‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you’ve already done that.’ He smiled. ‘I doubt whether Rachel ever will, but I’m getting there.’
Not sure how she thought about being singled out this way, Jenna asked if he had seen Alastair in the days since they’d stayed with him.
‘He was in the boatyard just the other day and, I have to say, he looks much better than he did before he went away, more his old self. Given how he respected my decision to follow my heart, which proved to be the best decision I ever made, I’d feel a hypocrite if I didn’t trust him to do what his heart is telling him to do. Let’s face it, who the hell enjoys being told they’re wrong? Not me, for sure. We all like to think we know our own mind and what we’re doing.’
‘You’re right, of course. We have no business accusing Alastair of not knowing his own mind. So long as it is that which is guiding him,’ she added.
‘As opposed to his what? His man-stick?’
Jenna blushed. ‘No, his heart, silly. We all know how treacherous the heart can be, especially when you’ve just had it torn in two by the death of the woman you’ve always loved.’
Callum frowned and scratched at his chin. ‘Have you ever wondered about the way Orla died?’
Surprised at his question, she said, ‘What do you mean?’
‘Death by misadventure, it never rang true to me. Orla always knew exactly what she was doing. Even her legendary acts of spontaneity were never that spontaneous, were they? Everything she did was always carefully worked out well in advance. Like her pranks.’
Her sandwich finished, Jenna wiped her mouth and hands with a paper napkin, all the while considering Callum’s comments. ‘I’m not sure I fully understand what you’re saying. Orla’s death was an accident. She went out for one of her nocturnal meanders on the river and somehow fell in. After all, she had been drinking.’
‘But why?Whydid she fall in? That was completely unlike her. And anyway, she was a good swimmer.’
Jenna felt uneasy. ‘You’re not suggesting it wasn’t an accident, are you?’
‘I’m not suggesting anything.’
‘Yes you are.’
Callum frowned, screwed his paper napkin into a tight ball and tossed it onto his empty plate. ‘Forget I said anything. Like my father, I sometimes don’t know when to keep my big mouth shut.’
Jenna regarded him for a moment, wondering what had prompted him to say what he had, and after all these months since Orla’s death. But then she looked at her watch. ‘Look at the time!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s nearly two-thirty, I need to get back to work.’
They were outside the front of the building where Heart-to-Heart occupied the seventh and eighth floors, and just about to say goodbye, when Jenna spotted Blake sauntering along a few yards behind them.
It was madness what she did next, but in the split second the idea came into her head, and in a rush of spontaneous certainty, it seemed the perfect solution to the problem of Blake Darnell. After this he would back off, would leave her in peace, and her vow would remain fully intact. So with the conviction she was doing absolutely the right thing, she abruptly pressed herself against Callum, and before she lost her nerve, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him smack on the mouth. She felt him start, but wanting her kiss to look as authentic and natural as possible, she kissed him again. Longer this time.
‘Well,’ he murmured when she let go of him, ‘I wasn’t expecting that.’
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Blake push open the plate glass door to the building. He gave her an infuriatingly cheery wave as he went inside.
Her face an explosion of embarrassment, her heart beating almost as fast as it had when she’d found Callum waiting for her in the foyer, she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, staring down at her shoes, ‘that was—’
‘Nice,’ he interrupted her with a grin. He gently tipped her chin up with his hand so that she was forced to meet his gaze. ‘It wasverynice.’
Chapter Fourteen
Timing, thought Callum. That was all that was required. The stars all to be aligned and him in the right place at the right time. Oh, and it helped that they were both single at the same time.
He still couldn’t believe it; Jenna had actually kissed him. Not one of those friendly mwah-mwah cheek-brushing kisses, but a full direct hit on the mouth. What had changed? What had made her seize the moment like that? She hadn’t given him any indication two weeks ago that her attitude towards him might have changed. Not that he was complaining how things had worked out, but knock him down with a feather and call him auntie Mabel, he did not see that coming!
He tried once again to wipe the grin off his face, but he couldn’t. Not cool, he told himself, not cool at all to be grinning like a loon while on a train. He’d be marked out as a nutter. There again it would stop anyone taking the seat next to him.
But what did wipe the smile off his face was when a warning voice cautioned him not to get ahead of himself. Who was to say that what had happened this afternoon would lead to anything more?
Or, did she now expect him to make the next move; was that it?Over to you, Callum Wyatt, show me whatcha got!
And what did he have? What had he ever thought would come of pursuing a relationship with Jenna? She lived in London and he lived in Norfolk. As far as he could see she liked her life in London and he had no intention of ever leaving the Broads. Would it be a pointless exercise in following that kiss up with anything of his own devising?
But then he thought of Alastair and how changed he seemed since returning from his travels. At first hearing it sounded a case of madness what Alastair was doing, selling Linston End to be with a woman he hardly knew, and so soon after Orla’s death. But fair play, was what Callum was beginning to think now, because why not grab what happiness you could when it came along? Why talk yourself out of something, or let others talk you out of it, when with a little courage you could sail off into the clichéd sunset?
