Summer Seaside Wedding Read Online Free Page A

by, she’ll be out seeing the sights.’
    ‘We’ll be calling round soon,’ Harry had informed him, ‘and if she isn’t there we can stop by again later.’
    It would seem that she hadn’t been there because she was here with him, Leo was thinking when the surgery and the house opposite came into view. When she opened the door there was a note behind it.
    He was observing her hesitantly as she bent to pick it up, undecided whether he should go and leave her to her private thoughts or offer to stay and keep her company for a while until he was sure she was all right to be left on her own.
    Unaware of what was going through his mind, Amelie read the note and exclaimed, ‘Oh, dear! Dr Balfour and his family have been while I was out.’
    ‘Don’t concern yourself,’ he advised. ‘I spoke to him this morning and he said he’ll call again if he misses you, but for now, Amelie, would you like me to stay for a while or would you prefer me to leave?’
    For the first time he saw the sparkle of tears in the blue eyes looking into his, but her voice was steady enough as she replied, ‘I will be all right, thank you. You helped me through a bad moment and I am grateful, but I am sure that you have other things to do.’
    As relief washed over him at being let off the hook he said, ‘All right, if that is what you would prefer, but I’ll leave you my mobile number just in case.’
    ‘There is no need,’ she protested. ‘I will be fine oncethis day is over,’ and wished she hadn’t been so quick to tell him the reason for her distress. She’d kept the hurt under wraps ever since the break-up with Antoine and would still have been doing so if she hadn’t come across a village wedding.
     
    Leo’s relief at her insistence that she would be all right was short-lived. While he was out dining with Georgina from the boutique and other friends that evening he was on edge, knowing that he shouldn’t have been so quick to latch onto Amelie’s reassurances.
    The day she’d been dreading wasn’t over yet and the hurts that life was prone to hand out always seemed to multiply with the coming of the night.
    It was as he’d said. She was alone in a foreign land and although he hardly knew her, he did have some degree of responsibility towards her because she was joining the practice on Monday morning and they would be meeting again. On a different level.
    The folks he was with were aware of his wandering thoughts and Georgina asked, ‘What’s the matter, Leo? Aren’t we entertaining enough for you tonight?’
    He smiled and there wasn’t a woman there who didn’t wish he belonged to her, including Georgina, but she was aware that Leo was not the marrying kind, not where she was concerned anyway.
    ‘I have got something on my mind,’ he confessed. ‘I’m sorry if I’m poor company.’ He sent an apologetic glance in Georgina’s direction.’ I need to pop out for a while. If I’m not back when you’re ready to order, youknow what I like to eat, Georgina.’ And before anyone could comment he’d gone, striding out of the restaurant with a haste that didn’t go unnoticed.
    Ten minutes and once again he was outside the house where Amelie was staying, and when he saw that it was in darkness he was about to turn away when her voice came from behind him.
    ‘Dr Fenchurch!’ she exclaimed. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again today.’
    ‘I just came to check that you’re all right,’ he said smoothly, as if he hadn’t been fidgeting on her behalf for the last hour. ‘I’m dining with friends in a restaurant not far from here so thought I’d call to make sure.’
    ‘That is very kind of you and makes me even more sorry that I unloaded my troubles on to you,’ she told him. ‘But concern yourself no longer. I am fine. I beg you go back to your friends and remember you did give me your mobile number.’ Which I am not going to use, no matter what . ‘I shall have an early night to make up for my