By the time the Zhaos left, they were very happy indeed. Mrs Zhao kissed Fliss on both cheeks and then her husband did the same repeating his wife’s personal invitation to their ball. Luke watched on with mingled pride and irritation as he watched Fliss work her charm.
‘Are you going to flirt with all my owners?’ he muttered as they stood together waving the Zhaos goodbye.
Fliss turned to him with wide, innocent eyes. ‘I wasn’t flirting.’
‘Could have fooled me.’
‘With
Mrs Zhao
?’
He grunted. ‘Let’s go out for lunch.’ He glanced at Fliss, taking in her mussed up hair and his old battered waxed jacket she’d slung on over her work clothes. ‘Do you need to change?’
She looked down at herself. ‘Why?’
Luke slid an arm round her shoulders and hugged her. ‘No reason.’ On impulse, he bent to kiss her temple. ‘Love you.’
Chapter Seven
It was like she was frozen in time whilst around her the world carried on as normal. She could even see Luke’s mouth moving as he continued to speak but the words never reached her ears. All she could hear was the inside of her head resonating as if she had been flung against a brick wall.
He
loved her
?
That wasn’t the deal. That wasn’t casual.
She’d trusted him because he said he didn’t do emotions. Because she clearly wasn’t the kind of woman he’d want to settle down with.
Six weeks, he’d said. No strings, he’d said. Temporary, he’d said. Not love. Not Luke. He’d told her, he didn’t do emotion. He did business. Not love.
Fliss felt her knees begin to wobble. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Then a strong arm slid around her waist and brought her head to rest against Luke’s warm chest.
‘It’s okay,’ he whispered. ‘I didn’t mean to say it.’
She tried to remember how to breath. It was going to be okay. It was just a thing he’d said. He didn’t mean it. Of course he couldn’t mean it.
‘It’s okay,’ he repeated. ‘It was just a slip of the tongue. Nothing to worry about. I promise.’
Carefully, Fliss extricated herself from Luke’s grasp. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and eyed him warily.
‘Lunch,’ he announced firmly. ‘You need to eat something. And I need a drink.’
‘Luke…’ she began, but he shook his head.
‘We’ll talk about it over lunch. Or not.’
‘But you said…’ She couldn’t even get the words out.
‘I know what I said. Do you think you could manage to forget it?’
Fliss shook her head slowly. But if he wanted to forget it, that was a good sign. If he meant it, he wouldn’t want her to forget it, would he?
‘How about we agree to ignore it? It doesn’t make any difference, after all.’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘We agreed, remember? Six weeks. I know you aren’t looking for anything more permanent.’
‘There’s only another couple of weeks left,’ she said.
‘Let’s go and have lunch and you can tell me what you’re going to do after that,’ he suggested.
Fliss still looked wary but she nodded and followed him to the car.
Luke took her to a quiet country pub and found them a table tucked away in a corner. He brought drinks and menus from the bar, and a packet of crisps to snack on while they waited for their food.
‘So, what’s the plan?’
Fliss smiled a little. ‘No plan.’
Luke laughed. ‘No ties, no commitments, no plans? You’ll just walk out of the stables and see what turns up?’
She shrugged. ‘It worked pretty well last time.’
Luke put his hand over hers. ‘It might not have done.’
‘I know. I’m not an idiot. I have friends I can go and stay with for a bit. I could sign up with another temping agency.’
‘Or?’
She took a long sip of her drink. ‘There’s the backpacking plan.’
‘On your own?’ He’d hoped she’d been joking about that.
‘Why not?’
He could give her a hundred reasons, most of which would send her running before he’d finished his steak and chips.
‘A lone female? You’ll spend your whole time fending off the men.’
Fliss’s eyes sparkled. ‘I might not want to fend them off.’
Luke’s jaw tightened. ‘You could get hurt.’
‘I could have fun.’
‘Fliss…’
She grinned. ‘It’s okay, Luke. You won’t have to worry about me.’
‘I won’t be able to stop worrying about you for a single second.’
‘Oh.’
‘Don’t you ever think about the future?’ he challenged. ‘Beyond the next few weeks? What do you want to be doing when you’re forty?’
‘Forty?’ she repeated as if it were beyond her imagination. ‘No idea. Why?’
‘Because you can’t live your whole life like this, Fliss,’ he replied in frustration. ‘One day you’ll need to settle down. You’ll get tired of everything being temporary. But you won’t have any roots. Nowhere to call home.’
She picked up a chip, examined it carefully, dipped it in ketchup and ate it slowly. ‘Like you, you mean?’
‘Yes, I have a home.’
He’d always called the large ramshackle house his home. But after his mother had left it hadn’t felt much like it. Luke knew the house was too big for a bachelor and he didn’t have the time for all the little touches that made it feel warm and welcoming.
Fliss had changed all that. He never knew quite what he was going to find when he walked through the front door. She was as likely to be rolling on the floor with Benjy as sitting primly at his desk typing up reports. But just knowing she was there made all the difference.
Because he loved her.
He hadn’t realised it until he’d said it. But as soon as he’d spoken the words, he knew they were true.
The more he thought about it, the more he realised he liked the idea.
Fliss was nothing like the woman he’d once imagined he’d marry. But she was nothing like his mother, either. She loved the stables and the horses. She’d had fun when he took her to the races. She enjoyed meeting his owners as much as she enjoyed heading to the pub with the stable lads and lasses after their shift. It didn’t seem to matter that she’d been brought up in the city and had no idea about all the things Luke had known all his life. Fliss wasn’t afraid to ask and to learn, and she had a natural gift with animals.
