She turned around to find him watching her closely. Too closely. ‘I don’t know that I’m very hungry.’
‘Oh, no.’ His voice was grim. ‘I’m not having you fainting on me when we fly to Rhodes tomorrow. You are going to eat, Lex—even if I have to find a spoon and feed you myself.’
She wanted to fight him but she knew he was right. Hunger made your thinking go haywire and that was the last thing she needed. She sighed. ‘Okay, I’ll eat. But I don’t want to go and sit in some fancy restaurant. I can’t face the thought of dressing up and having to sit with other people watching us. Or rather, watching you.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘I don’t tend to attract unwanted attention these days.’
He glanced at her hair with curious eyes. ‘Is that why you lost the red?’
‘Partly. And I could no longer face going to the hairdressers’ every six weeks to have my roots touched up.’
‘That often?’
She smiled. ‘Didn’t you realise? That kind of glossy hair doesn’t just happen by magic, no matter what the ads might promise.’
‘And the glasses? Do you wear them because they make you look so different and reduce your chances of being recognised?’
‘Actually, no. I wear them because they’re good for all the detailed work I do with my jewellery design.’ She found herself wondering whether he liked them or not, but Xenon’s opinion of her trendy spectacles didn’t count. She liked them and that was what mattered. She didn’t add that she felt safer behind them. That their slightly geeky look fitted her new image of herself. ‘And I was always losing my contact lenses.’
‘Tell me about it,’ he said. ‘I seemed to spend half my time on my hands and knees looking for the damned things.’ He gave a lazy smile. ‘But I rather enjoyed being on the floor with you for what you might call legitimate purposes.’
Their eyes met.
‘Xenon, don’t.’
‘Don’t what?’
‘Don’t keep dredging up memories.’ Especially not happy ones. ‘There’s no point.’
‘Okay.’ He lifted his hands in mock-surrender. ‘The past is off-limits. Just come downstairs when you’re ready and I’ll fix dinner.’
‘You?’ Lexi blinked. ‘Did I hear that correctly? Xenon Kanellis fixing dinner? Why, you wouldn’t know where to start unless it involved speed-dialling the nearest Michelin-starred restaurant.’
‘Want to bet?’
‘I think I’ll leave the betting to my brother.’ She pulled a face. ‘Or hopefully not. So what’s on the menu? A take-out from the local deli?’
‘Wait and see,’ he responded coolly and walked out.
Lexi didn’t move for a moment or two after the door had closed behind him. She wanted to go back over everything he’d said, and to replay it in her mind like a teenager with her first crush.
He’d thought she might want to give their marriage another go?
But—as she’d said—there was absolutely no point dredging up memories and so she went into the bathroom, determined to wash all thoughts of him away.
Afterwards she put on a pair of jeans and gave her reflection a satisfied nod. Xenon wasn’t a big fan of jeans because he thought it was a crime for a woman to cover up her legs. But if her legs were covered then he wouldn’t look at them in the way she was discovering she still liked. And just to really slam the message home, she pulled on a baggy black T-shirt, with a giant pink sequinned lollipop on the front.
He had laid the table in the garden and lit lots of little tea-lights and she found that as astonishing as anything else which had happened. Xenon managing to put a match to tea-lights? Whatever next? Xenon discovering that food came from shops, and that you actually had to go and buy it?
But she was somewhat relieved to discover that the familiar macho Xenon was never too far from the surface because when she walked into the garden, he looked up and scowled.
‘What’s that hideous thing you’re wearing?’
She affected innocence as she ran a reflective forefinger over the garish pink sequins. ‘This? It’s one of a batch from our last tour, which never got sold. Extra-extra-large. If you’re interested I can always have one couriered to you. I’ve got masses of them back at the cottage.’
He gave a flicker of a smile as he poured a glass of wine and handed it to her. ‘Tempting, but I’ll pass. Now, eat.’