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“I was playing pool.”
“Did you win?” Flora said.
Donna just looked at them. She wasn’t going to answer any stupid questions.
“Of course she won.” Joyce rolled her eyes. “Anyway, we need to talk about the chickens.” She looked at Duncan, then back at Donna. “When’s a good time? And remember, we’re on a tight schedule here. Chicken goes off easily.”
“Live chickens go off?” Duncan said.
“Did I say go off? I meant run off. We need to get them in the fridges before they escape. Isn’t that right, Flora?”
Flora looked at the ceiling. Donna thought she might be praying.
Chapter 22
“You want to tell me what that whole chicken conversation was about?” Duncan said as he drove them back to the house. “Because there’s no way it was about chickens.”
“It was about...none of your business.” She flushed a deep red and looked at him with a mixture of defiance and trepidation that made him feel kind of proud. This new Donna wasn’t a woman you could walk over easily, which meant she’d be much safer around the conmen in town.
“Then do you want to tell me what all that crap about breaking up with me was?”
Her hands trembled as she wedged them between her knees. “You and I are a bad idea.”
“No, we’re an excellent idea.” One he liked better every minute he was around her.
“When it all goes wrong, I’ll be out of a job and a home, and I’ll have to buy a car.”
He shrugged. “That’s assuming it goes wrong. In the meantime, you’re welcome to sign the contract. The whole point of adding all the extra clauses was to stop you from freaking out about the future.”
“What do you mean ‘assuming it goes wrong’? Of course it’s going to go wrong. There’s nowhere else for this to go!”
“And I thought you were the more positive one out of the two of us.”
He turned in to a quiet road that had Donna looking around them. “Where are we going? The mansion’s back that way.”
“I need a break from the mansion. Someti
mes I feel more like the crypt keeper than the owner. I thought we’d sit at the viewpoint overlooking the bluff and have this talk.”
That seemed to agitate her. “Aren’t you hungry? It’s nearly dinnertime. We should get back, or whatever cook is making will spoil.”
“She can hold dinner for an hour.”
Donna sank back into her seat, defeated. The sight tugged at the heart he thought had died along with Fiona.
“You can cope with an hour in my company, can’t you?” To his surprise, he found he was nervous about her answer.
“I suppose,” she huffed out ungraciously, making him grin.
“I love the enthusiasm. Makes me feel warm inside.”
That earned him a glare, which ironically, made him beam at her. She was adorable and sexy as hell. It was an unusual combination, but one that seemed to work for her, and definitely did something for him.
He pulled the car to a stop in the small parking area at the edge of the bluff. There was no one else there, and all that was between them and the Firth of Clyde was a weathered bench.
The sky was cloudy, and the water had turned a murky green. Duncan unfastened his seatbelt. “Come on, let’s sit outside.”
“It’s cold and I don’t have a jacket with me.”
