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‘Forget it; it’s all in the past.’
This time Ryan’s smile was wry. ‘You always were quick to forgive people their sins.’
She’d had to be. How else would she have survived being the one King who showed no aptitude for the family company KPC? She’d had to understand her father and how his emotional connection to the business translated to those who didn’t share that, in order to forgive him enough to have any kind of relationship with him at all.
‘If it makes you feel better, I didn’t forgive you overnight,’ she told Ryan, her voice gentle.
‘It does. And who knows, maybe you’re starting to see how much I’ve changed.’
‘You don’t have to show me. You have to show Daisy.’
‘I will. But maybe I want to show you too.’
‘Ryan –’
‘What?’ His eyes searched hers. ‘That ship has sailed?’
‘I don’t want there to be any confusion.’ Getting mixed up with Ryan would massively complicate the relationship she wanted him to have with Daisy.
‘Is there someone in your life at the moment?’
She closed her eyes and saw Luke and felt the shock of that right down to her toes.
That was so completely messed up she didn’t even know what to do with it.
When she opened her eyes it was to see Ryan staring at her with a tenacity that she remembered.
Without thinking it through, other than to realise that Ryan believing she was already involved with someone would help make things less messy, she answered, ‘Yes.’
‘Is he good with Daisy?’ he asked.
Sephy grasped her glass of coffee and let the residual warmth steady her. ‘You haven’t yet earned the right to ask that question.’
‘That’s fair. Is he good for you?’
‘He’s – yes.’
‘You don’t sound too sure.’
‘I am sure.’ The last thing she needed was for Ryan to see her as a project to take on, to help keep his addiction at bay, or otherwise.
‘Is it Luke Jackson?’
Sephy’s latte glass clattered back down to the table. ‘I –’ She tried again, ‘what makes you think that?’
‘He came into the gym soon after it opened. Got the feeling he wasn’t checking out the premises so much as checking on the manager.’
She would kill Luke. ‘Did he say something to you?’
‘We exchanged a few pleasantries.’
‘A few…What the hell does that mean?’
‘It means he was being a good friend to you and Daisy.’
Sephy didn’t know what to say.
Ryan folded his arms and leaned forward. ‘Don’t tell me you’re still not used to people paying attention and looking out for you?’
‘Something like that,’ she cleared her throat. ‘It must be a novelty for you too.’
He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment and Sephy wondered if he was thinking about his parents and how ill equipped they were to deal with his gambling addiction – to deal with their sons in any way. Ryan was lucky he had his brother, Ethan, on his side.
‘I guess we’ll both have to try and get used to it,’ Ryan murmured.
‘I guess we will,’ Sephy answered.
‘So is it Luke?’
Maybe she should have listened to Nora all those months ago when her sister had told her to, for once, take having Ryan back living near her and Daisy to its worst-case scenario and properly decide if that was something she could handle before she said yes to Ethan helping him relocate.
Because what she couldn’t handle was Ryan deciding he wanted back into her life in any other capacity than being Daisy’s dad. He’d left her when she was at her most vulnerable, and even though she had truly forgiven him, she wasn’t about to forget all the small-town whisperings she had endured, or how he had made her feel like she sucked at relationships and wasn’t a safe bet as a partner in life.
Ryan was going to get swept up in learning to be a dad, and if he was going to be around her while he did that, she didn’t want him confusing matters and blurring the lines in his head.
It was better if he thought she and Luke were together, so she looked him straight in the eye and told her own little white lie. ‘It is Luke, yes.’
Sephy sat surrounded by signature antique gold-coloured tissue paper, rolls of sticky labels with the Seraphic emblem on, and different-sized samples from her lingerie collection. As she wrapped each sample in the beautiful paper, ready to place in goodie-bags for the buyers at her launch party, she was already starting to feel guilty about lying to Ryan.
It was for the good of their future relationship as Daisy’s parents, she told herself as her phone rang. Now all she had to do was tell Luke she was agreeing to his conditions and they could get the photo shoot under way and that would be one more thing checked off her endless list.
Ignoring the lick of fire igniting in her belly at the thought of telling Luke, she lifted up a pile of tissue paper and found her phone. Glancing at the screen to see who the caller was, she answered with a, ‘Hi, Sis,’ and tucking the phone between ear and shoulder, laid out another sheet of tissue paper and pulled matching camisole and French knickers in champagne-coloured silk off the pile.
