When Harriet Came Home by Coleen Kwan Page B

soccer, cutting through the meadow, and you were on your bike. You took a corner too fast and came a cropper. Your arm was bleeding, and you were trying not to cry.”
    Her heart did a quick flip. He remembered! Sure, he remembered her bleeding and snivelling, but he did remember. “I was terrified I’d damaged my dad’s bike. That’s why I was crying.”
    “Oh, of course. Didn’t I help you bandage up your arm?”
    She nodded. “You used one of your football socks.”
    “That’s right.” Adam drummed his fingertips on the table. “I don’t remember you giving me back my sock.”
    She’d laundered the sock by hand and kept it folded up at the bottom of her drawer. It was still there now. She turned to rinse her knife so he wouldn’t be able to see her face.
    “Oh, didn’t I? I’m sure I did.”
    She picked up a tea towel and dried the knife carefully, aware of him watching her.
    She shot him a wary glance. His eyes held a strange curiosity, a curiosity about her, she suddenly realised, and her pulse thumped a little harder.
    “It’s funny how life turns out,” he said. “I used to be so full of myself when I was at school. Thank God that’s been drummed out of me. And as for you, well, you don’t need me to tell you how much you’ve changed.”
    He shifted on his chair as he contemplated her, his eyes lingering on her bare legs below her dress and making her even more cautious.
    “You look really nice these days since you—”
    He broke off, his face tensing, and she knew he hadn’t meant to speak his mind.
    Hot embarrassment rippled through her, starting in her toes and rising all the way to the roots of her hair. As her cheeks throbbed, she saw his face start to flush, as well. His big hands gripped the edge of the table.
    “You mean,” she said, “since I’ve lost weight?”
    “Obviously I’m being insensitive again,” he muttered. “Please just ignore me.”
    The discomfort in his voice surprised her even more. He pushed to his feet, the chair screeching back in his haste. “Maybe I’ll just wait outside and stay out of your way.”
    “No, don’t do that.” The words left her almost before she’d thought them. “I don’t want you to think I’m still hung up about my weight.”
    His shoulders relaxed. “That’s a relief.”
    The trouble was, she suspected she was still hung up about her weight. Especially around Adam. What did he see when he looked at her? The woman she was now? Or the hulking shadow of her adolescent self?
    “All through school I battled with my weight, but as soon as I left home I lost it without really noticing. I was so busy studying at hotel school I didn’t have time or energy to binge eat, and when I started working…well, I’m on my feet a lot of the time, moving around, doing things. I guess it all burns up calories. And being around food constantly is actually a bonus. Yes, I’m tasting stuff all the time, but it’s little mouthfuls, and by the time I’ve spent a whole day smelling food, making food and decorating food, I find I don’t want to eat that much of it.”
    She straightened the corners of her apron and gave him a faint smile. “But I guess the biggest reason I’ve lost weight is because I’m doing something I love and I’m good at it. I don’t have a reason to compensate by overeating anymore.”
    Adam nodded. “And the glasses? What happened to them?”
    “Laser surgery. I had my eyes done as soon as I could afford it. Having glasses steam up and slide off isn’t very safe or practical in a hectic kitchen.”
    He continued to study her, his expression concentrated, as though she were a mystery he was determined to solve. She couldn’t understand this new interest in her, and she didn’t like the way her body fizzed with hope. Hope? No. Never had she hoped for Adam’s attention; she’d always known she was out of his league. In a different universe. So why now? Why this coltish excitement bubbling up in her? It was stupid