Jack gave a mocking inclination of his head. ‘I’m sure the plants will appreciate that,’ he replied. ‘Come on, Harry,’ he called to his dog as he turned away.
‘What on earth is wrong with you, Mattie?’ her mother lingered long enough to hiss.
Mattie shook her head wordlessly, staring miserably after Jack as he walked off with long, measured strides. There was simply nothing she could say, nothing she could do, to alter the fact that Jack was walking out of her life for good.
‘I think you and I need to talk when I come back,’ her mother told her quickly before hurrying off to join Jack.
All the talk in the world couldn’t change the fact that Mattie was in love with a man who didn’t love her, who would never love her.
Nothing could change that.
But as she heard the slam of Jack’s car door, quickly followed by the start of the car engine, Mattie knew she couldn’t just stand here after all, her feet moving automatically as she began to run towards the front of the house, knowing that she had to at least have one last glance at Jack as he drove away.
She arrived on the driveway just in time to see Jack accelerate the car down the driveway, lifting her hand in wan salute, even as she knew he probably couldn’t even see her there, the prick of tears burning her eyes now.
‘I’m glad you changed your mind.’ Her mother linked her arm with Mattie’s as she moved to stand beside her, squeezing reassuringly.
Mattie couldn’t speak, completely choked with the tears she knew were going to fall. There was no way she could stop them a moment longer—
‘Mum, there are two dogs in the back of Jack’s car!’ she suddenly realized, two canine faces against the back window, two healthy pink tongues pressed against the glass.
Her mother nodded, smiling warmly. ‘Jack has taken Sophie with him.’
Mattie shook her head dazedly. ‘But—’
‘He asked if he could have her that morning he came to see me,’ her mother explained happily.
Mattie blinked. ‘He did?’ Had that been the subject of Jack’s discussion with her mother that morning? Besides assuring her mother that he didn’t have designs on her baby’s body!
Her mother confirmed it. ‘Apparently you had told him Sophie’s sad story, and, after thinking about it for a few days, he knew he couldn’t bear the thought of her being abandoned in that way. That’s the reason Sophie and Harry have spent so much time together these last few days, to see if they would get on together.’
Mattie could only stare after the fast-disappearing car.
Jack had taken Sophie home with him.
How Mattie wished that she could have been the one he took home with him!
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘COME on, Mattie,’ her mother encouraged once the red sports car had disappeared completely from view. ‘You and I are going to have a chat over a cup of coffee.’
Mattie grimaced her reluctance. ‘If the conversation is going to have anything concerning Jack in it—’
‘It’s all going to have Jack in it,’ her mother cut in firmly.
‘Then I would like to postpone it for a while,’ Mattie answered determinedly, knowing she really did need some time alone. ‘Only until this afternoon, Mum,’ she encouraged as her mother would have protested. ‘You still have some work to do here, and I—I would just like to go and check that everything is okay at the shop.’ She used the same excuse as she had with Jack minutes ago.
Her mother, however, didn’t look convinced; in fact she looked as if she would like to argue this last point. But one look at Mattie’s face and she seemed to change her mind. ‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘This afternoon it is, then. But no longer than that,’ she warned. ‘I wasn’t at all sure when the two of you got back yesterday, couldn’t tell—’ She shook her head. ‘You’re simply making yourself miserable for nothing, Mattie.’ She sighed frustratedly.
Mattie wouldn’t exactly call falling in love with Jack nothing. But her mother was probably right; she should never have fallen in love with him in the first place.
She gave another grimace. ‘I’ll get over it.’
Her mother raised blonde brows. ‘Somehow I doubt that,’ she murmured.
So did Mattie, but hearing her mother echo those sentiments certainly didn’t help!
‘I’ll be back in time for lunch,’ Mattie assured Diana, turning towards the bungalow to go and collect her bag and car keys.
‘Make sure you are,’ her mother warned. ‘Oh, and Mattie…’
She turned back with a frown. ‘Yes?’
