‘So, what was that about Cal not having had a very good childhood?’ I asked Xander later while on my third glass of wine as I sat waving goodbye to my normal resolve to avoid gossip.
He topped up my glass then his own as he pondered his reply. ‘He’s not said a lot to be honest, has he, Gis?’
Giselle didn’t need wine to enjoy a good gossip so long as it wasn’t hurting anyone. ‘Not really. From what I can gather he spent a lot of time in care.’
‘Does he have any family?’
Xander shook his head. ‘Nope. Just him and George.’
‘What about George’s mother?’ I asked, snagging a couple of gingerbread men from the tray and handing one to Xander.
Giselle raised an eyebrow. ‘Honestly. You two are as bad as one another.’
I beamed and fluttered my eyelashes at her innocently then stopped when I realised it was making the room spin. Obviously, that was the reason. Absolutely nothing to do with the wine.
‘Not interested in seeing him. The little one was a complete accident. She was pretty horrified to find out she was pregnant apparently. Some high-flying career type who absolutely didn’t want to be a mother at that point. Actually ever, from what Cal intimated. I didn’t like to ask too much else, but he said they worked something out in that she’d go ahead with it all and once the baby arrived, he’d take full responsibility.’
‘Tricky situation.’
‘Mmmn.’
I took another sip of wine. ‘What do you think he would he do if she turned up now?’
‘I think he’d let her in, but I think he’d also be really careful. George is his world and he’ll do anything to protect him from getting hurt. But, either way, it seems an unlikely scenario to be honest. I mean, she resented the baby from the moment she knew about it. That didn’t change even once he came into the world. I think Cal sort of thought she might have a change of heart once she saw the little one, but she definitely didn’t.’
‘That can’t have been easy for him though. Raising a newborn on his own, with no family to help him? Did he have friends?’ I said, a little intrigued, not to mention a tad in awe.
‘It sounds like it was pretty much just him. He eventually found the childminder who’s still with him now. Lovely lady. Widowed early and dotes on the lad. But I think Cal resisted even that for a long time. She came with him down from London. I think it’s done her good too as she’s met a lovely chap here. Derek, you know, from the plant nursery?’
I did know Derek. Ever so shy but a very sweet man who’d spent many years caring for his elderly parents who’d now passed away. It was nice to think that he’d met someone.
‘Anyway, Cal was doing all this as well as trying to run a business. I think he finally realised he wasn’t superman. He had to ask for some help,’ Giselle added.
‘And now he probably gets all sorts offered here.’
‘I should say!’ Xander chuckled.
I slid my elbow along and jolted his. ‘I didn’t mean sexual help. I meant … general help.’
‘But you wouldn’t be averse to offering either?’
I rolled my eyes. ‘That’s the last thing I’m offering anyone right at the moment. My life is already a mess.’ I put my head down on the table. ‘I really don’t need to be thinking about adding a bonk with Cal Martin into the mix.’
‘Sorry. I did ring the bell …’ Cal’s deep and disturbingly sexy voice drifted into my ears and I fervently hoped that I was mishearing. The fact that, momentarily, both Xander and Giselle went suspiciously silent confirmed that I probably wasn’t. Oh God. OK. It’s fine. I’ll just stay here and perhaps he won’t notice me.
‘Hi, Lexi.’
Bugger.
I dragged my head up off the table and shooshed my fringe with my hand.
‘Hi!’ I said, very casually as though I hadn’t just been talking about bonking him when he walked in. I wondered if there was any way of persuading him to wear a cowbell in the hopes of avoiding three awkward encounters in a row.
‘I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?’ he asked, his eyes scanning the table and our faces, lingering a little longer on mine with what I could clearly see now was a twinkle of mischief.
‘No! Not at all. Sorry about the doorbell. I’ve been asking someone to put new batteries in it for the last week,’ Giselle said pointedly, looking at Xander as she poured water into the kettle. He pulled a face as if suddenly remembering.
‘Can you stay for coffee?’
As much as I loved Giselle and would do anything for her, I could also have quite happily throttled her right then, albeit temporarily.
Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.
‘That’d be lovely, thanks.’
Damn.
‘Martha’s with George and he’s already asleep. I was passing and just wanted to drop off the details of a couple of finds I’ve discovered to see what Xander thought about them.’ He took the seat that Giselle offered him, opposite Xander, and next to me, passing the files across the table.
‘How was the one today?’
Cal blew out a sigh. ‘Waste of petrol, mate. Nothing like the description really. For the time we’d have spent out on it even a really good auction price would barely cover it. And an average one definitely wouldn’t. Not worth the risk and effort.’
‘These look promising though,’ Xander said, scanning the paperwork. ‘Here, Muppet, take a look at that.’ Xander went to push the files towards me and then halted, glancing over at his boss. ‘I mean, if that’s all right? It’s just, you know, she knows a lot about cars.’
