Page 14 of Made Up for Love
He spotted the sympathy in Lydia’s eyes. He didn’t want her pity though.
“Yeah, that is shit.” She glanced down at the table and stirred her drink. “Although if you had to spend the season with my perfect sister, a meal for one and lots of booze sounds much more preferable. Trust me.”
“At least you had family around you. I haven’t spent Christmas with both of my parents together in about twenty years. They split up when I was young, so I took turns to spend it with each of them.”
Lydia reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “I’m sorry. That must be hard; I’m lucky my parents have stayed together.”
Joel felt a flood of warmth from her touch. There was a part of him that wanted to pull his hand away, but another part that wanted to hold it tighter. His phone rang in his pocket and he drew back to answer it. When he saw Rupert’s name on the screen, he knew it had been the right choice.
“I’ve got to take this, sorry.” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “Won’t be long.”
9
Lydia popped the last of her mince pie into her mouth as she watched Joel walk away. Hearing his story about the previous Christmas made her want to reach out and hug him. No-one should have to be on their own.
Despite all her protestations about Megan and her family, she wouldn’t have it any other way. With their silly traditions, such as drinking sherry, while they opened their presents—they didn’t have it at any other time of the year; watching the Queen’s Speech and playing word bingo, downing a shot every time she said a certain word; arguing over which of the seasonal specials they were going to watch, Lydia wouldn’t trade places for the world. Just the thought of sitting alone in her flat, with a turkey dinner and a bottle of wine on that day, filled her with cold dread.
A silly thought popped into her head—of inviting Joel to spend Christmas with her. She shook it away. He probably had much more exciting things to do than spend the day with the stranger he met while he was stranded in Scotland.
“Sorry about that.” Joel came back to the table and plopped into the chair opposite her. “It was my boss. He had an update about the presentation yesterday.”
“Was it good news?”
Joel screwed up his face. “Not really. We won’t get to hear on the bid before Christmas now. The people, from the last company they were going to see, can’t get there because of the weather.”
“Oh, that’s disappointing.” Lydia didn’t really know what else to say. She didn’t know the inner workings of a management consultancy and guessed that it would be.
He shrugged. “It is. I can’t change it though. Now, did you want to look around the shops for some more suitable footwear?”
Lydia nodded.
For a small-town shopping centre, Lydia was impressed. There was more choice than she had anticipated, and it wasn’t long before she had found some new Timberland boots, which she immediately changed into. Suddenly she felt much safer walking around and didn’t need to hold on to Joel. That was the only disappointment about her new purchase.
They found a large department store at one end of the mall and Lydia knew she had to find her party dress there. She dragged Joel from concession to concession, pulling dresses, in all the colours of the rainbow, off the racks, before finally heading to the changing room.
She left Joel sitting on one of the chairs, chatting to the sales assistant, while she went to try them on. It was important to her to get his opinion.
“What do you think of this one?”
Lydia twirled around in front of him. The dress she had on was a short, black-and-gold, glittery number. When she turned around, it was backless, exposing her bare skin.
“Are you trying to pull at this party?” Joel’s gaze swept up and down her, his eyes lingering on her legs.
“God, no! It will mostly be my family and my parents’ friends. There probably won’t be anyone under the age of thirty there who isn’t related to me in some way.”
“Then that’s not the one.” He paused. “I mean, it’s nice and all that and if I spotted you across the room, wearing that dress, I might want to come over and talk to you.” His tone was light, his words playful, a smile playing across his lips. “Remember, I’m not your target audience.”
Such a shame, thought Lydia. His words ran through her mind. Would he really come and talk to her at a party if she was wearing that dress? Maybe she should buy it.
She turned her back on him and headed back into the fitting room. She unzipped the metallic number and let it slither to the floor in a heap. The next one was a simple black lace dress that had cap sleeves and a knee-length skirt. When Joel wrinkled up his nose the moment she walked out of the changing room, Lydia turned and went straight back in. She knew it was the safe but dull choice. He had the same reaction to the next couple and Lydia wondered if he might be getting bored. Spending the day with an almost total stranger, helping her buy a dress, probably wasn’t top of his list of things to do. Finally, she picked up a multi-coloured shift dress that was all kinds of berry colours. It had three-quarter length sleeves, a cute V-neck with a tie fastening and it fell to just above her knees. The material was flattering and draped over her curves. She pirouetted in front of the mirror, watching how the skirt fluttered up, and wished she had her heels with her. Sometimes you needed the accessories to get the full effect.
Lydia hurried out of the cubicle and found Joel. He didn’t say anything, simply stared at her.
“Wow,” he breathed. “You look amazing. Your parents should be glad to have such a beautiful, classy-looking daughter.”
Tears pricked at Lydia’s eyes. It had been such a long time since a man had complimented her in that way that she didn’t know what to do. Her breath hitched as she looked at Joel. She had known him such a short time, yet in the hours they’d spent together she felt more at ease with him—not to mention more attracted to him—than she had with anyone else in the recent past. She shook her head. He was being friendly because they were stuck there. And his only other option for company was one of the elderly couples staying in the hotel.
“Thank you. Do you think I should get it?”