Luke smiled, imagining a home full of Fliss’s stray cats, and stray underwear. A home with dogs playing in the kitchen and babies playing in the sitting room. Fliss somehow keeping chaotic control of all of them. They’d have Sunday lunch every week, but not the stiff, formal event that Luke had grown up with. Fliss would make it a fun family time, with everyone helping to peel the potatoes and stir the gravy. And then, when everyone had eaten more than they could possibly need, they’d put the kids down for a nap, or to watch a video, while he and Fliss sneaked upstairs for an hour or two together.
He wanted Fliss. She was going to make be the perfect wife for an ambitious young trainer.
But Luke knew he had to play it very carefully indeed. She was like a young animal, spooked by any sudden movement. He needed to take baby steps, helping her grow accustomed to the idea, standing by her as she faced her fears head on.
‘So do I have a home. For the next two weeks.’ Under the table, Fliss’s foot slid against Luke’s. ‘But for some reason, we’re out here, instead of at home making the most of it.’
Luke groaned. ‘You’ll be the death of me.’
‘But at least you’ll die happy.’
He hadn’t died, but judging by the satisfied smile on Luke’s face as he dozed, Fliss had certainly succeeded in making him happy.
Her own emotions, by contrast, were still churning about her stomach in an uncomfortably disturbing fashion. No matter how much Luke had tried to dismiss what he’d said – she couldn’t even repeat the words in her own head – Fliss hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.
She didn’t know whether he loved her or not. In fact, she wasn’t sure if she’d recognise love if it hit her over the head with a mallet. Up until a month ago, Fliss would have hotly denied the existence of true love at all. She’d certainly never seen such a thing in her experience.
Men were fun. And when they weren’t, she left them. Occasionally, they left her. Either way, Fliss’s heart remained intact.
But now there was Luke. Fliss was going to be leaving in two weeks time. She just wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
She glanced across at him, assessingly. Tall, lean, stronger than you’d think at first glance. Posh boy looks with high cheekbones, floppy blond hair and clear blue eyes hidden in sleep. He still had the ability to make her catch her breath with wanting him. He made her body sing in ways she hadn’t dreamed of.
It wasn’t the sex that frightened her, though. It was all the rest of it.
Without knowing quite how it had happened, Fliss had felt at home in Luke’s house for the first time in her life. She didn’t want to leave Benjy or Marshmallow. She wanted to be there for the horses, too, watching them race, following their careers. She had become involved in everyone’s lives - Annie Ricks had started confiding in Fliss about her elderly mother and their fears for her future nursing care. Luke’s head lad, Mikey, always made sure to invite Fliss to join the lads and lasses in the pub after work on a Saturday night. Several of the girls had become friends, sharing clothes and make up and gossiping about the lads.
Luke’s suggestion of vet nursing had lurked at the back of Fliss’s mind for several days, unexamined, but now she got it out and thought about it properly. It was a great idea. Much more fun than filing. Though really, she could do both. Luke didn’t need a full time secretary or a full time nurse. But someone who could help out in several different capacities would be a huge benefit to the smooth running of the stables.
Fliss slipped out of bed and grabbed a t-shirt and some knickers. Downstairs, she made herself a cup of tea and switched on the computer. It wouldn’t do any harm just to look up training courses on the internet. See whether there was any chance she could qualify.
‘What are you up to?’
Luke had dressed properly, though judging by the look in his eyes as he took in Fliss’s half-naked body, he was regretting that decision.
‘I just wanted to check my email,’ she lied.
‘Uh huh.’
She could feel herself blushing. How did he always know when she wasn’t being completely honest with him?
‘And then I thought I might look up some ideas for things to do when I finish here.’
‘Great. Let me see.’
Luke lifted her bodily out of the chair, then sat down again with Fliss on his lap, giving him an uninterrupted view of the monitor.
‘It was just a thought,’ Fliss told him defensively while he skimmed the screen. ‘I haven’t decided anything yet. I probably couldn’t afford it, anyway, and I don’t suppose my grades are good enough, so I might as well not…’ She leaned forward to grab the mouse and close the window down, but Luke’s arms were longer and his reflexes quicker.
‘Don’t be silly,’ he said. ‘It’s a great idea.’
‘You only say that because it’s your idea,’ she said grumpily.
‘Why are you being all cross about it?’
She shrugged. ‘I didn’t want you to say “I told you so.”’
Luke laughed. ‘I won’t. Though I did.’
‘Yes, well.’
‘There’s a course in Huntingdon,’ he pointed out casually. ‘That’s not far from here.’
Fliss looked where he was pointing. ‘Hmm. But…’
‘But you won’t be living here. Right. I bet Charlie would give you a placement at his surgery though. If you wanted.’
‘Oh. Do you think he would?’
‘Sure. Want me to ask him?’
Fliss shook her head. ‘No. I’ll ask. If I decide to go ahead with it.’
‘Fliss, look.’ Luke shifted her on his lap so that they were facing each other. ‘I don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to, okay. If you want to walk out today and never see me again I’ll…’ He swallowed. ‘Well, I’d do whatever I could to persuade you to stay, but I wouldn’t stop you. And if you choose to go travelling round the world in a canoe at the end of our six weeks, that’s up to you.’