Mimi was exhausted, physically and emotionally.
It was down to him to do something to put that right—and fast. But how?
Who did he know who could help? Poppy had to be his first port of call; she must have contacts in the city. He tried her mobile phone. There was no answer, so he left a message. This was no time for fake bravado about being the man who could do anything, and he would keep on ringing all night if that meant he could find an answer.
He had to do something to save the fundraiser for Tom, and the fashion show for Mimi. It meant so much to her; he could not let her down, not now. Not ever, if he had his way.
It was a shame his way was not working out very well. Not for this.
What had Tom used to say? ‘There is always a way. You just have to face your worst fears and get on and do it.’
The alternative was to accept defeat and fail. Fail Tom. Fail Poppy. And, most of all, fail Mimi, who was starting to believe in him and carry him along with her.
Hal blew out loud and scanned down the numbers on his phone until he found the name of the one person he had barely spoken to since Tom’s funeral. Now she was the one person who might be able to save his skin and the fundraiser at the same time.
Aurelia DiMarco. Former supermodel and the woman Tom had loved more than his own life.
The woman Hal could not face, knowing that he held the real truth about Tom’s death and could not tell her. Not until the time was right. And he was nowhere near ready to have that conversation with this beautiful woman who had sacrificed her career to live with Tom in a small mountain village. They had been such a happy couple; it broke his heart just to think about the pain she was going through.
Little wonder that she had moved back to New York to work for her family’s chain of luxury hotels and restaurants. Aurelia knew hotel owners in most cities in the world, or at least who to call.
But he was going to have to speak to her first to ask for her help.
Hal’s fingers paused over the call button for another second while he worked out what time it was in New York and whether he was ready for this call, but his finger pressed the button before he could change his mind.
She answered on the third ring.
‘Aurelia? It’s Hal. Yes, it has been a while. I know. Yes, thanks, the leg is a lot better. I’m calling about the fundraiser next weekend for Tom’s foundation. Yes, I am looking forward to seeing you too, Aurelia, only we have a problem. And this time I need your help.’
Mimi turned over to find a comfy spot on her pillow; her eyes were closed tight against the morning light and she tugged the bed sheet higher around her shoulders. She was dreaming of classical music. Violins.
Unless… Oh, no, she groaned. Not a dream. It was the ring tone on her mobile phone.
Why was her phone ringing in the middle of the night?
Mimi half-creaked open one eye and peered at her clock over the top of the sheet. Oh. Was that 8:00 a.m.? Well, that was a first—she had actually slept through for at least twelve hours. She was normally awake and working well before seven. Except, of course, nothing seemed normal to her today. Nothing at all.
She squeezed her eyes together for a moment then blinked hard and pushed herself upright to answer her phone. It was a text message:
I have good news and breakfast. Coffee in ten minutes.
H
Mimi closed her eyes, slid back under the bed clothes and groaned out loud. How dare Hal try and tempt her out of bed with vague promises of good news? Unless, of course, he had magically found a new venue for the fashion show, plus a whole forest of magic elves who were brilliant at stage management in a hurry. Now, that would be worth getting out of bed for.
Her phone rang again, but this time she scrabbled about for it on her bedside table and pulled it down to her level:
Make that very good news and chocolate croissants. And the coffee is already on.
‘You have to love Monday mornings in this city.’
Hal hopped back into the tiny kitchen and emerged with a paper bag with the name of a famous French patisserie on the side. ‘Chocolate croissants, fresh from a Covent Garden bakery. I was wondering if you might like one for breakfast with your coffee. Can I tempt you, Miss Ryan?’
‘You can tempt me with pain au chocolat any day of the week,’ Mimi replied, her hand covering her yawn. She was trying to resist the temptation to tug her dressing gown tighter up to the neck as she inhaled the mouth-watering aroma from the bag she accepted from him. ‘Including Monday. Mmm. Lovely.’
She emptied the croissants onto a china plate. She rested her elbows on the patio table, tried to smile across at Hal and almost managed it. ‘Sorry, I was so upset last night. It was hardly your fault that the hotel caught fire. On the other hand, if you have good news, now would be a really good time to share it.’
Hal pulled out the patio chair only inches away from hers and leant his elbows on the table so that their faces were practically touching as he smiled and said, ‘I’ve found a replacement venue. And it is amazing. Do you think you could be ready to join me there at, say, eleven this morning?’
‘A new venue?’ She squealed and grabbed his arm without thinking, her whole body almost leaping up with excitement. ‘Why on earth didn’t you tell me earlier? Where? What kind of venue? A hotel? Conference centre? Which part of London? And how on earth did you manage to do that between nine yesterday evening and now?’
He held up one hand and shook his head slowly from side to side.
‘Let’s just say friends in high places. The place sounds terrific over the phone, but I need to head over and check it out before asking you to give it your final approval. Be ready to take a phone call with all of the details.’
Mimi felt her head strut forwards and her eyes open wide.
