Page 14 of The Rebound
“Not for another few weeks,” she sighs. “They keep pushing the delivery date back. I’m starting to think it would just be quicker to cancel and order from somewhere else.”
“Did you try that new Danish place in Sligo?” Pat asks. “Cliona Mitchell got hers from there.”
Susan frowns. “I thought it was Norwegian?”
“I’m sorry,” Luke says quietly as the others talk around us. “I couldn’t resist when I knew you didn’t recognize me.”
The sound of his voice makes my stomach dip and I concentrate on pushing a piece of chicken from one side of my plate to the other.
“It’s okay,” I say. “It’s funny. If not deeply humiliating.”
“It was dark. And you were exhausted.”
And you look like a completely different person, I want to add, but don’t.
“I haven’t changed at all?” I ask instead.
“Well, your eyebrows have grown back.”
I glance over to find him smiling at me. “Shut up. I overplucked one time.”
“You walked around in a beanie hat for a whole summer.”
“See, this is why I don’t visit. Everyone knows me before I was incredibly glamorous.”
“Is that what you are now?”
“Could you not tell when I was lurking by an abandoned bus stop?”
“It’s not abandoned on Wednesdays.”
Susan’s eyes flick to me as I laugh but otherwise she doesn’t falter as she describes her sister’s new curtains.
“I am sorry though,” I say to him. “I was in a bit of a weird mood last night.”
“You mean a flirting mood?”
“I wasn’t flirting,” I whisper, embarrassed. “I was delirious from traveling. And if I was, you were flirting too.”
“Hmm. No, I don’t think so.”
“Oh really? Then why did you—”
I break off as his knee touches mine under the table. Luke picks up his water glass, the innocent expression back on his face.
“Now I’m flirting,” he murmurs, taking a sip. He doesn’t move away and it’s like all the heat in my body focuses in on that one spot. “It’s much more fun when you know who I am.”
“You’re never going to let this go.”
“Nope.”
I turn my gaze to my plate. It’s impossible to keep the smile from my face. “You live in the village?” I ask in normal tones because this is a normal conversation.
“I do. But I’m usually at college. I’m not here a lot.”
“Oh.” I grimace inwardly at the obvious disappointment in my voice.
“I’m thinking about moving to Sligo full time,” he continues.
