That Holiday In France by Rhoda Baxter

Author:Rhoda Baxter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: summer, holiday, dordogne, interracial
Publisher: Rhoda Baxter
Published: 2020-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

That evening, she sat next to Ash and tried to keep focused. After a long day cooking, the wine went straight to her head and made her sleepy. She cupped her chin in her hands and listened to the conversation. The table had been cleared and the washing up done by the people who had not helped with the cooking. As there were more people now, it seemed to have taken no time at all.

It wasn’t often she had nothing to do at home. Now that she was sitting still, she realised that at home, she was always rushing from one thing to another. Getting to work, getting home to put tea on for her and dad, getting ready for Luke. Always rushing. Nearly always late. Here, in this time, she had nothing to do. It was wonderful. She smiled to herself and leaned back to stretch out her arms. She overbalanced and nearly fell out of her chair. Ash caught her and steadied her, his arm around her waist. She leaned gratefully against him. He was so warm.

“Steady,” he said, laughing. “How much have you had to drink, Ellie?”

“Not much,” she said. “Not enough.”

“Maybe a glass of water would be a good idea,” he said. “To ward off the headache tomorrow.” He made sure she was steady, and got up to fetch her a glass of water. She felt the absence of his arm around her. It was nice, being held. She wanted to be held again. What had Sophie said? A fling?

Ash returned with a glass of water, which he placed next to her wine glass. She noticed that he didn’t insist she drank it, which struck her as nice. Luke wouldn’t have done that. Come to think of it, Luke would have made her get her own water.

“Thank you,” she said. “You are lovely.”

He laughed and sat back down.

Helene said something and Ash turned to talk to her. Ellie rested her cheek in her hand and watched him. He was lovely. He was so kind. She liked kindness. It wasn’t something she’d have automatically put at the top of desirable characteristics in a man, but it probably should have been. In the past, she had always put ‘handsome’ right at the top of the list, along with muscular. Luke had been handsome and muscular. Very much so. Was Ash?

She frowned, watching him in the pale glow of the LED lamps and fading sunset. He was browner than usual, with all the sun he was getting. His eyes and hair were so dark, it was almost unreal. He was handsome, in a nice guy kind of way. He moved an arm to make a point. He had nice forearms. Ellie smiled. She liked nice forearms.

He caught her eye. “What?” he said. There were little creases around his eyes when he smiled, like he did it a lot. She liked that too.

“Nothing.” She shook her head and nearly lost her balance again.

“Woah.” He moved closer. His arm was around her shoulder now.

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