by Fiona Harper
He hadn’t dressed for this do. He didn’t have any designer labels on, just his usual jeans, a good T-shirt and his boots.
Muffled music thumped from the double doors at the end of a wide corridor and he made his way towards them. When he’d barged through them he ground to a halt. What the flipping heck had happened in here? It looked like Santa’s grotto on speed.
A waiter drifted past him, offering spiced cranberry champagne cocktails. He shook his head and headed for the bar. If he was going to survive this evening, he needed beer. And lots of it.
He was just making his way down the short flight of marble stairs to where the bar had been set up, when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement. Familiar movement. His heart stopped and he felt as if a freight train had slammed into him. He twisted round, trying to catch a glimpse of the phantom that was responsible for the spike in his heart rate, but she was gone.
Dammit. He strode to the bar even quicker.
He’d been doing that all week and it was driving him nuts. Everywhere he went, whether working or socialising, he kept thinking he saw Nicole hovering on the fringes of his vision. Of course, every time he took a proper look he’d realise it wasn’t her, that it was just someone with a coat the same colour or dark, glossy hair pulled into a neat style at the back of her head in a similar way.
This time it had been a black cocktail dress, one that reminded him of the Holly Golightly version of her. He leaned in and ordered a drink then scanned the crowd. Nope. She was gone. It was probably just his imagination screwing with him again.
He sighed as the bartender handed him a cold bottle, beaded with condensation, and took a long swig. He didn’t think he could take much more of this. It was the not knowing that was driving him crazy. What were these ‘complications’ she talked about, and when would she be free of them? If only he could talk to her tonight, see her face again, hear her tell him that he just needed to wait a little longer…
He scrubbed a hand over his face and let out a low chuckle. He had it bad, didn’t he? He hadn’t been this obsessed about a woman since Vanessa. He should probably be worried about that, but he wasn’t. Despite Nicole’s initial wariness, he felt that he knew her. She’d tried to hide from him at the start, but she just couldn’t seem to do it any more.
He liked that.
Other people might only see the glossy exterior, the slightly prickly career woman, but he saw what was underneath.
‘Hey, you…’ a soft voice behind him said.
He turned to find Saffron smiling at him.
‘Like it?’ she asked and gave him a twirl of her very sparkly and very short dress.
‘Lovely.’ He knocked back a bit more of his beer. He preferred something less showy, something black that came with ropes of pearls and long black gloves. Something with a certain brunette inside.
‘I’m so glad you came! I wasn’t sure you would after our last little…misunderstanding.’
He shrugged. He’d said he’d come, so he’d come. He still wasn’t sure he could trust Saffron, but he’d promised to give her the benefit of the doubt. He looked her up and down as she stood in front of him, smiling. As always, she looked sensational, and her eyes were shining, her cheeks flushed.
She didn’t look very heartbroken about him at all.
He hadn’t realised he’d been holding so much tension in his body, but his ribs suddenly allowed him to take an extra pint or two of air in and his shoulders dropped an inch. Thank goodness for that. Now he could just do his time here, say his goodbyes and walk out of her life forever. He felt as happy as a greyhound who’d just been let off the lead.
‘I hope you have a really great party, Saffron.’ And he meant it.
She gave him a knowing smile. ‘Oh, I think I will. Stick around and have another drink. The fun is really going to start in about half an hour.’
He gave her a non-committal nod and watched her glide away.
The party was really thumping now. The dance floor was filled, a DJ playing the latest hits, and people were talking and drinking, laughing and having fun. He felt like a lone slab of unexciting granite in the middle of it.
This scene had been fun when he’d first met Saffron, but now he was getting really tired of it. He looked up at the ceiling, at the fake silvery things that were supposed to resemble snow or ice or something like that.
No, what he wanted was something real.
What he wanted was Nicole.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Nicole checked her watch for what seemed like the millionth time. She was torturing herself, she knew, but she just couldn’t seem to stop herself. Peggy had texted through a while ago that Alex had arrived and they were due to start Saffron’s number at nine-thirty.
