Page 130 of Playing for Keeps

“She’s got a lot to deal with at the moment, with her mum, and with a sibling on the way. I don’t want to add to her stress.”

Allie shook her head, looking utterly bewildered. “What exactly are you saying?”

“I’m saying I don’t know whether this is a good time for me to be in a relationship, and with all you’ve got going on it’s probably not a good time for you either.”

Allie stared at him, the combination of hurt and anger in her eyes making his heart pound even more than it already was. “Is this your attempt to break up with me?”

“I just think it might be for the best. Don’t you think?”

“No,” she shouted, her cheeks flashing bright red. “I don’t think so. Especially not on the grounds of your flimsy excuses. Unless you’ve suddenly decided you don’t like me, none of this makes any sense.” Her eyes were full of sadness as she waited for him to respond.

He turned away from her, trying to figure out what to say while his brain battled with the notion that he’d be a complete idiot to break up with her. On the other hand, he couldn’t see how things could work out between them, so surely he’d be better off putting a stop to things now rather than letting himself get even more involved.

“I don’t even know you,” he said, turning back to her. “The person I got to know had a different job and a different name and was an entirely different person.”

“That’s not true.” The tear which ran down her cheek almost broke him. “You know me. Maybe you got to know a slightly different version of me, but it was still me.”

He fought the urge to sit beside her and put his arms around her. “You got to know a different version of me too,” he said calmly. “One where Emmy wasn’t around and I pretended I didn’t have responsibilities for a little while, but it wasn’t really me. I need to focus on Emmy and work. I can’t cope with drama in my life.”

She let out a humourless laugh. “I’m drama, am I? I see.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You can be as sorry as you want, but I don’t actually believe what you’re saying.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re stressed because you found out all this new stuff about me. I can understand you being annoyed, and you definitely need time to take it all in, but you can’t just end things between us.” She gave a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t accept it.”

“You don’t accept it?” he parroted.

“No. I don’t. We can cool things off for a little while. When everything has calmed down for me at the golf course and you’ve had time to digest everything, then we’ll see how things stand between us.” She looked at him desperately. “Okay?”

No, it wasn’t okay. She couldn’t just say no when he broke up with her. As far as he was aware, that wasn’t the way dating worked.

“I just can’t, Hugh,” she said sadly. “I’m tired and the last couple of weeks have been so stressful. I can’t cope with anything else. Just don’t do this. Please. Go away and think about it at least.”

“Okay,” he muttered, confused as to the turn of the conversation.

But as he turned his back on her and left, he felt a tiny hint of relief that she hadn’t let him end things for definite.

She’d given him breathing room, and maybe that was all he needed.

CHAPTER 46

Daisy had been giving Allie odd looks since she arrived at work on Monday morning. Or maybe she hadn’t. Allie hadn’t slept well since her conversation with Hugh on Saturday evening, and there was a chance she was seeing things that weren’t there.

“What’s wrong?” she finally asked, when she walked out into the restaurant in the middle of the afternoon to find Daisy getting herself a coffee behind the bar and looking at Allie with that vaguely questioning, slightly nervous glint in her eyes.

“Nothing,” Daisy said brightly.

“You look as though you want to say something but are scared to.” Allie joined her behind the bar and glanced around the quiet restaurant where only a couple of tables were occupied.

Daisy chewed her lip and kept her eyes on the coffee machine as it deposited coffee into her mug.

“Given what we’ve been through in the last week, I don’t think we need to be shy around each other do we?”

Daisy sighed. “I only wanted to ask if you’re okay?”

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