A Safe Pair of Hands by Ann Corbett

– honestly did he have to keep on asking her
that?
    “ Well I am not quite,” Nick murmured as he took her bag from
her, and then bent to kiss her lingeringly on the mouth.
    “ There now, that will have to do – for now.”
    He glanced around the room, as though memorising the place,
and then looked down at Sadie with a dark enigmatic
gaze.
    “ Shall we?” he asked opening the door, and indicating that she
should go first.
    Sadie nodded again and walked out to the elevator.
    The reception was a hive of activity as people bustled around
preparing to leave.
    “ You wait here, Sadie; I will bring the car round to the front
entrance once it has thawed out a bit.” Nick pointed to a chair
just next to a window facing out to the front car parking area.
“You keep a watch out for me there, and then I won't have to come
in to fetch you – and you won't have to stand outside freezing to
death while you wait for me.”
    Sadie nodded again and stood watching as Nick strolled
outside, carrying both of their overnight bags with him.
    He shivered as the cold air first hit him, and she saw how he
pulled his thick coat tighter around him.
    He looked so tall and handsome, and she stood dreaming of the
next time they might be together.
    She knew for the moment that their personal developing
relationship would have to be put on hold.
    That at work they had to retain their employer – employee
relationship, and so she just did not quite know where they would
go from here.
    She gave a little sigh, and determinedly swallowed back the
tears that she had been fighting down, ever since that policeman
had come along and told them all that they could leave
now.
    *
    Sadie gave a little shiver as she walked quickly out of the
hotel and across to where Nick was sitting with his car engine
running.
    He had taken quite a while to show up, and she had begun to
wonder if there was a problem with the car... oh if
only!
    But as she slipped into the passenger seat and slammed the
door, she felt the warmth taking away the chill from her brief time
outside.
    He had deliberating taken his time, to give the car a chance
to warm up thoroughly.
    “ Okay?” he asked glancing across at her.
    She smiled at him brightly. “Yes, it is perfect in
here.”
    He grinned back. “Good.”
    He set the car in motion and for the first twenty minutes or
so he kept his attention firmly on the still snowy and icy roads in
front of him.
    But eventually he was able to get onto the motorway, where the
road had been thoroughly cleared, and the traffic was moving
freely.
    Nick gave a satisfied little sigh, and set his speed to
sixty.
    “ We should be home in no time at all now,” he said giving her a
quick sidelong glance.
    “ Yes, I suppose we will,” Sadie could not keep the regret out
of her voice, and Nick had clearly seen the unhappy tilt to her
mouth.
    “ Did I ever tell you, how absolutely floored I was, when you
first walked into my offices looking for a job?” he laughed lightly
under his breath, as he tried to start up a light
conversation.
    Sadie shook her head. “I was never quite sure why you actually gave me
that job... I mean you looked at me as if I had just crawled out
from under a rock – or something worse.”
    He could clearly hear the remembered hurt in her voice, and he
felt a rush of anger towards himself for causing that.
    “ I am sorry if I gave you that impression,” he said gruffly.
“But I never thought that – never at all!”
    “ No,” she challenged sharply. “Not even when you thought me to
be a callous bitch who had told my husband to go and kill himself –
rather than keep bothering me?”
    He sighed. “I never really knew what to think, I mean I was
there and had seen him and how you looked at him, and spoke to
him... and I had reached that exact conclusion – I will admit
that... but deep down inside I always questioned that conclusion, I
just knew that there was more to what I had seen really, but I
could not find a way