‘Who still wants very much to be your present,’ Tabby mocked.
‘I think she just can’t stand the idea of me moving on.’
But he hadn’t moved on, had he? Not when he wouldn’t even talk about his former fiancée. His father had told her more. He had shared Imogen’s family relationship to the ailing fisherman, whom he and Aristide had gone to visit, and the telling fact that the gorgeous blonde had grown up on the island with Aristide. So, childhood sweethearts, Tabby could only assume. Was she right in assuming that Imogen was the woman in his past who had fallen pregnant and miscarried? Tabby was past wanting to know, past trying to talk about whathewouldn’t talk about.
She reached the bedroom, kicked off her sand-stained canvas shoes and flopped down on the bed, rejoicing in the chill of the bed linen and the cool air.
Aristide strode in, curly black hair tousled as though he had been running his fingers through it, dark eyes fired up with angry defensiveness. ‘Eight years ago, after I’d broken off the engagement, Imogen and I signed mutual non-disclosure agreements not to talk about each other. I stuck to the letter of the law with you. I suspect that was a mistake,’ he breathed in a raw undertone, knowing that until that moment he had actually neverwantedto tell anyone about Imogen. What was it about Tabby’s angry, defeated aspect that tore at him to such an extent?
‘When you actuallyknowit was a mistake, let me know,’ Tabby muttered tiredly as the phone in her pocket began an incessant ringtone. It was Violet’s signature tune and, with a sudden flashing smile, she reached for her phone to answer it.’ It’s my sister. Can we continue this later?’ she pleaded.
Aristide went into grudging retreat, more because she looked tired and drawn than because he wanted to back away. He wasn’t doing such a great job of looking after her, he conceded grimly. Twice, she had been exposed to Imogen and had undoubtedly been abused or undermined in some way.
‘So,’ Violet began, all bubbly and upbeat and oh-so welcome in Tabby’s ear, ‘you’re in Greece and not far away. We’re holding a big flashy summer ball the day after tomorrow. Tore has offered to send a helicopter to pick you up—’
‘But I’ve got nothing to wear!’ Tabby gasped, her heart soaring at the welcome dream of being reunited with her sister, particularly when she was feeling so low and kind of hopeless about Aristide and his situation in which Imogen loomed large.
‘I’ll get you a dress. Can you be picked up tomorrow? Then we can have a girls’ night before the ball.’
‘So I’d be away just two nights?’ Tabby chimed, suddenly awash with excitement. ‘Yes, I think I could sell that to Aristide… It’s not like there’s anything much fun happening here. What time?’
The first Aristide knew about the summer ball in Italy was the sight of Tabby racing downstairs very much like an overexcited child, burbling about helicopters and dresses and seeing her sister and niece again. He was shell-shocked by the sudden rage that gripped him and burned like flames on his flesh. Tore freaking Renzetti, barging in with his offer of helicopters and fancy dresses on Aristide’s territory.
‘I’d only be away two nights,’ Tabby bargained. ‘You wouldn’t miss me because you’d be working anyway.’
Boring old Aristide, slogging away at his laptop, whilehiswoman danced the night away in some Renzetti-bought dress with Italian men!
‘I will provide the transport and the dress,’ Aristide finally cut in, burying the anger before it could betray him. ‘And I’ll be your partner for the ball.’
Her wide blue eyes widened even more. ‘Oh…’
‘I wasn’t actually invited, was I?’ Aristide guessed between clenched teeth.
‘No. It wasn’t a deliberate omission,’ Tabby insisted. ‘Violet didn’t think. She would never be rude or unkind. Maybe I gave her the wrong impression of you and she thinks you don’t go out and don’t want to be put to the trouble of entertaining me here. I just feel like a break…’
Forty-eight hours and she needed a break from his private island and his company. Aristide felt as though she had punched him in the chest until he thought about all that had happened since their arrival. He had been a lousy host and a failure as a fiancé, but he fully intended to change that and level the score.
‘Away…’ Tabby waved an uneasy hand to indicate her need for an escape. ‘Away from Imogen and the drama and the bad feeling and the arguments.’
‘I’ll organise it and arrange for some dresses to be flown over tomorrow for you to try. I’ve also got some jewellery you could borrow. You’ll be the best-dressed woman at the ball,’ Aristide declared with confidence. ‘But before we go anywhere tomorrow, you ought to have your ultrasound and hopefully we’ll find out the gender of our babies—’
Tabby’s head was whirling. It had never occurred to her that Aristide would step up to make her dreams come true and wave a metaphorical wand like a sorcerer. She had even thought that that sort of glitzy occasion might not be to Aristide’s taste and that he might be thankful to see her leave for a few days.
‘It’s too soon for the ultrasound again,’ she told him. ‘You’re too impatient. We’ll know eventually. It doesn’t have to be rightnow.’
‘We’ll do it when we return, then,’ Aristide conceded, although he could have admitted that he had already calculated every relevant date of her pregnancy, but it didn’t seem to be the moment to confess that he couldn’t wait to see how their twins were developing. ‘Phone your sister back and tell her thatIwill bring you to their ball.’
‘All right,’ she agreed, unable to see how she could possibly dissuade him in their particular circumstances. ‘I suppose it might look odd to your family if you let me go alone to something like that…and anyway, you ought to meet Tore, Violet and Belle as they’re my family.’
‘Do they know about our engagement?’ Aristide enquired.
‘Yes, but they know it’s fake.’
‘It’s as fake as we want it to be,’ Aristide contradicted, making her frown as she tried to work that answer out and came up unsatisfied, wishing that he didn’t talk in riddles.
‘I thought it was totally for show,’ Tabby muttered uncertainly.
‘I don’t make that kind of commitment for show,’ Aristide asserted. ‘I brought you here to work out whether or not we could be a real couple.’