Cal grinned. ‘Of course.’
I took the paperwork and studied the pictures and descriptions of the classic cars, both in a very sorry state of repair.
‘Oh … this makes me so sad.’
I looked up to see Xander rolling his eyes. ‘We shouldn’t let you have wine.’
I slapped him with the papers. ‘Oh shush. You know what I mean. Cal will know what I mean.’ I scooched in my seat a bit more to face him. ‘You know what I mean, don’t you?’ I said, pointing at the pictures.
‘It’s sad that such beautiful machines have been left to rot.’
‘You see!’ I threw Xander a slightly inebriated, and very smug glance. ‘Exactly. That’s exactly what I meant. I knew you’d understand.’
Cal twitched an eyebrow and a broad grin showed briefly before the coffee cup hid it. He had a really nice smile. If I’d have had another glass of wine, I’d have gone so far as to say it was a very sexy smile. But I hadn’t, so I wasn’t going to say, or even think that at all. It really was no wonder half the mums wanted a play date with him. I didn’t even have a child and I was a handful of squashed grapes away from setting one up myself.
‘Oi, Muppet. What do you think then?’
‘Are you really calling her Muppet?’ Cal asked, his eyes shining with laughter.
Xander looked slightly confused. ‘It’s her name.’
‘I thought it was Lexi.’
‘Well, yeah. Officially.’
‘Actually, officially it’s Alexandra.’ I did a sweeping sort of motion with my hand, like I was bowing but I couldn’t be arsed to stand up so you had to use your imagination a bit.
‘And you’re really Alexander.’ Cal said, nodding across the table.
‘Yep. Born on the same day. Mums were in the beds next to each other, and they’d both decided on Alexander. Because Muppet here was supposed to be a boy.’
‘I wasn’t supposed to be a boy!’
‘All right. You were expected to be a boy. But that sort of happened anyway.’
‘Do you mind?’
‘What? You’re not exactly girly, are you?’
‘Giselle does girly enough for the both of us.’
‘She’s plenty girly,’ Cal interjected. ‘Carry on.’
I wiggled my head at Xander in triumph and he ignored me.
‘So, anyway, out pops this one and her poor parents hadn’t even begun to consider girls’ names because, although they didn’t have any scanning equipment down at the little cottage hospital we were born in, everyone was convinced in that mystical way people are, that it was another boy. Her parents had resigned themselves to it. And they’d spent so long choosing a name they just made it into a feminine version. Unlike the human being they produced.’
‘You’re such an arse,’ I mumbled.
‘But once we started recognising our names and especially at playgroup, it all got a bit confusing so they got adapted: hers into Lexi. Mine into Xander.’
‘OK,’ Cal said, breaking the leg of the gingerbread man that had now appeared in front of him and popping it in his mouth. ‘That makes sense. But why Muppet?’
‘Because she is one.’ Xander looked at his boss as if this explanation was obvious.
Cal glanced at me and tilted his head. ‘Ask a silly question …’
‘It’s fine. I don’t mind it. It’s all meant with love.’
‘That’s true. But you are a Muppet. You have to admit that. Last year was the perfect example.’
‘Xander,’ Giselle said. Her voice was quiet but there was a definite hint of warning.
‘What person, other than a total muppet, would travel halfway across the world, knowing that by doing so they were not only going to lose their job but their entire career as well, just to visit a friend.’
I let out a sigh. ‘You know it was more than that.’
‘I should never have called you.’ Xander swirled the last of his wine around the glass.
‘Oi.’ I nudged him. ‘If you hadn’t I’d have never forgiven you.’
‘You’d never have known! And you’d still have a job.’
‘Oh my God, Xander!’ I sat back in the chair. ‘This was not your fault. Or Giselle’s or anyone else’s but mine. You were in a state and Giselle was in emergency surgery for life-threatening peritonitis! You two mean more to me than any job, or any career! Don’t you get that? If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing. It was the right thing to do.’
‘But she’s fine!’
‘Yes. Thank God. But we didn’t know that and I felt much better being here at the time and for Giselle’s recovery than I would have done in a pit garage in some far-flung country. So can we just accept that and move on? I will sort out my life but you did the right thing in calling me that day and I did the right thing in coming home, whatever the fallout.’
Xander looked at me for a moment, half stood, and grabbed me in a gentle headlock before planting a kiss on my temple.
‘See? Told you. Total muppet.’
I knew Xander felt guilty about having called me that day, but it was true what I’d said. If he hadn’t called me, whatever the outcome, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive him, because in the back of my mind, there would always have been the “what if” …
‘He’s been calling her that since I’ve known them both and we met when we were seven so …’ Giselle said, turning to Cal as she did a little shrug and a very Gallic thing with her face and hands.
