‘Jenny … it was an accident.’
‘You wereaccidentallynaked with my daughter?’ she replied, her voice rising an octave or two.
‘I’m not naked—she was,’ he pointed out, then wished he could take the stupid words back when she glared at him. Inwardly, he recoiled from the look.Hang on, was she seriously thinking that somehow they’d been…
‘I walked in on her.By accident.’ He reached out but she leaned away. The reaction felt like a kick to his gut. ‘Are you serious?’ he asked, frowning. ‘You actually think there was something going on back there?’
He saw her return his frown as she seemed to be trying to find the words to whatever was racing through her mind.
‘Okay, I can see how it must have looked—’
‘Can you?’ she snapped.
This wasn’t happening. How could she think he’d do something like that … with her daughter? He was at a loss for words. Part of him wanted to continue to protest and make Jenny realise how wrong she was to even consider thinking what she saw was anything other than an embarrassing accident, while another part of him was just plain pissed off that she was.
‘Okay. Fine. You jump to whatever conclusion you want then,’ he said, stepping away and heading for the door. The more he protested, the worse it sounded. He wasn’t going to stand there and beg for forgiveness for something he didn’t do. He was hurt. She didn’t know him at all.
He slammed the front door behind him and stormed to his car, arriving at the pub, barely recalling the trip. He climbed the stairs two at a time, passing Jeremy without stopping.
‘So nice of you to turn up,’ the chef said, but Nick didn’t pause. ‘We have a meeting remember?’ Jeremy called irritably.
‘Start without me,’ Nick snapped, going to his bedroom and slamming that door as well for good measure. He needed a long hot shower to wash away this whole bastard of a morning and to hopefully wake up and realise it was all some weird, messed-up dream.
