Lucy touched his arm lightly, interrupting his thoughts. ‘It’s too late. The truth escaped. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle now.’
He watched her step away.
‘What should I bring?’ he asked. ‘Wine?’
‘No alcohol. Lemonade will be fine.’
‘Food?’
‘Supermarket salad will be fine.’
The corner of his mouth lifted. ‘Sunday then.’
She turned back once more, sunlight catching her eyes.
‘Sunday.’
Chapter Twelve
Oliver pulled up outside MacLeod’s Cottage and studied the house. It looked worse than the hotel — though he could see repairs were underway. Still, what was it with these people and their fixation with the past? He didn’t get it. And why the hell had he accepted an invitation to a family lunch with people he had nothing in common with? But he knew.
Lucy.
He shut the car door, tucked the food basket under his arm and walked up the jasmine-scented path. Ridiculous how nervous he felt. He hadn’t been this way since he was a boy.
He inhaled deeply and pressed the doorbell.
* * *
Lucy was in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. No one ever used the doorbell. People knocked, then walked straight in calling greetings. It had to be him. She continued chopping some veg.
‘Lucy?’ called Kate. ‘Can you get that?’
Lucy looked through the window to see Kate showing Liam and his friend, George something. All the others — Dan, Jen, Sam, and their friends Megan and Ryan — were gathered around the old bench at the edge of the sand dunes, deep in conversation. From the way Megan was touching her pregnant stomach, and Jen was nodding in agreement, she guessed the conversation was about pregnancy. She was best off out of it. She’d never had a rapport with children — apart from Liam, who seemed to have insisted on a special relationship with ‘Aunty Lucy’ despite her lack of skills in that area.
‘Lucy?’ repeated Kate.
‘OK,’ said Lucy, wiping her hands on a dishcloth and reluctantly leaving the kitchen for the hall. She could see his outline through the glass panes of the door. Her heart started to hammer in her chest. What on earth was she doing following her mother’s advice? This man was Danger with a capital D. He was a danger to the village — and worse, to her.
Time seemed to slow. She opened the door, intending to look cool and unaffected — and immediately failed.
He had his back to her and turned with a smile she hadn’t seen before. Then she placed it. He was being polite. He’d clearly decided to tone down ‘Dangerous Oliver’ for the afternoon.
‘Oliver,’ she said, keeping her voice cool even as her gaze snagged on him.
‘Lucy,’ he said, the corners of his mouth quirking.
She glanced down to see what he was holding. ‘You’ve brought a basket.’
‘I brought what you asked for.’ He shifted it against his hip as if it was heavy. ‘I thought I’d better not arrive empty handed.’
‘It’s a big basket for a bottle of lemonade and a supermarket salad.’
He shrugged and she stepped back and opened the door wider. He entered the hall. She waved her hand in a flourish. ‘Please go through. We’re out the back.’
He nodded and walked on past the stairs towards the back of the house. She followed him, thinking how strange it was to see him here. With his perfect hair, trousers and shirt, he looked like he’d stepped out of American Vogue and into a world where he didn’t belong. If her mother thought that bringing this alien creature to a family lunch would help him understand about community and MacLeod’s Cove, she was destined to be severely disappointed. But at least she’d get her mother off her back and make her see that this man really was their enemy.
‘You can put the basket down here,’ she said pointing to a side table. She had no intention of opening it. The lemonade and supermarket salad had been a joke and she certainly didn’t want to include it in the spread she was making. ‘My family are all outside.’
