Theo sighed. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can be here, Nic. Honestly, it’s stressful and I’m not a hundred per cent well.’
Nic diverted back to his bedroom, picked up a bag and started putting clothes in it. ‘Look, I’ve been a selfish prick, swanning around here when you are struggling with your mobility, a new flat and getting back to work. I should have been there. You aren’t thinking of walking out on me, are you?’ He hardly dared voice the question.
‘Pff, an inappropriate response to a man with one leg,’ his brother huffed.
Nic sat on the bed, feeling winded. ‘Oh God, Theo, I’m so—’
‘I was joking. Don’t go getting all PC on me like everyone else. But I am not kidding around about the situation here and not feeling well enough to cope with the chaos,’ he said. ‘I’ve been trying to pencil time in to talk to you, Nic, and yes, I have been thinking about resigning. More than thinking, really, seriously considering…’
‘I’ll be on the next train,’ Nic told him, adding shoes and a belt to the clothes he’d packed. ‘Look, I know I’ve been absent. But this fake relationship with Aria has gotten us further than any real relationship I’ve developed this year. I’ve been getting things on track, and I am more focused than ever. In fact, now I’ve got what we needed, all that matters to me going forward is our business. Please don’t make any snap decisions,’ Nic begged as his brother rang off.
39
The lake was vicious this morning. Wind blew waves into Aria’s face, the water buffeting her hangover. She’d pushed all thoughts about toxicity to the back of her mind – she was obsessing about Nic’s conversation. She hadn’t meant to listen but stopped at the door when she’d heard her name, only to hear him declare their fake partnership had got him further than any real relationship could. His words had cut deep, and she recalled them in technicolour.Now I’ve got what we needed, all that matters to me going forward is our business.So, while she’d been touching herself thinking of him and delighting in their shared interests, it was all just work for him. He’d be fucking off back to his real life now all the play-acting was over, leaving her living downwind of an unsold home. After wading out of the water, she sat on the beach to warm up in the morning sunshine. The stones were uncomfortable and reminded her she had to go to work later to clean up more of those stupid pebbles. Her overriding desire was to sleep – to sink into the old familiar sofa bed and dream of better days – but her key was at Nic’s.
Aria walked to the hut and pulled on the door in case she’d left it unlocked. No luck. Could she break in? Sheremembered standing on a chair and climbing in through the back window a couple of times during her late teenage years, after having one too many drinks in the local pub. Could she do that now? Walking around the side of the hut, she saw the mechanism remained unfixed. She found a rickety stool she’d been using for gardening and placed it against the wall. Then she tied the dressing gown even tighter and pulled it down, wishing she’d paused to grab her dry robe instead. How could such a tall man wear such a tiny garment, she wondered, before realising it probably wasn’t his, but for guests like her.Female guests, said a small voice in her head. She would never be Nic’s girlfriend – she was a commercial transaction, enabling him to add land, houses and wealth to his global portfolio. And she’d sold out her principles to get him what he wanted, making her as disposable as last night’s wine bottles. But why had she ever assumed she could be more? In her twenty-five years on the planet, she’d achieved nothing of note. Professionally and personally, she had no USP. She was good at swimming, but others won bigger tournaments and she’d never been presented with a shiny cup when it mattered. Once, when she’d lost the team a relay race by being a few seconds too slow, Justin had called her Average Aria. And he was right. She performed adequately in unskilled jobs. And in truth, she brought very little to the table in a relationship. She couldn’t even cook some of the most expensive beef in town without a drama. On her tiptoes now, she pushed her head through the window, keen to get into the hut and crawl onto the sofa. Hauling more of herself through the small space, she accidentally kicked the stool away. Nowshe had no choice but to proceed as her escape route was blocked. But thankfully her shoulders were through, and she grabbed the wall to balance herself as her boobs followed. Except they didn’t clear the sill. She tried pulling, pushing, squashing, sliding and coaxing them one at a time. But there was no way they were posting themselves through that particular letterbox. How much had they grown in the years since she last tried to wiggle in? Reaching for the hinge at the side of the window, she pushed it open as far as it would go, pleased when she heard a click, until she realised the mechanism was so rusty she’d never be able to close it again. She inched herself further in only to find she couldn’t go forward anymore. Grunting, she decided to back out, stool or not. She’d crash to earth like a stone, dust herself down and then go back to Nic’s for the key. But no matter what position she tried to shift herself and her liability of a chest into, she remained trapped, half in and half out of the window. Her top-heavy body had foiled her again. Her hangover and her mood just got a lot worse.
