Page 10 of Best Laid Plans

Discovering Praiano – a simple town with a big heart. Check out the small, pebbled cove, which is especially atmospheric in the evening…

The new boots felt wonderful on her feet.

Despite her protests, Julien had insisted on buying her some specialist walking socks and plasters too, in an attempt to protect her poor blistered skin from more damage.

She was now wearing all the things they’d purchased and had dropped her ruined trainers into the shop’s recycling bin with a huge sigh of relief.

The day was starting to look up.

After finally arriving in Praiano, footsore, disgruntled and almost faint with hunger, she’d hit rock bottom when she’d arrived at her hotel to find her bag still hadn’t turned up.

She’d nearly cried, right there at the reception desk.

In fact, she was just on her way to grab the cheapest, most calorific meal she could find in the town centre to try and boost her morale when Julien had shown up out of the blue and marched her over to the hiking store.

Even though she felt hugely uncomfortable about him spending money on her, at that precise moment she hadn’t had the strength to put up more of a fight.

That was why she’d given in so easily.

That and the fact she’d been acutely aware of something in his eyes when he’d argued with her – something that made her think he’d needed to win this small battle.

Maybe it was just a macho male impulse to assert his authority, but for some reason she didn’t believe that was the whole of it.

Even though he’d made it clear he didn’t want anything more to do with her he hadn’t been able to turn a blind eye when he’d seen how she was struggling.

Just the fact he’d noticed that she was in trouble made her feel like she wanted to cry again, only this time with gratitude. It felt like a long time since someone had looked out for her like that.

Argh! And now she was starting to like him again, when she’d told herself to stay well out of his way.

After exiting the shop with Julien hot on her newly shod heels, they stood awkwardly on the pavement, looking anywhere but at each other.

She expected him to make some excuse any second now to get away from the strange tension deadening the air between them, but he didn’t move, instead turning to look at her with that perplexed frown of his.

‘Why don’t you go for a short walk in your boots, to check they’re fitting properly?’ he said, breaking eye contact to glance down at her feet. ‘Just in case you need to take them back. I’m guessing you’re walking on to Positano tomorrow so you won’t have an opportunity to swap them after today.’

‘Yes, I am,’ she said. ‘That’s a good idea.

’ Swinging her bag onto her back, she took a pace backwards.

‘What are you going to do?’ she asked, trying to make the question sound as casual as possible.

What was the etiquette here? Should she invite him to come along?

It felt rude to just stride off when he’d gone to the trouble of helping her out.

But, then again, would she be putting him in an awkward position where he’d feel forced to reject her again?

‘Why don’t I come with you?’ he said, surprising her. ‘The assistant didn’t seem to have much English and you might need me to translate again.’ He frowned and shook his head. ‘At least I’m assuming you don’t speak Italian? I never asked.’

‘You assume correctly.’ It had pleased her to find out she’d been right about his linguistic skills.

When the sales assistant had come over and they’d started speaking to her in English and she’d not understood the nuances of what they wanted, Julien had switched to Italian.

To her untrained ear it sounded as flawless as his English.

Which proved her theory that he’d been speaking her language for her benefit the night they’d shared the honeymoon suite.

Something about this discovery gave her a little lift of joy.

‘I can order a coffee and ask where the bathrooms are, but that’s about the extent of my vocabulary without consulting a phrasebook,’ she said with a smile.

‘Bon. I’ll come with you then.’

‘Don’t you want to check in to your hotel?’

He shook his head. ‘Later.’

‘Okay,’ she said, shrugging, trying not to give away how pleased she was that he wasn’t just going to abandon her now. ‘I’m going to grab a sandwich from that shop over there before I die of hunger, but I can eat it while we walk.’

‘We can sit down. I’m not in a rush.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes. Sure.’

So she bought a panini stuffed with prosciutto and nutty-tasting cheese and the sweetest sundried tomatoes she’d ever eaten and sat at a long counter in the shop and consumed the whole thing in about two minutes flat.

Julien stood next to her, drinking an espresso, not saying a word about her eating habits, though she could practically hear him thinking the words, See?

You were a fool not to take that energy bar when I offered it to you.

Maybe she had been a little foolish, but she’d still been angry with him at the time for the way he’d spoken to her the night before and had chosen her pride over her stomach.

After that, they wandered out of the town centre and away towards the cliffs, enjoying the cool breeze coming off the sea. It was still hot, but much more bearable now that the sun had begun to slip down behind the horizon.

‘Let’s go and check out the beach,’ she suggested, fully expecting him to say no and make his excuses to leave now.

He paused for a moment, his expression unreadable, before nodding slowly. ‘Sure,’ he said, surprising her again with the warmth in his voice.

They made their way over to where a winding set of steps led down to the small, pebbled beach.

The sharp, briny smell of the sea hit her nose as they picked their way across to the centre of the deserted cove, the only sound coming from the rush of waves and the melodic tinkle of the stones as the water played back and forth over them.

She stopped near the water’s edge and looked out towards the horizon, where the sun was disappearing from view, leaving the soft glow of dusk in its wake.

‘Wow. It really is beautiful here,’ she said as Julien came to a halt beside her.

They stood side by side and stared out at the gentle swell of the water in silence, listening to the faraway cries of the birds wheeling in the sky above them.

