Jenny gave a choked laugh. ‘I don’t think you’re supposed to say a Leon Masters kiss was pleasant—or that you quite liked it, for that matter,’ she teased.
Helen’s smile was only slightly strained. ‘Okay, it was more than pleasant or just nice,’ she admitted.
‘I don’t understand—’
The telephone began ringing and Helen knew who it was even before she picked up the receiver. ‘Leon,’ she said huskily, conscious of Jenny’s curious stare.
‘Make the right decision, Helen,’ he told her, not bothering to confirm or deny her assumption that it was him.
‘Oh, Leon…’
‘I know we can make it, Helen. I know we can!’ he repeated fiercely.
‘You said you wouldn’t—’
‘I know, I know! Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed you after all. I know damn well I’m not going to get any sleep tonight—or any other night for the next two weeks, come to that. Be there when I get back or I don’t know what I’ll do. Probably come looking for you,’ he admitted ruefully. ‘I’ll tell Max to expect you, so don’t let me down.’ He put the receiver down with a click.
Helen slowly replaced her own receiver, biting her lip painfully. She was so confused, so confused.
‘Helen?’ Jenny probed gently into her torment. ‘What’s going on?’
‘He—Leon wants me to go and live with him when he gets back from America.’ She gave Jenny an almost guilty look. She hadn’t meant to blurt it out quite like that.
‘And are you going to?’ Jenny asked casually.
Helen’s eyebrows lifted. ‘You don’t seem very surprised.’
Jenny shrugged. ‘I guessed how he felt about you—even without him making this special trip back to see you.’
‘But to ask me to go and live with him…! Not even I thought he would suggest something like that.’
’Are you going to?’ her cousin repeated.
Her eyes dropped and fell. ‘I don’t know.’
* * *
She still didn’t know two weeks later. It was early evening, Leon would be home soon, and she still didn’t know what to do.
Leon had kept his word and not contacted her at all. Perhaps if she had been able to talk to him, know that he still felt the same way about her, her decision might have been easier to make. As it was she was still confused—and her time for thinking had run out.
Jenny looked at. her over the top of her magazine. ‘Well, are you going?’
That was indeed the question! ‘I still haven’t decided.’
Jenny looked pointedly down at her wrist-watch. ‘Leaving it a bit late, aren’t you?’
Helen frowned. ‘What would you do? Would you move in with him?’ It was the first time she had ventured Jenny’s opinion on the subject.
‘Like a shot!’ Jenny grinned.
‘But I don’t love him. I don’t know what I feel for him.’
‘But you do feel something?’
Helen took a deep breath. ‘Yes.’
‘Then go to him.’