Page 30 of Love Around the Corner

He swallowed, and tried not to catch Dee’s eye as he set about folding down the tables ready for the rental company to collect. He was fooling nobody, least of all Dee.

“Somebody looks happy this morning,” she said, coming to help him unclip and fold down the table legs. “Positively glowing.”

Ignoring the flush of heat in his cheeks, Leo said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Oh come on, Leo.”

“What?” He gave her his most innocent look, collapsing the set of legs at his end of the table and helping Dee turn it onto its side. “Where are we putting these? Against that wall?”

She nodded, and they carried it over between them. “Tell me he knows,” she said in a low voice. “Tell me you told him before you slept together.”

Panic. A hot flare in the center of his chest, driving out everything else. “Who said we slept together?”

“Don’t play the fool with me, Leo. You think I can’t see what’s right before my eyes?”

“Maybe your glasses are a little fogged up,” he suggested primly. “Ever think of that?”

She fixed him with a steady look over her pink frames. “Alfie’s looking at you like you hung the moon.”

Ignoring that, he headed over to the next table and flipped it onto its side to unclip the folding legs. “Truth is, Dee, it’s none of your business what I—”

“Alfie’s my business,” she said, joining him. “Hell, I used to babysit that boy when he was nothing but a scrawny kid. So don’t you tell me what’s my business in this town.”

Chastened, he ducked his head but didn’t back down. “Well, maybe Alfie is your business, but I’m not. I don’t have to tell you anything.”

After a silence, she said, “Just tell me he knows. Because, if he doesn’t, I’m gonna tell him right now. I’m gonnna walk over there and—”

“You can’t!” he hissed, mortified by her rising voice. And angry too. Hewasgoing to tell Alfie, but on his own terms and in his own time. “You don’t understand. It’s complicated.”

Dee made a disparaging noise in the back of her throat. “Uh-huh.”

“It is!” Panic gripped him; she’d ruin everything. “Look, I didn’t sleep with him, okay?” He flushed at the lie, but what choice did he have? “I wouldn’t do that.”

Silence.

Dee’s expression changed, her gaze shifting past Leo’s shoulder to something behind him. And Leo’s stomach plummeted.Shit. Stiffly, knowing what he’d find, Leo turned around.

Alfie stood there frowning, his gaze averted. “I’m, uh… Don needs a screwdriver. I’m just gonna go fetch one of mine.”

Leo felt a sickening twist in the pit of his stomach. But he couldn’t speak. What could he say that wouldn’t make things worse? Apologize to Alfie and let Dee know the truth, listen to her pour gasoline onto the fire?

Do you know who this is, Alfie? Do you know the secret he’s been keeping?

White noise buzzed in his ears and through narrowing vision he watched Alfie push open the door, admitting a dazzling lance of sunlight as he left.

It speared Leo in the eyes, blinding him and skewering him to the spot.

***

Alfie stepped out into the brilliant cold, glad of an excuse to escape.

Leo’s denial stung like a slap. All the more so because, if it had been up to Alfie, he’d have been shouting his feelings from the rooftops. The fact that Leo couldn’t even bring himself to tell Dee suggested he felt differently, and Alfie didn’t know what to make of that.

Or, rather, he was afraid he knewexactlywhat to make of it: Leo was embarrassed. He was ashamed to have slept with Alfie, and didn’t want anyone to know.

Hunching in on himself, he stomped home through the snow. He knew he could be touchy about other people’s opinions of him, and he knew it could make him overreact. Thinking about it rationally, there were plenty of reasons why Leo wouldn’t want to discuss his sex life with Dee—New Milton’s biggest gossip. That right there was one very good reason. Add to it the fact that Leo was a pretty private guy, and that it had only happened last night, and it made perfect sense.

And yet…

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