“No, it’s not. It’s NOT!” he said loudly.
“Yes, it is. You said it yourself: you met her totally by chance, and then you had this strange moment with her when you felt something you couldn’t explain. As if you knew her on some level, or you’d met, but you didn’t know where. And then you met her again, in a graveyard, of all things strange and peculiar, and then AGAIN at the bar, same day, and then—well, the other stuff is not for now.” She looked over at me and winked. “Not in front of guests.”
“Ash, stop!” Mike sounded downright panicked now.
“And then, the next night, again! There is something to that, little brother,” she said.
“It’s a small town,” Mike quickly added.
“Not that small. Besides, what did you say?” Ash started.
“Stop it!” Mike held his hand up.
“The saddest goodbye to a person you didn’t even know,” Ash said thoughtfully. “I thought that was really beautiful! You can be so sentimental, you know.”
“WHAT?” I heard myself screech.
Ash did a double take and looked at me strangely. Suddenly, the air around us was thick with uncomfortableness (is that a word?). I could almost feel it buzzing around me. I tried not to look at Mike, but something compelled me to glance over into his eyes . . .green eyes. Emerald pools. Lush, tropical jungles. There was no way to describe how green they really were. I looked and then I slipped and then I fell into them. I could hear a sound in my head that accompanied the fall. It sounded like two great things colliding together. Thumping. My eyes locked with his and I couldn’t pull them away.
“Waaaaiiiiit.” Ash jumped up and looked down at the two of us. “Why are you looking at each other like that? Why are you giving each otherthatlook?”
“What look?” I asked innocently.
“There’s no look,” Mike mumbled, next to me.
“Oh, yes, there is. I saw a look!” Ash folded her arms and looked from me to Mike and back again.
I shook my head at her quickly and then looked away as I felt my cheeks get warm.
“Hang on . . . Have you guys met? Do you know each other?” she asked.
I shook my head even more. “No.”
“Never met her in my life,” Mike grumbled.
“NO!” Ash exclaimed, so loudly that I flinched in fright. “NOOO!” she said again.
I looked up at her. “No, what?”
She pointed her finger at me and started wagging it up and down. “I see. I see.” She sounded terribly excited.
“Ash, please.” Mike jumped out of his seat.
“You’re her!I don’t believe it.” Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and then she burst out laughing. “Is this her?” she asked, looking straight at her brother.
“Me? What? Who?” I stood up now, too, totally confused. I was at least three sentences behind in this conversation. I’d zoned out somewhere around Ash saying something about Mike feeling something for me, or something . . . “What?” I asked again.
“You’re the girl that Mike caught climbing over the fence,” she said to me. It was a statement, not a question. “Did you know Mike stayed here?” Ash asked. “Is that why you booked in?”
I shook my head. “No. I had no idea he lived here.”
“Oh, wow!” She threw her arms in the air now. “I need a minute to process this all.” Ash paced the room a few times, looking highly amused. “You’re the ‘hot out-of-towner’ that he found climbing over the fence and then met at the bar the other night when he came home late. The one that . . .” She burst out laughing again and raised her hands to her mouth. “You’re kidding! No wonder he looked so shocked when he saw you in the library! This is perfect.”
“The one that what?” I asked.
“Ash, please. No!” Mike was begging now, and Ash was shaking her head from side to side.
“This is priceless. This is like the best thing that has ever happened. I mean, the girl you dubbed ‘best kisser in the world’ checked intoourB and B, by accident. The poor woman who you ran out on, mid make-out sesh, to help Mrs. Van der Merwe!” Then she turned to me. “This is all making so much sense now. You didn’t have a stomach bug last night, did you? I wassoosure I’d heard you in the passage, and then, when I opened the door, I was sure I saw you running away. You saw Mike! That’s why you didn’t come to dinner, right?” She looked at me and was nodding happily to herself.