‘It’s all right. I call him much worse when he’s not here.’
‘That, I believe,’ Xander shot back.
I smirked, downed the last of my wine, and pushed my chair out. ‘I’d better start heading home.’
‘Do you want me to give you a lift?’ Giselle asked, already up and looking for her keys.
‘No! You stay here in the warm. It’s not like it’s far.’
‘It’s sleeting out there now,’ Cal volunteered and I shot him a look. ‘Then I definitely don’t want Giselle out in a car.’
‘I’m pregnant, not an invalid!’
‘Yes. You have precious cargo on board, which means you should avoid all and any possibly dangerous situations.’
Giselle rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, you and Xander are like mother hens on steroids.’
‘Whatever works.’
‘You’ll freeze,’ Giselle said, giving me a stern look.
‘I can drop you off,’ Cal offered.
‘No really, it’s fine. The walk will do me good. Sober me up.’
‘It really is cold out there.’
‘I have gloves and a coat and hat and most importantly, plenty of alcohol in my veins. Did you know there was a cook on the Titanic who downed a whole bottle of sherry, thinking if he was going to be plunged into an icy, watery grave he may as well be pissed too – but then he survived because his blood was thinned so much by the alcohol it didn’t suffer the same effects as everyone else?’
‘You’re not planning to plunge yourself into the village pond, are you?’ Xander squinted at me.
‘No. Not intentionally anyway. Argh!’ I threw my arms up. ‘You’re missing the whole point of the story!’
‘I’ll just take you.’ Cal grinned. ‘It’s fine. It’s on my way anyway and George would never forgive me if he found out I hadn’t helped his top Teddy Surgeon home with a lift.’
I glanced over at Giselle who was nodding at me vigorously, the reasons for which were a little blurry. Kind of like my vision.
We exchanged goodbyes and hugs and Cal led me to his Land Rover, catching my arm as I missed the footplate in the dark and nearly face-planted into the seat.
‘Whoops.’
‘Ups-a-daisy,’ Cal said, as he boosted me in.
I turned my head and looked back at him, his face now in slightly soft focus. ‘Ups-a-daisy?’
‘I have a five-year-old. Sorry. Words tend to slip out in inappropriate moments.’
That delicious smile began to spread on his face and suddenly accepting a lift from him didn’t seem like the best idea. Perhaps I was best off taking my chances with the frozen village pond. He shut the door and I lost the option.
‘How do you know where I live? I mean, you said it was on your way, but it might not be.’
‘I’ve dropped Dan home a couple of times after the pub and he pointed out your parents’ place. You live above the garage, don’t you?’
I nodded, trying to think back as to whether I’d told him this. I was pretty sure I hadn’t.
‘How do you know?’
‘Xander mentioned it.’
‘Oh.’ I began to wonder what else my mate might have mentioned.
Cal started the car and we headed off, the wipers slapping against the now heavy sleet almost in time to the classical piece that was playing quietly on the radio.
‘Thanks for this.’
He glanced over briefly. ‘You’re welcome.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Hopefully it’ll go some way to making up for coming across as so rude the other day when you offered to help me with George.’
‘Honestly. There’s nothing to make up for. Really.’
He gave me another glance that indicated he didn’t agree. His head turned away for a moment and then back towards me, his brow furrowed. It felt as if he was trying to decide whether to say something or not. ‘I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Sometimes my past has a way of invading the present,’ he said eventually. Whatever it was that he’d been thinking of saying, I was pretty sure that wasn’t all of it.
‘You really don’t have to keep apologising,’ I said, as he pulled the car into the large driveway in front of the farmhouse and garage. ‘It’s already forgotten.’ Looking up from where I’d been fiddling with the ribbon I’d attached to my mittens after losing one of a pair four times in a row, I met Cal’s gaze. If I hadn’t already met him, I’d have said it was the wine causing the slight hypnotic effect I was now feeling. But as I’d also had that feeling whilst perfectly sober, I knew it was pure Cal Martin.
‘Whatever it was in your past, I’m really sorry you had to go through it.’
And me blabbing was pure wine.
‘Thanks.’ He smiled, not seeming to mind. ‘Long time ago now.’
‘That doesn’t always mean a lot.’
He drew a breath in and let it out slowly. ‘No. True. But life’s good now. I have George, and my business, and moving to this village has definitely been good for me.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh yes.’
‘I’m sorry if I kicked off some painful memories.’
‘I told you. Forget it. It’s all good now.’
I put my hand on the catch of the door, then hesitated, my brain telling me to leg it and my mouth, as usual, ignoring the sensible advice and doing its own thing.
‘When you came in at Xander and Giselle’s, you didn’t happen to overhear …’
‘Yep.’
I risked a look up. He was grinning. Damn.
