Page 98 of Love Is: Two Bodies One Soul

ChapterThirty-Six

‘Well, this is it, cariad.’Owen dumped their bags on the floor of his London flat and lifted his hands in apology as Lexie looked around what he euphemistically referred to as ‘home’.

He hadn’t wanted to bring her here, but they couldn’t go to Kate’s because she was now in a love nest with Xander. ‘I did warn you,’ he said.

‘That it’s pokey.’ Their eyes met across the small space.

‘Yes.’ His brow puckered into a worried frown as he added, ‘And a dump.’

‘Hmm.’ Lexie nodded, and her eyes fell on the half-full bottle of Whyte & Mackay.

‘I was keeping it to prove I don’t need it, and anyway, it is almost empty.’

‘Right.’ Her eyes widened at him, and he wondered what she was thinking and why she wasn’t saying much. Was she disappointed? Was his reality even worse than the truth he’d told her?

‘It’s a pity we can’t go to Kate’s place. That brother of your’s is a fast mover.’

‘He is.’

‘Are you sure you want to stay here? I could walk you back to the station,’ he said, holding his breath in anticipation of her answer. He watched anxiously as Lexie moved slowly around the room. She ran her fingers across the back of his one and only easy chair, not his really – it came with the flat.

Her eyes flicked to the bed with the crumpled duvet (that was his, though the bed wasn’t), and Owen wondered if she was deciding she couldn’t sleep there.

‘I’m going to get somewhere better, as soon as I can afford it,’ he said

Her eyes fixed on him, something determined in their expression. ‘You could always come to Brighton.’

She hates it here.It wasn’t a surprise; Owen had always loathed the place, and though he had cleaned it up since he’d been working, it was still a hovel.

Lexie crossed the room to stand close to him. ‘Well,’ she said, resting her hands on his chest and looking appealingly into his face. ‘Brighton – shall we?’

‘Lexie, I’d love it. If you want me there.’

‘I do.’

They stopped talking to kiss – the first tenderness since the landing at Heathrow. Then stopping for breath, he said, ‘But we can’t go today.’

She smiled at him. ‘Because today, I meet Emi.’

* * *

It was cold in St. James’Park, and neither Owen nor Lexie had suitable clothes for the first frost of winter.

‘Here, take this.’ Owen removed his jacket and placed it around Lexie’s shoulders. She was shivering.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

‘I’ll be fine.’ His breath condensed in the air. ‘I’m going to be moving … walking to the meeting spot, talking with Margaret. The tongue-lashing I’m bound to receive from her will be enough to keep me warm.’

She laughed.

He was pleased. Not everyone got his jokes. He took her hands in his, rubbing them to get her circulation moving as he went on, ‘You’ll need the coat. You’re going to be stuck here on this cold bench waiting for Emi and me, for I don’t know how long.’

‘But you’ll still freeze … we’ve been used to temperatures in the thirties, and I doubt it’s much above zero right now.’

‘No argument, Lex. Keep it on.’ Owen stepped back.

‘Owen?’

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