Free How Do I Love Thee? by Valerie Parv (ed) Page A

guessed he wanted to more than even he knew himself. But there was more.
    He hadn’t asked her about herself, assuming what he saw was all there was, she supposed. What would he say when he learned her own little secret, as he was bound to do once he stayed over? To her surprise, she found she wanted toshare the truth with him. When they were students he was always supportive, both of her and her ambitions. When the others in their group teased her, calling her a stack of books on legs, Cade had told them they should be more like her. She suspected she’d influenced him, too. He’d started out partying and drinking, then gradually knuckled down to his photographic courses, though nobody had dared call him names.
    A sigh slid between her lips. He’d never known how attractive she found him—still did, she acknowledged inwardly. Always tall and lean, he’d grown into his height with almost movie-star good looks. His hair had a midnight sheen that reflected the gleam in his eyes. Coupled with a killer smile and a razor-sharp intelligence, his appeal was formidable. If only he wasn’t so guarded. But he was right, it wasn’t her job to analyse him. She’d make him dinner, they’d talk over old times, and then he’d vanish from her life again. The sense of loss arrowing through her made her wonder how much trouble she’d just bought for herself.
    ‘Nice place,’ Cade said when she met him at the lift after he’d announced his arrival through the aging intercom—which had actually worked, for once. Usually it was hit and miss, like the lift which also only worked when it wanted to. Butthe apartment had character, she could afford it on her salary, and she liked the outlook across a leafy green park. And her counselling practice was a convenient walk away.
    Cade immediately made the lobby seem cramped. He’d changed into a travel-crumpled white shirt with the sleeves rolled back over tanned arms, and a pair of low-slung jeans that made her mouth feel dry. She still wore the roomy smock blouse, her clothing options being limited for now. But she’d exchanged the cut-off pants for a swirling gypsy skirt in rainbow colours.
    She let him into her apartment. The spare bedroom was next to hers off the hall, with the bathroom opposite both. She saw him look through the door of her room to the high double bed she’d inherited with the flat, and felt her cheeks heat. But he merely dropped his bag inside the room she indicated, before following her to the area she’d had opened into a combined living and dining space with a balcony beyond.
    ‘Hope you like lamb,’ she said as she skirted a bench into the kitchen. ‘I’ve made cutlets with a yoghurt and cucumber dressing.’
    Cade placed a glistening bottle on the counter. ‘Sounds better than the takeaway chicken I had for lunch. Margaret River chardonnay okay with that, since nobody’s driving?’
    Given the distracted way she was starting to feel in his presence, she wouldn’t have risked wine even if she could, but she nodded. ‘Fine.’
    She’d set the table next to concertina doors that opened up one wall on to the balcony, so they could enjoy the park view and the balmy evening air. ‘How did you spend your afternoon?’ she asked when they were seated and the food served.
    ‘Bought the wine. Saw a couple of friends at the local paper, went out to the cemetery,’ he said. ‘The guys at the paper told me where Noreen is buried.’
    ‘You went to your mother’s grave?’ She couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.
    ‘It seemed like the right thing to do.’
    ‘You’ve never been conventional for the sake of it before.’
    ‘All right, I wanted to see where she was,’ he growled. ‘Happy now?’
    She looked at him over the rim of her water glass. ‘More to the point, are
you
happy now?’
    ‘It feels like a chapter closing,’ he admitted reluctantly.
    ‘Even though you never got the chance to read the whole book?’
    He downed a third of