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‘It’s not an issue for me!’ Kate felt like a swimmer, desperately trying to fight against a current. Why had he ordered breakfast for her? She was fine with fruit and a croissant! Fine with removing herself from his suffocating presence on the pretext of taking her time to choose items from the buffet table.
‘There’s no need to explain why you’d rather not discuss this. I was only making conversation, Kate. No need to panic.’
‘I am not panicking,’ she gritted tightly, and he threw her a kindly smile which implied that he didn’t believe a word she was saying.
‘And why,’ she pressed on, snatching at the coffee and taking a restorative mouthful, ‘do you insist on asking me loads of personal questions? Which have nothing to do with my job?’
‘Like I said, I was only making conversation. If I’d known that you were still sensitive on the topic of your ex-boyfriend then I would never have gone there. Trust me.’
Kate resisted the urge to burst into manic laughter. Trust him? She would rather trust a river seething with hungry piranha.
‘And as to asking you “loads of personal questions”...I like knowing a bit about the people who work for me—especially those higher up the pecking order, in positions of responsibility. Which, I’m sure, is where you will be very soon, given your talents... It helps if I know whether they’re married, involved in a serious relationship, have children... That way I can tailor the needs of the job to accommodate their needs as much as is possible...’
He had never given it any such thought before, but now that he had it sort of made sense. Not that he would be playing by those rules. Ever. Still, never let it be said that he wasn’t a man who didn’t see things from every angle.
Kate allowed her ruffled feathers to be soothed. She had overreacted. Breaking up with her ex was not exactly state-secret fodder. Who cared? Did Alessandro Preda really give a damn whether she had called off a relationship years ago with a man who no longer featured in her life? Wasn’t he telling the truth when he said that he was just making conversation? Polite conversation? The sort of polite conversation that was made every second of every day between people who didn’t know one another all that well?
‘It didn’t work out,’ she told him. ‘Simple as that. And before you tell me that I’m a hypocrite, because I make such a big deal about the importance of taking relationship building seriously...’
‘Relationship building? What’s that?’
Something my mother never did, was the reply that immediately sprang to mind, but she bit it back because that would be perfect proof of just how much she had been influenced by her mother’s behaviour.
In truth, looking back on her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, she could see that it had been built on hope—hope that he might be the one because they got along and because he ticked all the boxes. Like her, he had been studying accountancy. He had been reliable, feet firmly planted on the ground, a solid, dependable sort. He had been just the type of guy who made sense.
‘It’s when two people take the time to really establish the building blocks of a future together.’
‘It sounds riveting. How do they do that?’
Kate lowered her eyes and remained silent.
‘Please don’t tell me you’re going to slip back into I couldn’t possibly say because I’m just your employee mode...’
‘I am just your employee.’
‘I’m giving you permission to speak your mind. Believe it or not...’ he sat back as enough breakfast to feed a small developing country was placed in front of them ‘...I do have conversations with some of my employees that don’t revolve exclusively around work...’
‘I doubt you’d understand the sort of building blocks I’m talking about,’ Kate told him politely. She stared at the mound of food facing her and wondered where to begin. She speared some egg and then eyed the tempting waffles at the side. ‘Considering you’re not into building relationships.’
‘Fill me in. I want to see what I’ve been missing.’
Kate looked at him with exasperation. The man was utterly impossible, even though the smile on his face was so charming that it would knock any woman for six. She hurriedly focused on her food as her heart picked up speed and started relaying all those taboo messages from her brain to her body.
‘I know you don’t mean a word of that,’ she retorted, glaring. ‘But if you’re really interested then I’ll tell you. Relationship building is taking time to get to know someone else—to find out all you can about them, to open up so that they can find out all about you, and to plan a future together based on love and friendship and respect.’
‘You’re not selling it.’
‘I’m not interested in whether I’m selling it or not,’ Kate snapped. ‘And I wouldn’t expect to sell it to you, anyway!’
‘So, having spent time on this relationship building exercise, at what point did you discover that the fun element was missing...?’
‘He was lots of fun.’
He hadn’t been. He had been nice and he had been steady, and he had been all those things she had thought she wanted, but when it had come to the crunch he had also been ultra-traditional. So traditional that he had wanted her to be the little lady whose career was secondary to his, who did as he asked, who dropped everything because he came first...
She felt a wave of self-pity as she realized that she would probably never find anyone. She would end up with a terrific career but next to no friends—and certainly no significant other doing the barbecue thing in the back garden.
And she would never know what it was like to have fun because she had always been adamant that having fun wasn’t important—so adamant that the only important thing in life was being in control and never letting herself get swept away by emotion as her mother had.
