Читать книгу All the Romance You Need This Christmas: 5-Book Festive Collection - Romy Sommer, Georgia Hill - Страница 14

Tyler still hadn’t made it back to their room by the time Dory, full of cake and apprehension, finally fell into bed. She spared a brief thought for where he might have disappeared to, but mostly she was just grateful for the solitude. She needed to think.

She shouldn’t have got so chatty with Lucas. But he’d started sharing about his life, and why he’d pulled away from the Alexander family, and it just seemed natural to let him see a bit of her life too. Even if it wasn’t an entirely truthful picture.

But Lucas wasn’t stupid. The questions he’d been asking… he had suspicions, she was sure. And she was a lousy liar. If he pressed her any further, she’d cave, she knew she would.

And would that be such a bad thing? Dory tried to mentally shush the devil on her shoulder, but she was a persuasive little creature. In her head, she sounded just like her little sister Molly…

If Lucas found out the truth – that she and Tyler weren’t really dating – what would it change? He already knew she was his assistant. What was one more little secret between friends? Especially since Lucas seemed more of a friend to her in this hostile environment than her fake boyfriend did. If Lucas was in on the whole masquerade, he could help her, maybe. Somehow.

She sighed and turned on to her side, burrowing deeper into the duvet. She was making excuses for herself. The truth was, if Lucas knew she wasn’t really dating Tyler, maybe he’d stop holding himself back.

Dory might not have the best track record with men, but she knew enough to know when a guy was interested. She’d seen Lucas’s eyes linger on the neckline of her camisole top – and seen him yank his gaze away again. She’d felt the connection in the moments of silence, known when he said more than he meant to just because he couldn’t help himself.

She knew that, in other circumstances, he might make a move. Or she might. Not that night, maybe, but one night, and soon.

But not if he thought she was dating his brother.

The problem was, of course, that even if she told him the truth, she couldn’t do anything about the attraction between them. She was there with Tyler, that was the deal. And if somebody stumbled across her and Lucas… well, the jig would be up and her ticket home was sure to be cancelled.

Flipping on to her back, she stared up at the ceiling again. There was only one thing for it – she just had to wait it out. Eventually, Tyler would have to come clean about who the woman in the photos really was. Or, even if he didn’t, he’d fake break-up with her, or vice versa, and she’d be free of all this. And maybe then, just maybe, she could call Lucas up and ask if he had a table free at that restaurant of his…

When she finally dozed off, imagining a farmhouse kitchen and another chocolate cake, Tyler still hadn’t come to bed.

He was there when she woke up the next morning, though, passed out on the sofa with a blanket tugged over his t-shirt and a bare, hairy calf sticking out the end. Dory stared down at him, wondering how on earth he’d managed to sleep in such an uncomfortable position. His arm lolled off the edge of the sofa, his phone on the floor just below. It must have slipped out of his fingers when he dropped off. Knowing he was bound to stand on it when he woke up – and then blame her for it somehow – Dory picked it up to put on the table. As she did, the screen lit up, and she couldn’t help but read the notifications. Three missed calls and eight text messages. All from one person – someone Tyler had stored in his phone as ‘Angel.’

Was that a name or an endearment, Dory wondered? Not that it mattered. It had to be the woman in the photos, right? And Dory had no interest in finding out her identity until after her trip home. No questions. That was Tyler’s rule.

Placing the phone securely on the coffee table, she headed for the shower, only to freeze when the phone started ringing.

Holding her breath, Dory stood in the middle of the room, waiting for Tyler to wake up and answer it. But the only sign that Tyler was even still alive was the loud snore he gave out as he turned over.

She should ignore it. It wasn’t any of her business. Except… clearly this woman was going to keep ringing. And Dory’s restraint only went so far…

With a muttered curse, she spun round and grabbed the phone again. Angel, the screen read, unsurprisingly. Dory pressed answer.

‘Hello? Tyler Alexander’s phone. Can I help you?’ she asked, in her best bubbly assistant voice.

There was a long pause on the other end. Then, finally, a woman said, ‘Is Tyler there?’

‘I’m afraid he’s… indisposed right now. I’m his assistant, Dory. Can I take a message.’

‘Yes. No.’ The woman sighed. ‘I guess… just ask him to call Cheryl, yeah?’

Cheryl. Not Angel. So now she had a name, and Dory really wished she didn’t. Cheryl left me because I wasn’t living the life she married me for anymore. Lucas’s words from the night before echoed around her head.

‘Of course. I’ll tell him,’ she said, mind reeling, but Cheryl had already hung up.

Tyler, what the hell are you doing?

***

Lucas was already at the dining table when Dory walked in for breakfast. Had already been there a while, in fact, even though he could have done with another hour in bed. He hadn’t wanted to miss her.

