Wildflower Park Series

Hudson ran his fingers through his wet hair and his muscles rippled, which was very distracting.

‘You sure? Only in the night I heard …’ Hudson tailed off.

Anna gave a phoney chuckle. ‘Yeah. I think I was dreaming about Die Hard.’ She broke eye contact. She was a bad liar, and she knew people could always tell.

‘As long as you’re okay.’

‘I’m fine. Are you acting the caring boyfriend?’

‘Absolutely.’

There was an awkward pause. ‘I thought I’d jump in the showers early,’ she said, waving her washbag as evidence and they both watched as a stream of tampons tumbled from the open zip.

‘Bugger,’ she muttered, whilst scrabbling to gather them up.

‘See you at breakfast,’ said Hudson, failing to hide his amusement as he slunk into the men’s bedroom. Anna hung her head. Sophie must have left the bag open after she’d returned Anna’s toothpaste. Thanks a bunch, she thought.

Chapter Twelve (#ulink_b6d39b1a-12c9-51cc-86bd-8c7acae692f1)

After a hearty farmhouse breakfast, the farmer announced the morning’s exercise was at a nearby reservoir, which received a mixed response. When the minibus pulled up Hudson was quick to jump in and take the seat next to Anna and she was pleased to see Liam had spotted the gesture. Sophie had also noticed and was giving Anna pleading looks to swap places.

‘I get sick if I don’t sit near the front,’ said Sophie, and she pointed at Anna’s seat.

Anna’s shoulders sagged. Sophie wasn’t helping herself with the Hudson crush if she was going to seize every opportunity to be near him. Although Anna had to admit he did smell mighty fine this morning.

‘It’s okay, I’ll move,’ said Anna, seeing the plea in Sophie’s eyes.

Sophie was about to sit down when Karl stuck his head inside the van. ‘Can I sit at the front too? I hate these things and I might have overdone it on the wine last night. Gippy tummy,’ he said, giving it a rub.

‘Sure,’ said Hudson, and he followed Anna to the back seat where they giggled like love-struck teenagers until Sophie spun around and glared at the pair of them. Anna clamped her lips together to try to stifle the giggles. She glanced at Hudson and he winked at her. For a moment she forgot they were pretending.

Carsington Water was impressive and the weather was far kinder today with a light breeze and a little sunshine glinting off the water making it sparkle and look more inviting than it should. They were introduced to Canadian canoes and got into teams of three while Karl perfected his impression of Roberta by asking ‘Who’s in my canoe?’ Anna was with Priya and Hudson and they had to work together to keep in rhythm.

‘Priya, you don’t need to keep swapping sides with your paddle,’ complained Anna when a trail of water splashed across her back for the umpteenth time.

‘Sorry. But I want to beat Karl,’ she said, lifting her paddle out of the water to point and inadvertently splashing Anna again.

The purpose of the game was to retrieve different-coloured buoys via the shortest route whilst heading off other canoes. Most went for the nearby markers meaning they all squabbled whereas Anna steered them towards the middle-distance ones to avoid bumping into other teams, enabling them to collect their buoys and return victorious. As they were making their final turn she heard a war cry nearby and a canoe came towards them at speed. She wasn’t surprised to see Karl, Liam and Raj from Finance all with clenched teeth and paddling hard.

‘Heads down, and paddle as hard as you can, team,’ said Hudson. ‘Go, go, go!’ which was exactly what they did. Hudson was at the back, his powerful strokes doing the lion’s share of the work. They sailed over the finish line with the other canoe on their tail. Hudson turned the canoe at speed and with a few neat flicks of his paddle soaked the occupants of the other one. Karl stood up to protest, wobbled dramatically and in an attempt to right himself, lost his balance further and fell in. Liam threw down his paddle in temper. It bounced off the canoe and into the water, making him swear.

Once out of the canoes there was lots of congratulatory blokey back slapping, a few playful remonstrations and lots of Karl shaking his wet head over people like a naughty puppy. When he knew Liam was watching, Hudson leaned into Anna’s ear. ‘Nice job, honey,’ he whispered, making her shudder. She hoped Hudson assumed her squirming was all part of the act. If you weren’t gay, you would make an excellent boyfriend, she thought. If she wasn’t careful she’d soon be suffering from Sophie’s complaint.

