His expression clears somewhat when he sees I’m suppressing a smile. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a little. But if you want an out, this is it. I won’t hold it against you.”
A slow smile creeps over his face. I ignore the way it makes my knees wobble. He’s handsome: full lips, strong jawline, a hint of laugh lines around his eyes. And those eyes…dark blue and…familiar? Recognition clicks in my brain. Oh god, no. No, no, no, this isnothappening.
“What is it?” he asks suddenly. “Have you changed your mind after all? Have you decided my unforgivable rudeness was, in fact, unforgivable and you want me to leave?”
I shake my head. I don’t care about before—well, that’s not entirely true, hewasrude and haughty, but he seems genuinely remorseful now, plus we all have our moments. No, that’s not what has my stomach doing somersaults. And that’s not what he should be sorry for. What heshouldbe sorry for is the fact he stood me up and then ghosted me when we were supposed to meet in person after spending weeks getting to know each other on LoveLinks.
“Spencer?”
“I—” His brows snap together and his gaze darts to my friends as if he’s thinking back to a few minutes ago and the fact nobody had a chance to introduce us. I can tell the second he figures it out: his wide eyes return to me, sweeping over my face. He inhales sharply and, as he releases the breath, my name comes with it. “Hollie.”
CHAPTER THREE
Without another word, I spin on my heel and return to the table, meeting my friends’ curious glances with a bright smile. I can’t let them know Spencer is the guy I was talking to on the dating site, the one who ghosted me the night we were supposed to meet. They’d be horrified and apologetic, not to mention angry at him. I can’t let that happen; they obviously went to a lot of effort to put this special afternoon together for me, and I won’t let anything oranyoneruin it.
Even if that means sitting next to the handsome, delicious-smelling man who left me disappointed and hurt when he suddenly disappeared from my life.
“Do you two know each other?” Louisa asks.
“No,” I say at the same time as Spencer says, “Yes.”
Spencer and I lock gazes. He leans toward me and, for a wonderful, horrifying, panic-inducing second, I think he’s going to kiss me. Instead, he reaches past me to pull out my chair. Cheeks flushing, I drop into my seat with a murmured, “Thank you.” To my friends, I say, “Spencer and I ran into each other in the cloakroom when I went to get my phone.”
The way Evie and Stella exchange glances tells me they suspect there’s more to it than that. Thankfully, they let it drop.
“So, how do you all know Spencer?” I ask, my voice overly bright and weirdly pitchy.
“He works with me at the MacKinnon Group,” Fergus explains. “When the girls mentioned their plan for afternoon tea in your honor, I suggested inviting Spencer to add an extra touch of authenticity and even out our numbers.”
Beside me, Louisa can barely contain her grin. I don’t know whether it’s because they pulled this off or because Fergus’s chest is resting against her shoulder as he leans in to speak to me. Her gaze flicks to mine and her smile unfurls, lighting her whole face.
“That’s so thoughtful of you.” My voice no longer sounds like I’m imitating a Muppet. “Thank you all for doing this and for being here. I’m incredibly grateful.”
“We’re sorry it had to be so long before your birthday,” Evie says. “We promise we’ll do something on your actual birthday too.”
I wave her off. “Don’t worry about it. Even if there had been openings in December, you know how busy everyone gets around the holidays. I’d rather have you all here a few weeks early than risk missing out on everyone being together.”
Within a few minutes, there are various conversations happening around the table. With everyone else preoccupied, Spencer leans toward me the tiniest bit, inhaling audibly. “Can I—”
“Nope.”
“If you’ll just—”
“Nope.”
From the corner of my eye, I see him open his mouth, so I immediately say, “Nope,” again for good measure. Stella catches my eye from across the table, one of her eyebrows lifting in question. I give my head a small shake and turn to Spencer. “Not now, okay? I want to enjoy this beautiful afternoon my friends put together for me.”
“Of course,” he says quickly. “I can make an excuse and my apologies to your friends if you’d like me to leave.”
I swallow a sigh. It couldn’t have been easy for him to walk into something like this when he only knows Fergus. At the very least, it tells me he’s a good friend, and there are few things I value more than true friendship. “It’s fine, you can stay. I appreciate you coming. I mean, I would if…you know…”
“It’s okay, I know what you meant.” He leans a bit closer to me, dropping his voice even more. “For what it’s worth, Hollie, I wanted to meet you that night. You have no idea how badly. And if you’ll let me, I promise to explain everything and attempt to make things right.”
I’m stunned speechless. His earnest words run in a loop through my head: ‘You have no idea how badly’. I swallow hard and give a jerky nod. “We’ll talk later. For now, let’s just try to have fun.”
“Absolutely.” Spencer straightens in his seat. I don’t think it’s my imagination that he looks relieved. “Fun is my middle name.”
