Practically Perfect (13 page)

‘No, no! I’ll be fine on my own,’ said Anna, feeling suddenly a bit forlorn. ‘You must go back to your boys, but just come and see me again soon.’

‘Come on, you lot,’ said Chloe, gathering up her boys, hoping her husband would follow, ‘so Anna can say goodbye to Laura and Will.’

Anna made her way up the path to where Laura and
Will’s
hired van was parked. ‘Thank you for bringing my staircase, and all that lovely furniture.’

‘It was a pleasure. We had such fun, didn’t we, Will?’

Will nodded good-naturedly.

‘It was possibly a bit more fun for us than it was for you,’ said Anna. ‘We drank coffee and chatted while you heaved furniture about. Thank you so much, Will.’

‘I’ve got something for you in the van.’ Laura opened the back and rummaged under a pile of blankets that the furniture had been wrapped in. She pulled out a black case and handed it to Anna. ‘It’s my old laptop. I want you to have it. I can’t be forever printing out your emails.’

‘But, Laura—’

‘I’ve got a new one, and I just can’t be bothered to sell it, not when it would be useful to you.’

‘I can’t—’

‘Nonsense!’ Laura said in a tone that left no room for debate. ‘You’ll be able to email Mum. Save you having to talk for hours on the phone. Now we must fly.’ She hugged her sister hard. ‘And I’m going to come down again as soon as I can.’

Anna felt a combination of relief and loneliness when she got back to her house. She let Caroline in, who immediately got up on to the sofa, and Anna regarded her with a sigh. It was a question of discipline versus gashed ankles. Gashed ankles won and Caroline remained in possession of the sofa. The camp bed could be put out of the way somewhere, for when the DABP came.

She was in the middle of trying to impose some sort of order on the furniture, and had carried a couple of dining chairs and a bedside table up the ladder already, when there was a knock at the door.

Caroline started, fearing another invasion, and Anna
wondered
what her sister could have possibly left behind. She opened the door.

It was the Dog and Building Police. ‘Oh,’ she said, and added a tentative, ‘Hello.’ She couldn’t decide if he was the man who was so helpful with Chloe, or the monster who was bullying her about her house. He probably wasn’t a monster, but could he be just a friend?

‘I’ve brought that indoor kennel round,’ he said. He smiled, the ruefulness of his expression telling her he was sorry about having to lay down the law about her house. ‘Can I come in?’

Anna smiled back, making an effort, and opened the door. ‘I really don’t think I’ve got room for an indoor kennel.’

‘Oh, I see what you mean.’ He stood in the doorway, contemplating the furniture that took up all the floor space for a few moments. He gave her a quick grin that Anna couldn’t help responding to.

Caroline, who had been hiding her head under a cushion, heard his voice and pushed her way through the furniture to him, knocking over a reading lamp, a small table and the kitchen stool that Chloe already had her eye on as she did so. She pressed her face into his stomach and swooned as he stroked her neck and ears.

‘Well, someone’s pleased to see you!’ said Anna.

‘I’ll take a welcome wherever I find it,’ he said, and then turned his full attention to Caroline. ‘And how are you, my darling?’ he crooned. ‘You’re looking very well, I must say.’

For a moment, Anna wondered what it would be like to be talked to in that caressing way by the right person, or, in her case, the wrong person. Then she cleared her throat.

‘Would you like some tea, or something, um …’ That
was
the trouble with nicknames. They made you forget people’s real names.

‘Rob. Rob Hunter. I could write it down for you, to help you to remember,’ he added, looking at her sideways.

Oh, why did he keep twinkling at her? Anna felt herself blushing. It was so distracting. ‘That’s fine, I’ll remember it OK now. So, would you like a cup of tea, Rob?’ She gave him a proper smile this time, to prove she had some social skills.

‘Yes, please.’ He sat on the sofa, and Caroline got on top of him. He moved her hindquarters over so it was only her front paws and head restricting his breathing.

