Page 61 of The Wedding Engagement

“None of your cheek.” But her smile indicated that she enjoyedhis cheek. “My friend Nancy’s coming to take me to the tearoom for an afternoon tea.”

“Very nice.” Nancy was Agnes’s slightly younger friend who had a car that was high enough that Agnes could comfortably get in and out. “Well, you girls enjoy yourself. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

She pointed her finger at him. “And you do something Iwoulddo. Stop being a fool and tell your sweetheart how you really feel.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Chapter

Fifteen

Liv glanced over her shoulder,trying to catch Arran’s eye in the row of seats behind her. He was across the vehicle, next to Maya and Sam. It seemed as if he was avoiding her gaze.

She turned back and smiled at Brodie, who was next to her, Ben on his other side. She’d tried to engineer the situation to sit next to Arran, but he’d hung back when everyone had climbed into Nico’s sister’s car, and the two of them had gotten separated.

Looking over at Brodie chatting with Ben, Liv took in the way Brodie kept glancing away and smiling whenever Ben made consistent eye contact.

“Okay,” Nico called from the driver’s seat. “Toilet break.”

Elise looked across at him from the passenger seat. “Again? We’re only half an hour away now. Can’t you hold it in, like a big boy?”

“Nope,” Nico replied, pulling into the rest stop. “I had that coffee, remember?”

Elise shook her head. “I think you need to get your prostate checked.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that an offer?”

Elise muttered something under her breath.

Nico parked and everyone clambered out, some heading for the facilities and some stretching their legs. Arran legged it with Nico and Ben to the loo before Liv had a chance to engage him in conversation.

She went over to Brodie and bumped his shoulder. “Hey.”

He smiled. “Hey yourself.”

“So. Brodie. This guy you like…” She glanced around, double-checking that Sam and Maya were still out of earshot and confirming that they were indeed still canoodling between the large supply of windshield wiper fluid and the bank of trashy “news”-papers. Elise was in the shop perusing the healthy snack aisle.

She turned back to Brodie. “He wouldn’t happen to be a dark-haired-with-a-tinge-of-silver, blue-eyed, handsome chap named Ben, would he?”

A smile tugged at his face as he scuffed his foot on the ground. “Maybe.”

“Aha!” she said loudly, before catching herself and glancing around furtively. “Iknewit. All those puppy-dog-eyed looks you were giving him.” She fanned herself with her hand. “Swoon.”

Brodie laughed. “Shh. Maya and Sam’ll hear.”

“So what if they do?” she replied with a shrug. “In fact, we should tell them, because they’ll be able to get you guys set up.”

He shook his head. “I’d rather wait. I want to suss out Ben a bit more first; he’s only just broken up with Derek, so I don’t want to be too full on.”

“No worries.” She tapped the side of her nose. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“By the way,” he said, shooting her a smile. “What’s the deal with Arran? Whenever I’ve met him before, he’s been dead chatty. But today, he’s kind of giving out these ‘fuck off’ vibes.”

She pursed her lips. “I don’t know. But you’re right, he is acting pretty out of character. I feel like he’s avoiding me.”

Brodie glanced toward the shop. “Have you had an argument?”

“No. Not that I can remember, anyway,” she said, a dragging sensation in her chest. “He started being aloof after we went for afternoon tea, and at first I wondered if I’d said something to upset him, because I did get a bit tipsy. But I honestly can’t remember anything untoward.”

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