Only ten minutes to go now. And Alex was somewhere here in the building. Her stomach did an odd little quiver at the thought and she forced herself to tune into what the hotel’s on-duty events manager was saying. Some minor problem with people trying to crash the party, but security was on top of it. Nicole didn’t really need to be there dealing with this, but everything else was running so smoothly. She’d done her job too well, but the only other option was to go back into the party, and she wasn’t going to do that, not until Peggy texted again to say the coast was clear.
She didn’t know how she was going to handle the aftermath of the proposal, whichever way it went. If Alex said no, the need for secrecy would be done away with and she’d be free to tell him everything. Should she do it tonight? Or should she keep out of the way, contact him tomorrow when things were less crazy? She’d been so busy gearing up to the actual proposal, she realised she hadn’t thought this bit through at all.
Her phone buzzed and her heart jumped, feeling like a rocket shot from the middle of a firework display. She pressed her hand against her breastbone and told herself to calm down. It was too soon for it all to be over, probably a random message—her mother or something like that.
But when she’d excused herself from talking to the events manager and pulled her phone out of her bag, she realised it was indeed Peggy who was contacting her.
Code pink! was all it said.
Nicole started running. That had been Peggy’s little injoke. Ages ago, she’d said that Nicole would need a signal in case everything went belly up during a proposal and had come up with that cute and seemingly non-threatening phrase. They’d chuckled about it at the time, but somehow it didn’t seem so funny any more. What on earth could have gone wrong? She knew Peggy wouldn’t have called her back to the Palm Court unless it was an emergency.
She slid in the entrance and kept to the edges of the terrace, using the heavily decorated birches for cover. Alex could absolutely, positively not see her yet. Peggy was in the corner with a rather frantic-looking Saffron. When she spotted Nicole she lurched for her, grabbed her by the hands and looked pleadingly at her.
‘Oh, Nicole! Thank God you’re here!’ she gabbled. ‘I can’t remember when! I thought it was the second, but then I remembered it was the one that I didn’t usually think it was, which made me think it was the third, but then I just got all confused and couldn’t remember which at all!’
Nicole squeezed Saffron’s hands and made her look at her. ‘What exactly are you talking about?’
‘Ooh, babies,’ Saffron said, looking as if Nicole was being extremely dense. ‘Do I go on number two or number three?’
‘The second,’ she replied firmly. They’d checked it out earlier with Julio, the lead dancer-slash-choreographer.
Twice.
‘I told her that,’ Peggy said from the side of her mouth, ‘but she wouldn’t have it unless she heard it from you.’
Saffron ran a hand through her shaggy waves. ‘I know, I know…’ Most people would have destroyed their hairstyle by doing such a thing, but it just gave her a sexy, just-fallen-out-of-bed look. ‘But I just wasn’t sure and Nicole has been my rock throughout this whole thing.’
‘It’s going to be fine,’ Nic
ole said, pulling her usual speech out of the bag. It was all she could come up with at the moment. ‘And you’re going to be standing in front of the man you love in a few minutes,’ she reminded her. ‘He’s worth all of this, isn’t he?’
Saffron swallowed. ‘Let’s just say I hope I never have to do this ever, ever again. Seriously, I don’t know how guys do it. It’s a wonder anyone ever gets married at all!’
Even though her hands were still clasped in Saffron’s and she couldn’t see her watch, Nicole could feel the seconds ebbing away. She had to get out of here and she had to do it fast. She was just about to tug her fingers loose of her client’s, when the DJ faded out the end of the song and everything went silent.
Guests looked around, wondering what was going on. Then when everyone was suitably puzzled and quiet, the soloist opened up her mouth and belted out the opening line of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ for all she was worth.
Nicole glanced mournfully towards the door. Everyone was still. Everyone was silent. Most people were focused on the singer and the pair of tango dancers in a spotlight in the middle of the dance floor, but a few were looking around, trying to work out what was going on.
