She did like him a lot,though. He was much nicer than she’d thought. And it was good to know that he was no longer just trying to butter her up.
‘Thank you again for listening to me,’ she said.
‘Seriously. Not a problem. Pleased to be of listening assistance.’ He was definitely for real. No-one could fake that smile and the warmth in his voice, combined with a tiny bit of gorgeousI don’t normally have conversations like thisawkwardness.
And hooray. They were back at the tent.
‘Hey, where have you been?’ Dina hurried towards them from halfway across the marquee. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I just drank a bit much,’ said Cassie, not looking at James. ‘I felt a bit sick. James was kind enough to take me outside for a minute to cool down.’
‘Always the gentleman.’ Dina flashed a smile at James. Cassie smiled generally at everyone, still not looking at him. This was terrible. She felt like she’d just committed adultery or something. Dina would be so hurt if she knew that they’d nearly kissed in the field. ‘You okay now?’
‘Yes, all good,’ Cassie said, grabbing a glass of wine from a passing waiter, one of Amy’s friends from the mainland. ‘Where’s Laura? It’s cake time!’
Laura was sitting in state on the Birthday Girl Throne that Dina and Cassie had decorated with flowers earlier while James was collecting her in his car. She was holding a non-alcoholic cocktail and a sausage roll, surrounded by lots of friends, and apparently asking Soraya, from the village, who had four adult children and was nearly fifty, if she was pregnant. From Soraya’s reaction, it looked as though shewasand did not want to tell anyone. And Cassie was not going to be affected by the ‘everyone except me is pregnant’ thing again. She was going to react like an averagely happy person, and focus on Laura.
‘Honestly—’ she took a big slurp of her wine ‘—I don’t know how she gets away with it.’
‘Well, speaking as someone who met her relatively recently and got the full Laura treatment within literally minutes of meeting her, I think it’s her sweetness and her earnestness that get you,’ James said. ‘You really wantto tell her to shut up, but you just can’t. So you give her a little bit and then she takes a bit more, and half an hour later, she knows a lot.’
Cassie nodded. ‘Yup. You gave in very easily. I know that. She passed alotof information on to me about you immediately. Literally. I knew alotabout you by your second day here.’
James swivelled his eyes. ‘I’m worried now. What did Isay?’
‘Ha. You’re just going to have to wonder.’
Cassie loved the way James’s lips twitched when he was amused.
‘Hey.’ Dina’s voice cut through her thoughts. ‘What are you two smiling at?’
Whatwerethey smiling at? Other than each other?
‘We were talking about Laura,’ James said, after a slightly too long pause.
‘Yes, we were,’ Cassie said. ‘About how she drags information out of people and how they’re powerless to resist.’
‘She does do that. Now. Cake time.’ Dina clapped her hands. It was a loud clap and it did cause everyone to turn to look. She cupped her hands round her mouth and repeated, ‘Cake time.’
‘You nervous?’ Cassie nudged James with raised eyebrows as Laura pressed the point of the cake knife into the middle of the top tier.
‘Yup.’ He nodded. ‘Genuinely am. I mean, a) Laura’s the queen of baking and b) I don’t want to poison people. And c) I really don’t know whether it’s going to taste good or not because I have no frame of reference because I don’t eat cake.’
‘What? At all?’
‘Nope.’
‘Wow. You know what you are?’ The wine was making Cassie feel more chilled again. She poked James in his gorgeously wide and solid chest. ‘You are a man of steel in the face of inquisition. And a man of mystery. Because Laura thinks youdolike cake. She thinks you love her blueberry cake.’
‘That,’ said James, giving her an eyebrow waggle, ‘is because I—’ he leaned in and lowered his voice ‘—toldher that I loved the cake.’
Cassie gasped. ‘Youliedto Laura.’
‘I did.’ James nodded very seriously. ‘It was a white lie.’
Cassie smiled at him. He was so gorgeous.
He was so Dina’s.
