Oliver probably hadn't meant to brush up against her backside, but she had a whole lifetime of experience with men doing that. She had decided long, long ago that she would have fewer problems with it if she literally just threw them on the ground when they transgressed at all.
It generally worked. The ones who hadn't done it on purpose but understood why a woman might overreact would lie there with the same blinking, befuddled expression that poor Oliver Campbell had right now. The ones whohaddone it on purpose were often furious, but usually learned their lesson.
Ollie didn't look furious at all. It was faintly possible he looked star-struck, but that might have just been the wind getting knocked out of him. From down there on the ground, he said, "Sorry," with audible sincerity. "I'd closed my eyes and walked right into you. My bad. That was incredible. You're half my size. How'd youdothat?"
"Aikido." Tiff, feeling even less guilty than she had before, offered him a hand up. He took her hand, but didn't actuallycome to his feet when she tugged. He just lay there holding her hand and gazing up at her in what appeared to be adoration.
That couldn't be right. Men didn't generally go moon-eyed over women who threw them on the ground. Still in that sincere, quiet voice, he said, "Aikido? Okay, but…I'm twice your size?"
"My center of gravity is way, way lower than yours." This was slightly surreal, Tiffany thought. Men she threw on the ground didn't usually want a play by play of how she'd managed that. "Women's centers of gravity are lower anyway, and I'm short?—"
"You are an absolutely perfect height."
Tiffany blinked slowly, in much the same way Ollie had when she'd thrown him on the ground. "Um. Thank you. In this case, 'an absolutely perfect height' is 'short.' So my center of gravity is way below your hips, and your hand was coming over my shoulder, so you were already off balance. All I had to do was keep you moving the same direction you were already going." She gestured, although not very successfully, because he was still holding one of her hands. "Are you, ah, are you going to get up, or…?"
"Oh!" Ollie let go of her hand, somewhat to Tiffany's regret, and scrambled to his feet, making an idle and futile attempt to brush grass stains off his shorts. "Yes, of course, sorry. Now, uh, lemonade?"
"You don't really have to bring me for lemonade," Tiffany said, feeling as if she'd possibly lost control of the entire situation. "I just really need you—or the wedding party—to understand that I can't lose the weekend of work to your party. I'm going to dig up the green, starting tomorrow morning, whether it's ugly or not."
"But why?" Ollie's pale green eyes were filled with woeful concern. "It's such a beautiful space. Why is the city asking you to dig it up?"
"I think why they told you there could be a wedding is a much better question!"
"I'm not entirely sure they asked," Ollie admitted.
Tiffany hadn't even been moving, and that stopped her in her tracks. "They didn't ask? What is this place that you just decide to throw a wedding in a public space and decorate it ahead of time without asking?"
"It's Virtue, New York," Ollie said earnestly. His accent was so deliciously distracting that Tiffany almost didn't hear what he actually said for several seconds. "My cousin Steven moved here a couple years ago. He said the gazebo's basically free for anybody to use whenever, unless there's a major holiday coming up, in which case the city has things scheduled for it."
"But…" Tiffany waved a hand helplessly. "But what if there are conflicts? Like, somebody's tearing up the green?"
"Whyareyou tearing up the green? Apparently it's not a very busy town. People don't come in from outside to rent the gazebo, although," Ollie turned to gaze at it, and Tiffany's gaze followed his. "It's a beaut, so I'm surprised it doesn't get rented out. But there evidently aren't enough people in Virtue who want to use it all at once for it to be a problem. Let's get that, er, lemonade and then go talk to Steve and Charlee and the town council, if we have to."
His gentle voice was persuasive, and although Tiffany was increasingly sure there was nothing to talkabout, not if his cousin didn't even have permission, much less a contract, she found herself saying, "Lemonadewouldbe nice."
Or maybe walking around with this long tall drink of Australian water would be nice, but she wasn't terribly picky right then. "I really only have a few minutes, though. My crew is supposed to be here at three. Look." Tiffany scrubbed a hand through her hair. "I can get the crew to take lunch break during the wedding so we won't be making all that noise, but if thereception's here in the square I can't do anything about that. And if you, they, want pretty wedding pictures in the gazebo, then I'd recommend everybody put their nice clothes on right now and come get them taken today, because otherwise you're going to have safety fencing and heavy equipment in the background."
Ollie blinked down at her solemnly. "You know they can't do that."
"I know I can't hold my project for a whole weekend!"
"We'll talk to the town council," he said again, with that quiet determination. "After lemonade."
"Are all Australians obsessed with lemonade?" She ended up walking with him, almost chasing after him for a few steps, as he struck out with those wonderfully long legs like a man with a purpose.
"I like to think of it more as obsessed with getting to know a beautiful woman as quickly as possible," he offered.
Tiffany, who had heard plenty of lines her in life, snorted at that one. "I'm sure that's not generally a problem for you."
He looked genuinely crestfallen, like he'd hoped to score a point with charm, although the expression shifted to a faintly rueful smile. "I guess you've heard a lot of insincere lines from men."
"And the occasional woman, although they're barking up the wrong tree. Look, Mr. Campbell?—"
"Oliver. Ollie."
"Mr. Campbell Oliver Ollie," Tiffany said under her breath, somewhere between being obliging and being a smartass. She wasn't sure if 'obliging smartass' was a thing, but if it was, she would consider embracing it. "I think I should be talking to your cousin, if it's their wedding I'm disrupting."
"Oh." Ollie stopped again and looked down at her. "Right. Right, of course. I'm not the person you should be talking to."
