I pouted, and she rolled her eyes, lightly slapping my arm.
“I thought no touching?”
Her eyes flashed with awareness, and she smiled politely at the taxi driver, taking her suitcase from him with a thank you before walking up the gravel path.
No gentlemanly gestures meant I couldn’t even offer to take her bag, but I should have decorated in the same way we had for the wedding. I should have arranged champagne towers and flowers on every surface. She couldn’t argue with something I’d arranged in advance.
As soon as I opened the front door, we were bombarded by seven dogs of various sizes, hounding us for kisses and treats. Fia dropped to her knees, stroking each one as quickly as she could to make sure she got them all.
My focus was on Bodri, who had been struggling with his arthritis when I left last week. He was on painkillers and every vitamin his vet recommended, but he was still a little stiff.
He’d been my granddad’s dog. He was the start of my whole rescue obsession.
His little grey snout nuzzled my hand, and from the pocket part of my suitcase, I pulled out a treat for them all, starting with him.
They each dispersed once they received their dad’s guilty gift.
I hated leaving them. If it weren’t for Anna being so amazing, I wouldn’t be able to have them. I was going to book her a spa day.
No.Fia said I often shoved things on people.
I was trying to do nice things.
But I may not have thought themthrough.
I was going to give her a spavoucher.
“Shall I take your bag up to your room?”
No gentlemanly gestures —unless I asked for permission?Her suitcase was huge, and I was not about to see her struggle taking it up the stairs.
And it meant she would see the goodies I got her on her bed. Well, my bed.
She narrowed her eyes at me, because yes, I was immediately trying to break a rule.
“If you insist,” she said and relinquished her wardrobe to me.
“I do,” I said and lifted it by the side handle.Fuck, was she carrying bowling balls in here?I rolled my shoulders, trying to act like I hadn’t been taken aback by the weight of it. Her ex’s Instagram posts sprang to mind, and now I wanted to do twenty bicep curls with the case. “You coming up?”
Come and see all your gifts.
She shook her head. “I should probably get it over with and call my sister back.”
I nodded and ran up with her suitcase, excited to see exactly how my housekeeper had decorated my room.
And I stopped short.
Oh fuck.Anna was good. She was too good.
Because there were rose petals everywhere.
And that had not been the plan. I wanted Fia to feel safe, not seduced.
I placed her suitcase in the wardrobe space I’d made for her — wishful, forward thinking — and scrambled on the floor to try and get every petal, before then trying to brush them off the bed into my hands. But they were finicky and small and soft and smooth and slipped easily from my big, meatyhands.
And I had nowhere to put them.
I lunged into the ensuite, opening the bathroom bin to put as many as I’d managed to carry, only to look down and see the bath drawn withmore petals.
