Chapter 36
36
The intensity of feeling that swept through Jess as Owen’s lips connected with hers took her by surprise, and she was glad he’d looped his arms around her back, supporting her and stopping her from falling. The sounds around them faded out, and the only thing she was conscious of was the sensation of his tongue as it gently explored her mouth. Her arms wound their way over his shoulders, snaking up to the back of his neck, where her fingers tangled themselves in his hair. She pressed her body closer to his, feeling his hardness growing.
The sound of a cough followed by a cheerful male voice saw her eyes snap open.
‘Ahem. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.’
At the sight of a kindly looking man with unruly grey hair and a stomach straining to be freed from his shirt, they broke away from each other like two dogs who’d just had a bucket of cold water tossed over them.
‘Um, Jessica Baré, this is Michael Riordan, our local vet.’
Jess noticed the requisite All Creatures Great and Small brown leather case; of course he was. Michael Riordan held out his hand, and Jess took it, receiving a firm handshake.
‘I decided to take your advice and give him a call, just to be on the safe side.’
The look that flashed between Michael and Owen didn’t go unnoticed by Jess. She was fairly certain she was being humoured.
Michael’s prognosis was just as Owen had said: a common cold. He looked at Jess with a twinkle in his eye as he told her that, considering Wilbur’s size, he was doing remarkably well. ‘Aye, he’ll grow into a fine young boar, mark my words,’ he stated as they followed him out to his jeep, and Jess could have sworn she saw him wink at Owen.
She was distracted from pursuing this train of thought by the sudden chill that coursed through her. The sun had dropped low in the sky. It must be getting on for four, which meant she was going to have to head away if she was to keep her promise and get the car back to Brianna in time.
She was tapping her foot impatiently, not knowing what would happen between her and Owen now the moment had passed, while he and Michael conferred over by his jeep. Both men suddenly paused mid-conversation, startled by the burst of song emanating from her handbag once more.
‘Sorry, it’s my stupid phone,’ Jess said, retrieving it, and in her haste to shut it up, she quickly answered, wishing she hadn’t as soon as she heard Nick’s voice.
‘Jess, hi. I’m sorry I had to head away so early this morning. I’m on my way back from Cork now, and I thought if you were still at mine, I’d stop off and grab us some Thai from the place I was telling you about.’
Oh shit , Jess thought, taking a few steps away. Of all the times for him to phone . ‘Um, I’m not at your place, actually. I’m in Ballymcguinness,’ she squeaked.
‘Where the hell is Ballymcguinness?’
‘It’s in the North – County Down to be exact. I, uh, I’m following up on a story I’ve been working on.’ She tried to ignore Owen, who was staring over at her with a perplexed frown. Luckily, Michael Riordan hadn’t finished bending his ear, and she was relieved when he focused his attention back on the affable vet.
She lowered her voice. ‘Nick, my friend Brianna’s invited us round to their place for dinner on Saturday night. It’s short notice, I know, so if?—’
‘What was that? Jess, can you speak up? I can hardly hear you – Jaysus, you really must be in the back of beyond with reception like that,’ Nick interrupted.
Jess repeated herself, raising her voice only marginally before adding, ‘If you can’t make it, I understand.’ She was half hoping he would say he was busy, allowing her to delay the inevitable confrontation between him and Brianna, but he didn’t. Besides, after what had just happened outside the barn, she no longer knew how she felt about him.
‘There’s nothing I can’t cancel on Saturday. I’d love to come, but is there any chance of seeing you tonight? I’ve meetings in Dublin tomorrow, then I’m staying overnight in Cork tomorrow night because I’ve got some serious schmoozing with potential investors around the golf course first thing on Saturday morning. I was kind of hoping we could finish tonight what we didn’t really get to start.’ He gave an apologetic laugh.
Jess cringed. She couldn’t believe it had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d been in his bed and that less than half an hour ago, she’d been snogging someone else! What was that saying – feast or famine? And what did that make her? No, she wouldn’t go there, she decided, shaking her head; she had to focus on the fact he was going to come to Brianna’s for dinner. That meant she’d have to come clean with both of them. It wouldn’t be fair to put either of them on the spot like that.
Jess rubbed at her temple. Her head had begun to throb and the one thing she did know for sure was that she couldn’t face seeing Nick tonight. She needed to sort out how she felt.
‘I won’t be back until late, and then I have to type up an assignment I’ve been working on; it’s due first thing tomorrow.’ The lie tripped easily off her tongue, and she noticed that she was once more the focus of Owen’s shrewd gaze. The vet had climbed into his jeep and, with a wave and a clunking of gears, was heading off down the drive.
‘What’s all that noise?’ Nick asked.
‘It must be my phone. You’re right – the reception is bad. Look, I’ll have to go.’ She didn’t give him a chance to say goodbye, hanging her phone up and tossing it in her bag as if she’d been handling a hot potato, only to fish it back out to switch it off. She didn’t want to talk to anyone else.
Looking at Owen, she felt suddenly self-conscious at the thought of what would happen now. It was kind of like the nervous anticipation she’d felt as a teenager on a date at the movies, waiting for that arm to slide along the back of the seat to rest on her shoulder. She also felt rather silly at his having dragged the local vet out just to appease her.
‘Important call was it?’ He raised an eyebrow, and his stance – hands slipped into his pockets – was one of feigned indifference.
‘No, it was nobody.’ She knew he knew she was lying, and the awkwardness in the air between them grew palpable.
Jess decided to change tack. ‘You didn’t need to do that, you know – call out the vet. It probably cost you a fortune just to be told what you already knew. I would’ve trusted your judgement.’ She inclined her head in the direction of the retreating jeep as it turned on to the main road.
‘Aye, well, Michael’s an old family friend. He doesn’t charge through the nose, and the problem is I don’t trust myself.’
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Jess wondered, looking at the ground and scuffing at the loose shingle with her sneakered toes. She was suddenly aware of what she was wearing – hardly the femme fatale, dressed in her elephant suit and trainers, but then she hadn’t expected to be accosted at the barn door either. Or had she? Was Brianna right about her real motivation for coming here today? And what about Nick? She suddenly felt overwhelmed. She didn’t know what the heck she was doing or what she was playing at. All she did know was that she had to put some space between her and Owen.
The need to clear her head and get some perspective on what had transpired that afternoon and how it had made her feel was overwhelming. She couldn’t face pussyfooting around Owen and his cryptic mixed messages. ‘I, um, I have to get going.’ She fished her keys out of her pocket and jangled them purposefully.
‘Aye, I suppose you do.’
So he wasn’t going to make this easy for her then, she thought, not knowing why she was surprised. When in the short space of time that she’d known him had he made anything easy?
‘Right, well, let me know how Wilbur gets on, won’t you? I’ll send you a copy of the paper as soon as it’s gone to print.’ She was playing the professional, deliberately rebuilding the wall between them before he could do the same to her.
He nodded, and Jess turned away, cutting a slow path over to the Golf, half hoping to feel his hand on her shoulder stopping her – making up her mind for her. But as she slid into the driver’s seat, she saw that he was still standing in exactly the same spot he had been a moment earlier, with his hands still shoved in his pockets.
Well, stuff you ! she thought, wrenching the key so the car roared into life. She felt as though she’d imagined the whole scene in the barn entrance.
Pushing her foot down hard on the accelerator and haring off down the drive and out of Owen’s complicated and messy life in a hailstorm of loose shingle, she wondered whether perhaps she had.
Jess didn’t see the girl with the black hair rest her hand gently on Owen’s shoulder before he turned and walked heavily back inside the house.