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Christ, she’s turning you into a poet.
His jaw tightened. He’d thought that hike he’d taken would have helped him get a handle on things, since it was a bloody hard one and for experienced hikers only. Yet it hadn’t. He was still just as obsessed as he had been before he’d left.
He glowered at the wall next to him instead, pretending to examine all the things hanging on it—the pub’s walls were covered in photos, newspaper articles, old miners headlamps, fishing nets, and apparently anything else that had been lying around and could be attached to a wall—going over what on earth it was about her he couldn’t get out of his head.
Was it her smile? Or was it more about how fake it sometimes seemed to him? As if she was forcing it? Which then led him on a path to wonder why and what had happened to her that she felt she had to be so goddamn happy all the time. Also, why did she bother? Who was she performing for?
He didn’t want to wonder those things. He didn’t want to think about her at all.
Some sixth sense made him turn just in time to see Beth approaching his table.
“Here,” she said, smiling that pretty yet fake smile as she put a beer bottle down in front of him. “I owe you, remember?”
The pub was crowded with the inhabitants of Brightwater and humming with the sound of conversation and laughter, all of them here to congratulate Chase and Izzy on their engagement. Yet somehow, even though it was packed, it was as if he and Beth were enclosed in their own private little bubble.
Another thing he didn’t like, not one bit.
Without waiting for an invitation, Beth sat down in the seat opposite him, and he found himself noticing how she’d caught a touch of sun on her shoulders and chest, the skin there a light, pretty gold, highlighting the paleness of the rest of her.
“I thought you might want something to toast the happy couple with,” she said brightly when he didn’t speak. “It’s your favorite, Jim said.”
Ah yes, the happy couple. He was thrilled for his brother, he really was. Izzy was a wonderful woman and she was great with Gus too, and he shouldn’t be sitting over here in the corner being a grumpy ass.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about Beth and now she was smiling at him, and that smile… It was so bright. Yet it still looked fake, as if she was using it to cover something else.
Perhaps she’s nervous around you.
He suspected that was true, though he also suspected her nervousness wasn’t because she was afraid of him. In fact, he suspected she was more afraid of this tension between them than anything else.
In which case you should be putting her at ease.
Yeah, he probably should. He’d promised Clint he’d handle himself.
He glanced down at the beer, then back at her. “Thank you.”
Beth put her elbows on the table and leaned on them, her bracelets making that soft, melodic sound as they fell down her arm. “You mentioned helping me with Evan…”
Behind her, Finn could see Chase and Levi still standing at the bar, while Izzy chatted to Teddy Grange, who along with her husband, Clive, owned the Brightwater Valley vineyard. Izzy wasn’t looking in his direction, but Chase and Levi were, and they had distinctly speculative expressions on their faces.
Finn didn’t like that either.
The last thing he needed was for them to start thinking he and Beth were a thing. Chase hadn’t mentioned it to him and Levi hadn’t either, but the tension between him and Beth was palpable. Levi and Chase would have to be blind not to pick up on it, and certainly it was obvious that they had. And they were wondering.
Which made sitting here with Beth a bad idea.
Chase would start making assumptions and Levi would start making pointed comments, and his own temper would take a dive since he wasn’t in the mood. Better to stop any rumors in their tracks now, before people got the wrong idea and his crappy mood turned what was supposed to be a happy occasion sour.
Finn shoved back his chair and got abruptly to his feet.
Beth stared at him in surprise, her smile faltering. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ll do this later,” he said shortly.
“But what about your beer?”
He paused for a moment, then grabbed the beer, put back his head, and drank the entire thing in seconds flat—because he was thirsty, and she’d bought it for him, and he didn’t want her trying to buy him another.
Putting the bottle back down on the table, he gave her a nod, turned on his heel, and pushed his way out of the bar.
