Anything but Vanilla(32)
Sorrel stood and watched for a moment, a sharp little stab of pain of memory, loss, scything through her as Nancy scooped up her long-limbed daughter and swung her round.
Life is uncertain. Seize the day...
* * *
Alexander was making an inventory of the freezer contents when she returned. Needless to say he hadn’t bothered with a white coat or hat, but he had fastened his hair back with an elastic band. It only served to emphasise his strong profile, good cheekbones, powerful neck.
‘Why don’t you go home and give your body a chance to catch up with the rest of you?’ she said irritably as he stooped to check the bottom shelf and his jeans tightened over his thighs. He was just so...male! ‘I’m not going to cheat you.’
He looked up, blue eyes fixing her with a sharp look. ‘What’s rattled your cage? Didn’t you find Nancy?’
‘Yes, I found her.’
Thanks to Alexander West and his unexpected generosity she now had an ice-cream parlour, but no one to run it. Nancy deserved a break, heaven alone knew, but the timing couldn’t have been worse.
She washed her hands, put on the white coat, geeky hat and, aware that he was watching her, pointedly stretched a new pair of micro-thin gloves over her hands. She checked the syrup she’d made using the grapefruit juice, to make sure the sugar had dissolved, then poured half of it into one of the ice-cream makers. That done, she ripped the foil off a champagne bottle and attacked the wire.
Alexander closed the freezer door, put down the clipboard he was holding and, joining her at the workbench, held out his hand. ‘Let me do that.’
‘I can manage,’ she said, continuing to twist the wire as if she were wringing his neck.
‘I don’t doubt it, but if you go at it like that you’re going to break a nail.’
‘Could you be any more patronising?’ she asked, not bothering to look up.
‘You’re already having a seriously bad day and the last thing you need is to turn it into a disaster.’
She looked up, about to give him a piece of her mind, and saw that he was grinning. He’d been teasing her...
For a moment she was so surprised that she forgot to breathe. Then, without warning, she was spluttering, desperately trying to hold back an explosion of giggles. This was so not funny. Except that it was. And exactly what she needed. A good laugh...
‘Bastard,’ she said. ‘A broken nail is not a disaster. But you’re right, I don’t have time to visit the nail bar.’
‘That’s better,’ he said, taking the bottle from her and, while she struggled to get her giggles under control—stress-released, exactly like the bubbles in champagne, obviously—he dealt efficiently with the wire and, holding the cork firmly in one of those capable hands, twisted the bottle with the other so that they parted with no more than a gentle pop. None of that flashy fizz bang whoosh for Alexander West. ‘I don’t know what’s upset you,’ he said, setting the bottle on the work surface, ‘but in that mood you’re going to curdle the sorbet.’
‘If I did it would be your fault.’
‘Isn’t everything?’ he said, reaching for another bottle.
‘Probably not,’ she admitted, ‘but I’m going to have to manage without Nancy and in this instance you are definitely to blame.’
That got his attention. ‘Are you telling me that she’s already found another job?’
‘Oh, please. She never got as far as the job agency. You shouldn’t have paid her off in, um, cash,’ she said, demonstrating that he wasn’t the only one who could lift one eyebrow at a time.
‘I didn’t have my cheque book with me.’
‘Oh, I understand. I mean, who carries a cheque book these days?’ she replied and he shifted his head an inch, acknowledging the hit. ‘Unfortunately cash is a lot easier to spend.’
‘She can’t possibly have spent it all,’ he protested.
‘No?’ Just how much had he given her? ‘Not all, but a new hairdo, a holiday and some clothes for her little girl must have put a pretty big dent in it.’
He let slip a word that she wasn’t meant to hear. ‘I’m sorry, but that was supposed to tide her over until she found another job,’ he said, exasperated. Not quite as laid back as he looked, then.
‘You know that. I know that. Nancy...’ She lifted her hand in a helpless gesture. ‘I was so mad at her when she told me what she’d done that I wanted to shake her, but she hasn’t had a break since her boyfriend decided that fatherhood was interfering with his lifestyle...’ Her voice snagged in her throat. Women were so much at the mercy of their emotions. Of the men who took advantage of them and then walked away from their responsibilities.