‘I didn’t mean … it’s just that what you heard …’ Cal moved his head a smidgeon to the side, encouraging me to continue with my explanation, the smile still firmly in place. ‘What you heard was out of context. It’s really not what it sounded like.’
‘OK,’ he replied, with a tone that implied he didn’t a believe a word of it.
‘I should go. Thanks for the lift.’
‘My pleasure. I’ll see you around.’
‘Ummhmm,’ I said, noncommittally, waved, and took the few steps to where the metal stairs ran up to my little dwelling.
What I hadn’t taken into consideration as I ran up the staircase was that the sleet, now coming into contact with the cold metal, was freezing over. As I neared the top, one leg went one way and the other went in the opposite direction. I was so glad George wasn’t there because the expletives were out and proud before I even thought about it as I wrapped my arms around the banister and hung there for a moment, a foot dangling in mid-air either side of the steps.
‘Lexi!’ Cal’s concerned call came as I heard the car door slam. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Parfait!’ Oh God, now not only did I look an idiot, I sounded like one. What on Earth had possessed me to channel Giselle right at that moment, especially since I could guarantee this was not a situation my elegant friend would ever find herself in?
‘Stay there. I’m coming up.’
‘No! Don’t! I’m not going to be responsible for you breaking your neck,’ I said, flinging my feet around in mid-air, trying to get a purchase on the step. Unfortunately, every time I tried, it slid straight back out.
‘And I’m not going to be responsible for leaving you like that.’ The stairs reverberated through my arms as Cal’s bulk stepped onto them.
‘Jesus,’ I heard him mutter.
‘What’s the matter?’ I tried twisting around to see him.
‘Nothing. It’s just slippy. Don’t look back at me. Just hold on.’
I flung my feet again and managed to get one on the step, at least lessening the strain on my arms momentarily before it slid and joined the other. On the plus side, I was no longer a starfish.
‘Here. Hold on to me.’ Cal’s voice was now right behind me.
‘Umm … that would mean I have to let go.’ I glanced down at the bare branches of the bushes beneath me. ‘So I think I’m going to go with a no. I’m fine. I’ll just wait here until it thaws.’
Cal’s laugh was deep and warm and I could feel it in his chest as he wrapped an arm around me, the other gripping the metal banister.
‘Let go. I promise I won’t drop you. Xander and Giselle would never forgive me, not to mention my son.’
‘Ummm …’
‘Trust me.’
I turned my head as much as I could to try and see him. He leant forward and met my eyes.
‘Let go.’
Squinching my eyes closed, I did. Cal pulled me back up and lifted me a couple of steps up so that we were both standing on the coir mat that lay outside my front door. Cal was big and the mat was small so it was kind of a squeeze. A little bit of my brain sent out an alarm that this should bother me. Another bit smacked the alarm with a hammer and the noise stopped.
‘Thanks.’
‘You’re welcome. You need to get some salt or grit on these. That could have been nasty.’
‘As opposed to just incredibly mortifying,’ I mumbled as I fished around in my pocket for my key.
‘I wouldn’t go as far as saying “incredibly” …’
I tilted my head up to face him in the half-light of a waning moon. He was smiling and doing that thing that made the world disappear.
‘I would,’ I replied, plunging the key into the lock, and giving it a turn. Risking a look back up, I saw that the smile was still there.
‘You sure you’re OK?’
‘Perfectly.’
‘Parfait?’
‘Oh crap. You heard that too.’
‘I’m hearing a lot this evening.’
I rubbed a hand over my face. ‘Like I said, that thing before was out of context.’
‘I’d love to know what it was like in context then.’
‘I don’t remember.’
Cal laughed, deep, warm, and worryingly sexy. ‘That’s such a cop-out answer.’
I shrugged.
He quirked a brow at me. ‘And so’s that.’
‘It’s my speciality.’
‘Is it now? I shall have to remember that.’
‘Actually, if you could just forget the whole evening, that’d work better for me.’
‘But not me.’
I let out a sigh.
‘Go on, get in before we both freeze.’ Cal squinted against the shimmering moonlight. ‘It’s actually turning to snow now. And for God’s sake, be careful going down those steps tomorrow.’
I gave him a mock salute and he rolled his eyes at me. But even in the low light, I could see the humour in them.
‘Night, Lexi.’
‘Goodnight, Cal.’
I waited until he got back in the car and had turned over the engine, then gave a quick wave. He flashed the lights twice, swung the Landy in a circle, and began pulling back onto the main road through the village.
I closed the door, peeled off my outer layers, and flopped backwards onto the bed.
Oh dear. As I had stated earlier, the very last thing I needed in my life was more complication. But I knew for certain now that there was a real possibility I was in danger of developing a quite mahoosive crush on Cal Martin, and that really wouldn’t do.