Page 22 of One More Sleepless Night

The distant sound of her mobile ringing in the kitchen filtered through the haze of her sleep-filled siesta, and Nicky yawned and stretched. She got up and padded down the stairs, her head beginning to spin yet again with the strange turn of events that the afternoon had taken.

So much for attempting to explain her behaviour, for trying to apologise. She’d done her level best, she really had, but for some reason Rafael had thwarted her every attempt.

In fact she probably shouldn’t have bothered to try in the first place, she thought as she headed in the direction of the increasingly loud ringing, because hadn’t he told her that he steered well clear of emotional mess? He had, so presumably the last thing he was hankering after was a spilling out of her soul, and in that they were in perfect agreement. Actually, apart from Gaby, it was about the only thing she and Rafael did have in common.

And as they were never going be anything more than the merest of acquaintances she really didn’t need to waste any more time worrying about it. She had no need to ponder the odd way he’d gone from scorchingly hot to icily cold by the pool. No need to question the steely indifference he’d chosen to adopt, and no need to try to work out what was going on in his head any more than he needed to try and work out what was going on in hers.

No, she needed to pour all her energy to recovery. Recovery and staying well out of his way.

Spying her phone vibrating on the huge scrubbed pine table that sat in the centre of the kitchen, Nicky walked over, picked it up and hit the little green button. ‘Hello?’

‘Nicky!’ came the relieved shriek down the phone, and at the sound of Gaby’s voice she pushed all thoughts of perplexing men to one side and felt herself smile.

‘Well, hello, stranger,’ she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

‘God, I’m sorry. I lost my phone and all the numbers and everything and it’s taken an age to get a new one.’

‘So that’s why I couldn’t get hold of you.’

‘No one’s been able to. It’s been a total pain.’ As Gaby’s entire life was contained in her phone, Nicky could imagine her distress.

‘How’s Bahrain?’

‘Hot. And depressingly dry, in all senses of the word. But more importantly, how are you?’

Hmm. Now wasn’t that the question of the century? Quite honestly, what with everything that had been going on lately Nicky wasn’t sure she knew any more. ‘Fine,’ she said in the absence of having any idea what else to say.

‘Really?’

‘Well, getting there,’ she amended as it suddenly struck her that maybe she was. Maybe the cortijo had begun to work its magic, because, now she thought about it, of all the emotions that had been churning through her in the last couple of days—and there’d been plenty—despair and desolation had been conspicuous by their absence.

‘Good. And how are your chakras?’

She thought about it a bit more and felt surprisingly light, as if the dark heavy weight she’d been carrying around for so long was beginning to lift a little. And then her smile deepened as the light at the end of that tunnel glowed a fraction brighter. ‘Beginning to align, it would seem.’

‘Hah,’ said Gaby triumphantly. ‘I knew it. God, I’m good.’

Nicky sat back in the chair, lifted her knees and planted her heels on the edge of the seat. ‘Not that good,’ she said dryly, wrapping her arm around her ankles and hugging her knees to her chest. ‘I thought you swore your brother never came down here.’

‘He doesn’t. Or at least he hasn’t for ages.’

‘He does now.’

There was long, rather stunned silence. ‘Rafa’s there?’

‘Yes.’ At least she imagined he was. Probably seeing to those ‘things’ that had suddenly demanded such urgent attention.

‘Good Lord. Why?’

Nicky paused and racked her brains because she could hardly tell Gaby her brother had been escaping his sisters. ‘I think he was after a bit of rest and relaxation,’ she said vaguely.

Gaby blew out a breath. ‘Oh, I am sorry.’

‘Why? It’s not your fault.’

‘No, I guess not. I mean, I did try and contact him, but he wouldn’t answer any of my calls and he didn’t reply to any of my emails…It never occurred to me he’d actually show up, though.’

‘Well, he did,’ Nicky muttered, catching sight of a slip of paper propped up against the vase of flowers sitting in the centre of the table. She leaned forwards to read the short note and then sat back and frowned, not at all sure what to make of it. ‘But now it seems he’s gone.’

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