Her mother looked slightly embarrassed now, her gaze not quite meeting Mattie’s. ‘I—er—I won’t be in for dinner this evening.’ The words came out in a rush. ‘I—er—I’m going out,’ she concluded flatly.
Mattie looked searchingly at her mother. Her beautiful mother, she acknowledged slowly, Diana’s eyes sparkling brightly, attractive colour in her cheeks as she still looked embarrassed.
Ah.
But whom—? ‘Michael Vaughan looks a very nice man,’ she said casually, knowing she had made the right guess as her mother’s cheeks became even redder.
‘Er—yes,’ Diana conceded awkwardly. ‘He’s a widower. His wife died two years ago. And we have our love of animals in common. He’s asked me out several times before, but I—’
‘Always said no,’ Mattie realized. ‘It’s all right, Mum,’ she said laughingly as her mother looked more and more uncomfortable by the second. ‘As I said, he looks nice. And you’re certainly beautiful enough.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ her mother dismissed, although her eyes shone with pleasure now at Mattie’s positive reaction. ‘You know, I’ve been dreading telling you,’ she admitted.
‘I can’t imagine why,’ Mattie returned, moving to kiss her mother warmly on the cheek. ‘It’s about time the male population woke up and realized how beautiful you are!’
Her mother shook her head. ‘I think you may be biased, Mattie.’
‘Well, if I can’t be biased, who can?’ She hugged her mother. ‘I can’t wait to hear all the details later,’ she encouraged.
‘There aren’t any details,’ her mother called after her in protest.
‘Yet,’ Mattie turned briefly to tease.
‘Oh, go on with you,’ her mother said crossly, although the smile on her face contradicted the emotion.
Mattie kept herself busy at the shop for the rest of the morning, checking her mail and the orders for tomorrow, and generally tidying up. It didn’t stop her from thinking of Jack, from missing him, but it helped to keep the tears at bay. There was—
She frowned at the telephone as it began to ring; she shouldn’t even be here today, let alone expect any orders to come in. Oh, well, she was here, and an order was an order.
‘Green and Beautiful,’ she announced into the receiver. ‘How may I help you?’
‘The last sentiment I agree with, although I don’t think the first one suits you at all,’ Jack came back sardonically. ‘But there is a way you can help me, Mattie.’
Mattie froze, her hand tightly gripping the receiver. Jack. It was Jack. The very last person she had expected to hear from ever again.
‘Mattie?’ he pressed concernedly several seconds later at her lack of a reply.
She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, her face pale as she tried to make sense of this unexpected call. She had told Jack she was going to the shop, but she certainly hadn’t thought he would get in touch with her here!
‘Mattie, are you still there? Mattie? Damn it, the line’s gone dead,’ Jack muttered to himself impatiently.
‘No, it hasn’t!’ Mattie burst out forcefully before he could break the connection. ‘I just—I wasn’t expecting you to call, that’s all.’ That was all!
She had spent most of the morning quietly grieving for the man she loved, expecting never to see or hear from him again, and a few hours later he telephoned her! She was in shock, that was what she was.
‘No.
Well. I probably wouldn’t have called you today if—well, I have something of an emergency, Mattie,’ he admitted.
‘Is there something wrong with Sophie?’ She instantly panicked. ‘And why didn’t you tell me you were taking her?’ she continued disgruntledly. ‘We were together for three days, and you never mentioned a word. I—’
‘No, it isn’t Sophie,’ Jack answered her calmly. ‘She’s absolutely fine, perfect company for Harry. And I didn’t tell you over the weekend that I would be taking Sophie when we got back because, quite frankly, we had lots of other things to talk about.’
Such as Sharon Keswick. Such as his having four sisters and not four girlfriends, as she had originally thought. Such as—
‘Mattie, my parents returned to England this morning, and my mother rang half an hour ago and invited the two of us over for dinner this evening,’ Jack interrupted her increasingly angry thoughts.
‘And that’s the reason you’re telephoning me?’ Mattie returned disbelievingly.
