After she had negotiated the hallway slowly but safely, Gabriel reached round her to open the door, momentarily bringing their bodies into close proximity and firing her blood once more. Before he could put on the outside light, she moved forward, missing her step, unable to see. For a second, she teetered off balance, then Gabriel’s arm was there to steady her. The light came on and she blinked, disoriented for a second, aware, when her vision sharpened, of the frown on his face.
‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes, fine,’ she assured him breathlessly. With caution, she stepped out of his hold and down the steps to the gravel drive. Needing to disguise her latest mishap, she turned back to smile at him. ‘There is something you should know about me before you hear it from anyone else.’
The wariness returned to his eyes and she could sense his tension. ‘What’s that?’
‘I’m renowned for being impossibly clumsy.’ She managed a passable laugh, trying not to think of her catalogue of stupid incidents. Unfortunately they seemed to be happening more and more often, her most recent examples being the moment she had inexplicably reversed into a parked car at the church after Jack and Alison’s wedding, and the way she had stumbled and fallen in the rubble the day after the flood. ‘Everyone teases me for being an accident waiting to happen.’
‘I’ll consider myself warned,’ Gabriel replied, his answering laugh not completely masking his confusion.
Eager to leave on a more positive note, Lauren lingered. ‘If you have nothing else planned, would you like to come for lunch tomorrow? You can meet Chloe and Oliver…get to know them before work on Monday.’
‘I’d love to.’ A teasing glint flickered in his eyes. ‘Not the roast beef?’
‘No! Chicken and all the trimmings. And Chloe is doing one of her special puddings,’ she told him, laughing back.
‘What time?’
‘About noon?’ She tried to sound casual, but already she was brimming with excitement at seeing him again.
‘I’ll be there,’ he promised, making her pulse race. ‘Would you like me to walk you back?’
She would, but she didn’t want him witnessing her tripping again. ‘Thanks, but there’s no need.’
‘Until tomorrow, then.’ His voice dropped to a rough murmur. ‘Au revoir, chérie.’
‘Bye.’
She felt him watching her as she walked carefully down the drive, Foxy well behaved at her side. Silently, she counted her steps, having made this journey before. She knew that when she reached the curve, the lights in her cottage would guide her home, but the knowledge that she was seeing less and less at night filled her with silent fear. How long could she hide her secret?
A sigh of relief escaped when her cottage came into view and she picked up her pace, more sure of herself, keen to tell Chloe and Oliver about the exciting new doctor. It was awful that the flood had driven her friends from their home. Chloe had been more upset at her missing cats, but one of the members of the rescue team had found Pirate and Cyclops unscathed on top of a wardrobe upstairs as the waters receded. In the days since they had moved in, Foxy and the cats had negotiated a cautious stand-off.
Until Chloe and Oliver found a suitable new home, Lauren was happy for them to stay with her. She enjoyed their company. But she wondered if things might get a bit awkward should anything develop between herself and Gabriel. There was plenty of time to worry about that, she reassured herself, knowing she shouldn’t get too excited even though their first meeting had left her in no doubt about the connection between them. However foolish, she sensed that something unusual and important could evolve in the days and weeks ahead.
‘We were going to send out a search party!’ Chloe teased when Lauren let herself in, took off Foxy’s lead and walked into the living room.
Her friend was cuddled up in Oliver’s lap on the sofa in front of a roaring log fire. It didn’t take a genius to know from their rumpled clothes and tousled hair what they had been doing with their extra time alone. Lauren was delighted for Chloe but it was ironic that her friend—who had suffered an abusive past at the hands of her brutal father, and who had remained a virgin until Oliver had come into her life—had enjoyed a more varied and extensive sex life in three months than Lauren had in ten years. She didn’t begrudge Chloe her happiness and pleasure for a moment, but she wouldn’t half mind being as lucky.
An image of a certain scrumptious French doctor filled her mind. Oh, yes! Now, there was a man with va-va-voom, one who would surely know how to make a woman feel special. Unable to stop smiling, Lauren sank into an armchair. Her heart was still pounding.
‘Sorry you were concerned. I got held up. Dr Devereux had just arrived when I took the shopping up to the Manor House. I stayed for a chat.’
‘Some chat,’ Chloe commented with a meaningful grin that had Oliver laughing and Lauren’s cheeks warming. ‘Come on, tell us what happened.’
Nothing…and yet everything. But Lauren didn’t know how to explain that. ‘We talked about the surgery, Penhally and the flood. Gabriel’s coming here for lunch tomorrow. I told him about your football match, Oliver, and he’s keen to play.’
‘Great! Thanks, Lauren. Nick has suggested that Gabriel shadow me next week, so it will be good to meet him in advance.’
‘But what’s he like?’ Chloe persisted.
Lauren leaned back and sighed, unable to keep her smile from broadening. ‘Absolutely divine.’
No way was she going to last out Gabriel’s time here without being a very bad girl.
Hopefully.
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