Anna opened the box of biscuits that she’d bought for Laura and Will’s visit. ‘You can see, I really haven’t got room for an indoor kennel.’

He looked confused for a moment. ‘But surely this isn’t how you’re going to have your furniture, is it?’

‘No, of course not. I only got it today. My sister gave it to me, and she’s only just gone. But I still don’t think—’

‘I’ll give you a hand with it if you like and then set up the kennel.’

Anna had had more than her usual dose of manly help already that day and wasn’t sure she could take any more. Especially not from this man. ‘If you’d rung to say you were coming …’

‘Sorry, I left your telephone number in the office.’

She handed him the box of biscuits. ‘Don’t give one to Caroline, will you? She’s very persuasive.’

‘Oh, I’m a man of steel. She’s got no chance of getting round me.’

Anna smiled politely but she wondered if there was a hidden message here. Was he trying to tell her that she wouldn’t persuade him to let her do anything that wasn’t absolutely by the book? It was so hard to tell with him!

‘Do you take milk and sugar?’ Anna hoped very much he took milk because she’d already put it in.

‘Just milk, please.’

She handed him a mug, wishing she’d washed up the better mugs that she’d used for Will and Laura. The one he had was chipped and had a rather vulgar cartoon on it.

She perched on the edge of a chest of drawers, sipping tea she didn’t really want. If I was more assertive, she thought, I could have just explained I didn’t have room and sent him away. Now he’s on my sofa, cuddling my dog, and I don’t know what to do with him.

‘Where is the indoor kennel?’ she asked.

‘I left it in the car, in case you didn’t want it.’ His smile was rather attractive, but Anna made a mental note never to let Chloe know she thought this. Matchmaking wouldn’t cover the shenanigans she would get up to if she thought Anna liked Rob at all. Which she didn’t, really.

‘I’m afraid I don’t want it. Honestly, Caroline’s fine without it, as you see. And anyway, there’s not an inch to spare.’

‘Let me help you with the furniture, and then you can decide. They really are useful,’ he persisted.

Anna allowed herself to wonder if, when the boys came over, it would be nice for Caroline to have somewhere to retreat to, should they get too much for her.

Rob got to his feet. ‘Come on. Let’s get this lot sorted out.’

Anna hadn’t planned for an assortment of furniture to be delivered to her house without notice. She had no idea where she wanted everything – anything – to go.

‘I want as much of it as possible upstairs. Anything I know I don’t want to keep, I’ll put in the garden. Chloe’s going to help me get rid of it.’

‘Right. What about this piece?’ Rob gestured to a large sideboard with a carved back and inset mirrors. ‘It’s nice but it’s quite large and the wrong period for this house.’

In spite of his best efforts Anna couldn’t quite stop seeing him as the Dog and Building Police and panicked. ‘Goodness, I don’t have to furnish it in period, do I?’ She was aghast.

He laughed at her. How dare he!

‘Of course not! Whatever gave you that idea? I just thought that might help you decide what to keep and what to get rid of.’ He chuckled on, obviously relishing her mistake.

‘Well, for all I know …’ she said, feeling incredibly silly.

‘You’re perfectly right. Some of the things we get people to do could appear ridiculous – let’s face it,
are
ridiculous – but we don’t quite go that far.’

She decided to forgive him for laughing. After all, it was quite funny, in retrospect. ‘OK,’ she said slowly, not sure if she was going to let him know he was forgiven, ‘I’ll get rid of that sideboard, although it would swallow up a lot of stuff.’

‘It would swallow you up, if it was hungry,’ said Rob seriously.

Anna stifled a laugh. ‘No it wouldn’t, it’s a vegetarian, I happen to know.’

‘It might make an exception for listed buildings officers who laugh at people.’

Anna nodded. ‘It might. Let’s get it outside quickly.’

A hour or so later, Anna made more tea and got out the now diminished box of biscuits. But she was really hungry, and a Viennese Whirl wouldn’t do it. When Rob came back with the kennel, she surprised herself by saying, ‘There’s a very good Chinese round the corner. Do you
fancy
a takeaway? You’ve been so helpful, I feel I should repay you in some way.’

