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“Humph, you don’t deserve one,” Redhead replied haughtily.
“Go on.”
With an exaggerated sigh, she gave him a quick hug before pushing lightly at his shoulder.
“There. Happy?”
“Ecstatic.”
She rolled her eyes, immediately drifting back to Ruairidh and slipping her arm comfortably around his shoulders again, before pinning her green eyes on Jenn. “I don’t believe we have properly met yet, have we?”
“No, I don’t believe we have,” Jenn said, extending her hand out towards her. “I’m Jenn.”
“Moira,” she replied, shaking Jenn’s hand, but not removing the almost vice-like grip she had around Ruairidh’s shoulders. “So, you’re the yoga girl working with my granny?”
Ah, so she was Ealasaid’s granddaughter, Jenn realised. She vaguely remembered crossing paths with Moira a few times when they were children. And one of the Sharks—a group of local women around Jenn’s age, who were very pretty, but who had a reputation for being bitchy. They’d apparently been nicknamed by Ruairidh’s brother, Donnie. It seemed the Sharks were determined to nab themselves ‘certain men on the island’. This one clearly seemed to be after Ruairidh.
Since coming back to Hellisay, Jenn had managed to avoid directly meeting any of them, which was surprising given their propensity to hang around the gym or the local pubs. Jenn always tried to be open-minded when meeting people, but it was difficult to warm to this woman—Moira. She looked like the type who could reduce anyone to tears without ever raising her voice. It didn’t help that Jenn wasn’t one of Ealasaid’s favourite people either.
“Yes, that’s right,” Jenn replied, putting on her friendliest voice and smile. She could see Ruairidh was slowly managing to extricate himself from Moira’s clutches. Jenn was slightly—ridiculously—envious of where her claws had been. For a moment, his eyes flicked to Jenn, almost a silent plea. Her stomach turned treacherously at the thought that Captain Cool might actually want rescuing.
“So, do you two know each other well then?” Moira asked, looking at her and Ruairidh.
“Erm… just in passing, really…” Jenn replied, clasping her hands together on the table to stop them twitching. Why did she feel like she was on trial here?
“I’ve heard your baking is good,” Moira stated promptly.
“Oh, Jenn’s baking is amazing!” Ruairidh practically shouted with a huge smile on his face. He really did have a sweet tooth, Jenn thought with a small smile.
“I could kill for any of it right now!”
“Haha, well you’ll have to get yourself up to the airport for that, I’m afraid,” Jenn said with a laugh.
“Maybe you and I could go together?” Moira interjected smoothly. She was good, that one—so she was.
“Errr…” Ruairidh said awkwardly. He had an almost trapped deer expression on his face. It would be really quite cute if Jenn wasn’t feeling weirdly jealous about this situation. She really hoped he didn’t say yes…
“Well… erm…” He really had to reply now, Jenn thought…
“Umm, well, I did say that I would take my mum up for a coffee and cake…”
“I can join you then,” Moira said breezily.
Poor man—there was no way he was getting out of this. Still, if his mum was tagging along as chaperone, that wasn’t too bad… Wait, what the hell was wrong with her? Why did it matter if they went for coffee or not?
“Plus, we have the dance tonight, don’t we, Ruairidh,” she said, piercing him with a steely gaze.
“Well, yes, I was planning on going along, with the family, for a bit,” he conceded.
“Excellent,” she crooned and did a little clap. “Well, I’d best be off then. And I’ll see you later,” she said to Ruairidh, kissing him on the cheek and patting his chest. Lucky cow.
She swaggered off with a meaningful look back. Of course, she was making sure her pert bum was sashaying to full effect.
“Oh mate, she’s got you right where she wants you!” Housty burst out laughing.
“She’s not got me anywhere,” Ruairidh growled.
Jenn was secretly pleased at this…