‘Yes. You see—’
‘No, Jack,’ Mattie cut in determinedly. ‘The answer is definitely no!’
‘Why?’ he demanded.
‘Well, one of the reasons is that I’ve only just got back from spending the weekend with you—’ she began.
‘Your mother is going out this evening, so don’t try to use spending time with her as your excuse for refusing,’ Jack interjected.
Mattie gasped. ‘How did you know—?’
‘I called the house before calling you at the shop, and during the course of our conversation Diana told me she would be out this evening,’ Jack explained patiently. ‘Besides which, it was pretty obvious yesterday that the vet liked—more than liked—Diana,’ he added reasoningly.
Mattie couldn’t say she had noticed, but then her head had been pretty full of thoughts of Jack yesterday to notice much else…
‘Okay, so my mother is going out,’ she conceded. ‘But I’m still surprised that a man like you could even suggest the two of us have dinner with your parents this evening.’
Under other circumstances, she would have jumped at the chance of seeing Jack again, for whatever reason. But she had genuinely liked his parents, his mother in particular had been very kind to her over the weekend, and this act she and Jack had perpetrated had already gone on long enough, as far as Mattie was concerned.
‘Look, I appreciate that you made your feelings towards me quite clear earlier,’ Jack answered. ‘But I was under the impression that you liked my parents—’
‘I do!’ she put in hurriedly. ‘That’s the reason I’m not going with you to have dinner with them this evening. Jack, the weekend was one thing.’ She sighed. ‘But it’s over now, and you owe it to your parents to tell them the truth about—about us,’ she said haltingly. ‘I, for one, wouldn’t feel happy continuing to deceive them in that way—and I don’t think you should, either!’
Silence on the other end of the telephone line followed her outburst.
But what else could she do or say? She simply couldn’t go on pretending that she and Jack were a couple—not when it was what she most wanted in the world, and knew would never happen.
‘Jack?’ she queried anxiously seconds later at his continued silence.
‘You said a few minutes ago that you were surprised that a man like me…’ Jack answered slowly. ‘Exactly what sort of man do you think I am, Mattie?’
The sort of man she had fallen in love with! Loyal. Kind. Loving. Family orientated. Add to that the facts that he was also handsome, sexy, and incredibly charming, and what chance had Mattie had not to fall in love with him?
‘The sort that wouldn’t continue to act the deliberate lie, that our relationship is, to his parents,’ she claimed softly.
‘Mattie…’ Jack’s voice was gentle. ‘…as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t an act.’
‘I just can’t do it any more, Jack!’ she groaned. ‘I really like your parents, and—What did you just say?’ She stopped suddenly, becoming very still as his words penetrated the misery that had surrounded her all morning.
‘It isn’t an act on my part, Mattie,’ he repeated evenly.
‘But—’
‘It never has been,’ Jack said.
Mattie swallowed very hard, all the colour fading from her cheeks, suddenly feeling hot and cold at the same time, her breath so shallow it was barely perceptible. Jack couldn’t really have just said—Could he…?
‘It’s okay, Mattie,’ Jack cut heavily into her frozen silence. ‘I’m not expecting you to make any declarations of love back—as I said earlier, you made your feelings towards me more than clear this morning. But I—’
‘Jack,’ she interjected, her hand slippery with heat as she tightly gripped the telephone receiver, her legs feeling shaky, ‘I don’t think this is the sort of conversation we should be having over the phone—’
‘Well, after this morning, I’m certainly not about to tell you any of this to your face,’ Jack assured her. ‘You know, I never knew until this morning how painful rejection could be. I’m almost thirty-three years old, you know, Mattie, and it never bothered me that I had so far not met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. You can’t know this, but my parents fell in love with each other at first sight, and I always expected that’s how it would happen with me. Well, it did,’ he concluded dryly. ‘I just hadn’t taken into account the fact that the woman I fell in love with at first sight wouldn’t feel the same way about me!’
But she did! She was just so stunned by Jack’s admission that she couldn’t speak!
