‘Okay. Are you going to give me any clues?’ It was unlike Leo to be this serious.
‘No,’ he said and then light danced in his eyes and she felt a little easier. ‘It’s a surprise.’
‘Because I love surprises,’ she said dryly.
‘I’m really hoping you’ll like this one.’ His eyes held hers, and for a moment she wondered if he was planning something crazy, like getting married again. Fireworks raced through her veins. Or proposing? Although two o’clock sounded very specific. Was she getting ahead of herself? Excitement filled her, like a rush of butterflies swarming in her stomach, their wings beating furiously. She would happily marry Leo a thousand times over.
‘I’m sure I will,’ she said, laying a gentle kiss on his cheek. This time she knew she could trust him. While he was the same sunshine personality that had brought love and light into her life, he’d also changed. There was more depth to him. He was more thoughtful, more measured, not quite so impulsive. ‘In the meantime, I need coffee.’
‘Are you sure?’ he asked, sliding back into bed and pulling her towards him. All thoughts of a shower were quickly dispelled.
When she finally managed to extricate herself, albeit reluctantly, a good half-hour later, she snagged one of his shirts from the end of the bed and left him propped up on the pillows looking very pleased with himself, while she headed upstairs to make a fresh pot of coffee.
With two mugs of coffee in her hands and heading back to the bedroom, she was passing the front door when there was a soft knock. Putting the cups down and buttoning up Leo’s shirt, she opened the door and peered round the frame, expecting to see Jan coming to collect the chairs.
‘Hello, Anna.’
Anna’s eyes almost burst out of their sockets with exaggerated cartoon-character shock, and despite the very obvious response, it took a good ten seconds for her brain to locate the words. ‘Becs! What are you doing here?’
‘Surprise,’ said Rebecca, with an ironic half-smile. ‘Aren’t you going to invite me in?’
Anna stared at her cousin for a moment, taking in the long legs and sheepskin pilot’s jacket. ‘Er, yeah.’
‘It’s flipping freezing out there.’ Becs blew on her hands and stepped over the threshold … and of course, by the law that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, Leo, asking, ‘What’s happened to my coffee, Anna, love?’, came strolling out of the bedroom … naked.
There was a ridiculous frozen-comedy moment when Leo looked at Becs, Becs looked at him and then they both looked at Anna.
With considerable aplomb, Leo waved at Becs. ‘Hi, there. Long time no see. Just popping to the bathroom.’
With that he sauntered off, quite unperturbed that he was naked, although Anna couldn’t help thinking that with that bottom, he carried it off extremely well.
‘Well,’ said Becs, looking down at Anna’s bare legs.
Anna sighed. ‘Why don’t you take this?’ She handed her cousin her coffee. ‘Go upstairs. I’ll get dressed and see you in a minute.’
Becs raised an eyebrow. ‘Looks like you’ve got some ’splaining to do.’ Anna wasn’t sure if Becs using their childhood term for explaining was a good thing or a bad thing.
She hurried into the bathroom to find Leo stepping into the shower.
‘Coming to join me?’
‘Maybe not politic right now.’
‘What, now the cavalry has arrived?’ Despite the lopsided smile accompanying his words, Anna heard the slight disquiet in his voice.
‘It doesn’t change anything,’ she said, going up to him and pressing a gentle reassuring kiss on his mouth.
He didn’t respond and she wrapped her arms around him, heedless of the water spraying over her. In response he gave her a quick squeeze.
‘Best get this shirt off,’ he muttered. ‘Before it gets soaked.’
She stripped off and stepped in with him. Under the stream of water, she kissed his mouth, holding him tight. They stood together in silence and Anna could feel the stiffness and tension where his muscles bunched.
‘What are you worried about?’ she asked softly, running her hands over his shoulders.
‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Nothing at all.’ And he kissed her on the mouth, his hands sliding down to her bottom giving it a quick squeeze. ‘You’d better get a wiggle on. Your cousin’s come a long way to have her say.’
‘Well, she can say what she likes. It’s not going to change anything.’
