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Chapter Nine
“Ibeg your pardon?”
Jane heard the thunderous anger in Rafe’s deep voice as clearly as she’d heard the whispered slur the women at table four had thrown out as she’d passed them on her way to the kitchen.
“Shit,” her mother muttered, staring out from the kitchen door. “I was afraid this would happen.”
Cocking one brow, Jane said, “You were afraid Rafe would get pissy with Patricia Leighton for calling me a slut?”
Mary’s lips pressed together in a flat line. “No, baby, I was afraid you coming back to work so soon would have the bitch brigade out in force, talons sharpened and tongues wagging. And that woman is the worst of them.”
As far as Jane was concerned, Mrs Leighton was the human equivalent of a poodle, all long limbs and coifed hair, smarter than her prissy appearance led people to believe and downright nasty when the mood struck, which seemed to be 100 percent of the time she was in the presence of a Melville.
And was exactly why Jane was determined not to let the spiteful comment get to her.
At least she could try.
Bitch.
“I hate to say it,” her mother continued, “but between the fiasco at your engagement party and you getting jilted, you’ve given the people in this town more to talk about in the last six months than anyone else has in years.”
“You can blame Richard for the incident at my engagement party,” Jane said, slipping her apron off and hanging it on a hook on the kitchen wall.
“Oh, I do,” Mary assured her.
“And as for them calling me a slut, well, it’s not like they have fulfilling sex lives of their own to talk about, is it?”
“Unlike their husbands,” Mary muttered, frowning at the women sitting around table four. “And which one of them called you a slut? I’ll spit in her food.”
Jane snorted at the hollow threat. “You’ll do no such thing.”
Her mother made an annoyed sound. “No, probably not. Maybe I’ll just use full fat milk in their coffee instead of skim, ruin their diets one cuppa at a time. It’s not like any of them can tell the difference anyway,” she said. “They shove chocolate eclairs and raspberry friands down their gullets like they’re going out of fashion.”
Chuckling at her mother’s version of guerrilla warfare, Jane kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mum. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime, baby,” she said. “But listen, I want you to do two things for me, okay?”
“Sure. What do you need?”
“First and foremost, get your boyfriend out of here before he causes an incident. The last thing I need is the active-wear mafia deciding to go elsewhere after their power walks just because Rafael said something to offend one of them, no matter how much they deserve it.”
Jane smirked. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that ship has sailed.”
Rafe had caused an incident the moment he’d called her “beautiful” and publicly laid claim to her. And she found she couldn’t bring herself to be angry at him for it. She had agreed to let the truth be known about her baby, after all, but she hadn’t anticipated Rafe grabbing that acknowledgement with both hands and running through town with it for all to see.
He was usually much more private than that.
The fact he was stepping outside his comfort zone for her made her heart melt. Just a little. And that was when she realised her mother had called him her boyfriend and her first instinct hadn’t been to deny it.
Well, okay then….
“Besides,” she added, giving herself a little shake and getting her brain back on topic, “Straight To The Hips is the only patisserie in town. The only other place they can get a coffee and cake even remotely as good as ours is from Dieter at The Black Forest Café, and they know it. And Dieter only opens for lunch and dinner. Rafe could offend them ’til the cows come home and what are they going to do about it? Lower their so-called standards and visit the bakery for a sausage roll and a can of Coke? I don’t think so.”
Mary sighed. “You might be right.”
“I know I’m right. What’s the second thing?”
“Take the rest of the week off. You need time to process everything that’s happening to you, emotionally and physically. And you and Rafe need time to figure out what’s going on there too. Or did you think I didn’t see you two cuddling this morning out there on the footpath?”
