Reluctant Date (4 page)

He could feel his frustration building. It had nothing to do
with how he felt about her. It was prompted by her obstinate refusal to
consider a job he was sure would fit her like a glove.
 
Her librarian’s training, combined with her
skills as a photographer, were exactly what he needed.
 
He was not offering her a sinecure just
because he wanted to get to know her better; he was offering her a job that was
made for her.
 

He hadn’t been entirely sure of his intentions when he finally
tracked her down to the city library. If anything he was hoping that a second
meeting would prove to be disappointing, that she would turn out to be
different in the clear light of day.
 
He
wanted his heart back before he made a fool of himself.
 
He wanted to be able to return to Florida and
concentrate on his plans without the complication of a tall, dark-haired woman
with wide gray eyes and an infectious laugh. When he’d seen her working with a
group of children, however, he’d been captivated all over again.
 
Unaware that he was watching, she had talked
to them with enthusiasm and humour. Then she had patiently answered their
endless questions.
 
When, at the end of
the session, she had read them a story with feeling and flair, he had listened
in fascination.
 

She was a natural communicator. She was someone who would
empathize with everyone, from the very young to the very old, from the ignorant
to those who thought they knew best. She had something few people had. She had
an ability to connect, to use the right words, the right gestures, so everyone
listening to her immediately wanted to know what would come next. He knew she
would be an absolute godsend to his organization. She would be able to help set
up educational programmes and run workshops. She had all the skills necessary
to adapt to the hundred and one things that everyone working for him had to do
to keep it going.

He switched off the ignition and turned to her with a
sigh.
 
“I wish you’d change your mind,”
he said.
 
“The job is made for you Claire.
I’m sure you’d love it if you just gave it a chance.”

* * *

Before she could answer the front door burst open and her
mother appeared.
 
She was wearing one of
her usual flowing kaftans. With her gray hair braided around her head with a
crimson scarf, she resembled an elegant exotic bird as she swooped towards the
car.

“Darling, how lovely to see you!” she tugged the passenger
door open and swept Claire into an extravagant embrace. For the briefest moment
Claire clung to her, inhaling the familiar scent, feeling the softness of her
wrinkled cheek. Then she gently pushed her away.
 
She never allowed herself to get swept up by
her mother’s enthusiasm because she knew it would only last until something or
someone else took her attention.

On cue, her mother noticed Daniel.
 
“And who is this?” she demanded, immediately
releasing Claire and walking round the car to the driver’s door.
 
She took in Daniel’s six feet three inches
with an appreciative gaze. Then she beckoned to Claire’s father who had come to
the door and was peering through the gloom.

“Arthur dear, come and say hello. Claire has brought a
boyfriend home and a good looking one at that!”

“He’s not my boyfriend Mum!” Claire protested hotly, but
nobody was listening.
 
Instead her
parents were both greeting Daniel effusively. To her chagrin, he made no
attempt to explain himself.
 
Instead he
returned their greeting enthusiastically with the trace of a wicked smile
quirking the corner of his mouth.

* * *

Ten minutes later, with Claire’s travel bag deposited in the
hall, Claire and Daniel were each demolishing bowls of vegetable stew.
 
Well Daniel was.
 
Claire was toying with hers, pushing carrots
and parsnips around in quiet desperation while her mother and father quizzed
Daniel non-stop.

He took it in good part, although he only answered some of
their questions. Claire noticed how skillfully he deflected them away from the
areas of his life he deemed private. Nevertheless she learned a great deal more
about him.
 
She learned that as well as a
brother he had three sisters, all younger than him. He also had a niece and a
nephew. She learned, too, that both of his parents were alive but neither of
them enjoyed good health.

“My father lost his sight a few years ago,” he told
them.
 
“And the stress of caring for him
has affected my mother so that these days she…she’s no longer herself.”

Claire heard a brief hesitation in his voice before he
changed the subject so smoothly that nobody else seemed to notice. What did he
mean, she wondered? Was his mother depressed?
 
Despite herself, she was intrigued. Why didn’t he want to talk about it?
She watched him. He seemed totally relaxed as he scooped up the last of the
stew and then smiled acceptance as her mother offered him some more.

“It’s delicious,” he told her.
 
“As a dedicated carnivore I had no idea
vegetables could be this good.”

He had chosen exactly the right words to prompt her mother
into a long lecture about the benefits of vegetarianism. As he listened he
looked across at Claire. Seeing an inner turmoil shadowing his eyes she
suddenly realized his compliment had been deliberate, a ploy to bring the
inquisition to an end.

Suddenly she wanted to apologise for her parents’
insensitivity. She was used to their never-ending stream of questions and she
knew they were totally without guile.
 
Despite having reached seventy, her mother and father remained two of
life’s innocents. Always willing to believe the best of people, they were too
open themselves to understand how some people might prefer to keep their business
private, and too inquisitive to consider restraint. She was still trying to
find a way to draw their attention away from Daniel when her mother pre-empted
her.
 

“Why don’t you both go up to your room and freshen up while
I make the coffee,” she said.

A bubble of laughter instantly replaced the troubled
expression in Daniel’s eyes.
 
He winked
at Claire, and then leaving her to resolve the situation, pushed back his
chair, stacked their dishes, and carried them to the sink.

Her sympathy for him forgotten, Claire scowled at his back
view. He needn’t think he was going to stay here. She had already spent too
long with him for her own peace of mind. The last thing she wanted was to have
him hanging around all weekend trying to persuade her to change her mind about
his job.

“Daniel’s not staying Mum. He has to leave soon because he
has…he’s busy tomorrow.”

“What nonsense!
 
