A Consultant Beyond Compare by Joanna Neil

Author:Joanna Neil
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

Alex was as good as his word, and arrived some fifteen minutes early. Jessica was still in the process of getting ready for their day out, but Katie had everything in hand and was in the middle of watering the plants in the garden when she heard his car pull up.

‘I’m round the back,’ she called to him from the side gate. ‘I’ll just finish off seeing to these flowers and then I’ll be ready to go.’ She grinned at him. ‘I can’t say the same for Jessica—she’s been straightening her hair for the last hour.’

He gave her an answering smile as he came into the garden. ‘I don’t suppose you even think about doing that with yours. You’d be fighting a losing battle from the first, wouldn’t you?’ His gaze went to the mass of tawny curls that rioted around her temples and skimmed the delicate slope of her shoulders. ‘You look good,’ he said, his mouth tilting as his glance trailed over the smooth outline of her clinging cotton top and moved to caress the gently curving line of her hips. ‘I haven’t seen you in jeans for years, but I can definitely say that you fill them out well these days.’

Her cheeks filled with faint warmth. He looked spectacular, she thought. He was wearing a casual shirt that matched the colour of his eyes, and was open at the neck to reveal the bronzed column of his throat. His chinos were dark, drawing her attention to the long line of his legs and the leanness of his flat stomach, so that she had to make herself take slow, even breaths to calm the quick tempo of her heartbeat.

It wouldn’t do for her to get herself into a tizzy over him. He was being a good friend, spending time with her for old times’ sake, but she shouldn’t read anything more into it than that, should she? Neither of them was the same person they had been all those years ago. They had gone their separate ways, and life had changed each of them, so that now heading up a unit was his driving force and a yearning for family stability was hers. The childish part of them that had looked for mutual companionship had gone for ever.

‘I’ll just finish off here,’ she said, ‘and with any luck, Jessica will be ready to go.’ She emptied the dwindling contents of the watering can over the flower border that she was trying to nurture. ‘The garden’s a mess, and I really need to tackle it before the weeds take over, but other things keep getting in the way. I told myself I would make a start by planting this section and I’m hoping at least this part will be full of colour by mid summer.’

‘I expect it will all come together in the end,’ he said, looking around. ‘Actually, it’s not so bad. You’ve a lovely rockery in that corner, and a pleasant shrub garden over by the wall. I shouldn’t imagine it would take too much work to get it in order.

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