Nick Forrester straightened up and gave me a fleeting smile. ‘Then I can spare you two minutes.’
Two minutes wasn’t going to be enough to get through my plea, but at least he wasn’t throwing me out, which was better than I could have hoped for, given that I still sounded dangerously like a crazed stalker.
I followed him down a brightly lit corridor, passing several examination rooms before turning into what appeared to be an office cum staffroom at the end of the passageway.
There was an enticing aroma of freshly made coffee coming from an expensive-looking espresso machine in the corner. I would have gratefully accepted a cup if I’d been asked, but it seemed unlikely that he’d be offering me one. Instead, he turned to face me and leant back against a desk strewn with files, magazines and all manner of paperwork. His long legs were stretched out, covering half of the available space between us. My own were starting to feel a little less than steady, but he didn’t ask me to sit down. I was painfully aware that the countdown on my two-minute timer was already running. And yet the first thing that came out of my mouth wasn’t what I’d planned to say at all.
‘Your glasses,’ I said, pointing to the dark frames that he was still holding in one hand. He looked down at them, as though almost surprised to find them there, before slipping them back on his nose.
And that was when I realised why he’d looked so familiar and also why the idea of him being in law enforcement hadn’t felt that far off-beam.
‘They make you look like Superman – or rather, you look like Clark Kent when he’s pretendingnotto be Superman.’ My voice trailed away and I wondered if anyone had ever so spectacularly ruined their own plans the way my wayward tongue seemed determined to do.
But instead of politely showing me to the door, Nick surprised me by laughing. It was a rich and full sound, the kind of laugh that is almost infectious. ‘That’s not the first time I’ve been told that.’
The tension boiling inside me slowly dropped to a simmer.
‘You weren’t wearing them the other day on the beach. You look completely different without them,’ I said artlessly.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘They get in the way when you’re leaping tall buildings,’ he said with a flash of that wry smile again, ‘or when you’re out running with your dog.’
He had the kind of sense of humour I liked, the type that didn’t mind poking fun at himself. It was something Jeff never did. I stopped that train of thought before it even left the station. I had a feeling that comparing these two men would reveal more than I wanted to admit right now.
‘As fascinating as it would be to sit here and chat about eyewear all morning…’ Nick began.
I pulled myself together with a visible jerk.
‘Of course, yes, I’m sorry. I know you’re really busy.’
He nodded and I saw him glance surreptitiously down at his watch.
I drew in a deep breath, sad that my carefully prepared script would have to be abandoned. I opened my mouth, but before I could say a word, Nick cut in with a question of his own.
‘How is your sister doing? Did the photograph achieve whatever you hoped it would?’
Time was short now, but thankfully he’d unwittingly opened the door and allowed me to fast-forward to the purpose of my visit.
‘She’s doing a little better,’ I said, and then smiled at him. ‘And thank you for thinking to ask about her – or even for remembering about our previous encounter.’
‘It’s not the kind of thing you forget in a hurry,’ he said, which worryingly could be interpreted in several different ways. I chose to believe he meant it in a positive one.
‘The thing is, what you did for her the other day – posing for a photograph – well, I was wondering if you’d be able to do it again… not just for one actually, but maybe for half a dozen or so.’
I truly don’t know what I was expecting. Questions? Certainly. A request to think about it? Very possibly. Perhaps even a compliantSure, why not.But I got none of the above.
‘Absolutely not,’ he said in a totally pleasant voice.
His refusal threw me, because I’d really thought things had been going rather well up until that point.
‘I… I could pay you… you know, for your time,’ I ad-libbed, instantly making things so much worse.
‘No, thank you,’ Nick said, straightening up from the desk. He really was incredibly tall, or was I cowering a little in defeat? At such close quarters, I had to tilt my head right back to meet his eyes. ‘To be perfectly frank, it was weird enough the other day.’
I could feel my throat tightening up and my voice, when I spoke, sounded perilously close to cracking. ‘My sister has “lost” someone. Someone who looks just like you.’
‘You told me that, the other day,’ he reminded me, already striding towards the door.
‘The photograph I took last time… it really gave her a sense of comfort.’
