In any case, it didn’t matter because she was having a lovely time. “Right. I shall go and get the cake.” She stood, a little unsteady on her feet.

In an instant, Will was by her side. “I’ll help.”

“Brilliant.”

*

“Will?” Lucy was on her knees rummaging through her carry-on. Had she already taken the cake out?

“Mmm?”

“I am quite drunk.”

He kneeled next to her. “I gathered as much.”

She stopped looking for the cake. “Are you drunk?”

“No. A little buzzed, but not drunk.”

She sighed and dropped her head to the side. “Will?”

He smiled at her and tucked a wayward curl behind her left ear. “Yes?”

“I quite fancy you, you know?”

“I do know, yes.”

“A lot. Even though you’re Jules’s baby brother and … she won’t be cross with me, will she?”

“No, of course not. Hey, look, it’s late and …”

“And I’m drunk.”

“Right, so maybe, do you want to just go to bed?”

“I definitely want to go to bed with you.” Good lord. Had she really just said that? She shook her head to clear it. “Sorry. That was …” She put her head in her hands. “Oh, Will. I’m very, very drunk.”

“Come on, let’s get you ready for bed.”

It was the last thing Lucy remembered before she was woken by her phone.

Chapter 15

Chloe

When they broke their kiss, there was almost a shyness between them and, as Archer pressed his forehead to hers, they both chuckled softly. Chloe took a long, slow breath, hyper aware of her pounding heart. “You know, I’ve been wanting to do that since I found you washing up in Mum’s kitchen.”

She leant back, still encircled in his arms, and looked up at him, her eyes searching his. She could have sworn that behind the playfulness, there was something else, something she guessed was tied to their experience with the Capels, but she would play along. They had only just met. “Is that so?” she asked cheekily.

“It is so.”

“Was it the rubber gloves or when I accidentally ate soap bubbles that tipped you over the edge?”

“Oh, definitely the soap bubbles,” he replied, his eyes creasing at the corners in amusement.

She could have stood like that for the rest of the day, just taking him in and sharing a wistful smile, but they were beckoned back to reality by his mother’s voice calling Chloe’s name.

Bugger, she thought. Even though Cecily had played matchmaker the day before, Chloe was not looking forward to facing her, not after that passionate clinch with the woman’s son, which Chloe felt certain was written all over her face. Still, not wanting to get on Cecily’s bad side—either as Co-chair or as Archer’s mother—Chloe smiled at him apologetically, slipped out of his grasp, and hustled around the corner and across the road to retrieve her clipboard and receive her next instruction.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening vanished in a blur of event management business, as it often did when Chloe was in work mode and, before she knew it, it was time to head back to the Browning’s for Christmas Eve dinner and a well-deserved sit down.