Chapter Eighteen

T he problem started when Cordelia showed up wearing that dress.

Lydia waited at the corner, the late sun still warm on her shoulders, knowing that the interview had gone well. She’d had enough practice at this point and the interviewing committee had relaxed and even smiled on occasion. She knew she could fit in here if she was given a chance.

She knew that this was the job that she’d been dreaming of.

So she was happy if slightly distracted when Cordelia’s Uber showed up.

Then Cordelia climbed out of it and Lydia saw the dark, midnight blue dress that clung to Cordelia’s breasts and flared out over her legs ending just at the knee. And Cordelia moved and the slit up the side of the skirt bared her thigh and Lydia came very, very close to dying right there on the spot, just freezing up like a Medusa victim.

Enshrined in stone on the corner of a country-town road.

What a way to go.

“Right then,” said Cordelia, turning around. “Shall we get on with this?”

Lydia couldn’t open her mouth.

There was make up too. Grey pencil surrounding blue-green eyes, longer, darker lashes, a pinker mouth. She wanted to kiss it off. All of it. She wanted to kiss it off as she stripped that dress away from pale, soft skin.

“Lydia?”

Lydia squeaked. It was a sound at least.

“Lydia? Are you alright? Was the interview that bad? Lydia?”

She took a breath, then another. “You look nice.” Words, actual words.

Cordelia smiled. “Thanks, you’re not looking so bad yourself.”

Lydia looked down at her own little black dress, it was classic and nothing special. “Um, thanks.” She cleared her throat. “We’re, er, we’re just down here.”

Cordelia chattered about her afternoon with Toby as they walked down the path and Lydia thought that this couldn’t work. Who would possibly believe that someone like her could be with someone like Cordelia. Honestly, she looked… Like a film star or something.

And part of Lydia was crying inside because she knew she couldn’t have this and yet couldn’t remember ever having wanted anyone so much in her life.

Then they were inside and the head practice doctor was coming to greet them, shaking Lydia’s hand once again and turning to Cordelia.

“This is Cordelia Beckett,” Lydia said.

“I’m Lydia’s girlfriend,” added Cordelia with a wide smile, and her hand moved to the small of Lydia’s back and Lydia froze once again.

Fortunately, the doctor didn’t notice. He was too busy smiling at Cordelia and asking about the journey, whether she knew the town or not, and Cordelia was too busy being charming and Lydia could stay frozen.

It took a while to warm up to things, a while to be comfortable with this side of Cordelia that she’d never seen before. But once she did, Lydia could see it working. Could pretend, just for the evening, that Cordelia was hers.

So she started smiling, started relaxing a little. Because she thought she could get this job. Really thought that she could get it .

The only tiny problem was that a little, bitty piece of her was wondering if she did actually want it. Which was ridiculous because of course she did.

She turned around in time to see Cordelia with a glass in her hand laughing. “Oh, not me,” she was saying to one of the other candidates. “I’m no doctor. That would be my girlfriend, Lydia, the one over there in black. She’s the clever one.”

Clever, it was a compliment, she supposed. Maybe not the greatest compliment, but she had to take what she could from Cordelia. Sure, it’d be nice if Cordelia thought she was attractive too, or maybe even funny. But clever would have to do.

Clever Lydia.

Except if she was so damn clever how come she hadn’t planned for any of this? How come she could plan her academic and career choices down to the last dot but not think about anything else? Not think about how someone like Cordelia could bring brightness to her life?

“Lydia, darling, come over here,” Cordelia was saying now.

Lydia went, thinking how she needed to remember this evening, remember Cordelia looking this way, remember how beautiful she was.

???

The problem was that Lydia had apparently poured herself into that dress. That or she’d actually painted it on. It literally stretched across every generous curve she had, leaving exactly nothing to the imagination. And Cordelia could not stop looking.

She caught herself yet again glancing across the room and seeing the curve of a hip and blushing, feeling a warmth building up inside. She caught herself feeling breathless and hot, flustered in a way she hadn’t known she could feel.

She picked up another drink from a tray going around and downed half of it. She wasn’t sure it was helping .

Lydia was, indisputably, sexy as hell. Not that Cordelia hadn’t known that deep inside. But now she was having it rubbed in her face, paraded in front of her, and she was very abruptly coming to the conclusion that she wanted Lydia Carlisle.

Probably a bad plan. Certainly a bad plan.

