“Jordan, do you think EJ knows about this?” She showed him her phone again, complete with incriminating photo.
“No, not yet. Where did you find it?”
“It’s a new gossip site on TikTok. It doesn’t have many followers yet, but I’m guessing it will soon. Judging from the content, they are very anti–Eric Churchill.”
“If it’s on the internet, it’s only a matter of time before she does know.” He peered at it more closely. “That hair makes it look like her friend Gwen.”
“Her nonfriend,” Elinor muttered, frowning. “How long do you think this has been going on?”
“I’ve no idea.” Poor EJ.
Katie twirled a lock of blonde hair. “But why would Eric go to so much trouble for EJ if this is true?”
Why indeed. “It’s crazy. Maybe his family has something against Gwen. Whatever the reason, it certainly suggests he really is the womaniser people have always said.” Even if EJ had wanted to believe differently.
“But what about EJ? What are we going to do?”
“She needs to know,” Katie insisted.
“There might still be an innocent explanation,” Elinor warned.
“I can’t think of too many innocent explanations for why a man would have his hands on another woman’s butt,” Jordan said dryly.
Katie giggled. “I know it’s awful, but you sounded just like EJ just then.”
Elinor poked her. “Don’t go getting hysterical. We don’t have time for that.” She looked at Jordan. “You’re going to have to speak to her.”
He shook his head. “She’s not a fan of me at the moment.”
“Come on. She’ll be crushed if she finds out a different way.”
“Why don’t you tell her, then?”
She hesitated.
“Yeah, not so easy, is it?”
“I think we should talk to Liv and ask her advice.”
Maybe that would be best. “What time is it in England?”
Elinor glanced at her watch, her face dropping. “She’d be asleep right now, but we could try this afternoon. She’ll be awake then.”
“Listen, I feel like I’ve stuck my nose in this enough already. You know that offering unasked-for advice sounds like criticism, and I think EJ feels she’s heard too much of that from me. So I’d really much prefer you sisters to do an intervention.”
“Fine. So, will you come and join us for Dad’s birthday? We’re going to the RSL for lunch.”
The nearby restaurant of the Returned Serviceman’s League had good steaks, so that was a yes.
The RSL was always packed by people wanting the Sunday roast specials. He ate, drank, small-talked, answered Mrs. Bennett’s questions about EJ, all the while wondering what EJ was doing. Why hadn’t she contacted her dad for his birthday? Did she know yet about Eric? How would she cope? Had she opened his present? Would she remember what it meant? It was a long shot, but he hoped she did.
Finally, the hour hand crawled to the top and, knowing both sets of parents would be happy to chat for hours, he joined the others in making his farewell, then drove Elinor and Katie back to their place. He joined them in the back room, which overlooked the yard with its patch of green lawn, sticklike fruit trees, and iron trellis of pumpkins. The fruit trees bent and swayed in the wind. For as long as he could remember Mr. Bennett had always offered produce from their garden, insisting they take home autumn apples, winter rhubarb, late spring cherries, summer peaches, and the like. Of course, Mum and Dad’s small orchard meant they usually had something to swap in a fair trade, and their strawberries were legendary, and he’d come to appreciate the kindly gestures.
Real food, organic, sourced locally, grown with love. A little like how he’d felt about Dream Match. It had grown naturally, a healthy blend of wholesome values and cutting-edge technology. It didn’t need the you-beaut features that Gwen and Eric seemed insistent on. Just like EJ didn’t need their particular brand of polish either.
“You gonna join us over here?” Katie looked up from behind the opened laptop.
“Sure.” He joined Elinor and waved at where Liv was yawning on the screen.
