‘You too!’ she said enthusiastically.
‘Don’t get up.’ He heaved himself upright. ‘Thanks for the sandwich,’ he said down to her with a grin. ‘It’s years since I had egg and lettuce. Uh—by the way, Nicky sends his love. He said if ever I bumped into you to tell you that.’
‘Oh, please give him my love,’ Alex responded affectionately. ‘Goodbye then, Mr Goodwin.’
Max Goodwin touched the top of her head with his fingertips. ‘Bye, Miss Hill.’
Alex watched him walk away and felt like fainting. It had been a bravura performance, all lies, she thought dizzily, and where had she acquired the acting ability from to see it through?
She put her hand over her heart because it seemed to be beating lightly but raggedly somewhere up near her throat. And she watched Max Goodwin until he was out of sight. But there was a slightly puzzled look in her eyes, because there was something different about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on …
Then he was gone and the whole picnic idea had palled so she packed up and rode home. Josie looked almost humanly worried all the way back.
‘Knock, knock!’ Patti came through the front door to find Alex and Josie watching television that evening. ‘Did he find you?’
Alex reached for the remote and flicked the TV off. ‘Did who find me?’
‘Your ex-employer. The guy with the Bentley—Max Goodwin.’
Alex frowned, her hand still poised in the air with the remote in it. ‘I didn’t know he was looking for me.’
‘Well, he was. I told him you were going to New Farm Park. Didn’t he find you?’
‘Yes, he did,’ Alex said in a voice that didn’t sound like her own. ‘But I thought it was by accident, a coincidence. He didn’t say otherwise.’
Patti gestured and sat down at the dining table. ‘Doesn’t look the type you’d find in the park unless he had a kid or a dog. And he doesn’t look the type who’d have to exercise his own kids or dogs.’
‘No,’ Alex said slowly. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? Well, I did at first but.’ She trailed off.
‘Has he been ill?’
Alex’s eyes widened. ‘He also looked different to me but—what makes you say that?’
Patti shrugged. ‘I was a nurse. Sometimes you get a sixth sense.’
When Patti left, Alex was plunged into deep thought.
Along the lines of, metaphorically she could run, she could hide from Max Goodwin, she could think of herself or—she could think more of him.
Why had he sought her out? She might have had no direct contact with him, but she’d learnt that Mr Li still did translating work for Goodwin Minerals, and Mr Li still maintained his contacts with the consulate, so he would have been fully up to date with her progress.
If Max had wanted to keep tabs on her just to make sure she was all right, that would have been the perfect channel.
So why seek her out when he’d done his best to make it a clean break for her?
It didn’t seem to make sense, unless.
But why wait nearly five months?
She frowned suddenly. Over and above all that—what was wrong with him? She knew in her heart of hearts all was not right.
That was when it occurred to her that the biggest question she faced was to do with herself and it was the question of her own—what was the right word for it?—valour.
It sounded melodramatic, she thought, but did it mean that the time had come for her to accept there was no future for her with him, but that didn’t alter the fact that she cared deeply for him so that her concern for him was real and almost overwhelming? And running away from that to save herself from further hurt was cowardly.
The disembodied vo
ice that issued from the speaker above the penthouse buzzer—Jake’s, she recognized—informed her that Mr Goodwin was not in residence and any enquiries should be directed to his office.