‘I’m pulling rank,’ Nora said, without preamble. ‘You are coming into London this week and I’m taking you out for lunch and then we’re going shopping for shoes for the launch and that is all there is to it.’
‘I don’t have time,’ Sephy said automatically. Not being as obsessed with shoes as her sister was, she was pretty sure she could find a pair in her wardrobe that matched the LBD she had elected to wear.
‘Make the time. You know there won’t be any immediately following the launch.’
‘There might be,’ Sephy swallowed as her voice got small, ‘if no one places an order.’
‘That’s the way, keep talking positively like that and the sky’s the limit.’
‘Okay. Okay. I’ll try and free up some time.’
‘Great. So did you do it?’
‘What?’ Sephy had reached out to grab a goodie-bag, but stopped at the question.
‘Did you ask Luke The Question?’
‘I did.’ She snatched up a bag and shook it open.
‘And…?’
‘He has a couple of conditions.’
‘Oh my God, he’s actually going to do it?’
‘If I agree to his terms.’
‘Huh?’
Sephy stopped assembling samples and said into her phone, ‘He wants me to model with him.’
‘Delicious.’
‘Nora,’ Sephy warned.
‘I can’t help it.’
‘Yes, because you’ve never got yourself into a fix at all have you?’ Sephy muttered, thinking about the time Nora had super-glued her shoe to her hand in front of Ethan.
‘But mine worked out so well for me in the end. Maybe yours will as well.’
‘You didn’t have a daughter or your daughter’s dad come back onto the scene.’
‘What?’ Nora gasped. ‘You’re seeing Ryan?’
‘No. Of course not.’
‘Good. Because there’s complicating your life and then there’s complicating your life.’
Sephy agreed. That was why she had lied and told Ryan she was seeing Luke.
‘I’ll get in touch with Frazer today and set up the shoot,’ Nora said.
‘I haven’t exactly said yes, yet.’
‘Why not?’
‘Probably because of the other condition.’
‘Intriguing. Ooh,’ Nora said sounding excited, ‘does he want to do a private set of photos?’
‘Oh, would you please stop. There’s nothing tawdry going on here.’
Nora laughed. ‘Did you just use the word tawdry?’
‘Okay, I really need you to focus.’
‘But did you, though?’
‘You know, I think I’m too busy to come to London after all.’
‘Okay, okay, I’m sorry. So what’s his other condition?’
Sephy dragged in a breath. ‘He wants me to pretend to be his fiancée for a few weeks.’
There was a long pause and then, ‘Sephy that’s not even remotely a good idea.’
‘I know,’ Sephy said, immediately heading her sister off at the pass.
‘I mean, you just got through telling me you understood about not complicating your life.’
‘I know.’
‘It’s only that these things have a way of getting out of control.’
‘I know,’ Sephy repeated for the umpteenth time. What if she had to touch him in front of his parents? Kiss him, even? What if she forgot how playing with fire got your fingers burned?
‘Why does he want you to pose as his fiancée anyway?’
Sephy peeled off a Seraphic label and sealed the ends of the tissue-paper parcel of lingerie together.
‘Seph?’
‘Something to do with his parents visiting.’
‘What? He’s told his parents he’s engaged, when he isn’t?’
‘Apparently, yes.’
More silence, followed by, ‘You can’t worry about losing his friendship if you say no, and, Sephy, you should say no to this.’
‘If I say no, he won’t hold it against me. You know he’s not like that,’ she responded. She popped the lingerie into a bag and reached for another sheet of tissue paper. ‘He’s helped me out so many times.’
‘Don’t make it sound tit for tat. Friends don’t keep score.’
‘If I say no I don’t get my photo shoot.’
Sephy ran her gaze over her little production line of goodie bags. The boutique factory she had signed an agreement with had done an outstanding job of the samples. She didn’t want to even think about the debt she would incur if she didn’t get to place that first large order.
‘Is this about saving money?’ Nora surmised. ‘Damn it, you know I’ll cover it.’
Sephy winced. ‘It really isn’t only about the money.’
‘Then you lied to me when you told me you were over what Dad wrote to you in his last letter,’ Nora accused.