His father sat at one end of the table, engrossed in the paper. Felicia was nowhere to be seen, although she could certainly be heard.

‘What do you mean it hasn’t been delivered?’ Felicia reached an almost shriek on the last few words, and Dory froze in the doorway.

Lucas raised an eyebrow at her and, for a moment, she stared back, before she shook her head and slipped into the chair she’d been sitting in for dinner the night before. Had she spent the night berating herself for giving away too much to him? Probably. Dory seemed the sort to overthink things. Not that it mattered, at this point. Too late now, sweetheart.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked across the table, voice low, presumably so she didn’t interrupt Felicia’s high-pitched rant at poor Freya.

‘Looks like the Christmas tree hasn’t turned up,’ he explained, helping himself to more eggs. ‘Mother always wants to leave it until the last minute so it looks perfect for the party.’

‘I didn’t expect to see you for breakfast.’ Dory glanced at him under her lashes as she reached for the coffee pot.

‘I bumped into Tyler late last night,’ Lucas explained. ‘He didn’t look as if he was likely to be up early this morning, so I figured you might need some moral support.’

‘That was nice of you,’ Dory said, surprised.

Lucas shrugged. ‘Just another two days to go,’ he said. ‘I figure we’ve got to stick together.’

Dory smiled at him. ‘Sounds good to me.’

Lucas looked away, reaching blindly for the plate of croissants. Dory’s smile was bad for his resolve. And whatever happened next, he needed to do this properly.

He’d been up for hours after Dory went to bed, looking through all the photos responsible for her presence there that holiday, and reading every single gossip column that went with them. Frustratingly, the lighting was so bad in the photos it made the details hard to make out, and with only Tyler facing the camera, identifying the woman from behind was tricky. But Lucas had spent a lot of time over the last day observing Dory, and coupled with Dory’s strange admission about her deal with Tyler, he was almost certain that she wasn’t the woman in the photo.

Which meant that she – and Tyler – were lying. But why? And who the hell had Tyler actually been with that he thought bringing his assistant home for Christmas was a better idea?

‘They ran out!’ Felicia stormed into the room, hands waving in disbelief. ‘How can a Christmas tree supplier run out of trees?’

‘They’re out of all trees?’ Patrick asked, looking up from his paper for the first time that morning.

‘Well, no. They offered us a small seven-footer.’ Felicia dropped into her chair. ‘As if that would fill the space in our hallway.’

Dory’s face was an image of carefully studied concern, when Lucas knew she actually had to be thinking, who calls a seven-foot tree small?

‘So, what are we going to do?’ Patrick asked. ‘Can we demand some sort of recompense?’

‘Perhaps. But that doesn’t solve our tree issue.’

‘Oh dear,’ Dory said, looking surprisingly sympathetic. ‘Shall I pour you some coffee?’

Felicia looked surprised, but nodded. ‘And quite honestly, I don’t have time to deal with this today. There’s so much to do before the guests arrive!’ she said, sitting down and adding cream to her coffee. ‘The caterers will be here any time now to start prepping, and you have to supervise them, you know. No idea about garnishes, some of them. It’s quite exhausting. But how can we have the party without a tree?’

‘It all sounds very difficult,’ Dory said. She wasn’t looking at him at all, Lucas realised. He’d expected maybe an eye roll, or secret smile, at his mother’s problems, especially after their conversations the night before, but there was nothing. She must suspect he knew the truth. He needed to ask her. He needed to know what was going on.

Because if Dory wasn’t actually dating Tyler… well. A whole world of possibilities opened up.

And Lucas knew just how to take advantage of them. ‘I’ll go and fetch you a tree. Eight or nine foot, right?’

Felicia blinked at him. ‘Well, I don’t know where you’re going to find one on Christmas Eve. We use the best supplier, you know, so if they’re out—’

‘We live next to a forest, Mother,’ Lucas pointed out. ‘There’s a Christmas Tree Farm up in the hills. I’ll drive up and see what they have. They can probably chop me one down then and there.’ He grinned. ‘And I’ll take my axe, just in case.’

‘Lucas Alexander you will do no such thing!’ Felicia said. ‘The last thing this party needs is you showing up missing a few fingers.’

Just as he’d expected. ‘I’ll tell you what, then. I’ll take Dory with me. She can make sure I don’t get too axe-happy.’

‘Dory?’ Felicia said, just as Dory said, ‘Me?’

Felicia’s gaze swung over to Dory. ‘Of course, I’d love to help,’ Dory said, just as Lucas had known she would. After all, she was still trying to get into their good books, for some reason. Possibly a pay rise, for all he knew.

‘Well… if you’re sure,’ Felicia said, frowning slightly.

‘You don’t seem very sure,’ Lucas pointed out.

