Warily he turned back. ‘Go ahead.’
‘I’m not for one second telling you how to conduct your business, so please don’t take this the wrong way, but Marc is a little fragile at the moment. He needs … well, he needs to hear something good … something that will help give him some hope for the café’s future. I’m not asking you to completely sugar-coat your advice, because obviously he needs to hear the truth, but whatever you advise him … would you—could you please bear that in mind when you talk?’
Again he drove his fingers through his hair. Although his expression was thoughtful, he also seemed a little weary, she thought.
‘There’s no sugar-coating the pill in business, Layla,’ he said, ‘but whatever advice I give to your brother, you can rest assured it will be fair and considerate … helpful too I hope. Was that all?’
With a self-conscious nod she turned her attention back to the task of making his coffee …
It felt so good to have her near again. As he drove the Range-Rover through the winding roads skirting the town Drake stole several covetous glances at his passenger’s arrestingly beautiful profile and now and then couldn’t resist lowering his gaze to the long slender legs encased in snugly fitting black cord jeans. He breathed in her perfume. It could have been life-giving oxygen as far as he was concerned, and he felt almost high on it.
After countless hours of hardly being able to concentrate on anything at all but Layla—long hours made even worse by the sleepless night that inevitably followed such pointed introspection—he was walking on air because she’d agreed to accompany him today. It didn’t matter that it was ostensibly for work, visiting the sites he’d been commissioned to rejuvenate with attractive affordable housing. How he hadn’t caved in and rung her after they’d parted last night he didn’t know. Except that he’d maybe had some idea of briefly punishing her with a show of indifference because he’d been so sure she’d been mocking him about living in Mayfair. He’d convinced himself that her unimpressed attitude suggested that she knew exactly where he came from and wasn’t going to let him forget it. But as soon as he’d set eyes on her again in the café, Drake had known it was himself that he’d punished. Now he was predisposed to be kinder.
‘Warm enough?’ he asked. The question earned him a sunny smile that was akin to the pleasure of eating hot buttered toast in front of a roaring fire—preferably with her.
‘This car has a great heater. The car I share with my brother has a heater that wouldn’t warm up a shoebox, let alone anything bigger. By the way, how did your meeting with him go?’
‘It was fine.’ Drake pursed his lips, amused. He might have known she wouldn’t be able to resist asking him about it. ‘I think I’ve given him some food for thought. It’s now up to him whether he acts on what I suggested or not. Most of all, he’s going to have to learn to be patient. Things take time to change for the better. By the way, we didn’t just talk about the café. You came into the conversation a few times too, Layla. The way he lit up at just the mention of your name told me that he adores you.’
It was impossible to suppress the jealousy that churned in the pit of his stomach when he thought about Layla regarding her brother in the same heartfelt way. Never in his life had he been on the receiving end of such a devoted sentiment.
Her slim shoulders lifted in a shrug. ‘I don’t know if it’s true that he adores me, but I admit that we’ve always been quite close. Do you have any brothers or sisters?’
‘No.’ Drake’s hands automatically tightened on the steering wheel. ‘I don’t. I’m an only child, I’m afraid.’
‘That doesn’t have to be a negative. Perhaps your parents decided that they only wanted you? Or maybe the reason they only had you was because they couldn’t have any more children?’
His companion’s innocently voiced assumptions sent a cold, clammy shiver up his spine. ‘I’ve no idea,’ he answered tersely. But he did. Being intimately acquainted with his family’s dysfunctional history, he knew only too well that neither of those scenarios was true. ‘I never asked them.’
‘And there’s no possibility of you asking them now?’
‘No. There isn’t. My mother walked out years ago, when I was just six, and my dad died when I was a teenager.’ It was hard to subdue the bitterness in his tone, and straight away he sensed the embarrassment and discomfort that his comments had inflicted on the woman sitting beside him.
‘I’m sorry, Drake …’
The sigh she emitted sounded genuinely heartfelt.
‘Forgive me for being so tactless. I had no idea about your background.’
‘It all happened a long time ago now, and it’s not exactly something I want to broadcast. I’d be grateful if you didn’t share the information with anyone else. In any case, as you can see …’ Turning his head briefly to observe her, he was instantly perturbed by the concern reflected back at him from her luminous brown eyes. ‘I’m a big boy now, and I get on just fine without my parents being around.’
‘You’re a lot tougher than I am, then.’ Her tone was tinged with sadness and regret. ‘I lost my mum when I was very young too. She contracted pneumonia after a bout of severe flu and never recovered. Then, when I was a teenager, I lost my dad. I still miss both of them more than I can say.’
Startled that her losses mirrored his own family scenario—albeit his mother hadn’t died but simply walked out—Drake was torn between voicing the usual polite words of commiseration and pulling the car over and impelling Layla firmly into his arms. He was aching with an almost unholy need to do just that. The mere idea of having an opportunity to touch her soft skin and silky hair, to feel her mouth tremble beneath his with what he secretly hoped might be an inflammatory need similar to his own, was almost too powerful to ignore.
But, seeing they were nearing the site he’d proposed they visit together, all he did was say thoughtfully, ‘I’m sorry you miss them so badly, but life goes on, doesn’t it? We have to try and make the best of things. When bad things happen you can either wallow in the idea that you’ve been dealt a bad hand or you can be determined to rise above it. Personally speaking, I was never going to stay around here and regard myself as some kind of victim—no matter how difficult or challenging it was to rise above my circumstances.’
He drove into the large denuded area that had already been cleared in preparation for building and pulled up beside one of the several works vans belonging to the contractor he’d hired. A few feet away scaffolding waiting to be erected lay in precisely organised piles on the cold hard ground.
‘We’re here.’ Silencing the engine, he turned to study his passenger. ‘I know the weather’s not great, but I’d still like to show you the site and tell you what we’ve got planned. Are you still up for a look round with me?’
‘Of course.’ Peering out of the windscreen, she let a fond smile touch her lips. ‘There used to be a great playground here when I was a kid. My brother and I sometimes walked all the way from our house to get to it. My dad was inevitably working, so during the school holidays after Mum was gone we were more or less left to our own devices. We used to think it was a bit of an adventure to go to the playground on our own, to tell you the truth. Do you remember it, Drake?’
‘I do.’
His own memories of the playground that had once stood on the site were definitely not as fond as Layla’s, he mused. He too had visited it on his own, but he hadn’t made any friends when he was there. The other kids had probably been warned by their parents to stay away from the boy whose mother had left him and who had a father notorious for being bad-tempered and more often than not drunk.
Bringing his focus firmly back to the present, Drake returned his pretty companion’s smile. ‘By the way, you’ll have to wear a hard hat … Health and Safety demands