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“I feel a bit queasy,” says Scarlett.
“Well,” says Jack, looking shyly delighted, and only very slightly like he desperately wants to wipe his hand on his trousers. “That’s settled, then. Let’s make our grandparents proud.”
“We will that,” agrees McTavish. “Maybe we could go to the pub wi’ Dylan and Lexie and raise a toast to the past. It would be only right.”
“Aye,” says McTavish senior.
“No,” says Dylan, firmly.
“Let’s, er, have a think about that,” suggests Jack tactfully. “Lexie’s in California now, after all.”
“Aye, but she’ll be back for the wedding, won’t she?” says McTavish innocently. “I bumped into her mam last week in the Spar and she said Lexie would probably come over in Jett’s private plane for it, so they can go together. She said that about the Gala Day as well, mind you. I think she just likes mentioning the fact that Jett’s got a private plane.”
I barely hear any of this (Well, other than the bit where Lexie’s mum — who openly hates me — apparently thinks she’s coming to my wedding), because my brain snagged on the word “wedding”, and now it can’t seem to get past it.
And, by the looks of things, Jack’s did, too.
We look at each other tentatively. Or, at least, my gaze istentative. His is just cold. And there’s quite possibly a layer of hurt still hidden under there too, but it’s hard to tell, because his eyes keep darting from me to Ben, and back again, as if he’s trying to figure out what’s going on between us.
“Jack, this isn’t what it looks like,” I say again, knowing I’m probably ruining McTavish’s big moment of being saved from the workhouse — or whatever he thought would happen to him once the farm was sold — but unable to hold it in any longer. “Me and Ben, I mean. It’s not what it looks like, I swear.”
“Is that right?” asks Jack coolly. “And what exactlyisit, then, if it’s not what it looks like?”
“Ben was just… he was just…” I stumble over my words, not wanting to tell him that Ben was here to tell me he still loves me. I have a feeling that won’t go down too well, somehow.
“The lad was just tellin’ oor Emerald how much he loves her,” puts in McTavish Senior, helpfully. “Right romantic, it was.”
“Er, it wasnot,” objects Scarlett immediately. “Emerald can’t stand Ben. And look at the state of them both.”
“‘I love you, Ben,’” says McTavish Senior, dramatically, in a high-pitched voice that’s presumably supposed to be mine. “‘I love you!’ Said it a fair few times, so she did.”
“I didnot,” I say indignantly. “Are you deaf or something?”
“Aye, a wee bit,” says McTavish Senior, shrugging. “That’s what I heard, though.”
“Well, you heard wrong,” I tell him, speaking more for Jack’s benefit than his. “The noise from the helicopter was drowning us out.”
Ben opens his mouth, then closes it again. His face is covered in dust, except for two white patches from the sunglasses he was wearing when he arrived. I have no idea what I ever saw in him. All I know is that he’s manipulated me yet again. He made me think Jack was in the wrong: that he was lying to me, and cheating McTavish out of something that was rightfully his, when all along, Jack was just being the decent, kind man he’s always been.
One of the best, as McTavish said.
The very best.
And now I’ve pushed him away.
“Jack, please,” I say, turning away from Ben with a sob. “We have to talk about this. You have to let me explain.”
There’s a crunch of tires on gravel, and a black SUV pulls into the yard, with Jack’s assistant, Elaine, behind the wheel, and Rose in the passenger seat. They must be here to pick him up.
Good to know he managed to letsomepeople know when he was coming back, then.
“I’m not sure there’s anything to talk about, Emerald,” says Jack evenly. “It all seems pretty clear from where I’m standing.”
His eyes flick over to Ben again, and a flash of irritation crosses his face. Behind him, Dylan gives an ostentatious cough and starts trying to usher everyone back into the farmhouse, to give us some privacy.
“I’m not leaving,” says Ben stubbornly, putting a proprietorial hand on my shoulder, which I shake off immediately. “Emerald, you’re not seriously going to trust this guy, are you? After everything I told you?”
“Everything you told me was a lie, Ben,” I yell, my patience finally snapping as I whirl around to face him. “All of it. Jack was never lying to me.Youwere. He wasn’t trying to trick McTavish. Did you not see what just happened? Every single thing you tried to tell me was wrong, and now look what you’ve done. You’ve ruined everything. Everything.”
