“Fine?” I turned to him, my lips pursed. “Is that really the way you talk to yourfiancée?”
“Ah, my mistake. You look ravishing, love. Utterly perfect. There has never been a more gorgeous person in all the universe,” heamended. He reached out, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear as Jo drew toward us. It was such a small, intimate gesture that my breath caught. Then the corner of his mouth twitched.
Oh, he wasgood.
“How was that?”
“Better,” I muttered, swallowing down the flutter in my gut.
“Excuse me,” he said before I could try to catch Jo’s eye, “I’ve heard nothing about how amazing I look.”
I let my eyes roam up and down him, repeatedly. He looked too fine for words. It should be illegal to have arms like that on display. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of telling him that. “You’ll do, I suppose.”
“Menace,” Locke said under his breath, shaking his head. “What am I going to do if this attitude of yours is genetic?”
“My attitude?” I laughed as I picked up my latte. “Please, you’re usually the one with the resting grouch face. Now, slap on a smile and sell it.”
He tossed his arm around my shoulders without me having to ask, staring down at me like I was the most precious thing he’d ever seen. It was a little unnerving, being the focus of his attention like this. I flashed back to the night of the vow renewal, and suddenly I was hot in places I didn’t need to be hot.
“Well, what do we have here?” Jo finally said, zeroing in on us like a homing beacon.
“Oh, hi, Jo!” I said, acting like I hadn’t noticed her. I snuggled into Locke.
“Isla MacRae and Lachlan Fraser,” Jo said, a hitch in her breath as her gaze dropped to my hand where it wrapped around my coffee cup—specifically to the ring that glittered there. Locke had bought the ring to make things look official. My only request was nothing too gaudy or expensive, and nothing that would get in the way of my work at the inn. He’d adhered to the gaudy request. Whether it was expensive or not, I couldn’t be sure. The diamond was ridiculously shiny. “Tell me that’s not what I think it is!”
“It is,” I said, switching the coffee cup to my right hand to wriggle my fingers and feign as much excitement as I could.
“You’re engaged?” Jo cried, latching onto my hand to inspect the ring. “When? Where?”
“In Edinburgh last week,” Locke said at the same time as I said, “By the old waterfall.”
We locked eyes, panicked for a beat.
“Right,” I said, covering our flub. We really should have talked through more details. “He proposed at the waterfall, and we celebrated in Edinburgh afterward. That was when he actually gave me the ring—the proposal by the waterfall was spontaneous, and he didn’t have the box with him.”
Jo was still mesmerized by the ring. “I had no idea you were even seeing anyone. Not since your last disastrous courtship.”
Locke’s eyebrow arched in question. Bah! Now was not the time to bring up the freeloading ass who’d started dating me shortly after I’d moved to Scotland. I gave Locke a look that hopefully saidfocusand plastered a smile on my face. “Oh, well, you know, we kept this private and?—”
“I’m away for work so often,” Locke cut in. “Traveling and whatnot.”
“Yes,” I said, squeezing his hand. “We’ve really learned how to make long distance work.”
“But when you know, you know,” he said, looking down at me adoringly.
“And when exactly did you two meet?” Jo asked, her eyes narrowing.
Fuck. I looked at Locke, trying not to actively panic. Why hadn’t we talked about this? It was a basic question thateveryonewould ask, but we hadn’t even discussed a timeline at all.
Locke tried to recover, giving her his most-charming smile. “Weston introduced us ages ago,” he said.
But Jo’s lips pressed into a line, like she was trying to size us up. “So, you didn’t meet at?—”
Shit, here it comes.I braced myself for another question we didn’t have a prepared answer to.
But before she could finish her question, a hideous yowl sounded. One of the lanky tuxedo cats had slipped through the door of the cat room and darted across the café, making a run for the exit.
“Mr. Mistoffelees!” Cat cried at the top of her lungs, glasses rattling as she dropped her dish tray to chase after him. “Get back here!”
