Her shoulders relaxed and tensed up again just as quickly. ‘But it’s already past seven. Surely Lily needs to eat and get to bed.’
‘Let me worry about her and you get yourself sorted.’
She said, ‘Okay,’ as she hung up although she was far from okay. The truth was her common sense had returned the second she’d been outside of Jack McGregor’s field of charm, and she’d known she couldn’t indulge this strange fantasy that had overcome her.
She was Sophia Lambert, destined to live and die alone for what she’d done. It was the very same reason she couldn’t go back home and visit her parents. To see Mum and Dad, the way they would embrace her and pretend to forgive. She couldn’t. Just. Couldn’t.
And the more she kept her distance from people, the less likely she was to suffer a similar loss again. It was how she lived her life, how she had to live it.
‘Seriously, Sophia, if I’d known you had plans I never would have brought this to you in the first place,’ Andrew stressed, wearing his own look of guilt. ‘We’re more than capable of dealing with it.’
He was right. They were. And yet here she was, insisting it be her. Seeking a delay that gave her the distance she needed.
‘I know you are.’ She strode forward and gave him a reassuring smile. ‘But you should have clocked off an hour ago. You know Cassie will be waiting for you.’
Cassie, his wife, always planned a candlelit dinner on Friday nights and Sophia knew how much both she and Andrew valued that tradition.
‘Go,’ she insisted, spying the continued hesitation in his gaze.
He shook his head in surrender. ‘Okay, I’m going, but get this delegated and get yourself off. You need fun too.’
His grin was warm, but she could see the concern that cast a shadow over it. She didn’t need Andrew to worry about her. She was fine. At least she would be after the night was done and she could go back to life as normal. Why had she even agreed in the first place?
Silly question. She couldn’t think past the chaos that kicked up inside when she was around Jack.
She watched Andrew go, wondering what it would be like to have that kind of companionship and unconditional love to go home to. Was she a fool to reject it at every turn?
Her phone rang again and she pushed the thought aside. Just work—focus on that.
And she did.
It was almost eight by the time she caught a breather to think about Jack and his daughter. Her inner self laughed at her. Who are you kidding? You’ve been forcing yourself not to think about them all evening.
And Lily didn’t deserve such behaviour. Neither did Jack. It wasn’t his fault she was in a tizz over the way he made her feel.
She picked up the phone and dialled his room, anxiously rubbing at her neck as she waited.
‘Hello?’
The fine hairs beneath her fingers pricked up, her heart tripping over itself and all from his simple hello.
‘Hi.’ She swallowed. ‘It’s Sophia.’
‘Hey.’
She could hear the smile in his voice, imagined him standing before her and basking in its glow. And there she was, drowning in a sea of sensation and losing her mind all over again.
‘I’m ready if you are.’ She sounded breathless, her lungs struggling to function past the churn of nerves...or was it excitement?
‘Great, I’ll see you in the foyer in five.’
‘Great,’ she parroted, lowering the phone and staring at it as if she couldn’t believe this was happening. Any of it.
The evening truly was set. She was going to dinner with a guy who was the stuff of heroes in one of her favourite romance novels and his charming daughter—Single Dad meets Lonely Hotelier—she could see it now in all its fanciful glory and pinched herself back to reality.
For the first time in her adult life Sophia was going to take a risk and let go for a night. She was going to have some fun, safe in the company of Lily, and then tomorrow she would move on. Simple.
Only when she got to the foyer there was no sign of them. The lift pinged its arrival and