She flattened herself against the wall.
Oh, heck.
There was Celeste, standing right there, only a few feet away. She hadn’t known she’d been on the guest list, but Saffron had been tinkering with it constantly since the invites had gone out, and she had mentioned there were a handful more people she’d just told to come along. Which meant they probably had an extra fifty beyond what she’d been expecting in the room.
Well, there was no way she was going to make it out of here without being spotted now. If she tried to leave, the movement would draw attention. People would look round. Her only option was to keep back against the wall and slowly shuffle behind the pillar in the far corner.
She really, really didn’t want to witness this.
She scanned the room, trying to see if there was a side exit she’d forgotten about, then frantically ran through the dance routine at triple speed inside her head, trying to work out if there was a certain bit of the choreography when everyone else would be looking in the other direction and she’d be able to slither along the wall and out the door.
She held her breath.
There he was. Alex. Standing near the short flight of steps at the far end of the C-shaped terrace, holding a bottle of beer loosely in his fingers, watching the show with a bemused expression on his face.
She twisted her head and looked at Saffron, who was hiding behind the next pillar along. She was nodding along to the music, her mouth working, and Nicole could almost hear her mentally reciting the lyrics while her silver shoe tapped out the beats.
Nicole wanted to cry.
Not just for herself, but for Saffron. This was really happening, wasn’t it? It was actually going down. Suddenly the life-altering seriousness of what was about to happen shot through her.
This would change everything.
Everything.
For Alex, for Saffron, even for her. There was no coming back from this.
The song had speeded up now and more dancers and singers had joined in. Nicole watched, frozen, as the routine progressed, her stomach sinking further with each leg flick and vocal trill.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Couldn’t do anything but feel the moment of the proposal coming, hanging like a guillotine blade above her head.
She glanced at Saffron, who was looking pale and nervous. She’d stopped counting now and was just staring straight ahead. Nicole swallowed. Even though she thought Saffron was doing the wrong thing, had jumped into this with both feet a little too hastily, hadn’t really found out if she and Alex were on the same page, Nicole couldn’t help admiring her.
It took guts, this. Guts to step into a spotlight alone and strip every bit of protection away and lay yourself out there emotionally naked, with every chance of being rejected. With shame, she realised it was something she wouldn’t have had the courage to do, no matter how much she’d changed herself.
The song was reaching its climax now. The four male dancers peeled away and headed for the steps. Nicole wanted to shout out, but she didn’t dare. No! she wanted to yell, because it had just become heart-stoppingly clear that this was all her fault. She wasn’t about to make Saffron’s hopes and dreams come true; she was sending her into an ambush.
Time seemed to slow as the dancers reached the terrace, as Julio held out his arm—Saffron’s cue to spin out from behind the pillar and join them.
But she didn’t do it. Didn’t spin anywhere. Because Nicole suddenly lurched forward and grabbed on to Saffron’s other arm, even though she didn’t remember deciding to do it. Saffron’s head whipped round and she scowled at Nicole.
‘Wh-what are you doing?’
‘I can’t let you do this!’ Nicole shouted, quietly enough that anyone more than a few feet away couldn’t have heard it.
Julio looked at her, a question in his eyes, and she shook her head. A couple of the other dancers hesitated, but Julio just improvised a bit of a tango-inspired strut back down to join his partner on the dance floor and, one by one, they followed. She could see some of the choir frowning, but they carried on regardless.
While she was still trying to get her head around what she’d just done, a firm hand gripped her shoulder and pulled both her and Saffron across the short terrace and out the door into the lobby.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
‘Why did you do that!’ Saffron spun round to face her, furious.
Nicole gulped for air. Peggy let go of her shoulder and she stumbled a little. It took her a second or so to orient herself, but the cooler air of the lobby compared to the heat and warmth of the party helped snap her out of her fuzzy state. ‘I…I…’
The door moved again and a smooth voice said, ‘I know exactly why she did it.’