40
Nic bundled some clothes into a bag, picked up his wallet and car keys and went looking for Aria. He tried to remember if she was working today. Maybe he could drop her off on his way out of town if she was quick to grab her coat and lunch. Walking towards the shore, he saw her dog pushing his way through the bushes with a yellow toy in his mouth.
‘Hey, Tiger, where’s your mum?’ The pug dropped the toy at his feet. Nic called Aria’s name and when there was no reply he walked to the hut and knocked on the door. No sign. Maybe he’d send a text, leaving her in charge of the house for a few days. She could now use the control panel comfortably, access wifi and all the passcodes, and seemed to have a handle on most of the appliances. He’d taken two steps back up the beach when he heard a commotion from the side of the hut and was completely unprepared for the sight that greeted him. A juicy peach of an ass, handed to him on a plate – the bottom he’d fantasised about in bed yesterday afternoon. Revenge for his apron trick? He laughed with glee. Sticking out of the window from the waist down, wearing only his spare dressing gown, she was wiggling her bum likea mating dance. Actually, comparing her bare bottom to a peach didn’t do it justice. It was soft as a ripe apricot – full, sweet, fleshy, beckoning him to take it in two hands and bite. She thrust a palm out and grabbed at the material, but didn’t seem to know he was there as she was muttering about whether boobs could be subject to water or wine retention because hers had clearly blown up like balloons. Nope, he thought, they’ve always been as fun and bouncy as an inflatable, but he had no idea her butt would be quite so tasty.
He considered his next move, all thoughts of his brother and business in jeopardy taking a back seat to the heat of his groin and the desire to have this glorious creature. When he cleared his throat, she instantly stilled – as still as a woman could be while dangling from a window.
Her voice was quiet and subdued. ‘Is that Nic? I’m both glad you are here and blushing horribly at being stuck like this. But mostly I’m landing on the side of relief.’
He answered, unable to take his eyes off two very different cheeks, ‘Er, right. Well. I have to go to London. Theo is having a meltdown, and I need to persuade him out of resigning. Can I help you in any way?’
Her voice became exasperated. ‘Oh, not at all. Being jammed into a window like a cork shoved back into a wine bottle is the perfect cure for a hangover. Why don’t you just pootle off to the big city and I will hang out here, quite literally stuck between inside and outside. And later I can iron my boobs to take the creases out.’ Bloody hell, that was a kink he shouldn’t be thinking about at any time, but especially not when he was so close to her naked flesh. The last twenty-four hours hadbeen like a jigsaw of body parts – and now he had enough information to create a whole picture in his mind. That would keep him going on his journey to London. But first he had to help her out. ‘I don’t want to rush you, but the blood has gone to my head here. Why are you still standing around?’ she shouted.
Jumping into action, he informed her he’d heave her out, although he had no guarantee her inflated top half would successfully slide back through a gap made to accommodate a light breeze. Placing a hand around each hip, careful to grab at towelling and not skin, he put his back into it while she grunted. A few seconds later she was free. As she tugged the dressing gown over thighs he was struggling to look away from, she seemed unaware she’d already shown him the best of the real estate.
‘Thanks. This time Rapunzel did ask to be rescued, so I won’t bollock you for it,’ she said.
‘Excellent news,’ he replied, knowing bollocks weren’t the image that would stick in his mind. ‘You have the code to get back into my house. Oh, and Sophie’s coming to clean so you might want to—’
Pressing her lips together, she informed him she would be getting dressed immediately.
‘I suggest you give one of us a spare key to the hut in future. See you in a day or two. Don’t miss me too much,’ he joked. But as he walked up the path, he realised he’d be the one to miss her. Still, they’d have all the time in the world to really get to know each other when he returned.
