Watching Jakob bend to put the case back on the trolley, his handsome face so animated and smiling, Nina wondered who the pretty blonde girl was. A fellow passenger perhaps whom he’d offered to help, which would be so typical of him.
‘Are you still there, Nina?’
‘I’m sorry, Saul,’ she murmured, her eyes still on Jakob and the attractive girl, ‘but now isn’t a good time. I’ll ring you in the morning.’
Before he could say anything else, she ended the call, slipped the phone back inside her bag and went over to surprise Jakob.
His reaction at seeing her went far beyond anything she’d expected. Grinning wildly, he threw his arms around her, then lifted her off her feet and spun her round as though she were a child of six. Which was ridiculous, she was a forty-three-year-old woman!
When he put her down, he kissed her on the mouth and then as if remembering the blonde girl standing behind him with the trolley and who now wore a bemused expression on her face, he said, ‘Nina, this is my sister, Amalie, who has done nothing but complain the whole way here.’
The girl wobbled her head and rolled her eyes, and then held out her hand to Nina. ‘Hey,’ she said, ‘the worst brother in the world has told me so much about you, but it’s good finally to meet you in person. He kept saying you were beautiful, and now I can see with my own eyes that for once he was not exaggerating.’
Her English was excellent, just like Jakob’s, though hers had more of what Nina perceived as a Scandi tone to it. She looked first at Jakob and then back to the girl, taking the two of them in. ‘You really don’t look at all alike, do you?’ she said.
The girl laughed. ‘Thank God for that! And I might add that as well as all the looks, I was given the brains too.’
Jakob smiled at Nina. ‘But modesty, I’m afraid, was not gifted upon her.’
Nina smiled. ‘It’s lovely to meet you, Amalie. I think we have some catching-up to do. I want you to tell me everything you think I should know about your brother.’
‘Oh, trust me, I plan to!’
Jakob groaned and grabbing hold of Nina’s hand, he said, ‘You mustn’t listen to a word of what my little sister says, she is not to be believed! Trust me on that.’
Chapter Fifty-Four
The drive to Cambridge from Stansted had passed in something of a blur with Jakob’s sister chattering nonstop for most of the way. When she’d managed to get a word in edgewise, Nina had invited Amalie to join them for dinner, but Jakob wouldn’t hear of it.
‘No, no, Amalie has already planned to amuse herself this evening,’ he’d said, turning round to look at his sister in the back of the car, ‘isn’t that so, Amalie?’
Laughing, she had said, ‘Don’t worry, Jakob, I have no intention of spoiling your evening. And think yourself lucky I’m only staying a couple of days with you!’
‘That’s a short visit,’ Nina had remarked, thinking of all the luggage they’d stowed in the boot of her car.
‘I’m flying to New York the day after tomorrow,’ she’d explained, ‘to stay with friends.’
After they’d dropped his sister off at Jakob’s house in Cambridge, Nina drove on to Hope Hall.
Inside the apartment, and while Jakob went to freshen up in the cloakroom, Nina fussed with switching on lamps, drawing curtains and ordering herself to calm down. She had been fine before. More than fine. She’d been longing for Jakob to be here with her, aching for his touch and to feel her body responding to his in ways that had made her head swim.
Taking a deep steadying breath and whipping round to go over to the kitchen and open the bottle of white wine in the fridge, she promptly found herself smack in front of Jakob, all but headbutting his chin. She let out a startled cry.
‘Sorry,’ he said, raising his hands as though in surrender, ‘I didn’t mean to alarm you.’
‘You didn’t. Well, okay, you did. It’s just that—’
‘That you’re jumpy as hell,’ he finished for her, and smiling, ‘is that it?’
Nina smiled too. ‘It’s absurd,’ she said, ‘but for some reason, now that you’re here, I’m behaving like a silly teenager on a first date.’
‘Would it help to admit that that is just how I feel?’
‘In that case, what we both need is a glass of wine.’
‘Good plan, then I can try and explain exactly why I’m finding this situation so awkward.’
She pressed her hands against his chest, suddenly not wanting to move away from him. ‘What situation?’ she asked.
