been there; he should have been asleep in bed.
‘Did I wake you? I tried to be quiet.’
‘I woke up and found you gone. You didn’t make a sound as you left. But why are you still here?’
‘I’ve left my outfit at home.’ She regretted telling him the moment the words were out of her mouth.
‘I could get it for you—’
‘No! You can’t. You have things to do here. I’ll just wear what I wore last night. It’ll be fine.’ She spoke very firmly. She didn’t want an argument about this.
Luke didn’t argue, instead a slow smile spread over his face. ‘I just wish I could be there…’
Hattie found herself smiling. She kissed his cheek, lingering for a moment as his rough skin smudged against hers; then she got into her car and drove away, glancing in the mirror at the man she had left.
As she drove she realised her feelings for Luke had shifted slightly. He was still the always-reliable friend – the friend who offered to drive umpteen miles for her without a second thought – but he was also the very handsome man – a dream date, almost – at her side at a black-tie event. Could he be both those people to her? Would it create a horrible muddle in her life?
To drag her mind away from Luke, she thought of the challenge the day ahead presented. What could she wear with the peacock silk dress to make it more suitable for a lunch do? The linen jacket she was wearing now, with its large pockets she usually used for useful things like a tape measure, notebook, pen and phone, wasn’t nearly smart enough. Her sister had told her years ago that jacket pockets were not for putting things in, as that would ruin the line of the garment. But asHattie considered the jacket was there to be useful, if the pockets became a little baggy, that was too bad.
She did have with her a bag filled with ‘helpful essentials’. Rose, who had once been a wedding planner, had told her she’d need this and what to put in it. Among a selection of hair products, including tongs, there was a garment steamer, a sewing kit, safety pins, parcel tape to remove fluff or dog hairs and double-sided tape for hems, which could double as ‘tit tape’ in the unlikely event that it was needed. It was galling, she thought, that she had remembered all these little items, but not her actual outfit. And she’d been looking forward to wearing it.
She had brought a cashmere cardigan but it had random daisies embroidered on it, to cover the moth holes. To be fair, it wouldn’t have looked nice with the long silk dress even if the moth hadn’t got to it. And it definitely looked ‘pre-loved’ so her mother wouldn’t approve.
Maybe she could borrow something from Leonie? Her mother wasn’t the sort of person who lent clothes. She might, at a pinch, lend an umbrella or a pair of gloves, but nothing more intimate than that.
Hattie decided she couldn’t think about it any more: she might go mad. She would find a solution. It would be fine.
To her surprise and slight annoyance (she wasn’t sure why), she found that Tom Saye, the man she had gone to such lengths to introduce to her sister, was with Leonie in the kitchen when she arrived. She stopped being annoyed when she saw how giddy Tom’s presence made her sister.
She kissed Hattie (unusual) and ushered her out of the room into the large hallway. Then she whispered, ‘I begged Mummy to let me bring him. She finally agreed when I told her it didn’t mean she had to let you bring some awful old hippy.’
When she was about seventeen, Hattie had been on two dates with a man with dreadlocks and gnarly toenails. Her parents had never forgotten it. She thought about Luke.
‘I haven’t had a relationship since my marriage broke up,’ Leonie went on. ‘It’s so lovely to have a man on my arm again!’
‘He’s not a big fat diamond ring, Lennie!’ said Hattie, laughing now.