He regarded her, one eyebrow slightly raised and a half-smile on his lips. ‘Now, how am I to take that? At first I thought you were suggesting we had a meal together, and then you wanted it to be like payment?’

For a moment Anna wished she could read his mind. Was he really offended? And why did she ask him anyway? Possibly because the thought of being alone, even with Caroline, was not what she wanted just now. And she was genuinely hungry.

‘I just meant,’ she said, realising she sounded a bit flustered, ‘you’ve worked really hard to help me, and deserve a meal.’ She took a deep breath and smiled, feeling a little more in control. ‘It’s not that I want to bribe you into letting me do something against the listings law, or anything. Perish the thought.’

He smiled properly this time. ‘Well, that’s very kind of you, but I should be getting back. I’ve dogs of my own to see to.’

‘Oh my goodness, Caroline! I should have fed her hours ago. What time do you usually feed yours?’

‘I like to keep it flexible, then they don’t fret if I’m not there to feed them for whatever reason. It’s just sometime in the evening. Now, shall I set up the kennel over there?’ He pointed to the only space big enough to take it and Anna nodded.

‘So you could stay and have a meal?’ Anna smiled, wishing she had picked up just a few of her mother’s winning ways. At times like this, they would have been very useful. She had enjoyed his company and, although she didn’t really want to admit it, now everyone had gone back to their respective homes, she couldn’t quite face supper for one.

‘I could,’ Rob said.

‘Good. Right, well, here’s the menu, choose what you want while I feed Caroline, and then I’ll go and get it.’

‘I could go,’ he offered.

‘No.’ Anna was very firm. ‘I’ll go.’

Chapter Eight

ANNA DRAGGED THE
door of the Chinese takeaway open and fell inside. The restaurant had a very powerful extractor fan and the door was always difficult and although she knew this, she always arrived feeling faintly surprised, as if she’d been dropped there by aliens.

She was confused for other reasons, too. As she gazed at the list of meals on the wall, referring occasionally to the bit of paper in her hand, she wondered about Rob. He would be much easier to deal with if he was just a friend or just a listed buildings officer. The crossover made it tricky and so did Chloe’s attempts at matchmaking.

Maybe that was why she felt so awkward about making a perfectly ordinary offer. Her sister, when she was single, would have had no qualms about offering a man who had helped her a meal. But while Anna had wanted to make this normal and friendly gesture, she had felt very uncomfortable. It was because she couldn’t quite reconcile in her mind the strict Dog and Building Police, who had told her off about Caroline and subsequently her plans for the house, with the man who had teased her and made her laugh, and who had helped her move furniture. Her feelings would be less muddled, she thought, if she didn’t keep thinking about Max.

‘Next!’ The pretty Chinese girl behind the counter broke into her thoughts.

‘Er – yes – I’ll have two portions of prawn toast …’

* * *

She found Rob and Caroline on the sofa together. They were both asleep. She nodded to Caroline, who raised her head as she came in, but said nothing. Rob had worked hard and deserved a bit of a doze. He also looked rather endearing with his eyes closed. His lashes formed shadows on the side of his nose and the bit of stubble that was now evident shaded his jaw in quite an attractive way.

She arranged the plates on top of the Calor gas heater, wishing she’d got round to having the chimney sorted out. A fire, or a wood burner, would be so much cosier. Then she found some tea lights which had come down with the furniture, and arranged them about the place. She could now turn off the inspection lamps that were her usual form of illumination. It wasn’t that she wanted to create a romantic atmosphere, more one where conversation could take place without every nuance of expression being visible. Anna found Rob difficult to read but suspected he didn’t have the same trouble with her. She didn’t want him to have any advantage over her.

When the meal was as ready as she could make it, she said, ‘Um – hello. I’m back.’ She suddenly felt nervous, as if they had not shared a lot of silliness just over an hour ago.

Rob opened his eyes, and Caroline got off the sofa to investigate the foil dishes.