Page 114 of Love like the (Real) Reel Thing
She looked at him, standing with his hands in his pockets, an expression of hurt on his face.
“I don’t believe you’d hurt me intentionally, no.” Briefly, she remembered the pain of her breakup with Adam. Of their last conversation before she’d left him. She’d been upset – but so had he. She hadn’t trusted him to stay the distance when they’d hit a speedbump so early on. Now she wondered if she’d been utterly wrong.
Robert was still talking, cajoling. She tuned him out. How had she allowed anything to develop between them? Had she really liked him? Sure, she’d been attracted to him. But mainly she’d been desperate to prove to herself – and everyone else – that she was over Adam. Robert was nothing like Adam. Her mistake had been thinking that was a good thing.
And now Adam had moved on. But for her part in the breakup, she owed him an apology. And she wasn’t going to waste another second on the man in front of her.
“Goodbye, Robert.” She turned and walked away through the grounds.
CHAPTER 59
“It’s your fault that she has parasites!” Afric was standing in the middle of the foyer, holding a wriggling Diva in her arms, and shouting at Emily as Jess headed back to her office.
Jess stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. Christ, she had to be talking about her dog. She searched her memory. Diva and Snuggles had been together at least once. And even if they’d only been playing chasing at the stables the day she and Adam had found them, who knew how often they’d managed to get together before that?
No, that didn’t make any sense. As far as she knew, Snuggles didn’t have parasites. Unless Diva had managed to pick something up from the horses. No, how likely was that?
“Afric, I swear, I didn’t let Diva out of my sight,” Emily was saying. “Like, except at night. There was a bed for her in the basement but I know she wasn’t –”
“I’m not listening.” Afric looked like she was about to cry. “Do you know how delicate she is? I’ve never seen her so upset, the poor baby! The vet tested her poo and told me it was an equine parasite!”
Oh God, very likely, apparently, Jess thought weakly.
“A what parasite?” Emily asked, looking confused.
“A horse parasite!” Afric glared at her.
Jess took a deep breath. “Afric? Let’s take a moment and see if we can figure this out quietly. We,um, don’t want to upset Diva.”
Afric turned and glared at Jess. “You were supposed to be our go-to person here – you let this happen too.”
“How do you know either of us is to blame for this?” Emily said. “I only took her after Lisa left.”
“Emily, why don’t you see if you can order us all some coffee?” Jess said.
Emily ignored her. “Not that that even matters. I took my dog-minding duties seriously.”
“Well, somebody took their eye off the ball and I intend to find out who!” Afric turned to include Jess in her glare.
“I wouldn’t bother looking too far,” Emily blurted.
Afric’s gaze narrowed.
“Emily, don’t you have that thing to do?” Jess said quickly. “You know, that important thing?”
“What exactly do you mean, Emily?” Afric demanded.
“She means we’ll find out.” Jess could feel the situation slipping out of her control.
“I mean that you’re the one who took your eye off the ball, pissing off like that!” Emily pulled herself up straighter. “And Jess put herself through hell getting you back in! Do you know that she’s claustrophobic? A bat got trapped in the tunnel and Jess got knocked out. She was unconscious and on her own and anything could have happened.”
Jess turned to her. “How did you –?”
“Adam told me. I also found out that he punched Robert. Did you know that?”
“Yeah, it was just a misunderstanding at your party.” Jess was relieved to hear Afric snort with laughter. At least she hadn’t lost her sense of humour.
Emily looked puzzled. “At my party?Er, I didn’t hear about that, this happened a few days ago, before Adam left.”
