‘I’m sorry,’ she exclaimed. ‘But you know how it is, Jack. All the empty platitudes that people say when you lose someone. They ask you how you are, and when you say, “Well actually, I’m not doing so great, because my whole world has just been ripped out from underneath me,” and they look at you with that annoying, sympathetic head tilt, and they say something completely inane, like, “Oh, I can imagine how you must be feeling.”’ She looked up at me with eyes that reflected her grief. ‘But theycan’timagine it. No one can imagine how it feels until it happens to you.’
‘I know,’ I said patiently. ‘But they mean well.Taylormeant well.’
‘You’re right. You always are.’ There was an undercurrent of bitterness to her voice. Draining my glass and plonking it back on the table, she faced Taylor and took a deep breath, exhaling softly. ‘I’m sorry, Taylor. It’s just been a really hard time. Can you possibly forgive me?’
‘Of course. No need to apologize.’
‘I’m just grateful that I still have my Jack,’ Hannah said, wrapping a hand around my bicep. ‘I don’t know where I’d be without him. Honestly, I shudder to think.’
‘Lucky for you he’s right here then,’ Taylor agreed, her eyes meeting mine.
‘Dependable old Jack,’ Hannah gushed, still holding on to my arm. I couldn’t shake her off without being rude, but I knew it was giving Taylor the wrong impression. ‘And not just for the small things, either. I mean, he moved all the way across the country to help me run this place, and I didn’t even ask him to. He could see I was completely out of my depth and he just swooped right in. My own knight in shining armor.’
‘I just did what any friend would do.’
‘Don’t be modest.’ Hannah smiled, her eyes soft but ever so slightly unfocused. I could see it because I knew to look for it. ‘You’ve gone above and beyond for me, Jack. And I’ll never forget it.’
Taylor’s chair scraped loudly on the floor as she pushed it back. ‘Excuse me, guys, but I need to visit the bathroom. And the bar. Time for another drink.’
‘I can get Fiona to get one for you,’ I told her.
‘It’s fine,’ she replied lightly. ‘I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.’
I watched her walk away, feeling frustrated at the turn the evening had taken. This wasn’t how I had planned it to go at all.
‘Was that a dig at me?’ Hannah asked, her nose crinkling.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ I asked her tightly.
‘What? You said it wasn’t a date.’
‘I know what I said, but that’s complicated, and sort of an inside joke between me and Taylor. It was blindingly obvious to everyone here that this was a date.’
Hannah shrugged, her expression petulant. ‘Then you shouldn’t have invited me to join you.’
‘You invited yourself.’
‘Andshesaid it was fine. What does that tell you?’
‘That she’s kind?’
‘Or she’s not interested.’
‘We didn’t have enough time together alone for her to form any opinion at all, because you gatecrashed our date.’
‘Once again, you said it wasn’t a date. You can’t blame me for being confused, Jack, when you say one thing and mean another.’
‘We both know it’s not just my words that are confusing you, Hannah.’
Her eyes narrowed. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
I slid my empty glass across the table, next to hers. ‘Two drinks in less than fifteen minutes.’
‘I was thirsty.’
‘Did you have any wines before you came downstairs?’
‘I don’t like what you’re insinuating, Jack.’
