The Night Of The Wedding

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‘How’s work?’ he asked as he handed her the drink.

‘Fine. I’m working with a new author. He writes horror stories with a difference.’

‘What’s different about them?’ He took off his jacket and slung it over the back of a chair.

‘The fact that I’m actually enjoying them.’ Kate turned and grinned at him, a return to her old good humour lurking in the bright green of her eyes. It had been a source of amusement between them when she had got a job editing horror stories, because she had always disliked the genre.

‘Trouble is, they’re keeping me up at night.’

‘They are so page-turning?’

‘No. Every time I hear a noise I have to put the lights on.’ She widened her eyes in mock fear. ‘They are scaring the hell out of me. If it carries on like this you are going to have to come and camp on my settee.’

‘I’ve heard some excuses in my time from women wanting me to stay the night, but never one as corny as that,’ Nick said with a shake of his head.

‘Spoilsport.’ Kate laughed.

She sipped the drink and surveyed him over the rim of the glass. He looked tanned and healthy. ‘The weather was obviously good in Paris.’

‘Not bad.’

‘Did you have a walk along the Seine?’

He nodded. ‘Only as far as a little restaurant on the Left Bank.’

‘That sounds nice.’ Kate frowned. Had he been dining on his own? she wondered suddenly. ‘It’s not like you to make time for enjoying yourself on a business trip.’

‘Well, even on a business trip I’ve got to eat,’ Nick said with a grin. ‘Speaking of which, there’s a very nice smell coming from your kitchen.’

‘It’s only lasagne.’ Kate wished she had been adventurous and cooked something a little more exotic now. ‘It should just about be ready. Shall we sit at the table?’

As she carried the food through, Nick turned on the CD player and put on some music. He was very much at home here, Kate thought suddenly as she watched him. Yet she couldn’t really say that he was part of the furniture. His presence was too powerful, too disturbingly male.

It was a long time since they had dined alone. Usually when they sat in here it was at a dinner party surrounded by other guests. Was that why she felt a little on edge tonight, suddenly shy in his presence?

‘So, did you meet anyone interesting when you were in Paris?’ she asked as they started to eat.

‘Depends what you mean by interesting,’ he answered with a shrug. ‘The managing director of the company I’m dealing with at the moment was there.’

‘Oh? What was he like?’

‘It was a woman, actually. Clare Aidan. She was very nice, very easy to do business with.’

‘Was that who you had dinner with?’ Kate asked.

‘Yes, it was, actually.’

Kate imagined him walking along the Seine with a beautiful woman at his side and felt a prickle of something akin to jealousy stir inside her. The sensation made her most uncomfortable. It was over six weeks since he had split from Serena, she told herself sharply. Of course he was going to start dating other women at some point, she had done well to have him to herself for these last few weeks.

In all honesty, possessiveness wasn’t an unusual emotion for Kate where Nick and his girlfriends were concerned. Each time a new woman came into his life she felt the same old twinge inside, and she’d worry for a while if the new relationship would be a threat to their friendship. It was a side of her personality that she didn’t really like and always fought down, usually by being extra friendly towards his girlfriends. After all, she wanted Nick to be happy, and she’d no right to feel territorial about their friendship.

‘So things are going OK with this company, then?’ She forced herself to try and concentrate on the business side of things and not the other woman.

‘Yes, they’re talking about extending my contract. So things couldn’t be going better.’ For a while he talked about the work he had done while in Paris, the factories he had visited. Once or twice he mentioned Clare. From what Kate could glean he had a lot of respect for the woman, and had got on well with her. But then Nick got on well with nearly everyone, she supposed.

As the light faded outside, Kate lit the candles on the table and the sideboard. The room flickered in the intimate golden light; it played over Nick’s features. He had rugged good looks, she thought absently. His jaw-line was strong, his cheekbones angular, giving a chiselled, almost aristocratic quality to his looks. And his eyes were the most gorgeous shade of hazel-brown. If Clare was any kind of red-blooded female she had probably fallen for him. But as Nick wasn’t into commitment she would be wasting her time, Kate reminded herself quickly. The thought was oddly reassuring.

‘I have to go out to Stockholm for more talks and there’s a possibility they’ll want me to go out to the States next month.’

