‘It was a little bit funny.’
Her scowl suggested otherwise.
I jerked my head in the direction of The Cozy Catch, its lights a beacon through the snowy darkness. ‘Come on, let’s get you and your cute, impractical coat out of the cold.’
5
MAE
The bell above the door jingled as Jonah swung it open. He stepped to one side and held it wide enough for me to enter first, like a true gentleman.
‘After you.’
‘Thanks.’ I smiled sweetly, hoping my face didn’t betray the shock I felt at seeing him properly in the bright light of the bar. It had been obvious on the pier that he was tall, broad-shouldered and just generally a lot bigger than me, but as he shrugged his jacket off and I saw how his black sweater clung to his biceps and shoulders, and the way his jeans hugged his thighs, I remembered Holly’s words.
‘Are you moving to that tiny, rustic town because you’re hoping some hunky, ripped woodsman will sweep you off your feet?’
Mind you, he didn’tlooklike a woodsman, or at least not the way I imagined a woodsman would look. There was no plaid shirt in sight. Or ax, for that matter. He did have a beard, but it was short and neatly kept. He scratched it idly as he surveyed the room, and it sounded like sandpaper. His eyes were dark and deep set, his hair thick and wavy. Brown with sun-bleachedhighlights. High cheekbones, sharp, and a strong jaw. He had the kind of face magazines would describe as rugged, broody and weathered, and an air of unbothered confidence.
‘There’s a table over there if you want to grab us a seat,’ he said, pointing to an empty booth over by the far wall. ‘I’ll get some menus and drinks. What do you feel like?’
I couldn’t help but notice how half the women in the room were sizing him up. ‘You weren’t meeting someone here, were you?’
One of his eyebrows arched. ‘Is that your subtle way of asking if I have a girlfriend?’
‘No.’ I pulled a face. ‘I just don’t fancy getting on the wrong side of anyone in the first five minutes of being in town.’
He held up his left hand and wriggled his fingers. ‘No wife, girlfriend or significant other,’ he confirmed.
‘Why not? What’s wrong with you?’
He looked taken aback. ‘What do you mean, what’s wrong with me?’
I gestured a hand up and down. He was good-looking. Devastatingly so. In fact, he looked like he could have been on a billboard in Times Square, looking moody and sultry, advertising cologne. ‘You’re not exactly hard on the eyes, are you.’
‘Thanks. I think.’
‘Come on. Don’t pretend you didn’t notice the attention you got when we walked in here.’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t notice stuff like that.’
‘Only someone extremely good-looking and self-confident would say something like that.’
‘You think I’m good-looking?’
I scoffed. ‘Even that eighty-year-old woman in the corner thinks you’re good-looking, judging by the way she’s beensmiling and trying to catch your attention ever since we walked through the door.’
He looked around the room. ‘That one over there?’
I nodded.
He waved at the lady, who waved back. ‘That’s Sadie. She’s my friend Myles’s grandmother. Sort of like a surrogate grandmother to me, too.’
‘Oh.’
He lookedmeup and down. ‘How do you know it wasn’t you that people were looking at.’
‘Trust me, it was you.’
