Mills & Boon Christmas Delights Collection. Rebecca Winters

wasn’t the ideal turn of phrase but I was already committed.

      ‘Not at all. Selene was just leaving anyway.’ His smile was open and friendly. I stepped inside and shed my outer layers, saying hello to Pilot and giving him a good ear rub at the same time.

      ‘How are you feeling?’ he asked, taking my coat off me to hang it up.

      ‘Great, thanks. You?’

      He smiled. ‘I’m fine. But I wasn’t the one who was sick.’

      I waved my hand. ‘I’m all done with that. No more time to dedicate to lounging around.’

      Michael gave me a head shake.

      ‘Your friend seemed to like the house. I’m really happy that you’re feeling more comfortable about having people round now. That’s really great progress Michael. I’m so pleased.’

      ‘Oh yeah. She was really impressed. Don’t be surprised if you get some commissions from her. Would you consider travelling to Paris for the odd job?’

      I laughed, and then realised he was serious.

      ‘What?’

      ‘Selene’s family has a construction business that, although based here, does a lot of work in Europe, France especially. When I told her about what you’d done here, she mentioned that she thought some of her friends might benefit from your services.’

      ‘Oh right. Well. Wow. I guess I’ll just cross that bridge if and when I come to it. Thank you though, for whatever it is that you said.’

      ‘You’re your own recommendation Katie.’

      My mind was turning over his words. ‘So, she’s in construction?’ I asked, attempting to put as much casualness into the conversation as humanly possible.

      ‘Yeah.’ He gave me a quizzical look. ‘Why do you ask?’

      ‘No reason. Just being conversational.’ He was still giving me that look. ‘Looking at her you’d think she was in fashion, rather than construction. She’s gorgeous.’

      He made a gesture of acceptance with his head. ‘She is. And, of course, ordinarily she wears a hard hat all the time. I don’t know why she didn’t today. It normally finishes off her look beautifully, I think.’

      I pulled a face. ‘Funny.’

      He gave me an amused look in return. His face looked so much more relaxed these days, and the hard planes of it now just added attraction rather than enhancing a spikiness of character.

      ‘Anyway,’ I said, ‘I’m glad that we’ve made enough difference for you to feel happy enough to show your…friends around. That’s obviously a big improvement on where we were a month ago.’ I smiled and tried to push away the disappointment I felt, not to mention confusion at that disappointment even existing.

      ‘I know. Who’d have thought, eh? And, more good news, there’s this huge project I wanted in on and apparently it’s now down to me and one other guy. They’re going to make a decision later this week.’

      ‘Oh, that’s great! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.’

      ‘Thanks. I already have you to thank for getting me this far.’

      I had a foot on the bottom step, and his words made me turn.

      ‘Me?’

      ‘You,’ he said, coming up to me. Even one stair up, he was still taller than me. ‘Without you coming here and doing this, and making the decision to sort out my office first, I never would have got it together enough to get my pitch in on time.’

      It wasn’t very cool or professional but I couldn’t stop it: I beamed at him. ‘Really?’

      ‘Really.’

      ‘I’m so pleased Michael, I can’t tell you how much. I could tell you loved this house and the history you have with it, with your family, but it was pretty obvious you weren’t getting everything out of it that you could. Looking at you now, you just seem so much more relaxed, and well, happy to be here. And the fact that you’re being more productive, it’s just great because that’s clearly making you happier too.’

      ‘It is. But there’s something else.’

      ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve found another ten boxes of stuff!’

      He shook his head. ‘No. I think it might be worse than that.’

      ‘Oh no.’ Just as I was convinced we had managed to hit the target Janey and Michael had set. What on earth could it be?

      ‘Katie – ’

      His phone started bouncing on the table as it vibrated, trilling out its ringtone.

      Michael’s eyes closed briefly before he turned to grab it. He looked at the screen. ‘I’m sorry. I really need to take this.’

      ‘It’s OK. I’ll head up and just take a note as to what’s left to do now. Just come up when you’re done. No rush.’

      He nodded and answered the call. ‘Matt, hi. How are you?’

       Chapter Twenty

      Climbing the stairs, I racked my brains as to what the thing was that could possibly be worse than another pile of previously undiscovered boxes of stuff. Oh well, not much I could do about it until I found out more. Whatever it was, we would deal with it. In the meantime, I had work to do.

      When Michael finally got off the call, I’d made up the beds in all the guest rooms and made a list of some items for him to either borrow or buy for them and the guest bathrooms. All of them were now looking decidedly more inviting and like somewhere he could be proud to have people to stay in.

      ‘I’m in here!’ I called as Michael shouted to find out where I was. I gave the throw I’d found in the linen cupboard, still in its packaging, a final adjustment as I lay it on the end of the bed. I was just smoothing it over with my hand when Michael entered the room. He didn’t say anything and for a horrible moment I thought that maybe I’d made a mistake, that something I’d used in here was a glaring reminder of his ex.

      ‘You can change whatever you want, obviously. I just thought I’d make them up whilst I waited for you, so that you can see how they’ll look.’

      He looked down at me, then back around the room. Admittedly, it did look different. No longer was it like a disused room in a wing of an old hotel. Now, it was welcoming, chic and cosy.

      ‘It looks…amazing. I can’t believe you did all this.’ He glanced at the door and then his watch. ‘How long was I gone?’

      ‘Oh, I can work pretty quickly when I need to.’

      ‘My sister-in-law said she’d give me a hand making the rest of the rooms up when they – ’

      ‘They’re done.’

      ‘All of them?’

      ‘All of them. I assume the children will be sleeping in travel cots or on the floor or something. So they’ll need sorting but the beds themselves and rooms are all ready. Well, guest bedrooms anyway. Yours still needs a bit of TLC, I expect.’ I hadn’t dared go in there and face the rumpled sheets that probably still existed from his evening with the Parisian bombshell I’d seen leaving.

      Michael was just staring at me.

      ‘Did I do something wrong?’

      ‘What? No! No, not at all.’

      ‘What then?’

      ‘I’m just a little worried about you?’

      ‘Me? Why?’

      ‘Because less than a week ago you could barely