His stomach clenched. Talking above Filipe’s head. He searched her gaze. Did she expect him to respond? Did he have a choice? Because not responding might seem like a rebuff and he couldn’t do that to her again, not when the whole point of this trip was to make things right.
He drew a breath. ‘Yeah, that wasn’t such a great flight.’
Her gaze narrowed with interest. Or maybe it was surprise. Either way, it seemed as if she was expecting more.
He licked his lips to buy a second. ‘It was a bit...bumpy.’
‘Bumpy?’ Filipe handed them hard hats. ‘Did you hit some turbulence?’
Quinn flashed Filipe a smile. ‘Yes, we did.’ And then her gaze was on his again, bolder now, challenging. ‘One moment we were cruising along just fine, then the next: wham!’ She put her hat on, reaching round to adjust the band, eyes still trained on his. ‘I’d be interested to know the science behind that.’
Filipe shifted stance. ‘Fast-moving air currents.’
He ground his jaw. Could Filipe not read the situation, see that this would be a good time for him to go and measure something?
‘Pretty scary, huh?’ The man was grimacing now, looking at each of them in turn.
He mirrored the grimace to be polite, then rammed his own hat on. He had felt scared, sitting at that table with Quinn, before the mayhem took him over, and he would have to try to explain himself to her, but there weren’t enough meteorological metaphors in the world to cover the necessary bases, none that Filipe wouldn’t pick up and run with anyway. If only he could bail out of the conversation somehow, but if he did Quinn might feel as if he was shutting her down so, not an option. All he could do was keep going...
He secured his own hat, fastening his eyes on hers to block Filipe out. ‘Re the science, it could have just been a...a rogue current. Or a...a spontaneous electrical storm close by that caused that sudden fatal drop. Chaos in the cockpit, instruments spinning, complete loss of control—’
‘Don’t listen to him, Quinn.’
For the love of God!
Filipe was shaking his head, grinning. ‘Will’s teasing you. Pilots never lose control. And the planes are built to withstand electrical storms. It can be frightening sometimes but you’re always safe.’
Quinn’s gaze slid to Filipe. ‘Well, that’s reassuring.’ And then she was turning back, the hint of a twitch playing at the corner of her lovely mouth. ‘As for you, teasing me like that...’
He felt his heart pause and then suddenly it was off again, beating hard happy beats, because her eyes were filling with light that looked like laughter, laughing at Filipe and the snafu they’d got themselves into. And it didn’t mean he was off the hook, but the ice was broken, lying in pieces all around, and it was such a weight off that he could barely believe he was standing on the pavement not floating above it.
Her gaze held his for one more heartening second and then she was turning to Filipe. ‘Shall we go inside now? I’m dying to see what’s going on in there. Also, I’m feeling quite excited about this lovely jacket you promised me...’
‘I know I’ve said it already, but I’m amazed at what you’ve achieved in three weeks, Filipe.’ Will was stopping yet again, casting his eyes around, and then he looked over. ‘Don’t you think?’
She felt her heart squeezing. Ever since they’d come inside he’d been conferring at every opportunity, catching her eye, holding onto her gaze as if he was trying to keep the plates spinning, as if he was scared that if he didn’t she would go cold on him.
As if! Not after he’d replied, in metaphor, to her gibe about the flight, the gibe she couldn’t keep in because the bad Quinn inside her wanted a little payback. And then Filipe had chimed in, turning the whole thing into a comedy, and she had tried not to show Will that she was laughing inside because the root cause of it—the hurt he’d caused her last time—wasn’t remotely funny, but he’d been looking at her so earnestly, his face such a picture—and so damn handsome—that she couldn’t keep it from him, not for the world. And maybe that wasn’t keeping her wits about her, but that didn’t seem important now. What was important was that Will hadn’t tried to dodge her bullet, which meant Sadie was right. He was feeling bad about last time, wanted to make amends, and that changed everything...
‘Absolutely.’ She shot him a smile. ‘It’s like a different building.’ And then, because his steady gaze was stirring warmth in her cheeks, she turned to let her eyes make one last sweep.
So very different, as she’d known it would be, as she’d told him it would be. Gone was the stale damp smell. Gone were the cold and the gloom. Now sunlight was streaming in through the opened-up windows, illuminating a haze of dust—because the place was teeming with builders: banging and scraping; hammering and drilling; shouting and laughing; clomping up and down the stairs and across the floors in their heavy boots.
‘Well, we put a big team on it as you asked, Will.’ Filipe was standing with his hand on the newel post, waiting for them, and then he was leading the way back downstairs, raising his voice above the din as he went. ‘The floors are all sound now, so we can really crack on. And in a couple of weeks the roof will be fully watertight, not that we’re likely to get much rain.’
Will’s eyes glanced into hers as he stood back for her to go first, his voice dipping low. ‘Good news about the floors.’
She felt the warm tug of before, the bond that was still there somehow, in spite of everything. She couldn’t hold in a smile.
‘Indeed.’
And then they were descending and she was tuning in to the scuff of his following feet, imagining his lovely face and the smooth curve of his shoulders in his green-and-white-striped shirt. And she could feel her stomach tensing because very soon they were going to be alone and she was dreading it, but at the same time she couldn’t wait. And then it was the last step and she was following Filipe along the wide hallway, through the open door, and out into the bright hot glare of the midday sun.
‘Any final questions?’ Filipe gestured to their hats, indicating that they could remove them.
Will peeled his off, handing it over. ‘I guess my only question concerns timeframe.’ He raked at his hair, then glanced over. ‘Specifically, how long before Quinn can get involved?’
Still in a tearing hurry, which meant Anthony couldn’t have revealed all her creative, time-consuming ideas to Will in his letter after all. It was a relief, knowing for sure, except that now, on top of everything else they needed to talk about, she was going to have to raise it, and that could be tricky.
‘At least a month...’ Filipe’s eyes found hers. ‘Although if you could take a look at the plans for the proposed bar and lounge area soon that would be useful. I’ll need your final decisions on layout so we can get the plumbing and wiring in the right place.’
‘No problem.’ She slipped off the hi-vis, handing it back with her hat. ‘I’ve got some ideas sketched out already.’ No need to say that they were only half baked because her mind had been elsewhere for the past month. ‘I’ll work on them some more when I get back and send you something as soon as I can.’
‘Great!’ He put out his hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Quinn.’
‘Likewise. Thanks for your time today.’
Then it was Will’s turn to do the hand shaking and the pleasantries.
And then it was all done, and Filipe was going back inside and, finally, they were alone.
CHAPTER NINE
HE PULLED IN a breath. He was all scudding pulse and wrenching gut, but he wasn’t holding this in for another second, not when she had let him back inside her gaze before they’d even set foot in the building, carried on engaging with him as they went around, talking and smiling, not just for show, for Filipe’s benefit, but for real. No frost. No daggers. He owed her this from the depths of his heart.
‘I’m sorry about last time, Quinn. So, so sorry...’
Her eyes welled slightly. ‘I know.’ And then she was blinking, smiling a bit. ‘You wouldn’t have tried to explain yourself in meteorological terms if you weren’t.’
