Absent in the Spring (The Shakespeare Sisters 3)

‘Please don’t. It would be weird.’ She needed to be alone, to think about everything that had happened. Every time he was next to her she couldn’t get her mind straight.

‘Thirty euros, please,’ the taxi driver said.

Lucy went to grab her purse, but her hand froze in the air. She felt her face flush as Lachlan paid for the fare.

Once the driver had left, Lachlan placed his cases on a trolley, then picked up her overnight bag, but she quickly took it from him. ‘I’ve got it.’ They walked towards the terminal, through the small crowd of people outside, and Lucy could feel her neck itch. As they stepped inside, a glance at the screens told her she needed to check in at desk fifty – far away from the transatlantic flights.

‘Are you sure you don’t want me to wait with you?’ Lachlan asked. His voice sounded strange. As though it had been stretched thin.

‘I’m sure.’ She took a deep breath, then gave him a smile. ‘Thank you for a lovely weekend.’

‘It was my pleasure.’

‘Mine, too.’

Could this feel any more awkward? She did her best to ignore the little voice in her head, the one telling her this is why she shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. Even if that voice spoke the truth.

She looked around the departure hall. It was teeming with people. ‘I guess I’ll speak to you soon. About the case.’

Lachlan was moving the trolley back and forth, like a mother rocking a baby to sleep. ‘Yeah, sure.’

‘Have a safe journey.’ Should she kiss him? Maybe on the cheek. Anything else would feel strange.

Which was really messed up after the things they’d done this weekend.

Damn it, she leaned in and pressed her lips to his cheek. ‘Goodbye, Lachlan,’ she murmured.

He curled his warm palm around her neck, and moved his head, until his lips brushed against hers. ‘Goodbye, Lucy.’

She stepped back, swinging her bag in one hand, raising the other in a goodbye salute. Then she turned and walked towards the check-in zone, refusing to look back and see if he was still there. They’d made a pact and she was determined to keep it, even if she was already missing him like crazy.

No tears, no recriminations, no promises. Just two adults spending a no-strings weekend in the city of love.

Maybe she wasn’t as bad at this as she’d thought.

‘Can I get you another drink, sir?’

Lachlan looked up from his laptop screen – and his IM conversation with Grant – to see the waiter standing next to his table. The business lounge was half empty – most of those travelling for Monday meetings had already left – and he’d found the silence useful for catching up on all those emails that had been piling up for the past few days.

‘No thank you, I’m good.’ He nodded at the waiter. ‘Do you know if my flight’s still on time?’

‘Yes it is, sir,’ the waiter told him. ‘Boarding will begin in half an hour. I’ll come and find you as soon as they announce it.’

As the waiter walked away, Lachlan glanced back at the screen. Grant had been busy in his absence.

You have five meetings tomorrow, plus a teleconference with some investors, and your doctor wants to know why you keep rescheduling your medicals. Did you know we’ve had to cancel them four times already? You could be dying of something and we wouldn’t know.

Lachlan shook his head, suppressing a grin.

Try not to worry so much. You’re my assistant, not my wife.

Hey, if I was your wife, we’d be on our way to the divorce courts already.

The door opened and a couple walked in – the man dressed in a tailored suit, the woman in a dress with matching jacket. Her blonde hair reminded him of Lucy, and for the tenth time that hour he found his thoughts wandering back to her.

Her flight had already left, and yet for some reason he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He reached for his glass then remembered it was empty, his hand resting in mid-air for a moment. Strange how he’d half expected her to text message him before her plane departed, just to let him know she was okay. It wasn’t as if they had that kind of relationship, was it?

Even stranger that he’d felt disappointed that she hadn’t.