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“I’m Cara’s sister.”
“I’m Alec’s best friend, and we’re so close we might as well be brothers.”
“Are you two bickering?” Dorothy asked, glancing up with a smile before adding to her edge, one side of the frame nearly complete. “Or is this how you young people flirt these days?”
Ella looked up, alarmed. “Not flirting,” Ella said decisively.
Baird couldn’t hide his smile. “There might be a little flirting, but Ella won’t admit it.”
Ella shot him a fierce look. Baird ignored it, but he was amused. He found Ella vastly entertaining.
They all worked on the puzzle for a good fifteen minutes, conversation limited to searching for specific puzzle pieces. Progress was being made but it was certainly slow. The thousand-piece puzzle was a challenging one with the entire center mostly the cows, with the gray stone wall below, green grass and green hills, and then just a sliver of blue sky.
Their focus was interrupted by Mrs. Johnson entering the drawing room with the afternoon tea tray. Excusing herself, Dorothy rose to go pour tea for Frederick and Emma leaving Baird and Ella alone.
Baird matched a gray piece to another cluster. “I hope you don’t mind me helping with the puzzle,” he said. “You two looked overwhelmed and I thought you’d appreciate help.”
Ella’s head slowly lifted. “You are desperate for attention today.”
“Why are you so out of sorts?”
“I’m not. I was having a wonderful time working on the puzzle with Dorothy. You’re the problem.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re not,” she snapped. “You enjoy being a nuisance.” She looked up at him then, her gaze bright, challenging. “Actually, nuisance isn’t the right word. There are other adjectives better suited, like infuriating. Frustrating. Upsetting—”
“So, you are still angry with me.”
She took one of the brown pieces from his side of the table, digging it out from the gray ones and with a little cry found a spot for the piece she’d just retrieved from his pile. “Why would I be angry?” she asked, already digging in his pieces for another gray one.
“You’ve been upset ever since we went on the drive yesterday. Our conversation about the wedding reception upset you.”
“It did, yes. It would have been better not to have discussed it. It stirred up unpleasant memories.” Ella successfully connected more pieces. “Memories I had worked very hard to forget.” She looked at him again, eyebrows arching. “I hope we’re not going to discussthatagain. It didn’t help yesterday and it won’t help today.”
“Thatbeing down by the boathouse.”
She slammed a piece into the others using her fist. “Thatis what I’d like to do to your face.”
She was impossible and outrageous which made him want to laugh. Her temper made him want to laugh. Her flashing eyes made him want to laugh. “So, we can’t be friends,” he said soberly to keep from laughing.
She sighed loudly, exasperatedly. “No.”
“But I’ve made you coffee now, twice.”
She flipped a long red curl over her shoulder. “It was good but not that good.”
Baird gave up holding the laughter in, and it rang out, a big belly laugh. She glanced up, a light in her eyes that made him think she wanted to smile, but she wasn’t going to let herself, because he knew she was determined to be upset with him.
“We should be friends,” he said matter of factly “I like you. I think you like me. Just a little. But a little is better than not at all.”
Ella leaned across the table and lowered her voice. “What makes you think I like you? Even just a little bit?”
He leaned toward her, so they were quite close to each other’s faces. And lips. His gaze dropped to her rosy mouth, her lips full and soft, and still so terribly tempting. “Because you like this between us. It’s tense. It’s uncomfortable. It’s unpredictable.” He looked back up into her eyes, the irises darker, the color deepening with emotion. “It’s also exciting.”
She was silent a long time, staring into his eyes, searching. “I don’t trust you. You really hurt me.”
He swallowed hard, caught off guard. He hadn’t expected so much honesty, or the pain softening her voice. She sounded so vulnerable and young.
