Page 39 of A Winter Wish

Chapter Sixteen

“And have you—?”

“I booked the flights last week. Which I told you at the time, remember?”

Theo drummed his fingers on the other side of Lexie’s desk, where he was standing, looming over her. “That wasn’t what I was going to ask.”

Lexie cocked her head. “Oh no?”

The drumming fingers stopped for a moment. Then, “Fine. I was just checking. Usually Ange books them, so forgive me for wondering—”

“If I’m capable of booking two seats on a flight to Spain on the right day without any hiccups?” She waved a hand in the air when he opened his mouth. “Ange has enough to do, which I told her. So consider looking up flights and clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button just another of my many talents.”

The drumming fingers started again. “You need my full name. And passport details.”

“I know that,” Lexie said idly, clicking on another link she’d found detailing all that was to offer at the Fiesta de San Isidro. The problem wasn’t going to be finding enough to fill a weeklong holiday—it was going to be trying to figure out what the best parts were, and how to really make the guests feel like they were getting to know the city through the tradition. “I went upstairs while you weren’t looking, broke into the flat, and rummaged through your bedside table drawers until I found it.” She gave him a sly look. “You really ought to consider what you keep in there.”

His eyes narrowed, and she let out a half laugh.

“Relax, T-Rex. Ange gave all your details to me.”

He gritted his teeth at Ange’s nickname for him, then ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up at odd angles. “OK. Well, good. Tea?”

She looked at him, like he might be pulling a trick on her with the friendly gesture, but he only raised his eyebrows in question. “Ah, sure. Can I have—”

“Lots of milk, two sugars. I know.”

“How do you know?”

“I observe.”

She didn’t comment on that, not quite sure if she should be suspicious. He got to his feet, stretched. His T-shirt rose a fraction with the movement, exposing a line of very toned-looking stomach. She snapped her gaze away immediately, looking back at her computer screen and getting up the Word document for the itinerary for Madrid.

“Although you really shouldn’t have so much sugar in your tea.”

She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Because I’m sweet enough?”

“Because the man at the shop where I buy most of my groceries is starting to think I have a serious sugar addiction and I’m pretty sure he’s going to report me to Sugar Anonymous any day now.”

Lexie let out a snort of surprised laughter. His lips twitched in response and something warm lit his gaze, a sign that he was glad at having made her laugh. She felt a little flutter at that, though she tried to shove it back down where it belonged.

Harry saved her from thinking too deeply about it by calling out, “I’ll have a tea too, my man, if that’s OK. A green one, if you’ve got it.”

Lexie went back to pulling together what they’d already decided on for Madrid, trying not to track Theo’s movements out of the office. She looked up automatically when the front door opened. Her hand went dead still on the computer mouse. The woman came inside a little tentatively and brought one hand up to run it through her curls—curls that were so similar to Lexie’s.

“Hi!” Harry bounded over in his puppy-like fashion. “Can I help you?” There were no holidays to theme his outfit around at the moment, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t tried. Given they were talking a lot about the Madrid trip these days, his current tie was bright yellow-and-red stripes in honor of the Spanish flag. Lexie had asked him once where he got his ties from, and why he had so many, and he’d just nodded along and said, “I know, they’re cool, aren’t they?” proving that his habit of not actually answering questions was not limited to customer inquiries.

Lexie realized she was still frozen at her desk and ducked, nearly smacking her head into her computer monitor.

“Oh, hi. Sorry, I’m not actually looking for a holiday. I mean, we could all do with a holiday, couldn’t we?” Rachel gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry, what I mean to say is, I’m looking for Lexie Peterson.”

Lexie had asked her mum, once, why she’d never changed her surname back to her maiden name. And her mum had said that it was too much hassle, that it was just a name—and that, besides, taking his name had meant something, at the time, and that even if it hadn’t turned out the way she’d wanted, you couldn’t just erase years of your life with a piece of paper. Lexie wasn’t quite sure about the latter part, but she did agree with her mum that a name was just that—so sharing her father’s surname didn’t tie her to him in any meaningful way. Though did Rachel think differently?

“Oh sure,” Harry said, and Lexie wanted to groan.

Obviously she was being stupid. She couldn’t hide behind a bloody computer monitor—though it had been worth a try.

“She’s right over there.”