But right now, in the depths of Cornwall, and despite her chequered past with men and jobs, Shirley ‘Lilac’ Watson was pretty contented.
Kate abruptly closed her knife and fork and fought against the sudden confusion rolling over her like fog.
‘It just didn’t work,’ she said flatly. ‘The time wasn’t right. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t put my heart and soul into it. And that’s all I have to say on the subject—I don’t want to discuss it again. It’s not relevant. And it’s not always just about fun.’
This to try and stifle some of the sudden misgivings that had swept over her—dark thoughts that some of the choices she had made in her life might not have been the right ones, even if they had been made with all the right intentions.
‘You’re probably right.’
But she barely heard him. His soothing agreement floated around her and dissipated.
‘I know for...for some people...’ she only just managed not to pin him as one of those people she was talking about ‘...fun is all about sex, but as far as I’m concerned there’s a great deal more to relationships than sex...’
She glared at him defiantly, challenging him to argue with her, but Alessandro had no intention of doing any such thing.
He had never registered much interest in analyzing women, or trying to plumb their hidden depths, but in this instance he could see the pattern of her life as clearly as if it had been printed in bright neon letters across her forehead.
She had instilled such a strict code for herself that she was a prisoner of it. He doubted she had ever had any sort of fun with that ex-boyfriend of hers, and he wondered what fun she had now, with her stable job and her bright future. Her head told her what she needed, but what she needed was not necessarily what she wanted.
And he got the impression that she was thinking about that conundrum for the first time in her life.
Because he had rammed it down her throat.
On the one hand he had done her a favour. She was so uptight that she would snap in two given a slight breeze. Life was not kind to the seriously uptight. He was certain of that. They were always the ones who ended their lives thinking about all the things they’d strenuously resisted doing.
On the other hand she was visibly upset—and that was hardly a positive way for a boss to encourage his employee to start the day.
‘You haven’t finished your breakfast,’ he told her, indicating her plate.
She smiled, thankful for the change in conversation and the reprieve from her thoughts.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever sat in front of a bigger breakfast.’
‘Bigger is better—that’s the motto, I think. We can stick to the buffet tomorrow.’
‘I didn’t have much appetite anyway,’ Kate admitted. ‘I guess I really am nervous about what today’s going to bring. Normally I eat like a horse. Perhaps we should think about going.’ She dug into her capacious handbag and extracted her tablet. ‘I’ve brought along all the information I have on George, in case you want to sit down with him and go through it.’
Alessandro had no intention of doing any such thing, but he was relieved that she was back to normal—back to her usual efficient self, back to being the woman who matched the uniform of suits she always wore.
Even though those moments just then, when he had seen her vulnerability, had merged into the other moments when he had glimpsed the woman underneath the navy suits...strangely alluring, weirdly appealing...
Impatient with himself, he signalled a waiter in order to sign for the breakfast and flung his linen napkin next to his plate. ‘Right.’ He stood as he signed the bill. ‘Let’s get going.’
It was as though their very personal conversation had never happened. He was all business. Even without the business suit.
‘Shall we get a taxi there? Do you know whether it’s a long drive out of the city centre?’
‘We won’t need a taxi.’ He flicked his cell phone out of his pocket and scrolled though the numbers. ‘I’ve arranged to have my own driver for the duration of our stay here. More reliable and more convenient than trying to find a taxi when we need one.’
‘The limo...?’
‘No.’
They began strolling out to the street and she followed him as he expertly made his way through the grand hotel and the designer shopping centre that circled it.
He looked at her, his eyes creased with amusement. ‘I didn’t think that my conscience could stand the guilt caused by the carbon footprint.’
There he went again, she thought with a little flurry of desperation. Undoing all her plans to ignore him by being...funny. By saying something that made her want to smile, even though half an hour before she had been mentally snarling at him for invading her private life and asking personal questions.
He was also in business mode. She could sense that as they settled into the back of the car—a far more modest affair than the limo, though still sleek and impressive by most people’s standards.
The hotel was forty minutes’ drive away, which made it quite a distance out of the hub of downtown Toronto, and he turned to her and said, with a thoughtful frown, ‘Seems a little odd to head for a hotel in the hills when you’re spending vast sums of money on a city holiday—wouldn’t you agree?’
Kate gave that some thought and nodded. ‘Although some people hate cities.’
‘Then why holiday in one?’
‘His wife might like shopping.’ She grinned. ‘That’s one of those building-block situations I was telling you about. He hates cities and shopping, she loves them—so they go somewhere in between.’ She surprised herself by harking back to a conversation she wanted to forget, but at least it distracted her from the unpleasant task that lay ahead.
