Interesting.
“I even almost learned how to play cricket,” I continued. “And I didn’t even know that was a sport until I got there.”
The faintest hint of a smile appeared on her lips. “You honestly didn’t know what it was?”
I shook my head as we moved into the house with the others, but somewhere between the entrance hall and whatever room Eliza had been leading us toward, we got separated from them. When I realized we were on our own, I headed into the nearest sitting room, gestured at the chairs, and moved toward a small table set up with a tea service.
“After you,” I said. “I’m sure they’ll find us soon enough. Tea?”
“Please.” She sat in the chair closest to the door, watching me with that same unreadable expression as I poured her a cup.
I reached for the coffee pot for myself, fixed a cup, and then turned to hand her drink over. As soon as she reached for her tea, I noticed that she wasn’t wearing an engagement ring. I didn’t mention it, though. Even if Sterling had definitely said she was engaged.
I knew better than to just bring up something like that, easing into it instead. “So, are you from around here?”
“London,” she replied curtly, her eyes on mine, but she didn’t offer anything else or ask me a question in response.
I nodded slowly, realizing that she really did seem to have some kind of problem with me. “It must be cool, being able to get out of the city and explore the countryside on a weekend.”
She shrugged. “I do it for my mom. She enjoys it.”
“Right.” I finally picked up my cup and went to take a seat across from her. “I don’t know much about your side of the family, actually. Where are you from originally?”
“Scotland,” she said. “You’re from Chicago, right?”
“Yeah, but not originally. My dad moved out to the Midwest to start another division of Westwood and Sons after his dad passed the reins of the head office in California to Uncle Harlan, Sterling’s dad. Have you met him?”
“No.”
“Oh. I thought you might’ve, given Sterling’s interest in reconnecting the families. Hey, he actually mentioned you at the wedding. He said you were going to get married too? When’s the big day?”
Her lips pursed before her gaze swept away from mine. Her fingers curled slightly as she tucked them into a loose fist in her lap. “Plans have changed.”
Life taking a sudden detour? I can totally relate.“Yeah,” I said after a moment. “That happens.”
She looked at me like she didn’t believe that I could possibly understand, but before I could elaborate, voices filtered back in. The rest of the group reappeared and joined us in the sitting room without any regard for what they might’ve interrupted.
The problem with that was I now knew that Jacqueline wasn’t totally unattainable. She was unattached and complicated, and I’d never been particularly good at staying away from complicated. I dragged a hand over my jaw, forcing my attention back to the conversation happening around us, but something else had already taken root.
Jacqueline was a stunner, exactly my type. A woman I’d happily take home with me without a second thought. In bed, complicated things had a way of becoming quite simple.
CHAPTER 4
JACQUELINE
The flat felt wrong without him. Hubert, not Thomas. I stood in the middle of the empty living room, my gaze sweeping slowly over the space just one last time.
It had been almost two months since Thomas had walked out, stolen my dog, and upended my life with a single sentence written on a piece of paper like it was nothing. Like theeight yearswe’d spent together had been but a blip on his radar.
Rain tapped against the windows in a steady rhythm, the sky outside an endless expanse of gray. A taxi idled on the street below, waiting for me and the single suitcase I was bringing along. The rest of my belongings, what little there had been, had already been shipped stateside in a handful of boxes that had felt far too small to contain the last decade of my life.
I wrapped my arms loosely around myself, exhaling as I turned in a slow circle, taking it in one last time. The shelves that were now bare of the law books and archaeological journals. The kitchen I’d stood in that night, reading that note over and over like I might be missing something.
It had been a month since I’d stopped trying to track him down. I’d even hired a lawyer to locate him and demand that hebring my dog back. After all this time, that was the only part that really hurt me.
Hubert.
I didn’t care much for the way Thomas had ended our engagement, but ultimately, he hadn’t been wrong. Ithadbeen over for a long time. It was strange, really. I knew I should’ve been devastated, but I wasn’t. Being left so coldly after tying up nearly a decade of my life in him was nothing in comparison to him taking my dog.