41
Aria trudged up the path to Nic’s house. There was no point in sugar-coating it – the phone call she’d overheard told her the last few weeks had all been smoke and mirrors. Playing house with him had set her back on her quest to find a suitable place to live and a proper job. She picked up the key to the hut and dressed quickly. Then she plodded back towards the lake to assess the cabin she had abandoned a few weeks ago. As she emptied buckets of water onto the beach from the leaks, and wrinkled her nose at how damp the cabin had become since she vacated it, she felt a twinge of guilt that she’d left it in such disarray. Her limited funds meant she couldn’t afford to get someone in, but there was work she could be doing herself. While she hadn’t asked for or wanted it, the shack was one of the few ways she was still connected to Eddie, and she wasn’t ready to let it go.
Resolving to buy some putty and paint and have a go at patching up the windows and door, she wandered onto the veranda and cast an eye over the garden. She’d concentrate on it for a couple of hours to get over her hangover before going to work. Shoving on some wellies, she grabbed anassortment of sticks and string and started to carve the sloping land into sections. As she toiled, she congratulated herself for finding her way back to Cumbria. Of course, she still resented her stepmother for snatching the house, but how good it was to grieve and recover from her father’s death in a place that was so close to his heart. Weeding a new section, she decided to plant wildflower seeds and make it that haven for bees and butterflies that she’d planned when she first arrived. After an hour or so, she grabbed a cold drink and sat down beside the lake. A fish jumped as a dragonfly darted around, reminding her to go online later and see if there were any more developments about the state of the water. She loved this hut, she realised, despite its flaws and decay. It was filled with memories of the small things her dad used to do –boiling them an egg on the stove, for example, or asking her to join him on the veranda to watch the sunset. And she recalled her mother sewing curtains and making picnics. Each memory caused a small shock to her system as it came and went. Feeling as unmoored as the cloud that was being pushed around the sky above her, she longed to have Dad back. She allowed herself to shed a tear for the girl without a father as Tiger sat down at her feet, tongue hanging out. As she accepted the no-strings canine comfort, she thought back to the play-acting and how she’d started to believe it was real. After the sudden split with Justin, Aria had put all thoughts of a partner to one side. She wasn’t destined to be a loved one, a cherished part of someone’s family. She didn’t believe she was meant to be a homemaker or deserved to be married and mortgaged and all the things that came with successful adulting. When Nic had rolled into town with a twinkle in his eye and glitter in the zip of his pants, she’d suspended that belief and enjoyed being the lady of the manor, the princess in his castle, the woman who made a business deal. But, of course, he was a real businessman. It had all gone his way from the start, and he’d turned out to be exactly what she’d thought he was. In failing to follow her intuition, she had made herself feel even more expendable while helping him to rise further. And she couldn’t even blame him. She was the one who’d announced an engagement when he’d only proposed moving in. They’d delighted in using the phrase ‘fake’ on many occasions and tricking Donna. While he may have invited her to fall for him, she’d taken the leap.
Aria stood up and dusted herself down. ‘Enough.’ She wasn’t going to dwell on it. The fakery had brought her a few laughs and some good food. She’d been able to save a little money, and Nic had helped her renegotiate her fee for the gardening job. Now it was time to focus on herself and her own happiness. She’d work hard today and tomorrow and finish the job while pressing the agent for more viewings. In the coming days she would apply for vacant positions and set herself up with a place that was more than a box of rotten wood with sentimental value. The hut was a nod to her past and not a life goal. Aria needed to move on, from Nic and Justin and from this version of herself.
42
As he drove down the motorway, Nic thought about the events of the last twenty-four hours and started to laugh out loud, remembering in vivid detail the mistake with the wine and Donna’s leery face at the window. Images of Aria kept popping into his head – slobbing around in her shorts and flipflops, spilling coffee all over the counter as she made him a drink, pushing hair out of her eyes as she baked with icing-sugar fingers. She had turned an empty show home for the rich into a genuinely rich and rewarding place to live. And in the last hour? That backside offering itself up to him like the forbidden fruit in the goddam Garden of Eden? Chuckling again, he had a genius idea. He’d use his cleaner to deliver a gift that would make her laugh.
‘Hey Siri. Send a message to Sophie Rushton.’ After he’d communicated his plan and told Sophie he’d reimburse her plus add a tip, he turned his mind to Theo and the office, and his features re-shaped into a frown.
43
Next day, Aria was having a lie-in when she was startled by a knock on the door. She stumbled from the sofa bed to open it, after checking she was adequately covered.
