The Little Paris Patisserie by Julie Caplin

Author:Julie Caplin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008259778
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2018-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

It was only when she was loading the empty wheelchair into the lift, having walked through the lobby to a few bemused glances and feeling as if she were Nurse Numpty with no patient, that she began to worry about the wisdom of what she was about to suggest. The Sebastian of her youth, friend to her brother, would probably have found it a hoot to use a wheelchair, and she could imagine Nick charging along pushing him. Elder statesmen and full-blown fuddy-duddy Sebastian probably wasn’t going to be that keen, in fact this was probably a complete waste of time. Added to which, she’d gone and left his blasted book behind. Not that she believed for one minute that he actually wanted it.

She left the wheelchair outside the door and knocked sharply to announce her arrival.

‘Good Lord, you’re on time.’

‘Morning, how are you?’

‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘Bored. Everyone is either working or away.’

The windows were all open and a light breeze played with the voile curtains tossing them playfully into the room around Sebastian.

‘It’s gorgeous out there.’ She hesitated a fraction of a second and then decided there was no point building up to it. ‘Do you fancy going out?’

‘Where do you suggest?’ The flat tone wasn’t much of a giveaway – not a sarky ‘don’t be ridiculous’, nor a ‘yay, where shall we go’ but it also wasn’t a flat-out no.

‘Well, I figured you’ve been cooped up here long enough. So … well … the thing is…’

He turned and stared at her, that piercing gaze making her feel totally stupid and gauche as usual. ‘The thing is I borrowed a wheelchair and I thought I could take you out for a spin. Get some fresh air.’ Sebastian’s mouth twitched as she stumbled on. ‘A change of scenery. Get you out of here. It’s lovely and sunny and you must have been indoors for ages and it’s, yes, it’s so nice out, that you might, you know…’

‘You borrowed a wheelchair? For real?’ His face ran through a gamut of expressions before finally fixing on one that she was rather pleased to see looked impressed. That was a first.

She nodded, brushing away at an imaginary piece of lint on her black jeans

He let out a reluctant laugh. ‘That’s …’

Pinching her lips hard, she held her breath, waiting. Here came the downer.

‘Brilliant.’

‘Really?’ Her head shot up.

‘Yes. Although with a pitch like that, you’ll never make a salesperson, Nina.’ Sebastian’s grin was broad. ‘And I’m not sure you’ve got the muscles but providing we don’t venture up Sacré-Cœur let’s give it a whirl.’

‘Really?’

‘Don’t look quite so surprised.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’m not a complete ogre. If it were pissing down with rain and I was completely immobile I might be having second thoughts, but I can get up and walk if I need to. And where did you magic up a wheelchair?’

With an insouciant smile, she shrugged her shoulders. ‘Let’s leave it at magic and let me bask in this unusual approval from you.

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