‘And even Rupert isn’t mistake free. Getting his heart broken by Brooke Manning didn’t show a great deal of foresight.’
‘He was young,’ she immediately defended. ‘And we all thought she was as into him as he was into her.’
He raised an eyebrow, and she lifted her hands. ‘Okay, okay. I know. It’s just... Rupert’s mistake didn’t hurt anyone but himself. My mistake had the potential to ruin Cora’s life’s work to date and impact on the entire Russel Corporation, and—’
Warm hands descended to her shoulders. ‘But it didn’t. Stop focussing on what could have happened and deal with what actually did happen. And the positives that can be found there.’
‘Positives?’ she spluttered.
‘Sure.’
‘Oh, I can’t wait to hear this. C’mon, wise guy, name me one positive.’
He rubbed his chin. ‘Well, for starters, you’d worked out Farquhar was a jerk and had kicked his sorry butt to the kerb.’
Not exactly true. She’d just been feeling suffocated, and hadn’t been able to hide from that fact any more.
‘And don’t forget that’s been caught on camera too.’
She stared up at him. And a slow smile built through her. ‘Oh, my God.’
He cocked an eyebrow.
‘He argued about us breaking up. He wanted me to reconsider and give him another chance.’
‘Not an unusual reaction.’
‘I told him we could still see each other as friends.’
Finn clutched his chest as if he’d been shot through the heart. ‘Ouch!’
‘And then he ranted and paced for a bit, and when he had his back to me a few times I, uh, rolled my eyes and...’
‘And?’
‘Checked my watch because there was a programme on television I was hoping to catch.’
He barked out a laugh.
‘And this is embarrassing, for him, so I shouldn’t tell it.’
‘Yes, you should. You really should.’
‘Well, he cried. Obviously they were crocodile tears, but I wasn’t to know that at the time. I went to fetch the box of tissues, and while my back was to him I pulled this horrible kind of “God help me” face at the wall.’
She gave him a demonstration and he bent at the waist and roared. ‘Crocodile tears or not, that’s going to leave his ego in shreds. I’m sorry, sweetheart, but getting caught picking your nose suddenly doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.’
‘I do not pick my nose.’ She stuck that particular appendage in the air. But Finn was right. She found she didn’t care quite so much if Thomas had seen her pigging out on chocolate or dancing to pop music in her knickers. Now whenever she thought about any of those things she’d recall her hilarious grimace—probably straight at some hidden camera—and would feel partially vindicated.
She swung to Finn. ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome.’
They reached the beach and shook sand off their towels, started the five-minute climb back up the hill to the villa. ‘Audra?’
‘Hmm?’
‘I’m sorry I scared you when I arrived the other night. I’m sorry I scared you with my boo out there.’ He waved towards the water.
She shrugged. ‘You didn’t mean to.’
‘No, I didn’t mean to.’
And his voice told her he’d be careful it wouldn’t happen again. Rather than being irked at being treated with kid gloves, she felt strangely cared for.
‘I guess I owe you an answer now to your question about the woman in Nice who I’m avoiding.’
‘No, thank you very much. I mean, you do owe me an answer to a question—that was the deal. But I’m not wasting it getting the skinny on some love affair gone wrong.’
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. ‘What’s your question, then?’
‘I don’t know yet. When I do know I’ll ask it.’ And then he’d have to stop whatever he was doing and take a timeout to answer it. Perfect.
* * *
Finn studied Audra across the breakfast table the next morning. Actually, their breakfast table had become the picnic table that sat on the stone terrace outside, where they could drink in the glorious view. She’d turned down the bacon and eggs, choosing cereal instead. He made a mental note to buy croissants the next time they were in the village.
‘What are you staring at, Finn?’
He wanted to make sure she was eating enough. But he knew exactly how well that’d go down if he admitted as much. ‘I’m just trying to decide if that puny body of yours is up to today’s challenge, Russel.’
A spark lit the ice-blue depths of her eyes, but then she shook her head as if realising he was trying to goad her into some kind of reaction. ‘This puny body is up for a whole lot more lazing on a beach and a little bobbing about in the sea.’