As the victors they were first to eat lunch, which was a barbecue by the water’s edge.

‘You okay?’ Anna asked Sophie who was munching down a large hamburger overflowing with salad.

‘Starving and a bit knackered but I had fun this morning and the lie-in was bliss. It’s lovely not to be woken by someone jumping on your bladder.’

‘You should stop Dave doing that,’ said Anna drily and Sophie gave a smirk.

Sophie’s gaze drifted over to Hudson in his tight white T-shirt. ‘Do you think if I paid him he’d re-create the Mr Darcy scene from Pride and Prejudice for me?’

‘You are aware you said that out loud?’ said Anna, rolling her eyes. ‘He’s gorgeous but you know he’s gay. You need to have a word with your hormones.’

‘I noticed you two seemed a bit cosy on the bus earlier,’ said Sophie, with a suspicious look in her eye.

Anna checked around her like an amateur spy. ‘I was going to explain on the way home away from the others, but Hudson is pretending to be my boyfriend so we can …’ Why were they doing this again? Anna was no longer sure. ‘Get closer to Liam.’

Sophie frowned hard and inclined her head. ‘Makes no sense to me.’

‘I’ll explain later,’ said Anna, as Liam strolled over.

‘Hiya, Sophie, how’s Dave and the kids?’

‘Great, thanks. How are your scruples? Oh, I forgot you don’t have any,’ said Sophie, and went to get another burger leaving him somewhat shell-shocked by the snub.

Anna avoided eye contact and followed Sophie into the salad queue. ‘Don’t piss him off, Sophe, he has the fate of our jobs in his hands.’

Sophie shrugged. ‘I’m not sure pretending you’re Hudson’s girlfriend isn’t going to do that anyway.’ Anna could already see she wasn’t happy about it but they could hardly backtrack now they’d come this far.

The afternoon whizzed by and Anna was thrilled that, with a bit of help, both teams managed to complete their sections of dry-stone wall and have their photographs taken next to their masterpieces. She was pleased Roberta bothered to show up for a final wrap-up and motivational send-off liberally scattered with feminist quotes. After everyone had dispersed Roberta took Anna to one side.

‘Nice job with this team event, Anna, I’m impressed.’

‘Thanks.’ Anna was quickly buoyed by a little praise.

‘I’ve just found out about you and Liam. I’m not sure what to say. Obviously, he didn’t mention it otherwise I would have objected.’

‘So, you didn’t hire him?’ said Anna, her left eye twitching slightly.

Roberta shook her head. ‘No, this has come from on high. But I’m fully supportive obviously.’ She gave an expression that said she wasn’t.

‘Obviously. Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll make sure he only sees what he needs to but to be honest I think Hudson and I are working far better together now than we were. There are no holes for him to pick on the project.’

‘If you want something done, ask a woman. That’s what the late, great Margaret Thatcher told us,’ said Roberta. She straightened her dress and went to speak to someone else.

Hudson sauntered over and made sure his bicep brushed Anna’s shoulder. ‘Hey, girlfriend, how you doing?’

‘Really?’ said Anna in a mocking tone but the truth was she was enjoying their play-acting. She was seeing a whole new side to Hudson and it was one she liked.

‘I forgot I don’t need to try to win you over, you’re already dating me.’ He gave her another nudge.

‘Careful or you’ll be filed in the same section as Karl.’ They both watched as he chased after Priya whilst swinging his wet T-shirt around his head. Roberta was looking unimpressed.

‘I was wondering if you fancied grabbing something to eat?’ he said. Anna stared at the hot dog she was holding. Hudson seemed to go a little pink. ‘I figured we’d be hungry again later and I’d like to hatch a plan of attack now we have Liam snooping around the project.’

‘Good call. And it’d be a chance to get our whole girlfriend, boyfriend story straight. I’m not sure I feel like going out though.’ Anna was looking forward to a shower and an early night but Hudson’s suggestion made sense and she liked to be on the front foot. ‘How about a takeaway at mine?’