Page 45 of A Colourful Country Escape
‘If you haven’t decided to dislike the poor woman just because her parents have money.’
‘I would never … ’ But she let her voice trail off. OK, so she did tend to judge. But only based on her past experiences.
‘Oh, please, you’re a money snob in reverse. You’re prejudiced against wealth – no wonder you do your best never to have any. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your “rich people are rude” stance.’
‘I’m not prejudiced against anyone!’ When he put it like that, it didn’t sound nice. She hadn’t intended to be that sort of person. ‘I’m sure the perfect match will be somewhere among your mother’s fine collection. Who knows what magic sparks could fly.’
Ben gave her a strange look. ‘I’m not looking for Harry Potter. Anyway, you said most of them were gold-diggers or rich-husband murderers. Excuse me for having standards.’
She guessed she couldn’t argue with that. He got on her nerves at times, but she didn’t want him dead.
‘And, quite honestly, I’m not sure I want the kind of woman who would let herself be interviewed for the role of potential wife. Don’t you think it’s a little … odd?’
Lexie’s mouth fell open. ‘You allowed your mother to set up that whole charade and you let poor Mrs Moon get blisters pushing her tea trolley up and down your queue of cat-fighting prima donnas. And even I ended up being bossed around by your mother and looked down upon by your potential princesses. And now you can’t even be bothered to consider a single one of them?’
He let the words hang for a moment while he chose his own. ‘Why are you so keen for me to go on a date?’
Lexie pushed herself up to standing, the legs of her chair making a belligerent growl as they scraped across the stones. Were those tears prickling at the backs of her eyelids? ‘I don’t know.’
And, truly, she just wasn’t sure. Was she putting everyone else before herself again? Or was something deeper at play?
‘I need to get back. Take my share of lunch out of my wages,’ Lexie said as she snatched up her bag. ‘I can pay for my own.’
She wondered if he’d even bother to touch theexoticpineapple now she was gone.
Chapter 23
‘Honestly, everything is fine with me and Billy-Bob! I just came to say hi. And to check out my sister’s posh new home. Twit-twoo!’
Lexie narrowed her eyes at Sky, who’d arrived at Nutgrass Hall earlier that day pretending not to be in a flap. Lexie had received a call from her first thing that morning, asking her to transfer some money so she could catch the train from the commune.
‘Nobody travels one hundred and sixty miles to say hi,’ said Lexie, who remained to be convinced by anything her younger sister said – ever. ‘And me living here is an extremely temporary measure. Much like you living in a yurt with a guy who bones two other women, I seriously hope.’
Grace, who was also sitting cross-legged on the floor of the living room with the two sisters, spat out a mouthful of green tea.
‘Does he really?’
Grace had arrived to help Lexie with a few work things, and Lexie was glad. She was also secretly relieved Ben had vetoed Grace from the wife hunt, not least because she got to keep Grace to herself. It absolutely wasn’t due to any desire to keep Ben single. No way.
Sky fidgeted on her cushion, chomping on her fourth Greggs sausage roll of the afternoon. Lexie had known she’d make a rubbish vegan. ‘It’s not exactly like that. We take it in turns.’
‘Noooooo! How does that work? Do you use a timer? Or is it more of a rota system?’ Grace seemed genuinely intrigued.
Lexie held up a hand. ‘Enough. It’s too weird.’ People could do what they wanted in the privacy of their own sleeping bags, but she’d prefer it if they didn’t involve her perpetually naive sibling.
‘Not as weird as getting roped in to serve cake while your boss’s mum holds interviews to find him a wife.’ Sky pouted. ‘At least my love triangle was brought together by fate, not by a meddling posh lady with a clipboard.’
‘I’m not in any love triangle! And anyway, four people make a quadrangle,’ Lexie corrected her. She could see from Grace’s face she was trying to work out the logistics of Sky’s yurt bed-shenanigans.
‘Anyway!’ Lexie pushed the laptop to Grace. ‘We were meant to be talking about this.’
Grace ran her eyes over the screen for the second time that afternoon. ‘Lexie, honey, it still makes zero sense.’
‘But why?’
Lexie had been drafting another blog post for Carrington Paints, inspired by her feud with Ben. Of course she wasn’t going to tell the world he was a pedantic sod who made everything difficult; her writing was sufficiently cryptic. She should probably give him credit for the fact he’d since offered to let her come to the upcoming conference as a sweetener, but she still felt decidedly like a sourpuss.
‘You say clashing colours should be avoided at all costs.’
