Page 76 of Guilty Pleasures

Emma suddenly felt truly sorry for Rob, wondering if he regretted Madeline turning down his proposal of marriage. She looked up and saw that he was examining her face, as if he knew what she was thinking.

‘When Maddy and I got together it was a pretty weird time for me. I don’t think it was ever really going to work out between us and it was definitely for the best.’

‘A weird time?’

He hesitated and Emma felt the discomfort again, as if she had pushed him further than he wanted to go.

‘I’m a second son,’ said Rob slowly, his eyes fixed on the River Cherwell gurgling beneath them. ‘My family didn’t have any expectations for me beyond keeping out of jail and maybe marrying someone pretty. I dropped out of college, formed a band, went to a lot of nightclubs. If we’d have met back then we’d have got on real well,’ he smiled.

Emma grinned.

‘Then, when I was 25, my brother Sam died. He was five years older than me.’

‘Oh, I’m really sorry,’ she replied, very much regretting ever having started this conversation.

‘Sam was this brilliant person, good at everything. He came to Oxford University actually. When he died it was a huge wake-up call for me. I was too ashamed to keep living the way I’d been before when my two young nephews suddenly had no father. I offered to join the family company, then met Maddie at a party in Connecticut. She was from a nice family; she was the right sort of girl.’

‘But you weren’t right for each other.’

She looked at him and they both smiled sadly.

There was a deep silence. Rob had a slightly startled look as if he regretted opening up to her in this manner. Emma was thrown; she’d never had Rob pegged as the sort of person who would do the right thing if it wasn’t what he wanted, regardless of the circumstances.

‘Yeah well, I would have been a crap rock star,’ he said, in an attempt at levity. She realized that there probably weren’t very many people he could talk to about this.

‘So anyway, where are we walking to?’ he smiled.

It was past eight o’clock and it had suddenly got dark, the pink sky losing its colour as if someone had turned down the dimmer switch. Streaks of sun still glinted in the river, but the street lights were beginning to flicker on.

‘I’m in a car park about five minutes walk down there,’ said Emma, pointing downstream.

‘Come on, it’s getting dark. I’ll walk you.’

They walked down some steps and along a wide gravel towpath.

‘It’s really pretty, isn’t it? Oxford.’

‘When it isn’t a little spooky,’ smiled Emma, looking around at the dusk closing in. ‘I’m really grateful for the help you’ve given us, by the way. The ad pictures are amazing and we couldn’t have done it without you.’

‘Does that mean you’re not going to kick me out of Winterfold?’

‘It means I owe you one. We really must take you out as a thank you. There’s a really great restaurant in Sherby.’

‘Well, that depends on who the we is.’ He smiled.

‘Myself, Stella, maybe Ruan,’ she said, not wanting to sound as if she was asking him out. Which of course she wasn’t.‘And Trudy is invited of course,’ she added quickly.

‘There’s no need, really,’ said Rob. ‘I wanted to help.’

They turned away from the river along a narrow street, then round a corner and into the car park.

‘Well, this is me,’ said Emma as they stopped by her car.

‘What are you doing this weekend?’ Rob asked suddenly.

‘Oh, I don’t know. The usual I guess; go for a run, do some paperwork, read a bit. I might meet Stella for Sunday lunch.’

Rob was laughing.