Page 169 of Guilty Pleasures

He looked up and laughed.

‘Now you tell me,’ he grinned. ‘Happy Birthday, by the way.’

‘You know, with all the excitement of the day, I keep forgetting.’

He nodded, looking her up and down. He whistled.

‘You look incredible tonight.’

‘Aw, this old thing? These are just my usual work clothes,’ she said, avoiding his eye. After her accident, they’d got their friendship back on track, but it still made her awkward to be complimented by him.

‘Well, I hope this has been a better birthday than last year?’ he asked.

She laughed. That evening in Boston, standing in the rain with Mark after he had got a Price Donahue partnership, seemed like such a distant memory it was almost as if it had never happened.

‘Well, thanks for letting us have the party here.’

‘Hey, it’s your house.’

‘The company’s,’ she corrected him, ‘… although for how much longer I’m not sure.’ She looked up at him. ‘The truth is, I’ve been thinking about selling Winterfold.’

Rob stamped out his cigar and frowned.

‘I thought you said you’d never sell. Hasn’t your family had this house for like a hundred years or something?’

‘I never said “never”. I mean, what do we need it for? It’s vanity. Ego.’

‘You could look at it like that, I suppose. Personally, I’d say it was history, your family’s heritage.’

Her family. While she loved Saul and was grateful for the opportunity he had given her, she was still bitter about the way the rest of the family had treated her – and on top of that, there was the nagging suspicion that someone close to her had been involved in that attempt on her life in Gstaad. Until she had found out who had been driving the car which pushed her off the road, she couldn’t trust a single member of her family.

‘I’m not sure the family needs bricks and mortar to define itself,’ she said diplomatically. ‘Well, maybe some of them do,’ she laughed.

‘Roger you mean?’ smirked Rob.

‘I didn’t say that, you did. No, I do love Winterfold but what’s important is the business. The house is an extravagance. We still have the factory and the offices and a sale would get rid of a lot of the corporate debt.’

Rob raised his eyebrows.

‘You’re not one to let sentimentality get in the way of a decision, are you?’

‘So if we do sell, would you be interested?’ she asked directly.

‘Ah, so you think my ego needs some place like this.’

They both grinned.

‘You know I didn’t mean it like that,’ said Emma. ‘As incumbent tenant I thought you deserved first refusal. You always said you wanted to buy it.’

‘Ouch,’ he winced. ‘Is that what I’ve been reduced to: “incumbent tenant”?’

‘You know I think a lot more of you than that,’ she said quietly. Emma had drunk three glasses of champagne and she instantly regretted coming out with something so soppy and romantic. So far she had kept her dignity where Rob was concerned and had no intention of getting hurt again. Rob had been good to her after the accident but that’s how their relationship should stay, supportive but platonic.

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he replied. He moved closer towards her; their cold breath was making white puffs in front of them and merging into one big cloud.

He

took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.