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I was concerned she was knackered. She shouldn’t be. She’d been resting a great deal lately. Though I knew her headaches took a lot out of her, the aura that always happened after never lingered like it’d been doing at Duncroft.
But mostly I was relieved she was getting out of there.
“Soooooo…” she drew that out and said no more.
“So?” I prompted.
“You ran to Ian in your fright last night?”
She looked at me and batted her eyes.
“I needed to know about the bouquet,” I explained lamely.
“When I asked Rebecca where you were this morning, she told me in Ian’s room. It took him that long to explain about the bouquet?”
“Shut up,” I mumbled.
“Another reason for me to leave, I’ll no longer be the third wheel. You have him all to yourself to play backgammon.”
I threw a poppy-red silk bolster pillow at her.
She smiled.
That made me feel better.
“He thinks Portia and Daniel aren’t done with their games,” I shared.
“He thinks right,” she replied. “A trait of hers is being radically counter intuitive. Instead of learning from her mistakes, she pushes harder, which only digs her hole deeper. I don’t get it.”
I didn’t either.
And I’d turned that over enough in my head, I knew no discussion with Lou about it would serve up any answers.
“Ian wants to work together to figure out what they’re up to and thwart it,” I told her.
“I bet he does,” she teased.
“And yes,” I said seriously. “He made it clear, when I told him I wanted to take you and leave, that he wanted me to stay because he wanted time to get to know me better.”
She straightened from pressing down on the mound of folded sweaters in her case and exclaimed, “I knew it!”
That almost made me smile, but I cautioned, “Don’t get excited. We like each other. But he hasn’t even kissed me.”
“Poor play to make a move on a woman who just ran screaming to you in the night,” she remarked.
“I didn’t scream,” I told her.
I did, just not while I was racing to Ian. Only after I got to him.
“Well, it’s good you’re out of that room and you know Portia and Daniel have been screwing with you, so you can sleep tonight. And it’s good you’re staying to get to know him, because you already know, I like you two together and I’m tickled pink you’re giving a man a shot again. Especially a man like Ian, and I don’t mean how drop-dead gorgeous he is.”
This was the thing.
Because it was flirty and there was hand holding, and Ian had made me sleep by his side last night.
But it was also easy and friendly, and my sister was seeing his brother, and I had more than one concern about that. She’d also dated Ian, and this could all end up a mess.
And then there was that forehead kiss.
