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Hayley racked her brain for something pithy to say, but for the life of her couldn’t think of a single thing. She trudged beside him with uncharacteristic meekness, her teeth doing serious damage to her bottom lip all the way back to the house.
After Jasper had seen to the business side of things, the Hendersons insisted Hayley and he stay for lunch. Hayley would have preferred leaving so she could cut short her performance as the besotted fiancée, but she could see how keen Pearl was for company, especially as her husband was so sadly disabled.
Hayley sat beside Jim during the meal and cut up his meat and salad so he could eat with one hand using a fork. He gave her a lopsided smile of gratefulness and mumbled his thanks.
Once or twice during the meal she looked up to find Jasper’s chocolate-brown gaze resting on her. Conscious of the elderly couple sitting watching, Hayley had no choice but to send him a small smile each time.
‘It takes you back, doesn’t it, love?’ Pearl asked Jim with a dreamy sigh. ‘Remember when we were first engaged and married? We couldn’t bear to look at anyone else but each other.’
Jim’s eyes twinkled at his wife.
‘How did you meet?’ Hayley asked, hoping to divert the attention from her relationship with Jasper.
‘Jim was a couple of years ahead of me at school,’ Pearl said. ‘He used to pull my pigtails during recess. I hated him for most of my childhood and teenage years, but one day a few years later he came to visit my father about some stock he wanted to buy, but I kept in the background. He kept coming back week after week until he’d bought so many sheep my father started to suspect something. The next time Jim came around Dad sent me out and that was it. I fell in love with him on the spot.’
‘That’s so romantic,’ Hayley said, caught up in the magic of it all. ‘I would love to have a man so in love with me …’ She suddenly faltered as she realised what she had almost revealed. ‘I mean, I never imagined I would have the same thing happen to me … but it did … sort of …’
Pearl smiled. ‘Jasper told us how you lived in the same house since you were fourteen,’ she said. ‘When did you suddenly realise he was the one?’
‘Um … I pretty much knew it since I was about sixteen,’ she said, carefully avoiding Jasper’s eyes.
‘That’s funny.’ Pearl’s brows snuggled together momentarily. ‘I thought Jasper said you were engaged to someone else but he swept you off your feet right at the last minute.’
‘Um … er … yes …’ Hayley felt her cheeks fire up again.
‘I was engaged to someone else. Silly, really, when you think of it. I should have been more patient. I should have known Jasper would come round in the end.’
‘Just as well he did,’ Pearl remarked soberly. ‘Think of how dreadful it would have been if you had married the other man when you were really in love with Jasper.’
‘Dreadful,’ Hayley agreed, nodding her head in agreement. ‘I can’t bear to even think about it.’
‘I hope you’re not going to put off having a family like so many young women these days,’ Pearl said. ‘I know several women who left it too late.’
‘Oh, no, of course not,’ Hayley said, watching Jasper begin to squirm in his chair. She realised she was starting to enjoy herself now that her little vocal slip had gone by unnoticed. ‘We want to start straight away and have at least three, don’t we, darling?’
‘That’s right, sweetheart,’ he said, his dark eyes flashing an unmistakable warning that sent a lightning bolt between her legs. ‘But I want you all to myself for a little while yet.’
‘And a dog,’ Hayley added hastily, her colour still high. ‘Maybe even two, but not those little handbag-size yappy ones. Something … er … bigger.’
Pearl sat back with an indulgent smile. ‘I can see you two are going to be very happy together. It seems like a match made in heaven.’
‘It is,’ Hayley said brightly. But it’s going to be hell on the way home, she added under her breath when she caught the look in Jasper’s eyes as she rose to help clear the table.
She was right.
They had barely traversed the driveway before he turned a blistering glance her way. ‘What the hell were you playing at back there?’ he asked.
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing be damned,’ he growled. ‘You nearly lifted the lid on our charade. For God’s sake, Hayley, watch your big mouth.’
‘My big mouth?’ She tossed him a heated glare. ‘I didn’t know what lies you’d already told them about us. How was I to know what to say?’
‘That stuff about kids was totally uncalled for,’ he bit out. ‘You know what I think about kids.’
‘
You don’t like kids?’