Peggy, Saffron and Nicole turned round to see Celeste standing there. A second later, Mia barrelled through the door behind her.
Celeste smirked at Nicole before fixing Saffron with a knowing look. ‘I can spot a proposal coming a mile off. That’s what was about to happen, wasn’t it?’
Saffron nodded dumbly.
Celeste gave her a rueful smile and shook her head. ‘You should have come to us, Saffron. Minty and I would never have let this shambles happen.’ She gave a dismissive, one-shouldered shrug. ‘But then we’re used to this level of sophistication and exclusivity. You really needed proposal planners with a bit more class…’
Saffron frowned. ‘What do you mean? Up until now Nicole’s done a fabulous job. She’s very classy.’
Celeste just smiled. It made her look like a Siamese cat. ‘Really?’ Her eyebrows rose. ‘That’s not what I’d heard at all.’
Peggy stepped forward, ‘Now, listen. You and Squinty can—’
Celeste spoke over the top of her. ‘I suppose, if you think it’s classy for your proposal planner to be seen snogging the face off the man of your dreams a fortnight before the happy event, then that’s up to you.’
Saffron laughed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! Nicole would never…’ She trailed off as she realised no one else was finding it funny. In fact, the silence in the large empty lobby was rather telling. Slowly, she turned to look at Nicole. ‘Is this true?’
Nicole heaved in a breath to help her give her answer, but it got stuck in her chest. Her mouth moved as she tried to get the words to come out.
Saffron’s eyes widened and her jaw went slack.
Celeste just smiled. ‘That’s what Helena Parkhurst told me, anyway. Saw it with her own eyes at Jasper and Penelope’s wedding.’
‘You went after my boyfriend?’ Saffron said, shaking her head. She was too shocked to be angry at present, but Nicole knew that wasn’t going to last long. ‘The man I asked you to help me propose marriage to?’
Nicole shook her head too. ‘It wasn’t like that! If you’d just give me a chance to—’
‘Yes, Nicole,’ Celeste said, folding her arms. ‘What good explanation is there for stealing your client’s prospective groom?’
‘Right! I’ve just about had enough of you!’ Peggy grabbed hold of Celeste and propelled her back through the double doors. Celeste tried to stop her, but her spindly skinny legs were no match for Peggy’s healthier curves. Unfortunately, removing Celeste from the situation did nothing to solve the problem.
Saffron drew herself up to her full height. ‘I want an explanation and I want one now!’
Uh-oh. She was about to go into full-on meltdown mode. Nicole opened her mouth to answer, but someone tried to push their way through the doors again. Peggy attempted to block them, assuming it was Celeste, possibly with Minty as backup, but whoever it was was strong enough to send Peggy stumbling forward and knocking into Nicole.
She just about managed to stop herself from faceplanting on the lobby’s luxury carpet and was in the process of straightening again, when a low voice rumbled out behind her.
‘Nicole? I thought I saw you…’
She turned. And came face to face with Alex.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Alex blinked. He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. There he’d been, wishing he’d known where Nicole was, and she’d just appeared out of thin air. He moved towards her, smiling, but Saffron stepped in front of him, facing Nicole, and holstered her hands on her hips.
‘He knows your name? What Celeste said was true, wasn’t it?’ She let out a dry laugh. ‘So much for being an anonymous market researcher or something like that!’
Alex frowned. What was Saffron talking about? Nicole wasn’t a market researcher. He was just about to say as much, when the door bumped open again. A small group of people ambled into the lobby. He guessed the show—or whatever that had been—was over and the crowds were starting to move again.
As more people came through the entrance, Nicole’s friend—the slender one who always seemed to have a very determined expression—hit the button to a nearby lift, then shoved him inside when the door dinged instantly open. Her other friend grabbed Saffron and Nicole, and soon they were all shooting upwards to the top floor of the hotel.