Page 17 of One More Sleepless Night

‘I—’ She stopped and looked at him with sudden concern. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Absolutely fine,’ he said, frustration with himself making him sound brusquer than he’d have liked. ‘What about you?’

‘Me?’ she asked, blinking up at him in surprise. ‘Oh, I couldn’t be better.’

Rafael frowned. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Of course,’ she said, and flashed him an overly bright smile. ‘Why on earth wouldn’t I be?’

He thought he saw her smile falter for a second, but it was back in the blink of an eye and he couldn’t be certain. ‘Did you sleep well?’

‘Fabulously.’

‘Really?’

She nodded. ‘Absolutely. It must be all this fresh air and sun.’

Hmm. He tilted his head and noticed the dark shadows beneath her eyes that belied her words. ‘Right.’

‘You sound sceptical.’

If it hadn’t been for the guilt swilling around inside him, Rafael would have let it go, but if anything the guilt was growing so instead he braced himself and made himself say, ‘I am.’

‘Why?’

‘Because in the middle of the night I heard a yell.’

Nicky’s eyebrows shot up and she froze and for a moment there was such utter silence that he could hear the hum of a tractor he knew to be miles away. ‘A yell?’ she said at last, way too casually to be convincing.

‘That’s right.’

‘And you thought it was me?’

‘Who else would it have been?’

She shrugged and shifted her weight from one foot to the other while her gaze slid from his and focused on a point somewhere over his left shoulder. ‘I’ve no idea. An owl perhaps?’

An owl? ‘It was you. What happened?’

She bit her lip, dithered for a second and then clearly decided there was no point in denying it any longer. ‘I had a bad dream,’ she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘It was nothing.’

‘It didn’t sound like nothing.’

The smile she gave him this time was tight. ‘Look, Rafael, I appreciate your concern, really I do, but I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Don’t you think it might help?’

‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘It really was nothing, and I’d be grateful if you’d drop it.’

Rafael stared at her for a second, mulling over whether he should push her further for an explanation, but then mentally shrugged and did as she asked. He’d tried, but he could hardly force her to tell him, and anyway if it really was nothing then he didn’t need to.

In fact he ought to be relieved she didn’t want to discuss it. He’d done what he’d set out to do. By bringing the matter up he’d assuaged the guilt, and Nicky’s request that he leave things alone reaffirmed his judgement that she wouldn’t have appreciated the interference even if he had rushed to her aid, so he was completely off the hook. And he hadn’t even had to mop up any messy emotional stuff.

So where was the relief? Where was the satisfaction? And why was he feeling faintly piqued by her reluctance to talk about what was troubling her instead of being pleased at such a successful outcome to his quandary?

‘OK, fine,’ he said, nodding and deciding to attribute the baffling—and faintly disconcerting—paradox to a long morning in the sun.

‘Thanks,’ she said, brightening considerably and shooting him a beaming smile that had desire once again rushing through him. ‘You know, you’re just in time.’

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