Undertaking Love Page 0,53

she may have been going a smidge over the speed limit? Truth be told, he hadn’t been able to look Marla in the eye either, given that he was the one who had sent the damn fireworks.

His father would no doubt have muttered ‘least said, soonest mended, son’ and in this case, he would have been one hundred per cent right. The harsh reality was that no amount of recriminations and arguments would bring Bluey back.

The other inescapable truth was that the whole sorry incident had made the fractious situation between the chapel and the funeral parlour even worse. He’d sent the fireworks, and then Melanie, the receptionist he’d hired, had killed Bluey.

Not to mention the fact that he’d knocked back Marla’s advances on her doorstep. He’d suffered for it every night since – memories of how she’d felt in his hands had been the only thing on his mind. She’d robbed him of sleep, turned him into a teenage boy. The old dear in the village shop had glared at him with unconcealed disapproval when he’d been in for the second box of man-size tissues last week.

Something had to give, and unfortunately, it was probably going to be his wrist.

Melanie stuck her head around the mortuary doorway a couple of hours later.

‘Fancy a coffee?’

Gabe glanced up with a distracted smile that warmed Melanie’s skin, despite the coolness of the room and the presence of the village’s most recently deceased resident, Gladys Macintyre.

‘You’re an angel.’

Melanie melted and retired to the kitchen, where she unsnapped the neck brace and rubbed her sore skin. The bloody thing was a pain. She’d dug it out of her dad’s wardrobe where he’d stashed it after his dubious whiplash-injury claim a few years back. Once she’d lied to Gabe about going to A&E, she figured she better have some kind of treatment to show for it. She’d had to think of something to text Gabe to get him to leave. She was 24 years old and still living at home with her Dad – that’s bound to be a turn off.

In truth she’d been remarkably lucky to not be injured at all apart from shock, but she could hardly parade that around, could she?

Besides, she was enjoying the extra fuss from Gabe.

Much to her relief, he’d been wonderful about the whole episode. Her fears that he might sack her had proved totally unfounded. If anything, the accident had solidified her place at the funeral parlour, rather than threatened it. She felt genuinely awful about Bluey, but then Marla really ought to have been more careful. She should have been more careful with her boyfriend too, for that matter. Rupert had been simply lovely to Melanie. He’d insisted that she go back to his apartment for a brandy to steady her shredded nerves. He’d joined her in a large one, then another, and then she’d joined him in his large bed. It had felt like an inevitable chain of events, one of those serendipitous things that it’s pointless to fight or question.

Gabe wandered into the kitchen and rinsed his hands at the sink. He shot her a grateful smile as he picked up his mug.

‘Thanks, love.’ He smiled and his black hair flopped over his brow in a way that made Melanie’s fingers itch to stroke it.

Love. He called me Love.

She watched his backside retreat from the room as he left and cast a glance out of the window towards the chapel.

It seemed the mighty were falling, after all.

A few short weeks ago, Marla had had them all. Gabe, Rupert and Bluey.

Since then, Melanie had managed to take them all away, one by one. Not on purpose of course, it had just happened that way. Poor little Yank girl. Melanie pouted her lip. Life was hard sometimes, eh?

‘Any chance of a cuppa, darlin’?’

Dan appeared in the doorway and grinned. Melanie couldn’t make her mind up about him – he unsettled her. He was too cocky, and she wasn’t sure if he’d guessed how she felt about Gabe. But then two could play at that game, because she’d noticed him making doe eyes at Marla’s sidekick over the road.

The way his gaze lingered on Melanie’s breasts annoyed her as she splashed a minuscule drop of milk in his coffee.

‘Does working in such a gloomy place never get to you?’ she asked with an innocent smile as she handed it over.

‘Not really.’ He shrugged. ‘Gabe’s a mate. Anyway, I don’t spend as much time here as you do.