“You need to sleep. You need to rest this weekend, one day to go. What if I took Mia for you Saturday and you had a day to get a proper massage, have an afternoon nap?”
She broke away from his hands and turned to face him. “Reece, that’s not your job.”
His chin came up, that stubborn set to his jaw. “Would it help?”
It would be incredible but she wasn’t doing it. Too many lines crossed. “You’re right, I’m horrifically tired and this problem at work is nowhere near fixed yet. Merrill and Joe love to mind Mia, I can always ask them to take her for a sleepover. Speaking of what’s not your job. Are you staying late in the evenings because you want to or because you think I need you to?”
He shrugged and it said, don’t make me be honest about that and it meant she had to.
“Reece?”
“I rarely do anything I don’t want to.”
“Reece.”
“I don’t have to apologise for who I am with you.”
He didn’t flinch from that, but she did. “Does she know how you feel?”
“I’m not good at keeping secrets. I’m not one of those guys with deep dark intense hidden feelings. There’s no mystery about me. This—what you see here, this meat suit, this is me. Sky only wants the best for me, she’s thinking about the future. Making me think about it, and what I think is, we will want to go to different places with different people.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We’ve had a good time and maybe we can fix it. But if we can’t then it’ll be because she doesn’t think I’m good enough for her.”
Audrey drew her knees up under her and turned into Reece. She put both hands to his face, moved her thumb on his cheek and felt the bristles there. “You do know you’re superb. Mia loves you. I can’t do without you. We’ve both fallen in love with you.” She searched his eyes for defeat but didn’t find it. She wanted to crawl into his lap. “Everything about you.”
He looked shocked and she moved her hands away. She was so tired and he was so much, too much, but she had to make him understand. “You know what I mean. You’ve made my life easy, the perfect employee.”
He squeezed her hands back. “Right, yeah.” He pulled away. “I knew that’s what you meant. I should go. You need to sleep.” He stood. He was telling her this was over. “Promise me you’ll talk to Merrill and Joe about taking Mia the weekend.”
She stood with him. Watched him yawn and stretch, arms out wide, his huge chest lifting with the arch of his spine. Would it be terribly wrong to hug him? She could simply walk into his open arms and wrap herself around him. “I will.”
He collected his shoes, his bag, his beach towel and car keys and she walked him to the door. She held it open for him, shivering in a blast of cooler air coming from outside.
He stood in the threshold and hesitated. “Sleep well. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
He looked at her as if he might want to touch her. He lifted his hand and she tensed. “Thank you for staying with Mia, and for the neck rub.”
He adjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder and gave her a nod. She watched him go, weaving on her feet, slightly sick to the stomach from tiredness and the weight of the knowledge of how badly she’d wanted to kiss him, and the appalling notion he wanted to kiss her too.
11: Moody Blues
Junna handed Reece a takeaway coffee and he could’ve kissed her. She glanced towards Mia, digging with her spade in the sand with Toby, the boy she nannied. “Did Mia muck up? You look like you had a hard night.”
He took the lid off the cup so he could get the smell as well as the taste of the coffee. “Audrey had a very late night at work. I didn’t get much sleep.”
He’d crept in, trying not to wake Sky, but that crapped up. She’d grumbled at him about being taken advantage of and he’d stared at the ceiling for an age and woken with a headache, after what felt like five minutes sleep, too tired for his usual run.
“Audrey works too hard,” said Carrie, taking a seat beside him on big rug they had laid out on the sand under the shade tent. Her daughter, Eugenia, was jumping waves at the shore with Hailey and Tatum. It was hot and he was sweating and he’d have given anything to take his shirt off and catch some rays, but he didn’t fancy the stir that’d cause. He’d have given more to crash out and catch another hour or two of sleep. None of the others would mind watching Mia. He might be less grumpy if he could shut his eyes for a bit.
Carrie, rubbed lotion on her arm. “She’s trying to beat the men at their own game. But you can’t have everything.”
He resented that on Audrey’s behalf. On Charlie’s. On his own. “Why shouldn’t she have the same career a man does?” He clocked Carrie a look. “Am I the only feminist here?”
Junna laughed. “Got nothing to do with feminism. Audrey’d have to be Superwoman.”
“Well, she has a sidekick.” Carrie nudged him with her elbow. “And Reece more useful than Graham.” She adjusted the brim of her hat. “So she can try.”