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Chapter Ten
‘Hi, I’m Brooke.’
The man stood up and looked her up and down before pulling her chair out for her and leaning forward to kiss her cheek. ‘Evening, Brooke. You look stunning. Much better than your photographs.’
Brooke frowned. Had that meant to be a compliment? Sitting down, she looked across at him. He was probably just nervous. ‘Thank you.’
‘How about me?’ Jeremy pivoted on the spot before looking at her, his eyes intense. ‘Do I look better than my pictures? I keep meaning to update the photographs I have on there. I’ve been working out more recently and I really don’t think they do me justice.’
Brooke picked up the wine bottle. He was just nervous. She needed to give him time.
‘Hold on, let me pour that for you.’ Jeremy rushed around to her side of the table and poured her a glass of wine.
‘Thank you.’
‘You’re very welcome. I won’t let it be said that I don’t know how to treat a woman.’ He slipped back into his chair and took a sip of wine before unbuttoning the cuff of his white shirt.
He wasn’t, was he? Yep, he was. Brooke frowned as he rolled his sleeve up and flexed his biceps.
‘What do you think? Impressive isn’t it? Now, you’ve got to say they’re more sculpted than in the photographs on the app?’
‘Umm, yes.’ Averting her eyes, Brooke sighed as she caught movement at the bar. Of all the people in Penworth Bay, who had to be sitting at the bar? Just a few feet away from them? Brooke looked into her wine glass and grabbed the bottle, filling it before Jeremy could pounce and do it. Why did Max have to be here? And why was he sitting at the bar? There was a pub up the hill. Why couldn’t he have gone there?
‘Hold on, I can see you’re impressed. Let me show you the other one. We can’t have you thinking I only work one bicep out, can we?’
What? Brooke took a gulp of wine. At this rate, she’d have drunk the entire bottle before he’d even asked her a question about herself, before he’d even rolled down his sleeves. She tried to think back to the messages he’d written. Yes, he’s told her he enjoyed going to the gym, but there had been nothing to suggest how self-assured and arrogant he was.
‘I’ve been focusing on my calf muscles, too. Obviously, I’m not one of these men who fixate on only one part of their bodies. We can’t have my muscles oddly distributed, can we?’
We?
‘Look.’ Jeremy stood up, placed his foot on his chair and rolled his trouser leg up.
Looking past him, she noticed Max staring across at their table, his eyes creasing with laughter and his lips pursed as though he was trying not to laugh. She narrowed her eyes. How dare he laugh at her? ‘I’m just going to get another bottle.’
‘I can...’
Ignoring Jeremy’s offer to order the wine, she stomped across to the bar and glared at Max. ‘Can’t you move down to the other end of the bar, or even go to the pub if you’re just having a drink. This is a restaurant, you know. It’s for people who are eating.’
‘It doesn’t look as though you’re doing much eating. Unless you’re planning on ordering some chips to go with all those muscles?’ Max fought to keep a straight face, his lips turning up at the corners.
Brooke shook her head. ‘I don’t know what you mean. He’s lovely. He’s... the date is going really well.’
‘Sorry, I just assumed...’ Max looked pointedly over at the table as Jeremy smoothed his hair down, peering at his reflection in the mirror on the side wall.
Shaking her head, Brooke picked up the half-empty wine bottle again and turned.
‘Hold on.’ Max gently touched her arm.
Spinning around, she frowned. ‘What? You haven’t finished with your jibes yet?’
