‘Just the dust,’ she lied. ‘I need a drink.’
And that wasn’t all she needed. A cold dip in the lake might be called for.
ChapterTwenty
Leo lounged on the picnic blanket, near the firepit that Jan had lit using kindling from fallen branches and the logs stacked outside thechata.He listened to the two women chatting about ideas and improvements to the building as Jan went down to the water’s edge to pluck several more bottles of beer from the crate he’d lodged in the reservoir to keep it cold. This was definitely Leo’s idea of a good weekend, being outdoors in the fresh air, albeit with a good thick jumper on, with nothing to do but kick back and enjoy the fresh air and the company.
‘Here you go,’ said Jan, deliberately dripping cold water on Leo’s face. Anna and Michaela, who had swapped to white wine, both laughed as Leo shot up in shock and yelled his surprise. Jan simply grinned, flipped the crown caps of the bottles and handed him one. ‘Na zdraví,’ he said, tapping his bottle against Leo’s.
‘Want to help me with the grill? We haveklobásaand chicken and some vegetables to cook.’
‘Sure,’ said Leo. ‘If you tell me whatklobásais… It’s not sheep’s intestines or anything?’ He pulled a childish face.
‘You’re thinking of haggis,’ said Anna, rolling her eyes toward Michaela.
‘It’s a pork sausage made with paprika, herbs and garlic.’
‘Ah, count me in, then,’ said Leo.
‘Can I do anything to help?’ asked Anna.
‘Yes, come slice up the vegetables while Jan gets the barbecue lit.’ She lowered her voice but still spoke loudly enough for both men to hear. ‘We have to let them play with the fire.’
Jan lunged towards Michaela in retaliation, making her giggle, and the two of them wrestled until it ended in a kiss. Leo felt a sharp pang, decided it was uncharitable envy and deliberately avoided looking at Anna. Did she remember them being playful together like this? It felt like such a loss. Pain twisted in his heart, sharp and fast like a dagger thrust.
‘Get a room, you guys,’ he said.
‘Cooking time,’ said Michaela and dragged Anna off to the kitchen, while Jan took him to the shed, where they unearthed an ancient grill and a sack of charcoal.
They ate the marinated chicken thighs and spicykoblása, with slices of grilled courgette, red peppers, onions and plump juicy tomatoes, and hunks of fresh bread that were invaluable for soaking up the juices, as they sat around the dancing flames of the firepit with a bottle of south Moravian wine, which Leo had to admit was pretty damn good.
By the time the light was long gone, warm lethargy had invaded his limbs, and when Michaela suggested they all turn in, the thought of bed was more than inviting.
He’d already spotted Anna’s stricken expression earlier in the day when they’d inspected where they were sleeping and he knew she was worrying about the logistics. It was such an Anna thing to worry about.
‘Why don’t you go in first,’ he suggested. ‘Get ready.’
‘Thanks,’ she said with a grateful smile, the little worry lines around her mouth receding immediately.
When he came into the room, a solitary candle stood on top of the wood burner and Anna was tucked into her bed, motionless as a corpse on the opposite side of the room. Although it was tempting to wish her a cheery goodnight while she played dead, he thought better of it, blew out the candle and undressed quickly, leaving his boxers on. It didn’t take him long to settle his body into a comfortable position but his brain lit up like fireflies in the dark with thoughts of Anna. The memory of when he’d first got to know her decided to repeat on loop and he snorted quietly to himself, remembering how, while working behind the bar, he’d had to coax her out of her shell like a suspicious tortoise. From day one, her no-nonsense, don’t-take-any-crap demeanour had fascinated and intrigued him. So different from other women he’d met. Despite, in his opinion, being a stunner, Anna was not only uninterested in her looks but dismissed any comments about them. Compliments were treated with scepticism, flattering remarks with a flat refusal to listen, let alone accept them.
His eyes grew accustomed to the gloom and through the window he could see the shapes of the trees against the sky, which was alive with tiny pinpricks of light. Gradually his eyes began to droop and he felt himself sliding into sleep.
He surfaced from the dream trying to hang onto the wisps of its cosy warmth – sunshine, a beach, kissing, kissing Anna. Yeah, kissing Anna, holding her soft body – which had poofed away leaving disappointment and the remnants of a hard-on that was unlikely to get release any time soon. As he lay there he heard a soft sigh and the whisper of bedclothes and realised that Anna was awake. She turned again and this time uttered a huff of annoyance. Closing his eyes, he tried to go back to sleep, but his whole body, still humming from the kiss in his dreams, was acutely aware of Anna on the other side of the room. There it was again. Another sigh, this time accompanied by a louder huff and then a protracted rearrangement of her feather duvet, which rustled like soft plastic.
It was impossible to ignore, and tension tightened his muscles, making it even harder to ignore her presence on the other side of the room.
‘Anna,’ he eventually said into the dark. ‘What’s wrong?’
The lengthy silence irritated him even more and he knew that it was his own frustration that made him terse.
She huffed out another sigh. ‘My mattress is deflating.’
‘What?’
‘It’s going down. I think I’ve got a slow puncture. Do you think Jan has a repair kit?’
Leo burst out laughing. Only Anna would consider repairing a bed in the middle of the night.