‘She’s probably remembering the last time you chose the tree. We ended up with that miserable thing that shed needles by the bucketload.’ Patrick folded his newspaper. ‘However, under the circumstances, I recommend that you let them get on with it, Felicia. Tyler too, if he ever surfaces. They can even decorate it, which should keep them out of your way for the day.’

‘You know we’re not actually children, right?’ Lucas asked even though, right then, he almost felt like one. How many years had it been since he last chose and decorated the Alexander family tree on Christmas Eve?

‘At Christmas time, we’re all children,’ Tyler announced, walking in and dropping a kiss on the top of Dory’s head. She jumped at the contact, which gave Lucas a strange moment of satisfaction.

‘So you’ll be coming to fetch the tree too?’ Lucas asked, praying Tyler would say no. How was he supposed to get the truth out of Dory if her supposed boyfriend was there?

‘Tree? God no.’ Tyler grabbed a croissant. ‘I’ve got work to do.’

‘On Christmas Eve?’ Dory asked. ‘But you said…’

‘Sorry, honey.’ Tyler didn’t sound very apologetic, Lucas thought. And had Dory actually flinched at the endearment? God, how had he not figured out what a sham their relationship was before this? ‘Something came up.’

‘Is that what your phone was ringing about this morning?’ Dory asked. ‘Someone seemed very eager to get hold of you.’

Something in the way she said it, the slight edge in her voice that he hadn’t heard before, told Lucas there was something more than work going on here. And he was more determined than ever to find out exactly what.

Gulping down the last mouthful of his coffee, Lucas got to his feet. ‘Come on, then. If it’s just the two of us, we’d better get to work.’

Dory gave him a tight smile and pushed her empty plate away. Had she even managed any breakfast? ‘We better had,’ she said. ‘Not long to go now, after all.’

***

There was no reason for her to be nervous about being alone with Lucas; intellectually, Dory knew that. They’d spent a large portion of the previous evening just the two of them and some cake. This wasn’t new, it wasn’t weird. He was Tyler’s brother, and Lucas still believed that she was his prospective future sister-in-law.

At least, she hoped he did.

That was why she was nervous, she decided, as she climbed into the passenger seat of Lucas’s four-by-four: her own paranoia about what she might have said the night before and what Lucas might have inferred. Why was it so impossible to remember the exact wording she’d used, after the event? Had she told Lucas about the deal before or after he asked about the photos?

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. There was also this morning’s discovery. It was one thing to lie to Lucas about her relationship with Tyler when all that was at stake was her job and her trip home. Quite another thing now she knew that Tyler was sleeping with Lucas’s ex-wife.

What if Lucas went and looked again at the photos? Would he recognise Cheryl? They’d been married, for heaven’s sake. He must have more than a passing familiarity with her shape and form. But would it be enough to identify her as the shadowed and hidden woman in the photos? Or would it simply never cross Lucas’s mind that his brother would betray him that way?

She hoped not. She hoped that Lucas never had to find out, never had to be hurt like that. Yes, perhaps there was an argument for telling him the truth, but why, when it could only cause him pain? Surely it was much better to get Tyler to stop the craziness and for them all to move on. If Tyler wasn’t dating Cheryl then he wouldn’t need Dory as a pretend girlfriend, and everything could go back to normal.

Now she just had to convince Tyler of the plan.

‘You’re applying far too much thought to the purchase of a Christmas tree,’ Lucas said, as they turned off the drive to Midfield House and on to the main road. ‘Unless there’s something else on your mind you want to discuss.’

‘No,’ Dory said, too quickly. ‘Just… you know. The tree.’

‘Right.’ Somehow, she got the impression that Lucas didn’t believe her.

‘So, how far away is this Christmas tree farm?’ she asked. Outside the car window, grey and muted-green scenery passed by, edged with a sparkling frost.

‘Not far,’ Lucas said. ‘But the road’s a bit windy. There’s ginger chews in the glovebox if you need them.’ She glanced over at him and he shrugged. ‘Freya had some in the pantry. I grabbed them while you were getting your scarf and gloves. They’re supposed to be good for motion sickness.’

‘Thanks,’ Dory said, feeling somehow guiltier than ever.

The car left the main road for a narrower one, a thoroughfare to nowhere that grew thinner and windier as they rose up into the hills. After ten minutes of climbing, Dory reached for the ginger chews, surprised to realise that they really did help.

‘I’ll have to get some of these for the plane home,’ she mumbled.

‘Take those,’ Lucas said. ‘I won’t need them.’

Dory nodded, but left them in the glovebox, for the journey home.

Eventually, about ten minutes after Dory felt her ears pop, Lucas turned off the track into a muddy space that appeared to be used as a car park. There were only a couple of other cars there – Dory assumed that most people had put up their trees before the last moment. But a bored-looking Santa stood by a wooden shed with a price board, and there was a small stack of trees wrapped in green netting beside him.

