'There's really no need…' She quailed under his ferocious glare and gave him the address in a small voice.
'Thank you,' he said with infinite sarcasm as he turned to walk back round the bonnet of the car.
'Reece?' Her voice halted him in his tracks as he glanced at her troubled face. 'I didn't mean it, about the payment.' She stared at him as he didn't move, his face perfectly still. 'It was a cheap jibe and I apologise, but I'd still rather sort the car out myself,' she added with a raising of her small chin.
'The car is on my property; I know someone who will deal with it straight away so you won't be inconvenienced too much; it's simpler,' he said in a monotone. 'And the apology is accepted.'
'Good.' She found herself smiling at his angry face in spite of herself, sensing that her apology had taken him by surprise.
He stared back at her for a long moment and then she saw a glimmer of a smile touch the straight mouth. 'Good and gay,' he murmured to himself as he walked round the car, his face sardonic. 'I'd have preferred bad and gay, personally. I'll see you Monday morning, Miriam.' And then he was gone in a swirl of gleaming pale gold metal as Barbara waved cheerfully out of the car window.
She was at home later that night when Frank rang, curled up in front of the small gas fire in her bedsit as she watched an old movie on TV and struggled to put every thought of Reece Vance out of her mind.
'Hi, Mim.' Frank's voice was warm as he called her by the old nickname he had used ever since she'd been a baby. 'How's Bennett and Bennett, then?'
'Fine.' She smiled into the phone. 'Thanks for putting us onto the Vance job, Frank, it's worth a mint.'
'Thought so.' Frank's voice expressed his satisfaction. 'Reece Vance might be a difficult man to deal with, but he is fair. I was really ringing to see if all went well; it obviously did, then?'
'We've got the job, if that's what you mean,' Miriam said carefully. 'I met his sister today and got all the loose ends tied up.'
'Barbara?' Frank was approving. 'Nice lady, isn't she? Never thought she'd ever get married, though; didn't think either of 'em would ever tie the knot. You know they're twins?'
'Yes, Reece told me.' There was a blank little silence at the other end of the phone and then Frank spoke, his voice slightly hesitant.
'Reece? You're on first-name terms, then?'
'Yes.' She wrinkled her brow at the phone. 'Anything wrong in that, Frank?'
'Not at all.' His voice was too hearty and he seemed to realise it too, because he had moderated the tone when he next spoke. 'The thing is, Mim, I know the ladies tend to be attracted to the guy, and I wouldn't like to think—' He stopped abruptly. 'That is…I was your father's best friend, Mim, and I promised him I'd always look out for the family if anything ever happened to him.'
'And you have,' she said softly. 'In lots of ways.'
'It's just that Reece Vance is the sort of guy most people would rather have as a friend than an enemy,' Frank continued slowly. 'Know what I mean? He can be ruthless in business, and from what I've heard he's pretty lethal in his personal life too. He works hard and plays hard but he never gets attached to anyone—keeps himself pretty remote. He's broken quite a few hearts in his time, I understand, although he makes it clear he operates on a strictly no-strings-attached policy, but you know what women are—always thinking they can change a man.'
'Frank?' She interrupted quickly as he paused for breath. 'Why are you telling me all this?'
'Why?' There was another brief pause. 'No reason, Mim; just filling you in on a bit of background, that's all.'
'I'm only doing the catering for his sister's wedding,' Miriam said softly. She closed her eyes tightly.
'Yes, fine…' Frank was clearly embarrassed now. 'And I know you'll do an excellent job too; you and Mitch have worked like beavers these last few years.' He hesitated and then spoke again, his voice resolute, as though he had nerved himself to say all he had planned. 'I just wanted you to understand, to avoid getting the wrong impression, that's all.'
'The wrong impression?' she asked quietly as she opened her eyes.
'Reece Vance is the kind of man who doesn't like women—' Frank's voice stopped abruptly. 'I don't mean he doesn't like women—that he likes men,' he added hastily. 'I mean— Oh, hell, Mim, you know what I mean.'
'That he uses them for one thing and one thing only?' she asked softly as she felt a physical pain in her heart region.
'Well, that's the way it seems.' Frank was dearly wishing that he had never phoned. 'Of course I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Anyway, congratulations on getting the job, Mim, and I'll probably see you at your mother's some time soon. Take care.'
'And you, Frank.'
She sat looking at the phone for some minutes after the call had ended, her heart heavy and her head spinning. Well, she had known, hadn't she? she asked herself sharply, biting back the urge to cry with savage intensity. He was the original loner—that much had been crystal-clear from the first moment she had set eyes on him. And of course the women would flock around him.
She shook her head blindly as she stood up and walked over to the breakfast bar, switching on the electric kettle and spooning coffee and sugar into one of her china mugs. The same fascination that had gripped her would almost certainly affect the rest of the female population, she told herself grimly as she poured boiling water onto the dark granules of coffee and inhaled the fragrant odour before adding milk. She hadn't expected to be the only one attracted to him, after all.
She continued to talk to herself in fits and starts for the rest of the evening, and woke early the next morning feeling as though she hadn't slept. The winter sky was a sea of silver and gold in the clear light just after dawn and she sat for over an hour watching the slowly changing cloud formation as she ate her breakfast of toast and marmalade.