When she turned to glance at Julien, she was surprised to find he was looking at her with a strange little pinch between his brows.

A wave of tingling warmth washed from head to foot, pooling deep inside her as their gazes locked. She knew it was ridiculous to read anything into it, but something felt different between them now, as if a layer of armour had been peeled away.

Clearing her throat, she tore her gaze away and rummaged in her bag, desperate for something to distract her from the fizz of nerves in her tummy, producing her book on walking the Amalfi coast and her eyeliner.

‘Here,’ she said, thrusting them towards him.

‘Write your address inside the front cover, will you? Then I’ll know where to send the money. ’

Without a word, he took them from her and, twitching his eyebrows at her choice of writing implement, wrote in the book.

She watched him move his strong, blunt-tipped fingers across the page, marvelling at how elegant his writing was.

He was a man of such contradictions.

‘Why did you do this for me?’ she blurted, unable to keep her speculation to herself any longer.

He glanced up at her, his eyes narrowing in thought. ‘I don’t like to see anyone in trouble, especially when I can do something to fix the problem easily.’

His choice of the word ‘anyone’ made her stomach drop a little with disappointment. ‘You mean by throwing money at it?’ she said, perhaps a little too snippily.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘If that’s what it takes.’

How lucky to have that luxury, she thought. But she didn’t say it out loud. It would only have sounded petty and churlish.

‘Well, thank you.’ She took the book and eyeliner back from him and slid them carefully back into her bag.

There was an uncomfortable pause where they stood looking at each other again.

Indigo was aware of her heart beating hard against her ribcage as she tried to make sense of what was going on here. Why was he still here talking to her? Was it because he felt sorry for her? She hoped that wasn’t it.

‘Look, Indigo, I should apologise for being so rude last night at dinner.’

She couldn’t meet his gaze, the memory of the humiliation she’d felt burning through her once again. ‘Forget about it. It doesn’t matter.’

‘Yes, it does.’ He moved his head to the side, then bent towards her, waiting until he’d caught her eye before he spoke again. ‘Indigo, it does. I’m not normally so unfriendly. You’ve just caught me at a bad time.’

She gave him a shaky smile, cocking her head and splaying out her hands on either side of her. ‘Okay, I accept your apology.’

There was relief in his eyes and something else.

Her lips tingled as his gaze dropped to her mouth and her pulse rocketed.

He looked like –

– he wanted to –

– kiss her.

The thought lit a fire inside her, burning through her veins and turning her nerve endings into a crackling mass of need.

Ever since she’d laid eyes on him, she’d wondered what it would feel like to have those strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close, comforting and sheltering her. And those wide, firm lips pressed against hers, smoothing away her loneliness.

The air felt thick with longing as his eyes met hers again. They seemed to darken as she parted her lips to drag warm, salty air deep into her lungs in an attempt to calm her erratic heartbeat.

Something seemed to be pulling her towards him, some strange magnetic instinct, and she took a micro-step forwards to maintain her balance, raising her hand to his face.

He let out a low, rough breath as her fingers connected with the lightly stubbled skin of his jaw, and then suddenly Julien was no longer there in front of her, but far, far away.

Too far.

‘What—?’ She blinked in shock, stumbling forwards, dazed by the sudden desertion.

He was standing a few paces back from her now, shaking his head, his eyes a little wild.

He held up a hand, his face a picture of remorse.

‘That’s not what I’m here for, Indigo.’ He shook his head, his expression heavy with regret and frustration.

‘I’m in no position to—’ He waved a hand in her direction, his movements jerky and agitated.

‘To what?’

‘Do this.’

‘I don’t even know what this is, Julien.’

He took another step away from her and rubbed a hand across his face. ‘I need my freedom right now. I need to be alone.’

She snorted in angry frustration, every inch of her skin feeling hot and prickly. ‘It was just going to be a kiss. A bit of fun. It didn’t have to mean anything.’

If only that were true. Perhaps if it were then her voice wouldn’t sound as if she’d just been picked up and shaken hard.

He screwed up his face in frustration. ‘It’s never just a bit of fun though, is it?’ There was a look of admonishment in his eyes that made her stomach drop to the floor.

How embarrassing. She’d read the situation all wrong – though, to be fair to her, she hadn’t come here looking for romance. She was just going with the flow, enjoying the adventure, seeing where the day took her.

Not that she hadn’t considered the possibility of something more developing between them after he’d agreed to come down here with her. His change in mood had made her wonder whether there could be something more to this.

Something exciting. Something good.

But clearly, she was wrong.

‘What is it you’re afraid of?’ she asked, her tone a little defensive as she fought to maintain her pride.

He took another step away from her, rubbing a hand through his hair, messing up the neat waves. He looked back at her with such exasperation on his face it made her want to move towards him and smooth it away.

Which, of course, she couldn’t.

Instead, she tried to smile as if it all meant nothing to her, which proved impossible because it felt as though the corners of her mouth were being dragged down by some kind of extreme gravitational force. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.’

He looked at her for the longest time, his troubled gaze searching her face as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t find the right words.

Finally, he held up his hand, as if putting up a barrier between them.

‘I’m going to go,’ he said, taking a step away from her, his posture dipping a little as the pebbles gave way under his feet. ‘It’s for the best.’

And then he turned, his shoulders tense and his hands clenched into fists, and strode away from her until he disappeared into the inky-dark night.