‘Do you mean you won’t even tell me where the new venue is?’
‘What would be the fun in that?’ Hal answered with a closed-mouth smile.
‘So you just expect me to wait around here until you call? Why can’t I come with you? That isn’t fair.’
Hal nodded slowly. ‘Don’t worry; I have it all under control. You are going to have to trust me on this one. Besides, we have the catalogue to complete. I thought you might be rather busy.’
His hair was roughly tousled and his eyes were still a little sleepy in the warm morning sunshine which hit the south-facing patio first thing in the morning. As he smiled at her in that light, he looked ten years younger and twice as attractive. And he had that look she was starting to recognise so well.
Mimi looked away from him and with a gentle shake of the head started teasing away the layers of pastry from her croissant. ‘You are scheming something. I can tell from your face. And I suppose you’re not going to tell me about it either.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t think my poor brain can cope with any more big surprises at this time of the morning.’
He tried to suppress a smile and the whole of his upper lip twitched and twisted in reaction.
‘Then you have something to look forward to.’
Three hours later, Mimi strolled along the inner-city pavement with her head high and a fixed smile on her lips. It was almost noon on a Monday, the sun was shining and she was wearing her dove-grey trouser suit with the narrow lapels and high-waisted flat-front trousers with side pockets large enough that you could actually use them.
Hal had called her with an address and a vague promise that she was going to like the new venue. Now, that was at least some positive news she could hang on to.
As she caught her reflection in the plate glass of a shop window, she could not help but smile back in guilty pleasure. Her cream and grey, woven leather, sling-back high-heel sandals were a perfect match for her cream silk blouse. It had taken her over an hour to style her hair and make-up so that she looked as sophisticated and elegant as her clothes were designed to be but, yes, she did feel fantastic wearing a design from the Mimi Ryan New Classics collection.
And accordin
g to Helena, who was taking care of the shop, she didn’t look too bad either.
Well, she had at least to look the part if she was going to visit a swanky London hotel, even if she did feel like all the stuffing had been teased out of her. Even after her first good night’s sleep in weeks, she still felt tired, but dared not let it show. Hal had promised her an exciting venue to replace the burnt and flooded hotel. So, if there was ever one occasion when she had to make a good impression on a hotel manager, this was it.
Smart hotels rarely had function rooms large enough to stage a catwalk show, especially at short notice, so this new hotel must be quite something. Especially when Hal had kept the location secret until the very last minute. She had waited by her mobile phone on tenterhooks until he’d texted her with an address only a few minutes’ walk from the original venue in this very smart part of town.
This was ever so slightly worrying!
She knew this part of London reasonably well, and she certainly could not recall another large hotel in the area, but things did change very quickly. A new hotel might welcome the publicity from a charity event.
On the other hand, Hal obviously liked playing tricks on people and giving them surprises.
What was he up to?
She was soon going to find out. This was the correct street and the… Oh, no. The Community Climbing Centre.
Climbing centre!
Oh, very funny, Hal. Very funny. Just one more excuse for him to show off his physical prowess before they headed off to the real venue.
Good joke.
Shaking her head, Mimi peeked inside the open door of the huge red-brick building. What she saw was so unlike anything she had ever seen in her life it knocked the air from her lungs.
The old factory building had been opened up to create a vast, flat, hangar-like space with high ceilings above huge stone-block walls.
And covering three of those walls were immense structures, perhaps thirty feet high or more, with small multi-coloured blobs stuck all over their surfaces. Arches overhanging huge blocks, straight walls, angled walls. The sheer scale was overwhelming.
Smaller versions of the climbing walls poked up from the floor like huge boulders which had been dropped there from space. On closer inspection, the blobs looked like half-cups or pegs. They must be where the climbers hung on to as they moved up the wall. Her high-heeled shoes made a distinctive clatter on the hard floor and the sound echoed around the huge room as she moved farther into the cavernous space.
‘Hey, Mimi! I’m over here!’ Hal called out, and she walked in the direction his voice had come from. She couldn’t see anyone, then suddenly there was a low grunt and she looked up above her head instead of around.
Hal was hanging almost horizontal from a rope attached to a belt around his waist and a harness between his legs. He was sitting in a bucket-shaped seat being lowered to the ground by two young men who were in charge of the ropes.
Mimi’s breath caught in her throat as she watched him descending down the climbing wall.
‘Hal! Please be careful!’
Thirty seconds later, Hal’s right foot made contact with the ground at the base of the wall; he unclipped his harness and pulled off his climbing helmet.
His face was alive with energy and excitement as he thanked the helpers then turned to Mimi.
‘Welcome to my world.’
Mimi glanced back at the wall above her head and slowly exhaled.
‘That was impressive. Do you come here often?’
‘A couple of times a year,’ he replied. ‘This is where the local experts give free climbing lessons for the disabled. They love it, especially the kids. Most of the money from the fashion show is coming right here, so feel free to pop in any time you like for a bit of abseiling. That harness can take a wheelchair.’
