Break Up to Make Up

by Fiona Harper

  The house was not as bad close up. In the summer, the wild flowers in the garden would probably spring to life, but it wasn’t even March yet and, apart from a few snowdrops, everything was brown.

  She ended up in the little courtyard of outbuildings that had probably once been stables or barns. How would she know? She was a city girl through and through.

  These could be converted into nice little design studios, given the proper injection of cash. Large skylights in the sloping roofs would give wonderful light. A door was half-open on one of the buildings and she stuck her head round it, making sure the cows had left long ago.

  Not bad. It was bigger than it looked from the outside and…

  A flicker of movement in the far corner halted her mental planning. A man in a suit was standing with his back to her.

  She coughed. ‘Mr…?’

  The name on the email had gone straight out of her head. In fact, she wasn’t sure if there had been a name on it at all. Very unprofessional of his secretary. She would have noticed sooner if she hadn’t been so preoccupied with shoring up her crumbling life.

  He turned and the world lurched.

  ‘Nick?’

  He nodded. No smiles. No dimples.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I’m the owner of FX Designs. I need your help.’

  It wasn’t much information, but it scrambled her brain all the same.

  ‘Couldn’t you have called someone else? This is all a bit…’ Awkward? Surreal? Downright bonkers?

  ‘I needed the best. You are the best, aren’t you?’

  That was what she told her clients.

  ‘Professional help or personal help?’ she asked, wanting firmer ground.

  ‘Let’s start with professional.’

  She looked round the dusty cowshed and raised her hands in a question. ‘I normally work with established companies, sorting out things that have gone wrong. Yours isn’t even off the ground yet. If this is all some stupid prank…’

  He walked towards her. ‘I was worried you’d think that, and I almost just called you up to talk, but I felt I needed to back up what I wanted to say to you—to show you I’m serious about this.’

  New, serious Nick was making her nervous. She picked at a fingernail as he came closer.

  ‘OK. So you want to turn this place into a studio? Like the one you were thinking of building with Andy?’

  ‘Spot-on. Andy’s too far away. I wanted somewhere that was an easy commute into London.’

  ‘For the film studios?’

  ‘No. For you.’

  ‘Me?’ Surely that wasn’t a squeak that had just left her mouth.

  ‘Didn’t the email say I had personnel problems?’

  ‘Um. Yes.’

  ‘That’s because I did something really stupid.’

  He was standing right in front of her now. She gulped.

  ‘I let my pride get the better of me and I let somebody go that I shouldn’t have,’ he continued. ‘I’m so sorry, Adele. Once again, I forgot to put myself in your shoes.’

  She gulped again, this time to try to keep a lid on some very unprofessional feelings threatening to break through the surface.

  He reached out and stroked her cheek. The look on his face was so tender.

  ‘You had every right to be angry, Nick. I let you down. I’m damaged goods.’

  ‘No, I let you down. You did what I’d been asking you to do all along and as soon as you bared your soul I threw it back in your face. Forgive me.’

  He kissed away the tear that had broken ranks.

  ‘I should have told you before, I just…’

  ‘Shhh. I know. We both made mistakes. We defended our own positions instead of pulling together and working as a team but, from now on, it’s going to be different.’

  ‘It is?’

  He smiled and his dimples appeared. ‘I need a partner.’

  ‘Because you sacked the old one?’ she asked, daring the tiniest of smiles.

  ‘No, I need the old one back. Seems I can’t live without her.’

  ‘I don’t think she’s functioning very well without you either. She needs you more than she ever let on.’

  She pulled his head towards her and kissed him. She was tempted to show him how much—right here, right now. When they broke apart, he grinned.

  ‘I know I’m the adventurous type, but even I draw the line at cobwebby cowsheds, sweetheart.’

  ‘Cobwebs?’

  Adele was out of there like a shot. Nick followed hot on her heels, laughing.

