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“You.” Jackson Reilly smiled.
So judging from her pulse skitters, her heart might not have got the memo to find this man unappealing. Apparently her senses could not lie. But as she glanced down at the ruined remains of her dessert, she knew she wouldn’t follow through. The man was married, for goodness sake. And even though she might’ve felt the strangest tug of attraction right now, the fact his wife stood there, smiling at the scene like she thought Lexi endearingly clumsy, did not give a girl any confidence about how to act.
Except maybe like this.
She rose, picked up her dignity along with the plate, and smiled at the woman. “Hello, I’m Lexi.”
The brunette’s grin revealed sweet dimples. “I’m Ellie Reilly.”
See? Married.
Lexi’s gaze slid from Ellie to Jackson then rushed back to the door again. “So … what time was this supposed to start?”
Jackson’s arm snaked past her shoulder as he twisted the door handle and pushed it open. “Five thirty.”
“But it’s almost an hour later,” she said, horrified. Forget trying to be sociable. Maybe she’d be better off going home.
“Don’t worry about that. Barb and Hank are pretty relaxed. They probably haven’t even started eating yet.”
Ellie’s words drew Lexi’s focus back to her lopsided dessert. The cream had slid off, the fruit lay askew, and there was a sizeable difference in thickness between the two sides.
“What do you call that?” Jackson asked.
For a moment, she wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. “It was a pavlova.”
“Until Big Mouth here scared you,” Ellie said.
“I bet it still tastes good,” he said, eyes still on her.
She swallowed. “How do you know it tastes good?”
“If it’s anything like the ones they sell at the Bellbird café, it’ll be good.”
“Jackson has a sweet tooth.” Ellie said in a mock stage whisper. “If there’s sugar involved, he’s in.”
“I see.”
“Do you?” Ellie said, glancing at the tall man. “Because I think it’s unfair that someone can eat as much junk food as he does and still look like that. Don’t you?”
O-kay. What was the right answer to a question like that? “We should probably go in.”
“Yeah, I need a swim.” Jackson gestured for them both to go inside. Lexi passed into a carpeted entry hall tastefully decorated in muted pastel tones, with a large photograph of Barb and presumably Barb’s husband taking pride of place over a hall table that held an old-fashioned telephone.
“Don’t worry about your dessert,” Ellie said. “I bet you my firstborn that Barb has gallons of cream and strawberries you can add on top.”
“Okay.”
Clutching her misshapen offering, Lexi followed them through to a kitchen that formed part of an open-plan living area. Glass doors led outside to a large kidney-shaped pool.
“Lexi, you came!” Barb said, face alight as she drew near. “Oh, how wonderful. And look, you’ve made some friends already.”
“Sure has,” Ellie said, tossing Lexi a grin, which bounced around Lexi’s heart before she returned it with one of her own.
Friendship. Lexi used to be better at it. But she didn’t know how to do simple friendship since the attack. Everyone seemed to keep moving on, while she’d kind of stalled. It was only to be expected, people would say—her parents, her pastors, her counsellors. But she didn’t want to expect this anymore. She wanted new and different, hence her decision to leave the past behind and escape to east Washington state. Except sometimes it seemed she might never escape the past’s clutches. Like her overreaction on Sunday.
“And what have we got here?” Barb asked, eyeing Lexi’s dessert, trying and failing to hide her doubt.
“Pavlova.”