‘You’ll be having to get yourself a private jet if things carry on like this,’ Kate said with a smile. She reached to pour him another cup of coffee.

‘Or move to the States.’

Kate nearly dropped the coffee-pot. ‘You’re not serious?’

Nick shrugged.

She felt like saying, You can’t. What will I do without you? But she said nothing. How could she? She had no right to say something like that. ‘I’d miss you,’ she said simply.

Their eyes met across the table. ‘Would you?’

‘Of course.’ She felt acutely self-conscious as she looked into those dark eyes.

‘Well, it’s only been mooted so maybe it won’t be necessary.’ He shrugged. ‘Time will tell.’

She supposed she was lucky that he was here with her now. It was only his European contracts that had made him relocate to Amsterdam last year. Most of his work over the last twelve months had been here. But now that he was working with an American firm, was America the logical next step? Things certainly seemed to be taking off for him; he was so much in demand he could barely keep up with the requests on his time.

‘I’m pleased that things are going so well for you, Nick.’ Kate looked away from him, in case he would see how the thought of him leaving had affected her. ‘I was reading your stars this morning and they said things would be looking up for you.’

‘Really.’ Nick grinned. ‘Well, that’s a relief.’

She ignored the sarcasm in his tone. ‘You may mock, but the guy in the local paper is very accurate. He seems to hit the nail on the head every time for me.’

‘Sounds painful.’

She looked over at him. ‘Yes, it has been,’ she said pointedly.

Nick ignored the reference to the past. ‘So what about the future?’ he asked instead. ‘Has this guy said anything encouraging about romance? Are the stars favourable for that?’ He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands, fixing Kate with a direct look across the candlelit table that for some reason made her blush.

‘Who for?’ She took a sip of coffee. ‘You or me?’

‘Both of us.’

She shrugged and the uncomfortable thought came into her head that maybe he was wondering how his chances stood with the marvellous Clare. ‘He didn’t say anything about my love life. But I told you…things are good for you.’

‘Really? How good?’

She hesitated. ‘Let me see…I can’t really remember.’ Why was she lying? she asked herself with a frown. She could remember all too clearly. Heaven’s sake, he’s not going to dash off into Clare’s arms because of a few lines of a horoscope, she told herself sternly. He didn’t even believe in them. ‘Apparently you’re going to start a new relationship…’ she told him hesitantly. ‘You’re going to meet someone at a party.’

‘A party?’ Nick grinned. ‘Well, as I haven’t had any invitations to a party, I won’t hold my breath.’

‘You could come to one with me.’ The words popped out before she could think about them. ‘I’ve been invited to Tanya and David’s wedding.’

Nick frowned. ‘Doesn’t Tanya work with Stephen?’

Kate nodded.

‘Is that why you want to go to the wedding—because Stephen will be there?’

‘No! Of course not, and, anyway, even if he is there he’ll be with Natasha.’

‘So you want me there for moral support?’

‘No…well, yes, I suppose so.’ She frowned, wondering where the relaxed atmosphere between them had gone. Nick seemed to be looking at her as if she had sprouted a forked tongue.

‘You need to let go of the past, Kate,’ he said seriously.

‘I have let go of the past. But it’s only six weeks since Stephen and I split up—I’m bound to be a bit apprehensive about seeing him again.’

Nick said nothing to that, just continued to look at her with those dark, somehow disturbing eyes.

‘I’m not sure if I really want to go to the wedding anyway, but Tanya was insistent and I wasn’t quick enough to think of an excuse,’ she continued quickly.

‘When is it?’

‘The weekend after next. I don’t know where the venue is. She said she’d put an invitation in the post.’ She held his gaze steadily. ‘My first instinct was that I definitely didn’t want to go, but then I thought, Tanya was my friend before I even met Stephen and why should I stay away? I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.’

‘No, you haven’t.’

‘But you don’t think I should go?’

‘What I think isn’t important.’ There was that tone in his voice again, it sounded like disapproval. ‘If you want to go, and you don’t think it will upset you, then go.’

‘I don’t know how it will affect me to see Stephen again,’ Kate murmured honestly, and for a moment her eyes were shadowed, distant. ‘I won’t go if you can’t come with me,’ she said.