  ‘Come and see the house,’ he said, tugging on her hand. ‘I’ve got a problem only you can help me with.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘It needs filling with a few children and I’m lacking the necessary equipment on my own.’

  She stopped and let go of his hand. ‘So might I be.’

  He pulled her into a fierce hug and kissed her forehead. ‘Spending more than a few days in a row together might help. How often was I called away to work at the crucial time of the month? And if we can’t do it the old-fashioned way, we’ll adopt or do the test-tube thing or grow them in a big old cabbage patch out the back here.’

  He pointed to a neglected vegetable plot round the side of the house.

  She looked up at him. ‘I love you.’

  He flashed his dimples. ‘I am pretty wonderful.’

  That deserved a punch on the arm. He got one.

  ‘I surrender. I’ll tell the truth—just don’t hurt me any more!’ Then his expression became more serious and he lowered his head and kissed her so gently it was like a whisper on her lips.

  ‘I love you, Adele. Not Perfect Adele—she’s a pain in the butt—but beautiful, feisty, brave you.’

  Oh, no. She was back up on the pedestal and this time the height of it was truly terrifying.

  Her face fell. ‘I’m not brave. I’m a coward. You of all people should know that.’ She had to make him see. Super Adele was gone—dead and buried—and she didn’t want him worshipping a ghost.

  He cradled her face in his hands and made her look at him. Then he kissed her, a slow, delicate kiss that made her insides turn to baby-pink marshmallow.

  ‘What you did…telling me about our baby…was very brave, Adele. You knew it was risky, but you did it anyway, out of love for me, because I had asked you to be open. And I responded with extreme cowardice by running in the opposite direction.’

  She pulled her mouth into a crinkly smile. ‘But you came back…again. I just can’t get rid of you, can I?’

  ‘Nope.’ His face, so serious a few moments before, broke into a wide grin.

  Over the next hour or so they wandered round the property making plans, daring to dream things they’d both thought forever put on hold. Adele drove Nick home and during the journey they chatted excitedly about renovating the farm and planned for the future.

  It was almost like old times. Almost.

  Adele smiled to herself. This time it was better. There was a deeper connection than had ever been there before and a deeper understanding of each other. They might be complete opposites, but this time they were going to make their differences work for them, rather than against them.

  Later that evening Adele wandered out into the garden of their London house in her bathrobe. She would be sad to leave this place, but the idea of renovating the farmhouse and having Nick working next door sounded fantastic. He’d even pointed out a little dairy that he’d thought could be turned into an office for her.

  The frosty air clung to her skin, but the moon was full and large as it rose in the dusky lavender sky. She wanted to stand out here and look at it for a while. It seemed to be shining full of possibilities.

  Nick came up behind her and circled his arms round her waist. She leant back into him, relishing the warmth he was giving out.

  ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ she said.

  ‘That’s because it’s magic hour.’

  Uh-oh. She could feel on
e of Nick’s cheesy one-liners coming on. She’d just have to head him off at the pass.

  ‘I thought you said it was all to do with colour temperature and stuff like that. Seems like plain old physics to me. Nothing magical about that.’

  Nick traced a line of kisses down the side of her neck and all the little hairs there started to tingle.

  ‘How about this?’ he murmured. ‘Any magic there?’

  She smiled and let her eyes drift closed.

  ‘Promising.’

  Nick backed away and tugged at her hand. A cold rush of air hit the space where he had been. He raised just one eyebrow.

  ‘I think you’d better come inside and let me show you just how magical the next hour—or possibly more—could be.’

  And then he was gone, leaving the patio door open as an invitation.

  Rats! She’d walked right into that one.

  Still, it didn’t stop her running into the house after him. She wasn’t sure she could perform magic, but Nick had been spot-on—when the two of them got it right, it was wonderful.

  BREAK UP TO MAKE UP

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-0424-3

  First North American Publication 2007.

  Copyright © 2007 by Fiona Harper.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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