Chapter Ten

The week continued to give the illusion of spring, and after he picked me up on Wednesday evening, Luke suggested that we should go for a drive to the coast. This we did, and ended up sitting on a beach in a secluded cove.

‘Are you all right? You’ve been a bit quiet this evening.’ I nestled myself closer to Luke against the chill of the incipient night.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just, oh, work, money, stuff like that. You wouldn’t be interested.’

‘Try me.’ I pulled his jacket around the pair of us, leaning into the smell of Aramis and snuggling into his shirt. His body was very warm.

‘It, ah, it’s stupid stuff. You know how it goes. All the cash is tied up in Boston with James. I want to start looking at houses here in York but there’s nothing available to buy with until I start the business up and running, and I can’t do that without cars, which there isn’t any cash to buy because it’s all tied up in Boston. D’you see?’ Luke looked down at me and curled his arm around me to pull us closer together. ‘Stupid stuff, as I said.’

‘How much cash do you need?’ My mouth was slightly dry.

‘Oh, I dunno. ’Bout ten grand I think. Nothing amazing, only a bit more than the bank is prepared to lend, on top of the business loan we’ve already got. They’re saying maybe we should relocate where the stock might shift a bit faster. D’you know, yesterday my bank manager suggested that I’d be better off setting up the showroom down south, somewhere-on-Thames? Bloody cheek. I promised I’d think about it, but I reckon it’s a stupid idea. There’s plenty of classic car salesmen down there already. Still, if that’s what it takes to get the extra, maybe I should think about it. Always room for another Lamborghini in London.’

All right, I admit it. I panicked. He was thinking about leaving, for God’s sake. I’d only just got him, and he was thinking about moving on. What was I supposed to do? ‘I could let you have the money,’ I said.

Luke smiled and kissed the top of my head. ‘Ah, sweetie, I know you would if you could, but it doesn’t matter. Things will turn out for the best eventually.’

‘But I have got it.’

I explained, fairly briefly and without reference to allotments, spaniels, books or boots. Luke’s mouth fell open and his eyes went very round. ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘So if we’re only talking about ten thousand pounds, then I could get it for you tomorrow.’ I paused. ‘Or, at least, as soon as the bank can transfer it.’

‘No.’ Luke shook his head. ‘I can’t let you, Willow. It’s not fair. James and I already owe our dad fifteen thousand for money he’s put in. We’ve got round that by making him a silent partner in the business, which means he gets a share of the profits, when we make any, but—’

‘Then make me one,’ I said quickly. ‘A sleeping partner, or whatever. Then I know I’ll get my money back eventually. It’ll be like investing it. Oh, go on, Luke. Please.’

‘Well.’ Luke ran a hand through his hair. ‘I don’t know, Will. It’s a lot to ask and you realise you’ve got no guarantee of getting the money back if the whole thing goes under?’

‘It’s only money.’ I grinned. ‘I didn’t have any before. If I haven’t got any afterwards, then at least I will have had fun in the meantime.’

‘You’ – Luke kissed the side of my neck – ‘are a very special woman, do you know that?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘And I know we’ve only been together a few weeks but I’m very afraid …’ his lips trailed down and his fingers released buttons on the way, ‘that I’m going to have …’ my groan nearly drowned out his final words, ‘… to marry you.’

I pretended not to have heard. I didn’t react. Not to his words, anyway. My body I couldn’t control so well and we slid together on the sand under the cover of his jacket. Cold, salty skin, lips tasting of the sea and pounding pleasure like the waves on the rocks. I was given the added edge, of course, the reassurance that Luke wanted more than this. He was thinking of the future, a future which included me.

‘And we had sex on the beach and I’ve never done that before.’

Jazz rolled his eyes and Katie gave me an arch look. ‘Next you’ll be telling us that you’ve never had sex on the backseat of a Vauxhall Nova, and I know for a fact that you did with Darren Simmonds, after Heather’s party during Freshers’ week.’

‘No. ’S true. Never on the beach.’

Jazz grunted. ‘Might as well rub your knob with glasspaper,’ he said getting up to buy another round. ‘How about you, Kate? You ever done the sand ’n shag?’

‘Two words, Jazz, Blackpool and twins. It’s not an experience I’m in any hurry to repeat. But yours sounds absolutely incredible, Will! Did he really propose?’

I lowered my voice. ‘I’m not sure. I mean, he never mentioned it again, so maybe it was just something that slipped out.’

Jazz gave a smutty guffaw.

‘In the heat of the moment. Don’t get me another, Jazz. I’d better go.’

Katie made a face. ‘Oh, why? I thought we were going to sit here and analyse your sadly unexperimental sex life.’

‘Fascinating as the topic is, I’ve got a brother at home having a nervous breakdown in the attic, another one that’s gone missing completely, a sister who spends hours on the phone every evening trying to persuade me to bring Luke for dinner again, no doubt so that she can recount the cute story of how I poohed in the bath when I was three. And if that isn’t enough, I’ve got Ash’s boyfriend ringing me up and being professionally weird.’

‘And a boyfriend of your own who might want to marry you, you think. Unless you misheard.’

I wondered, on my way home, what Luke could have said that I might have misinterpreted. I’m going to have to – carry you? Bury you? In any event, I wouldn’t have been human if I hadn’t popped into WH Smith and picked up, quite casually you understand, the latest copy of Brides magazine. Oh, and Your Wedding. And a marriage special from one of the glossy monthlies and, to my consternation, Horse and Hound, because there was an article in it about hiring carriages. Cut me some slack here, please. I’m thirty-two and this is the nearest I’ve ever got to a wedding. Oh, apart from when Katie and Dan got married and I was the hideous bridesmaid. So leave me alone for a bit with my fantasies of Vera Wang silk sheath dresses and the veil-versus-tiara debate, all right?

I read all the magazines, carefully, and then put them in a heap under my bed where they wouldn’t be found by any rogue brothers. Although, come to think of it, Flint hadn’t come down from the attic for a couple of days, and all I’d heard from Ash was a postcard from Prague where he was, even now, roaming the streets ‘conducting an in-depth body-piercing survey’. I bet. I wonder if Cal knew?

It took a few days but I arranged for ten thousand pounds to be paid into Luke’s account, at which he was grateful, but not pathetically so. ‘When I get the rest of the money from Ganda’s invention, I can always put some more into the company, if you want,’ I said as we left the bank.

‘Well, only if you want to.’ Luke took my hand. ‘I don’t want it to be said that I’m trying to part you from your cash. I hope you’ve told everyone that you’re doing this of your own free will.’

‘Of course.’ I smiled pertly.