Page 28 of The Lord Next Door I Wished For
She held her breath as she waited for him to make a joke.
But he grew serious instead. “I’m honored you still thought of me at all after so much time apart. Let alone as a friend.”
His sincerity was harder to bear than his teasing. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Was he pitying her? Did he think her pathetic?
Her stomach chose that moment to growl, and she laughed despite all her worries. She cast him a quick sidelong look as she pressed a hand to her belly. “I really ought to remember to eat before climbing out of windows.”
“You’re hungry.”
It sounded like an accusation, and she shrugged. “Every time I leave my room, I’m accosted with talk of wedding plans and the guest list for our engagement party…” She shrugged.
“So you opt to go hungry.” His tone was teasing but he looked irritated. “It will be a relief when all of this is done and over with and you’re out of that house once and for all.”
She blinked in surprise at the vehemence in his tone, but then he was turning as if to leave. “Where are you going?”
He turned back, eyeing Midnight. “Why don’t you go for a ride as you’d intended.” He arched a brow. “I assume you were headed to the clearing by the lake?”
She grinned, oddly pleased that he knew where she meant to go.
He returned her smile, and her belly responded with an alarming toppling sensation, as if the ground had just given way and she was falling.
“You go on ahead,” he said. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Very well.” She watched him walk away and then turned to Midnight, who regarded her evenly. “I shouldn’t have told him that, should I?”
Midnight did not reply.
Jane leaned forward until her forehead rested against his. “No offense, my love, but right about now I very much miss my human friends.”
Midnight’s response was a huff that made her laugh. She pulled back and patted his neck. “All right, old friend, let’s get you ready for a ride.”
A short while later, Jane had forgotten her embarrassing admission and thoughts of weddings and the future that awaited her as she tipped her head back to soak in the sunshine as wind whipped through her hair.
She was laughing with delight by the time Midnight came to a stop at their favorite place. “It hasn’t changed at all,” she said with a grin as she slid down to the ground and set Midnight free to roam.
He was a loyal one, her Midnight, and he wouldn’t go far without her.
Her hair had come wild and undone from the ride so she loosened the last of the pins and then set to work unlacing her boots.
Midnight snorted.
“Oh, I know his lordship will be joining us, but if we’re to wed, don’t you think he’ll find out eventually that I haven’t changed a bit?”
Midnight just looked at her.
“If he wanted a wife who didn’t go sneaking out of windows and wading in lakes, then he could have chosen one of those other ladies, now shouldn’t he?”
Once again, Midnight had little to say on the topic, but Jane forced aside all thoughts of those other ladies and the wedding to come and…
Well, she tried to rid herself of thoughts of Luke himself, but as she hitched up her skirt and dipped her toes into the lake’s edge, she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about how he’d caught her. How he’d held her in his arms and had refused to let go.
But what she really couldn’t shake was the memory of the look in his eyes when he’d looked down at her. So fierce and warm. Like she was a treasure he was holding and not some silly girl who’d just toppled out of her bedroom window.
The memory of that look had her breath coming out shakily and she felt heat spreading through her limbs even as her feet sank into the frigid water.
Goodness. If this kept up, she’d have to plunge in headfirst.
Jane lost track of time as she let her thoughts and emotions settle under the calming sound of birds chirping and water splashing as she strolled around the lake’s edge, picking her way carefully over mossy rocks and loose stones.
