When You Walked Back Into My Life by Hilary Boyd Read Free Book Online

grey eyes, clouded with sleep, boring into her.
    ‘Bugger …’ she heard him say as he eyed his cast, and she couldn’t help smiling.
    ‘Could put it like that,’ she said, hanging his chart back on the bed.
    Then he smiled, his eyes coming alive, full of wry humour. ‘I thought you might be heavenly for a moment there. Morphine fucks with your head. Love it.’
    ‘Heavenly? In this get-up?’ Flora indicated her shapeless royal-blue cotton tunic and trousers with distaste.
    ‘Well … who’s to say angels only come in white?’
    She blushed in the face of his casual charm and made an effort to pull herself together.
    ‘You’ll be discharged later today, once you’ve seen the doctor. They only kept you in overnight in case you had a head injury.’ She attempted a businesslike tone. ‘Do you need any more pain relief? You’re due for some.’
    Fin had shaken his blond head. ‘Nope, seems OK at the moment.’ He paused for only a fraction of a second before peering at the name tag on her uniform and saying, ‘Will you give me your number before I go, Nurse Bancroft?’
    His bold request, after barely five minutes’ acquaintance, took her breath away. But she’d given it to him nonetheless.
    *
    ‘James, you know Flora don’t you?’ Prue didn’t wait to find out the answer before moving off to greet another guest.
    James looked blankly at her and then gave a vague smile.
    ‘We met at one of Prue’s dinners,’ Flora reminded him – she had no trouble remembering his vituperative rant about his ex, and the obvious boredom with which he’dgreeted her attempts at conversation. She wasn’t in the mood tonight.
    ‘Yeah … I’m sure you’re right,’ he drawled as he looked over her shoulder at the people coming into the room.
    Flora stood awkwardly for a moment, a glass of champagne warming in one hand, then suddenly found herself overwhelmed with annoyance. She did what she never normally would have done: she walked away without another word. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his look of surprise with some satisfaction.
    She went and joined Bel and two of her friends, who hovered, giggling, in the hall just outside the drawing room.
    ‘Havin’ a good time, honey?’ Bel spoke with a bad American accent, her expression full of mischief. All three girls were flushed from champagne, Bel’s two friends touchingly self-conscious in their tiny skirts, tottering heels and red, glossy lips. Bel had managed a glittery T-shirt over her black jeans and pumps.
    ‘Bit on the grim side so far,’ Flora replied, making them all giggle some more. ‘I think I’ll sneak off in a moment. Prue won’t notice.’
    ‘What won’t I notice?’ Prue was suddenly at her side, tugging at the sleeve of the black dress. ‘I thought you’d be skulking out here. Come on. I’ve got someone you’re going to totally adore.’
    She was towed back into the party behind her sister, glamorous in the red Donna Karan Flora had earlier discarded. I’m glad she listened to me, Flora thought, as she glanced round at Bel and her friends and mouthed ‘Rescue me’, like a prisoner on the way to the scaffold.
    ‘Flora, I’d like you to meet Jake. Jake, this is Flora, my little sister.’
    Flora duly shook hands with the man she was going to adore. And Jake
was
cute, no question – almost pretty with his neat features and wide blue eyes, his light-brown hair in soft curls. He looked like another designer in the way he was dressed: all in black except for his super-white shirt, which had black edging on the inside of the collar and cuffs, and mother-of-pearl stud buttons down the front. He gave Flora an amused smile.
    ‘Hi. I never knew Prue had a sister.’
    ‘You work with her?’
    ‘Sort of. I design kitchens. I did the one here.’
    ‘Oh,
that
Jake.’
    ‘Cursing me from here to kingdom come, was she?’
    Flora nodded and laughed. ‘The black marble being a month late was a bit of a challenge, I seem to