She shook her head very slowly from side to side. ‘I am far too much of a coward to even try, but thanks for the invite.’
Hal laughed and rapped his knuckles on the top of his helmet. ‘Me too. It is all about controlling your fear; that’s what makes climbing so safe. I’ve just been following up with the volunteers to check that they are okay with the new venue before Saturday, but don’t worry about that. Right now I have a far more interesting job.’
Mimi rubbed her hands together in delight and positively jiggled on the spot.
‘I can’t wait to see this amazing venue you have found! Please tell me it’s gorgeous. Please. How far is it?’
Hal grabbed his crutch, planted his other hand on his hip then looked around the room in wide-eyed surprise. ‘You mean you don’t like the place? The volunteers have been up since dawn cleaning it up just for you.’
Mimi’s breath caught in her throat and a deep, cold pit of fear started building up in the bottom of her stomach—until she noticed that the side of Hal’s mouth was twitching.
She thumped him on his shoulder with her handbag instead and scanned the huge, empty space.
‘Pest. You almost had me going there for a moment. I know I like a challenge, but…’
Hal threw back his head and burst out laughing, the kind of deep belly-laugh that echoed around the room and through her bones, before he casually threw his arm around her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake.
‘Got you! Not that there is anything wrong with the place. It would actually fit everything we need. But…’ He smiled. ‘I called an old friend last night, who called some of her friends, and after a couple of hours of overseas detective-work we managed to track down a sister of another friend whose family have just bought a luxury Edwardian hotel overlooking the park. Five minutes away on foot. Apparently it is so exclusive that they only take bookings from very special guests around certain dates. My friend managed to persuade them to squeeze us in next Saturday.’
‘I don’t know how you managed it, but thank you,’ Mimi added with a sigh, and grinned back at him. ‘Can we go there now? And please say yes.’
‘I have an action plan. I have a map. I have volunteers to make it happen. Time to get this show on the road.’
Then, without asking permission or a second’s delay, Hal reached out with his right hand and took firm control of her left, as though it was something he did every day of the week.
The rough skin of his fingertips brushed against the smooth skin of her palm and the shock of that simple touch rippled through her body and startled her with the intensity of the sensation.
It was as though all of Hal’s strength, energy and focus were flowing down from his body into hers through the tiny area of skin-to-skin contact, thrilling her, energising and invigorating her, a cold, refreshing shower pouring new life and enthusiasm and hope into her heart.
The overwhelming sensation was so overpowering that it took a few seconds for her brain to catch up with the fact that she was holding hands with Hal Langdon.
And she liked it. She liked it more than she could put into words.
Her mother had been a natural Italian extrovert; hugging, holding and kissing were very much part of her daily life in the knitting shop with friends and family. But somehow that open need for physical connection had not been passed down to her daughter.
‘Daddy’s girl.’ That was what her mum had liked to call her. Mimi was like him in colouring and cool intelligence with the kind of English reserve that infuriated her.
Except that right now, holding Hal’s hand and feeling the power of that connection, she could not help but wonder if some of her Italian heritage had passed down to her after all. She adored it. Why had she held back for so long when it felt so good?
Or was this a lot more to do with the man who was doing the holding?
‘Ready to go?’ Hal asked with a smile, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘It’s right this way.’ Then, without waiting for her reply, he meshed her fingers even tighter between his, claiming her, determined to make sure that this time they were in it together, side by side.
He took off at a blistering pace, his crutch swinging
forward step by step as he blasted through the doors, head down like a bull about to charge, pulling her along with him without a dot of consideration for her heels.
She had sometimes wondered what it would be like to be tied to the tail of a comet.
Now she was in great danger of being burnt up in the heat of the flames.
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS late Friday afternoon and Mimi was sitting at one of her studio tables enjoying her second cup of tea while Hal peered at the framed photographs on the kitchen wall as he slurped down his coffee. Mimi leant back against the warm cushion and closed her eyes with a contented smile.
A week ago she had been so nervous she could hardly speak. Now it was the day before the show. She had a pre-show fundraiser to go to that evening and, instead of being terrified and nervous, she felt okay.
In fact, she felt better than okay.
The past five days had passed in a whir of relentless activity and excitement.
The show catalogues had been printed on time, and even Poppy had declared that the entire collection was spectacular when she had dropped in that morning to check they were still alive and on track.
The hardest part was that every time she turned around Hal had his camera focused on her.
Apparently he needed photos of the designer at work for the promotional material on the day. The first day had been torture. She had squirmed and wriggled inside her casual sewing clothes for at least an hour until Hal had started chatting to her about the music he had picked out for the fashion show.
Devious. She should be cross with him. Except that the ruse had worked brilliantly. Somehow she had been so busy talking about their shared love of music, while her fingers had worked methodically on the fine fabrics of a blue cocktail dress she’d been making for the party, that she had completely forgotten the fact that Hal could chat with his finger pressed on the camera shutter.
Her Moment in the Spotlight Page 10