Jack loved her? Had fallen in love with her at first sight? The same way she had fallen in love with him…
Jack gave a sad sigh. ‘I appreciate what you’re saying about dinner with my parents this evening, Mattie. It was a bad idea. A desperate move by a desperate man,’ he conceded. ‘I’ll explain to my parents, tell them what was really happening over the weekend. My mother will just have to live with the disappointment of not seeing you again. As will I,’ he pronounced flatly.
‘I—but—no!’ Mattie finally managed to speak—at the same time knowing she sounded like a bumbling idiot. She was just so stunned. So shocked. So euphoric. Jack loved her! She didn’t need to know anything else.
‘No?’ he repeated uncertainly.
‘I think dinner this evening with your parents sounds a wonderful idea,’ she told him breathlessly. ‘I—it wasn’t—isn’t an act on my part, either, Jack,’ she added quickly.
Before she lost her nerve! Pride was one thing—it was what had driven her to make that damning statement this morning, after all. But Jack had been totally honest with her; she owed him the same honesty in return. She didn’t owe it to him—she gladly gave it to him! Besides, hadn’t Thom warned her that he had lost Sandy five years ago because he’d been too stupid to tell her how he felt about her? Mattie didn’t want to make the same mistake with Jack!
‘Mattie…?’ The uncertainty could still be heard in Jack’s voice.
Proof enough—if she needed any!—that Jack was telling her the truth when he said he had fallen in love with her at first sight; he was the least uncertain person she had ever met in her life!
‘Could we talk about this—face to face, do you think?’ she suggested nervously. ‘A telephone really is the most—the most—’
‘Impersonal thing in the world,’ Jack finished for her, definitely less uncertain than he had been. ‘Don’t move, Mattie,’ he told her quickly. ‘I’m coming right over!’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she assured him emotionally.
Except… Her shop, surrounded by buckets of flowers and artificial arrangements, was hardly the ideal place, either, for the sort of conversation she thought—hoped—the two of them were going to have!
‘Jack!’ she called desperately before he had chance to end the call.
‘Yes?’ he replied slowly, sounding uncertain again.
‘There’s a park across the roa
d from the shop. I—I’ll be waiting there for you,’ she told him. ‘It’s such a beautifully warm day, and—’
‘As long as you’re waiting for me somewhere, Mattie, I don’t care where it is!’ Jack responded decisively. ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes,’ he promised before ringing off.
Mattie slowly replaced her own receiver, still not quite able to believe what was happening to her. To them. She hadn’t misunderstood, had she? Jack really had said he had fallen in love with her at first sight, hadn’t he?
Hadn’t he…?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MATTIE was standing by an ornamental garden, pretending an interest, when she caught sight of Jack striding purposefully towards her from the direction of the south gate, hastily looking away again as she wondered what they were going to say to each other. The telephone might be impersonal, but it was that very impersonality that had made it possible earlier for her to talk to Jack in the way that she had. Face to face like this—
Jack felt no such inhibitions, sweeping her up into his arms the moment he reached her side. ‘I love you, Matilda-May Crawford!’ he groaned before bending his head, his mouth taking possession of Mattie’s in a kiss that allowed no room for doubt as to the truth of his claim.
Jack did love her!
Mattie’s arms moved up about his shoulders, her fingers becoming entangled in the dark thickness of his hair as she returned his kiss with all of the love she had bottled up inside her.
Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes fever-bright, by the time Jack raised his head to look down at her with piercing brown eyes.
‘Whew!’ Jack gave a shake of his head. ‘I hope you don’t believe in long engagements!’
Mattie moistened her lips. ‘Engagements…?’ she questioned.
‘Engagement. Singular,’ he corrected, his arms about her waist moulding her body against his. ‘Ours,’ he elaborated decisively—just in case she should be in any doubt as to his meaning! ‘I want to marry you, Mattie.’ His voice softened emotionally. ‘In fact, nothing less than marriage will do,’ he stated.
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