‘I’m not sensing an element of compromise here...’
‘Well, the next time it’s her turn to give in and allow him more of what he wants.’
‘For instance...?’
Kate shrugged. ‘He might want to...I don’t know...go fishing, rent a cottage in the Cotswolds and have long walks, head up to Scotland to appreciate the wild, stunning scenery...’
‘My take is that that particular couple aren’t suited. She wants to shop...he wants to half freeze to death in the middle of nowhere to appreciate the scenery... It’ll end in tears. You wait and see...’
Kate laughed. Really laughed.
She felt all her concerns melt away and their eyes met. Her breath caught in her throat because she felt as if it was an intense moment, when something intangible had been shared. Though what, she couldn’t say. A shared sense of humour? A certain way they both had of finding the same thing funny...?
‘Here, it might make a little more sense. You don’t have to travel too far out of the city before you come slap-bang into some remarkable scenery...’
He began giving her a potted history of the place, telling her about its geographical splendours, the thousand and one sights that made it so special.
What the hell had happened just then? he wondered. He had got caught out by a curveball—had had the oddest sensation of stepping onto quicksand, a place where he was no longer in complete control but at the mercy of reactions and responses that went against the grain, against his rigidly imposed rules.
The hotel, when they finally arrived, was a modest building, with a car park in the front, sandwiched between a fast food restaurant and a shop advertising all manner of office supplies.
Kate could see that Alessandro was taken aback at the place George and his wife had chosen to stay for their vacation, but he said nothing as they walked through the glass revolving doors and straight to the reception desk, which was manned by a bored-looking girl, twirling her hair and chatting on her mobile.
Kate wondered whether they had chosen this spot because it offered access to the city but also access to the outlying countryside...pine forests, lakes...beautiful terrain to explore. She didn’t know what George and his wife did for fun, aside from family stuff with their kids and grandkids. Maybe they loved mountaineering, hiking...who knew...?
The blonde twirling her hair instantly hung up and straightened as they approached the desk.
Mr and Mrs Cape... Would she buzz through to them...? Tell Mr Cape that Alessandro Preda was in Reception and wanted to have a word with him...? Tell him that Kate Watson was there as well...?
The blonde shot Kate a covert look that simmered with envy.
‘Mr and Mrs Cape aren’t in.’ She didn’t need to consult the register for this information. ‘They leave at the same time every morning. Eight sharp. I can leave a message for them and get them to contact you—or you can leave a note and I’ll make sure they get it as soon as they’re back.’
‘Which would be at what time...?’
‘This evening. Six sharp.’
‘Unusual sightseeing activities that can be planned with such precision,’ Alessandro said with stinging sarcasm, and he received a shocked and surprised look from the blonde in response.
‘Can I ask whether you’re related to George and Karen?’
Alessandro raised his eyebrows expressively. Cosy relationship with the girl at Reception? he thought. Bit odd... Admittedly the hotel was only the size of a bed and breakfast. For all he knew that was exactly what it was, despite its grandiose name: the Ruskin Hotel. But still...
‘I’m his boss, and I’m here to see him on a business-related matter.’
‘If you’re his boss then I’m surprised... Didn’t he mention...?’
‘Mention what?’ Kate asked gently, reading sudden confusion in the receptionist’s blue eyes.
‘They go to the hospital every day. They’re allowed some leeway with the visiting hours, but they tend to stay there pretty much for the whole day, so that they can be there for Gavin and Caroline.’
‘Caroline’s their daughter...’ Kate turned to Alessandro, her mind a whirl. ‘Gavin’s their son-in-law. I know that because there’s a family photo on his desk...’
‘Right. Hospital. Perhaps you could tell us which hospital this is...?’
They arrived at the hospital in under an hour. It had been a largely silent journey. For the first time Alessandro had been caught on the back foot—handed information he had not been expecting...information that altered the straightforward situation he’d thought he would be dealing with.
Despite the fact that George and his wife had chosen to stay outside the city, the hospital was actually in downtown Toronto. Kate guessed that either the little hotel was very reasonably priced, or else they had some experience of being there before. Or maybe they just needed to be outside the main drag of a city to clear their heads at the end of the day.
A long day.
Because the days would be long. In the back of the car Alessandro had looked up the hospital on the internet, so they both knew that it was a centre for the treatment of sick children.
Now, as they approached the white-fronted building visible through a bank of trees, Alessandro turned to her and spoke for the first time.
‘This is not what I expected,’ he said roughly, raking fingers through his dark hair. ‘And you won’t be accompanying me into the hospital.’
‘Perhaps we should wait until they’re back at the hotel this evening. And I will be accompanying you, by the way.’
