Page 23 of Not Exactly Mr. Darcy
She took a step back and bumped into someone. “Oh, sorry.” Her eyes widened. It was Liam’s dining companion from the other night. “You.”
The woman pushed her sunglasses up on top of her blonde head. “Do I know you?”
“Uh, no. Excuse me.”
She had to get away. She had no desire to talk to Liam’s girlfriend. Even if the woman seemed kind of normal. Probably at least five years younger than Liv. Pretty, in a rich kind of way, which made Liv wonder what she saw in the grumpy gardener.
“Wait—you’re Liv, right?”
She paused on the steps of the elevated platform. “How do you know my name?”
“Liam told me.”
“Why?”
“Because I saw you the other day at the Duck Inn and asked about you.”
Her cheeks heated. She hoped she hadn’t been looking at him to make his girlfriend wonder about her! She wasn’t the kind of woman to break up relationships. “I, um, I’m visiting my grandmother, that’s all.”
“Okay.” The woman’s lips curved, like she thought Liv was funny.
Conversations from the other night clicked into memory. “Oh, now I remember. You’re Georgina, right?”
She nodded. “But everyone around here knows me as George.”
“And Chopper Chomps—I mean CeeCee is your dog.”
“Chopper Chomps?” She grinned. “I haven’t heard that one before.”
She might if she spent more time around here, Liv thought snidely.
What was it that Gran had said? Neither she nor Tobias had specified George’s relationship with Liam, and Liv certainly wasn’t going to ask.
“Well, it was nice to meet you. I should probably let you go—”
“No, wait. You’re from Australia, right?” George’s lips curved on one side. “I’ve got a flatmate who is from Melbourne, and she’s always going on about how much she misses the coffee from back home.” She rolled her eyes.
“Some Aussies can be a little precious about the coffee. I’m more of a tea drinker myself.”
“Me too.”
Liv studied her. George had a flatmate? “Where do you live?”
“London. I’m studying there. It’s just a little bit far to travel from the family farm.”
If that farm was around here, then “I imagine it would be.”
“Liam is such a good brother.”
“Brother?”
George chuckled. “Liam is my brother. Didn’t anyone tell you that?”
Maybe they had, but she’d been so busy trying to avoid his gaze that she’d struggled to take in much of that evening. Gran had been complaining about her aches, and Tobias had been sympathetic. Gran had thanked him for helping with her hedge and he’d looked puzzled for a moment, before shrugging, saying lending his shears was the least he could do. Liv had been about to ask him to confess the whole when Liam had walked in with George, and it was like the air had been sucked out of the room. Out of Liv’s lungs, anyway. The man scrubbed up nicely, she had to say. And now that she knew he came from farming stock, well, she’d always had a lot of respect for hardworking farmers. And nobody could deny the man was a hard worker. Even if he was surly at times.
And George was his sister? Okay. Not that it improved her impression of him, but he couldn’t be all bad if someone like George said he was a good brother.
George looked around. Sighed. “I try to come here every year when I return. The fields are just so pretty.”
