Page 6 of Emergency Engagement

Memories floated in and out as she fell asleep, and they didn’t have the decency to leave her alone even then; when the train pulled into the station, she woke to realise that she’d been dreaming of the damned man.

CHAPTER TWO

RAFAELLOOKEDATSammy’s unprepossessing house from behind the wheel of his sleek, black BMW. The house was nestled in a row of similarly plain houses and was a pointed reminder of what he had escaped. The claustrophobia which had engulfed him for the two years he and his father had put down roots in a town very close to this one swirled around him. There was so much love for and impatience with his dad wrapped up in a small village where everybody knew everybody else—not to mention hope and despair.

He knew that this was a sweeping and unfair judgement of the place, but it was one that came from his gut. He had paid a fleeting visit back to the area when he had decided to build his hotel because, aside from his own personal experiences, the place was one of tremendous natural beauty, more than capable of holding its own against the saturated Cotswolds countryside or Cornish coastline, and it was ripe for just the sort of development he had in mind. If this worked out, he would consider something commercial in the area. It would be perfect for the sort of business development that wasn’t reliant on access to London and he had a number of companies that would thrive in the wild Yorkshire Dales.

Coming here now felt more personal because he was back to see someone who had been a part of his life all those years ago. She’d lodged in his head since she’d showed up at this office the day before. He’d pictured her fierce, determined face, relived the shock of seeing her in the first place and had known that, thanks to her, a Pandora’s box of memories had been opened that he hadn’t been able to squash since she’d stormed out. Hewasn’t the sort who had much time for a past that couldn’t be changed, but it seemed that the past didn’t have much respect for that, and had decided to reassert itself after over a decade of conveniently hibernating.

Rafael could have simply posted the portfolio back to her, or emailed her to arrange a drop-off, but in the end he had decided on the spur of the moment to hand-deliver it. He could use the opportunity to visit the land agent and have another look around the hotel and the properties so that he could determine what he wanted to do before delegating his instructions.

He’d debated whether to phone ahead first, but in the end had decided to simply swing by. The fact that the first page of her portfolio was generous with information about where she lived and the various ways in which she could be contacted seemed to be fate inviting him to pay her visit.

And, in truth, reading through the pack she had prepared for him had opened his eyes to a guilty conscience he hadn’t thought he possessed: guilt that he could have been more sympathetic to his father; guilt that his antics must have meant yet more worries for him at the time. He had since set up his dad in style, and always made sure to keep in touch, but nothing could ever make up for lost time.

Sammy’s portfolio had also managed to make him feel guilty abouther.He’d sent her packing without a backward glance. Was he so ensconced in his ivory tower that the pleas of someone whose future he had irrevocably altered should fall on deaf ears—even when he shared a past with that person?

Of course, he wasn’t going to redesign his hotel to accommodate her, which would be utter madness, but he had a couple of ideas. There was room for manoeuvre. Anybody else and he wouldn’t be sitting here now, that was for sure. But memories had a funny way of finding cracks in what he’dthought was rock-solid—such as his immunity to the weakness of any emotion.

Around him, the weak winter sun was already beginning to show signs of fading away, even though it wasn’t much after three in the afternoon. He half-expected no one to be in so, when he rang the bell, he was disconcerted to hear footsteps approaching. Then the door was opened just a crack, with a chain separating him from green eyes peering suspiciously at him.

‘I have something you forgot.’ He waved the portfolio at the four-inch crack in the door. ‘Just in case you’re wondering why I’ve shown up on your doorstep.’

‘I no longer need that, so you can go away. I have nothing to say to you.’

‘Look...’ He raked his fingers through his hair. ‘I’ve read your proposal—’

‘And you’re going to change your mind and let me buy the place so that I can open my café and develop upstairs for myself?’

‘Unfortunately not.’

‘Then goodbye.’

Sammy pushed the door shut and he rang the doorbell again. There was no reply. Rafael kept ringing. When she opened it yet again, he was still there, six-foot-four inches of implacable alpha male in no particular rush to leave.

She glared at him.

Rafael Moreno was the last person on the planet Sammy had expected to see standing outside her front door at three-thirty on a wintry Saturday afternoon.

She was just back from visiting her mother. She had planned to tell her everything about the hotel, and the abrupt end to all her plans for opening her patisserie, but the minute she had sat down she had looked at her mother’s thin, anxious face and had immediately decided that this was a bridge she would cross at a later date.

Caroline Payne hadn’t had the easiest of lives. She’d lost her husband and the father to both her children over two decades ago, and Sammy often wondered whether she had ever recovered from the loss. Seven at the time, all Sammy could remember was her mother’s quiet tears as she’d gone through the motions of living, but she’d really only existed, biding her time until grief would leave her alone. Sammy and her brother had hovered like ghosts in a void. Sammy could remember a sense that she’d been waiting until things returned to normal and would be less sad and confusing.

Unfortunately, it had taken a long time for things to return to normal. Her mother had met and married someone else with undue haste, desperate to be rescued from her inability to cope. John Deeley, the manager at the factory where her mother had worked, had entered their lives with an arrogant determination to take charge. Meek and mild-mannered on the outside, he had soon proved himself to be a bully who made up for his inadequacies by throwing his weight around within the four walls of the house. Shouting and belittling her hadn’t been enough to make their mother leave him; it was only when he’d raised a hand to strike Colin that she had finally snapped.

Even then, it had taken ages before he had finally disappeared from their lives and only after the police had become involved. When Sammy recalled that period in their lives, she still felt the grip of childish fear suffocate her.

Her mother had pulled herself together since those days. She’d got herself a decent job, studied in the evenings andworked her fingers to the bone to make sure she was never late with a mortgage payment. She had instilled in her only daughter the idea that men weren’t the be all and end all, and that independence counted for everything.

Sammy had known as she’d matured that her mother was devoting herself to making up for those lost years when she had been wrapped up in her misery, and then later, those years when she had subjected Sammy and Colin to the horror of a stepfather like John Deeley.

Sammy had done her best to reassure her mother that time had moved on since then. It was true that Colin had gone off the rails, which her mother had taken as her fault; but he was on the straight and narrow now. Sammy repeatedly told her mother that she was happy, was fulfilled, had found her calling, but guilt and worry had taken up residence in her mother’s heart and refused to budge. But, amidst all this, Caroline Payne had done her utmost financially and emotionally to support both of her children.

Working in various kitchens, training finally to branch out and do her own thing, had come at a cost to Sammy. There had been arduous hours and not much of a pay cheque. She had been grateful to her mother for the hand-outs she had given her over the years. She’d promised herself that she would get where she wanted to be and would repay her mum for everything she’d done for Colin and her.

So to break the news that the whole thing was off thanks to Rafael...no chance.

Which brought her right back to the man plonked outside her house, refusing to move.

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