Page 13 of The Key to the Last House Before the Sea

NESSA

It was no good. Nessa couldn’t stop thinking about Gabriel’s interest in Sorrel Cove. She couldn’t put her finger on what was bothering her particularly. But she had a bad feeling about it. A hunch.

‘So who do you work for?’ she asked, trying to sound nonchalant as she led Gabriel up the cliff path towards Driftwood House.

Gabriel stopped walking and put his hands on his hips. He had a piercing stare that made her feel uncomfortable.

‘I work for my father,’ he said in his low, deep voice. ‘I work for the family firm.’

She would have left it there, if it weren’t for The Flutters. That’s what Lily had dubbed the unease she felt when her dad was due for one of his infrequent visits.And Nessa’s stomach was chock-full of flutters right now.

She took a deep breath. ‘So, what exactly does your father do?’

‘He identifies—’ He hesitated. ‘We identify possibilities and turn them into investment opportunities.’

Well, that was as clear as mud. Nessa sighed.

‘Would I have heard of your business?’

Gabriel turned his gaze to the blue sea sparkling nearby. ‘Possibly.’

‘Is it doing well?’ asked Nessa. This was turning into Twenty Questions.

‘Yes, it’s doing extremely well.’

‘Congratulations.’

Gabriel raised an eyebrow, unsure if she was being sincere. She wasn’t. ‘Thank you. I think.’

He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. But it was his own fault, thought Nessa, for dressing so inappropriately.

‘Is your wife involved in the family firm too?’ she asked, fed up with being fobbed off.

Gabriel shot her a look that said she was asking too many personal questions but Nessa was unfazed. After all, she’d seen him half naked this morning.

He’d been hard to miss, standing there with his arms outstretched, like a half-naked Adonis. And it was hard to find him intimidating when she’d clocked an eyeful of him in his underpants, which were, at least, black and tight, rather than the baggy off-white boxers that Jake used to slob around in.

‘I don’t have a wife,’ answered Gabriel. ‘My girlfriend, Seraphina, and I broke up a while ago.’

He frowned, presumably annoyed with himself for saying too much, while Nessa tried not to giggle. Of course an uptight businessman like Gabriel Gantwich would have a girlfriend called Seraphina.

She doubted that Seraphina was a single mum living in a friend’s box room. Seraphina probably lived in Chelsea and had a swish apartment large enough for a king-size bed and a walk-in wardrobe.

She suddenly had an image of Gabriel and blonde Seraphina – she was bound to be honey-blonde – entangled in the king-size bed, and frowned. Gabriel was attractive, but in a squeaky-clean, well-groomed, expensive kind of a way, which wasn’t her thing at all.

Jake, for all his many faults, had a sexy grunge vibe going on. This man wouldn’t know grunge if it walked up and slapped him in the face.

‘Is it tricky, working with your dad?’ she asked, to distract herself from thinking of Gabriel in bed.

‘No,’ he replied quickly and then added, ‘Not really. My cousin works in the company too so there are three of us to keep it going. Plus lots of other staff, of course.’

‘Do you, your dad and cousin all get on well together?’

‘Well enough. Why?’

‘No reason. So is your interest in Sorrel Cove personal or professional?’

It was a tactic Nessa used when trying to get information out of Lily about her day at school. Talk about something else and casually drop in the question that you really wanted answered.

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