Jumping down from the car, Dory followed Lucas over to the shed, her boots slipping on the mud where the ice had melted. As she slid into place beside him, Lucas grabbed her arm, keeping her upright, and too, too close. The heat of his body warmed her through their clothes, and Dory stepped away quickly. The last thing she needed right now was the confused feelings Lucas’s closeness prompted.

Lucas, meanwhile, seemed utterly oblivious to the fact he’d touched her at all. Damn him.

‘Eight foot?’ Santa asked, shaking his head at Lucas’s question. ‘They’ve all gone, last week. Might be some left out in the forest, I guess.’ He turned and hollered behind him. ‘Evie?’

Dory hid a grin as a grumpy teenager in an elf outfit trotted out from behind the shed. The girl’s expression brightened when she spotted Lucas.

‘Whadda ya need, Santa?’ Evie asked, looking up at Lucas through her lashes.

‘These folks need an eight-footer. Want to take them out into the woods, see if you can find one?’

‘Sure thing,’ Evie said, spinning towards the trees so fast that the bell on her hat jingled. ‘Just follow me.’

‘See?’ Lucas whispered as they walked into the trees. ‘Isn’t this more fun than watching my mother yell at the caterers?’

‘Much,’ Dory said. But he was standing too close, and there was something in his voice… What was she missing here?

‘Besides, this way we can carry on getting to know each other,’ he added, as his longer stride brought him even with her.

Dory swallowed. That, right there, was exactly what she was afraid of.

***

She was nervous; he could tell. Lucas allowed himself a small, satisfied smile. Dory wouldn’t let herself look at him, so she’d never notice.

Any uncertainty he’d had about the conclusions he’d reached had vanished. All that was left now was to find out how far Dory was willing to push the charade. How long she’d cling to the story and keep lying to him.

‘So, is this you guys’ first Christmas together?’ Evie asked, from up ahead. Her blonde ponytail swung from side to side as she walked, but not as markedly as her hips. Obviously she hadn’t got the hint yet that he had other things on his mind than a pretty, probably underage, girl. And what he was about to do doubtless wouldn’t help. On the other hand, maybe Dory would get jealous…

‘Oh, we’re not together,’ he said. ‘Dory here is practically my sister-in-law. She’s dating my brother, and he just brought her home to spend Christmas with the family.’ He added enough emphasis to the last few words that Evie could hardly miss his meaning.

The elf spun around, walking backwards through the mud, eyes wide. ‘Wow. Do you think he’s going to propose?’

Dory stumbled over a tree root, and Lucas grabbed her arm once again to steady her. This would be hilarious if she wasn’t lying to him and his family about everything. Lucas couldn’t shake the thought that if Tyler wasn’t really dating his assistant… then the truth must be even worse. He needed to find out what it was. As soon as he got Dory to admit the lies.

‘Um, I don’t think so,’ Dory said. ‘Not yet, anyway. We’ve only been together a few months…’ Evie looked far more disappointed by this than Dory.

Lucas spotted a chance to push his advantage and went for it. ‘Actually, you never told me how you and Tyler got together.’

‘I bet it’s really romantic,’ Evie added. ‘Tell us!’ Lucas had no idea if all elves had such romantic tendencies, but he was grateful for Evie’s. She was making his mission a whole lot easier.

‘Well… Tyler’s my boss, actually,’ Dory started, and Evie gasped.

‘So you had to keep it a secret!’ Evie bounced a little on the toes of her elf boots. They’d stopped walking altogether now, not that Lucas minded.

‘Yeah. But, um, we were working together every day, taking business trips, late-night flights, that sort of thing. And we just grew… closer.’

Close enough for Tyler to persuade her to be his fake girlfriend for the holiday, anyway.

‘And then?’ he asked. ‘How did you get from that to photos of you in a national magazine with Tyler’s hand up your skirt?’

Colour flooded Dory’s cheeks as she stepped back from him. Evie’s excited expression had faded into a frown, and Lucas suspected he’d lost her support entirely.

‘I don’t think that’s any of your damn business.’ Striding forward, Dory waited for Evie to catch her up then added, ‘Now, where are these eight-foot trees? I’d like to get back to my boyfriend at some point this Christmas Eve.’

Dammit. He’d pushed too far and she’d clammed up. He’d hoped the direct approach might fluster the truth out of her. Instead it had effectively ended his fact-finding mission.

He trudged after Dory and Evie, crunching through the frozen mud and leaves, until they found a small selection of taller trees, chopped down but not net-wrapped yet. Dory stood back as he chose the one most likely not to offend his mother, then slung it on to a sledge to drag it back through the woods to Santa and the car.

Dory didn’t speak to him once. But, Lucas decided, that was okay.

It just meant it was time for Plan B.