‘It was vile.’
She laughed despite of herself. He turned away so she wouldn’t see his answering smile.
‘Oliver.’
He paused, half expecting — half hoping — that she’d changed her mind. But she was still smiling, which he took to be a bad sign.
‘Your trousers.’
He looked down. Rust streaked the pale fabric where he’d been sitting.
Her smile went sweet. ‘That chair really should be replaced.’
He walked away without another word.
* * *
‘I can’t believe the gall of the man!’ Lucy paced up and down the rear verandah of MacLeod’s Cottage. Her head and body and heart and soul were consumed with Oliver Perry-Warnes and his plans. ‘By changing his plans for the hotel he thinks he’s doing me a favour —’
‘A favour for you?’ Dan straightened from where he was leaning against the balustrade, concern tightening his features. ‘Why would changing plans be doing only you a favour?’
‘I mean us, the community, the whole village of MacLeod’s Cove.’ Heat flooded her cheeks. ‘He thinks he’s doing us all a favour by sectioning off one small area where we can do whatever it is he thinks we do.’
‘I guess that’s something,’ said Dan.
Lucy knew he didn’t feel the way she did. He’d been away too long. But at least he was in her corner. And if he hung around much longer, he’d be a resident of MacLeod’s Cove whether he liked it or not. No one quite knew what he was doing. He seemed in limbo.
‘It’s something, all right.’ She muttered an expletive under her breath. Dan’s eyebrows shot up. She rarely swore. But then, she rarely had cause to.
‘Lucy,’ said Kate quietly.
Lucy turned to find her entire family watching from around the table as if she were a show. She’d almost forgotten they were there.
‘Why don’t you come and sit down and have something to eat,’ Kate suggested.
She huffed out a breath. Food was her mother’s answer to everything. Usually it was her own, too. One glance at the spread and she had to admit Kate might be right.
She dropped into the chair beside Jen, with Sam opposite. It was nauseating but sweet the way Sam always insisted on facing Jen. Ugh.
Jen scooped up a bowl of Greek salad and handed it over. ‘Here you go.’
‘Thanks.’ Lucy tucked in hungrily, tearing a slice of bread to mop up the oil. All this emotion had meant she’d skipped her usual café lunch.
‘Do you want me to have a word with Oliver, Lucy?’ asked Sam. ‘I will if you’d like me to.’
‘You think you can do better than me?’ The sharp retort slipped out before she could stop it.
‘Lucy!’ warned Jen, shooting Sam an apologetic look.
Lucy closed her eyes briefly. ‘Sorry, Sam. I’m just riled up.’
‘It’s OK. And just to be clear, I don’t think I can do better at all,’ he said. ‘I know you’re working really hard to sort this out. But I’ve had dealings with the man before. I know these kind of guys and what makes them tick. It’s partly what drove me away from Australia and the industry in the first place.’
Once again Lucy thought how lucky Jen was. A man who adored her, and who was good through and through. Not the sort of man Lucy’s radar picked up on. Apparently she needed some kind of edge, some dangerous element to make her interested.
‘Sorry, Sam. I know you mean well. But it would just look weird. Me sending in my brother-in-law to do what I’ve failed to do.’
Sam grinned.
