worry,’ she said softly. ‘I was going to do some yoga tonight anyway. How are you feeling?’
‘Great,’ Charlie replied, caught off guard by the light reflecting in her hazel eyes. ‘Thirsty, though. Is that normal?’
‘Yes, completely,’ Holly replied. She gestured to the jug of water on the shop counter. ‘Help yourself to some if you like.’
Charlie grabbed the glass by the jug and poured himself some more. Downing it swiftly, he relished the coolness, hoping it would help to cool the unbidden thoughts about Holly herself.
‘Well, you should sleep well tonight,’ Holly said. ‘Although, don’t go running any marathons for a couple of days; the toxins will be working their way out of you for forty-eight hours or so. And drink plenty more water.’
‘I will,’ Charlie replied, thinking that Holly’s hands must truly be magic if they were able to relax him so much. He hoped he didn’t end up dreaming about her tonight, though. That might make things awkward between them again. He felt as though their relationship was a little easier now than it had been when he’d introduced himself to her in the shop a few weeks ago, and he wanted to keep it that way. ‘So how much do I owe you for the oil and the massage?’ he asked, aware that time was marching on and he should leave Holly to the rest of her evening.
‘If you’d like to book in for another one, then this one’s on the house,’ Holly said.
‘Are you sure?’ Charlie asked. ‘I mean, I don’t want to leave you out of pocket.’
‘It’s something I offer my customers if I think they might give me the repeat business,’ Holly said. ‘And, from the feel of your shoulders and neck, it would be a great idea to schedule a massage at least once a month or so.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind,’ Charlie replied. ‘That’s if you’re sure you don’t want anything for this one?’
Holly shook her head. ‘Once I get you hooked, you’ll be booking in a session every week!’
‘I don’t doubt that,’ Charlie said, although inwardly he wondered if he’d cope with Holly putting her magical hands on him that regularly without wanting to pull her down on the massage table and kiss the life out of her. But that was probably the oil and the massage talking. If he couldn’t even get a massage from someone without thinking sexy thoughts about them, he was clearly far more buttoned-up than he realised. ‘Thanks again, Holly.’
‘Any time.’
Holly walked over to the front door of the shop and unlocked it, allowing him to step through.
What would the Prime Minister, the leader of his party, think if they could see him stepping out of a shop like ComIncense with an untucked shirt and a relaxed grin on his face? Or, worse, his own mother? Kathleen Thorpe wasn’t exactly what you’d call progressive in her attitudes – political or otherwise. An old-school conservative, she viewed Charlie’s more liberal views with genteel disdain.
Grinning even more widely, he said goodnight to Holly and set his mind to the rather more mundane task of what he was going to eat tonight. Sadly, he thought, after all of the talk about releasing toxins from his body, he’d probably end up with some sort of takeaway, as he felt far too chilled to bother cooking. His new job had taken him to some interesting places so far, but Holly’s massage table was definitely one of the nicest. Resolving to book in another massage that he was actually going to pay for, he headed home.
10
‘So, I had that Charlie Thorpe on my massage table last night,’ Holly said playfully as she handed Rachel the folded-up T-shirts she’d been taking off the washing line in Rachel’s neat back garden. Rachel was housebound with Harry for a few days, as his stomach was playing up. Tummy troubles were a symptom of his condition, and while he was, on the whole, a healthy, happy little boy, apart from the obvious, when he did have a health wobble, it tended to put the brakes on family fun. As a result, Rachel was going slightly stir-crazy in her house in one of Willowbury’s modern new-build cul-de-sacs, so Holly had shut up shop and headed over to the house, picking up an easy dinner for her and Rachel on the way.
‘Oh really?’ Rachel raised a wry eyebrow. ‘Isn’t there some sort of practitioner-client confidentiality involved in massage? Should you really be telling me that?’
Holly grinned. ‘I trust your absolute discretion, of course!’
‘So, what you’re telling me is that he’s only been in the area a few weeks and you’ve already got his kit off? You’re a fast mover these days, sis.’
Holly flung one of Harry’s vests at her sister. ‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said. ‘Besides, it’s weird enough seeing him around, let alone actually seeing him with his shirt off.’ Realising she might have said too much, she grabbed some more washing off the line and concentrated on folding.
‘Why’s it weird?’ Rachel’s brow furrowed. ‘I mean, apart from him being the new MP, of course. But you met enough of them in your days as a student party member not to be freaked out by that.’
Holly paused. She’d made it clear to her mother that she didn’t want the information that she’d met Charlie before being shared, but she trusted Rachel, and apart from a little good-natured ribbing, her sister could be relied upon not to broadcast it to all and sundry. Rachel had teased her, often, about how much the previously strait-laced Holly had loosened her stays over the years, and perhaps she should know that there was a small, missing puzzle piece now that Charlie Thorpe had rocked up in Willowbury.
‘So, Mum gave me back a suitcase from their loft the other day,’ Holly said, trying to inject a casual tone into her speech. ‘And it turns out that, according to some very old photos, and you’ll never believe this, me and Charlie have actually met before.’
‘Really?’ Rachel paused in her own folding. Glancing to where Harry was playing contentedly with the toys in his tabletop sandpit, making sure he wasn’t up to no good, she looked questioningly at Holly. ‘When? And I’m hoping you don’t mean in a past life or something, because that’s not something I, personally, can buy into!’
‘Oh, ha-ha,’ Holly threw a line-dried flannel at her sister, who caught it, folded it and popped it on her own pile of washing. ‘You remember that conference I went to in my first year at university? When I was still really into party politics.’
Rachel snorted. ‘Party line doesn’t even begin to cover it! That old boyfriend of yours from school has a lot to answer for.’
‘OK, OK,’ Holly said. ‘Let’s not go down that road.’ She placed the clothes she had folded into Rachel’s washing basket. ‘Anyway, it turns out that I met Charlie at that conference… and I, er, well… that’s to say we…’
‘Oh my God, you didn’t shag him?’ Rachel’s jaw hit the floor. ‘But you were in the no-sex-before-marriage brigade back then, too! That’s basically why Simon dumped you during your A Levels!’
Holly rolled her eyes. ‘Chill out, sis. I didn’t shag him.’ And, stung, even after all these years, she couldn’t help adding, ‘And Simon didn’t dump me because of that. We made each other bloody miserable for a whole bunch of other, teenage-angst-related reasons, not sex!’
‘So
