‘Who? Oh …’ she smiled, successfully diverted. ‘I threw a plate of Spaghetti Marinara at him one night, but he ducked and it hit his wife. She was fat too, but she didn’t have much of a sense of humour. She fired me in front of the whole restaurant, but at least I still had my self-respect. I was given a standing ovation as I—stop the car!’
‘What’s the matter, are you ill?’ But he obeyed her immediately, swivelling to look at her, sharp-eyed. ‘Are you all right?’
‘You smiled!’ she breathed, full of the discovery. ‘I’ve never seen you do it before.’
‘I can hardly grin like a maniac all the time just for your benefit. Is that why I stopped the car?’
‘You don’t look in the least like a maniac. You looked rather cute.’ Julia wasn’t to be diverted again.
This time she received it head on and she stared in fascination. His whole face changed, eyes crinkling endearingly at the edges, the grey irises hazing into blue, like a sunwarmed sky after a rainshower. His smile was slightly crooked, revealing the fullness of his lower lip and straight, even teeth. It was a beautiful, masculine smile, one that made you want to smile back, and keep on smiling.
Julia could hardly believe the difference it made to this careful, controlled man and it further strengthened her belief that he was worth cultivating. She wouldn’t be satisfied with a nodding acquaintanceship with his strange, complex personality. She wanted more, more perhaps than he was willing to offer, but it was unthinkable that she should retreat now to the safe, uncontroversial distance that he kept everyone else at. She had trespassed this far, and now she must cling to her advantage.
‘Admit it,’ she teased softly, with more confidence than she felt. ‘Under that grizzly skin is hidden a sweet ole honey bear.’
He restarted the engine, casting her a brooding glance as if he sensed her purpose. ‘Don’t you ever give up?’
‘Nope. I may be small, but I’m sassy!’
‘I had noticed.’
They drove on, Julia content to let the conversation take a less personal turn. She felt she had achieved a major victory. They were no longer locked into that circle of challenge and counter challenge, now a new element had entered their relationship. She found herself liking his articulate intelligence. He was talking to her as an equal, and what a difference it made!
They parted by the Post Office and arranged to meet in an hour at the wharf.
‘While I’m here I may as well stock up on some fresh fish, if you don’t mind, said Julia, taking it for granted that he wouldn’t. She wandered around the nearly empty streets of the quiet town, making a number of small purchases before strolling in the direction of a circling c
loud of seagulls that told her one of the fishing boats had arrived.
She was skilfully haggling over a small box of shiny-eyed schnapper and some very active crayfish when Hugh found her. He didn’t join her immediately but watched from a distance, his bulk leant on an iron bollard, as she carried on a subtle flirtation with the fisherman. Long experience in the markets had taught Julia that men didn’t resent a woman’s hard bargaining if it was leavened with good-humoured repartee. Ros’s hair would stand on end, but Julia enjoyed it in the same spirit as her adversaries.
‘Do you always operate like that?’ Hugh asked as he helped her with her bargains.
‘Why not? I’ve got the equipment!’ She put the plastic bucket of crays into the boot of the Maserati. ‘I hope you don’t mind if your car smells a bit fishy for a while.’
‘Do I have a choice?’
‘I could always put my thumb out,’ she said, tongue in cheek. ‘There are people who would pick me up, fish and all.’
‘As you say, you have the equipment.’
Julia looked at him quickly, wondering if he was smiling again. His face was bland. ‘You have a body too you know, everybody uses non-verbal language.’
‘But not quite so blatantly as you.’
‘Rubbish!’ scoffed Julia. ‘You’re as blatant as Mt Egmont, without even moving. You just stand and stare and the rest of us quail.’
‘I hope you don’t have the audacity to include yourself in that “us”.’
‘No, well, I think we’ve already agreed I have a big mouth.’
Hugh had his hand on the key in the ignition, but before he turned it he looked at her, his eyes dropping involuntarily to her mouth as she spoke. It definitely wasn’t big, though her lips were full, the upper lip a perfect bow even without an outlining of lipstick. She felt an uncharacteristic surge of self-consciousness as he stared at her and moistened her lips one against the other as if she could hide them from his gaze. The grey eyes rose to meet her startled blue ones and for an instant Julia saw masculine curiosity. He looked away and the moment was gone but she was left with a quickening sense of excitement that dismayed her. He was so big, so strong, so controlled … not at all the kind of man who attracted her.
He drove faster on the way home, but still safely, with margin for other people’s errors and Julia gradually relaxed as the talk remained amiable. So confident was she that he had begun to revise his former opinion of her that she wasn’t offended when the conversation turned to his family and he remarked on the way she was playing Richard and Steve off against each other.
‘I’m not playing, they are,’ she shrugged. ‘They don’t need any encouragement from me.’
‘Come on, Julia, flirting is as natural to you as breathing. Some active discouragement might help.’