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‘I think it’s kind of nice that you care, though.’ She sounded almost wistful. ‘I don’t even have a brother.’
And, though he couldn’t put his finger on it, Hayden couldn’t help feeling that her casual comment revealed more than she’d intended it to. Even before she shook her head and pasted an overly bright smile onto her lips.
‘Where were you going anyway?’
She was deflecting, and he couldn’t have said why that caused something to scrape at him. To make him wish he knew what she was really thinking.
He pushed it aside.
‘Actually, I was leaving.’
‘Already?’
Something he fancied to be disappointment flashed in her eyes for a split second. Then it was gone, leaving him wondering it had been real or if he’d simply imagined it.
‘We’re leaving on operations in a couple of days. I might as well prep for it.’
‘Tonight? No wonder you’re such a good officer.’
Was she...flirting with him? If so, she was either doing it against her better judgement or she was simply not very good at it. Either way, he should take it as his cue to leave.
It was that or risk breaking every promise Mattie had elicited from him when she’d asked him to look after Bridget in her absence. Not that he was certain she needed, or even wanted, protecting, especially after she’d just handled Ellis’s advances just fine.
Not that he’d been watching them, of course.
Not that he’d been willing her to turn the guy down.
‘Yeah, tonight,’ he confirmed. More for his benefit than for hers. ‘The toasts have been done, everyone is breaking off into their own groups, it seems like a good time to leave.’
She frowned and Hayden realised he wanted, very much, to reach out and smooth her forehead flat again. With his mouth.
He forced himself to take a step back. Imperceptible to her, but hugely significant in his own head. Instead, she closed the gap, placing her hand on his forearm, making him feel her, all over.
‘Take me with you.’
His chest pulled. Tightened. As did other parts of his anatomy.
‘Say again?’ he demanded, his voice somewhat gruff even to his own ears.
And then she flushed becomingly.
‘I just... I just meant that... I only came to celebrate Mattie’s promotion.’ The words tumbled out.
‘You mean my sister bullied you into it?’
‘I wouldn’t say bullied.’ She frowned again.
Hayden pulled his mouth into a thin line, as if that could temper these odd urges.
‘The point is,’ she continued, a little firmer this time, ‘I came for Mattie, and now she seems...otherwise occupied. I don’t really know anyone else.’
‘Ellis seems to want to remedy that,’ he managed evenly, although he felt anything but.
What was the matter with him? He sounded like a young boy in a school yard.
‘No.’ Bridget shook her head, blushing as prettily as ever. ‘I think he’s just being polite.’
She couldn’t be serious.
