Page 59 of New Beginnings on Railway Lane

‘There’s an advantage to the lack of urban light,’ he told her, as they reached the end of the platform. Then he very gently took her chin with his fingers and lifted her head up to the skies. ‘Where else do you get a night sky like this?’

It was true, thought Katy. The black sky was vast, every corner decorated with stars twinkling down on them.

‘Wow,’ she said, looking back at Ryan with a wide grin. ‘It’s worth even the freezing-cold temperatures for a view like that.’

He smiled at her. ‘Didn’t all those cocktails keep you warm?’ he said. ‘Come on. Let’s get you home. Don’t want you catching another cold.’

‘Home,’ she repeated, as he led her towards the door to the upstairs apartment. It felt funny on her lips as she said it, but that could have been because they were feeling a little numb.

As she tripped on one of the stairs, Ryan said, ‘Perhaps you should have eaten something more than just pineapple upside-down cake.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Katy, with a giggle, bumping into him as they reached the top of the stairs. ‘It was a great party.’ She was aware that her words were ever so slightly slurred.

'Are you drunk?’ asked Ryan, with a wide smile as he looked down at her.

‘I most certainly am not,’ Katy told him. ‘I can’t be. Last time I drank too much, I ended up here. With you.’ She poked his chest with her finger and giggled. ‘Now look what’s happened to me.’

‘You’re eating cake and wearing short dresses,’ said Ryan, nodding. ‘You’re totally different from that hard-nosed businesswoman who first showed up here.’

‘You don’t like the dress?’ asked Katy, looking down to where it appeared to have ridden up to show most of her legs.

‘I love the dress,’ he said, his eyes gleaming as he did a once-over. ‘Your legs are fantastic. But then I’ve always thought so.’

‘You’ve been looking at my legs,’ she said, laughing.

Ryan shook his head. ‘Whatever happened to careful, controlled Katy who arrived here only a fortnight ago?’ he asked.

‘Must be all this fresh country air,’ she told him with another giggle. ‘It makes you do the strangest things.’

As if to prove her point, she flung her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. In the darkness of the hallway, she could still see the intensity of his dark eyes as he stared down at her. His face gradually grew more serious as they looked at each other in the silence. Everything stilled and the world shrank until it was just them and nothing else mattered.

Unable to stop herself, Katy reached up and pulled his head down towards hers. Their lips met and for a second it was utterly glorious. Her head swam and she was pretty certain that it wasn’t from the cocktails she had drunk earlier but from the chemistry of their kiss.

But the moment was brief as he pulled away from her.

‘Goodnight,’ he told her with a soft smile. ‘Sleep well, Katy Smith.’

‘Goodnight,’ she replied, before turning away into her bedroom and closing the door behind her.

Then she very gently slid down the door until she was sitting on the ground, still touching her lips where they had met his in wonder.

32

Katy woke up the morning after Libby’s birthday party wondering whether the bad cold had returned because she had a raging headache. She did not have time to be ill. After all, the coffee shop opened in less than a week and she had loads to do.

Then she remembered the extremely alcoholic cocktails that Libby had insisted they all drink.

Her thoughts then turned to the fact she had kissed Ryan goodnight.

She groaned as she struggled out of bed and not just because of her headache. What had she been thinking? Well, obviously, she hadn’t been thinking, she realised as she looked down to discover she was still wearing her party dress.

Dear God. What had Cranfield done to her? She had turned into a completely different person. Where was the professional, cool-headed woman she had trained herself to be?

Except she knew that she had really really wanted to kiss Ryan. And wanted to do so again now that she was sober. Once she had died from shame, of course.

How was she going to face him, knowing that she had some kind of crush on him?

Thankfully, it was likely to be a very busy day and they would both be rushing about too much to have any meaningful conversation. Which meant that she had a whole day to panic and stress about what she had done before she had to look him in the eye and lie through her teeth.