‘That’s his usual look!’ she said. ‘I don’t know why you thought I needed rescuing, but I was fine.’
‘I thought you could use a hand.’
‘What Idon’tneed is gossip,’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘You have no idea how little it takes to start people talking around here. The last thing I want is everyone thinking you and I are having some kind of sordid … fling.’
‘Sordid?’ he repeated, and she caught a flash of amusement cross his face.
‘You know what I mean.’
‘No, actually. I have no idea why you’d think our relationship would be sordid … or a fling, for that matter.’
‘We don’t have a relationship!’
‘Well, apparently that’s what everyone is going to think.’
‘I don’t have time for this,’ she said, glaring at him.
‘Sorry. Was just trying to help.’
‘Well, next time. Don’t.’
‘You look beautiful tonight, by the way,’ he said as she went to move around him.
She lifted her eyes to meet his. Instead of the teasing glint she’d half-expected to find there, she saw instead a look that made her breath catch. For the life of her, she couldn’t drag her eyes away. It was easy to forget they were in the middle of a busy pub surrounded by her family and half the town.
She wasn’t sure how long they stood there, his intense look holding her prisoner, but the loud squeal of excited twenty-somethings greeting each other cut through the weird moment, bringing Jenny back to reality without warning. She backed away, finally feeling common sense returning.
That had been … unsettling, she decided, as she smiled at familiar faces and waved at newcomers across the room. She was not going to analyse any of it right now. She had no idea how she’d even begin to.
‘What. Was. That?’ Beth asked, in a low voice as she joined Jenny in the bathroom, where she’d scampered to in order to get her head together.
‘What was what?’ Jenny asked, opening a stall door.
‘You knowwhat. Mr Hottie, whisking you off like that.’
‘He just wanted to go over the drinks menu,’ Jenny said, hoping her friend would drop the subject.
Jenny heard the tap go on at the sink. ‘Sure didn’t look like that’s all he was going over.’
Jenny blew out a cross breath. ‘It was nothing. For some ridiculous reason, he thought I needed saving from Austin.’
Beth chuckled. ‘Well, it worked. You should have seen his face when Nick came up behind you like that. His eyes almost fell out of his head.’
His weren’t the only ones, Jenny thought, recalling her own shock. What on earth had Nick been thinking?
‘So we can add knight in shining armour to his list of attributes,’ Beth said in a wistful tone.
‘I didn’t need saving,’ Jenny pointed out dryly.
‘He obviously thought you did.’
‘Yeah, well, he’s probably just gone and stirred up a whole heap of gossip that I don’t need right now.’
‘Oh, come on, Jen. Who cares? Let people talk. They will anyway—at least this way you get a say in what they’re fed. Go play it up, I reckon.’
‘Are you insane? I’m notencouragingit.’
‘It’s about time someone turned the tables on the gossip mill. Why not enjoy yourself in the process? I’ll see you back out there,’ Beth said, and Jenny heard the door swish shut.
