A figure appeared on the beach, and her heart eased. At last! “Excuse me,” she muttered, then hurried to meet Jordan.
“You came!” she called.
“You asked, so here I am.”
Oh, thank goodness. She hugged him, and he drew her in. She closed her eyes, feeling that same assurance of safety. But also something else. Had it just been the effect of time, or had he gotten a little more buff in the past three weeks?
She pulled away. “Have you been working out?”
His lips tweaked. “I’ve only been down at the farm.”
The farm. Where they’d had the bonfire last weekend. The bonfire she’d always attended but had skipped this year. Awkward. “Um, how was that?”
“Good. You were missed.”
She nodded, but trying to explain to him about her magical fairy-tale dinner at Bennelong and seeing the ballet didn’t seem fair. Not when Jordan could never afford the extravagant meal that Eric had paid for.
She couldn’t ask anything more, because it would make her feel like she’d betrayed her family. And today was supposed to be about having fun, about celebrating. Not being made to feel guilty for wanting to have some fun and not do the same as shehad every other year. When Gwen had invited her to Saturday night drinks with the girls on a harbour cruise, how could she say no?
Jordan’s attention veered behind her, then an arm snaked across her shoulders. “Jordan. Glad you could come.”
Jordan nodded. “Eric.”
Neither man said anything more, just stared at each other like a matador might stare down a bull. But which one carried the red flag and who would end up waving the white remained to be seen.
Finally, Eric turned to her. “Hey, babe, you ready to try caviar?”
Babe, Jordan mouthed at her, eyebrows raised. Okay, so she’d always poked fun at those who said that.
“She doesn’t like caviar,” Jordan said.
“That’s probably because she’s never had the proper kind before.” Eric subtly led her back to the crowd. “We’ve got the real deal, straight from the Caspian Sea. I swear, you’ve never tasted anything like that before.”
She sure hoped so. She found a smile. “Sounds great.”
She caught the way Jordan sagged a little, like her words had deflated him. She felt bad for him but shook it off. He wasn’t supposed to talk for her. He knew her well enough that he should know she could speak up for herself. But still, she wished she could assure him that everything was okay.
As soon as they arrived back at the picnic area, Gwen swooped Jordan to one side, forcing EJ to talk to the others, most of whom she didn’t really know. This wasn’t like one of her other birthday parties, but they had tried to make it nice for her, so she was going to make the effort to enjoy herself.
So she smiled and laughed and ate and drank and showed how she fit in with this crowd. All the while itching for the chance to finally talk with Jordan, the one person here she couldbe real with. Who she could snark with. Swap sarcastic asides about how the feathers in Neil’s girlfriend’s dress made her look exactly like a penguin. Or complain about the waste of food the caterers had provided that was sure to spoil and be thrown out. She might like this world, want to be part of this world, but it didn’t mean she was blind. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. But then, neither was she.
Her attention stole from Lucinda, someone who was boring her silly, and she noticed Jordan was finally free. “Excuse me.”
She hurried to his side, just as a waiter paused and offered them a tray of yet more caviar-crusted items. She noticed Eric watching her, so she took one, ate it, and did her best not to wrinkle her nose.
“So, you like that?” Jordan asked.
She angled away from where Eric continued to watch her. “I still don’t.” She plucked a glass of something—she didn’t know what—from a passing waiter’s plate and downed it. Ugh. That didn’t help chase away the bad taste either. Only added to it. “Yuck.”
“Come on. You’ve gotta like it. It’s come all the way from the Caspian Sea.” Jordan’s words might hold tease, but his tone held something else. Something a little more bitey. And while it was one thing for her to get a little snarky about things, it was another for him to do so. Her heart felt fragile enough that she didn’t need Jordan throwing stones.
“Are you okay?”
He shrugged. “Not really. I don’t exactly know why I am here, not when I’ve barely had a chance to talk to you.”
“Well, here I am. Talk to me.” She could slap herself. She didn’t mean to sound snippy. It was just there was so much tension around the place, it was starting to eat into her head, causing a headache.
He huffed out a breath. “You’re not making it very easy.”
