Just Not Mine by Rosalind James Page B

sigh , coming back over to the table. “How’s that?”
    “ Beautiful,” Amelia said with a sigh of her own. “It’s so romantic.”
    “Candles are always romantic,” Josie told her. “Everybody looks better, too, because it’s all about the lighting , always.”
    “I don’t think you look better,” Charlie said. “I mean, I think you always look nice, doesn’t she, Hugh?”
    “She does,” he said, and Josie looked at him again and got a little flutter, because his eyes were even warmer in the soft glow of the candles. He was leaning back in his chair, smiling at her, big and solid and strong, and she had to remind herself that one day of helping her build a patio wasn’t a true test of his character, because a man would do just about anything to sleep with a woman, especially one who looked like her.
    And he did want to sleep with her , that was clear. But she had a partner, and Hugh was her neighbor, and she wanted to live in this house until they carried her out feet-first, so that wouldn’t have been happening anyway.
    She fought to remember what they’d been talking about. “ Chloe was the star,” she told Amelia. “You should have seen her. She went on to dance with Auckland Ballet Theatre as soon as she left school. Oh, she was good.”
    “She’s awesome,” Amelia said. “I want to dance like her. But why does she keep saying I’m not ready for my pointe shoes? I practice every day, heaps more than June or Holly, but she still says I’m not ready, and I don’t see why. I know all the steps.”
    “ Because you don’t look anything like her when you do them,” Charlie said with a little brother’s frankness. “You look like you’re, I don’t know, stomping or something. And she looks like she’s floating, when she shows you. Like she’s on strings, like a puppet.”
    “I wouldn’t say Amelia stomps,” Josie said hurriedly, “but I think I did. Sometimes, when you’re athletic, it can actually be harder.” She had a feeling that Chloe had been referring to Amelia when she’d been talking about being reminded of Josie’s own less-than-stellar technique, and she knew exactly what it was like to yearn for mastery that didn’t come, for a career that she couldn’t possibly attain.
    She saw Charlie shiver, realized she was feeling the evening chill through her own lacy sweater, and said, “Much as I’m loving my new patio in the candlelight, it’s time to go inside, I think.”
    Hugh stood, picked up his plate. “We’ll help you clear up before we go.”
    “ You’ve done more than enough today already,” she said. “You don’t have to do that as well.” She didn’t press him to stay. She wanted to keep sitting with them, and that was exactly why she wasn’t going to do it.
    “Yeh,” he said. “ We do.”
    They did, loaded the dishwasher too, Hugh brushing aside her protest with, “I may be pretty average in the kitchen, but I can just about manage to bung dishes into the dishwasher,” and then they left, and Josie finished clearing up, sat herself down on the couch and turned on the telly for a half-hour of relaxation before a well-earned early night, and wondered why, when she finally had the house she’d longed for, had ticked off one more box toward the life she’d been planning for herself ever since she’d given up the ballet dream, and that other dream, too … why, despite all that, all she felt right now was lonely.
     

Celebrity Gossip
    She did her best to mention, the next day . Derek called her on Sunday morning, and she was glad to hear from him, glad to remind herself that he was there and that he cared, but she mentioned all the same.
    “Wra pping up this week, then?” she started out by asking. “The crocs, the leeches, the heat soon to be a distant memory?”
    “Nah.” He sighed. “ It’s been a nightmare, one bloody thing after another. Over time, over budget, you name it by now. Wondering why I signed up for this. You’ve had your