But she could dream, couldn’t she? She was playing pretend right now anyway. So why shouldn’t that game of pretend include lusting after the village doctor? The female village doctor? It wasn’t like she was going to do anything.

“You should be careful with those.”

She blinked and Lydia was in front of her. “With what?” she grumbled, registering the word should immediately.

“The drinks.”

“I can handle a little aperitif thank you very much.”

Lydia’s eyes sparkled a little and Cordelia wondered how her eyelashes got so long. “Um, you know that that’s gin and Dubonnet, right?”

Cordelia looked down at the glass then back at Lydia. “What?”

“Gin and Dubonnet. A favorite drink of the late queen, I believe. It’s gin mixed with what’s basically a spiced wine. Alcohol mixed with alcohol in other words.”

Which might explain all the warmth and funny feelings. Cordelia blew out a breath. “How the hell was I supposed to know that?”

“I’m pretty sure the waiter is telling people.”

“Yes, but I thought Dubonnet was some kind of mixer. You know, like sour mix or something. I’d no idea I was necking what’s basically a triple shot.” Come to think of it, she was feeling a bit… relaxed. She grinned then remembered where she was and wiped the smile off her face. “Shit. Sorry.”

Lydia looked at her for a second, then laughed. “How many have you had?”

“About three in the last half hour,” Cordelia said anxiously.

“Lucky this place is buzzing and no one’s noticed then,” Lydia said cheerfully. “Besides, you’ve been charming and lovely, so, you know, I don’t think anyone would notice if we quietly took our leave.”

“We don’t have to go yet,” said Cordelia, but it came out a little louder than she’d meant it. Lack of volume control was always the first sign that she’d had one too many.

“Listen, take that door there,” Lydia said, pointing. “It goes out into a little garden. Go get some fresh air. I’ll just say some goodbyes here, then I’ll come and get you. I’ve got a feeling that alcohol’s going to hit you pretty hard pretty soon.”

Shit. She really should have been more careful. “Mmm-kay,” she mumbled, making for the door.

???

“I’m sorry.”

The garden was cool and dark and Cordelia was sitting on the stone step, moonlight on her blonde hair, looking like a disheveled fairy and Lydia’s heart pumped harder and the warmth between her legs grew.

“Nothing to be sorry about.”

“I shouldn’t have had all those drinks,” Cordelia said miserably.

“Bullshit. You deserve a night out, as you said yourself,” said Lydia, sitting down on the step above her. “And it’s a beautiful night, don’t ruin it with regrets.”

Cordelia sighed. “It is beautiful, isn’t it? I love this time of year, when the summer’s just leaving and everything seems warm all the time.” She turned just a little. “You’re looking quite beautiful yourself, truth be told. That dress is… Just… Yeah.”

“Alcohol got your tongue, huh?” teased Lydia, secretly flushing at the unexpected compliment. “But you’re the one that’s stunning. That blue dress is incredible.”

“Hunter never liked it,” Cordelia said, turning her eyes back to the stars.

“Your ex sounds like an idiot.”

“Something we can agree on at last,” said Cordelia .

Lydia swallowed. There were things they could agree on, weren’t there? “Thank you,” she said quietly. “For tonight.”

“It was nothing,” murmured Cordelia.

“No, it wasn’t. It was a kind thing to do. You were lovely in there, I know it was all pretend, but you were exactly right. You charmed everyone and, well, I really think you made the difference. If I don’t get this job then it won’t be through lack of trying.”

“Really, it was nothing.”

Lydia laughed a little. “I disagree. It was a lot. Especially for someone you don’t particularly like.”

There was silence and stillness for a long minute.

“I never said that.”

“What?” Lydia asked, starting to feel drowsy.

Cordelia turned and the fact that Lydia was one step up meant that their faces were close to the same height. “I never said that,” she said again. “I never said that I don’t like you. I find you irritating for sure, annoying, definitely. But not liking you? I didn’t say that.”

“So you do like me,” said Lydia, trying to make light of it.

Cordelia frowned. “Of course I like you. I like you so much that my heart beats funny, that I don’t know where to look sometimes, so much that even though I shouldn’t I…” She stumbled, ran out of words.

Lydia snatched in a breath.

“I like you,” Cordelia said again.

Her hand went to Lydia’s knee and Lydia stared at it, registering that her blood was pounding.

“Oh, fuck it,” Cordelia said.

Then she was leaning in and tilting her head and her lips, sticky with alcohol, were brushing Lydia’s and Lydia’s entire world stilled in that instant as, for the space of a heartbeat, they connected.