Free More Than Just One Night (The Selwood Sisters Novellas) by Claire Baxter Page A

dinner.”
    “Have a good time.” Cora got up to give Fern
a hug. “I love you, and I’m pleased that we had this chat.”
    “Me too.”
    She waved as Fern drove away, grinning at a
mental picture of Russell in his yellow trousers.

Chapter 13  
     
    Cora had spent Saturday going over some
project reports in her study when the doorbell rang. She wasn’t expecting
anyone, and rose from her desk reluctantly. She was still puzzling over an
issue with a client’s demands when she opened the front door.
    “Alex!”
    He gave her a smile that made her insides
turn to liquid. He did it to her every single time. “Hello, Cora.”
    “I wasn’t expecting you.”
    “No. My turn to do the surprise thing. We do
seem to be taking it in turns, don’t we?”
    “Well, you’d better come in.” Once she’d
closed the door behind him, she led the way to the kitchen. “Tea? Coffee? Cold
drink?”
    “No, thanks. I don’t want anything. I just
want to talk to you.”
    She poured herself a glass of chilled water,
then turned to face him, gripping the glass in a hand that was visibly trembling.
“Do you want to sit down?”
    He shook his head.
    She leaned back against the kitchen bench.
“What did you want to say?”
    “That you’ve had enough time to think. I’m
tired of waiting.”
    “Impatient, aren’t you?”
    He shrugged. “It’s been three weeks.”
    As if she didn’t know that. “Still, three
weeks in the scheme of things—”
    “Cora, I need to know. Was it Sophie? Because
things were going really well until she arrived.  I know she was quiet, but
she’s timid with strangers. It’s not that she didn’t like you, I swear. She’s a
good kid, and she opens up when she gets to know people.” He paused. “Don’t you
think you could grow to like her?”
    “She’s a sweetheart, Alex. Of course, I could
like her. I do like her.”
    He blew out a breath.
    “I don’t know how you could think otherwise.”
She shook her head. “Anyway, that’s not the issue.”
    “Well, that’s something. But clearly there’s
still an issue, and I need to know what it is.” He pulled out a chair from the
kitchen table. “I’ve changed my mind, I will sit down.”
    She slipped into a seat across the table from
him. “Okay, I admit that Sophie is part of the problem, but it’s not because I
don’t like her. I can’t believe you even thought that.”
    “Well, like I said, we were having a ball
till she arrived, then you upped and left.” He frowned. “So, she’s part of the
problem. What does that mean?”
    “It means, you need to live near her so that
you can see her as often as possible, so you need to live in Sydney. There’s
your job too. I can’t ask you to leave any of that and come and live here. And
I wouldn’t.”
    He looked surprised. “Right.”
    She went on, “But I can’t move to Sydney. If
it was possible to sell Selwoods, then maybe I could, but it’s impossible—”
    “Sell Selwoods? You mean, you’ve considered
it?”
    “Yes. I spoke to my son, because I thought he
might want to take a different direction in life, and if so, there would have
been no need to keep it in the family, but it turns out that he does want to
take over one day, and so...” She shrugged. “What are you grinning at? I’m not
going to sell it. I can’t.”
    “Good. I’m glad.”
    “What?”
    “The fact that you even considered it means a
lot, but I don’t want you to sell your family company. It clearly matters to
you, so why should you?”
    “Because the way things are, we couldn’t make
a relationship work.”
    “Of course we could. Granted, we couldn’t be
together full-time for a while, but there’s no need to rush things, is there?”
    She frowned, waiting for him to continue.
    “You might have been over-thinking our
situation.”
    “Over-thinking it?” Mortified, she felt a
flash of heat in her cheeks. Was he saying that it was only short-term
for him? That she’d been wasting her time