Surely you don’t expect the poor man to go back out into the night when
he’s already been driving for hours. He’s tired, and anyway it’s far too late.
Besides, a storm is brewing.
 
Set your
old alarm clock when you go to bed. That way he can be up and off before the
rest of us wake up if that’s what he wants.”
 

“It’s not just that…it’s…we’re not…that is we won’t be
sharing a bedroom,” she said.
 
She had
already given up on any idea of persuading her parents they were not an item.

“Well you do surprise me dear! I had no idea you were so
delightfully old-fashioned.
 
It’s not a
problem though. I’ll just go and find some more sheets and make up a bed for
Daniel in the spare room.”

By now Daniel was having a great deal of trouble keeping a
straight face.
 
Claire glared at him
until her father left the table to go and fetch some fresh coffee from the
cellar store. Then she exploded.

“That was totally uncalled for,” she hissed. “You can see
they take no notice of what I say, so the least you could have done was back me
up. You could have explained to them that we only met last Monday. You could
have told them you’re here to offer me a job. Told them you’ve booked a hotel
room.”

“But I haven’t,” he said with an unrepentant grin.
 
“Admittedly I was going to as soon as I
dropped you off, but your parents are so welcoming, and so insistent that I
stay, that it would be churlish to refuse.”

“It would not!” she cried. And then, to her intense
embarrassment, her eyes flooded with hot tears.
 
Couldn’t he see she didn’t want him here?
 
The last thing she wanted was to have to think
of him asleep under the same roof with only the width of a wall between them.

He stopped grinning then and used his forefinger to wipe
away the lone tear that trickled down her cheek. “Ah Claire, I’m sorry! I
didn’t mean to upset you. You’re right of course.
 
I shouldn’t have teased you. I’ll make my
excuses and leave as soon as we’ve had coffee.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” her father, returning from his
trip to the cellar, heard the final part of Daniel’s promise to Claire and
misinterpreted it.
 
“You won’t disturb us
if you have to leave early because we both sleep like babies. Besides, Sybil is
right. A storm is blowing up so it’s not the best time to be out on the road.”

Against her better judgment, and because she knew she owed
him for driving her home on what was a filthy night, Claire was forced to agree
with him.

“He’s right.
 
It’ll be
better if you stay here, so why don’t you go and fetch your bag.”

Ignoring him, she concentrated on spooning coffee into the
percolator. Then she assembled mugs, sugar and cream while Daniel propped
himself on the corner of the table and watched her. Finally she let him off the
hook. Checking that her father wasn’t listening she met his questioning gaze
full on.
 

“Go on. It’ll be easier all round. They’ll be upset if I
fail to keep a man under their roof for one night.
 
I’m already such a grave disappointment to
them in that area that they have more or less given up on me.”
  

He gave a doubtful nod as he left the kitchen.
 
As soon as he was out of sight she dug into
her pocket for a tissue. Then she scrubbed at the spot where his hand had touched
her face, and blew her nose with unnecessary force.

* * *

While they drank their coffee Claire’s parents talked about
various local developments, including plans for a new supermarket. Knowing what
their attitude was likely to be Claire asked them what they thought about it.
It was a ploy to deflect their attention from Daniel, and she considered having
to listen to their plan to set up a village protest group a small price to pay.
For the rest of the evening, although they dominated the conversation, they
didn’t ask a single question about Claire’s job, or about any other aspect of
her life.
 
She was used to it and didn’t
expect anything else, but she saw Daniel frown once or twice when they cut her
off mid-flow because they had suddenly remembered something else they wanted to
tell her.

“Don’t you mind?” he asked when they eventually made their
way upstairs.

She shook her head. “No. They’ve always been the same. It’s
not that they don’t care about me. It’s just that they find their own life and
opinions infinitely more fascinating than mine. And if I’m honest, I don’t
blame them. They have led such an adventurous life that in their eyes I am
merely existing from one pay packet to the next.”

His fierce response surprised her. “Stop it Claire!
 
Stop putting yourself down!
 
Stop just putting up with life and begin to
challenge it! Come to Florida. Do something different, something that will
shake you out of the rut you say you’re in.”

“I can’t!” she shook her head. “Just believe me. I can’t.”

“Yes you can, and if it takes me all weekend I’m going to
persuade you.
 
You need this job and my
organization needs you.”

And I need you too
,
he added to himself as they said goodnight. It wasn’t a comfortable thought but
he couldn’t avoid it.
 
Why he wanted this
contrary woman with her cloud of dark hair and her emotional hang-ups he
couldn’t imagine. Not when his increasingly frustrated family kept introducing
him to a stream of available and uncomplicated beauties. Nor did he know
whether he stood any sort of chance with her. He wasn’t going to give up
without a fight though.
 
She might think
she wasn’t looking for a date but if he could only get her to Florida he would
do everything in his power to change her mind.

Chapter
Four

By the time
Daniel appeared the following morning Claire had made a decision.
 
Unable to think clearly during the long hours
of the night because her overheated imagination kept picturing him in the
adjoining room, she had tossed and turned until the darkness filtered to gray.
Then she’d given up and gone down to the kitchen to make coffee and consider
her options.

She could
continue to take the coward’s way out and turn her back on the job Daniel was
offering her, or she could take a deep breath and plunge in heart first. Either
choice would be painful.
 

She knew
that turning down the opportunity to work in Florida would leave her regretful
and disappointed for years to come. Accepting his invitation, however, would
open up old scars of rejection and worthlessness as it became clearer and
clearer that he wasn’t interested in anything other than a working relationship
with her. That Daniel would be unaware of her feelings was the only thing that
made it remotely possible.
 
After all, he
couldn’t throw her heart back at her if he didn’t know he had it in the first
place.