Page 65 of Just the Beginning

‘As long as you’re sure?’

‘I’m positive. See you soon, dearest.’

Right, that was one thing sorted. On to the next.

‘I didn’t expect to be seeing you again so soon,’ Steve said when she walked into the hotel reception about half an hour later. ‘I thought you didn’t work here any more.’

‘Seems I’m a glutton for punishment, doesn’t it?’ she said, rounding the desk to drop her bag on the floor. ‘Right then, anything I need to know about?’

The handover with Steve didn’t take long and Anya was logged in and scanning through the couple of emails he’d flagged for her while he went and fetched his lunchbox from the fridge in the kitchen. Not alunchbox, she supposed, when he was eating his sandwiches at ten o’clock at night.

‘Here you go,’ Steve said, setting a mug of hot water down beside her. ‘I didn’t add milk because I know you like that herbal stuff.’

‘That’s kind of you, thanks.’ Anya bent over and pulled a tea bag out of her stash in the bottom drawer.

‘What you got?’

‘Raspberry and lemon.’ She held up the little sachet to show him.

Steve mock-shuddered. ‘Good grief, give me a cup of good old builder’s tea any day.’ He tapped the edge of the desk. ‘I’ll be off, then, if you’re sure you’ll be okay?’

‘I’ll be fine, thanks. Do you want me to text you later if I get any update on Davy?’

‘That would be great, thank you. I meant to thank you for the message you sent last night too. It was a real weight off mymind.’ He sighed. ‘I’ve grown fond of the old boy, even with all his quirky ways.’

Anya smiled. ‘Me too.’

There was a heavy thud-thud-thud and Rick came dashing through the revolving door. ‘Sorry I’m late, Steve! I had a bit of nightmare this morn…’ Rick trailed off as he spotted Anya ensconced in her usual spot behind the desk. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘What does it look like?’

Steve shot a quick glance between them. ‘Oh, trouble in paradise. That’s my cue to leave.’

‘No trouble,’ Rick called after him as Steve headed for the door.

‘No paradise, I think you meant to say,’ Anya said, but not until Steve was safely inside the revolving compartment.

Rick stared at her for a long moment, his eyes full of regret. ‘Yes, that too.’

Breaking his gaze, Anya shuffled the papers on the desk in front of her. ‘Well, as you can see I’ve got everything in hand here, so you can concentrate on running your own business.’ She’d almost said minding your own business, but even though she was still upset with him, it wasn’t in her nature to be deliberately mean. Though she might still fancy a punt at one of his shins if he was foolish enough to get too close.

‘What about when Davy gets back?’

Anya glanced up. ‘That’s for me and him to sort out.’

Rick closed his eyes for a second. ‘Of course. Well, I’ll leave you to it. If you need anything…’

‘I’ll be fine.’

He smiled then. ‘I know you will. It might not seem like it from the way I’ve acted, Anya, but I never doubted you, not forone minute. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met and I wish nothing but good things for you.’

Damn him for being nice to her. ‘Take care, Rick.’

32

The day passed without incident and Anya received an update from Ma and Pa when she went to collect Freya.

‘They’re letting him home tomorrow. The antibiotics are doing their thing and he’s much more comfortable,’ Pa told her as she sat down for the obligatory cup of tea with them. ‘I tried to persuade him to come back here, but, well, you can imagine how that went down.’

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